Rosalie

Here is a picture of Rosalie. (Doesn't everything look dreary in this picture taken in January? No green---you can definitely tell that's a winter picture)
Rosalie is the white sheep in the very front, the other whitish looking sheep is actually Aleda--a moorit badger face. Rosalie, I do believe, will be my first ewe to lamb this year. She is looking impossibly big even though she is supposedly not due until March 25th. She is already starting to bag up (which means she is getting a small udder) and she waddles when she walks through the pasture. She looks like a "wide wide load" compared to the others. One of my other ewes has also started to show that she too is getting closer. Maple sways when she walks and is close to having her lambs. She has a side to side swing about her as she nears the end and recently switched to her "pregnancy walk". Anyways---I am starting to wonder if Rosalie is just big or going to have triplets. I mean----she is HUGE. She is a smaller ewe but she looks about as wide as she is tall --though that may not be true!
I think it would be neat for her to have triplets but I would worry that one might be born too small. Most are fine---but there is the off chance. More than likely she will just have twins though since even larger looking ewes generally only have twins. Rosalie's family line does include a number of ewes that regularly had triplets so it's kind of a crap shoot---maybe you will and maybe you won't. Last year a friend of mine had white ram lamb after white ram lamb from her flock---so I am hoping that Rosalie will throw me at least one ewe lamb and not only rams. Color would be nice but since she is the dominant color of white---I expect it may be a white lamb(s). Overall---you just hope for healthy live lambs since dead or unhealthy ones are no use (that's a given isn't it) but we can always cross our fingers for the fun extras. This is the exciting part of the year now that lambing is getting closer. I am going out of town for almost a week soon and it is before Rosalie is due. I was o.k. with leaving that soon (and still am) but I have to admit now that she is so big I worry she is due sooner than I think so I will worry a small amount while gone. I will leave all my lambing books, phone numbers of experienced shepherds and the vet's number for "just in case" while I am gone. I told my son I might give him a quiz on what to do before I leave :-D
Another thing about lambing that is fun: it's basically spring when they come. Yeah! spring. Yeah! lambs.


SmallMeadow Farm Icelandic sheep, Irish Dexters and heritage chickens