After staying up all night, I woke up at 8 a.m. with my Spidey senses tingling and look what I found in the pasture. Miss Martha gave birth to a giant, healthy ram lamb. We haven’t named him yet.

Then the phone rang. It was the post office calling to tell me that our order of 45 baby chicks had arrived. I swung by, picked them up and headed to Amy’s house to get them into the brooder where they will spend the next four weeks or so.

We ordered 12 different varieties of birds, and it was super fun opening the box and trying to figure about who was what.

The silkies were super-easy to identify already.

They are all so lovely.

Emily, Amy’s oldest daughter, got straight to work dipping each chick’s beak in water to teach them how to drink. This is something that the mama hen would do if they were being raised by a hen.

Wren

Wren and Piper relaxing in the run in shed.

Cini and Lucy. Lucy is grounded for eating a baby chicken last week. She’s on a tie out until she learns better or the chicks get to big to eat, whichever comes first.

Dakota, mama of Scarlett and Indigo, is doing a good job loving on her babies but she doesn’t seem to understand that she needs to feed them as well.

We’ve been bottle feeding them in the meantime and they are quickly becoming favorites.

I’m more than a little bit in love with them.

Ethel is still doing a great job with her chicks. They are growing like crazy!

Soon, all 11 of them won’t be able to fit under her!

Who says I can’t keep a secret? I’ve been sitting quiet on this one for more than a month!

For a while now, I’ve been feeling like the site need a makeover. It’s not that I didn’t love the old one- it has served us well through 2 MILLION views, as of today- but I was ready for a change. So I went to our amazing web shepherd, Ms. Rancher,  and coaxed, wheedled, whined and begged until she gave up in defeat and agreed to put up whole new site for us in three weeks.

Then I went to Jenny and coaxed, wheedled, whined and begged until she agreed to figure out what we wanted, design it and to work with Ms. Rancher to make it happen.

Then I went to Amy’s husband Paul and coaxed, wheedled, whined and begged until he agreed to install not one, not two but THREE brand-spanking new wireless lambcams for us. Actually, Paul was the easiest piece of this puzzle. He’s been tsk-tsking about our old system for a year and vowing to replace it with something that actually works. He cheerfully drilled holes, climbed ladders and began intimate with the crawl space under the house and didn’t charge us one thin dime for his labor or expertise. In fact, when we reached the end of my equipment budget, he took down pieces of his own system and installed them at the farm.

I want to thank my team for putting this together. You are truly generous, talented people, and I couldn’t have pulled any of this off with all three of you. Give them a round of applause, y’all!

Now, to show y’all around. First of all, I am in mad-love with the clean new look. I love the big photos and the way that they pop off the white background. I also love the wider area for the blog.

You’ll find most things are in close to the same place they were on the old site. There are a couple of neat-o new additions though. The blog portion of the site is layed out more like a magazine now. Below the two most recent posts, you can see the headlines for the previous 8 posts, all without leaving the main blog page.

Let’s see. What else? The FAQs now have their own spot in the menu bar. Oh, my favorite new thing is the “Features” tab, which all will take you directly to all of the Probably something you would like… posts, tutorials, contributor posts, food and gardening posts, and more. It will make finding your favorite features super-easy!

When you mouse over the lambcam button, you’ll notice that there are pull downs for lambcam 2 and three. You can keep all three open at the same time by opening separate tabs, or click between them, depending on where the action is. Lambcams 2 and 3 have infrared capability, so you will be able to see in the dark!

I hope you love the new look as much as we do.  Because we wanted to take the site off line for as short a time as possible, there maybe some bugs to work; let us know if you find anything that isn’t working the way it should.

EDITED TO ADD: We’ve heard that there are some problems with the menu bar in IE, especially the older version. We’re working on it but we do need you to upgrade to the latest version of IE- I can’t afford Michelle’s hourly rate trying to make it work in the outdated versions.
We highly recommend Firefox; it’s updated more frequently and offers much better virus protection.

