Lamb worries, garden worries, Aubrey worries

Yesterday afternoon the temperature was at freezing and the wind was swirling the sleet about. So, when I got home, Mama told me she was going to “let” me do the evening feeding. She is gracious that way. As I went out to feed, I got to see the triplet lambs. They are tiny. The temperature was right at freezing and the sheep are not like the goats – at least not yet. The goats crowd me and Mama so much when we come to feed that it is difficult to walk forward to pour feed in the troughs. The sheep run off a distance. Granted, the distance they put between us and them is slowly getting smaller, but they still run from us. That being said, when I got to the barn, where we have the feed troughs because of the rain, the mommy of the triplets headed out of the barn, leaving the little ones behind. That gave me a good look at them, but it also exposed them to the cold. I assume they had been snuggled up to mommy and now were feeling the cold air. They began bleating loudly. They were obviously cold. Their mommy responded by coming to them and letting them crowd under her legs. They are so small right now that they can stand fully upright while hiding under the ewe.

The mommy was eating when I left with the little lambs huddled underneath her. If 32° is cold for them, what are they going to do when the temperature is 16°? That is in the forecast for Tuesday night. Sunday night 25°. Monday night 23°. Tuesday night 16°. This morning the temperature was 25°. Mama may have a legitimate worry about protecting the tiny lambs. She will see the lambs early today and determine if I need to do something to try and keep them warmer, but my guess is that it is better to err on the side of providing as much warmth and shelter from the wind as possible. How to accomplish that is a different challenge. And since we were not able to get anything in place for last night, it will serve as a test of what we may need to do for later this week and early next week.

It is almost certain that we will have to replant some of the vegetables I have in the raised bed. The cabbage, beets and spinach are sprouting now, but the freezes will kill off those seedlings. I suppose that is the risk we take planting this early. About every other year, we get beaten by the weather. It is a simple and cheap rework if we do replant – especially since we are just getting started. The only question is, do we wait until later in March or get the new seeds in the ground as soon as this freeze is over? We will see how bad the damage is after we get some warmer weather and make that assessment as we go. For now, we will do our best to cover everything and wait out the weather. Even if we do plant a second time this month, we will be far earlier in starting our garden than we have ever been in the past.

I met Mama for lunch yesterday. She and Nathan and Aubrey went to see Gracie show Bella at the fair. Gracie and Bella placed second in Obedience, sixth in the overall show. Not bad for her first time out in a dog show. At church last night, Erin (Gracie’s mom) said she could have kissed Bella for being so good through the entire routine. Mama and the kids toured the animals – pigs, chickens, dogs and cattle. All the while they walked in the slightly muddy areas of the animals Aubrey pinched her nose to keep the smell minimized. Between the smell and the muddy shoes, Aubrey was not a fan of the fair. When I met them at Wendy’s, where I ate the lunch I had packed for the day and they ate fries and frostys, Mama worked on getting the mud (among other things) off Aubrey’s shoes the entire time. Otherwise, Aubrey was not going to wear them. Aubrey is a very neat child. She eats carefully. She drinks carefully. She wipes up every little drip that happens to fall to the table. She frets about every item that falls to the floor. For that reason, she is not good around animals. But she endured and even possible had fun – once everything was cleaned up.

Mama enjoyed the outing, especially watching Aubrey try to avoid anything that looked like it might soil her shoes.