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Preamble: We have 13 pregnant ewes. Back in Oct/Nov, the 11 Coopworth girls had been "exposed" to Usher,our new, imported-from-the-West Coast ram. Meanwhile, Emma, a Cotswold, and Rachel, our Romney -- our two odd girls -- will be having lambs sired by Magoo, a Finn/Lincoln crossbreed. (Hey! If you're going to mix up the genetics, you might as well stir them thoroughly! <BG>)
We had everybody sheared 3-4 weeks back. Once all the fleece was off, it was very obvious that all 13 ewes were, in fact, very pregnant. That's not the case most years == while there're usually a few girls whose udders have begun swelling. But, even shearer Lee Straw isn't usually sure about the possible pre-maternal state of at least half the girls.
This year, there are swollen udders ALL OVER the place! This suggests that everyone got pregnant fairly soon after being "introduced" to the boys. The good and bad with that scenario is that lambing should happen quickly. That would make us VERY busy, but at least the process won't drag on for the usual month or more.
What we should have done was to have TONS of money, given complete blueprints to the contractor and moved ourselves and all our stuff into another house somewhere else -- the further from here the better! <G> Trying to live and do the home-based business thing right in the middle of it all has been INSANE. Anyone who has ever worked a job at home knows how an innocent 45 minute mid-day dentist appointment can throw an entire day's "homework" schedule into the dumper. Well, being present and involved during our construction has provided MANY more interruptions than a few dental checkups!! There have been WEEKS during which I had thought I was going to turn out many spindles BUT NEVER even set foot in my shop except to grab some 2" wallboard screws because the contractor couldn't find any in the back of his truck.
Sometime back in January, we moved everything out of the back half of the house and demolished our old kitchen. This means that we've actually been LIVING in our living room == fridge, microwave, toaster oven AND 2 dog crates in a 12x14 room. A 4-drawer filing cabinet is the pantry. The doors between the front and back of the house are taped shut in an attempt to keep spackling dust out of our porridge. Washing dishes upstairs in the bathtub is not as much fun as you might have thought it should be.
I should mention here that our "new" house is going to be WONDERFUL once (if?) we get into it!
But we knew that Annie is not an average sheep and usually runs 5 or so days "past term". That was comforting as we stood in our stockingfeet, rags and gallons of wood conditioner and stain in hand, surveying 1,200+ square feet of freshly sanded Eastern White Pine floorboards. The last thing we needed was sheep in labor.
The next 3 days are a bit of a blur -- this may be due to the effects of Minwax fumes. We DID get off our hands and knees to do chores and eat. We were back there staining until 12:30 AM that first night. Tuesday was just like Monday, except for reaching the milestone of finishing the first coat. Of course, that just meant that we got to go back to square one and start all over with the second coat. :-( Our knees were red/raw by now. I was even developing a callus on my left palm where I leaned on that hand while wiping the stain on and off with my right. Tuesday's labor ended at 3:00 AM.
On Wed AM we could see the light at the end of the tunnel! As the sun was setting, Pam was staining the last few boards in the family room while I did evening chores. We called the floor-finishing guys and told them not to figure on starting the varnishing until Friday. The staining had taken us a whole day longer than we'd figured -- the floor guys were not surprized.
It was a real physical relief to eat dinner knowing that we did not have to open another can of stain and get back down on our raw hands and knees!.
Skye and Sadie had their breakfast, I chugged what was left of my first cup of coffee and we three hurried down to meet and greet the new arrivals.
Pam
had been keeping herself busy -- trimming umbilical cords off
at a neat and fashionable 1.5", dipping them in iodine, checking
that both Briar Rose's teats were open and that her milk was flowing.
Pam hadn't developed any theory about when the two little girls
might have been born. Both were mostly clean and dry and had obviously
been nursing on their own for some time.
Briar Rose with the first lambs of the year 2000
We gave them their shots and weighed them. The larger of the lambs, with a few faint white markings on top of her head was 9.25 LBS. The smaller, pretty much all black one was an even 7 LBS.
I had prepared a jug ( "Jug", Definition: = small pen in which a ewe and her newborn lambs are placed.) in the Maternity Shed. Pam and I each picked up a lamb and lead Briar Rose out of the big shed and around into her jug. Briar Rose complained a bit about being segregated from the rest of the girls, but jugging her and her lambs for a few days will help establish a good bond. She'll also have her own private supply of hay and water. Without having to compete for her food, Mom will have lot's of time to devote to her babes.
