Oh man folks, my life has been so intense lately.
For starters, I was in the hospital.
Not only that, but I've been cranking away at Write Club like a boss.
Add to that a few days of sheep shearing here and there.
And the piece de resistance?
THE LAMBINGS HAVE BEGUN!
As of this writing, we have sixteen lambs alive on the ground, out of eleven ewes. It's not all happiness, unfortunately. One ewe delivered her twin lambs over two weeks ahead of schedule, with a basic autopsy indicating neither one even took a breath. Another lost her second lamb to a delayed and difficult delivery. I tried to encourage him to stay with us, but whether it was oxygen deprivation, internal malformation, or just plain old fate, he didn't make it either. We gave him lots of snuggles while he was here!
So let's see who we have... Our first arrivals belong to Umbra. She has a very stylish son:
...and a gorgeous little daughter!
Next came Shiner's... her daughter you can see smiling above in the very first picture in this post, and her son is the well-snuggled lamb who passed on to greener pastures.
Here's another sweet little pair, just moments after birth, belonging to 6W. They were just learning to stand. They are both boys.
Number 30's lamb got chilled on his birthday, so he came in for a warm bath in my laundry sink and a bottle of colostrum to perk him up.
He was back with his very distraught mother in no time.
You can see where she had been digging to get out of her pen, in an effort to find the lamb I had taken from her! That's the kind of mothering instinct I love to see in my flock.
Hawkeye delivered a very large and photogenic singleton daughter. She's definitely a keeper. She's very good at selfies, unlike me...
Number 37 brought forth this very handsome little boy!
And here we have 46's twins, her daughter keeping watch and her son napping in the feed pan.
There are a few more darlings who have arrived over the last couple days that I haven't gotten a picture of yet, so I will save them for another update. We had a set of triplets arrive quite unexpectedly this afternoon, a pair of fancy badgerface twins last night, and a sweet little single yesterday morning. There are many more still expected, so this is not the last lamb overload post you are going to get!
Thanks so much for reading. See you next time!
all photos taken by me, with my Samsung S5 Neo