Legs Up To There
© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where we never imagined baby barnyard animals would have anything in common with runway models, but there you have it. Too bad they don't wear clothes.
A Tender Scene
More below. . .
Healthy and homemade, fresh from the pantry.
How do you jump start a lagging lambing season? Try to make a flight at an airport that's 200 miles from your farm. Three lambs, including a set of twins, were born Wednesday morning as we were scrambling to get out the door.
Joe had to go out of town last week, so last fall we planned lambing season accordingly; it should have been mostly over by now. But apparently the sheep, or at least Studly Do-Right Jefferson, missed that meeting because most of our ewes are still pregnant. Or else they heard that my foodie mother, who I picked up at the airport after dropping Joe off, decided that this year she wanted to come visit during lambing season.
My mother's farm stays revolve around eating. Menu requests begin to arrive via e-mail as soon as she books her flight, and on the way home from the airport we stop at places like Trader Joe's and buy enormous quantities of food. Once she's here we make charts and lists of everything we want to eat and when we want to eat it (because my mother is a chart and list kind of person) and then we try to figure out how we can cram five meals plus snacks into each day.
Milk Face Baby
This little guy was born early Wednesday morning to a first time mother without any trouble at all, but he just didn't feel like nursing. He also didn't feel like drinking from a bottle, which is why most of the milk I tried to give him ended up all over his chin.
© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where we don't give up until we know you're getting some milk - and it often looks like the newborn lambs are smiling.
Charlotte & Her Baby Girl
Our sheep are mostly Suffolk, a breed distinguished by their black legs and heads. Their lambs are often born covered in spots or are even entirely black, but the colors quickly fade in the sunlight. For example, Cary (who is doing great by the way) was all black as a baby. Our only black lambs that remain black (or brown or grey) are those that are related to the ewes in my original flock, which were bred to a black Border Leicester ram. I have a soft spot in my heart for the true black sheep, and I absolutely love the Suffolk spots, which I enjoy while they last!
© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan share stories & photos of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres - and baby lambs are irresistible, even if they're spotless.
A Sight For Stressed Eyes
The donkey peddling cowboy was held up doctoring some of his cows yesterday and couldn't come check on the sheep, but thankfully we were able to ford the creek river in our big farm ton truck late yesterday afternoon (what an adventure!). I'd put Silly Wendy (who received the second half of her name during our Name That Sheep Contest) in a bonding pen the day before because I knew she was extremely close to lambing - unlike two weeks ago when I kept her in one for four days and finally realized she wasn't nearly as close as I'd thought. I was thrilled to see that while I was stuck on the other side of the creek from the barn she had given birth two a big pair of healthy and adorable twins.
But that's old news. I still remember the first time I read a James Herriot book. I was in junior high school and picked one up because one of my best pals had become totally addicted to them. The first chapter began with Dr. Herriot tending to a prolapsed cow, and, squeamish as I was, I couldn't understand why in the world my friend was in love with these icky books. And while I later fell in love with them, I certainly never pictured myself doing something eerily similar nearly 30 years later.
I'll spare those of you who are here only for the food and cute animal pictures any more details. Just know that tonight was another one of those James Herriot moments - only the vet was nowhere in sight. I've definitely expanded my sheep tending skills, and the mother-to-be has been 'put back together,' but with a broken water bag and no baby in sight yet it's looking to be a very long night. Heading back down to the barn now.
© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where living with livestock means there's never a dull moment, and inbetween picking out and picking up five different colors of paint for the new building and dealing with lambing emergencies, Joe found a moment to present me with a beautiful first day of spring gift - a single blooming daffodil he plucked from the yard.
Charlotte & Her Baby Girl, Age One Day, Enjoying Brunch
When the vet was here last Wednesday night tending to Cary (who is doing fine by the way), I mentioned that she was our first ewe of the year to go into labor, and I hoped this wasn't a sign that we were in for a difficult lambing season. "Oh, I doubt it," he said assuredly.
"I mean, no offense, but I hope I never see you again."
"I understand completely."
With at least two dozen more pregnant sheep still to go, there's no telling how things will turn out this year, but ewe number two certainly went a whole lot easier than ewe number one. Late Saturday morning two-year-old Charlotte was making signs that she might be getting close to going into labor: hanging back in the barn, bleating, and being extra intolerant of the dogs. It's not uncommon for a ewe to be in labor for several hours, especially a first time mother.
