Rejection is not nice......

 

 

So what do you do if one two day old lamb, one of twins,

toddles alongside a ewe just about to give birth.

That it is the middle of the night,

that the ewe takes herself off into a gated area of the sheep paddock,

an area which should be kept shut because a hay bale fell over the fence into it when Lester was trying to lift if off a pile of hay bales which a farmer had kindly delivered to us a while ago.  But he had a 'big boy's' tractor so could stack the bales two high, a task which was beyond our smaller tractor. Not to worry, Lester managed to roll the other ones down, but this one took a hike over the fence in the opposite direction to the others.

Not able to shift it from its position in the sheep pen, the gate was shut so the sheep would not reduce the hay bale to pieces, which is something they would have joyfully done within a few days.

We had big winds.

The gate was blown open, which we didn't notice, but the ewe did.

The little lamb must have mistook the ewe for his mum, so in his sleepy night time state must have followed her into the gated paddock.

The ewe had her lamb, and tucked him up beside the hay bale.

The other lamb must had tucked up beside it.

 

And so the next day arrived, with Lester noticing the ewe with the two little ones

But straight way saw that there was difference in size between the two,

picked up the bigger lamb and hurried it back to its proper mum.

 

But alack and alas, the night time sleep had been upon the mum sheep, and she had forgotten about having two lambs at foot, so she refused to give any mothering services to the little one, and she roughly head butted him away.

It is not nice to see little ones rejected in such a manner. Makes one want to shout out at the ewe, demanding that she do her duty. Of course she does not understand, because she speaks a different language to us.

 

So what to do.

Go and do something else in the hopes that a miracle happens and that she changes her mind, that's what we did. She didn't. A few hours later and he was curled up forlornly all by himself in the barn.

 

Lester to the rescue!

 

So the little lamb will now have to make his mind up whether he wants to carry on in life or give up life altogether.  His choice. All we can do is keep feeding him and hope that he gets through the night. We have not separated him from the flock though. We find that it is better to let orphaned lambs stay with their family of sheep rather than separating them away. They need to have the company of others, this is what we have learnt from experience.

 

Meanwhile, I have been tidying up the dehydrates cupboard in the front kitchen. Was most surprised to only have to throw out one bag of mouldy beans, everything else was staying perfectly preserved. Most times I use the dehydrated produce for soups, flavourings, and tea infusions.

But they do look pretty in glass jars on the shelves!

 

 

Meanwhile,.....

I made curtains for the doors of this old cupboard I bought last year.

 

This is our dry goods cupboard. We have just gone shopping so it is full.

 

 

This will last us at least for a couple of weeks.

The dehydrates in the front kitchen, the canned jars of meat and vegetables in the back kitchen, and the three freezers full of meat and veg in the middle barn, all of these are feeding us, which is why the dry goods cupboard does not have a lot in!

 

It is good feeling to know that we have enough here to feed ourselves, despite not having any fresh veg growing out in the garden.

 

 

Off to see how the little lamb is doing,

so saying bye for now.

               Vx