Canines 'N Ewe: January 2013

It's lambing season at Canines N Ewe. This is our first year lambing without "outside" help. Our help didn't seem to help, so we got rid of the help!

Lambing usually starts on the same weekend as our big dog trial..this year was no exception.

Why do we lamb in January you ask?? January is usually a lot warmer than spring time. March and April bring fierce freezing temps and a lot of wind, for every thing there is an exception to the rule.

You know it's this warm in January

This year (Of course) is the coldest winter we have had in 15 years..and of course our biggest flock to lamb (Ever). We were proactive this year and built new jug pens.

These have come in handy ..as soon as they are born we jerk them out of the pasture and put them and mom in a nice cozy pen. Here they remain for 2-3 days for docking and castration.

Although the jugs are handy they cannot make up for the fact that there are still lambs out and about. We worry about these characters all night. Then of course we wake up to this...

After that comes this..

of course during this lambing time (or farm fiasco as it's finest) we are getting our bathroom remodeled...so not only are we round the clock lambing we are living in

for those of you that are unfamiliar ..yes we are living in our motorhome..that's her "barn name" !!

So a few things we have learned over the course of this "Lambing time"..(It's not our first rodeo)
1. It's colder that shit in January (Due to Global warming being canceled)

2. Lambs readily drown in water tanks (no matter how tall or how small)

3. Remodeling your bathroom in the dead of winter (probably not a great idea)

4. Crouching over getting a cold weak lamb to nurse is enough to make yoga look like a cake walk.

5. Cull (the process of me never wanting to see your face ever again in a lambing jug.)

6. One hard season of lambing makes you want to kill all your rams and buy your sheep at the auction barn.

7. Oh yeah and what I wouldn't give for this right now....I will never complain about summer again..