They Keep Coming

We kept Maybelle and her lambs, and Enigma and her lamb, in the barn for one more night last night. With temps forecast to be in the high twenties, with frost, we figured it wouldn't hurt for them to stay another night in the lambing pen. The mothers had plenty of fresh water and good hay, and the lambs appeared to be thriving.

How did we decide it was time to turn them loose again? I came out to the pasture this morning to discover that Conundrum (Enigma's lamb from 2004) had given birth to twins overnight! Despite the cold, she had licked them off and they were standing up fine. These are Icelandic sheep after all. I picked up each one, determined that she had gotten each one nice and dry, and saw that we had one male and one female.

We figured that if the pasture was comfortable enough for delivering newborn lambs, it was plenty comfortable enough for the rest of the lambs. At milking time, I opened up their stall, picked up all three lambs, and the two mothers anxiously followed me all the way out to the pasture.

Maybelle's lambs have been tearing all over the pasture.

Enigma's lamb, though only a few days old, is moving around great as well. (The dog in the background is our neighbor's chocolate lab.)