Lambs!

I was startled on Friday morning by frantic banging on the glass door, Harry had left earlier that morning for a weekend in Michigan and mom was on a cruise, so I knew it must be dad. I come outside to find him excited and I could tell he was a bit frantic, we had lambs!!!

We have been waiting and wishing for this moment for months and it was finally here! Of course our first lambs came on the day our most knowledgeable team member, Harry, leaves for the weekend. I rush to get ready to go see how I can help.

Dad and I, both being completely new to lambing, were a little bit nervous and had a lot of adrenaline pumping.

How do we know who the lambs belong to? Should we move them? Have the lambs sucked? When were they born? Is everyone doing okay?

We raced back to the pasture to have a look together. Sure enough, there were lambs! We decided to grab mom and her lambs and bring them to the pen so we could better evaluate how they were doing. By the time we got mom and all three (yes, triplets!) to the pen and settled, another ewe gave birth.

We were filled with fear and excitement. If this was how the whole day was going to go we didn’t think we could handle it without Harry.

The second mom gave birth to twins as dad and I scarfed down breakfast, the ever-nutritional pop tarts and water, around 11am while watching the second mom clean off her babies and getting them to suck.

Thankfully those were the only two to give birth on Friday! We got everyone in the pen and made sure moms were being attentive.

Our biggest struggle was one of the triplets. From the moment we found her she couldn’t hold her head up or stand on her own. Since we didn’t witness the birth there are many things that could have happened, and we will never know what did. Unfortunately she did not make it past her second day.

Friday was a long and exhausting day but we made it and we had lambs!

Saturday came a bit slower but was still busy. Between checking on the new lambs and mothers and feeding all the other sheep, I noticed a ewe who looked like she was getting ready to have her baby. I figured I would bring her down to the pen so I could watch and already have her ready to go. In the eight minutes it took me to grab the lambulance (our small homemade trailer for hauling ewes and their lambs behind our ATVs) and get back to the pasture she already had a baby on the ground, cleaned up, and trying to stand. These moms don’t mess around! I sat and watched and sure enough after a few minutes lamb one was up and sucking and lamb two was being pushed out.

Saturday ended easy with just checking on all the sheep and watching moms take care of their lambs!

Sunday was the greatest because we were able to move the pairs out to a pasture. The moms went right to eating grass and the lambs started to run, jump, and play.

It truly is an amazing thing to watch. We are so thankful the sheep have started to lamb and look forward to many more coming soon!

-Katie