Winter Surprises

    As far as farming goes, we are still newbies.  Every year some challenge pops up that we did not anticipate, and this year is no different. We suffered a couple of heart breaking losses - our ewe, Maxine,  disappeared in early winter (that's a whole other story, you've probably heard)  and earlier in the fall, we had to put down our beautiful  Arwen. 
    After a plethora of lambs last year, we decided not to breed all our ewes this year, just a select few.  Well, Nature, and a randy ram lamb had other ideas.  We do not wean our lambs by separating them at the time we think they should leave their dams, but let the dams tell the babies when time is up.  It is less stressful for them both, we think.   Anyway, apparently one little guy became sexually active a touch early, and lo and behold, we had a ewe we had not bred, now pregnant. 
    This past Tuesday, Rosie gave birth to quadruplets. A brown ram, a white ewe, then a pair of black lambs, one ewe, one ram. Our son decided to name them Romeo,

Juliet,

 Rosalind,

 and Tybalt.

  This does not bode well.  Juliet was a breech birth, needing my husband's help to enter the world. She was lovely, and large, but started failing after several hours.  

    We took her into the house, as she had cold mouth, and was not sucking, and her body temp was way too low.  We got some fluids into her with a stomach tube, flushed out the other end, and spent a day and a half, trying to help her regulate her temp and live.  Alas, this was not to be.  Sometimes, Nature just does it's own thing.
    It is part of farming, and the boys understand, but it is so much better when they make it!

Rosie cuddling her little ones.