But when I returned to the barn less than an hour later, she was already busy cleaning up her newborn baby girl. When I hiked back up to The Shack and reported to Joe that Charlotte's lamb was up and nursing, he said, "First time mother and she had it all by herself that fast with no problems?"
"Yep."
Then he pumped his fist in the air and shouted, "Yes!"
Now this is how things are supposed to be.
And we have lots more to come.
In the meantime, I desperately need to do some catching up. A lot has been going on. There are several cute new faces on the farm you haven't met yet, and I have a pile of recipes to share, including some cold weather comfort food favorites I'd really like to post before the cold weather is over. Think cozy soups and slow cooked Dutch oven dinners.
I still need to pick the winners from January's contests, and I have more fun books to give away. I'm also incredibly behind answering questions and replying to comments (thanks for your patience). And of course every day there are new stories and photos. It's shaping up to be a very busy spring around the farm, and I'm looking forward to sharing it all with you - hopefully soon!
Need A Bigger Cute Fix?
Lambing Season 2006 Photos
Lambing Season 2007 Photos
More Sheep Stories & Photos
Farm Stories & Farm Life Tidbits
© 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where the only thing cuter than a bouncing baby lamb is a couple dozen of them - which makes the nightly 2 a.m. trips to the barn this time of year worth every groggy step.
Cary
The late night visit from the vet felt like a scene straight from a James Herriot book, only with slightly more technology - and antibiotics. Even the vet admitted he'd been thinking about James Herriot while driving out here, as he read over the directions I'd given him and realized just how far out into the country he was headed.
In the 13 years I've been raising sheep, I've never had to have a vet come to the farm. This was the third one I'd tried to get a hold of. I explained the situation and asked if he could drive over.
"You can't bring her down to the clinic?"
"No."
"It's gonna be expensive."
"I know." It's Cary.
Bear and I watched his headlights make their way down the switchbacks on the driveway and listened to the distant sound of his truck. When he got out he smiled and said, "This is the kind of place you move to when you don't want anybody to find you!" Then he looked around the darkness. "You're out here by yourself?"
"Tonight I am." And I led him into the barn.
Cary didn't have twins as I'd thought she might. That swollen belly of hers was full of one enormous baby, and it was very stuck. The normal position for a lamb about to be born is right side up, both hooves headed out, nose between the hooves. This one had one leg back, and its nose was pointed down. I've never had this happen. I talked to a friend who has more lambing experience than I do. She told me what to do. I tried and tried, but I couldn't do it. I needed help. Cary needed help.
The first priority is to save the mother. We lost the baby - a 15-pound (!!) black boy - but we saved Cary. She's expected to make a full recovery, and was up and nibbling on hay not long after the exhausting ordeal was over. I sat with her for a while in the little bonding suite after the vet had driven back out into the night, my forehead resting against her side, my hand stroking her neck. She didn't have anyone else to bond to. I didn't want to leave her.
I'm sure Cary would have been a wonderful mother, and I'm hopeful that one day she will be. But no matter what happens, she'll always be my baby. As the vet was packing up his things, I told him Cary's story. This morning when I came out of the Treat Room holding a little bucket of grain, she bumped her nose into my thigh like she used to do whenever she wanted her bottle of milk. She hasn't done that in over a year.
This is a short version of the story because I'm headed off the farm and won't be back until late tonight. But I knew many of you Cary fans would be anxiously waiting for an update. I'd been really worried that she would go into labor while I was gone today, and now I know that if she had we probably would have lost her. I'm so very grateful that we didn't.
Lambing Season 2008 has officially begun, and considering that we had seven lambs born in the first 24 hours of lambing season last year, I'm sure the next several days are going to be even chaotic than usual around here. You know I'll keep you posted.
© FarmgirlFare.com, the heart wrenching foodie farm blog where Farmgirl Susan shares the ups and downs of life on 240 remote Missouri acres.
Room for two in there?
Wondering who Cary is? Meet her in A Tiny Tail For Mother's Day.
Cary is a twin, and her father is a twin, so there's a good chance that Cary could have twins. This photo was taken back on Febrary 22nd, when I realized that Cary had begun to look wider than all of the other sheep.
More below. . .
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