Honey

Three days old and the lambs have got new names.  This is Hazel, for the patch on her shoulder, which in reality is ginger,   and the other is Honey. They're getting stronger although they still wobble a bit when they try to skip. Helga's a good mother and is very trusting of me... not the dogs. They are warned away if they go too near when the lambs rest by the fence.  

Isn't that little pink nose just the cutest? 

Rocky the Ram seems to have calmed down, enough for me to let the neighbours children in to see the newborns, although I have warned them not to enter the paddock unless I'm present.  In hindsight, it wasn't just the ram who behaved erratically before Helga gave birth.  I now wonder what odours or signals, imperceptible to humans, the ewe gave off to make them change behaviour so radically. 

I went back to my photo of Rocky at the very end of December. I'd noted that he had been mounting the gimmer that day. Five months gestation, Holly most probably is expecting and will give birth at the end of May. Sheep, unless pregnant or with very young lambs at foot, will go into season monthly and I haven't seen Rocky pay her any attention since then.   

Apart from sheepy things there's nothing much doing apart from a dud remote dog collar and flat tyre. Both my dogs are trained to the bleep, not shock, rather than the whistle when working, and I need tyres to get to work.  Tomorrow will be expensive!