Prepare for lambing!

Written March 8, 2015: We are only a week away from our first due date at Aries Crossing.  I am nervous, anxious, and excited.  We have restocked our supplies and need to prep our lambing pens tomorrow.   Thirteen ewes are due in a roughly two-week period starting late next week.  Our first round of deliveries will be our second time mothers.  These will be likely to produce an average of two lambs each so we are going to be very busy.  We only had two sets of twins last year and we lost one baby who was abandoned by mom in the field before we could get there in time.  

Hopefully we have everything we need and all goes well.  We have lube and gloves to assist in delivery if needed though we have no experience with the obstetrical side of lambing.  We have dextrose.  We have our Udderly EZ milker to collect colostrum or milk as needed.  We have formula for a bottle lamb and colostrum replacer which we probably won't use.

Today I bought several yards of fleece to make little wearable lamb blankets.  The weather has been cold.  Last year March was in the single digits many nights.    We had a few lamb blankets but wished we had more.  This year, with perhaps 30 lambs coming during the cold weather, we will be better prepared.  We got more of the pre-made lamb sweaters from premier but I wish we hadn't.  It is a very simple design and i am making 16 for less than a dollar a piece.   I've got prettier colors than the plain red and blue that Premier offers.  I can't wait to see all the little lambs in all these colorful blankets in the field.