Another Day at the Office

No lambs were born last night. Ewe 0009 had twins the night before, in a heavy rain storm, and when I checked on her at 5 a.m. one lamb was dead and the other was cold but alive. I torture myself with "what if" scenarios where I came out earlier, or it wasn't raining, and the twin lived. Alas, that's lambing for you. And ewe.

But the low pressure system has pushed off, and it's set dry and warm for the next week. And there are more healthy live lambs than the dead kind, so we're doing something right. The view from my bedroom window looks like this -

Don't think just because I'm lambing that my other jobs take a back seat. All the animals still need feeding, Kitty needs riding out, the dogs need their training sessions and walks, and I'm still on call for jobs like goose retrieval. Quincy is doing the hard work though -

There were two out in the middle of the lake to retrieve -

Now that the trout pond has refilled, the Canada geese are trying to take up residence. The gamekeepers have to disturb (ie shoot) them to keep them from breeding on the fishing lake. When the guys shoot one, I get a call to come and pick it up. Quincy loves this job. Spud too. They're both big enough to tackle a dead goose. Now I have three geese to breast out and cook up for the dogs' dinners. The rest of the carcases I will put in the crow and magpie traps to feed the call birds.

When I got the "goose call", I was finishing an application for a part time library job in Hereford. I miss library work, and we could sure use the income. Now that's sent off (fingers and toes crossed!) I will deal with the geese, bottle feed Gregor's lambs, feed the other ewes and Kitty, and organise the Easter egg hunt for the family's children and guests tomorrow. We hide chocolate Easter eggs in the pheasant pens so the children can help "collect" them. Later in the year, the children visit us on a hatch day to see the chicks.  Except for the chocolate egg hunt, I'm freed from egg collecting duties while I have lamb delivering duties.

I do my admin in between farm jobs. On top of everything, my income taxes are due this week. As I sit at the computer, I have two wet circles on my right thigh where a lamb peed on me when I tubed him, and sticky patches of colostrum on my other leg, plus a slash of red marking spray (I've been numbering the lambs). I'm about to add goose blood to the mix.

An office job sounds pretty good, don't you think?

ADDENDUM:

Just after I put up this post, I saw Ewe 00026 with a little ewe lamb at foot. I gave her some time to deliver the twin, but when nothing appeared, I investigated -

A big ram lamb was coming out backwards so I pulled it out and tried to revive it -

Sadly, he was dead before I pulled him out. I never stop being upset when this happens. 

After I moved ewe 00026 and her remaining lamb to the orchard (and the Land Rover broke down again) I poured myself a conciliatory glass of wine. No more admin tonight. I will watch and appreciate this new little life making friends instead -

"Oh Hi, You must be new here. I've got kids around your age!"