Getting Stitched on the Farm

Back in Blogland

I just picked up my Imac G5 from a place an hour from here. I'm back in the blog business, not to mention Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I also picked up a new surge protector - not knowing why my modem has gone twice in four months, I thought I would be safe. But I do wonder why Apple took out modems of the IMac G5 just a month after I purchased mine.

At any rate, we have had a busy week and a half since I last posted. Back in Late December I promised lambs, lambs, lambs, and I will not disappoint.

At first it was a trickle..... A ewe w/ a couple lambs.....


This mama was definitely experienced and needed no help from anyone.
Then, the tempo started to pick up and I want to tell you, it has been a birthing fury.....

Each lambing season presents its own problems and successes. I am not usually too involved - birthing is The Farmer's place - it's also why he was all for doctors and hospitals when we were pregnant - knowing what can go wrong. We were lucky that at the beginning of lambing this January it was unseasonably warm. Cold weather is usually the biggest challenge a newly born lamb faces.

This year, Julia is much more mobile and much more interested in the sheep. We have been visiting the barn twice a day, helping out when needed. She seems genuinedly interested which is nice.

Here’s the first lamb I watched being born one morning in mid-January. She has a kind of reddish tinge to her – from the amniotic fluids. It dries up and flakes off. Sometimes they have a real yellowish tinge at birth and sometimes they are bright white.


She's up here in less than 15 minutes ready for a snack. The first milk a lamb gets is the most important. It is called colostrum and is very thick and full of much needed nutrients.


Who can resist a face like this?