I saw my first black pansy today, we bought it at the hardware store, we began planting our gardens today, it was a beautiful spring day. As the light moved through the sky, the purple heart of the pansy glowed, then the yellow. It was a portrait of the creative spark, come to life.
We went over to Jenna Woginrich’s farm this morning to get some goat’s milk, we’ve begun a supplemental feeding program for Ma’s lambs, they look healthy but a bit thin to me. They took the goat’s milk but were not ravenous which tells me they are getting a lot from Ma. We have been supplementing Ma’s diet all week, giving her grain fresh hay, she is beginning to regain her strength and form, her belly is beginning to fill out a bit.
Bottle-feeding lambs makes me intensely uncomfortable, they attach to people rather than sheep and they can often never return to a flock again, they often don’t know how to be sheep. They can also become insufferable pests. I have strong feelings about not altering the natural life of animals so that humans can feel good, but other people have different ideas and theirs are as good as mine. Supplemental feeding works for me, because the lamb still sees the mother as the primary food source and doesn’t overly attach to human beings.
I think this will work out, Ma and her lambs have bonded strong. Mother and lambs are still to think, we are working to fatten them up a bit. We’ll bottle feed two or three times a day for a month or so. We also have the vet coming Wednesday, she will check everybody out. Jake needs to be banded, Ma still has some issues with fluid and afterbirth, it’s important to check Zelda for mastitis – ewes with full udders and no lambs can be susceptible to that. Our lambing season is not quite done yet, we’ll be bottle feeding Deb and Jake for a month or so.
Sat outside and caught some rays with Simon and Lulu and Fanny. Donkeys are prey animals, they rarely lie down together in the sun, at least one of them is always standing guard. Today, they seemed to feel safe enough to relax and lie down.
