Zoe cried ALL NIGHT LONG. She did not take much of a nap yesterday. Mommy was SO proud that she was on a good schedule last week with long naps and sleeping all night. I think Zoe was just recharging her batteries. However, Mommy had to be at work at 7 a.m. and is going to be pretty miserable today. Her coworkers will probably be even more miserable. I made her some scrambled eggs with onions and cheese and slices of bacon to take with her, and a cold drink because I knew she would not have time to stop for breakfast.
I did my sheep check last night and a ewe was missing. Let me tell you, it ain’t easy finding a dirt-colored sheep in the dark that has found a quiet, secluded spot to claim as her birthing spot! What worries me, though, is that perhaps she lay down in a depression and was not able to get back up. Or perhaps she overbalanced and fell in a ditch. My mind jumps immediately to the worst case scenario, particularly since it was soooo cold last night. As soon as the boys finish (first) breakfast, perhaps I can persuade them to keep a close enough eye on their sister that she won’t dive head first off a table, and I can do my morning feeding chores and locate the missing ewe.
Morning Update: There were actually four ewes who had kinda separated themselves off from the flock yesterday. I located three of them last night, and they quickly rejoined the flock. I figured they were just doing some late night grazing. This morning, two of those had twin lambs each, one is with the flock, but the one I was trying to find has *nothing*. She is, however, calling for lambs. I’d be worried, but she’s in no distress, eating and walking around, so I’m not *too* concerned about the prospect of a malpositioned lamb. This morning, with two little boys accompanying me on my rounds, she wouldn’t let me get close to her, but I was able to get her in the pasture with the other new mothers and their lambs. This afternoon, with Zoe in arms as Papa and the boys are off doing Man Things at Home Depot, well, the GYN exam ain’t gonna happen either.
Maybe the videos will kinda show why finding my Tunis ewes at night out on my brown, dead grass pastures is a little…challenging. The lambs are boinging a little but not tearing around the pasture yet. Give ‘em another day or two and they will be.
Oh, and a mother duck decided that this morning, with temperatures in the 30s, was a wonderful time to go off and take a swim. A wet, newly hatched duck was peeping weakly on the nest, near death. An egg which was was partially open had a duckling moving inside and protesting. I hadn’t had time to refill the incubator, but I’d left it on just in case I wanted to put some eggs in once the kids left today. Good thing I did. Now I have little newly hatched ducklings, too.
