A Big Ranch Update

Sorry for not posting anything for awhile. We have been very busy up here on the ranch lately. Here is a quick update.

~ Sheep ~

We have about 60 sheep now. I can't even believe that we have that many sheep now! 

17 new sheep ~

We got 17 new sheep Wednesday (March 16th, 2011). There were 3 Texas Dall rams, 3 Painted Desert rams, 3 December born Painted Desert ram lambs, 2 December born Painted Desert ewe lambs, 1 Texas Dall ewe, 4 Painted Desert ewes and 1 Katahdin ewe. 

4 Finn lambs ~

We picked up 4 Finn bottle lambs on Friday, March 4th, 2011. There are 2 ewe lambs (Both the ewe lambs are all white) and 2 ram (one of the ram lambs is all white and the other is black and white) lambs. We plan to keep both the ewe lambs and the black and white ram lamb (we already sold the white ram lamb). They were born on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011. I will try to post pictures of them later when I can:)

More lambs born ~

All of our ewes have lambed now.

Here is a list of the ewes that have lambs and a little bit of info ~

~ One of our Painted Desert ewes lambed!
February 1st, 2011
A single eweling

Sire: Big TD ram (Texas Dall)

Dam: She has no name, we sold her and her lamb to somebody else (Painted Desert)

If you would like to see pictures find out more about what went on you can go here to see ~ http://littlehillssheepranch.blogspot.com/2011/03/one-of-our-painted-desert-ewes-lambed.html . 

~ Black Mesa Lambed!
February 1st, 2011
A single ramling

Sire: Big TD ram (Texas Dall)

Dam: Black Mesa (Painted Desert)

If you would like to see pictures find out more about what went on you can go here to see ~ http://littlehillssheepranch.blogspot.com/2011/03/black-mesa-lambed.html . 

~ Zawiya Lambed!
February 3rd, 2011
A single ramling

Sire: Big TD ram (Texas Dall)

Dam: Zawiya (Jacob)

~ One of our Desert Sand ewes lambed!
February 6th, 2011 
A single eweling

Sire: Big TD ram (Texas Dall)

Dam: Lion ewe (Desert Sand)

~ Barsa Lambed!
February 10th, 2011 
A single ramling

Sire: Big TD ram (Texas Dall)

Dam: Barsa (Jacob)

~ One of our Painted Desert cross ewes lambed!
February 13th, 2011 
Twin ramlings

Sire: Big TD ram (Texas Dall)

Dam: She has no name yet (Painted Desert cross I think)

~ One of our big Texas Dall ewes lambed!
February 15th, 2011 
Twin ewelings

Sire: Clyde (Texas Dall)

Dam: She has no name yet (Texas Dall)

~ Another one of our Painted Desert ewes lambed!
February 16th, 2011 
A single ramling

Sire: Big TD ram (Texas Dall)

Dam: She has no name yet (Painted Desert)

~ Alaina Lambed!
February 16th, 2011 
A single ramling
Sire: Dudley (Tunis)
Dam: Alaina (7/8 Tunis)

~ Amy Lambed!
March 1st, 2011
A single eweling

Sire: Clyde (Painted Desert)

Dam: Amy (Painted Desert)

~ Butter Mint Lambed!

March 2nd, 2011

A single ramling
Sire: Ames (1/3 Lacaune & 2/3 East Friesian)

Dam: Butter Mint (Katahdin)

~ Malibu has lambed!!

March 5th, 2011

Twin ramlings

Sire: Ames (1/3 Lacaune & 2/3 East Friesian)

Dam: Malibu (East Friesian)

~ Porche Lambed!!

March 14th, 2011

Twin lambs (one eweling and one ramling)
Sire: Clyde (Painted Desert)
Dam: Porche (Painted Desert)


~ Frosty lambed!!
April 4th, 2011
Twin ramlings
Sire: Clyde (Painted Desert)
Dam: Frosty (Painted Desert)


~ Lisa Ling has lambed!!
April 15th, 2011
Triplets, two ewelings & one ramling (one of the ewelings we found dead out in the pasture a few hours after we found Lisa Ling with two of the lambs)
Sire: Ames (1/3 Lacaune & 2/3 East Friesian)

Our new ram, Strains Boulder!! ~

We traded our Painted Desert ram (Little Hills Clyde) for a 4 horn Painted Desert (Desert Dragon) ramling, Strains Boulder. He is a VERY nice ram lamb with GREAT conformation. We got him on February 27th, 2011. He was born on October 10th, 2011. His sire is Strains Ringo Jester and his dam is Strains Roan Rebel. If you would like to see pictures of him and would like to know more about him, you can go here to find out ~ http://littlehillssheepranch.blogspot.com/2011/03/boulder.html .

