When you’re dealing with animals (and people), there are always a lot of unknowns. You might THINK you know when that ewe’s going to have her lambs, but that ewe might have something else in mind (or Mother Nature might).
The lambs are supposed to be born at the other barn, the one right by Shepherd D and Bo Peep’s house. Yesterday, though, one of the ewes on the “Not Quite Sure” list just up and had twins…in our barn. Shepherd D came over to check on things and there they were, out there in the middle of the pen with their mom. She was doing a fine job, by all accounts, and the lambs are good-looking. Shepherd D and Prince Charming have completely different standards for “good-looking” than I do, though – they’re concerned with how the shows will go, how the sheep will produce, yaddi yaddi; I savor the fuzzy little black heads, the conglomeration of spots, the wobbly legs.
I have an opportunity this year to chronicle the lives of these lambs up close (I don’t even have to leave my own property!). These guys are too little for me to go out there with a camera just yet (as in this morning), but Prince Charming said the mom is pretty laid back. Some of the moms (the ones we saw last night, for instance) are not. They seem pretty normal and then they have lambs. Whatever you may have in mind about passive sheep is WRONG when it comes to those mamas (some of them, anyway). They will knock you square on your landing pad and keep on coming until you get away from their babies. They’ll use every ounce of their weight and strength to protect their little babies, who aren’t as helpless as they seem on their spindly legs (they’re standing within an hour or so).
So if that mama in my barn lets me, I’m going to go out there and introduce myself this evening. She might not appreciate a journal of her babies (they grow so fast!), but I will. And maybe, dear reader, you will too. 🙂
