This week, we had a very bad storm come and threaten our little homestead. High winds, hail and a lot of damage lay in it’s wake. We had several friends on Facebook warn us and we always watch the weather closely anyway and knew it was heading our way!
Now, normally, our animals are pretty smart. They all have runs in and barns that they have 24/7 access to, and they are pretty good about using them in bad weather. However, with a herd of sheep mommas and day old to week old lambs? Well, that doesn’t always mean smart critters! So we went out and started to round up the flock.
First things first, everyone got brought in from the pasture and secured in the paddock. They could still be in and out, with their choice, but they were confined a bit more and with two different shelters to choose from, hopefully they would make good choices.
We were very worried about Pearl as she was big and ready to pop! But thankfully, she had good sense and was heading for the little sheep shack and some safety as we showed up.
We were mostly worried about our little baby, Thistle. He had become a bottle baby overnight when we realized that his mom, Beulah, was not nursing him. She was ignoring him and seemed to be drying up. He was very scrawny looking and just unhappy. We had been giving Rosemary a couple supplemental feedings to give her a good start, but we were done with that. Sometimes twins just need a wee boost in the beginning… especially the weaker twin. There always seems to be one big burly twin and a smaller, runty twin. But Rosemary had caught up quickly and her mom, Iris was one of our best and took over.
But Thistle, he really needed a full feeding. His mom pays some attention to him, but more like a reluctant teenage big sister. She is always protective if we have strangers over or the dogs are in the paddock, but the rest of the time, she could really care less. Poor Thistle.
Bonnie is such the herd babysitter. She knew there was some dark storm clouds coming and began to try and get the gang to come into the barn.
Of course, being little punks they just ran around and ignored her! Silly babies!
All the little brown babies! They are starting to be a little gang… it’s so adorable to watch them run and play! I love that… Of course, in the middle of a nasty storm? Not so fun!
We decided to bring Thistle in the house because the winds were so strong and just no one was paying any attention to him. He loved being snuggled and feed nice warm bottles. I believe he would like to be an inside baby all the time, if we let him!
Well, in the end, the storm went about 10-15 miles south of us and we were thankful! There was a good deal of damage… trees, cars and such… and though we did get two very heavy dumps of rain, it was not as bad as our neighbors! I love a good rainstorm, but I really don’t like to worry over wind and hail!
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