Baaaaa....

It's official! The Rolli family has sheep. This weekend Matthew's parents drove up for a weekend visit. They brought up the first of many sheep for our new flock.

Opa and Oma Rolli brought up a bottle lamb. This means that this little lamb's mom didn't make it. I'm not sure if she died when the lamb was born or shortly after. In an effort to save an orphaned lamb a shepherd then takes on the the task of "Mama" sheep (Ewe). The lamb needs to be fed numerous times a day by bottle. Slowly weaned off starting at 8 weeks and is trained to eat regular feed. This includes a diet of pellets, corn and hay.

The photo is not a picture of our lamb but looks similar. (still can't find the charger for our camera) The lamb breed that my father-in-law has is called Dorset. It is a white-faced sheep that has good quality wool and meat. Some breeds are mainly strong in one area or another.

Our little lamb was born February 5 and is now down to two bottles a day. He eats at 6am and 4:30pm. He has also been started on a small amount of pellets, corn and hay. He has water available to him as well. Lambs, who aren't fed by their mamas, drink a formula of sorts called lamb replacer. It's a white powder we mix into water to make up his bottle.

Springy, Isaiah's name for the lamb, is a whether. This means he was born a ram (male) lamb and was castrated. This is done because he'll be raised for meat. Somehow the castration aids in the meat. I'm still learning this whole farm thing so not quite sure on everything.

He's a cute little guy and will be fun to take care of. Anna is already thrilled about the new item on her chore list- helping to feed the lamb.

If I ever get our camera up and running again I'll post authentic photos of the lamb.

I nursed my kiddos so this whole mixing-up-of-formula thing is brand new for me. I mixed up the batch we'll use for feedings tomorrow, stuck it in the fridge and the bottle is drying on the counter. So far, so good...