The triplets have outgrown their sweaters. Today we let them out with mother to explore the world outside their little pen. They were tentative at first, but it didn't take them long to start bouncing all over the place while Thalia finished her breakfast. Another ewe lamb arrived last night, born to Corona. This seems to be a week of solo arrivals. Let's see what tonight's full moon brings.
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I stepped into the barn this morning in time to watch Galveston deliver her very first lamb, a large ewe. Single lambs are often large – and I had to stop filming toward the end to give Galveston a hand with the delivery. Momma and lamb are doing fine, resting in their pen. The lamb is strong and smart. I'll have to think of a good name for her! Enjoy.
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No new arrivals since Saturday night. As my friend Jo commented, the girls appear to be on strike.  In the meantime, we've had our hands full with shearing the Border Leicesters, goats and llamas yesterday. This is our last round of shearing for this spring. The Leicesters are shorn roughly twice in fifteen months, since a full year's growth (about 7 -8") would be too long for most processing equipment. Many two year olds in this group, with long pretty ringlets. After shearing I get a better look at their body condition. My Leicesters have a habit of gaining too
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Last night I added another sleeveless sweater to my wardrobe. A set of ram lamb twins arrived courtesy of Pheonix shortly after dinner. It was a wild night, snowing here and insanely windy. The lambs were all shivery so I made another set of sweaters. There's nothing like wool for wicking moisture and keeping warm bodies. Holly stopped by to help out. Before we had finished tending to Pheonix and her little boys, Tupelo, Pheonix's full sister, was clearly having strong contractions. So we hung out in the barn for a while and nothing happened. So we went to the
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Some footage of Thalia’s triplets at play.
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Sharing a few moments from last night's barn check. I arrived in time for  "last call". Enjoy.
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Thalia's triplets are still the only three lambs in the barn, so they're getting all kinds of attention. Thalia deserves a gold star for taking excellent care of her little ones, who are all alert, on their feet, nursing, and checking out the rest of the flock through the slats in their lambing jug. I'm hoping Thalia's milk supply will be adequate to feed them all without bottle intervention. Although bottle lambs are cute – they're also a ton of work. It's much easier and healthier to supplement momma's diet and let her do the work. We're checking their weight
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Our very first lamb arrived right after dinner tonight. At evening feeding I noticed Thalia was in labor, though it didn't affect her appetite one bit. I went to the studio to change my sweater and by the time I returned to the barn she had delivered a sweet little ewe! Who was then followed by her brother. And a bit later, to my surprise,  a sister! I've not had many sets of Cormo triplets and I certainly wasn't trying for them. So I'm pretty stunned. Thalia's showering them all with attention. She had them cleaned up fast. Wouldn't you
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When I was expecting my first (and only) child, my girlfriends and co-workers had a baby pool. There was a chalk board in the break room at work where everyone took a shot at guessing the baby's arrival date, estimated time of arrival, gender, and birth weight. There was a pot, winner take all,  and you tossed in a buck for each guess. It was fun and a good diversion for me during the last long weeks of pregnancy, though I couldn't help but feel just a little pressure. When it comes to lambing, your guess is as good as
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