It’s only March 1st, but we are deep into lambing!
Today began at 6:15 when I awoke and checked the barn cam on my phone and saw a ewe in the barn with a lamb. As I was watching, she popped out a second lamb. I dressed and was up to the barn in 5 minutes. As I walked in, a voice spoke out of the dark: “Hi Marcia, looks like we saw the same camera feed!” It was Melinda, on her day off, but excited to see who it was who had lambed and how the lambs were doing. It was Wren, one of our recessive-colored Romneys and a first-time mother. Melinda and I divided the labor getting Wren and her two nice boys settled.
Melinda headed off and Mo, our weekend helper who has been working with us since May, arrived for a two-day deep-dive into lambing. Mo and I had a great time working together on a never-ending busy day.
Mo got all the morning chores done while I tended to the horses and the ewes in the jugs in the barn. We paused for a photo shoot with Wren and her lambs.
By the time we had cleaned the horse stalls, jugs and drop-pen, it was 11:30 and we were starved. I suggested we break for lunch, but we need to check the pregnant ewes first. And there was Xandra with a broken water sac. So I left Mo to watch her while I hurried home to make sandwiches for us. We ate our sandwiches and watched Xandra’s progress, but after aa while I became concerned that she wasn’t progressing. She was very skittish and we couldn’t catch her to investigate, so we brought all 9 ewes into the barn. Finally she settled down and worked at her labor and produced a nice big girl.
The weather was clearly brewing. a storm, and we needed to move the open ewes from the lamb park to a pasture with shelter, so we headed off to do that while Xandra bonded with her lamb. Oliver was such a good dog, immediately understanding where we were going, and leading the ewes to the new pasture. I wish I had a photo, but I was too busy running to catch up with the flock.
We made it back just in time for my friend Bobbie’s visit with her granddaughter Charlie. And just as we walked into the barn, Mo, who had gone ahead, greeted us with the news that Xandra had just had a second girl! Charlie took notes on our chart for us while we weighed the new lambs, dipped their umbilical cords and made sure they had had a good drink from mom, and then put mother and lambs into a jug.
Charlie surveyed all the mothers and lambs and decided her favorite was Meryl’s little girl with the white nose-ring, the first lamb born this year. Charlie named her Moon. At first she was shy to hold Moon, so I held her for a photo, but later Charlie wanted to hold her too.
After Bobbie and Charlie left, Mo and I finished the afternoon chores and headed off for showers, hoping that all that was left for us was to bring the ewes into the barn at 6:00.
But when I went up at 6 there was a pasture surprise, our Corriedale ewe with a beautiful white half-Cormo girl, a daughter of Perry the Cormo. She was all cleaned off and dry, and had already had a belly full of milk. I brought them in, along with the rest of the ewes, but Aurora didn’t want to come. Aurora had been looking HUGE for days and Melinda was sure she was going to have triplets. Now she was planted in the pasture and didn’t want to come in. I finally got her in but she didn’t want to eat and I had a feeling we were not done this evening.
I hurried home for dinner, watching the barn the whole time. Aurora went into labor and when I saw her deliver a lamb I rushed up. It was a huge boy.
Meanwhile Shade had delivered her placenta so I knew she was done with a single. I put her and her lamb in a jug, and Aurora had a second.
Then the door opened and in came Mo, off work but eager to see what was happening! We took care of Aurora’ twins, 13 and 14 pounds, and decided that with lambs that huge, she didn’t have a third. After they had both had a drink we put mother and lambs in a jug and called it a night.
A great day and I had such fun working with Mo and with Charlie!
