Lamb hospital....

 

Jody's Lamb Hospital was open for business today with three invalids in for starvation, dehydration, and hypothermia, and all three were dumped on the doorstep by negligent mothers.  One lambie was a twin and her brother was loved and she was not.  She needed good, sheep colostrum which I happened to have in the freezer.  That perked her up in a jiffy.  Then she needed to learn to stand and  walk before she could go back to the barn to the bum pen.  Another of the lambs was chilled down and starving.  Some warm milk, a heat pad, and a good rub-down fixed him up.  The other was in fairly good shape so he was fed some milk and went back to his mama.  Needless to say, those bad mothers all have a big, red, paint mark on their heads and backs and will leave the ranch in the summer.  Two of these lambies will join one other bum lamb who has been in the bum pen at the barn for several days.  Their names are:  Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail.  Of course, you know these as rabbit names from Beatrix Potter, but lambs look cute like bunnies and so they should get cute names too, don't you think? 

 

The ewes are lambing right along with 15 of them in the barn who lambed in the last 24 hours.  It is supposed to be very nice tomorrow so all of the new moms and babies will get to go outside to pasture for some sunshine and frisking about.

On a sad note, Sam the Speckled Sussex, who was our rooster, died.  I'm not sure why, but he was acting very strange this past week or so, not wanting to go into the coop at night and wandering about aimlessly away from the hens which was very unusual.  I'll have to add on a cockeral chick to the baby chicks order at the feed store.  So it goes.

I hope you are staying warm wherever you are.  I have had an all-day roaring fire for two days straight;  it has been so cold here, but no snow so I can still wear my cowgirl boots to the barn.  Today was better -- up to 38* -- but it was cloudy and the WIND was crazy-wild and made our so-called warm day very chilly.