Calm

I WROTE THIS BEFORE LAMBING & FAILED TO PUBLISH - ENJOY!

The Calm, that is.  The one before the storm.  It starts soon, the lambing storm.

At night, all is calm.  Just like the Christmas song, Away In A Manger.  It's very true.  A barn at night is a lovely and calm place.  Even the nocturnal creatures know to be quiet in a barn.  Mind you that is their way anyhow as they try to not disturb as they find their own food in their own way.

It is a lovely day, with crisp cool air and brilliant sunshine.  Excellent conditions to go outside for the first time.

I'm a triplet.  My Mom is Olive.  This is my first day outside - ever!

Earlier in the week I had set up some electric netting in such a way as to create a small outside enclosure at the front of the barn.  This area gets sunshine all day and I knew that I could easily create a small pen or nursery at that end of the barn.  This area does receive the weather as it faces West but I can monitor that.  Besides these babies are now two weeks old and strong.  It was time to see sunshine!

I put Olive and her triplets out first.

Olive and her triplets

 It is their pen I have opened up to create a larger pen.  A short time later I put Chloe and her big boy out there.

Chloe and her boy

Last year Olive did not like to share her space and that was how Cookie's leg got broken.  I watched carefully.  And this time they are all outside.  Chloe's lamb is big and quick and the space is larger.  Whereas Cookie was her mother's first lamb, this is Chloe's third.  Chloe is pushing back and they are working it out.

The photo waiting to happen however is Ruby.  Hubby helped me to tag the lambs after I put the four babies and two mommies in the larger pen.  I managed to catch the babies and Hubby inserted the appropriate tag in each ear.  We can now tell them apart; that is, Olive's two females have specific numbers with which to identify them since otherwise they are alike.  And so it is with all lambs, they get their ears pierced with a plastic tag that has their own number on it.  This year we are continuing with red tags for girls and white tags for boys.

I wandered off topic.  While Hubby and I were working on this, Ruby jumped into the pen with me.  She scrounged around sniffing at things.  Before I left the barn Ruby was lying in the big doorway in the sunshine while lambs were coming up to check her out.  Unlike last year when Ruby would bound up and lick them, she is remaining calm.  As the lamb comes close to her she might sniff it or not.  I did see her half lick one that was very close to her.  I expect we may find Ruby keeping them warm on a cool night, with the calm of her mature, almost two years.

MILLIE

We've come a long way since surgery in early December.  Millie is now back on duty, 24/7.  She usually stays in with the flock, taking off much less frequently.  At first she kept taking off and she'd be gone for hours.  Sometimes Ruby would return long before Millie.  Interestingly, Ruby rarely went off for any longer than twenty minutes while Millie was penned up for her recovery.

One morning I gave the dogs very large bones to chaw on and they stayed put.  All day.  At evening I decided to leave Millie out and not put her into the barn for the night.  In the morning she was with the flock where she'd been left.

A few nights she has gotten out.  We've heard the dogs barking at something, mostly behind the house, rather than across the road.  They come back.  Millie cannot get back in with the flock when she gets herself out.  Ruby can soar over a fence and return to the flock.  This morning, both dogs were "out".  We'd heard them barking madly probably around 5:30.  They showed up for breakfast while I was feeding the hens.  They followed me - okay, they followed the food - back into the flock, had breakfast and began to nap.

Millie wearing her new pink collar

Millie is calm with the sheep.  Everyone is wary of her but it is becoming less so.  Millie is happy.  She was even wearing a bit of a snarly smile the other morning, something we frequently see on Ruby.

I have noted to a few people as of late how the sheep are all calm.  We have more sheep in the flock now that were born here, than were purchased elsewhere.  Many sheep allow me to touch them at random.  Few of them move away from me and none scamper away from me.  They are very comfortable in their surroundings, with their people and their dogs and - heaven forgive me should I forget - even their llama.

I will enjoy the calm for as long as possible - all of it!