Farm Friends Friday - Leapin' Lila

"See, I don't just sleep all the time. That's just when it's easiest to take my picture!"



"Watch this!"



"I'll get you, Iris Maybelle!"



"You go where I tell you to go."



"That's right! Sheep herd Border Collies!"



"And you too you fat, short little barky mcbarky!"



"Sheep RULE!"



Not sure if you can see the look of wild terror in Tilly's eyes.



Or the patient resignation in Iris's.



Lila: And we're fast too!

Weaslie/Tilly: Iris, how long do we have to play this stupid game???

For more Farm Friends Friday...

Better Than Gravel

But not quite as good as the bed.

I try to give my bottle babies as close to a normal life as I can. In real life I figure Lila would be hanging out with her mom, traveling about investigating grass, trees, rocks, playing with her buddies and curling up next to her momma taking a nap. I've done pretty good with all that, but with trying to get ready for the festival, sometimes she has to play with the dogs or take a nap by herself.

Lila is a funny sleeper. I guess like all kids, each baby is different. Keebler was out like a light as soon as you picked him up. Lila fights it. She'll cat nap as long as she can stand.



But finally her ears start to droop, her head will drift up, she'll usually stretch a leg out, snuggle in and you know she's finally asleep. Usually takes about 20 minutes.



And then she sleeps.



And sleeps.

And dreams. I took a video of that, but the file is too big to upload and I can't figure out how to edit it. If anyone is using an idiot proof video editing program they like, please let me know.

Lila loves to sleep on our bed in the evening. A full tummy, some boring ole hockey on tv and...in 20 minutes...she's down for the count with her head on a pillow. She sleeps so soundly that I have to actually wake her up when it's time for bed.

She'll lean up, blink a couple times, yawn big and back down she goes. Try again. Big stretch...and back down she goes. This goes on...for about 20 minutes...and the she finally wakes up. Usually takes the magic word (ba-ba).



Yeah, I'm pretty cute when I first wake up.



Here's her sleepy wake up voice.

She does do more than sleep. I have a couple pictures to post tomorrow that will really make Jenny crazy ;-).

Daily Dose Of Cuteness

Lila spent the afternoon helping me skirt fleeces yesterday.



A fly was bugging her.

And she was sleeping in gravel.

That just won't do!

Pictures tomorrow.

And maybe a video.

Testing out some new software.

Hard to do holding the baby... ;-)

Lila's Dollies

All the house lambs know these are sheep. I have a picture of Popcorn PeePee Pants sleeping with them years ago. Keebler obviously wasn't a sheep, so he had no interest in playing with them. Graham was pretty tough on them, but nowhere near as bossy as Lila.



She plays pretty rough with her dollies and when she gets tired she makes them take a nap with her.



Poor sheepy. That can't be comfortable.



But...I'd bet if you are a stuffed sheep, having a baby lamb recognize you and want to be your friend (even if she does make you stand on your head) must be pretty cool.

Lucky Winners

Whoops - I missed Kim's guess of five too - it was late. So, Kim, tell me where fifth clover is and I'll add you to the prize list :-).

The random number generator picked comment #5 - Janna

I see four four leaf clovers. Alice, if you can tell me where the fifth one is, you are the big winner! If that was just a guess, of the three people who found four, the random number generator says #1 - small farm girl...or should I say Small Farm Girl, Winner ;-).

Drop me an email at thecrazysheeplady AT myfavoritesheep DOT com and give me your mailing addresses.

Happy Easter!

Lila, the best lamb ever. I held her for the opening music and she'd have probably sat there the entire service, but I have enough trouble getting through Christ the Lord Is Risen Today and I doubt anyone would sleep through Up From the Grave He Arose ;-).



A couple years ago, Keebler found himself in church on Easter Sunday. For a very short time. Keebler was pretty spoiled complicated. He did not want anyone. but. me. to hold him. Not Auntie Reg, the official lamb sitter. Not Saint Tim, who finally had to take him out to the parking lot where he continued to scream for about half the sermon.



Not Lila. She slept.



And dreamed.



And snuggled up with Reg, who smiled the entire service...because you can't hold a sleeping baby lamb and not smile, right?



She was patient through the meet and greet afterwards.



And made Tommy's day.



"Yeah, okay, but can I take this stupid dress off now?"

Happy Easter!

Are Ya' Feeling Lucky?

April showers...



...bring lots of clovers!



Do you ever find 4 leaf clovers?



How many do you see here?