~ Goats ~

Does kidded ~

Several of our dairy does have kidded and a couple of our meat does have kidded. If you would like to read more about what went on you could go to these links ~ http://goodgoats.blogspot.com/2011/03/break-is-over.html . http://goodgoats.blogspot.com/2011/03/busy-life.html . http://goodgoats.blogspot.com/2011/03/photos.html . 
http://goodgoats.blogspot.com/2011/04/more-kids.html .
http://goodgoats.blogspot.com/2011/04/verona-kidded.html .
http://goodgoats.blogspot.com/2011/04/blueberry-kidded.html .


The "tiny goat" Tic Tac - http://goodgoats.blogspot.com/2011/04/tiny-goat-and-clippers.html .

Good Goats Amarelli Chicci and her two bucklings ~

We got Good Goats Amarelli Chicci and her two bucklings on Sunday, March 6th, 2011. If you would like to more about her and to see pictures you can go here to find out more ~ http://goodgoats.blogspot.com/2011/03/good-goats-amarelli-chicci.html . 

Spanish cross doe ~

We bought a REALLY nice and fat bred Spanish cross doe. She was part of a group of REALLY nice bred Spanish cross does. My brother bought her for $140 (that is a good deal for how nice she is). She kidded Wednesday (March 16th, 2011) afternoon to twins, one buckling and one doeling. They are VERY pretty kids, because they are both white with silver and brown.

Here are some pictures ~

This is the doe ~

And here are the kids. The doe is on the left and the buck is on the right.

Have a good week!!

~ Haleluyah

Ranch Update!!

Well, its been a little while since I posted last.

~ Meesha the new goat!
Meesha is a beautiful 2 year old Nubian doe that we got. She kidded about a week before we got her.  Meesha is a tri-colored moon spotted doe (she is black, brown and white).

Here is a picture of her ~ 

~ Rhia kidded!
Capering-Valley P Rhia kidded January 21st, 2011. She kidded to twins, one buck and one doe. Their sire is PawPawNin Junior Mint. If you would like to find out more of what went on then you can go here to find out - http://goodgoats.blogspot.com/2011/01/rhia-kidded.html .


Here are some pictures ~


This is the buckling.

And this is the doeling.

~ Emory lambed!

This is our first lamb of 2011! Little Hills Emory, one of our Desert Sand ewes that we own, lambed January 22nd, 2011 in the late afternoon. I did not get to see this lamb be born (thankfully she had her just fine), oh well. I found her just a little bit after she was born (she was still wet when I found her). Emory had a single eweling. The eweling is a VERY pretty girl! She is red and white in color, she also has light red speckles on her body. Her sire is a Texas Dall ram with 40" horns.

Here are some pictures ~

Here are some pictures of Emory and her eweling. 

Here are some pictures of Emory's eweling.

Goof ball!

This is Little Hills Emory.

And this is the little ewelings sire.

~ Sad News. . . . :(

Well, January 23rd, 2011 was a sad event. Little Hills Little Maria (Painted Desert ewe) had bottle jaw for a little bit and was loosing weight. So we wormed her. The bottle jaw went away for a little, but she was still loosing weight and not looking good. She then got the bottle jaw back, came down with scours and was getting pretty weak. We put her in a separate pen and gave her some scour halt. On Sunday night when we were feeding the animals we went to check her and she was laying flat on the ground. We attempted to sit her up, but she just fell right back down (it was apparent she was going to die very soon). She was in with a HUGE Texas Dall ram for awhile and another ewe (Emory) that (was in with the same ram) just lambed Saturday (January 22nd, 2011). We figured that she was most likely bred and could lamb any day, we decided to put her down and do an emergency C-section on her to see if we could save any lambs. You only have 3 minutes to get the lamb out after the mother dies. We were able to get the lamb out in  just over a minute. But, sad to say the lamb was premature :( It was a double sad event :( :( :( :( :( :(

Here are a couple pictures of her - 

~ Ewe Neek lambed finally!

Ewe Neek FINALLY lambed!! This will be our 2nd lambing of 2011!! She had some clear mucus around 10:00pm January 26th, 2011 at night. We had brought her back in the stall that is under where we sleep (around midnight). We all went to bed. Mom had been hearing lambs making noise in her sleep, and then woke up and realized that she was hearing Ewe Neek's lambs in the stall below her. She already had all the lambs out on the ground when we found her, but she had just had them. She had triplets (thankfully, otherwise the lambs would have been HUGE if there were only twins), one ewe and two rams. The sire to the lambs is Ames (our dairy ram), and the dam is Mary's Lil' Acre Ewe Neek. They were born Thursday, January 27th, 2011. The lambs would have most likely frozen if we did not put her in a stall, because it was 17 degrees this morning outside. Since the lambs sire is a wool breed and the lambs dam is a hair breed the lambs are part wool and part hair. That is why they look a little different:)

Here are a few pictures of them ~

This is Ewe Neek.

Here is a picture of her a couple weeks before she lambed.

And these three pictures are of her the day before she lambed.

Here are the pictures of the lambs.

This is the ewe lamb.

This is one of the ram lambs.

Here is the little lambs sire. These pictures of him are not recent. They were taken in July of 2010.

Have a good day!

~ Haleluyah