Spring Babies

Spring is a busy time with everything looking super green and growing fast.

Babies of all kinds are arriving. These chicks were born last month.

And I spotted this mother duck with her 2 ducklings this week.

Calving has pretty much finished. This group are enjoying a snooze in the sun.

And lastly our pet lamb Hilda, who only stands still for a nano second, so this was the best shot I could get!

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The Bird D'Pot

Our Pet Lamb

This little lady is one week old. My son had to help deliver her because she was a huge baby and the mother was having difficulties. He named her Hilda (because she was born on a hill).

The mother abandoned her afterward so we now have a pet to raise.

My  daughter has been the surrogate mother this week but she is back to University tomorrow, so I will be sheep mother from now on.

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Lambing Starts

It's that time of the year when the lambs start arriving. 

One week in and there are lots running around.

Only 2 days old and these 2 are already practicing their moves.

Just born, a nice set of twins learning how to work those legs.

This lady won't be rushed, although I can't imagine her holding out much longer.

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Our pet lamb

This is our pet lamb from 2015. Ivy was born in September and orphaned so we bottle fed her.

The first photo is Ivy at 2 weeks old. She only had one speed - FAST - so getting a photo of her that wasn't a bit blurry was impossible.

These 2 photos were taken 3 months later, in mid December. She has been weaned and is now back with the main flock. She still loves the people that come to talk to her though.

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Lambing Time 2015

Lambing is underway for 2015!

We have had about half our lambs in just over a week.

The weather has been perfect, with only one rainy day.

Mothers and lambs are enjoying the early spring conditions.

This is Kelly our pet lamb from 2 years ago with her first lamb. She is a wonderful mother and her little girl is doing great.

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Ready for lambing

Moving the sheep on a beautiful fine winters day a couple of weeks ago. The sheep are getting rounder each week as we get closer to lambing, which should start in about 4 weeks.

This is Kelly and she will be a first time mother this year. She is looking a lot bigger now than when this was taken. Kelly was raised by us after she got separated from her Mother and orphaned.

This is a picture of her from September 2013. Hopefully there will be lots more of these cute little faces to photograph soon.

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Sheep Pruning

It's that time of year when the sheep get shorn and lose their heavy wool coats.  After shearing they were put in our front paddock where the grass has been growing like mad and is up to their chins in places.  The lambs will be shorn in a month and are nearly as big as their Mothers now.

The trees have been growing fast in the warm, wet weather we have been having.  This sheep decided to do some over-head pruning.  That's her 2 lambs looking at me.

A day after going in the paddock all the trees are trimmed to the same height.  My four legged pruners do an excellent job.

This one is an expert at balancing on two legs and reaching where others can't.  That's an apple tree she's eating - I guess I'll be up a ladder with the birds to get the fruit  that's left later on this season.

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Jemma and her lamb

Taking some time out....

The Weekend in Black and White
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Lambs

Once the lambs get a couple of weeks old they tend to congregate and play like children with anything that looks a bit different.

This little overbridge and drain was a great source of fun while they were in this paddock.

They were up and down and over and round.  Very entertaining to watch, and it gave the mothers a nice break too.

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Lambing Miracles

The last of our pet lambs Jemma has had her lamb.

I spotted her in the afternoon trying to deliver the lamb.  I could see the tip of his nose and 2 front feet so thought he would be out soon.  Sheep don't usually take long to lamb once the baby is in position, however Jemma was pushing and getting nowhere.  After a while I headed home and returned with my husband to check on her.  She was still in the same position and needed help.  With a bit of work we managed to deliver this huge boy.  Jemma was exhausted but was still keen to clean him up from her sitting position.

Next day both Jemma and her lamb are looking great.  He is the biggest lamb in the paddock even though he is one of the youngest.  She has recovered and seems very proud of her wee man.

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Lambing in Black and White

Chloe has had her 10th lamb.  At 12 years old she is our grand old lady.

Weekend in Black and White

Lambing has begun

The lambs started arriving last Friday and over the next 7 days over 60 arrived.

This is about 2/3 of what I expect so pretty amazing for the first week.

Luckily the last week of winter has been lovely and spring like so all these lambs have had a nice start.

This is Elena with her first lamb.  She is 2 years old now and was raised by us when she was separated from her Mother.  It's so nice to see the pet's with their lambs, they are such lovely calm Mother's.

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Animal Friends

It's one year ago that I decided to start a blog and did my first post. I thought I would celebrate with some of the wonderful animals who live with me, or in the paddocks nearby.

Holly

Luke

Toby and Max

Dogs, cats and sheep are great subjects to photograph, they all have their individual personalities.  It's great to watch them grow and see how they all get on together.

Harvey & Kelly and Molly with her lamb

Jemma & Elena

I have enjoyed all the great comments over the last year and have learnt so much about your home towns and occupants.  The blogging world is a very friendly, educational place to spend some time.  Now onwards into year 2!

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Shearing the Lambs.

Shearing time for the lambs.

On Monday all the lambs were shorn.  This is them all penned up the night before to stay dry and be ready for an early start.

This is Kelly being shorn.  When she's done she goes for a slide down the hole and ends up under the floor.

This is Kelly coming out under the shed and heading for the grass.

Everyone is heads down eating for a while when they come out, catching up on not eating for a few hours.

This is Kelly later on in the morning, looking all ears and a lot smaller.  A good job done and she's still cute.

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Post Shearing

Shearing the Sheep.

It all ended up as a bit of a rush job.  The shearer rang to bring forward the shearing date and suddenly it was all on.  We had to draft off the lambs and get the ewe's inside before it rained - which it did while we were still getting them in.

I had plans to take photos along the way but that ended when the weather arrived faster than we were working.  So here we have them next day, reunited with their lambs.

As you can see the lambs are nearly as big as their mothers, who are looking super white now. 

The lambs will be shorn mid January so fingers crossed for some more action photos then.

There was more wool on them this year - we've had a few good growing seasons here.  They were feeling very energetic with the weight off and keen to get up on the hills to eat, eat, eat.  

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