I had locked the rest of the girls out in the paddock, but they watched all these goings-on with great interest. Except, that is, for Blossom and Annie, they were way back in opposite corners of the paddock by themselves -- suspicious behaviour!
Annie
(L) and Blossom (R) doing their
own thing off on their own
Having settled the new family, we started in on the regular morning chores ("Chores", Definition: in farmer-speak, all those tasks that are done regularly -- usually morning and evening -- things like distributing bales of hay, filling water pails, collecting eggs, slopping hogs, etc. Note: Dairy farmers tend not to include milking as being part of their chores -- they'll almost always talk about chores and "the milking" separately). The five, not-bred, yearling ewes get a little grain in the big shed while the pregnant ewes receive a larger ration in the big feeders out in the paddock. The yearlings don't really need any grain, it's simply that we need a way to entice them into the shed so they won't share in the larger amount of grain given to the expectant girls. Blossom and Annie DID join in the general rush for the grain. We filled the feeders with the morning's allotment of hay.
I carried 15 or so gallons of water in from the old "dug" well, let the chickens out for the day and collected the eggs. Pam took a last look at Briar Rose and we went back up to the house. I had been thinking about my SECOND cup of coffee non-stop for about an hour!
-- 11:30 AM: I was on my way to town to see a building-dismantler-guy about old hinges. I had the pickup's engine warming up and both dogs were loaded for the ride, but I guessed I should maybe visit the sheep before leaving and see exactly what Blossom and Annie might be up to. Ah ha! I found Blossom all by herself inside the shed -- lying against the back wall. I knelt and watched her -- waiting for her to have a contraction ....or something. After five minutes or so she hadn't done anything to indicate that she might be in active labor so I decided to track down Annie.
I walked out of the shed and looked into the paddock wondering if I'd be able to pick Annie out from a distance. Well, it turned out that spotting her wasn't too tricky at all. Annie was the ewe off to my left with two big black newborn lambs standing beside her! :-)
Some
shepherds we are! The first four lambs of the year have been born
without any of our aid or assistance ...without us
even being there!! I ran up to the house to get Pam.
Annie and her two al fresco babies
We guided Annie and her lambs into the maternity shed -- discovering in the process that one lamb was a ewe and the other a ram. The ewe lamb weighed in at 9.25 LBs and her brother at 10.5 LBS. I finally took off for town.
-- 2:30 PM: Pam went down to the shed to check on Briar Rose, Annie and their lambs. Blossom was in the big shed eating ...the front half a black lamb was hanging out her back end! She lay down after a minute or so and finished delivering the lamb. According to Pam, Blossom was quickly up, licking off her lamb and helping it find her teat for the first time.
As soons as the lamb had finished its first dose of colostrum, Blossom lay right down and quickly pushed out lamb No. 2. Meanwhile, Pam set up some panels, creating a temporary jug around the little family -- not as much to keep Blossom and her lambs together as it was to hold back the throng of curious "aunts" and pushy yearlings all gathered in the shed to lend support and stick their noses in where Blossom preferred they not. She had had two black ram lambs.
--
3:55 PM: Things in the sheep shed were just a bit chaotic
and noisy -- what with Pam and Blossom AND all the rest of the
flock being in there == magnum-bellied pregnant ewes laying all
around cudding and skittery yearlings rushing in and out.
Blossom licks off her second lamb
But Pam noticed that Bluet was acting unusual == she seemed to REALLY want`to be in the shed but she ALSO wanted a quiet corner somewhere all to herself. Bluet would come into the shed, paw at the bedding, get started doing the laying down and getting back up "thing", be bumped and crowded and head back outside. She obviously wasn't too happy out in the paddock because she'd commence LOUDLY BAAAAAing. And you see, Bluet is truly gifted. She has a distinctive DEEP AND RESONANT BAAA!
I arrived back from town and heard Pam yelling up from the paddock that she needed me "NOW". It's supposed to be nice to be needed, but I specifically remember *wishing* I were not *needed* ....maybe in a day or two I'd feel the need to be needed, but I didn't right then. Anyway, I unloaded the dogs, parked them in their crates under the microwave and toaster oven in the living room and hurried down the hill.
In the interim, using advanced animal management techniques, Pam had convinced Bluet to come into the shed. She had quietly filled a small cup with grain and hidden it her jacket pocket. She had done this VERY secretively and quietly because there's nothing that attracts the attention of a flock of sheep like the merest possibility that they might be getting some grain. Pam had gone out to the bellowing Bluet, quietly let her smell the grain in her pocket and Bluet followed her into the shed. Bluet walked to the backmost corner of the shed, laid down and pretty quickly pushed out a BIG white ewe lamb. I, of course, missed the whole thing by seconds.