Can I ask you a question? Where does the time go? I mean, seriously, how can it possibly be two short weeks till lambing?

I am hard at work this week mucking out stalls and gathering all the lambing gear but you have a job to do, too. I need y’all to help us choose this year’s naming conventions, one for the lambs and one for the kids. We have combed through your nominations and come up with two short lists. Now you need to vote for your favorites.

Be sure to vote twice, once for the lambs and once for the kids. We’ll leave the polls up till March 19th. If you have a particular favorite, be sure to encourage your friends to vote.

Speaking of lambing, we are working on a plan to upgrade our Lambcam system before the first new lamb hits the ground. The plan is to add two more (much better) cameras- one for each stall in the barn- and to upgrade the server to make it more stable when lots of people are watching. We’re also making the whole system wireless, which will result in less downtime due to squirrels (and Lucy) chewing through the cords.

As you can imagine, all this technology is MAD expensive, and money is tight due to another little surprise we have brewing. To help make sure we can do this right and quickly, we’re asking for your help. Although Lambcam will continue to be free to everyone, we are asking for Lambcam Sponsors. If you can and would like to be a sponsor, we are asking for $10 to help defray the cost of the new equipment. Even a little will help us out tremendously, and we’ll put your name up on the Lambcam page as a thank you.

In addition to making sure no one misses a moment of lambing action, Lambcam Sponsors will have the smug satisfaction of knowing that YOU made it all happen, and honestly? How can you put a price on that?

Someone- I don’t want to mention any names, but her’s rhymes with “Goosey” and she is pictured below- chewed through the lambcam cable. I’m not sure when she developed this Garbo-like desire for privacy, but she’s going to have to get over it. We’ll get a new cable and get the camera back up and running soonest, but in the meantime the lambcam is down.

The culprit.

Reader and lambcam watcher Sandra asks, “Why is there a sheep in the kidding area?”

Daisy is my only Babydoll Southdown ewe and she is what they call an “easy keeper.” She can get fat even when she’s only eating hay. Even though she’s bred, I pastured her with the boys and lambs this winter because they were on an all hay diet and I didn’t want Daisy getting even fatter by feasting on grain all winter. Now that she’s getting close to lambing, I want to move Daisy in with the ewes and start her on some grain to give her the extra nutrition she needs for her last month of pregnancy, but putting her in with the ewes and their ample portions of grain would be too big a transition and would make her sick.

Daisy is in the kidding area so that I can control the amount of grain she gets for a week or so, and slowly ramp her up to get as much as the other girls. Hannah is furious that Daisy has invaded her space by Nanny McPhee and Mrs. Doubtfire don’t seem to care.

In other farm news, we had to giant round bales of hay delivered this morning by our friends the Hopkins.

We put one round bale in with the non-breeders and one in with the ewes.

Then, while everyone was busy eating, we fenced them into small paddocks with moveable fencing.

Keeping the flocks confined to small areas now will allow the new pasture to come in and establish roots before the greedy sheep and goats are turned out on it. We practiced rotational grazing in New York and on Martha’s Vineyard but we never gotten started so early before. Green grass in March is like a dream.

The main advantage round bales is that they are about 1/2 the price of square bales. (Each round bale equals 20 to 25 squares.) There is also a small time savings in that we won’t have to haul hay out to the flock twice a day. The disadvantages are that they are difficult to move and subject to the weather. We put the ewe’s bale in the large run-in attached the barn so it would stay dry, but that wasn’t an option for the non-breeders. They will still eat the hay after it’s been rained on, but it isn’t as appealing and loses nutritional value.

Hopefully we will be able to turn the flocks out on to pasture in two or three weeks. It’s going to be 70 degrees today and the green grass is coming on fast. Rain tomorrow and through Saturday, but we need it, and at least it’s going to stay warm.

Still no babies in the kidding pen. Stay tuned.

