Sometime in May, Steve & I sat down and took a look at when the last batch of lambs were born and sort of estimated when we could maybe expect the next batch of deliveries to take place.  We came up with August.  So, we were pretty comfortable with the barn being in construction and the sheep wandering all over creation.  Lately, we’ve been trying to get a handle on the cheat grass, so the sheep have been confined to the ram pasture, near the house.  This turned out to be a fortunate decision on our part, since I discovered the error of our thought process when I looked out our bedroom window as I was getting dressed to some exercise at 5:15 this morning and noticed a ewe standing all alone at the far end of the pasture and bawling.  She was bawling because the other sheep were on the far side of the creek calling to her.  It took me a couple of moments to realize that she was staying where she was because she had a baby.  A very cute very small little baby ewe lamb.

We had some trouble getting them into the barn because Mamma really wanted to stay with the other sheep, but was conflicted because she knew she needed to stay with baby.  We eventually ran all of the sheep into the barn (I carried the baby) and then sorted out everyone but Mamma and baby.  Then we had to scrounge for all the supplies and feed that had gotten relocated in the great purge in preparation for construction, but we eventually found two feeders and got them some feed and water.  Mamma really wanted to be able to go outside, so I worked some magic with the gates and managed to give her access to fresh feed outside while still keeping the wandering area down to acceptable for the lamb.  I checked before dinner, and they are both doing fine.  We’ll top off the grain and water in the morning before we leave for the 6:30 am swim practice.

Yes, Sarah is back to swimming.  I am happy, as her attitude should improve, and I know her physical fitness will improve, but dang!! That child really needs to get her driver’s license so I don’t have to go to town that early.

So, what did Steve & I do wrong in our estimating?  We neglected to consider those ewes who had not yet had a lamb and were about 9 months old.  This is one of those.  She’s got a twin sister who could also deliver at any time, if she’s pregnant, and there is another ewe about that same age.  I’m thinking we may do some sorting and confining when Steve is home later this week.

Good news – when I went out for the second time this morning, the lamb was up and eating and looking much stronger than when I was out first thing.  I think he’s (generic pronoun) going to make it just fine.  This is an experienced ewe who is a very attentive mother.  We’ll let them settle in for a few days and then do a gender check.  This, however, is the tiniest lamb we’ve had.  I know we keep saying that, but this time I mean it.  The span between his front and back legs is only as long as my hand is wide, about 4 inches.  As a frame of reference, the slats in the photo are a standard pallet stood on edge.  He’s not even as tall as the second slat up.  Last night he kept getting between the layers of the back pallet because the bottom slat on that one is missing, and he’d get in there, and then get his head up because he was looking for food and couldn’t figure out to put his head level with his shoulders so he could come out.  But, he’s much more stable on his feet today, so I’m hopeful.  For now, momma and baby are confined to the barn until he gets bigger.

On a side note – the rest of the sheep are out on the back hillside.  Remember those rail road ties that Steve burned earlier?  Each and every one of them that was afire is no longer connected to the ground.  They essentially burned off at ground level and are now hanging from the wire.  Since the railroad ties are supposed to provide the stability to keep the fence tight, that arrangement does not make for a sheep-secure fence.  He’s planning to repair fence this week.

One of our ewes delivered this evening.  I went out as soon as Sarah & I got home from her girls’ afternoon that was her choice for celebrating her 16th birthday (manicures, movie, and dinner with a friend), and found one very new lamb.  And two others who were stillborn.  Sarah had been saying for quite a while that she thought this ewe was carrying triplets.  It turns out that she was right, but only one lived.  I think this may be a lesson in genetics.  I’d have to look back to make sure, but his may be Lucky’s mother.  Who may also have been related to his father.  Clearly Lucky is not going to be able to stay on another year, but we already knew that.  I’m still not really sure about this lamb that is living now.  It was new enough that it hadn’t yet stood up when I was out there.  I’m going to take a bottle out with me when I go back out to check on it in a few minutes. 

 We are quite literally frozen solid.  Thankfully, we only get encased in ice like this once every 10 years or so.  And I am quite thankful that this has not been accompanied by a power outage.  That would just be plain miserable.  The sheep are confined to the barn, which means hauling water out to them a few times during the day.  This is of course, not as easy as it sounds since the bridge is coated in ice just like everything else.  We literally skate across the bridge, scooting the water bucket in front of us until we get to the far end, where we go up the grass, not the ice-coated concrete steps.  Thankfully, a thaw is forecast for tomorrow so this should break soon.

The horses appear to be navigating without difficulty, and actually prefer drinking the running water in the creek to drinking from the bucket I took out to them this morning.  They’ve come quite ways from when we brought them home and they tended to stay in the smallest fenced in space they could find.  It’s now a usual sight to see them running full out around the perimeter of their pasture.

We did loose one of the newest lambs.  I’m not sure what happened.  He had gotten separated from the flock and had gotten cold, so I gave him a bottle one night, and he looked fine the next morning.  But last night when I went out to feed, he was nowhere to be found.  I don’t mean he was dead, I mean I couldn’t find him, nor his body.  I am puzzled. 

Schools have been canceled for two days, and its  good thing we have plenty of food in the pantry, because we’re not going anywhere without some serious effort.  The cars are literally encased in 1/4″ of ice.

The chickens did not get locked up last night because the latches are frozen in place.  They seem to be doing fine as well, although I did just send Sarah out to make sure they have access to water, since their ramp is literally a sheet of ice and they are not looking any too keen on coming outside.

I was sitting in the living room this afternoon nursing the cold that the progeny has shared with both Steve & I, watching the sheep in the pasture, when I noticed that there was one extra lamb out there.  I counted again, just to make sure, and sure enough, there were three lambs out there.  The newest one was acting kind of odd: running from sheep-to-sheep looking for someone to nurse from, and was not really being tended by any ewe.  That was not good, so I called to Steve, who was nursing his cold upstairs while “supervising” the cleaning of the daughter’s room.  After some discussion, he agreed with me that we needed to get the sheep in the barn and figure out who the lamb belonged to so we could isolate them overnight and hopefully get the lamb bonded to the ewe.  When we went in the barn, our jobs got a whole lot easier, since there was a ewe delivering the afterbirth in the corner.  The second twin was hovering nearby, trying to get in to get his first meal.  Apparently the one I had seen in the pasture was the first-born and was strong enough to follow the rest of the sheep out.  Unfortunately, she wasn’t smart enough to stay with her mama after she got her first drink.  All three are now settled in  a jug (a small pen specifically intended to keep lambs in close proximity to the ewe to facilitate bonding).  Oh, the second lamb is a boy.  The count for this batch so far is 3 girls and 1 boy.  For the record, the mother is ewe #13.

The one laying down is tired from her adventures in the pasture

This is the best shot I could get of the little boy – he was too busy nursing to pose.