Three!

Three!!  It took three people to take care of things while we were away.  Actually, it took more than three but that messes with my story.  We are grateful for everyone's assistance since without your help we would not be able to get away.

Yes, we were someplace warm.  We drove.  A long way.  There.  And back.  We had a lovely time with friends and look forward to visiting with them all again in the future.

Three!!  I was expecting one sheep to maybe, sort of, have her babies near the end of our trip.  You see, Abraham, the old ram, got out one day in October.  I came home and there he was, on the wrong side of the fence, with the girls.  Everyone was happy.  I marked the calendar for March 4th.

Getting ready to depart, it looked like Olive might lamb on the 4th.  It was hard to tell though since the "official" lambing date this year is March 22nd.  Olive definitely had an udder and it was growing and no one else looked similar.  So, I put three long red crayon marks on her back.  This way our farm helpers would know who frolicked with Abe in October.

On Friday, March 4th, we were getting ready to head out to breakfast with our sunshine friends before hitting the road for our journey home.  I checked my email and it said "two lambs" in the subject line.  I was expecting this.  There was more, though.  There had been health challenges for our sitters and trouble with the furnace.  So, I gathered information for my response - call the neighbouring shepherd and the furnace fix-it folks...

I hit send to respond and there was an instant second email with a subject line:  "correction.  six lambs".  Wow!!  And there were photos.  And the neighbouring shepherd was on her way.  And everyone was fine.

So, Olive did lamb.  She had TRIPLETS - two females and a male.  And MayBell had TWINS - a male and a female.  And then Chloe had ONE - a male.  So, three sheep produced six lambs.  What a way to begin the day!

Olive's triplets at three days of age.

Olive's triplets napping - Eenie, Meenie and Miney

The newly certified shepherd couple who were farm sitting at that time have the honour of naming the babies.  Olive's triplets are named as above.  MayBell's twins are Bonnie and Clyde and Chloe's singleton is Lobo.

Stay tuned for the "official" lambing season which is set to begin in two weeks, on or about March 22nd.

Oh, and we had a nice breakfast after everyone enjoyed the baby photos.