Arabella

One spring day, as I was taking water out to the animals, I thought I saw a new lamb in the pasture, so I went out to see. What I found was not one new lamb, not two, but three new lambs with three different mothers. They all looked healthy so I left them alone for the time being. After I called my daughter, Marie at her friend’s house to tell her I was coming to get her, we went out to the pasture together, and she weighed the new lambs and checked them over. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a ewe that seemed to be in labor, and she said it looked like she had been in labor a while. After checking the three lambs, a watchful eye on the other ewe, whose lip was curling, she decided that we needed to catch her and see what was going on. We managed to catch her and I held her neck, while Marie put her fingers in her uterus to see if she could figure out if the lamb was in the right position. The ewe’s vagina was very tight and Marie could only get two fingers in to start with. Eventually, she was able to get more of her fingers in, but still couldn’t figure out what position the lamb was in. The ewe was pushing on and off during that time and making Marie’s fingers numb, so she would have to take that hand out and use the other hand. She did this numerous times; all the while I am holding the ewe’s neck. We discussed at this point that we were sure we were going to pull out a dead lamb. It was a warm day, and the sun was beating down on us. After what seemed like an hour (maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t) Marie was able to grab the lamb’s neck and pull the lamb out. It was a ram lamb, and he was definitely dead. The ewe, Arabella, was able to lick him off and have closure, which is something Marie had learned is important. Later that day, I went to check on Arabella, and her head was right to the ground in grief and pain, walking with her back legs almost crossed. I told Marie she should give her antibiotics and she said she would get painkiller for her as well. Every day her head would lift a little more, and her walk would be a little less sore looking. She is a special ewe, as she has a rare coloring found in the Jacob breed. I am glad my daughter knew how to help her, because I sure didn’t!

Cuban Black Beans

From Betty Crocker's Slow Cooker Cookbook.

Hide and Seek

April 1^st, 2010

On a warm spring morning, I hitched up our two dogs to go check on the new lambs and goat kids in the barn born the day before. I hadn’t seen them yet, so was curious as to what they looked like. Our sheep are Jacobs which are spotted black and white and all different, and the goats are unique too. When I went out to the barn with the dogs, I found the goat doe and her buckling kid. I took a couple of pictures of him, while looking into the next pen and asking the ewe where her baby, who weighed about five pounds, was. I started to get a little worried, looking around. I let the dogs go and was hoping they would help look but they didn’t, they just sniffed everything in sight. I started looking even farther away from the ewe, didn’t find her baby in with the other animals, who either had older babies or needed extra food. Looked all around and no lamb! I went back to the house, and knocked on the window of my daughter’s bedroom and hollered that I couldn’t find the new lamb. She said, “Well it was there the night before. “ I went back to the barn with the dogs, looked all over again, looking a little more thoroughly, but still no lamb. I went back to the house and my daughter got up sleepily, and came out with me to look. We started to move things, looking inside the tipped wheelbarrow, under a pallet, behind a board, in a couple of buckets on their side, but still no lamb. By this point, we were sure we were going to find a dead lamb somewhere. I asked Marie is she could have gotten out that little tiny place that was about two inches wide where the sun was shining into, and she said no. After looking another couple of minutes, I said to myself that that lamb is not in here, that I was going to go walk around the outside of the barn, just to make sure she wasn’t out there. As I went around the front side of the barn, where the sun was shining so nicely, there she was, basking in the sun, perfectly content, not knowing we had been frantically looking for her. She was playing hide and seek and she won!

Electra electrified!

So, I go out to feed and water the chickens in the coop this morning, and I see a ewe in the electric fence. I run over to the battery and unplug the charger, and run over to look at the ewe. Her eyes look really gross, like she had been dead for a long time or something and she didn't move. I ran inside to wake my 11 year old daughter and said a ewe was in the fence dead and I wasn't sure who it was. Rosemary came out and went over to her and then yelled back at me (trying again to do the chickens) and said "It's Electra and she moved!" so I ran back over, and she said that this ewe is very skittish and she usually is afraid of us. So we tried to untangle her (4) horns out of the fence. We struggled for a little bit, though Electra did not struggle as I think they can sense when they are being helped. I didn't think I was going to be able to do it so I told Rosemary to go in and get Marie (my oldest, who owns the sheep) so they came out. By then I had her out and she was just sitting on her legs, but holding her head up OK. I hollered for the girls to get Rescue Remedy and we sprayed some in her nose (Rosie couldn't find the liquid kind.) Marie also expressed some of her milk (she has a pretty young lamb that was near by when I first went out) and rubbed it in her eyes - because we have pink eye going thru the flock - which is why her eyes looked so awful when I first saw her! We then led her to the water because she can't see with the pink eye, which is also most likely why she "walked" into the fence and then tried to win the fight! Whew, from a "dead" ewe to a live one was a much better start of the day!

Teenagers CAN be terrific!

So, my 17 year old daughter and her best friend and I were coming back from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival today, with 7 Jacob sheep in the back of the van. We stopped at McDonald's for one last stop (6 hours straight driving) and I saw a mother with her daughter and a younger son who was blind. She was helping him into his seat and she looked at our van and realized we had animals and asked if they were goats (a typical question as their faces look goat like, but they have wool and heck, she was from NJ!! :-)) and I said no, they were sheep and we were just coming back from the festival and she said to her daughter "Look at the sheep" and her son said "I can smell them!" LOL So when we got on the road, I told my daughter what had happened (she was getting in the van on the other side while that was happening) and she said "oh, I wish I had known, I would have been happy to take one of them out for him to feel." Brings tears to my eyes just thinking of how special my teen really is (most of the time!)

Bangs for Obama

So, for my fortieth birthday I dyed my hair in 4 stripes and bangs with hot pink dye (Special Effects from Evolution on the Commons in Ithaca) and then I put the bottle away.....somewhere......and I couldn't find it...for almost 4 years! Well, i found it a few days before the Inauguration, so I decided to dye my bangs in honor of Obama! :-)

Obama's books

So I have just finished reading Obama's two books - "The Audacity of Hope" and "Dreams From my Father" and they were both really good! I decided that if you want to learn more about the person Barack Obama, read the Dreams one and if you want to know where he wants to take our country read Audacity. I had a hard time getting into Audacity one but once I did, I really felt so good about where he wants to go. The Dreams one is facinating about his struggle with his races, and how he became comfortable with himself, which is so obvious now to see him. It gives me so much hope to think we might actually come out of this alive...

Also I read a biography about Obama and one of his wife, and they were very good too!