On Sunday evening at about 6:30 PM, when I fed the horses, I had a hard time getting Ranger to come eat his grain. He kept wanting to go down the hill toward the fence between the horses and the sheep. I didn't want Beau to eat his grain and Ranger's, too, so I waited until Ranger finally came into the run-in shed before I dumped his grain on his hay.
Then, I went down the hill to feed the sheep and the llamas. Corina was making sounds more like grunting than baas. Once I got in and fed the sheep, I saw Corina was ready to lamb. I ran back up the hill and told Rueben to grab the camera, that Corina was lambing. He quickly got off the phone with his mom and came down the hill with the camera.
When Rueben got down the hill, I had him watch Corina (she'd gone int
o the sheep-shed by this time) while I fed the llamas. When I came back to the sheep shed, I found that he had placed a plywood board against the opening, keeping Corina inside and the other sheep outside. Then, we watched while Corina lay in the corner. It didn't look like anything was happening, but after a few minutes, Corina got up, and there was a little lamb in the corner, wrapped in a placenta. We had a new arrival to Villa de Micaela. I got lots of video of Corina cleaning up the lamb. I finally pulled the last off of the lamb so it could try to stand up without being tangled up in the placenta. Finally, it was able to stand and I was able to tell it was a ram lamb. I got several pictures and video clips of him trying to stand.
Yesterday, we moved Corina and the lamb up the hill to the pen inside of the shop that we had ready for them. When I bent to pick up the little lamb, after I had Corina on the lead, he just stood still. He didn't even squirm when I picked him up. Rueben carried him up the hill while I led Corina. Before we placed the little lamb in the pen, Rueben weighed him on a baby scale we have for weighing feed. He was about 12 pounds. We'll weigh him again in a day or two. He's growing so fast.
Rueben picked him up again this morning. He's nothing like Joy was last year. He doesn't really run and hide behind his mama like Joy did. He just stands pretty still and looks up until Rueben picks him up. This evening, he was a little more skittish when I bent to pet him, but he never really tried to get away.
We called Micaela last night to tell her about the new lamb and to ask her opi
nion on what we should name him. First, she asked what color he is. I told her he is white. She said we should call him Whitey. I asked her to think more of a people name. She suggested Eli, Jayden, and Whitherspoon; all names of people she knows. Then she started talking about one of her teachers named Ms. Lambert. I told Rueben and we thought and thought about the name. Rueben said Lambert was one of his favorite cartoons when he was little. I remembered it, too and also really loved it. You can find the cartoon (about 8 minutes) on Youtube if you search on Lambert the Sheepish Lion. We decided to name him Lambert.