No new arrivals since Saturday night. As my friend Jo commented, the girls appear to be on strike.
After shearing I get a better look at their body condition. My Leicesters have a habit of gaining too much weight over the winter, which happens easily when they're not bred. There were three or four candidates for Jenny Craig in the group, but mostly they were in great shape. I'm in the process of down sizing the Leicester flock, so many of the ewes will be for sale this spring.
The goats were up next. While keen spectators for the Leicester shearing, they were less enthused when it was suddenly their turn. It's amazing to see the amount of mohair one goat produces in 6 months, the approximate span of time between shearings. And how tiny they look afterward.
Though I must say, Butch looked rather svelte. We broke for lunch right after goat shearing. Toward the end of lunch someone looked out the window and announced, "Goat in the Road!". Gypsy had slipped out of her pen and was standing in the middle of Reynolds Road, having ditched poor Butch who was too wide to follow her. You should have heard him yell. Mike and I rounded up Gypsy. Goats re-united, all was quickly forgiven.
The afternoon wound down with llama shearing. And of course everyone wanted to visit the lambs. Thalia and her triplets are doing well. Those sweaters are getting snug. Hard to believe they will be one week old tomorrow.
With tonight's waxing gibbous moon, lambs wouldn't surprise me, though I'd much prefer they hold off until morning. I have my eye on Verbena. She's the size of a whale and her udder is swollen like a pumpkin. Okay, I guess for her sake, I wouldn't mind lambs tonight.
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copyright 2009. Barbara Parry. All rights reserved.
