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Our bucks were apparently busy impregnating their girls while we were busy packing. We now have three sets of twins and one single lamb. All are healthy and being taken good care of by their mamas. We keep a watchful eye on all of them because things can change in a day. All babies are cute, lambs are particularly cute. Really for only a few days do they stick close to their mama and then they are off and everywhere, especially when there are other lambs. Mamas are always looking for their babies. Alot of calling goes on - mama calls first and the lambs ignore for a while and then they call - they can be 10 ft. apart and still calling. Then finally when the lambs are hungry, they run to mom. It's fascinating and looks a wee bit painful, but the way the lambs get moms milk flowing is they poke at her full bags of milk many times and pretty hard and then nurse. Mom just patiently moves around to accommodate her little darlings. When she is weaning, it's a whole different story. Mom will gently kick at them, walk away, turn away and just generally try and give them the idea that the milk train has ended. The lambs eat the provided feed and also graze on the hay and the grass very soon after being born - so the milk is important, but not as important as when they were exclusively nursing. We put up a board structure in the corner of their lean that only the lambs can fit under. We put their feed, hay and water in there so that they get a chance to eat without the pushes of the big fluffy adults. What the lambs start doing is really smart, but annoying to us - they learn how to slip through the gate and eat on the other side - because the feed container is attached to the gate (for easy filling for us) so that the sheep all eat in a row. But the lambs get squished out - so, they slide through the gate - and eat from the other side but, they also start learning about what fun the other side can be. For a while, they will slide back under the gate when we approach, but soon they don't care and just start running around - wherever they want - but usually not too far from mom and their pen. The Chickens are also eating in the sheep/llama pen. They clean up around the edges. They make little snuggly indentations in the soft hay and take sun naps in the afternoon. Sometimes they will lay on their side and stick their leg out - warming their underside I guess - we've learned that they are not dead - just getting a little color on their tummies. The chickens have also discovered the pond for a little drink here and there. The previous owners left duck decoys anchored in the pond and I'm sure the chickens are curious as to why these birds are floating so still in the pond. Occasionally, a real duck will fly in and that changes the whole game for the chickens. They all come running out of the pond area. The water is down right now, so there is shoreline and that is where they walk, get drinks and dust themselves and watch the 'ducks' on the pond - until a real one flies in....
The peacocks are everywhere - females honking and males yelling what sounds like 'help' to us. We ran into our closest neighbor the other day at the feed mill, and he said - did you folks buy the Orley place? We said that we had, and he said that he has heard our peacocks - he's about a mile away - their yelling and honking travels quite far out here in the woods. He told us some stories about 'our place' that were really interesting...about the original homestead...and we loved hearing about it. There are many families in the area that have been around here for generations.
The peacocks have found that they love to sit on the railings of the deck. We put up bird feeders and have seen so many different kinds of birds. It amazes us how the local wildlife doesn't really pay much attention to us or our animals. The deer just walk onto our property and eat the corn that falls out of the sheep/lamb feeder - and the squirrels come right up to the bird feeder while the peacocks are eating out of it.
We are having so much fun watching our animals and also the wildlife that seems so comfortable coming up to our log cabin and to us and our animals. I guess they've called this their home a lot longer than we have.
