Yesterday the skies cleared, leaves progressed their slow-motion greening on ash and maple trees around the farm, and Mari the Finn ewe gave birth on the green grass of the barnyard .
Howard had gone back to work after 2 weeks of chemo (1 in hospital) and chemo recovery (at home).
Em had gone back to school, and I had the farmstead all to myself. A welcome change on a beautiful, sunny day.
I thought you might like to see some of the steps involved. First, the bubble of placental stuff emerges.
I sat on a haywagon a respectful distance away, and took pictures as Mari bravely pushed those lambs out by herself. Stupid, intrusive chickens hung around, though, waiting to peck at any interesting birthing matter... eeeuuuu.
Seems that most other ewes will vanish from the site when one decides to give birth. I think they are respecting an intensely private moment between mom and babies, but they might think "get me the hell out of here, that looks painful!"Nice job, Mari. The little badgerface ewe lamb is already spoken for. Her mostly-black ram lamb is not, yet.
1 comment:
It sounds like things are returning to normal at Little Red Oak Farm. I'm happy for you and will keep praying for Howard's recovery.
Don't you just love it when you can comfortably sit and watch a ewe lamb, from a distance, and not feel the need to be in there helping?
Enjoy the beautiful day!
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