The farm house

The farm house

Thursday, April 18, 2013

A Strange Noise Came From The Barn Last Night...

Last night I fell asleep before putting the dog out for the night. Sadly it's one of those skills that only I have in this household and totally irrelevant on my resume. So dog paws at the bed and nudges my arm. It's 1:30 am.
I make my way out to tie her up and make my way back to the couch where I lay down.. just for a few minutes. My short nap is interrupted by my dog's barking. Fine, better bring her in before she wakes anyone up. As I attach the leash to her collar, I hear a sound. A sound very much like a cow would make. Not surprising as there are dairy farms everywhere here. But wait! That sound is coming from the barn and I don't have cows. Oh my! Could it be a ewe in labour??

I put the dog in the house; look around for a flashlight. Of course none of them work. I grab a tealight hurricane lamp, light the candle and off to the barn I go, just like in the olden days. I hear the snicker of a lamb! I get to the light, turn it on and the ewe is washing off the lamb. She lets out another cow sound and I can see she's somewhat uncomfortable. She turns and I see a sack coming out of her backside. Oh, my another baby to be born!! I see the ewe push and the lamb's head emerges from her body and then flops onto the straw. The ewe stops licking the first lamb and then works at removing the sack from lamb #2. This ewe did not look pregnant. Every day I ask the other one if she's ready to drop her baby?
First born, Elsie, on the right-all black. Esme on the left, not sure what this color is yet!!

Esme is a very curious lamb. She likes to wander and Elsie sticks close to her Mom as seen here.
This was most certainly a special event as Shetlands just seem to pop these suckers out while you're not looking! So, after the excitement,I returned to the house satisfied that "B' is doing a great job with her new babies to find husband ill. He kept me up. So, I did the dishes, cleaned, did morning chores, finished cleaning the small coop for the chicks to go into as the incubator is about to erupt with the next hatch.(there's an egg rolling in there now!!) Cleaned the back of barn where the horses think it's the W.C., swept the barn floor, called the bank and a few companies ref the extra $250 they took out my account causing the payment to be returned and consequently not having enough funds for other payments....I hate banks, insurance companies and revenue Canada and Hydro one. I am ready to go back to pioneer days right now.

I am now exhausted and looking forward to arrival of more lambs. But I won't stay up to watch.

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the the two new babies!

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    1. Thanks! Clarice is the size of a house.. it can't just be fleece, can it??

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