Kipcha delivers triplets!! Hank, sewing room and books

Well, my last blog I posted a picture of my very pregnant  ewe, Kipcha.  On  March 20th between the hours of 1:36 AM and 6AM she delivered her triplets without trouble. 1 ewe lamb and two ram lambs.  But she had tapped her stores of calcium to make those three baby  skeletons,  she was tired out and low in calcium. When a ewe or doe is carrying allot of babies, it is almost impossible for the ewe to eat enough, due to the kids/lambs taking up so much room.  Especially so if the ewe is overweight.   Which Kipcha is not, thank goodness.
 She received supplemental calcium yesterday, and this morning is up chewing cud and tending to her babies.  I have been supplementing the babies with goat milk three times daily as we wait for Kipcha's milk to come in.  But with three lambs to feed, I will continue to supplement the lambs.  I keep the ewes in a "lamb jug" for a week after they deliver, it is a small pen where the mom and babies can be monitored, and lets the little ones grow some before they are let back in with the rest of the females.  As sometimes, the other females will butt the babies around, especially if the newborns think there is milk to be had from each mother.  The mothers really don't appreciate this.

Here is a picture of Kipcha in the "jug" with two of her lambs, the other lamb is standing by me. 

HANK
My ewe Easter gave us a very pretty colored ram lamb who we call Hank. He is chocolate brown with half a white tail, and some white on his two back feet. Oh, and his scrotum is white, now how cool is that! Also he is an RR ram who is resistant to scrapie. We probably will be keeping this little fellow. here is Hank with his mother Easter.

The tags in the ears are the white is a scrapie tag required by the Government so every animal can be traced to the farm of origin.  The yellow tag in the left ear is his flock ID tag that matches the Katahdin Hair Sheep International registration, since all my sheep are registered.
So now we are up to 6 lambs, and 2 more ewes left to deliver.  We are also expecting Nubian goat babies out of two does in April.  It will be a busy spring for us this year.

SEWING ROOM
I have not been able to sew much the past week or so, as I have been on baby watch. But I did manage to make a quilted "hoodie" for my featherweight. I like to keep the dust out of my sewing machines when not in use. Since the wind blows here so much, there always seems to be dust.

BOOKS
My friend Debbie sent me an excellent book to read called Half Broke Horses A true Life Novel written by Jeannette Walls.  This is a story about the authors Grandmother Lily Casey.  Lily is a strong independent women ranching/teaching/adventure seeker living in Arizona.  It is a must read, especially for my friends and family down in Arizona.  Wish I still lived there so I could check out some of the places that this gal wrote about.

SPRING
Our weather radio started alarming and flashing at 6AM this morning.  We are expecting another 6-12 inches of snow starting tonight.  Our local radio station predicts we will get this depending on what weather station you listen to, or we could get sunshine and 50 degree weather.  Oh well.

More later.....................................................................................................