Ramma lamba ding dong.

So, it appears that we are having a break in the action. We haven't had any new additions since Thursday when Lilly finally lightened her load, so to speak.

You remember Lilly, don't you?

Thursday afternoon Lilly started showing signs that she was in the beginning stages of labor. Aside from her physical signs, she was 'nesting' feverishly in the barn, digging up a storm and acting very uncomfortable. I moved her into a lambing pen so that I could keep a close eye one her; I had a feeling that there was a lot going on in that big 'ol belly.

Lilly technically belongs to my sister Marie. Marie used to live in town and bought Lilly a few years ago to keep here, at my farm, and let her become part of my flock. When Lilly started showing some early signs of labor on Thursday, I let Marie know so that she could stop on her way home from work and, hopefully, be here for the delivery.

We sat in the barn and watched the endless cycle of getting up, lying down, dig, dig, dig, lying down, getting up and then finally started to see some action. Lilly started pushing, and pushing, and pushing but very little progress was being made - not even the water bag. I stared intently at the...ummm...'focal point'..trying not to let Marie see my concern....it hadn't been terribly long, but something should have come by now.  Finally a few more pushes and there was something..."OH POO!"...well, that is not exactly what I said. It was a bum ( for those of you not in the habit of watching livestock being born, you generally want to see two front feet and a nose coming out first-in a diver's position....not a bum). It was exposed enough that I knew it was a smallish bum and Lilly would be able to get it out without too much trouble....easy for me to say, but it is best not to intervene unless absolutely necessary. So a couple more mighty pushes and a little black ewe lamb was born, I quickly uncovered her face, gave her some brisk towel rubs and she was breathing and calling to mom in no time. Just when things has settled down, Marie very excitedly pointed to Lilly's 'nether regions' and exclaimed, "there's something, there's another, iiiit's....look!" If you've met Marie you can fully appreciate what this was like for me, and I suddenly remembered why I didn't call her last year when Lilly was in labor. If you haven't met Marie, then you have to understand that she is the type of person that, while helping me vaccinate lambs, she closes her eyes, as she holds them still for me, repeating, "I'm sorry, baby, I'm sorry, little lamb", the whole time. Luckily, what she saw was ram lamb, in the proper position, coming quickly and easily into the world......followed just as quickly by another ram lamb. The first set of triplets we have ever had born here. Yeah, Lilly! What a champ! And Marie did pretty well too.

This is the little trouble maker ewe lamb....I still don't have names...for anybody.

Moorit ram lamb with amazing fleece ( he doesn't have eight legs, that is his sister behind him).

  Handsome Black ram lamb.

"I'm new to all this, but I'm pretty sure this is NOT my mama!"

Cassie's ewe lamb was so happy to have new friends that she had to dance.

"That was fun!"

By the way, the official count is: 15 lambs, 6 ewes NINE rams. Ramma lamba ding dong. Five ewes left to go.