Let's have some fun. In the comments section, answer the first question - a simple yes or no - and I'll draw a winner on Monday evening. Answer the second question and I'll draw a second winner from all the correct answers. Leave just the number, not location(s).

As an aside, I knew I'd blogged my True Story about finding clovers. Searched back to see it and look who else I found in that post. And I didn't have any gray hair either!

'Cause She's Just So Darn Cute

Lila had a big day and is conked out on my lap, so more pictures than one finger typing.



The face of a baby who knows she's loved. And forced to take messy brown liquid vitamins.



With speckled ears that droop as she falls fast asleep in her Auntie Pam's arms.



I wonder if she'll keep this wrinkly nose.



Pretty happy sleeping in momma's arms too :-). Would somebody please wash that poor baby's mouth off???



And an A #1 car rider too!

She's dreaming about something right now - ears and body twitching, lips moving, instant - but temporary - heat flush which makes her smell good. Can't explain, but probably similar to the "new baby smell".

Oh, and now a big stretch and an adorable yawn.

And back to dreamland.

Of Dogs And Sheep

Just some random shots from Kathy's this past weekend. Now that it's almost Thursday... I've been a little occupied ;-).



Brick - guard dog puppy in training and already a star.



Zee - the old guard. Another good one.



Everyone resting up for a long night's work. Brick is just off to the left. With his lip smushed up on his paw.

Good guard dogs are so important.



A good babysitter always helps too. These lambs do not all belong to this ewe. In fact there are two more just off to the right. I've heard of cows taking turns watching babies, but didn't know sheep did as well.



Lots of green grass doesn't hurt either.



And room to run.



And if you aren't quite ready to join the lamb races while all the mommas eat dinner, that's okay too.

My Bottle Lamb Is Smarter Than...

Currently my favorite picture of Lila. In two weeks when I'm having to make that collar larger, I will be able to look back...



Okay, not to be bragging...wait, well of course I'm going brag about this. Somehow Lila decided that when she needs to peepee and she's in the house, she runs into her crate, pees, runs back to whatever she was doing. Seriously. Picture to prove it.

To take this one step further, this evening when we were up at the barn feeding, she was playing around in the barn aisle, stopped, ran into the only open stall, peed, ran back out. I am not making this up. Does that just not beat all?!?



Then, tonight when I was fixing dinner (yes, it occasionally happens) I locked her out on the back porch with Iris and Weaslie. She played around for a little while, didn't get into any trouble and then I found her sleeping in the condo. I'm beginning to think Keebler might have been a little tiny bit of a brat. Possibly ;-).



We spent most of the afternoon up at the wool house working on Boudreaux's messy fleece. Luckily she was able to find some friends to hang out with.

"Hey, it looks like your mom made you take vitamins too!"

Aren't those sheep planters awesome? Alice found them at Home Goods. Great find!



I was able to salvage both of Boudreaux's sides - in good order. His back? Yeah, um... This is one of my favorite fleeces though and one of our favorite sheep too. Lila and I spent several hours snipping off sunbleached tips and shaking out VM.

The worst of it is just going to have to find it's way into some bird nests, but we made a pretty good dent in saving a decent amount. We have some major barn renovations planned for this summer so this won't happen again.



So, then Dad gets home.

Who is the one who makes all the ba-ba's? And feeds her every two hours? Who slept on the kitchen floor next to her the first night? And again when it started to storm at 3:00 a.m. last night and she (and the dogs) were scared?

Yeah, it wasn't Saint Tim.

Who does she follow around if she has a choice?

Kids...

To answer some questions:

Lila was a triplet from the same farm Keebs came from. She was a little oxygen deprived at birth and was having trouble connecting all the nursing dots. Kathy worked with her for two days and got her sucking (bottle and momma), but couldn't get her to figure out how to do it herself. The green stripe was so she could easily find her among the other 163 white lambs she has running around right now.

She's not bred anywhere near the same as Keebler and I'm not sure where the spots came from. I believe her mother was a Rambouillet cross and her father is a Texel ram, but don't quote me on that. Not sure how her fleece will turn out. She's just here for entertainment and to make sure she gets a good start in a hopefully long and happy life.

Her name just popped into my head as soon as I put her in the car. Sometimes that happens. Occasionally. Usually Tim comes up with the clever names. I think as cute as the Mud Ranch lambs are, I'd have fun trying to come up with 60 names :-).

Lila Lambie...

...is napping on my lap right now so it's hard to type. More important for her to sleep so I'll tell you more about her later.












Nothing beats holding a sleeping baby :-).