Lambing has certainly slowed down and our jobs now are more of a balance of taking care of special needs moms and lambs, cleaning, and watching for ewes yet to give birth. We have made decent progress power washing and scraping the larger group pens. It is actually awesome...SO nice to see the poop washed away! I have been picking away at the middle barn where the jugs are larger and filled with packed heavy hay which comes out in carpet like pieces. I have been singing to the sheep while I pitchfork away my 2am- 6 am shift, the ewes look at me like im crazy but the lambs like it.
I arrived for my pm shift and found a mum who had recently graduated from the mastitis group again inflamed and with a lopsided udder. She was more than unhappy to have me hand strip the water out of her left side to relieve the pressure, poor girl. Its hard to communicate that you are only trying to help when you are causing pain.. I made sure to apply mint cream around the udder afterward to sooth the inflamed tissue. Her ram lamb is the best. He always tries to comfort his mum when she is in a panic. She has been segregated again we are hoping she mends quickly before her ram lamb jumps out of the jug.
Melissa had a difficult birth where a ram came backwards. He is slow to nurse and overall is a little quiet. I spent some time helping him attach and nurse. Frustrating to put the teat in his mouth and have him scream and spit it out, but after about half an hour we made some progress.
Little Bean( the small lamb) is doing great!! She loves her moms low hanging teats and has gained double what she used to weigh in less than a week. The splint I have been adding I removed and her leg looks much better. A day with out the splint and I will re-evaluate if she needs one again. Regardless her and her siblings will remain on the home fields where they can be monitored.
Several moms still have to many lambs that need at least one of them adopted out. But the rest of the pregnant ewes are holding on. Until then we are monitoring their stomaches by feeling to see if they have a full belly, if not they are topped off with some milk replacer. This is a tricky balance because you don't want to turn them off of the teat, so giving them just enough is a hard amount to come up with.
I have not taken many pictures within the barn, but here are some pictures from the drive to Reykjavik( when we dropped Grace off) Grace come back..
Here are Graces eyebrows and the terrifying tunnel under a river. It goes so deep into the ground your ears pop. NOT MY THING.
And also some pictures of the landscape and some lambs in the home field.
Another day about to begin. It is 11 pm. Time for a nap before my 2-6am shift begins.
Go Little Bean!!
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