I went out this morning to do the animal chores just as the sun was supposed to rise.  It is white, frozen and foggy and kinda light outside but not really.  I did put on my trusty hat brim flashlight just in case I needed it in the barn.  Zeke and I went out to check on the sheep and feed the sheep and horses.  I decided that both ewes in the jugs were capable of fending for themselves, plus I didn’t want to haul water (really that only affected the decision a little!).  I looked around the barn and didn’t see any new babies.  I checked all four corners, no babies.  So I used Zeke to push all the sheep out of the barn.  Then I used my fancy Y gate and shut the sheep out so that I could push the ewes and babies out into the nursery pasture in front of the barn.  I opened the jugs and finally got the ewes to come out.

  I was trying to get Zeke to gently push the sheep out the barn door but he got distracted.  He went over to one of the walls and found something in the shadows, a baby lamb!  He kept wanting to go lick it.  Since I had just chased the mother out of the barn I didn’t want him touching the lamb.  We chased the mommas out and then I swung the Y gate back and all the sheep came back into the barn.  I had forgotten to shut the door from the mother area to the main barn.  Next thing I know I have three babies and two mothers out with the main herd.

I managed to catch all three babies and put them in the nursery area.  The momma ewes went in after them.  This distraction allowed the newborn and her mother to find each other.  I caught the newborn and placed it in a jug, the ewe just followed her right in.  I went and got fresh water for her in the jug.  There are now 6 ewes and 9 babies running around the nursery pasture, with the new one in a jug still.  Lots of sheep still ready to have babies.  I suspect most will deliver in the next three weeks.  I never would have seen the new baby without Zeke.  I usually make him stay out of the barn when I am moving the sheep around but I want him to have better control and listen to commands better so I have been bringing him into the barn so we can get some animal moving contact.  He was a good boy and did exactly what he is bred to do.  Pretty amazing, we have such an easier time with the animals now that he is old enough to work.  We will always have a working dog as long as we have animals.  It is truly a necessity. 

Annmarie and I went out yesterday morning and tagged babies.  There are getting to be quite a few and since we are putting them all together it was hard to keep track of everyone.  We pushed the adults out of the barn then put all the babies and mommas into the barn.  Zeke did a good job handling the new mothers.  When the sheep are in a herd they don’t run out and try to stomp on Zeke.  They just all clump together and all the mothers look outward and stomp their feet at him.  The two of us (dog and I) managed to get six mommas and nine babies through the door with very little fuss.  There was some swearing on my part as Zeke did not want to go left.  He always wants to circle right, but the door was on the right side.  We got it and then Annmarie snagged the babies while I tagged them and wrote down the numbers.  We had to leave the wild ewe out of a jug.  We did isolate her with the other mommas so she is not running with the main herd.  Baby is doing fine. 

This morning I had to go out and wrangle the cows back into the front field.  They had pushed down a panel to get out into the CRP.  Annmarie saw them as she was leaving for work.  I took Zeke and we got them in, but there was a lot of course vernacular used over the entire time frame.  Damn dog loves voles and kept getting distracted!  He is a little leary of the cows any ways and the distraction was just too much.   Once the cows were out and I wired the gate shut I had him herd the cows a little bit so he could see what I wanted.  He wanted to chase cats instead of herd cows.  The only animal he truly loves to chase more that cats and voles is the sheep.  Unfortunately for him, I want him to chase cows also.  So we will have to spend a little more time moving the cows around for practice.  It helps the cows learn also.  It still only took me walking time from one end of the pasture to the other with Zeke. No backtracking or running around or lots of people to herd the cows.  So he is effective he just doesn’t like it as much as the sheep.  With the sheep he doesn’t get as distracted. 

I let the dogs out first thing in the morning to go to the bathroom and I thought I heard a meep.  We have five babies out in the barn so I just attributed it to that.  Monica wanted waffles for breakfast so I sat and drank coffee while “supervising” the waffle manufacturing.  I read the recipe and drank more coffee.  Annmarie came down and I happened to mention the meep sound.  She promptly put on some boots abnd winter clothes and went outside to the barn.  I drank some more coffee and ate waffles. I did tell the girls that after breakfast we were going to have to go outside and check on the lambs.  Plus, we had food to unload from the car, eggs to collect, chickens to feed and we just purchased some diatomaceous earth (ground up petrified freshwater shellfish) for the animals and needed to get a mixing container set up in the barn. 
Annmarie came back to the house hollering for me to come immediately as she could not get the ewe into a jug with the new twins that had been born.  That meeping sound I had heard was from the first twin falling under the outer barn door and into the old sheep area.  Momma could not get to her and she had crawled behind the straw to stay warm.  Annmarie and I chased momma into the jug with the twins and we watched them for a little bit to see if the first baby would get rejected.  It all looked good so we went back inside to clean up the house (recent tornado inside our house and the after effects are still present). 

We sent Sarah out at 1300 to check on the babies.  She came back and told me that the fallen baby was getting rejected.  We made up a bottle of lamb milk replacer and went out to the barn.  The baby in question was up walking around and would suck on Sarah’s finger but not the bottle.  The ewe backed up into the corner of the jug and the fallen baby went over, latched on and proceeded to drink a large amount of milk.  All is wonderful with the world!  When we backed away from the jug, the ewe started turning in circles and pushing the fallen baby away from her, no bond.  We grabbed the baby and brought it into the house.  It was cold so it stayed curled up in a ball in a towel on someone’s lap.  Zeke came over and licked the baby all clean.  He was incredibly gentle, which surprised us.  He did great.  We called Tisha to come get the little bummer girl.  She came a couple hours later and took her home with her.  We don’t do bummers, too much work and a negative payout.  We just give them away.  

After we got home late that evening I went out to feed everyone and lock them up for the night.  Our lead ewe #1, had just had a set of twins!  They are all white with a faded brown neck collar.  Both of them were right next to her and covered in yellow fluid (amniotic).  I just grabbed the babies and put them in a jug.  They meeped and she came right over and walked right into the jug!  If only everyone was that easy.  The single baby left over from the morning birth was doing well.  I watered and fed everyone.  We had mixed the grain with molasses and the diatomaceous earth together and will be feeding the sheep and horses this to get rid of worms.  It works by mechanical action on the worms in the guts of animals.  We thought we would give it a shot. 

I am going to have to ear tag everyone on Monday.  Too many babies to keep track of a pen full of them and their mothers.  I am going to wait a few weeks before I band the boys (castrate).  It is easier when they are a little older, but not too old!