On Monday, April 14th, Lena gave birth to twin ram lambs. It is the first live birth to take place at Awesome Farm. Owen and I have been on lamb watch since Thursday. That means every three hours, we check on the sheep to see if they are showing signs of labor. We have been sleeping in the pasture so that we can check them in the middle of the night. With only three sheep, lamb watch had been pretty uneventful. But on Monday, everything changed. I checked on the sheep in the morning and noticed Lena acting a bit unlike herself, sort of sluggish and quiet. When I saw her at noon she was in the shelter and her eyes were partially closed. I told someone that she was either about to have babies or very sick. I went to lunch, did some work on the brooder and went back to check on her at 3 pm. When I arrived there were two beautiful black lambs. I immediately called Owen, the Hearty Roots crew, and Tracy who has been helping us with lamb duties. It was truly a remarkable and amazing thing to see; two newborn lambs being lovingly licked and coddled by their mother. When Owen arrived, we watched them a bit longer to ensure they got colostrum and milk and then we cut their umbilical cords and gave them a sip of vitamins. They are robust and beautiful and playful and sleepy and so much fun. Lena is an amazing mother and even chose to stay in the paddock with them while the other sheep grazed on some of our growing grass.

Lamb watch continues as we wait for Chocolate and Antelope to lamb. It seems hard to believe that it will ever cease being amazing!

KayCee

Labels: We are one day old