Lambs are Here!

Lambing season has hit Maplewood Hill with a vengeance. On Friday, we had nine lambs on the ground. By this morning, there were 29. And that is with only 14 out of 30 ewes lambing so far! Boone and I have been working like crazy to keep up. In my mind, I imagine balmy sunny days with tiny little lambs running around at my feet. It never happens like that though. We have had frigid temperatures along with a good amount of snow on the ground for the past week.  These are the times that when I ask Boone if he needs me to help, I am half hoping he will say, “No, I got it”.

Before heading over to the lambing shed I noticed something moving on the hillside across from the farm. Zooming in, it was a lone coyote trotting along. As long as he leaves the sheep alone, we leave him alone.

Due to the size of the run-in shed, we have limited room for lambing pens so there is not an aisle. We make a mishmash of pens out of gate panels starting at one end of the shed trying to get everyone in and out of the weather. Therefore, if you need to get to the back pen, you are up and climbing over those panels. It gets tough when you so many layers of clothing on that you cannot hardly move to start with. Getting my leg up and over with so many clothes on is the hardest part. I usually just kinda do a stomach rollover and hope the panel holds. No major spills so far!

We are excited to have a set of quads for the first time.

Ewes are built to nurse 2 lambs so we are supplementing these little guys with a bottle. Got the lambing kit all stocked up.

The littlest quad is only 3 days old but already comes running for his bottle when he sees us.  I am looking forward to this weather breaking so we can get them out in the big pasture. They are so fun to watch racing around and playing with each other.