The whole gang!

Now that Fudgy has delivered, I can present the whole gang, my new spinner’s flock. This is the end of it, though. Both of the boys are getting wethered when they’re a little bigger (to make sure all their peeing-related plumbing is well established), so no more lambs after these cuties.

Here’s everyone (standing outside the brand new barn door I made last week, just in time for the new baby).

The 4-day-old baby is bigger than the 3-week-old Hokey Pokey. He’s a single and a Romney (bigger than Merinos), so it makes sense, but it still seems freaky. He’s still totally goofy and clumsy, though, and has just started jumping, usually landing unsuccessfully.

Hokey Pokey, however, has mastered the adorable leap. I didn’t catch it on film (or, I guess I should say, on memory card?), but I also witnessed him jumping almost 3 feet straight up!

Both of the ram lambs eat many of their meals thusly. Ronnie’s more apt to stand, but she’s pretty tiny. Fudgy’s udder’s pretty full and low all the time, so I imagine it’s just easier like this, but it looks pretty funny.

More babies:

And because he was being cute even though he’s not a baby, Uncle Honeybunch:

Cara, my neighbor who raises meat goats (and gives me my goat milk for cheesemaking), brought over her doctor’s box on Saturday and banded the new baby’s tail and showed me how to give the babies shots. Poor thing. We had to take off the first band and reband him because I had her put it too low but I couldn’t tell until he was back in with the other babies. He got totally stressed out and exhausted (and it was a warm day) and kept collapsing. I felt terrible. At first I thought it was because I forgot to call Cara for help during the first 24 hours, and they say if you band them then, they don’t even notice. Then I remembered that Tina (who admitted she’s a big softy) gave the first babies a couple shots of numbing stuff before banding them. After a few hours he calmed down and quit panting and looking pathetic and was up walking around and nursing again. But at first, I was worried I’d broken him.

Banding (which is also used for castration) takes a special pliers that stretches out a really strong, small rubber band. Then you slide the tail (or testicles) through the stretched band, release the pliers, and slide them off. After 3 or 4 weeks, the body part that has been banded withers and falls off.

Here’s an Elastrator (from kakkirk2000 on flickr) and Ronnie’s tail, about to fall off.

Everyone’s getting along fairly well. The wethers occasionally butt the new baby, sending him rolling, but mostly he has the sense to beat it when they look at him crosswise. Fudgy also lightly butts Agnes’ babies, though I haven’t seen Agnes do the same to the new baby, but that might just be because he pretty much hangs around mom or sits off by himself.

I need to get all the big sheep jacketed because they’re already getting dirty. Their fleece is still short enough that I can just brush it off, but it won’t be forever. I think I’m going to buy the first size for each sheep and see if I think I can make the other sizes (they need bigger jackets as their fleece grows). Agnes will be able to take Fudgy’s hand-me downs, and Mr. Shivers can wear Uncle Honeybunch’s. Or maybe I’ll get industrious this week and try making them myself.

Probably  not.