At 6:15 a.m. I turned on the baby monitor set up in the barn and heard loud baby lamb noises and mother murmurings. There were numerous voices in that choir! I grabbed some fruit bread to eat as I put on my barn pants and jacket.
I was greeted by four new beings, all white, all fairly dry and with the usual wobbliness of newborns. And there were four mothers licking babies, but one seemed out of place. I watched and observed.
I put the hay outside, as usual, for the flock and carefully opened the door to slowly allow the rest of the flock to leave. The four ewes remained and their babies were out of the way of the quiet breakfast stampede. And again I watched and observed.
Finally I made the deduction that Smudge had not lambed but was trying to find a baby that wasn't hers. Of the other three, two were nursing one baby each. The third, Butterscotch, was comfortably mothering two lambs who were resting. The singles were not huge in comparison to the twins, although after weighing them later it is the twins that are excellent in size compared to the singles. So, basically there were 4 lambs that all looked alike.
Smudge was almost in a frenzy looking for a lamb that was not there. She did not have any visual signs that she was about to lamb. Finally, I decided, and was able, to get her out of the barn. She spent the rest of the day, off and on, circling the barn and bleating.
I left the flock locked out for the day. I managed to separate two moms and their babes and left the third at large. After I got some breakfast I spent some time finalizing pen arrangements. Navels were disinfected and lambs weighed. Now that the ewes were penned I could read their ear tags.
Butterscotch and her boy baby and girl baby. She is a good, not easily upset ewe. These are big lambs and I will consider keeping this ewe lamb to add to the main flock.
It appears that the moms with singles are Spot and Dot. This is Dot whose left ear with the dot is not in the photo! I wonder if there are sisters? At any rate, I now have tag numbers to go with the names.
Dot always stamps her foot at me. I think she is the one that bashed Beau dog and seems to watch out for another opportunity to do so.
These activities took up the morning. In the afternoon I worked my way through the spoiled straw and found more than enough good straw to finish bedding the horse stalls in the Small Barn. So, it too was now ready as needed.
At evening chore time we penned the last mother and let the flock back into the barn. The pens are on the outside of the large area. Smudge started again into her frenzy. Quickly she went to the wire fencing at the pen of Butterscotch and began to ram the fence. Hubby suggested putting her in the Small Barn - especially since it was now ready for use. With some coaxing we got Smudge and another ewe into a box stall. I was confident now that the lambs would be safe from Smudge's frenzied behaviour and if she was to lamb she was in a good place for that.
Having been dinner for two deer ticks I was now trying to see my doctor. She is in Ottawa. In the end she telephoned at four o'clock and advised me to go to a walk-in clinic here in this community. I made some phone calls and determined there are no such clinics here and I was advised to go to Emergency. So, after chores at around seven o'clock I headed to Brockville. By then it was raining and the dog had become quite anxious due to the thunder. I drove through torrential sheets of rain and hail. I was soaked through my raincoat walking from the car to the building.
While waiting the five hours there were three or four ambulance arrivals. I was definitely low priority. I did a lot of knitting. I was seen by a doctor at around one o'clock. In the end, all was well, as I expected. I was given some antibiotics which made me sick. I checked the barn when I got home at about two o'clock. Henrietta bounded up to me in the darkened barn yard. We exchanged greetings and she let me pass. All was quiet, even Smudge.
What a very long day that was! Now to find the good scissors and develop skills with my 'wrong' hand.
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