Black Sheep

Finally, Buttercup had her baby! Five lambs in all this season!

Jeremy was down digging footings for what will be our bridge across the creek and noticed Buttercup off alone. Upon closer examination (aka squinting), her saw "stuff" and jogged up to the house to let me and Jordan know a baby was on the way. I was prepping strawberries for freezing and Jordan was playing "Littlest Pet Shop" in the living room. We left everything midstream and headed down to the pasture.

We watched Buttercup labor for a 30 minutes before giving birth. This is the first non-assisted birth we've got to witness. It was really cool! Below is a video of the baby being born. I warn you that it is raw, but it isn't gross - fine for kids to watch. Also, the baby is OK - he doesn't move for a few seconds, which seems scary, but he starts to shake is head. The second video is of his first steps, approximately 10 minutes after being born.

Once Buttercup had cleaned him a bit and he had nursed, we brought them into the pole barn. The process goes like this: I slowly walk up to the sheep and lamb. They walk away. I walk up. They walk away. Repeat. Eventually the baby stumbles and I catch it. This makes mom really angry. I walk backward, hunched over, holding baby about 4 inches off the ground to the barn. (My hamstrings and back are killing me!) The whole time baby is yelling for mom and kicking; and mom is yelling for baby and following frantically. But it works for getting everyone into a warm, dry, secure location. Both mom and lamb are doing great.