Counting Lambs

[Sheepshape]

Ewe harness?

Sorry, Bay, I made it sound as though I had some horrendous torture device..... ewe prolapse harness is what I meant.I keep two and I had to be using both last year.

It's VERY cold here right now....however the cold and dry is so much easier to handle than the wet, wet, wet.

 

[Baymule]

Ok now I get it!

 

[Sheepshape]

2 weeks to go....and horror of horrors, we have a storm known as the "Beast from the East"....a period of Siberian weather with blizzards, gales and bone-chilling temperatures. The water has frozen off into the house, the sheep shed and inside the house....frozen pipes on the central heating system, too. Temp. overnight -10 C with biting winds and drifting snow. No sign of any letup for 10 days or more.

The ewes are struggling....as am I!

Here's a couple of pics...they don't do the cold justice.

 

[Latestarter]

Hate to like your last post... Sorry you're dealing with bad weather over your way. Hope you and the sheep come through it OK.

 

[Sheepshape]

Hate to like your lat post...

Thank you Latestarter. I've been out pretty much all day making sure that everybody got plenty to eat. I've given the indoor girls water (which has promptly frozen solid X3)...but the outdoor sheep are eating snow (which they prefer to stream water....the stream is threatening to freeze off, too). There's no water coming into the house...so we have slip-slides our way over to the neighbour who has filled some containers for us. We're washing in melted snow....heated up on the old stove. The central heating is working in most of the house, so it's on full pelt right now.....just hoping there's no major leak when the thaw eventually comes.We have a very warm log burner, too,.

The sheep are struggling. The hoggets seem to be having the worst time. Two of them remained down when I went to fill their silage feeder this morning.....quite a distance from the house. I got them up and dusted off the snow after which they promptly started stuffing silage, so I'm hoping they will be OK. I've given them extra rations.

The in-lamb ewes are getting extra rations too, but they are so close to lambing I'm praying they'll hang on.

At the end of this exhausting day I'm sitting with an outsize glass of wine and potato chips. Well, there's no water to be wasted...

 

[Latestarter]

Funny... I'm siting here with a couple of ham and turkey (deli sliced) sandwiches and potato chips. No wine though... I'm drinking the remainder of my hot tea from breakfast (it's in a 30+oz < >1liter> mug). I just returned from "treating" my goats. They are as sick of the mud as I am. I've had over 10" (25cm) of rain in the past 7-10 days. Stay warm there lady... Fingers crossed for all your woolly girls and hoggets.

 

[Baymule]

In our snow event in January, we got down to 11 degrees Fahrenheit. Highly unusual for our area, the 11 degrees broke a 60 year old record.

I hope this passes quickly for you and your ewes hold off dropping lambs until it warms up.

 

[Sheepshape]

View from our French windows this morning....yes that's a 4 feet snowdrift.

 

[Mike CHS]

I saw that last picture and had to go put on my coat.

 

[Latestarter]

Holy moses SS! I didn't think you got that much snow there! You've posted so I guess you sill have power/Electricity... Have you been out to slog through that mess to check the animals yet? I sure hope they're OK.