New Camera

I had been using a Nikon S9100 for the last two years but have had many glitchy problems with it.  It often froze up as I tried to use it but I tried to be patient.  Most lately I could not get it to focus - and it wasn't just me.  I did lots of reading & reviews only to find out that others had the same problem & that Nikon's "fix" was not very satisfactory.  After yet another day when I took over a hundred pictures & had less than a third even barely in focus it seemed time to trash the Nikon & find something new. So on Sunday I bought a new camera and played around a bit.  Here are some of my favorite pictures.

This is Nick, Noel's son.  We recently acquired the pair from a woman in North Carolina.  He is growing out to be a big fellow & his wool is so very soft.

Just some of the crew hanging out on the back porch of the stable.

Ravi, who couldn't care less that I have a new camera. But check out the fly on top of his head.

One of our pretty Shetland gals ready to be shorn.

The first of the day's three buckets of eggs.

A rooster in the breeze.  He was not watching me but another rooster across the pasture.

Every so often we get an egg that is just not quite right.

Oliver, our old Coopworth ram, guarding a round bale of hay.

A curious lamb.

A lamb who found a tastier blade of grass on the other side of the fence.

We have over 300 chickens free range throughout the farm.  And, in spite of their numbers, I see them each as individual and very attractive birds.

I am thinking I might get used to this camera as the one I use for a quick barnyard picture or two!

Knox

On Sunday, March 10th, June Bug birthed a ram lamb.  June Bug is the Cotswold ewe that was pregnant when we bought her and this was her first lambing.  To make a long story short, she was in labor for a very long time and we ended up assisting her with an enormous lamb.  By the time we finally were able to help her get him out his tongue was blue and swollen from seemingly being outside of his mouth as he was trapped in the birth canal.

We were really surprised that he was even alive considering all that he'd endured.  He has been a fighter but has continued to have some issues that we attribute to his difficult birth.  We feel that some of his difficulties may be due to the hypoxia/anoxia that he endured during the process.  So we've lovingly named him Knox as shorthand for anoxia.  We just sort of have a weird sense of humor like that.  And, to be honest, we really didn't even name him until he'd survived a few weeks.  We just kept referring to him as June Bug's lamb and doing all we could for him including treating him for aspiration pneumonia, a result of the difficult birth.  But he is almost a month old now so I will share some of his pictures.

June Bug moved around the barn yard as she labored.  Nacho, who we purchased along with her, was curious about the process.

Once we finally pulled her lamb, June Bug was almost too exhausted to pay him any attention but she was soon trying.  She did most of  his clean up as she lay next to him.  We shifted him around to make it easier for her to work.

We milked her out and tubed him for the first several feedings as he was not strong enough to stand let alone to get up under June Bug to nurse.  And, although there is still a slowness about him so that we think he will always be "special", he is trying.  

He does try to play with the other lambs.  His mother remains extremely attentive; she has been amazing.  He rests more than the other lambs but he seems happy.