I don’t care what the calendar says. Today is the first day of Spring on Juniper Moon Farm! It’s going to be 66 degrees today and stay in the 60s for the next five days. I couldn’t be happier if it was raining money.

The nanny goats are settled into their stall in the barn awaiting the arrival of kids. If you’ve been watching the lambcam and wondering who the goat with so much to say is, it’s Hannah. I adore Hannah, but I might be the only one who does. She and her twin Martin were my first goats and my first bottle babies. Hannah is a spoiled brat and very entitled. She can’t believe she is being forced to share a stall with Mrs. Doubtfire and Nanny McPhee and she lets me know it every time I come in the barn.

[Thankfully, FoF Nancy figured out what was causing the echo on the lambcam; refresh your browser and the echo should disappear!]

The lambcam is in the white box mounted on the wall pointed down at the goats.

Miss Linda, Dimples and Jasmine were evicted from the kidding stall to make room for the nannies. It was time for them to get outside, but I do worry about Linda. She isn’t very competitive at the trough and the ewes tend to push her around a bit. I’m keeping a close eye on her to make sure she’s getting enough to eat and I’ll move her back in if she starts to lose weight. I’m also giving her a very strong pain reliever every morning to help with her arthritis.

The three of them seem happy to be outside with the rest of the flock, although they are still very much a family unit. When one of them wanders away from the others, they call to one another the way a mama calls her babies. Remember, Jasmine and Dimples aren’t Linda’s babies; she just adopted them when they were all thrown in together.

Do you see what I see in this picture? Yup. That’s green grass coming up in my pasture! The flock has been grazing for a few days, but I assumed they were just picking at the brown, dead stuff from last year. That grass is as good as money to me, cause it means I will be able to cut way back on hay very soon. This is much earlier than we ever saw green grass in the Northeast; my love for Virginia increases every day. I might be able to get away with only buying one more big load of hay this season.

It was a lovely morning with the ewes. I’ll spend some time with the non-breeders [whethers, buck, and lambs] this afternoon and take some more pics. In the meantime, I have to get back to dyeing our Fall 09 Yarn CSA Shares.

Lambcam is back up and broadcasting live from the Juniper Moon Farm barn. Currently it is set up in Linda, Dimples and Jasmine’s stall but we will be moving the nannies and ewes into the picture when they are ready to kid and lamb. In the meantime, I will be readjusting the camera from time-to-time to figure out the best location and shot.

Last year, the volume of traffic during lambing overwhelmed our website server, forcing us to purchase a second, lambcam-dedicated server. We’re gearing up the live feed early this year so that we can ramp up the traffic slowly and make adjustments before lambing and kidding begin.

If you are using a Mac you will need to download the Windows Media Player here. Firefox users may need to download this Windows Media Player plug in. For reasons so technical they nearly make my head explode, Lambcam is best viewed in Internet Explorer.

We have migrated the lambcam to a brand-new , lambcam-dedicated server. This should mean that the feed won’t degrade as much during high traffic times and we won’t get anymore bills for $500 for exceeding our bandwith. Win/win, right?

You will need to re-set your bookmarks for the lambcam page. The url is the same but some other thing-a-ma-jig changed. [That's a technical term. You needn't worry your pretty little head over it, Sugar.] So re-bookmark and enjoy!

Several of you asked if the omission of Linda yesterday meant something bad had happened to her. I am please to report that Linda is alive and well, but very tired of carrying those babies around with her!  You can clearly sense this in this picture I took this afternoon. (I tried to get Erin to hold up a copy of today’s paper so ya’ll would know Linda’s really alive, but she just laughed at me.)

Beatrice is another nanny that is easy to identify by her horns because one of them is much smaller than the other. Beatrice is a lovely goat and a great mama. Last year she gave us twins Chipotle and Ancho (born on Cinco de Mayo) and she still mothers them whenever she sees them.

