Waiting on Lambs

We have been patiently waiting for the last two and a half weeks.

Waiting on lambs.

Jack has been setting his alarm clock for 12:30 am every night to go out and check on the sheep.  There were several nights the alarm would go off....for a couple of minutes....and then I would walk over to the boys room and shut it off.  I'd ask Jack if he was awake and I'd see him sit up in bed...so I would head back to mine.  Then I would wait for movement and if there was none, I would get up and go out to the barn.  Terry also took his turn on several nights to check on them.  We knew that Jack was exhausted.

But on most nights, Jack went out....and I'd stay awake until I would hear him come back up the stairs.  He would always come into our room and give us the full report on the what the ewes were doing out there.

During the day he would spend his spare time reading his sheep manuals or googling things about lambing.  He also built a spot in the corner of the barn for when the lambs arrived.  He had it well thought out with a heat lamp and boards to keep the ewes out but the lambs in.

He wrote iodine on my grocery list and we ordered NutriDrench from somewhere in the U.S.A....because it was nowhere to be found around here.....I had called all the feed stores and vet offices but no one had ever heard of it. 

He was prepared but I could tell that he was becoming exhausted.

Exhausted from his nights of interrupted sleep and exhausted from waiting.

But finally.....FINALLY....the first lamb was born last Thursday.  It was the busy day before the parade.

And then twin lambs were born while we were away at the parade!  It was a miracle that they came without any trouble.

And today the last ewe lambed!

 

 

 

This is the corner with the heat lamp for the lambs....you can see their legs in there.....

 

 

Snug and warm! 

 

 

 

These three ewes were due to lamb earlier than the rest because they were to have the market lambs for the fairs.  The lambs need to be born at this time of year so they will be the right size at the right time.  We have 15 more ewes to lamb but they won't start to lamb until late April.

Jack was hoping that these lambs would be boys....to make good market lambs.

But it turns out that all four of them are girls.

I'm not upset about this today....we will worry about this some other day.

Because I know that tonight there will be no alarm clocks going off at 12:30 am. 

Tonight we will sleep.

The waiting is over for now....

Brenda