Wishing for Sleep

I have a feeling it will be a long night. I see a couple of ewes straining now and then...could be gas, but then they are so very pregnant. Getting up twice last night really took it out of me. It's 5 pm and I would LOVE to lie down and take a nap...but chores are just starting. Matt gets up in the grain room in the hay mow upstairs and shovels feed into the chute with a wheel barrow waiting down below. We try to get as many sheep and goats out of the barn before we do this, or else we have a riot on our hands. Once the throng of sheep picked me and the wheel barrel up and moved us along down the length of the barn, snapping the undercarriage. Trouble is, there is so much snow outside the sheep don't want to climb onto it, and try to stay on the path. I remember asked a Vermont shepherd who raises Babydoll Southdowns how he manages in the snow since his sheep have such little legs. He said, no problem, and doesn't even own a tractor. The sheep tamp it down. Well, my sheep don't seem to want to tamp it down and prefer to stay in the barn. I figure after living in the wild with no barn for five years they are entitled. I will drink a Coca-Cola, which sometimes works better than coffee for me, and get the chores done. We have two moms ready to be let out of the maternity ward...Dulce with Dorcas and Gloria with Goodness and Mercy. They are so fine and I am so proud. There are little lambs hopping all over the barn. Matt and I just stand still, hand in hand, and admire them for they are truly the fruits of our labor.