Sunday, November 1, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
A Trip, A Truck and a Name
This last week I went to Idaho to visit my family and celebrate my grandpa's and my birthday. I got some decent pictures of the view behind their house, but forgot to get one from the front. I threw in a few other view shots of the valley, too.
While I was still out of town dan found a little truck for sale. Since we've been needing one for hauling feed, building materials and other farm stuff I jumped on it. It met the qualifications in that it actually runs, but the exterior needs some work. If the weather clears up a bit this week we will sand it all down and put on a primer. Dan is thinking he would like to paint it a dark olive green and thats just fine with me. ^__^
We also finally settled on a name for the girl sheep: Mouthful. It sounds a bit odd, but I suppose we're taking a cue from Steven Erikson by naming for an attribute. In her case she likes to cry at us that she is starving ...while her mouth is full of grass...thus Mouthful.Both of the babies are getting huge! Mouthfull is getting thick fluff on her forhead and cheeks so it looks like she has an abnormally fat head. The boy is almost as big around as he is long, but I think that he'll slim down now that he is completely off milk.
Friday, May 22, 2009
New Photos ^__^
The boy
The girl
Coming for their bottles
Mabh keeping her distance
Bramble wondering where the treats are.I thought the blog was about due for some post shearing photos of Bramble and Mabh. The babies are getting big too. We still haven't figured out names for the little ones yet....suggestions?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
New Prints Available!
I just uploaded some photos that Dan and I took onto RedBubble. There are still a bunch I haven't resized yet and many more to follow that are print worthy. http://www.redbubble.com/people/zombiesheep
Thursday, April 30, 2009
New Babies
Zombie Sheep News
This week saw a new change for our family farm. We are still just starting out and hiking up the learning curve. Early on in the week there was a craigstlist ad for bummer lambs (orphaned sheep) for the bang up price of only $15 per lamb and then $10 for any additional. This being the best deal I’ve seen on sheep and having recently discussed the disrupted herd instinct of having only 2 sheep I jumped on it.
Surprisingly, Dan was just as eager as I was. Initially he was more hesitant about getting farm animals at all, but now that he has a couple is warming up to the idea. I knew my chances of getting him to agree were fairly decent after seeing his initial disappointment that the Shetland sheep we got were adults and he had been picturing frolicking babies.
When I first called about the lambs the woman selling them was unsure how many they had left for sale, but took my information in case they had any left. A day passed and we got a return call wanting to get rid of them immediately. Fortunately my schedule is flexible and I took off work an hour early to drive out to 
We ended up with a 3 day old girl and a 5-7 day old boy. The girl is a Romney/Lincoln cross and the boy is a Lincoln/Targhee cross. Both are very cute. I had been hoping to stop at Dell’s farm supply on the way home for milk replacer and bottles, but alas they were closed by 6:30pm. Thankfully Safeway was open and had bottles and nipples…but were out of goat’s milk. So off we were again to the local co-op for a liter of milk to get the lamblettes through the night until I could get back into town.
Both lambs were uncertain about the whole fake nipple thing and were reluctant to nurse though we eventually got a few ounces in them. Our older sheep were none too impressed by the needy, whining babies and quickly rebuffed them of any nursing ideas. Wanting to keep the newborns visible and close to the house we set up a large dog crate with a burlap cover and wood shavings. The first night we also filled a corner with raw wool in hopes they would find it comforting.
Thursday while I was at work Dan built a lambing pen to keep the larger sheep out of the feed bought specifically for the lambs. He also, to my surprise and amusement, made little quilted covers sized to fit each lamb. Since my work brought me close to town I stopped and bought a hanging bottle, a salt block, a feeding bowl, some iodine, and lamb starter. Luck would have it that I got the same unhelpful, completely unknowledgeable girl at the farm supply. Mostly it turned out well, but the nipple on the bottle is for calves not sheep. So poor Dan is still playing mother and hand feeding the lambs. This weekend I plan to drive back into town to get some smaller nipples and hope they fit the new bottle I bought.
Beyond all the learning this has been a fabulous experience. My dog, Kindred, things it is her solemn duty to comfort bleating babies and clean off their faces after feedings. She is very gentle and sometimes so attentive I wonder if she wouldn’t try nursing if she had any milk.
The boy lamb is rather amusing to watch; he enjoys tormenting the older sheep by forcing them to back away from him and then sprinting away when they try to push back. When he isn’t going out of his way to torment them, he is leaping in the air and kicking up his heels all over the pen. The little girl is much smaller and still totters about a bit, but tries to keep up with the little boy. Mostly she eats, follows him around and sleeps in the sun against the burlap that covers the outside of her crate.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
New Additions to the Zombie Sheep Family!
Well we finally took the step from simply buying out wool to..er growing it. We adopted two Shetland sheep and have them occupying a generous portion of our backyard and forest area for a great sun and shade combo. One is an older blond/cream color with a serious "I don't need you" attitude which Dan affectionately named Mabh. The other is black/chocolate brown and tolerates us humans only when both treats and head scratching is involved. We haven't quite figured out a name for her yet.
Right now the two of them are fighting over who is in charge of their two ewe herd with neither willing to relinquish dominance. We've decided to help the herding instinct take over to a proper level we will have to get at least one or two more sheep.
The breed of the next addition to Zombie Sheep is yet to be decided, but probably won't be too far into the future.
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