Healthy Lambs

So, to quote Paul Harvey, here's the rest of the story (of lambing).  After I lost Bean and her triplets, I was convinced my other ewes would all have horrible times lambing.  I had to leave last Friday (the 4th) to go to the Outer Banks (NC) for a knitting retreat.  I was scheduled to teach a felting class on Sunday, so canceling was not an option!  David was home, and I had a few friends I could call if he needed help, so really I should have been confident everything would be ok...but in my sleep deprived state, I was convinced there would be trouble.

The handy thing I added this year is a barn camera that has it's own IP address, which means I can log in on my phone or on any computer and check on the sheep.  Two hours into my drive to NC, I pulled over and checked on the sheep.  I saw Darla was in labor. Crap!  I called David, and he went out to check to see that the lamb was coming in the normal position, which it was.  I drive another 20 minutes, and pulled over again, and checked the camera just in time to see the lamb being born.  I was SO relieved to see a normal birth!  Darla ended up having twins, a ram and a ewe.  A friend of mine was able to stop by that night to dip the lambs' navels (David's not familiar with how to do that).

The rest of the weekend I was obsessed with checking the camera.  I'd wake up every 2 hours and check, but there wasn't any action until Sunday morning when I was teaching my class.  Of course!  My sister was monitoring the computer while I taught, which was so helpful because I didn't need to worry about it as much.

I could tell Barley was restless and seemed like she was starting to go into labor, but after a couple of hours she hadn't really made any progress and it was time to get on the road to head home.  While I was driving home, she ended up having two healthy lambs.  I asked my friend Nancy to go over to help David dip their navels in iodine, and they were surprised to find a third lambs!  Barley had two rams and a ewe lamb.

The ewes and lambs spent a few days in the barn in jugs, and then they went outside.

I've got one last ewe to lamb, but she's not due until around early May.  Luckily I don't have any trips planned around that time!