Don't tell John, okay? This is just between us. I think I may have gone over the cliff with the pet lamb numbers at Struan Farm this year.
Right now our happy little flock numbers nine. We lost three, two unnamed ewes who didn't survive that first critical day due to unspecified defects, and Calvin, who'd been rejected by his mum and stopped drinking his bottles.
I've been instructed that I need to tell anyone who offers us more that the gate is shut. Given my sense of being somewhat overwhelmed at the moment I'm okay with this directive, unless of course there isn't another home to be found and someone might die as a result. I won't have that on my conscience.
This year's pet lamb crew consists of Matilda, Clover, Romeo, Trixie, Dixie, Mixie, Scout, Alfie and Daisy. Alfie and Daisy are still in the Pet Pen until Daisy graduates to 350 mls. per feed in a few days, at which point we will have achieved parity and everyone can frolic together in the paddock at the back gate.
Major enhancements have been requested to John's "lamb feeding device" to make it more "Karen and lamb friendly." While John thinks his invention represents a giant leap forward in feeding technology, streamlining the process and resulting in considerable efficiency, my view is a bit different. I've reverted to hand feeding two at a time after an early morning feed this week when bottles, milk and lambs went flying. Completely un-caffeinated before 7 a.m., I ended up covered in milk after one lamb pulled a teat off a bottle and drenched itself and me, with several other bottles being bunted off the holder and spraying everyone in sight. We wasted quite a bit of milk on that little exercise. I also wasn't sure who ended up being fed how much, and we can't have that. While John seems okay taking a "Lord of the Flies" approach to their feeding I am not, and I am the self-appointed "Queen of the Pets." Arise please, no need to curtsey!
And so it's back to establishing order and a routine. I guess know I do this reasonably well. The bigger lambs in the paddock seem to be calmer as a result (yes, we all know kids crave routine). The three big white lambs (Matilda, Clover and Romeo), the paddock bullies, are fed first. Of the remaining bigger lambs (the brown faced triplets and Scout), Trixie lets the bullies push her around, she will walk away from the bottle rather than fight them off for her fair share. I've had to wrangle her to make sure she gets fed sufficiently when this happens. At the moment she's somewhat wary of me as a result. Shades of Pepper a few years ago. Been there, done that, and everyone survived, even if Pepper did go after John's young trees with a vengeance, acting out perhaps. Hopefully Trixie will not be this season's troubled child. She may just be a pacifist.
And so end the latest lamb ramblings at Struan Farm. There will be more, stay tuned.
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