Bluet
licks off her ewe lamb
While Pam made sure that all three new lambs were nursing well, I went next door to the maternity shed and set up two more jugs to receive the new families. We gave Blossom's two ram lambs their injections and weighed them == the first was 10.25 LBS, the second, with a patch of gray on top of his head, 9.25 LBS. Pam and I each grabbed a lamb and led Blossom out, around and into her jug.
We processed Bluet's big white ewe lamb == 10.75 LBS.!! She already looked a week old. Pam carried the lamb, leading Bluet out of the big shed
I returned from the house with Bluet's bucket of warm molasses
water. We went ahead with the evening chores -- keeping close
eye on the rest of the pregnant ewes. But, no one else started
pawwing the ground, having contractions or whatever. It looked
like we might actually, at least, get to sit down for dinner.
Wham! Bam! WOW!
The first day of lambing!! Four ewes have lambed!! Seven
new lambs!!
The maternity shed is FULL! Pam and I
are shell-shocked....
March 10 -- Fri: Thankfully, Pam returned
from Sadie's morning walk with nothing to report other than that
the four new families in the maternity shed were all doing well
-- no new lambs had arrived while we slept. Our discussions during
the morning chores revolved around which ewe looked like she might
be next. There are so many that look SO PREGNANT it's tough to
pick a favorite.
The incoming mail tends to get lost amongst all the everything that's piled in the dining room. But, every so often a few bills rise to the surface and we figure they deserve attention. So I spent most of the afternoon paying bills.
Roundabout 4:30 PM I was hurrying out to the post office and took a slight detour down to the sheep shed to see if anyone might be doing anything.much. Most of the girls were laying out by the feeders in the paddock chewing their cud and looking bucolic.
Whoops! I ran up to the house, stuck my head through the front door and told Pam that Huyana was in the back corner of the shed with two wet lambs beside her! She asked, "What are they?"
Now, I *knew* she was asking about their genders, but I hadn't stopped in the shed long enough to have any idea about those. So I just replied, "Black." Pam started to bluster and I ran to the post office. <G>
I
met Pam down at the sheep shed ten minutes later. Pam was then
able to tell me that Huyana had produced two little rams. Actually,
not so little -- they weighed 10 LBS and 9.25 LBS. The maternity
shed was full so we set up a jug in the big shed just a few feet
from where Huyana had given birth == convenient.
Pam scratches Huyana's ear while her second lamb fills its
belly with colostrom. That's first-time-mom-to-be Floppsy on the
right trying to peek over the jug panel.
It
was time for chores so we divvied out hay and re-filled all the
various water buckets. Doing the water has beome a bit more of
a *chore* == besides the usual communal water buckets, each mom
has her own bucket in her jug. With five jugs, that's five extra
buckets to deal with.
It had started snowing lightly and was getting
dark by the time we finished chores that evening
Over time with exposure to the UV in sunlight, the plastic gets brittle and the buckets crack and leak. They also become a little "tender" at temperatures in the area of 0 degsF. Certain sheep also seem to get a charge out of chewing off the bucket lips. New buckets can cost anywhere from $3 - $6 with the lids running between $1 and $2. So, we continually have our eyes pealed for "used" buckets -- Pam haunts the bakery at the Shop'n Save and tries to convince employees there that giving us empty frosting buckets is a better kind of recycling than the internal system dictated by corporate headquarters. But, every couple of years, I have to bite the bullet and buy buckets and lids.
So, back in Oct. I did some searching on the WWW for plastic buckets. I was amazed to find that better than 60% of my search "hits" were links to "Y2K websites". There were MANY websites selling "food quality" buckets to people who needed to store drinking water and/or various dried foodstuffs so as to ride out the end of civilization brought on by the Y2K bug. There were just as many sites offering the buckets already filled with disaster supplies. One website offered a year's worth of dry food for two people -- $1,400 -- food for four ran $1,800 -- all shipped in OUR buckets!
If you are currently preparing your meals from food coming out of plastic buckets, we'd ask that you think of your local shepherds when deciding what to do with the empties! <G>
....and on THAT note of excitement! <BG> Page 1 of 2000's lambing journal moans to a close.
for answers to these burning questions of the new millennium!
Link over to Page 2 of the Hatchtown Lambing Journal