27 Inches and It's Still Snowing

We went from sunny and wonderful on Thursday to snow so deep it's hard to walk to the barns. Thursday, Pearl had her lambs in the pasture. The sun had them dry in no time. Today,no one can find the pasture! The best thing though is the quiet. Our farm is very close to I83 and we get a lot of traffic noise. Snow shuts the road down and everything is wonderful and peaceful. About midnight I sat and enjoyed the quiet while watching the lambs frolic. Although lambing is hectic and exhausting, watching the lambs play is such a reward. Watching them never gets old.

Pictures For Molly

Molly lives in Utah and misses the lambs being born. I wish I had her help right now too! She is demanding pictures (brat) so here they are. Wish cameras had a setting that allows for lamb leaps because these new BFL ewe lambs were blurring all their pictures.

Looks like it will be a lambing in the middle of the night year, even though nothing has changed with the feeding routine. Our lambs, in the past, mostly came in the morning. That is much easier for the shepherd but that's lambing!

Monday night....twin ewe lambs born to a moorit ewe sired by Finnegan CHV2.
Tuesday night....twin ewe lambs BFL Finnegan sired.
Looks like Finn was a busy guy in September.

Too Cold

Winter in PA is not usually this cold. Sunday morning I found 2 newborn lambs frozen stiff. They were average size and beautiful. They had evidently wandered into a hole behind the gate right after birth in search of Mom's milk or a warm dark spot. I had noticed this hole a week ago and thought I had plugged it up, but I guess not. Altho, I check the barn every 2-3 hours, 12 degrees without milk did them in quickly. Mom was frantic and led me right to them when I fed that morning. Funny thing happened too. I left the lambs with Mom to grieve and after several hours, took both stiff lambs to the gate to get a bag to put them in.( Of course, I got distracted and did not return ASAP.) When I finally did return to get the lambs they were gone. Mom had somehow moved them back to their birthplace and was sleeping with her head on them like they were alive. How did she move them such a distance in such a short period of time? Sheep don't carry their babies like cats do. I left the babies with her til Mom moved away on her own. She is so depressed and I feel so badly that I didn't get them in time. I am mad at myself about the hole too. You can bet it is boarded up now. These freaky things in lambing always make me so mad at myself. Careless shepherding has no excuse.