Lambing - The Crew

A few local teenagers came and helped out with lambing during their Easter break - one wants to be a farmer and the other two want to be veterinarians. They all seemed to thoroughly enjoy their time on the farm and I had a great time hanging out with them.

When there wasn't much to do, the boys (fourteen and fifteen) seemed to enjoy trying to catch pigeons using a variety of ineffective yet amusing methods.

Rosie is seventeen and wants to be a vet some day. She has spent a lot of time working with horses but has never seen a lamb being born. I kept my eye out for a ewe about to give birth and one morning I pointed out a birthing pen in the open area of the barn and told Rosie to keep an eye on the ewe because she had already had one lamb and would soon have another. As I was speaking, the ewe turned to the side and we could see the amniotic sack bulging like a small, purple balloon and with the light filtering into the barn, we could see the nose and feet wiggling inside the liquid. I pointed this out to Rosie and as she gasped at the sight, the lamb was born! The timing couldn't have been more perfect and she was thrilled to finally see her first birth after two days on the farm.

Rosie with an orphan.

Ben with his new hero - Henry, the guy who has the big, rough farm hands Ben longs to have some day.

Ben said he doesn't have photos of himself for Facebook so I shot some images for him and passed them along after lambing. If this doesn't make the girls swoon, I don't know what will.

One beautiful afternoon I was mucking out about six or seven recently vacated birthing pens and turned to see Madelein walking toward the barn. I was about to call out a greeting but she quickly raised her hand to silence me and made a motion to indicate I should get my camera. I made my way down the row of pens and around the edge of a hay bale to find this scene:

The Boss taking a well-deserved nap.