Getting Ready

I raise sheep. I plan the months I want the lambs to be born in. February is not a month for lambs. The icy rain storms with frigid cold temperatures and high humidity are hard on lambs. The lambs get cold. When lambs get cold, they become lethargic and do not get up to eat. Unless the lambs eat, they will die. The work for keeping lambs alive in February is much more work and requires around the clock care in the cold. I do not like the cold.

I planned the lambing of a group of first time mothers to be in March. March is here and they are starting to make udders and getting ready for the process of labor and lambs.

A week or two before the scheduled time of lambing, I get my lambing kit ready. My lambing kit contains a digital scale with a sling for weighing the lambs after their born. I need their birth weight for my record keeping. Ear tags are included to mark the lambs so I know which lamb came from which ewe and to track weight gain. Probiotics are used to give their digestive system a jump start. The more milk they are able to digest, the stronger they are as newborn lambs. The last is iodine tincture to treat the umbilical cord to prevent infection. And my little book.

My little book records the date, ewe’s number, the lamb’s number, sex and the birth weight and weaning weight. The difference in the weaning weight and birth weight tell me if the ewe is producing good to excellent milk for her lambs. Milk production is important to having a healthy lamb.

I enjoy the lambing. I do not like the cold. I enjoy watching new life be born. The sight of the lamb is always a happy thought and will brighten my darkest days. This year, I am trying to remember my phone or the camera for lambing. I want to take more pictures to share my lambing joys with others. One of my faults is I get so into the moment of watching the new lambs stand, walk and nurse, I forget to take pictures to share.

I do not live with my phone attached to my body. My phone is not strong enough to survive the rigors I put it through. I used to have a really tough phone. That phone had a rough life. The phone went swimming in the water troughs twice, was ran over by the large tractor once and I do not know how many times the riding lawn mower abused it. And it kept working. Although the old phone handled the farm life well, it got to the point it could no longer handle the internet life. So I had to get a good internet capable phone that lacked the tough exterior of its predecessor.

Look forward to some lambing stories and pictures provided I remember the phone and remember to use it.

amtolle