Kate, 4:40 a.m. Sunday morning: “Well, now I can say I have as much lambing experience as my husband.” Actually, she has twice as much lambing experience.
Daughter Kate the veterinarian and Peg’s sister Eileen (a frequent farm visitor – always welcome) spent all Friday evening and Saturday waiting on a lambing. Both said at least once something like “let’s go kick one of them in the stomach to get things moving.” Of course we would never do that.
Around 3:30 Sunday morning I woke and decided to do a barn check. As I got to the gate and shined the flashlight into the barn yard, I saw a good sized white lamb standing in front of the shed (sheltered from the mild wind blowing from the northwest) next to one of the grey Cormo ewes. I turned around, walked back to the house, yelled to the master bedroom and second floor, “We’ve got a lamb,” and headed back to the barn yard. Kate and Eileen followed a few minutes later, and Peg a few minutes after that. Shining the flashlight on the Cormo (Rosie), we could tell another lamb was in there, and it looked like it was presenting correctly – we could see the tips of two hooves.
We decided to move the action out of the wind – someone picked up the newborn lamb and slowly walked into the “birthing room” section of the barn, with Rosie following right behind. After a few minutes, not knowing how long those hooves had been poking out, we decided to try to help Rosie along with #2 (actually #1618). I put my arms around her neck – she really didn’t resist at all – and Kate went to work after disinfecting and lubricating her hands. In virtually no time, another sizable white lamb was on the hay floor, and Rosie began licking and nickering as a good mom should.
It was around this time that Peg said something to the effect of “I’ve already done this about sixteen times, I’m going back to bed.” This was not a callous statement, more a matter of fact. She knew that Eileen (who has helped on previous lambings) and especially Kate were more than happy to do whatever needed to be done, and I’d just coach them along. Kate gave 1617 3.5 cc’s of drench, and a few minutes late the same dose to 1618. Both Kate and Eileen helped to dry off 1618 with a towel. While Rosie tended to 1618, I picked up 1617 and Kate tied the umbilical cord and we dipped it in iodine. A few minutes later we saw 1617 get on Rosie’s left teat. And a few minutes after that 1618 was struggling to get on her feet (1617 was a ram lamb).
1617 (Standing), 1618, & Rosie
Kate Toweling 1618
Time to move them into a jug. We set up panels, turned on a heat lamp, shooed the rest of the animals out of the way, and Kate and Eileen each slowly walked a lamb through the nursery to the back corner jug. We’ve learned from experience to get all the other moms and especially the lambs out of the way when moving to the jug. The new mom can get confused by all the little ones and get distracted from focusing on her own. Once in the jug, Kate and I fixed the umbilical cord of 1618, and Kate tried to get her on Rosie’s right teat. She didn’t get much, but enough to assure us she would figure it out. We moved panels back to their proper places – letting the moms, lambs and moms-in-waiting back to their respective places – and turned out the lights.
Oh, Kate’s reference to her husband? Last year, Peg had to be off the farm for one Sunday night, and Colin, who was visiting with Kate for the weekend, volunteered to be the very helpful second set of hands if need be (Kate had to be at work Monday morning). While I said it was unlikely that anything would happen, we did have a single lambing in the middle of the night. So with twins, Kate now has twice Colin’s lambing experience.
While the middle of the night lambing was the highlight for the weekend, we accomplished more over the two sunny days.
First thing Saturday morning we moved two truckloads – 46 bales – of hay from the large barn down the hill into the shed in the barn yard. That should get us pretty close to the time the flock will hopefully move out to the field and eat spring grass. The boys have been venturing out in the east field for a week or more, and we’ve also enticed the last year’s lambs, Eleanor and Ralph out on the west field a couple times.
Later Saturday morning we hosted Tom, Jen, Ted, and Ryan for a visit to meet the lambs, and on Saturday afternoon Molly, Sarah and Anna came back for a second visit.
Sunday afternoon we fired up the tractor for a small, but necessary project. The gate at the bottom of the west field somehow had shifted over the winter, leaving a good 12 inch gap between the bottom and the ground. After hearing neighbor Tim talk about the female coyote that often walks the fence line, Peg felt we need to address that gap before we let the lambs out in the field. There is a good-sized rock pile in the bottom of the west field, so we filled two bucket loads and dumped them below the gate to fill the gap. While we were doing this Jack was merrily running around the seven sheep that were eating in the middle of the field. He so wanted to play, and they so ignored him. Click on the photo for a brief video.
Jack and Sheep
Finally, Sunday afternoon I worked on a small project to address a nagging issue – sheep poop in the barn’s heated waterer. It stands about 11 inches, and we’ve been cleaning it out about twice a week lately. Procedure: 1) take the top off, 2) hold the float valve in place, 3) open the drain plug and let water flow into a water bucket for about 5 seconds, 4) empty water bucket, 5) repeat 3 and 4 a couple times, 6) wipe out both sides of the waterer, 7) release the float valve, 8) replace the top. Because we have to hold the float valve the entire time, this is a two-person job.
Early Sunday morning, before getting back to sleep, I came up with the idea of putting a roof with the help of Professional knoxville roofing contractor near me over the waterer to hopefully minimize the poop problem. I talked it over with Peg, and gathered up some old two by fours and set to work in the garage. In less than an hour, the structure was ready for action.
This morning, the waterer looked pretty clean. We’ll see how long that holds up.
Todd