I guess it’s my turn for all the….challenges during lambing time.  I found the first set of twins of the year, and called Tisha to pick up that bummer.  A couple of days later, I went out and found another set of twins.  Again, it the mother was a stupid first time mother, and I couldn’t get them into the baby area.  It was morning, and I needed to get to work, so I hoped for the best, and told the mama to stay in the barn.  Of course, she didn’t listen.  That night when Steven & I went out to feed and get them set up.  No babies.  The only thing we could figure was that the stupid mama went too far out on the hillside and the lambs couldn’t keep up.  But no one was upset and looking for babies, so now I’m not sure.  Particularly since the sheep had access to the entire barnlot as well as the back hillside that day.  And I didn’t notice the tag number on the ewe.  Just that she was wild as a march hare, and had two small brown babies.  I’m particularly wondering, given what I found when I went out tonight.

Everything was going fine.  Steve had left the sheep locked in just the back lot, right behind the barn.  They have access to water, and the feed is in the barn.  There really isn’t any feed out on the hillside right now anyway, so it’s not a big deal to keep them close, and it made us feel better given the lost twins.  It was cold, so the sheep had put themselves inside already.  Zeke, Mouse and I feed the sheep, and I went out to feed the horses.  I stepped over to put hay in the first feeder, looked down, and saw something I did not expect to see.  There was a ewe, with two little babies curled up next to the horse feeder.  I stared for a minute, re-evaluated my plan, and fed the horses on the ground outside the barn.  Then I closed a gate to keep the horses from messing with the sheep, and to keep the ewe where she was.  I went inside and called Steve to consider my plan.  I was, of course, home alone and no one was expected until well after 7:00pm.

Sheep in horse stall.  Not where they are supposed to be!

Just yesterday, I had asked Steve to get me a cow panel to hang in the barn to use for sheep control when I was alone with a wildling.  I thought about it and decided that with the two panels I had in the barn and one closed gate, I could make a fairly straight shot from the horse stalls to the temporary baby area we had set up in that end of the barn.  I waited until Sarah got home, so I had backup handy in case I needed it, and headed out with Zeke.  I made him lay down and wait while I muscled the panels into place (OK – I actually did more dragging than lifting, but still…) and secured them with a couple of handy dandy rubber strap bungie cords.  I stood back and figured as long as she didn’t hit it too hard it should hold.

I laid Zeke down outside her area so she wouldn’t try those panels and hurt herself or a baby, then I went in and decided to try the lamb lure.  I wasn’t expecting much success, because I figured this was another stupid first time mother, but to my surprise, she was actually pretty strongly bonded to those babies.  She was still pretty flighty, and pretty much ran circles around me, but she stayed in the general area of the babies, even with me holding them.  We got inside, and I watched to make sure everyone would get sorted out again.  All looks good.  But dang the year is starting out strangely.

Its cold outside

It’s really cold outside!!  Sarah got me this woven ski mask thinking I would not wear it.  Oh how wrong she was!  I wear it all the time, it has been consistently under 20 degrees F, it is definitely ski mask weather.  Annmarie had let the sheep out onto the back hillside but I was afraid one of them would have a baby while out on the back hill. So Zeke, mouse and I went out to chase them back into the barn lot.  There is a definite learning curve associated with working two dogs.  Even though I had mouse on a retractable leash he kept trying to get out and chase the sheep.  Zeke was a terror.  I had to resort to much swearing and yelling to get him to do what I wanted.  Half the time mouse thought I was yelling at him.  It took some practice to say “Zeke” before every epitaph but I caught on quickly!!

I noticed blood on the snow and thought one of the ewes was in labor.  It wasn’t until I saw Mouse leaving bloody footprints that I realized it was him.  He was off the leash and running the sheep all over the ram pasture.  You could not tell his foot was injured by the way he moved.  Once we had the sheep all settled into the barn he started to limp.  So I took him inside, he had cut one of his pads on his back foot.  Once it was all dressed Zeke and I went back outside to feed the alpaca and cows.   

Barn during day, I was loading the feeders.  I could even sleep out here with a blanket.

injured puppy

ready to go

I broke out the hooks to move the large bales after trying to push some bales off the top.  The bale I was using as leverage kept moving.  So I found the two hooks I got from the scrap yard, slammed them into the side of a low bale and hooked a chain up then ran a long chain out to the tractor so when I pulled the 800 lb bales would not crush my tractor.  It worked perfectly.  I then pushed the bale way out away from the machine shop.  The cows were happy. We spent 3 hours out in the bitter cold. 

The mule deer think it is cold and snowy also.  We have 30+ living on the back hillside.  We have started looking out for the elk now.  They can be very destructive on the young wheat plants. 

First bummer, a boy.

The first day of the new year netted us our first two lambs of the year!  One of our first time mothers had the first set and most likely they were early.  She wasn’t really accepting the second baby and Annmarie went out to the barn multiple times to check on the bonding process.  She rejected the little boy.  He came inside the house to get warmed up and some milk.  We called Tisha and she came to pick him up and take him home.  She takes all our bummers.  Annmarie was unable to get near the momma so she waited until I got home the next day.  I slowly waded into the sheep pile in the barn and did my patented leap/dive/grab to control the ewe.  I managed to grab her on the first try and only got drug through the straw and poop for about 8 feet.  Luckily, I am larger than her and she was unable to get away.  I drug her into one of the two jugs, turned my back to get some straw and she was gone!  We settled on moving some of our sheep sorting panels around and creating a new momma area inside the barn.  The only reason we cannot use our normal momma area is the baby is too small.  We are afraid it cannot jump up the single step to get back into the barn.
Unfortunately, this means we have to carry water into the barn twice a day.  Not a chore we enjoy.  The babies should start popping out every day, January is going to be a busy month. 

January 1, 2016