Today, a lamb could be born

Today is the first day a lamb could be born, but it is not actually the beginning of lambing. That’s good, because I have six meetings today.

When Dave fed the sheep yesterday, he noted the ewes with big udders, but none of them seemed sunken in front of their pelvic bones. “Are you sure we can depend on them being sunken in front of their hips before they lamb?” he asked.

I really don’t know. That sunken look may only apply to older ewes who’ve lost abdominal muscle tone after years of lambing. Or it might only happen when the ewes are a little thin. Or it might only happen to ewes carrying twins or triplets. I just remember that ewes who look sunken lamb soon. The reverse may or may not be true, that ewes who are going to lamb soon always look sunken.

So, today we will check the sheep morning noon and night. Tomorrow the same, but by Saturday, I will begin to worry, and we’ll increase our checks to once every four hours. We probably won’t begin going out in the middle of the night until one of the ewes is obviously in labor at the 10 pm check, or until the first lamb is born.

At that point, lambing will officially begin and our lives will focus down to the sheep and the farm, to the exclusion of outside meetings, projects and trips, even to the grocery store on some days.