I just can't believe it! Dorothy has not yet given birth. In addition, the rest haven't either other than Emma. Valerie has 12 sheep. Emma and three other ewes were purchased from her friend Lorna who is moving to Prince Edward Island. We had eight sheep at the beginning of 2009 and they were Blondy, Xaviar, Pinky, 1070, Big White/1067 & Little White, Scruffy/1062 and Dorothy/1069. The four new ewes plus Big White, Little White, Scruffy and Dorothy were bred by Limpy in November. Blondy is the matriarch and Xaviar is the handsome, castrated dude.

In April last year Pinky was first to give birth to three rams; second was Scruffy, a first time mother, to two ewe lambs and a ram lamb; Dorothy, also a young first time mother had two ram lambs; 1070 had two ewe lambs, one which unfortunately died, and a ram lamb; 1068 gave birth to a ewe and ram lamb; and last was Big White/1067 who gave birth to two ewe lambs.

Valerie just now told me that Limpy was with the ewes till November 5. So, I'm hoping that we'll have a busy coming week with several successful deliveries.

A photo to Magdalene with her mom Emma taken this morning.

Dorothy still has not delivered. She seems though quite o.k.

Our friends / neighbors Betsey & Denny have been feeding the sheep again today and I am very thankful for their help. What's more, Betsey has been dropping off food for me to enjoy, a tasty chili.

Dorothy still hasn't given birth. She is limping though with that excessive bulk of lambs in her, but seems otherwise fine and had a great appetite this morning. The weather, unfortunately is going to become raw and wet for the next five days and will not be as ideal to give birth in as today. What is important is that she seems content.

Pictured behind Dorothy is wonderful 1070 who developed mastitis in half of her udder last spring. Her udder does seem to appear much better, actually quite normal, after having been treated with a regiment of penicillin, but Valerie decided that it was still best to give her a years rest. She also is a wonderful mother.

Our one and only lamb so far this season is also doing fine, as is her mother, Emma. It has been suggested by friends to name her Magdalene after Jesus' wife.

I'm definitely in the beginning of the learning curve with regard to creating this blog. It seems that whenever I download a photo, it just doesn't end up where I had attempted to place it. By the way I also discovered yesterday that one can not cut a MS Word document and paste it into the blog page. It is also very important to proof read what one has written, something that few newspapers do these days.

Lambs - Spring 2010

During the first week of November, 2009, Valerie's good friend Lorna loaned us a young ram with which to breed eight of our ewes. I named him Limpy, he did have another name, mainly because that was what he was doing when he arrived here at Poplar Hill Farm. During his one months stay, I didn't see him show any interest in any of the ewes what so ever and didn't believe that any were impregnated during his stay. We have since found out that he did succeed with several, but aren't really sure how many. We only know that one of the eight, a young and very noisy ewe, is not carrying any lambs
This past April 6 at 1 PM in the afternoon Emma gave birth to a single, wonderful, beautiful healthy ewe lamb. There have though been no new births since. The gestation period of sheep is five months and there are several that certainly look pregnant and have developed udders. One, Dorothy, in particular seems this evening ready to give birth to triplets, mainly because she looks so huge and can hardly walk because of the weight and bulk of the lambs.
Valerie is in Connecticut at a sheep dog trial for the weekend and it is my job to take care of any births that might happen tonight and tomorrow. Unfortunately I broke my right foot this past Tuesday morning and need to walk around in this portable cast. Fortunately I do have a cell phone on me at all times and can call my neighbors Denny & Betsey for assistance when needed.
6:30 PM - Dorothy is definitely going to give birth very soon. I believe she's had triplets before and is a fantastic mother. It requires a tremendous amount of energy on their part to give birth to twins, let alone triplets, and so it really is important to be there to assist in the births, especially to make sure that nothing goes wrong. One thing for sure is that I will limp to the barn on the hour, every hour from now on until she has given birth to all three probably quite large lambs and is comfortably settled safely in her private stall with her offspring. I also hope that all three lambs will be accepted by her.