Turn Out the Lights

Turn out the lights

The party’s over

They say that all good things must come to an end

Call it a night

The party’s over

And tomorrow starts the same old thing again.

Willie Nelson

time to put the heatlamps in storage
and go on to other things

Well, it’s done for another season.

Just like that…we’ve reached the end of lambing season. It was short and slightly intense, but we can consider it a success.

We ended up with 24 live lambs this year. In some ways, that seems like far too few. (I would like to have LOTS of something...it would be nice to be impressive for once) But, when working in the barn, those “few” lambs and their mothers seem to take up every square inch of the place. It’s a wild place down there with the babies running and jumping and getting in the way.

With the exception of “Moose”, the single lamb born Dec. 30, 2013, all the lambs were born in a one week window of time…10 being born in a 30 hour stretch.

…and here are the stats.

200% birthrate!

3 sets of triplets

2 single births

15 ram lambs

9 ewe lambs

1 bottle baby

1 stillborn

Largest AND Smallest of season in same family—one set of triplets – 14.8#, 6.5#

the third triplet was 10.4# (POOR mama sheep!)

Least amount of shepherd assists – 2

Best weight at 2 weeks – 30#

Trips to the barn – lost count

While I love lambs and lambing season is an exciting time, I’m also happy to see it end. That going to the barn in the middle of the night is hard…real hard. Maybe I’m getting old, maybe I’m getting soft, but it feels real good to sleep straight through the night, snuggled under the covers of our own bed.

The population explosion in the barn was perfectly timed. Today, we are under a Winter Storm Warning with the current accumulation prediction being 6 to 10 inches (it has increased each time I’ve checked the forecast). Wednesday and Thursday we are in for frigid temperatures and lots of wind as the Polar Vortex makes a return visit. So, it’s a very good thing that all the babies have arrived and are in good health.

robust lambs and good moms will come through the cold with no problems

Today, we will pull the jug pens apart and take one gate off the hinges to make a little more room for the ewes to lounge and ruminate and the lambs to run and play. It looks like they’re all going to be stuck in the barn for a while. Any snow we do get will be here for a while judging by the predicted temperatures.

takin' it easy

Once the jug pens are dis-assembled, the heatlamps put away, all the lambing towels washed and dried and the vet box cleaned and organized...we will move on to other things. (snow removal comes to mind) Yes, we will leave a heatlamp or two in the barn for the upcoming frigid nights, just in case.

It’s time to get the greenhouses neat and tidy and ready for the growing season. In just a couple weeks, we will be starting the seeds for early season transplants. Any work with the sheep will be more maintenance and healthcare and watching "el lambo cross". I observed the first halting attempts at the racing season yesterday. Check this out!