Saturday, February 08, 2014

First lambs born...

First, let me reintroduce my everyday helper, Sue.  She always accompanies me to the lambing shed.   She knows when to sit and stay and when to help me get the sheep in the shed.  Today I had Peach and Toodles too, but I promised their mom and dad that I wouldn't put their photos on my blog.  (sorry)

 These are the ladies in waiting....waiting for their lambs to come.  In the meantime, they're enjoying a good helping of ground hay to pass the time.

 Here's the first ewe to lamb.  She had twins.  She especially liked the lamb in the foreground, but the lamb in the back she mostly neglected.  After a couple of hours of checking on the little thing, I decided to take her out and bring her home to warm her up and see if I could get her to take some milk.  She was one chilled lambie pie. 
Each year we try to save a little colostrum from some of the old ewes who have lots of milk.  I pour their milk into ice cube trays and save them for days like this when I have a chilled lamb who needs a little extra help.  I warmed a couple cubes of colostrum milk up in a glass jar and then fed her by using a syringe until she had a little down her throat and in her tummy.  She really perked up after about a half hour and began bleating for more milk and she took milk from a bottle.  Yay!  The girls and I took her back to her mama at the shed, but Mama Ewe wouldn't have anything to do with her.  If Mama Ewe had lambed by herself on the prairie, there's no doubt she would have walked off with the first-born lamb and left this one to die.  That's how nature is sometimes, and that's why our life's work is called animal husbandry.  So tonight this li'l girl lamb whom Peach named Anna Lamba, will spend the night in my mudroom.  We'll bottle feed her with hopes that eventually we'll find a new mama for her when another ewe gives birth and has just a single lamb.  I hope that's how it works, anyway!

It's still cold here.  We had 12* for a high today and then some blasted wind which made it feel much colder.  The little girls really wanted to go ice skating so I gave up saying "we'll see" and took them to the pond  bundled up in snow pants, coats, mittens, hats and skates.  They were walking puff balls.    Papa scraped the snow off the pond with the tractor (God bless him!) and we slid around for a few minutes and then decided it was just too stinkin' cold and went home for hot cocoa and a cookie.  I'm hoping that you are staying warm where ever you are!

13 comments:

  1. We're cold, Jody, but NOT as cold as you are! Brr. That Anna Lamba is so adorable. I'm glad you're in the business of saving the lost lambs and caring for the animals. What an occupation to have in anticipation of our lives on God's new earth someday! You will already have spent many years doing work that will be a joy there as well :) Stay warm!

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  2. What an experience for those little grandgirls to see life through your eyes. Marvellous really - they are so blessed. That photo of the tiny lamb just warms my heart. Such an exciting time of year. Makes me enthused for calving coming up.

    Yes, cold weather has reigned down here as well & sometimes it is just best to go in for hot chocolate. Is your pond close by? Sometimes the sheer effort to walk anywhere in those big old snowsuits is effort enough. You hit the nail on the head saying 'walking puffballs.'

    Loved your previous post too -- and copied the recipe down. Not too sure about the kale - but it does look great (I'm just teasing about the kale, although, I truthfully have never eaten one and know I'd have to drive an hour to try and find some. :) )

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  3. I'm so sorry that it is so freezing, Jody. What a sweet lamb! I always love seeing photos of Sue. She's a good girl.

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  4. Such a sweet little lamb. Cocoa and cookies sound perfect after braving that cold...

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  5. Anna Lamba does look tired - I'm glad she perked up. I envy you getting to have your granddaughters with you as you work :-)

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  6. Oh, sweet and faithful Sue, what an adorable face. I am partial to good dogs. It got down to 17 here this week and I just don't know how you do it, Jody. I've been looking at tropical pictures and planning our move to south america.

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  7. Oh, my goodness, I don't know how you can stop yourself from taking all those babies and raising them in your mud room (actually, I'm sure this is a fairly easy impulse to resist, but boy is Anna Lambda a cutie-pie!).

    Hope it warms up a little for you. We're looking at snow and freezing rain today. Strange to have a real winter!

    xofrances

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  8. Oh I love lambs and I would love to bottle feed them. It is that time of year isn't it. You have such a great flock of sheep. Our sheep were for project lambs. We raised Suffolk. We would start lambing now and then calving in March-April. I smelled like Lysol and iodine and never wore anything but rubber boots. Well I of course wore jeans too.
    I loved that time of year. Sue your dog is wonderful, I like her smiling face.
    I think it would be so fun to have a pond to skate on, though it is very cold isn't it?
    Have wonderful week.

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  9. Anna Lamba is adorable! I'm glad she perked up and hope that a substitute mama will adopt her!

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  10. EEEEEEPPP! It's MY lambie -- be sure and thank Peach for naming it after me -- I know I'm the namesake, right LOL???? What an adorable picture with the little lamb. So sad that mother nature can be so cruel sometimes -- but I guess that makes more fun for you and Peach and Toodles. I hope lambing season will go well this year. The sheep are so lucky to have your family to care for them!

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  11. I love that first photo of your helper. I also love that woolly little lamb. I recently have fallen in love with the Valais Black Nosed Sheep. They are so cute.

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  12. Such a cute li'l lambkin Jody and I love the photo of Sue. Your grand girls must love to be with you, it sounds like you all have such fun. Staying warm and dry here in England x

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  13. Awww what a sweet lambie. Sue is a pretty girl too. It seems so cold still to have lambing season starting already, but when they're ready, they're ready. So glad that they aren't having them out on the prairie and that the little girl lambie is safe in your care.

    Blessings!
    Deborah

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