Day 18: The Viking Horde

Seems suspicious.

Waiting for the feed bunks to open in the morning.

I had an eventful shift this morning. I have helped deliver many lambs here at Hestur, but somehow I had not dealt with a backwards one until now! Lambs can fit through the birth canal just fine coming hind legs first instead of front legs first, but the problem is this position can cut off circulation to the lamb's umbilical cord before its head is out, which can lead to lambs with oxygen deprivation and/or lungs full of fluid because they tried to take their first breath inside mom. Luckily, this lamb needed minimal repositioning and was the ewe's second so she was nice and dilated. I got her out in time and did not need to resuscitate her.

It was exceptionally windy today and the house proved to be a good windbreak.

A very good windbreak, in fact.

I'm sad that I missed watching a sheep climb stairs.

A rainbow faintly visible through sheep and rain.

After making certain the lamb was okay, I was cleaning up when I became faintly aware of a din growing rapidly closer. While my mind was still registering this, multiple doors burst open at once and in poured a horde of Icelandic schoolchildren! Okay, it probably wasn't more than 50 or 60 of them, but it seemed like more because they went everywhere, even into lambing jugs if not stopped. The language barrier turned out to be of minimal issue as most of the older children knew English well and were eager to test out their skills on a native English speaker. The tiny lamb born a few days ago, which I've taken to calling 'Nanolamb' for lack of a better name was a big hit among the children, most of whom wanted to know why she was so small (sorry, world, we have no answers).

Nanolamb getting some exercise with Carly.

Speaking of tiny lambs, here's Pip!

Pip looking more like a marshmallow Peep.

I had a moment of confusion during my night shift, as I moved a ewe to a jug because her hind end looked suspiciously like she was prolapsing and I wanted to monitor her more closely. When Grace arrived, she told me that she'd noticed the ewe and the most likely explanation following an exam earlier was that the ewe had been stepped on by another ewe... down there. Ow. We applied some cream to reduce swelling and pain, and left her in the jug to recuperate in some peace and quiet.

This yearling always has the same exact expression and I always laugh.

I call her 'RBF' but she's much nicer than her facial expression implies.

The ewes may act as beds sometimes, but the lambs also serve as pillows, so it evens out.

Badgerface mouflon spotted ram lamb, out of one of Snaedis's favorite ewes.