At the other end of the spectrum where we talk about Misty’s untimely death, is new life.  And boy, do we have new life!  Since January 2020, we have had 50 new lambs, 4 new calves and unexpectedly, 7 new kittens.  We welcome new life in all forms

This Is the season when we begin to think seriously about more new life: breeding season.  The rams are set to go in with the ewes by the middle of September.  Since we are trying to cut back or at least maintain and not grow our flock, we will only have 3 breeding groups this year; moorits, recessives and pure whites.  Typically we allow the rams to be with the ewes for 3 cycles, which adds up to about 60 days.  Sometimes, if we’ve not seen any activity for a week or so, we call that time short, 50 or 52 days.  Due to age and energy levels, we do not want lambing to go on and on and on.  In our area we know a breeder who puts her rams in mid August and doesn’t pull them until the beginning of December.  That’s 3+ months.  That equates to having lambs from January to May.  Our attitude is, if they are not bred by the end of 60 days, so be it.  They are open for that breeding season.

Because this has been such a crazy year, we have not sold as much breeding stock as we usually sell.  We did have some lambs head back east, but not in the numbers of seasons past.  Of course, this was a particularly good lamb crop. We have worked hard over the last 20 years to produce exceptional  Romney.   It would be sinful to send such beautiful Romney ewes and rams to the auction to be human or dog food.  We made the hard decision to keep those animals here to feed out to sell as yearlings.  So come spring we will have some wonderful animals for incoming sheep breeders to start their flocks; or for established flocks to use Tawanda Farms breeding stock to improve their flocks.

I will be posting pictures of the retained lambs as they grow and new lambs as they are born.  I will also get out and take pictures of our beautiful  new Murray Grey calves.  There will be more new calves in the spring.

Exciting, new life abounds!

After I put the girls out in the field this morning, I went back to the yard to begin morning chores.  There was a ewe still lying there asleep.  Only she wasn’t asleep, she had died.  It was Misty.  She had put her chin on a log and just died.  I was stricken; she has always been one of my favorites.  For Tawanda Farms ewes, she was not old, only 7.  The last time I had rubbed her cheeks she seemed fine.

Misty was special.  As a lamb she befriended a bottle baby.  The bottle baby was a trip who had a great mother who had decided 3 was too many to feed.  So we fed Vitae.  Vitae and Misty became friends.  They remained friends until now.  When you saw one of them in the yard, the other was not far away.  I know that Vitae will wonder what became of her friend.

As a yearling, Misty came to me one morning as I entered the yead, talking and talking.  I asked her what the problem was and she led me to a very special ewe who had died overnight.  Misty knew Tapestry was special and that I would want to know.  I thanked her.

This lambing season Misty gave us a ewe lamb that is beautiful and well built.  She weighed 17.5 lbs and looks like a tank. Misty gave birth in the field with no assistance.  Quite a feat for such a large lamb.  That lamb has maintained a good growth rate and her conformation is just as perfect as it was when she was born.  Misty knew that lamb never let her out of her sight.  Weaning was hard on both of them, but the lamb has become almost as friendly as Misty was.  The lamb has been named Isles.

As I put Misty in her final resting place, I grieved, then got to thinking.  Don’t we as humans say, “I just hope I drop in my tracks.” or “I hope I go to sleep and don’t wake up” ?  That’s how she went.  No distress, no pain or fear.  She just died.  We have a saying here when we experience this kind of death: “God must have loved him/her to have taken them like that.”  It’s hard on those who are left, but it’s a wonderful way to die.  God must have loved Misty.

I would like to tell you about my triple star mother for 2020.  Her name is Lottie, a white color carrier, two years old and this was going to be her first lambing.

I went into the sheep yard to check for new lambs or mothers in labor about 8:30 p.m. as is my habit during lambing.   Sure enough there were two white ewes at the east end of the yard that had just given birth.  There were 3 babies, one recessive and two white.  My first question was “who belonged to who?”

I knew the recessive ram belonged to Lottie because she carries color and the other ewe only carries white color.  But there are still two white lambs that could belong to either dam.  So I watched.  The smaller of the two little ewes was just sure that the white experienced dam was her mother; the larger ewe lamb was standing next to Lottie.  I accepted this division, gathered up the three lambs and 2 dams and got them all in the jugs.     As I filled the jugs with hay and water, the experienced ewe gave birth to another lamb.  I thought this was great, both dams with healthy, unassisted twins.

I gave everyone their shots, made sure the mothers had milk and no plugs and went to bed.

Next morning, as is my habit during lambing, I went down to the sheep yard to check for new babies or mothers in labor about 5:30 a.m.  Nothing was happening in the yard so, as is my habit during lambing, I checked on everyone in the jugs.  There was the experienced ewe with her ram lamb, looking fine.  But the smaller ewe lamb had managed to travel to the first time mother’s jug.  For a newborn lamb, that is quite a feat.

So I picked her up and put her back with the experience  ewe and went about my jug check.  I heard terrible sounds coming from the area I had just left so I hurried back.  That experienced ewe was trying to kill that little ewe lamb.   I watched for a minute or two and then tried to interfere.  But that ewe was having none of it.  She was not going to have that lamb anywhere near her or her precious ram lamb.  I picked up the little ewe lamb and put her back with the first timer.  That special ewe  had no problem with the situation.

Now, this first time mother had accidental triplets.  In looking at the sizes of the ewe lambs, I should have known that the bigger of the two belonged to the experienced ewe.  But I let the lambs decide.  That was a mistake.  The first timer saved me.  She didn’t mind having that many babies.

She has fed them and cared for them.  Even after two months, if you see her, you see all three lambs with her.  She is a treasure and deserves her three stars.

 

Lottie is the adult on the right and her 3 babies are just behind the gate.