Everyone is doing very well. I had a little nervous moment when I noticed the two littler ones looked a little stiff in the hind legs. Since we've had an amazing amount of rain over the last six months or so, I think our soil is depleted of various minerals. Even though I give free choice sheep minerals, I still gave the two little ones a very small amount of Vitamin E/Selenium supplement. It's for horses, so I don't give very much at all, just mash it up with formula and pop it in their mouths. Crisis averted - I do learn, I guess - they seem much less stiff today.
The ram lamb has been banded without incident and although I worried over Makamae (smallest darn lamb I have ever seen - so I named her "precious") not getting her share of milk - sometimes I give the ram lamb a little bit of a bottle and hold him off his mom so Makamae can nurse longer - they are growing and strong. I tried to let Audrey out with the whole flock yesterday, but Elvis was chasing her and separated her from the lambs. So I got all the sheep in, except Audrey and the lambs and let her graze alone. Today, I kept only the rams in and let every one else out. The lambs kept up and everything seemed to go well. I guess they needed to explore the pasture with Audrey alone to learn the ropes.
Minnie's orphans are pretty intrigued with the new lambs - it's fun to watch them explore each other. I am looking forward to lamb races!
It's pouring off and on, so any gardening going on today will be in the greenhouse. We do have some seedlings that need transplanting in there - and there is more laundry than I think I have ever seen needing to be done. When it is rainy like this, even under cover the laundry takes days to dry...a trade off for a lower electric bill.
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