Laming in Scotland

Yesterday, I returned from my week of lambing in Scotland at Clonrae Farm with Kieran and Colleen. We had so much fun and learned and unbelievable amount. I am properly exhausted after spending a week there. Madge, if you are reading this, I cannot thank you enough for having us on your farm for a week, feeding us delicious food, and putting up with all of our questions.

This was my favorite experience of the year. My arms are bruised from trying to manipulate babies out of their mother's birth canal and my muscles are sore from lugging around buckets of water and tackling sheep but, it was more than worth it. I've become quite the sheep wrangler. They can be really tricky to catch and sometimes the process of doing so can be like bull riding a sheep.

Within the first couple of days at the farm I found this website that provided basic information about lambing sheep. I am proud to say we experienced every single one of those birthing situations, even the difficult ones (it's the best way to learn). This is the easiest way to see what we experienced without typing it out word-for-word. Warning: if you become queasy easily, this webpage may not be for you- Sheep101

For those interested, here is our daily schedule: We went out to the ewe shed every morning at 8 to feed the pet lambs (orphans) and water the nursing ewes, went inside for breakfast around 10, then back to the shed for lambing/feeding/watering until lunch around 1 or 2, after lunch we were back outside for more lambing/feeding/watering/bottle feeding until dinner time around 7. Sometimes that was the end of our day although, a few nights we went back out after dinner to bottle feed the pets again. Luckily, there were plenty of people around to help and pick up our slack when it was time for rest. We all brought some school work to do but, by the end of the day we ended up passing out instead.

While there, we were lambing Scotch Mules. They are a cross between Scottish Blackface sheep and Blue Leicesters. The ewes were then crossed with Suffolk and Texel rams. The babies grow nice and fast. The farm hand says we were there for one of the busiest lambing seasons they've had in a while. I think he said we had over 200 new lambs in that single week. I believe it, we were busy workers.

I cannot get over how cute the lambs were. I just wanted to squeeze them. I loved them even more when they were begging to be fed because they made me laugh. It amazing to see how much they grow in just one week. We saw them go from wobbly newborns to little rambunctious buggers hopping around in the fields. Here are a few pictures from the week.

I think this picture deserves recognition. The lamb stood on the ewe's back then, the ewe stood up. That takes some serious balancing. Too. Much. Cute. 

Finally, after all that, I decided I deserve to get myself a little present. =). New wellies with Scottish Terriers all over them. I'm obsessed.