The lambsies

The lambsies

Posted on 30 Jul, 2008 11 comments

There are more sheep than people in this country and one day I was confronted with a whole flock of them. You probably all know by now we had a farm for many years. We had an orchard, a pine plantation and paddocks where cattle grazed. The children had horses and that was that. One day a friend of ours asked if we would mind his 40 odd sheep for him whilst he was on holidays, as the ewes were ready to drop their lambs. We chased the cows outof one paddock and closed the gate. Soon the truck came with these sheep and we let them in that paddock, closed the gate again. Sure enough within a few days some lambs were born. They seem to be running around with their mothers quite happily. Then the next day some more were born. But the day after we noticed some ewes were lying down and when we checked them we found they had died. We rang our friend and he said, they were old ewes and not to worry about them. Well, we did have to worry, as we had to burry them. Now we were getting worried: had these ewes dropped their lambs, and if so, they must be wandering around aimlessly. Frantically we started to look around. The paddock had a dam in it, but we didn’t see anythin floating around there. There were some trees in clusters, nothing to be found there either. Then I noticed two lambsies standing there all forlorn near another ewe with her lamb. We walked up to them and held them, waiting for a mother to come and get them. Sheep are curious creatures and sure enough everyone came running. Boy, we had some trouble on our hand. We took the lambs to the ute and put them in the back. It’s amazing how heavy they really are when you have to carry them! The whole crowd followed to the gate. We watched and watched, counted and counted. All lambs there were standing beside their mother. No mother seemed to be upset we had those lambs. We took them home, and put them in the garden. The kids thought it was Christmas. I went to the local store and bought some bottles. Lambs in the night lie right beside or in between their mothers, like in a group, sort of keeping each other warm. I was worried about these lambs getting cold, where would we put them? I send hubby out to buy some paper nappies, yes, nappies, lol. We put the nappies on them and after feeding them at night we left them in the laundry, safe and warm. They mehhemeehhhehhhed, but finally they fell asleep. The next morning the kids opened the laundry door and in they ran inside the house. But it was ok on the wooden floor but on the kitchen lino they started to skate on their little hooves. It was so funny, I was beside myself with laughter. They just followed us everywhere, wanting to be fed. I made some bottles up and out they went. We fed them on the lawn. In the day they were locked up in the garden, not doing much at all but sniffing the lawn and plants. We fed them several times a day and this ritual went on for a few days. I got fed up with the nappies, they stank!!! So, we made up a nice stable for them in the cubby, which stood in the garden. Hubby got some hay and we made a cosy bed, closed the door and they were safe. Pheww, I was relieved not to have them in the laundry anymore. Another ewe died, but the lamb had also died. We looked after all those sheep for 3 weeks. When our friend came back from holidays I couldn’t wait to tell him how we babysat those lambsies. He came to get them and when I told him to pick up those two from the garden he said:”Oh, but you better keep them, they’ll be nice to eat later on!”. Grrr, I could have killed him. No way, he had to take them with him, they’d be feeding from another mother or he could bottle feed them himself. I was not impressed with him. He just laughed, took the lambs with the rest. N.B.You can buy Denkavit, which is milkpowder at the local stockfeed supplies shop, dilute it with water for calves so and so, for lambs so and so. Never again will I babysit lambs. Cute, but a pain in the bum, lol.

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