Our House, Lambing Time

APRIL 4. Outside early morning -21C. A ewe lamb somehow managed to get  out of the barn shortly after birth in the early morning, before our first check. One of triplets, she was found lying in the snow on her day of birth. Another lamb was also outside, chilly but still in good shape. The mother was inside giving tender loving care to the third lamb. This little one was not doing well so we brought her in the house. I dipped her limbs in warm water, towelled her off and set her by the fire, alive but...time will tell. 

Her responses were poor so RB stomach fed her and we left her to warm up. When she began to perk up I made a bed for her in a Rubbermaid tub & spent the remainder of the day coaxing her to drink from a bottle. By evening she had figured out the relationship between sucking on the bottle and getting food.

APRIL 5. She’s perky, noisy, finally able to get up and walk around but not out of the woods yet. Her back legs are swollen, don’t seem to work all that well, probably frost bitten. We are sharing the mostly unspoken reality that she may have to be euthanized. Life and death struggles/decisions are not uncommon on a farm. We are not insensitive, just realistic. Here’s hoping the damage to her limbs is not too great. Today is warmer on the thermometer but humid, snowing, no sun. Hoping for better weather, a successful lamb crop, and not too much heartbreak.

The mother of the triplets decided that the other lamb that was found outside was not hers and has been refusing to feed her. This is not uncommon when lambing is disrupted and confusing. So she is now confined in a stanchion, keeping her from batting the unwanted lamb away from her teats. This hungry lamb had a happy and long session under her mother, sucking happily, tail wagging, filling up her belly. After 3 or 4 days the ewe is expected to change her mind and decide this is her offspring after all. Her smell after ingesting her mom’s milk will change, become the same as the accepted lamb’s smell. This process is also used when fostering another ewe’s lamb if the mother ewe is unable to feed it.

APRIL 6. The lamb in the house is eating well but seems to be having a harder time getting up.... I’m worried.

A sad thought - in many countries throughout the world during this pandemic, doctors are forced to make the same life and death decisions for members of their flock - prognosis poor, save those who have a better chance. What a terrible, disheartening position to be in for a person who is dedicated to saving lives.

Raisin Bread

Raisin Bread

A good friend who has a bread maker told me he made a loaf of raisin bread and took it to his mom for a treat. Just mentioning raisin bread got my husband and I salivating. In saner times I’d pick up a loaf now and then at the grocery store, but these are really unprecedented crazy times - not going to the store anytime soon. I have been making my own bread for many moons and I always use part of the dough for cinnamon buns, just roll it out and spread butter, cinnamon and sugar on top, jelly roll it up and cut into pieces. They are delicious and don’t last very long, grazed on until gone, usually in a day or two. But I’ve never made raisin bread and wouldn’t want to make a whole batch (5 loaves) cause there’s only two of us and I don’t have sufficient freezer space to store the extras. But I guess isolation brings on the desire to try new things in the kitchen so....

I made my usual bread dough adding only 10 of the 12 cups of flour called for in my recipe. I separated off 2 cups of this mix to a separate bowl and let the two batches rise in their covered bowls. Since I hadn’t added all the flour yet the first rise was somewhat gooey. I sprinkled cinnamon over the top of the risen dough in the small bowl, added approximately 1/8 cup sugar, 1/8 cup butter and a handful off softened raisins (I boiled the  raisins in a bit of water to plump them up) and mixed all this in. I kneaded the two batches separately on a heavily floured counter to arrive at a more bread like consistency, left them to rise again. After this second rising I formed 3 regular loaves, one raisin bread loaf, and one batch of cinnamon buns, let all rise again and baked at 375 till done.

I’m happy to say my raisin bread turned out quite yummy and went as fast as  the cinnamon buns, a couple more slices and it’s gone.

🎶 Mama’s little baby loves raisin, raisin, mama’s little baby loves raisin bread 🎶