ewe tube in full swing

Today was an eventful day for us at the farm.  We got home late last night to find another little Finn lamb born from Dewey.  Registered Daisy.  She had a cute little white ewe.  So, that was a nice surprise.  It's the loudest little thing ever and Dewey is great Mom!  So, all is well, off to bed. 

We got up the next morning to go out and check on the Moms.  As we walked into the barn, there were a bunch of little legs all around a couple moms.  Dewey had picked up a couple new lambs and big huge Maggie, wasn't so big anymore.  She was in the corner with a single lamb.  So, we stood there trying to make sense of the confusion.  We figured out that Maggie had triplets, spotted black and white.  Two look like little cows and one was all black! 

So, our big problem now...Maggie doesn't want her babies.  After giving birth to these triplets, she's confused, in pain, and tired.  To her, these foreign sheep are a threat and caused all that pain.  So, one of the her babies had gotten tired of trying to nurse on Maggie and getting rejected, so she wandered off to find a Mom that would let her nurse.  Behold, little Dewey took that lamb as one of her own.  Maybe because the two moms lambing so close to each other in time?  Dewey wasn't really sure either, but we aren't questioning it and just let her take care of the new baby!

Now, we are left with trying to get Maggie to take care of the other two.  She will allow one of them to nurse, probably the first born.  She won't however, let the other nurse.  So, in the sheep world, we confine or tie the ewe and let the little girls nurse away and Mom can't get away or head butt them.  They are strong babies and are fighting to get to the udder, so with Maggie tied to the hay feeder with food and water, babies can get in there and eat.  Yum!  We'll give her some time to get accustomed to her babies and hopefully she will develop her motherly instincts.  They are beautiful, though, and all girls. 

Sorry for the placenta in the picture...I don't even think twice about that anymore. :)  That is about how far Maggie can lower her head, otherwise, she butts them away.  Now, our total lamb count is up to 5 colorful ewes.  Yeah!!  There is still a little confusion between moms as they all learn each other's calls, but it gets worked out eventually.  We have three more ewes to lamb any day, then a break for the next group. 

In the meantime, we needed to stay around the barn to watch Maggie all day so, off to Home Depot to rent a mini excavator and fix the water hydrant that rusted out in the barn.  Looks like Paul on his little tonka toy!

A small but mighty machine.  He dug up the pipe through the frost in about 1 hour.  We got the new hydrant and Paul put it in...yea, I did help shovel the dirt back in the hole, a little.  :) 

I'm having fun but this is a lot of work.  Feel like we didn't do much today but I'm beat!  I wish I knew exactly when babies were on their way!  OH yeah, we got 6 inches of snow that fell right after all this fun!!