Non Stop For 24 Hours

Yesterday was sheraing day for the Shetlands... 24 of the fiestiest little sheep ever. Not the "eat out of your hand" pet flock. My wonderful shearer,Nathan, sings the alleluia chorus when the job is done and yesterday was no exception. Cold and damp, sticky fleeces that clogged the shearing teeth but Nathan his usual exceptional job and I have a pile of beautiful fleeces that I can't wait to sort through. On the plus side, no one lambed mid shearing like last year but we did notice that many of the Shetland ewes are not bred. That's fine with me since last year we had too many of the little imps cavorting around stopping traffic on the road with their antics. A few less would be a good thing. For those of you that wonder why shear now, the Shetlands were happy to be rid if the year's growth and when the snow started last night I found many of the flock lying out catching flakes.
Exhausted and hungry, I got into the house long enough to warm and eat when the monitor to the barn announced that BFL lambs had arrived. Back out to the barn with snowflakes swirling, I found twins out of my BFL/Shetland ewe Jamie wandering around. The boy was all BFL while the little black ewe was all Shetland wandering all over the barn in true shetland fashion, full of milk. All I had to do was gather them up ,dip navels and put them in a pen with hay for momma.I laughed as I left hearing the little ewe smack her lips sucking more milk. Back in the house for two hours when the barn monitor announced more lambs. Now the snow was to my ankles. This time I found 2 of the most beautiful BFL babies ever!Perfect pigmentation, lively and healthy. They were set up in the pen next to Jamie, whose little ewe was still smacking her lips. Such a good sound to a shepherd. Maybe I can sleep now?????
NOT..... back to the barn for Wensleydale/BFL twins boys. Now my 3 pens were full with little lip smackers and cooing moms. BUT we weren't finished. A first time BFL momma was pushing in a corner. I just had time to divide one of the already occupied pens and set up for a new family. 8 lambs in 7 hours after a day of shearing was more than I expected but I'm so glad the have healthy babies on the ground with little more than a few walks to the barn for me and a few hours of sleep lost. 20 lambs total now..... finally. Here's a bad picture of my beautiful ram lamb.