This is one of my favorite pics from last year’s kidding season: Beatrice licking her brand-new boys.

This is Mrs. Doubtfire, a.k.a #25. (For those of you who are new to the blog, last year’s shareholders names the 10 new nannies we we bought after famous nannies from television, movies and literature.) She is a sweetheart of a goat but her most distinguishing characteristic is that she loves peanut butter! Last year when Cini had Lyme disease, we gave him his twice daily medicine disguised in peanut butter. Mrs. Doubtfire would chase Cini around and LICK HIS MOUTH after he ate it. (Cini is a 110 pound dog!) Last year, she gave us one buck kid, but she certainly looks like she has twins in there this time around.

Mary Poppins (14) was last year’s first nanny to kid. She gave us a big healthy girl named Thyme. Mary Poppins is a little on the small-framed  side so I don’t expect more than a single out of her, although you never know.

This Maria Von Trapp (15). She is another small-framed nanny and she had a big boy last year. I feel like Maria is the goat I know the least- she kind of keeps to herself, is never a problem and has never been sick. In the business, nannies like this are referred to as your “moneymakers.” 

Fran, named after t.v.’s The Nanny, is super recognizable nanny because her horns both curl to one side of her head. Here’s a better picture.

We actually have to keep a close eye on her horns because the lower one grows directly into her head. Jeff, our sheared, trims the end of the horn off every year. Unchecked, the horn would keep growing right into her skull. Last year Fran had one doe kid, Chive, and she was very good mama.

Alice (#11, named after the Brady Bunch’s house keeper) is another smallish goat, at least when she’s not pregnant. Last year she had a single, a buck kid named Tarragon, but twins wouldn’t surprise me this year.

Nana (9) gave us twin doelings last year, whoch is pretty much like winning the lottery. She was a great mama to Sassafrass and Saffron, the only two kids we’ve ever had who insisted on nursing from the same side of their mama.

Nanny Jo (#6) was so huge last year that I was dead sure that there were twins- if not triplets- in there, but Jo surprised us all with on nice sized doe kid named Juniper. She’s huge again this year but she’s not fooling me this time!

Last year Anna gave birth to my favorite kid- the irrepressible Basil. Basil was the funniest little bucking, whether he was chasing the  chickens around to head butt them or giving the other kids group hugs (picture below.)

Anna was the nanny that was attacked by our late rooster, Dan Rather. (No, we didn’t kill him; he and another rooster killed each other.)

And, just for reference- and because I love this picture- here’s what Dan Rather looked like:

He was a beautiful rooster but mean as a snake. 

And last but not least, Sicily is one of our Cormo ewes. The other ewes are bred to start lambing in about a month, but Sicily could go any day now. She has given us two ram lambs in the previous two years, so I’d really love to get a little girl out of her. I know she looks kind of beleaguered in this picture and that’s because she is. The nanny goats run her crazy!

And that, my friends, is a complete guide to the ladies of the lambcam. A couple of you have asked for a glossary of sheep and goat terms- great idea!. I’ll put one together tonight.

No, I am not giving away my first born. Especially since my first born hasn’t even been born yet and Patrick’s first born, Harry, is way too helpful to giveaway. 

I am giving away the winner’s choice of one pound of yarn or spinning fiber to the person you guesses the hour and date our first goat kid or lamb is born this year.

Here’s the rules: since we could have babies any minute, the time to enter this giveaway is short. Get your entry in by 8 pm EST tonight (3/31). In the event that more than one person chooses the correct hour and date we will flip a coin to choose the winner. “Hour” will be defined as within the hour- i.e. 2:05 would be in the 2 o’clock hour. So would 2:50 p.m.. You must indicate a.m. or p.m. on your entry because military time confuses me even when I’m not sleep deprived. 

Just so everybody is on the same page- our nannies and one of our ewes are bred to give birth sometime between today (3/31) and  April 20th. Get your guesses in now!

Props to Margaret (mugginsquilts) for the idea!