After doing my round of morning bottle feedings and chores I went to town with a list of things to pick up in anticipation of Mattie's leaving to work in NJ. He was lowering one wall of old wooden stanchions that runs the length of the barn on each side. That way I could pass feed through the slats without being mobbed. He was making a heck of a lot of noise with saws and a nail gun. I went to the dollar store and bought him a trac phone with 300 minutes. We'll see how long they last...Matt LOVES to talk to clients on the cell phone and we gave ours up for budget reasons. They don't work in Brookfield anyway and he never spent more than 60 seconds on the phone with me! Then I got propane, filled up the truck with gas ($2.73 now - and we are dying for the Arabs every day - how can OPEC do this to us?) and went to Wal-Mart to buy myself some underwear. My Silkies hang in shreds under my jeans. There was no silk in Wal-Mart but I got some stretchy nylon work-out tights. I couldn't help but linger with the masses and took more time than I thought I would. Bad Shepherd!! Bad Shepherd!! When I got home Matt excitedly told me Fiona had her babies out in the snow! We think she was upset by the noise and went out of the barn to give birth. There was a cold driving snowy wind all day yesterday and it could have been disastrous if Matt hadn't found them. Now Fiona had a bad experience last year with birthing. She had been locked in a pen with the rest of the flock all night waiting for the shearer to come the next morning. She had waited her turn to be shorn, which took a few hours, then after being shorn went to the back of the field to give birth - with neighbors and their kids watching! Poor Fiona, she had not had food or water for almost a whole day and had a prolonged twin birth with all those strangers watching. No wonder she dropped those babies and said "I'm outtahere!" It looked like she wanted to do the same thing this year...but I think it might be okay. She wouldn't follow Matt and the twins, one of each, back to the pen so he had to bring them in and then drag her over. I found them still wet with Fiona totally ignoring them. I did my clip, dip and strip and we got Fiona nursed out. Her udder and teat configuration is not advantageous to nursing. Fiona is short and her teats hang very low. The babies would have to bend down to suck in the teat and nurse. I got a belly full of colostrum in both of them - Bridie and Brendan - but was worried about little Bridie. She's soooo tiny and didn't stand up. I decided to take her inside for the night. Brendan is bigger, stronger and was already searching for the nipple. I laid Fiona down and got that big swollen teat in his mouth so he would know what it's for. As I was doing that I heard a "meeep, meeep" coming from behind me. I turned to see Miranda lying next to a newborn! There had been two births while I was gone shopping!! I got her jugged up with her new little ram lamb - Paddy (after all it was St. Patrick's Day) and did the routine all over again.
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