We have 73 lambs on the ground and only one ewe left yet to lamb. Lambing was a constant process of checking, evaluating, assisting, monitoring, feeding and collapsing. For me, tiredness can be measured in my motivation to do regular daily activities. Cleaning falls off first, then relaxation, then cooking. When I didn’t feel like cooking, I knew I was pretty far down the line of being exhausted.
With bottle lambs starting off life in the house, sleep was persistently interrupted by little baas in the night. We keep bottle lambs in a crate next to the bed so we can wake up and bottle feed as needed.
As focused as I have become on the problem children, most of the lambs are doing well and growing rapidly. While it feels overwhelming to have five lambs dependent on us for food, this shouldn’t really be surprising given that we have 68 lambs who are not dependent on us for food and we did lamb some older ewes who were unable to raise multiples.
As physically and mentally exhausted as I am, I try to be grateful each day that I’m lucky enough to have this as a job, lucky enough to have generally healthy animals, and lucky enough to have a nice warm bed to collapse into at 9:30 most nights.
Enjoy some photos from the barn:
