Thursday 20 January 2011

Joy and Sorrow!


Well, I think I tempted fate yesterday by doing my blog. I was going to wait until the first lambs had arrived but got impatient - and then needless to say, have been up most of the night lambing now!

The first lamb arrived, virtually unaided, at about 6.00pm - a really cute little girl who we have called Josie (named after her dad Pyghtle Joseph, who is now abiding in Northampshire looking after another flock of Wensley girls). Both mum (Candy - known as 'the Candy man') and daughter are doing really well!



During all of this fuss, another ewe, Tillie (my favourite!) decided that she might quite like to have her lamb too. Well, it was clear that something was not quite right as she had no udder or milk at all. She spent most of the evening laying down, then standing up and generally feeling really uncomfortable. I checked her at midnight and it was clear that something was starting to happen. I called my friend Ali to help and after about half an hour it was clear that I was going to need further assistance as her womb was refusing to open to let the lamb out. I called another friend Maria who is much more experienced than me, for extra assistance - it is now 12.45pm. Well, to cut a long story short at 2.45am we finally got the lamb out - a little girl which had been dead for some time - very sad. Mum is ok but fed up bless her heart. Poor Tillie - next year girl!


No news on Venus yet - full of milk and ready to go - who knows - today maybe?
T x

3 comments:

  1. Ah, lovely lamb and it's started finally! Just got an advance copy of the book in the post - I've got it four 24 hours and then Jacqui has it! Nic x

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  2. How exciting - can't wait for mine to arrive from Amazon when they are available! So excited!! xx

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  3. Dear Tracy,

    How sad for Tillie and yourself...
    Life is sometimes very hard! Both for sheep and breeder.

    But the very first lamb this year is a cute one! Josie is a fine name, (the mother of our oldest Border Collie)was called Josie. A very nice dog with a fine character, so I think little Josie wil be one of your favorites for the coming time.

    About the asses, I don't know if the hair is coarse or soft. The little ones had very soft hair. But I don't think that the hair is suitable for handspinng.

    We love to read al about the lambing time on your weblog, so keep everybody posted.

    Kind regards from Sonja

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