Faleen (from the story Bambi - it's his fawn friend's name) Saturday morning we were very surprised to find a new addition to our flock in the barn. My mother Kathleen stopped by the farm house on Saturday morning, on the way to the barn to do chores. The kids and I were headed with my father for the day to celebrate National Train Day, with a train ride on Amtrak and the Green Mountain Railroad. She checked in with us and then continued on to the barn. Rowan went with her to help with chores and soon burst back into the house yelling "Lyra had a lamb, there's a new lamb, come quick... Yaya needs help!!" I raced to the barn, expecting the worst, only to find that indeed we did have a new addition to the flock.
We had assumed that we are ALL DONE with lambing the previous weekend. Both Snowflake and Winnie had their twin lambs. The other three ewes we had bred to a different ram did not appear to be pregnant at all. So we thought we were done, took down the sheep TV cameras, packed up the lamb supplies, etc.. However apparently Lyra was NOT DONE! Lyra and the other two "not pregnant" ewes, in addition the five other yearling ewes, had spent the week outside on new pasture. My mother had decided to bring them into the barn Friday night as it was due to storm and she planned to move them to a different pasture. So sometime during the night, amid seven other sheep, Lyra lambed all by herself and produced a beautiful little black ewe. This was completely unexpected and caused more than a few minutes of confusion for my mother as she tried to figure out how a lamb had gotten in with this group of sheep! Once she realized what had happened, and that all appeared to be well, she was able to put the rest of the sheep in this group outside and keep Lyra and her baby in. I arrived in time to pick up the little girl, who we named Faleen, help weigh her (6 lbs.) and dip her cord in iodine. The last time we had a lambing surprise like this was back in 2000, when one of our original ewes Matylda (and most favorite) had her lamb Maisie. I thought there was a black cat wondering around in the barn that morning, only to realize that it was Matylda's lamb! This was again a big surprise and and an "easy" way for us to lamb. Definitely a Mother's Day surprise for my own Maybelle Mama!
We are now keeping an eye on the two other "not pregnant" ewes Colby and Star, to see if they might surprise us in the next week or so! Stay tuned!
We had assumed that we are ALL DONE with lambing the previous weekend. Both Snowflake and Winnie had their twin lambs. The other three ewes we had bred to a different ram did not appear to be pregnant at all. So we thought we were done, took down the sheep TV cameras, packed up the lamb supplies, etc.. However apparently Lyra was NOT DONE! Lyra and the other two "not pregnant" ewes, in addition the five other yearling ewes, had spent the week outside on new pasture. My mother had decided to bring them into the barn Friday night as it was due to storm and she planned to move them to a different pasture. So sometime during the night, amid seven other sheep, Lyra lambed all by herself and produced a beautiful little black ewe. This was completely unexpected and caused more than a few minutes of confusion for my mother as she tried to figure out how a lamb had gotten in with this group of sheep! Once she realized what had happened, and that all appeared to be well, she was able to put the rest of the sheep in this group outside and keep Lyra and her baby in. I arrived in time to pick up the little girl, who we named Faleen, help weigh her (6 lbs.) and dip her cord in iodine. The last time we had a lambing surprise like this was back in 2000, when one of our original ewes Matylda (and most favorite) had her lamb Maisie. I thought there was a black cat wondering around in the barn that morning, only to realize that it was Matylda's lamb! This was again a big surprise and and an "easy" way for us to lamb. Definitely a Mother's Day surprise for my own Maybelle Mama!
We are now keeping an eye on the two other "not pregnant" ewes Colby and Star, to see if they might surprise us in the next week or so! Stay tuned!
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