Naming of the Lambs 2011

Every year at "Meet the Lambs Day" people see the signs with the lambs' names, breeds and date of birth and ask about the names, who names them, what the origin of the names are etc. Well it is Raven who names them, and the stories behind then are a wide and varied as the names themselves. This also doubles as our lamb log so it also includes items such as paint and tag. Tag refers to the sheeps identifying ear tags, the letter denotes the color of the tag, we usually add these to the lambs at about 3 months of age. Paint refers to the washable paint we add to lambs and ewes to identify who belongs to whom.

The lambs are shown on the pages listed below

	Midget and Widget MIDGET and WIDGET were twins technically born on different days! Widget was born at 11pm saturday night, while her brother Midget didn't show up until 1:30am. both are incredibly tiny, even for shetlands, and we have been terribly worried about Midget. his sister is quite strong and frisky for her teensy size, nursing nicely, but little Midget just showed no interest in eating at all. we milked his mom (and several of the neighbor ladies as well) and fed him every two hours with an eyedropper, fighting to keep him alive. just now, midmorning on monday, he got up and tarted trying to nurse on his mama for the first time! here's hoping! DOB: April 9, aprox 10 pm and 1:30 am Sire: Keith Olberman, Ewe: G64 (41:20M,21F) Paint:
	Nighttime & Daytime at around 12:45, when the crowds were at their peak and the barn was jammed with visitors, DAYTIME and NIGHTIME, twin boys, were born out in the field. we cleared the barn so we could bring them in, then let everyone come crushing back in to watch while the babies had their umbilical cords trimmed and iodined, got their shots of vitamins and selenium, and mama had her belly sheared and checked to be sure she had plenty of milk. big excitement! DOB: April 9, aprox noon Sire: Bill Maher, Ewe: G31 (39:19M,20F) Paint: tags: nighttime-s222
	Hasty Pudding HASTY PUDDING got his name because he was born WHILE we were racing around in mad haste to get everything done in time to open the gates at 10am and let the masses in. fortunately he's a big strong boy and could put up with not getting a lot of attention right at first. and he sure got plenty of it during the day. he was THE new kid on the block for awhile DOB: April 9, aprox 6 am Sire: Jehovah, Ewe: O56 (37:17M,20F) Paint: green both betweens tag: s216
	Mocha & Latte MOCHA and LATTE, gorgeous dark-brown twin girls, were born late at night friday, and i didn't even see them until saturday morning, but they were a sweet surprise to start my day... and what's better than coffee to start a busy day? they're small, as shetlands always are, and thoroughly adorable, as shetlands always are. they were a huge hit on Meet the Lambies Day, among the 500+ people who swarmed the farm to see the babies! DOB: April 8, aprox 7:30 pm Sire: Bill Maher, Ewe: G60 (eggshell) (36:16M,20F) Paint: red right hip tags: mocka-green 92, latte-green 93
	Marble MARBLE is not the first of our lambies to bear this honorable name. we've had one or two other lambies named Marble over the the years. it's a hard name to resist, though, when you get a cute little guy like this with his wool so perfectly marbled, black and white all swirled together. maybe next year i'll think of a new, better name for the lambie who looks like this... if i haven't lost my marbles by then. DOB: April 8, aprox 7 am Sire: Enrico Jr, Ewe: O151 (34:16M,18F) Paint: tag: s214
	Darwin DARWIN was a mess when he was born! i found him sopping wet, his mama just beginning to lick him to spruce him up. he was bedraggled, confused, wondering why in just one moment he went from snug and warm and dark inside his mama to cold and wet and noisy on the barn floor. i had to laugh at his expression, a sort of a lambie "why me?" with his little ears flopping down like a beagle's. in fact, he looked so much like a beagle that i named him Darwin right then and there. next time i saw him, he was all dry and fluffy and his ears were standing up just like a proper lambie's... but Darwin's his name and i'm stickin' to it. DOB: April 7, aprox 6 am Sire: Keith Olberman, Ewe: G56 (33:15M,18F) Paint: red left hip tag: red 29
	Muddy Waters MUDDY WATERS had the good fortune to have a smart mama, she came in out of the rain to have her baby in the barn. of course our barn is not exactly in like-new condition (to put it mildly!), and the concrete floor,though we'd just cleaned it out this morning, had puddles here and there, and this Mannish Boy must have landed in one, 'cos he was sure a mess. his mama was busy cleaning him up when I took his official photo. DOB: April 6, aprox 3:30 pm Sire: Jehovah, Ewe: NT (32:14M,18F) Paint: green rt shoulder tag:s219
	Preacher not long after that, we spotted another new lambie out in the pasture, a skinny white boy who baaed and hollered and ranted and raved all the way from the farthest corner of the field back to the barn! I named him PREACHER. can you give me an AY-men brothers and sisters! DOB: April 6, aprox 10:30 am Sire: Jehovah, Ewe: O134 (31:13M,18F) Paint: green left shoulder tag:s215
	Jeremiah Johnson when I went out to the barn to do the dawn lambie check, I didn't see a single baby anywhere. a couple of hours later, Ian went out to feed the moms and move everyone out to their fields, and he found a little black lambie out in the rain behind the barn! evidently he found a hole in the back wall, and had been popping in and out, much to his mama's distress, adventuring around out there all by himself. in honor of his solitary roaming, I named him JEREMIAH JOHNSON. DOB: April 6, aprox 5 am Sire: Enrico Jr, Ewe: P3 (Michelle) (30:12M,18F) Paint: blue both betweens tag: Blue 19 :
	Hope HOPE was born just after we were coming out of an exceptionally harsh and heartbreaking week during which we lost several beautiful lambies after long, hard, ultimately unsuccessful fights to save them. when this lovely little girl arrived, i named her Hope very symbolically, she was strong and healthy and gave us hope for the rest of lambing season to go well. so far she's performing that task very ably, things are much brighter looking and everyone is healthy. DOB: April 3, aprox 5 pm Sire: Jehovah, Ewe: O129 (29:11M,18F) Paint: green left hip tag: orange 211
	Stokley STOKELY is a very handsome all-black lambie born to the lovely Mary Queen of Scots. he's named for Stokely Carmichael, one of the leading lights of the civil rights movement, head of SNCC when i was active in it in the wild and wooly '60s, and coiner of the phrase Black Power. power to the lambies, young Stokely! since he's got a lot of Scottie heritage and will likely have terrific black horns, he can look forward to a lifetime as a pampered playboy; his namesake would be proud. DOB: April 3, aprox 6 am Sire: Enrico Jr, Ewe: P1 (Mary) (28:11M,17F) Paint: blue butt tag: Blue 5