Baby lambs - and mixed blessings

This morning I woke up and first job was to check on our baby lambs. I was really pleased to see that they were both still alive.


Here's our twins. A boy and a girl. Aren't they cute! They're about the size of a small dog.

They seem to be feeding regularly now from their mum, and they are both up on their (very long and wobbly!) legs and dancing about.


Here's mum and the twins, down on Dragon Lane (at the back of our property).

Did I say how cute they are? I think I did!


Mum and the twins again, down Dragon Lane.

We have a boy and a girl. If the girlie survives (farmers typically lose a fair proportion of baby lambs in the first 10 days or so to various problems), we'll keep her and add her to our stock.


Here's our wee girlie. I want to name her "Blossom" (it's a family joke).

The life of boy sheep on a farm

We can't keep the boy beyond summer (assuming he survives), so we'll give the owner of the ram, who is a neighbour of ours, first offering on the little boy.


Here's our wee boy lamb. My husband Michael wants to name him "Spock"!

"Mary had a little lamb
The doctors got a shock
He had such long and pointy ears
They named it Son of Spock!" (Gaudete, gaudete etc.)

If our neighbour wants him, he can have him after he's spent the time through till Christmas at our place, helping to keep the grass down.

We'll also return Rambo. If our neighbour who lent him to us doesn't want Rambo and the as-yet-unnamed boy, Rambo will have to go to sale. The baby lamb will get home-slaughtered here at our farm, and we'll offer the meat to friends, for the price of the slaughter.

I know that all sounds brutal, but we simply can't keep any males. We can't risk him breeding with his sister or mother, and we can't afford to keep wethers (castrated males) for no reason as our goal is to build a flock of breeding ewes that will raise a small profit for us.

The only reason we'll keep and castrate him is if no other female lambs are forthcoming - then we will.

We also won't be able to keep any females that have problems birthing. Eventually we want to build our puny number of stock up to about 6-8 breeding ewes, plus rotating rams and lambs in spring. That should be about the right stockage for our three acres.

When next season arrives, we'll get hold of another ram, from different bloodlines, and start the process over.


Today I dug my first grave

This morning was also mixed blessings in another way.

One of the other ewes gave birth, and the lamb was dead when I got to it this morning. It was such a wee little thing, and it was the smallest, and first, grave I have ever dug.

I cried when I filled in that grave, and I know it sounds silly, but I said a small prayer. I wanted to share the experience with you, so here's a photo.

Farming is tough sometimes.


Our poor lost lamb. I promised never to hide the rotten side of farming from you. Well, here it is, in all its misery. I don't know why the lamb died. It's just one of those things.

This is our first lambing, and it has been mixed blessings. I won't ever forget our first lost lamb. But in the meanwhile, I'll enjoy watching our beautiful two new additions to Hazeltree Farm.


Running to mum.

So - ideas for names?

Have a lovely day!