Saturday, March 2

Good morning farmers. It's almost 5 am, light wind, 11*. Brrrr. I'm still up (and a bit cold) from checking sheep. It turned into a night with lots of activity after 2 quiet ones. First there was a set of twins laying flat on their sides on the frozen ground, I almost missed seeing them. Several ewes ran from the area as I came walking through and then I saw the lambs. One ewe came back and was talking to the babies. I picked up the lambs and started for the barn with her following and circling and getting in my way. Half way there I realized she wasn't the mother but the lambs were too cold to waste time looking for an airhead mom so I kept going. I buzzed the owner on the intercom, told him I had brought in seriously cold lambs that needed a warmup in the sink, and took them to the house. We got them into a utility sink with warm water and he tended to them while I went back to the field to bring in another ewe with a lamb. I spotted the mother of the twins so then went back and brought about half the flock to the corral behind the barn just to get her. By this time the owner was at the barn with the warmed lambs wrapped in towels. They were tube fed some warmed colosturm and put into the prewarmed barrel we call the warming oven. We opened the barn doors and put the sheep into the barn, Paul grabbed the airhead ewe with a leg hook and we got her into a pen. After she had settled down we set up a heat lamp to make a warm corner, brought her lambs to her pen and watched to see if she would mother them. We are hoping for the best here, we didn't see much interest but she didn't reject them either. It is amazing that 2 nearly dead lambs can be on their feet in less than 2 hours. Now I am going back to bed and see if I can get more sleep. Have a great day, count your blessings.