Lambing!

Today, I decided I needed to get outside and check things out for myself. According to my husband, my walk has been upgraded from a hobble to a limp, so that's good enough for me! I've been getting reports from the kids and my husband, but it's just not the same. First I was planning to head across the creek to see how the goats were doing with the second pasture in their rotation. They needed to be moved from the first to second pasture after only one week, because they ate the grass down so quickly, and it didn't grow back that fast. As I was headed down towards the creek, I looked out across the pastures and saw something small moving in the far pasture where the sheep are grazing. I stopped and looked closer. It was a lamb!

Running around near a black ewe were two little white lambs with black spots. One is covered with spots, and the other only has the black spots on his eyes, and one big black spot on his neck, just like our new Icelandic ewe, Dottie. I wasn't sure if the mother was Minerva or Pocahontas, so I started looking for the other two-year-old black ewe, and I couldn't spot her. After a few minutes, I noticed Mike coming back from the other side of the creek, and I called to him. He came over and jumped the electric fence into the sheep's pasture. I wouldn't try that even if I did have two good ankles! He looked in the shelter and behind it, and then I saw something move in a little gully behind a tree in the far corner of the pasture. It was a black head -- no horns meant it had to be the other two-year-old ewe. I told Mike, and he slowly walked down there. He found a little black ram with a white head, white tail and white socks! The lamb was still a little damp, but the placenta was already out, so he'll be a singleton, which is kind of unusual for a two year old ewe, but that's okay. It's not like we need a lot of sheep.

There are still three ewes left to lamb. Fee was grazing happily, while Majik and White Feather were laying next to the water trough, looking huge and uncomfortable. The little white ewe lamb that was born almost two weeks ago runs across the pasture with her mother now, never missing a step.