Yes, I've been absent from blogging...

for like...15 days now or so..over lambing season! I should be shot, I know. Well, we've had a couple pretties, but I'll get to that.

Lets start with last week. I get out to mom's and over half the flock is out in the field. Great, have to watch to make sure no one bloats, get them all back in safely, yadda yadda yadda. So we start getting everyone in...and I walk out to the pen just to look at the babies...Oh there's Jasmine and Aurora out in the field...No biggy, Peoney will bring them back up....Oh there's the new babies that I haven't named yet...WOW are they gorgeous...Hey...who's that? I dont' recognize that black yuglet....omg...A new baby! So I sit down to watch her with the adults to see who momma is. Meanwhile, I start checking butts of the ladies in waiting.... No goo...no string...no blood...no nothing! Baby, I sure hope you know who momma is....Nope. Notta clue. Wandering around aimlessly, trying to get someone to let her suck. *sigh* Bring her up to the house to get some cow cholostrum in her. A bottle baby, great, cuz mom and I have so much time for that working full time lol. *sigh* but she sure is cute! We'll name her Minnie! Cuz she sure is a little mini mite...So sweet. She gets to sleep in Jessie's kennel for the night!

Oh great, and Hopscotch was out all day with only one lamb...And now she won't take her twin. *sigh* gotta hold her so cute little gully baby can suck.


Next day. Hi Minnie, how are you? Just fine, want milk please...lol. She was a doll. Didn't like snuggles, but loved to just lay down next to you, and was terribly lonely if you left her alone for more than 30 seconds. So I stay with her for a while, then walk out to the pen. There's Pongo...There's Flower...wait a minute....when did I get a third moorit yuglet?! son of a....Hey, he looks just like Minnie, only moorit. Hmmm... Checking butts again. Oh look! Teensy TINY bit of blood barely visible...He must be hers. She nickers to him...licks his butt...he goes in for the drink...and gets butted away. Hmm...interesting. Into the barn they go....

In the mean time, I've spied MerryGoRound...she's in early labor. No biggy...I've learned not to panic. But an hour goes by, and no bag...then 2 hours. Okay, time to start calling around. We take her over to our neighbor Jon's...It's afterhours with the vet, and they probably would have just said to put her down. Jon has done probably 3x the deliveries that any vet within a 50 mile radius has done. lol. We're at Jons for hours...The baby was presented sideways, and he can't get a grip on it. It is dead, now we're just focusing on saving MerryGo. He had to CUT the baby out, which he's never done before, and never wanted to do, but he knew it was the only way to save her. That man is a saint. He shot her up with LA200 before we left, and told us to keep him updated. What a guy. I've known him since I was kneehigh to a cornfield...I went to school with his niece in elementary, and needless to say spent a bit of time over with the sheep.

So we get home, it's almost midnight, get Merry settled in, get Minnie and Pluto (yuglet moorit ram) sucking on momma for a bit, Hoppy's boy on her for a bit, and then I putz home while mom tries to get a few hours of sleep before work.

Day before yesterday, Banshee went down...one side of her body wasn't working right, and her lip was hanging from her jaw. Mom thought she broke it at first...Nope, looks like a stroke. She was gone by the next day, not at thing we could do. She lived a good life, nearly 24 full years of life. She will be sorely missed. Since I don't have my own farm, and neither of us have time for riding at the time, her filly is going to be up for sale. We were going to keep her at first, but don't want her to just become a pasture ornament when she could be doing so much more!

So yes...I've been busy. Plus retraining a job at work (I've only had a small amount of training before this, and I'm alone again this weekend), and I think I've got a sinus infection...the whole left side of my face is in pain. But on the bright side, I think I found a truck to buy!

Well, Merry is progressing slowly. Skippy has finally accepted both lambs readily, but we don't know if she has a lot of milk. We're still not 100% sure Minnie is Skippys, I'll likely be doing a maternity test. Hopscotch is still being a $#)@#($ and not letting her lamb suck, but he's snitching enough to get by inbetween our helping him nurse.

Please, keep everyone (skinned and furred alike) in your thoughts/prayers/etc....we could use some slow time here in the frozen north...Just a few more ewes to go....