Friday, February 24

Friday Night Surprise Dose of Cute: Oh Boy, Oh Boy!

Estelle with her newborn twin boys, first lambs of the year - FarmgirlFare.com
Estelle with her newborn twin boys

Early last Tuesday morning my hunky farmguy Joe drove off to spend a week visiting his family out of state. We planned the trip so he would be back in time for lambing season, which would be starting around the first of March.

Estelle decided not to wait.

So far she and her twins, who were born a couple of hours ago, are doing great. And if 2012 is anything like 2011, there are going to be a lot more lambs bouncing around the barn by the time Joe arrives back home Monday night.

And so it begins!

Need a bigger dose of lamb cute right now? You'll find all the 2011 lambing season posts here and here. (This photo is one of my favorites.) I'll be down at the barn.

© FarmgirlFare.com, where this is always the cutest—and most tiring—time of the year. All that constant lamb cuddling really wears a girl out. Or it could be the weeks of nightly 2am trips down to the barn. But I bet it's the cute.

18 comments:

  1. awww, super cute! boy? girl? names? love your posts!

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    1. Hi Jen,
      They're both boys. As for names, we don't usually name the boys, but we sometimes use our alphabet naming system (we started with 'A' names in 2004 and are up to 'I' for 2012) to give all the boys the same name. For 'B' it was Boy, 'D' was Dude, 'G' was Guy, 'H' was handsome. . . :)

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  2. ohmigoodness... how CUTE!!! So... you are going to be crawling with lamb babies in a ewe (eeee... I meant few, but... ewe is better) weeks? So so so sweet.

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  3. Congratulations on this year's first arrivals! Glad mom and lambies are doing well!

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  4. Precious. I had my last set of twin lambs last Saturday. Now they're all delighting me with their antics in the pasture every day. Isn't new life grand?

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  5. Congrats on the newbies. Seems as if babies, sheep or human will come when is time; not on any sort of convenient schedule.

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  6. Are all the twins born on your farm common with all sheep everywhere or the result of good nutrition? They do love those treats...

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    1. Hi td,
      Yes, twins are pretty common with sheep, and some breeds even have lots of triplets. My very first ewe to give birth during my first lambing season back in 1996 (when I was totally clueless) had quadruplets! Two survived and I kept them as pets (big wethers named Chip and Chip), and they lived to be 14½ and 15½, which is pretty much unheard of for sheep.

      We had three sets of triplets born last year, but I really prefer twins. Triplets are very hard on the mother, and it always seems like one of them is much smaller than the other two.

      Our moms have been really good about having enough milk and accepting all three of their lambs, but I usually end up supplementing with bottles of milk, which of course is extra work and expense. Triplets are definitely adorable, though. :)

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  7. So much TINY and CUTE - awesome. Happy Lambing Season to all.

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  8. i saw this and thought of you. i knew you would get a kick out of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeuL5IGimCQ&feature=player_embedded#!

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    1. OMG I can't stop laughing! That is the funniest thing ever. I love how the poor stock dog is just sitting there watching, lol.

      Beagle Bert spends hours each day tracking and chasing rabbits all over the farm. Who knew that if he'd just give them a rest, I could put them to work! ;)

      Thanks so much for the link.

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    2. Here's a link from their farm blog about Champis the Rabbit. He really does run that barnyard. Too funny. And he's definitely well fed, despite all that exercise. So cute. :)

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  9. oh my goodness,thins is the cutest thing ever! great blog & thankd for sharing!

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  10. Jen, I think the title of the post is a clue to the gender of the babies. ;^)

    Sue

    P.S. Farmgirl Susan, do you suppose that first ewe giving birth/nursing releases pheremones into the air that stimulates some other ewes to go into labor? Just curious...

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    1. Hi Sue,
      I don't know if that's true or not, but it would certainly make sense. I do know that animals are much more sensitive to things like changes in the weather and pressure systems than we are, and Friday was really strange. It was 70° Thursday and then dropped into the 20s Thursday night, and Friday was in the 40s and really windy.

      All the animals were acting kind of nuts - the donkeys were racing all over the place, Cary and Teddy were ramming the heck out of each other - and my guess is that whatever was going on somehow affected Estelle and Lucky Cherry, who had her baby early yesterday morning. But I'm getting ahead of myself - Lucky Cherry is the subject of today's post that I'm supposed to be working on! :)

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  11. Happy to find your blog! I stumbled on it while searching about my beet tops, I sowed last Oct. and they look great, it's Feb. and I wondered if I could still eat them?? Well after reading some of your articles I will be cooking some up tonight! What a wonderful all season planting they are!!Thanks for your great articles

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  12. Sweet! My ewes should not have lambs until May, so it's just for me to wait ... Estelle is a charming name, it is also the name of Sweden's newborn princess!

    Have a nice day!
    Sandra - Stolpås Gård

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