June 16, 2010

A Time for Every Purpose

Last night was rough, no doubt. But today is so much better.

Jordan and I got home from swim class and Jeremy was standing in front of the barn with a look on his face. I rolled down the window and said "Who had a baby?" He said "Patches."

Patches was the one we weren't sure was even pregnant. She hadn't gotten bigger or rounder. Her utters hadn't dropped. She just seemed not pregnant. This morning there were no early signs likes isolating herself from the group, scratching the ground, sniffing the ground. But sure enough, Jeremy came home to her giving birth.

Fortunately she was already under the pole barn, not the pasture. Jeremy let Daffy out of the barn (she is doing fine after her loss yesterday). Then he went in and grabbed the lamb, freshly delivered. He walked backward, holding the lamb near the ground. Patches followed the lamb right into the barn and stall next to Notag (who hasn't given birth!). That's when Jordan and I rolled up. We didn't even go in the house, just straight down to the barn. The lamb was up and moving around. Patches, being a first time mom, was not understanding nursing. After 10 minutes or so, she calmed down and the lamb got in some sucks. You can tell when a lamb is nursing because her little tail starts a wagging. It's nice to have a good night to offset the last.

Here is a short (1:35 min) video of the new lamb. In the video the lamb is about a half-hour old. You can see Patches fidgeting about nursing and picking her leg up. At first the lamb is confused about the front and back ends. Then they settle down. The loud bahhing the background is Notag being upset that I'm not paying attention to her.


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