Morning Chores! | Foxfire Fiber & Designs

It's not every day that starts with a lamb looking up your nightie.

Holly was here early for morning chores. I'm suppose to get a little more rest this way. But when I can hear the sounds of morning chores over the baby monitor – feeding sheep and cleaning pens – it's hard to stay in bed even though I could use the rest. I went over in my nightie just to say hi and see if anything was cooking. But then I started seeing all the little tasks we could get done really quickly if we did them together.

We moved Calypso and her lambs and Pansy and her lambs from the jugs to the big "mixing pen". Then we put coats on Pansy and Galveston and lead Galveston from her "hospital pen" back to the flock (boy, she was happy to make that move!).

We checked eyelids on one of Cassandra's lambs to make sure they weren't rolling inward and scratching the cornea.

And then, while Holly cleaned lambing jugs, I set up a giant creep pen for the older lambs. A creep is a spacious area of the barn accessed only by lambs through a special panel. The lambs can "creep" through but the moms can't. It becomes a favorite hangout for the lambs once they realize they can find their own grain and hay in little feeders – their very own buffet. They love it. Drives the moms nuts. They know there's food in there. If they could get to it, it would be gone in a flash, they're such hoovers!

After I set up the creep, I went back and fed Verbena's triplets some milk. Poor Verbena is trying to feed three on half an udder. Andy checked it out last night. It seems she had some hardening of the udder – possibly leftover from nursing last year's triplets. The right side just isn't producing. And you should see the three of them fighting over one teat. So we're helping them along and Verbena is a good mom. Doing what she can.

Holly had to leave – she works another job all day. But as I finished up bottling the lambs (above and below, and sorry for the lousy photos taken with iphone), I realized how much I'd got done in my nightie on half a cup of coffee.

BTW Ursa is still a mile wide, no lambs in sight. Maybe today will be her turn.

(edited to fix spelling, after a second cup of coffee)