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Here is Sheep #6 with her first twin which she delivered very easily! (Note the "Come any closer and I will pounce!" look on her face...

I was juuuust sitting down to my morning prayers (Office of Readings for Holy Saturday) when Erlend came into the hoose and announced that Sheep #6, whom we have been watching for the past twa days, is lambing!

I'm still dreadfully new at this Shepherdess business so it was with much worry that I watched Erlend scurry away to the cattle byre with a quick, "I've got to get back to tagging the calves!" tossed over his shoulder. Now it was just me and the sheep!

I went into the sheep byre and found #6 straining away in the main pen. I could just make out the hint of a tiny hoof peeping from her woowoo. I crept as close to her as I could (without her bolting) and was satisfied to see that the hoof was coming out with the toes pointing up - meaning the lamb was coming head first!

Having #6 lamb in the main pen can be a pain in the neck. The other sheep trample all over new lambs - and some of them attack new lambs with their hard heads! Furthermore #6 could go racing all over that pen if I needed to hop in and help her!! I looked towards the byre door and considered my choices:

A) Run to Erlend and ask him to help shift the sheep.
B) Then, wait for Erlend to come help only God knows when.
C) Gird my loins and have a go at it myself!

As I watched #6 giving a hearty push (and a few sheepy-sounding groans) I realized that at some point here I'm going to have to try and fly the nest! I can't always rely on Erlend to come and save me when I'm faced with dealing with the Wooly Ladies! It's not that he expects me to become a farmer - it's just that...the sheep are small and deffinately the types of animals that I can learn to become more independent with so as to free Erlend up a bit for the cattle and field work.

So...I could perpetually hide behind Erlend's skirts orrrrrrrr I could learn to fly!

I opened up the door to the outside pen (we shut it when it is raining out) and shooed the Wooly Ladies outside. Lucky for me #6 was a bit distracted and she missed the boat: I had the flock shut outside before she realized what was going on. However, moving #6 turned into a bit of a circus. You see, I have YET to outsmart a sheep! Stupid animals? Not on your life!! Sheep, cows, hens, pigs...all of the "dumb" looking farm animals are in fact disgustingly clever. Sheep #6 figured out right away that I am weak on my left side due to my ankle. And so every time I tried to herd her towards the open gate (we have two gates: one leads outside, the other leads to the byre passage) she would dance left, right, left - and then dive to the left leaving me choking in her dust!

I never knew that a lady giving birth could move so fast...

(My ankle is getting better by the way! I can take a walk across the big field on calm evenings with Elsie-yow and oggle the birds living on the "Rough Bit" Erlend has set aside for the winged critters!)

Ok, so, my last two careers (Navy and fire service) taught me a lot about problem solving and dealing with situations NOW. Was I about to be outwitted by a hugely pregnant lumbering sheep in labor and have to run crying to Erlend? NO WAY!! I snatched up a sheep hurdle (a small gate of sorts) and used it to persude Her Ladyship to move her butt the heck OUT of the pen, thank you kindly. Faced with a gate she merrily moved along out of the pen, down the passage and right into the waiting lambing pen.

I hid off in the shadows and observed her for several minutes as I'm still learning about these things. I was having a good look at her so that I could hopefully recognize a laboring yow from the TV screen in the bedroom at some ungodly hour. The signs of labor turned out to be blatantly obvious: even a blind man could figure it out! I watched as over and over again one wee hoof emerged and then disapeared back into the depths of Madam Sheep. Hmmm. One hoof. Was this good?? I dinae ken. Was it bad? I dinae ken. What should I do? (Run to Erlend! Get Erlend! AAAAAAH!)

No. I refused to run crying to Erlend! I decided I'd put on a glove and have a feel and see if everything was normal and ok! And I did just that: I caught Madam Sheep and poked a few (lubricated, I'm not cruel!) fingers into the Holy of Holies and behold! there was another hoof just alongside, and a bit behind, the first hoof. And behold! (OUCH!!) there was the head and the little beast bit me!

It felt to me as if both hooves were front hooves and they belonged to the little lamb. So now I'm going to leave Madam Sheep alone for half an hour and then go see if she's made any progress. She's a gimmer (first time mom) so Erlend said she needs an extra hour to deliver as everything is a bit tight "down there" and she's probably tense and scared - which makes everything tighter! I've seen several heefers give birth and many of them are quite terrified as if they have no idea what on EARTH is taking place!

I'll post pictures after she lambs.

Update: Poor Sheep #6 had a wretched delivery. Her second lamb was coming out head-first with the legs back. This meant we had to elevate #6's hind end and I had to push the lamb back inside of her and then fish out the legs because a lamb has to be born legs and THEN head. Finally we managed to get everything sorted out and voila!:

Sheep #6 with both of her bonnie lambs!
Of course, I was in a complete tizzy as this was the FIRST lamb I ever had to really work with. I couldn't find its head in order to place the snare around it so I had to have Erlend do that. And then, I kept tying the lambing ropes onto one leg instead of tying it to EACH leg! I was frantic and Erlend kept saying very calmly, "Don't panic noo. Just slow doon..." He later told me that basically everyone freaks out when they are first working with lambings and calving so then I didn't feel so bad.

Later on after tea Erlend demonstrated to me (with a chair) how to hold a yow in a pen when I'm on my own. I've tried this but the yows always have the upper hand - even with my superior weight! It's my ankle: I can't use my left leg much power-wise. Yet. It's getting better though!