ZOMG, they’re dropping them all over the yard!!!1!
Whoa. They turned a couple hundred pregnant ewes into the field behind the house over the weekend and let ’em go for it. I guess the farmer figured it was warm enough not to bother with the lambing shed (though there’s a cutting wind out there, poor little bastards).
Lambs are plopping out all OVER the place. Periodically, the farmer rounds up the mamas and behbehs and leaves behind the unripe ones.
All last night, we heard brand new lambs bleating. I got the biggest kick out of that — born into darkness, can you imagine their little faces when the sun came up?
Posted: April 12th, 2010 under animals, badger house, personal.
Comments: 28
Comments
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 12, 2010, 9:11 pm
Photo credit to Uncle B. Pretty cool to stand in your back garden and take photos like this. But…ummm…his lens is longer. <koff>
Comment from GenghisJohn
Time: April 12, 2010, 9:17 pm
That’s awesome. Some idyllic English countryside life you got there.
Comment from Pupster
Time: April 12, 2010, 9:31 pm
How did Badger get them to smile like that?
Comment from Mal
Time: April 12, 2010, 9:40 pm
As the Tin Man said, “Well, that’s ewes all over!”
*ducks for cover*
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: April 12, 2010, 9:56 pm
Pupster – I told the the one about the weasel who….
(ducks and runs)
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 12, 2010, 10:13 pm
Yeah, we keep reminding ourselves how lucky we are. We’ve both lived in…less pleasant places.
Now, that is an interesting question, Pups. Have you ever noticed how many domestic animals seem to smile? Pets in particular. I have a theory that we have unconsciously bred for the characteristic over thousands of years.
Comment from JeffS
Time: April 12, 2010, 10:43 pm
Mmmmmmmmm……..lamb!
Comment from Bottlenose Dolphins
Time: April 12, 2010, 11:15 pm
I have a theory that we have unconsciously bred for the characteristic over thousands of years.
Yeah, ok. That sounds good.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 12, 2010, 11:32 pm
Well, we didn’t breed dolphins — but I bet the smile is one reason we like them.
Oh, gosh…which scifi writer wrote the story about how they managed to build a fish-to-English translator device, and it turned out dolphins were the most foul-mouthed, ill-tempered assholes in the sea? Loved that one.
Comment from Nina from GCP
Time: April 12, 2010, 11:49 pm
Baby mammals are (mostly) soooo cute!
Comment from Spad13
Time: April 13, 2010, 12:07 am
Now I have the flying sheep skit from Monty Python running thru my head.
“Sheep are very dim.”
Comment from Oldcat
Time: April 13, 2010, 12:11 am
Alligators and crocs smile too. It’s a 50 50 shot.
Comment from Pavel
Time: April 13, 2010, 1:00 am
Awwww!
AWWWWW!
& liddlelamsiedaisies
How I love springtime!
Comment from Elphaba
Time: April 13, 2010, 1:13 am
Purty damned cute. All we have to look at, farm animal-wise, are chickens.
Sheep are cute but…ever seen “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask?” They always remind me of Gene Wilder in an alley, drinking Woolite.
Comment from Lipstick
Time: April 13, 2010, 1:33 am
Beautiful photo!
A guy from New Zealand told me that they shear the moms before they give birth so that the moms will seek shelter and then the lambs have less of a chance of freezing.
Comment from Mrs. Compton
Time: April 13, 2010, 1:50 am
“Oh, gosh…which scifi writer wrote the story about how they managed to build a fish-to-English translator device, and it turned out dolphins were the most foul-mouthed, ill-tempered assholes in the sea? Loved that one.”
That would be Douglas Adams!
Comment from Gromulin
Time: April 13, 2010, 2:14 am
Damn, that must be cool. Do the farmers deploy the sheep dogs to keep Wile E. away, while the little appetizers are vulnerable? There are still some predators left on that island, yes?
And the dogs have time clocks, right?
Comment from scubafreak
Time: April 13, 2010, 4:36 am
Quick! Someone call Mike Rowe and tell him that there are more lambs to castrate!!!
LOL
http://fora.tv/2008/12/12/Mike_Rowe_on_Discovery_Realization_and_Lamb_Castration
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 13, 2010, 9:34 am
I don’t think they ever leave dogs alone with sheep, for fear of wilding.
Interesting, Elphaba — we’ve been contemplating getting a few chickens. Our garden is small, but I think it would hold two or three. Any advice?
Comment from Pavel
Time: April 13, 2010, 11:32 am
> I don’t think they ever leave dogs alone with sheep, for fear of wilding.
What? The Ralph and Sam cartoons were based on a false premise? Damn WB.
Comment from mommer
Time: April 13, 2010, 4:44 pm
They leave Great Pyrenese (sp?) dogs out with sheep when they are out on the ranges. The dogs serious f*** up preditors but also any thing else that gets to close to the flock. Like mountain bikers, hikers and hopefully hippies. They don’t trust any one except the shepards. Tough doggies. Big too.
Comment from Gromulin
Time: April 13, 2010, 5:01 pm
and hopefully hippies
Good Doggie! Liver treats for you!
Comment from EW1(SG)
Time: April 13, 2010, 5:15 pm
Gromulin:
Good Doggie! Liver treats for you!
Hippie liver treats! Serve yourself! Now that’s a good doggie!
Comment from David Gillies
Time: April 14, 2010, 12:50 am
The thing you have to remember about hens is that when it comes to, say, a chicken and mushroom pie, it is a toss-up which of the two main ingredients is stupider. You have to keep a constant eye on them. Let a single sprig of henbane sprout and they will peck it down to the ground, at which point you have a hutch full of dead chooks. If there is a way for a fox to get in, a fox will find it. Then you have a hutch full of messily-dead chooks. You need a cockerel on hand to keep ’em laying regularly (otherwise one of the hens will become dominant and stop laying) and those things make a racket you or your neighbours might not like.
But three laying birds and a cock bird will probably provide you more than enough eggs and when they stop laying at five or so, there’s either the soup route or letting them cluck out their twilight years. If you want, with a cock you can raise your own chicks although that’s a bit of extra work. They’ll happily live on kitchen scraps like potato peelings and bits of cabbage stalk plus a bit of grain (tip: save eggshells to grind up to put in their feed to give them back the calcium they need to make their own eggs.) If you let them out during the day and your garden is secure from doggy intruders and escaping chickens, they’re very effective at controlling pests like slugs.
You do have a sensible tweed skirt, a headscarf and some wellies, don’t you Weasel? If you’re going to be a transplanted countrywoman you have to look the part.
Comment from Number 6
Time: April 20, 2010, 3:13 pm
And can you imagine how nice they will taste with some mint sauce in the classic British roast dinner. My daughter is a self styled lambeterian after seeing them frolic in the fields (before fucking Neu Labour build their Marxist social housing over them) around our home in Sussex. Me and the missus just think of a nice dinner in the near future from locally reared lamb
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