This weekend was filled with excitement and surprise.
After the Just Food Farm Stand on Sunday, we came home to unexpected guests. When we opened the barn door our dog, Mirissa was running around all excited. We followed her and to our amazement there were twin lambs (males)! It was from a first time mom, Braye. We adore this ewe, she is so friendly and we knew she would be a good mom because her mother is an exceptional one.
After we set up the pen to put the mother and lambs in, we encouraged Braye to walk in the pen with her lambs. Once that was done, I ran into the house and grabbed as many towels as I could to wipe the wet ones down. We were a little concerned for the lambs because that night was going down to -19. We were going to use a heat lamp, but the circuit breaker tripped and would not reset—of course on a Sunday night! So, we did a last rub down, covered them in straw (when they were lying down) and left the barn with our fingers crossed. The first 24 hours for lambs is the most crucial time. They can get cold very quickly and it can be fatal.
Needless to say, I did not have the best sleep. I woke up at 4 am, got dressed, put on the headlamp, and went to the barn. As soon as I opened the door I heard the lambs. Yay! Then …I heard new lamb calls and Mirissa came running to me and jumped up and then quickly ran to another corner of the barn. I went to investigate, and sure enough, twin lambs (male & female)! This time it was Braye’s mother, Alderney. Again, we did the same thing, rubbed down the lambs and covered them with straw. The temperature was -19 and warming up to -8. The electrician arrived that morning to fix our outlets.
All in all, lots of excitement for a while, then the calmness of the barn returning to some form of normal. Last night we slept well knowing that the lambs nursed all day and were completely dry, so everything should be okay. The lambs tend to sleep on each other to stay warm and sometimes they are at their mother’s head or cuddled behind her.
Today, I walked into the barn to see lambs jumping around in their pen and I laughed. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera ready for that, but I did manage to get a couple of cute shots.
