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Tessa figured out how to nurse, finally, at 1:30 AM Monday morning. We had gone out with the tube and syringe, ready to tube feed her again, but I had brought the bottle nipple on a whim and said "Let's try the nipple again". We had to pry her mouth open, as always, but once we got it in, all of the sudden the light went on in her head and she started sucking like mad. It was a huge relief. I was trying to figure out how in the world I was going to tube feed her by myself on Monday while Ken was at work. The last couple of feedings before this one, she was pretty squirmy. But now that wasn't an issue anymore. Hallelujah!

So the next hurdle has been teaching her that she has to open her mouth and take the nipple herself. She's slowly getting the idea. But she's a funny one. For the first couple days, she wouldn't even open her mouth to "baa". It came out sort of muffled sounding. Yesterday and last night I would let milk dribble out of the bottle so it was on the end of the nipple, and as she was hunting for the food she knew was coming, I'd press the nipple against her mouth. The milk would dribble out onto her lips and some would get inside and this encouraged her to try to find more. This morning at 10AM she almost got it. I haven't had to really pry her mouth open during the last day, but have had to push the nipple into her mouth. This morning she sort of opened wide enough and got just the tip and then sucked it in, so that's definitely progress.

We were thinking of trying to get her back onto her mother, but with the problems she'd been having just learning to nurse, that is not looking like it's going to be an option. We'd have to tie Cozette up again, and then try to get Tessa to nurse off mom so that she would know where it was. Then, we'd have to keep Cozette tied for probably several days until she accepted Tessa, if she ever did. But the longer you wait to try this, the less likely it will work, and we're just now getting Tessa to understand how to nurse on the bottle and she's already 4 days old. So it looks like we have a bottle lamb. I ordered a rack and bottle that you can hang from a fence, and we'll have to train her to use that so that when I'm back to work (taking vacation this week), she can feed herself during the day.

Well, Cozette had twins last night, starting not too long after we got home. The first was a ram lamb, big, at 9.5 lbs, and Cozette was really straining and wailing. The two hooves and a nose had appeared (and a tongue sticking out) but after several minutes that was about all she was able to do. I managed to grab one hoof and pull it forward and that seemed to free things up. A few more heaves and out he came. He was quite vigorous and was up in about 15 minutes. Cozette was quite pleased with the whole thing. Aside from me pulling on the hoof, the whole thing went like the textbook says it should. About half an hour later another hoof and nose appeared and a much smaller ewe lamb slid out easily. She's about 6 lbs, and we're weren't sure she was going to make it. She didn't have any get-up-and-go, and Cozette didn't seem to pay much attention to her after a bit. She kept pawing her, I think to try and make her get up, but the ram kept nosing in for more attention and Cozette was much more interested in him. We ended up bringing her into the house to warm her up, and tube fed her colostrum 3 times.

The ram had a hard time finding the teats. He eventually got it, but her teats are right next to her legs and almost stick out behind. I think he'll do fine though. For a while he was following me around, nuzzling my knees!

Cozette did very well though. We took her some molasses water and she drank a few gallons of that.

This morning we took the ewe lamb back out, as she was warmed up and fed, but Cozette wasn't exactly thrilled to see her. Seems she thinks she only had one lamb, not two. So now she's tied in a corner where she can stand up, lie down, eat and drink, but not turn around to butt the lamb or just walk away. The ewe lamb is stronger today, able to stand and walk, but isn't quite sure how to eat. She does nose around Cozette, but hasn't found the teats on her own, and even when I put her directly onto a teat, she doesn't have the sucking reflex. Bottle feeding her is slow, as she sort of half-heartedly chews on the nipple. We've been milking Cozette although we used milk replacer for a feeding or two.

I suppose I should say that we did pick names this afternoon. Tug is the ram, because that's what I had to do to get him out of his momma, and the ewe is Tessa.

Below are some pictures, starting with Cozette right before she went into active labor.

Tug:

Tessa:

First lambs are due in a little over a week. Ken and I had planned a short two night stay in a B&B not too far away, for our anniversary, back before breeding season and before we knew that Cozette would be due the same week. We cancelled our B&B plans because there was no way we'd be able to relax, worrying about whether Cozette was lambing or not. This will be her first lambing as well as ours, so it didn't seem like a good idea to go away, even if it was only a 45 minute drive. We're still taking vacation that week though - I'm taking the whole week and Ken is taking part of it. Hopefully everything will go well, but I've been stocking up on things that might be needed if they don't.

After Cozette, I'm not sure who will be next. Penny, Rose, and Orange are all due about mid-April, and Quinn, if she's pregnant, would be due at the end of April. Quinn is playing with us, making us think one day she is pregnant and the next day she's not. I'm leaning towards that she is, but I'll probably change my mind again.

Right at the moment, we are having a huge thunderstorm. It's been alternating between downpours and showers, and the water is rapidly rising in the ditches. We had gotten the chicken yard and part of the pasture successfully pumped out, and then today's rain undid all that in just a few hours. And now the heavy rain is coming down and it's really getting flooded around here. The next four days are supposed to be clear and warm, which is good news.

The radar says the system is almost past us now. Good thing, because otherwise we might have wanted to start building an ark. But I guess that's not going to be necessary.

Feels like we've gone back in time to last fall when it wouldn't stop raining. We had a sudden warm up recently, and all the snow melted in two days. All the ditches and creeks were running full to the brim and they had a flash flood watch for some areas. We don't get flash floods around here, not like the ones where rivers crest and wash down streets or anything, but all the low-lying areas, big and small, fill with water. Somehow the town engineers managed to figure out how to move water north towards the lake, but it's a slow process given the lack of significant slope in this area.

So, our poor sheep are once again surrounded by water. They have a dry shelter and partially dry-ish yard, but everywhere else is either under water or very squishy. It would be impossible to have sheep here at all except that this waterlogged condition is basically limited to several weeks in spring (except of course for last fall). The areas now covered by water turn into lush lawn/pasture later in the season. The spring water does provide us with several weeks of various frog and toad choruses, which is nice, and I guess we'd miss it if it didn't occur. Of course, then there are the mosquitoes.....

We cleaned out the ram pen tonight. It was getting rather...ripe... in there. The bedding was piled up about a foot and was starting to cook pretty well in some spots as we found when we started to dig. We didn't want the barn burning down, so we forked out (or rather, my husband forked out) the bedding and we replaced it with clean straw. The old stuff we piled at one end of the garden to continue its journey into compost.

The chickens I think are really enjoying the warm weather and the muddy conditions. Makes it easier to hunt for worms. They spent all of the cold part of winter in the coop, even though we opened the door every day, but at the first real sign of spring they started popping out. Probably had cabin fever by that point.

The first lambs are due in about 3 weeks. I hope it dries up some by then!

It's not technically Spring yet, but it felt like it today. Here's some photos of the sheep and chickens enjoying the weather.