The Countdown Begins

According to the sheep lambing calculator that I found on-line the earliest possible date my ewes could lamb would be today. I almost thought Ewenice was in labor when I first went out this morning because she was the only sheep laying down and she seemed to be panting more than usual. But she jumped up and chowed down on breakfast, something she would not have done had she actually been in labor.

To show you the changes I've posted a couple of new "back end" shots. They can be compared with the previous shots from about three weeks ago here. I tried doing the side by side shots on the computer but it wasn't working for me, so this way will have to do.

Here is Baby. Her change is a little subtle, but the change is definate. Here you can see her udder is fuller.

Ewenice looks like she's ready to pop. She probably wishes it were over. It's supposed to be 103 today!!!!

A little difficult to see here, but her udder is fuller too, and her vagina is really saggy. That's how they get, sorry.
This is the rear end of first timer Francine. Also very subtle changes but definately fuller udder than a few weeks ago. The most noticeable change besides Ewenice would be on another first timer, 3of4.
Jamie, 3of4's mother, on the other hand is showing the least amount of changes. Her udder never fully sucked back up so she's always had a bit of a "dangler". I can't really see much enlargement on it, but unless she's been eating way too much, she most definately has a lamb or two inside. Here you can see she is not her usual svelte self.
If I had to guess the order of arrivals, I would guess as follows: Ewenice, 3of4, Baby, Francine, and finally Jamie. And, by the way, I do not consider myself a professional sheep raiser so these really are just guesses!

Time will tell.

Cactus

Today will be the last day of the AZ trip photos. These will be of the many different cactus plants in the area. It was spring and the cactus was in bloom, so that made the prickly, stickery, pokey plants a little more pretty.

Click here for a site that has many good photos. It looks like the same are where we were.

This is ocotillo, with blooms on top.

Seguaro cactus From a distance the seguaros don't look like they have needles, but here you can see they do!
Seguaro blossom, the state flower of Arizona. The following are different types of chollo. They are really nasty!


Barrel cactus. On our desert tour we learned that they always lean towards the south, eventually falling over from their weight.

Paddle cactus.
Our desert guide told us the flower of the paddle cactus is what was called the "yellow rose of Texas". I don't know if that's true or not but it's a pretty flower.
And this concludes this year's AZ trip photos. I took a little over 130 pictures. It wasn't easy to pick out just a few, but I hope you enjoyed the last three days' worth.

Back to the normal hum-drum tomorrow!

More AZ Wildlife

As promised yesterday, the following are more pictures from our recent AZ trip. We'll start out with a few more birds and then get into the creatures.

Another picture of the red cardinal, this time contrasting nicely in the palo verde tree against the brilliant blue sky. A Gila woodpecker. Notice the red cap on his head.

The ever abundant miscellaneous finches and sparrows.

On the golf course just prior to sunset: a bobcat...

...probably after one of these cute bunnies. There were tons of them. They probably aren't making the groundskeeper happy though.

We all also took a guided tour of the desert. It was more interesting than I thought it would be. And guess what? It was a three hour tour. Only in the desert. Not in the ocean. Never mind.

We saw a big mule deer.

Just prior to the end of the tour our guides took out a few native creatures.

It's a broach...

A rose pink tarantula.

A gopher snake. We have those around here too. I wish we had more!! (Too many gophers!!)

A Gila monster. Up close they are are actually fascinating. It looked like it was made of beading or mosaics!

TOMORROW: The exciting world of cactus!

AZ Pictures

I went through all the pictures of our recent trip to AZ and I tried to pick out a few that summed up the different parts. I'm not sure how great these will look to anybody else, but I can look back on them and remember my MIL's 80th birthday.

We ended up leaving a day earlier than planned, so we could drive a bit and then stay for a night in a hotel. The plan was to arrive nice and rested. Or at least not too exhausted from driving that we'd have to use a day or two to recoup!

We ended up staying in Palm Springs for the night. It was dark when we got there and the wind was reportedly blowing in 50-70 mph gusts. At one point I thought we were driving through a bad gnat bunch but it was the blowing sand. Shortly after that we actually got pelted very briefly with large marble sized rocks. They were blowing horizontally across the freeway! That was very wierd.

And speaking of wierd, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant called "Wang's In The Desert". The food was very good. There weren't a whole lot of people inside, but after walking by the bar and through the dining area we figured out why it was called "Wang's". I'll leave the rest to your imagination...

We had a really great time visiting with all my husband's sisters and their husbands and of course his mother and her boyfriend. I'm not sure "boyfriend" is the proper term. He's older than she is by a few years and they've been living together for some 15 years, I think. It's like they are married but they aren't. "Companion" sounds either like it's a gay relationship (Wang's?) (definately not) or it's platonic (definately not). Whatever.

Their house is in a nice development that overlooks a golf course. The views are fantastic. They certainly get an abundance of birds, as you will see, as well as other wildlife.

One thing is certain, I could never be happy living there. In the desert, I mean. There is way too much cactus (cacti??). I would forever be plucking cactus needles out of my animals, and quite possibly out of myself!

We'll start out today's pictures with the birds.

Some kind of hummingbird.

We have mourning doves at our place. Here they had lots of white winged doves.

This is a curve-billed thrasher. It's too bad you can't see his "golden eye" in this photo.

I believe this is a female red cardinal...

...and here is the brilliantly colored male red cardinal.

Tons of quail. I think these are Gambrel's quail.

MORE TOMORROW!