It Was Toady

Not yesterday but today. I left everyone in the barn this morning. The wind was blowing, remnants of the storm that tore through the Midwest last night. Checked on the two remaining ewes to lamb at 10:00 am. Nothing, no new lambs. Came back to the house and took a shower. Bob was due here at 12:00pm. He was running late, so I thought I'd get a head start on the barn. Saturday is total barn cleaning day. Rabbits, chickens, goats, and sheep. I thought I would empty the manure spreader and be ready when he arrived. I walked into the barn around 12:30, expecting Pinky to call loudly, Ruthie the same, and the rooster, always letting you know he's around. Instead quiet. Muffled noises of shifting bodies and feet, chewing of cuds, and then the small voice of a new lamb. Lulu's two new lambs were standing, looking, talking to their mother. Lulu is an amazing mother. These are her first babies, yet she acted like an ancient soul, drawing on inherent knowledge, instinct, to take perfect care of them. Nudging, encouraging, cleaning, talking to them in the low, soft tone a ewe uses with her lambs. I placed them in the smaller jug. It was clean and ready for just this purpose. Everyone else went outside. Doors open, barn clean, tails banded on the older lambs. All activity started again, except for a small corner of the barn, where a new mother cleaned and nursed her babies, like her mother and grandmother before. Live well, Carmen