Minds blurred by lack of sleep thanks to the lambs

Nestling among the eggs in the hen hut, I came upon one that brought a huge smile to my face. A lone guinea fowl egg. One of the few fowl remaining from John’s cull of the whole guinea fowl flock has started to lay at last.
Mrs Downs DiaryMrs Downs Diary
Mrs Downs Diary

Mind you I could have been fantasising.

Our minds are in such a blur from lack of sleep following lambing, it could just be an oddly shaped egg with a pointy end. Spring has truly sprung.

Not that we could doubt it with fields full of ewes and lambs, roadside verges blazing with bright yellow daffodils and the occasional day of balmy weather and blue blue skies.

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There are now only a couple of ewes left to lamb, those ladies that missed their chance with the tup the first time round.

But both ewes are bagging up (their milk is coming in) and look due to lamb soon.

Tonight maybe.

Today my legs are quite heavily bruised today after a contretemps with a bolshie ewe last night.

I had gone out to her at about eleven o’ clock (John already being in bed fast asleep) and she had one lamb, but was straining to deliver another.

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After leaving her for fifteen minutes, I went back to see a second lamb gamely struggling to its feet and sneezing to clear its nostrils of mucus.

All was well. But as the lambs were less than average size I presumed she would have a third and the best place for her now was in a pen.

Not according to the ewe. Every time I picked up one of the lambs she head butted me.

I turned to walk away and carry both slippery lambs to a pen. She fetched me down with a well aimed bash to the back of my knees.

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The lambs went sprawling and I thanked John for providing a generous bedding of straw to soften my fall.

As the ewe was still in fighting mode I decided discretion was the better part of valour, and just took one lamb to the pen, skirting the strawed walls of the barn so she could not get behind me.

She left me alone with the first lamb, continued to bump me with the second, then once in the pen, settled to delivering her third progeny. All was well. In fact things are looking good at the moment, apart from prices for corn being rock bottom.

Our orphaned calf is thriving (will probably drop down dead now) , cows still calving ( to our amazement as we thought we had finished ) and the bull is back in the herd and doing his stuff.

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Well there is a lot of rampaging about so if he isn’t, he is putting on a good show.

In fact we had to make an area in the yard where the newborn calves and their Mums could keep out of the way of all the steamy stuff.

We practice a safe sex policy on this farm.

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