A Day In The Life Of A Shepherdess

I've been trying to think of the best way to describe my experiences of the past couple months, but I'm not really sure how to go about it. So, I think I'll just start with today. Here's what happened

I woke up at 6am, it's dark. I make a big pot of coffee for everyone. I mix up the milk replacer and feed the 19 baby lambs. I gave them new straw for bedding and they went nuts, bouncing with their uncoordinated limbs, hitting each other, the walls, the panels, the water bucket. Oh the joy of straw in the morning. Got a panicked call that there was chaos in the barn, so we put on our jackets and boots and headed down the hill making jokes about what the chaos could be. The chaos: one sheep had twins, another sheep had been in labor all night and hadn't had any of her babies yet but decided that one of the twins must be hers. Meanwhile, the 40 other sheep are running around like bimbos because they want food. We give them food, get the twins with their mama in a pen. Meanwhile we stick a hand into the one who had had contractions all night and pull out a little white ewe, stick hand back in and pull out a little black ewe. We put them all in a pen. I spend the next half hour getting the babies dry (via towel and hair dryer), clipping umbilical cords, weighing them, getting them to nurse, making sure their mama doesn't step on them. Meanwhile, I see another baby beginning out of the baby-stealing mama, so we pull a big strapping ram out. She's still in labor, so we pull another big strapping ram out of her. Dry, clip, weigh, record, feed, water. Time for breakfast.

Also today: one of the new strapping rams got stepped on and we had to take care of him. One of the quads was far too itsy bitsy and cold so we had to take care of her. Little oven from the other day wasn't looking too hot--nursed her back to health. A stillborn lamb came out of mama with the twins after passing her placenta. The chicken coop flooded. Taught some lambs to bottle feed. Put stomach tubes into a lot of lambs. I cried twice, laughed a lot, took a lot of deep breaths. I really didn't like finding and picking up the rigid stillborn lamb. I started swinging it from its back legs to see if it might be alive, then I held it for a second waiting for it to kick or move like all the other lambs, but nothing happened. And I realized that I really didn't want to hold it anymore.

I really really like sheep. They are fantastic animals. Taking care of them feels tiring right now. But let me tell you about that sheep milk yogurt and cheese...yum.

Slow Roasted Lamb

Itty Bitty opened her eyes to a new world where chaos and tension overwhelm even the largest of creatures so being a fraction of the size of everything around her made this new world nearly unbearable for her tired, cold, and wet body. Without being able to think amidst such commotion and confusion, she just stood up and balanced as best she could and crawled into a dark, quiet, calm place more like the one she was used to. She felt cold, but couldn't bear going back to the chaos. She thought about going back to find her mother, but the cold had seeped into her bones and wasn't going away. So, she curled up as tight as she could. After what felt like hours upon hours of the most bitter cold she saw two big brown eyes, a warm nose, and a black and white furry tail wagging back and forth in excitement at finding her in her hiding place...discovered at last! And by a much too excited border collie. But, before she could react she was snatched up into a warm, soft cavern, carried by a strange, fur-less creature. She was plopped down back into the bright, new world except she had found her mother next to her this time and two friendly faces she recognized from that dark world who looked just as scared as she felt. Before she knew it, she felt a little less wet, but just couldn't seem to feel warmth yet. The furless creatures were blowing hot air on her, but the cold had seeped in so deep that the hot air blower felt nice but moving muscles and bones was far too hard still. She was moved to a much warmer place with much softer brightness. The creatures put her into the perfect sized box inside the warmest place she could imagine. And she immediately felt a liveliness like never before, so she hopped up onto her feet and shook from nose to tail every little part of her body that had once been immovable and now tingled with warmth. Little Oven, as she soon became named, got a full belly that night and could barely move after such a big meal. Although gracious to the furless creatures for saving her life, she missed those friendly faces from earlier and went back to join her friends that looked more like her. Sometimes it's just nicer to be around others who are familiar to you.