I didn’t expect any lambs this year. So when Milo texted me a photo of two lambs, I was genuinely surprised and delighted. I checked out the new arrivals myself this morning and took the top photo. There was a fine mist that made California look like England. One lamb is white and one is mostly black but with a white racing stripe. Milo also sent a photo of the white lamb propped on the back of another white sheep — who is not the mother. I’ve never seen that. Lambs do have leaping ability.

Lambs are usually born in early spring. We’ve had a pair born in December. Most of them were born in February. So I thought it was too late for lambs. With a full fleece, the ewe did not look pregnant.

Our ram died in early December, which was the main reason I didn’t expect lambs. However, he must have done his magic five months ago, which is the gestation period for sheep. The ram had grown old and weak, and his systems were failing. A vet said there was neurological problems, which might seem ironic when you think of sheep. I believe one of the lambs is a male.

Last year, we lost four lambs to predators, either a mountain lion or a coyote. We are going to install an electric fence on top of the existing fence. The other suggestions we’ve had for protectors are llamas and Anatolian shepherds. We will try beefing up the fencing.

Life. Nature. Renewal.
Little things in a pasture
Leap up.

We think it must be a mountain lion. There were deep puncture wounds under both eyes. A neighbor had lost two lambs to a mountain lion last year. I’m not sure whether to show this disturbing photo that Milo took but it is compelling evidence. The image has a “terrible beauty,” to use the title of Leon Uris’s book on Ireland.

I don’t know what to do now. How can you keep a mountain lion out? We moved the sheep into a different pasture. Our dogs are away this week (because Nancy is travelling), although the previous attacks occurred when the dogs were here. One suggestion was to have the dogs mark the pastures and that the scent might keep the mountain lion away. We’ll look into electrifying the top of the perimeter fence.

We are also nursing a duck back to health. Last week, he was attacked, which was likely a raccoon. The feathers along the ridge of his back had been stripped and his skin was very red. Ben found him and his girlfriend, Sarah, knew what to do, putting the duck in the smallest box she could find. He stayed there for a full day overcoming shock. Now he’s in a barn stall and each day he seems to improve.

A much more pleasant development is that Sara Silva has moved her 300 chickens and Eggstream trailer into the orchard. We’ll be moving chickens around to mow the high grass for several weeks. The Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rock and Leghorns are proficient grazers, plus they provide fertilizer. It’s quite rainy and when it rains the chickens hide underneath the trailer and then rush out the moment the rain stops.

The chickens are protected by an electric fence, which Sara says has always worked for her. Today, she collected 210 eggs from the hens. They seem to like their new digs, not knowing what is happening elsewhere on Pillow Rancho.

This morning one of ewes was bleating sadly. I knew something was wrong. When I looked in the pasture, I saw one of the black lambs was missing. I hoped it was still asleep in the shed.

I found it in far end of the pasture, alerted to its location by a turkey buzzard sitting on the fence nearby. The lamb had been attacked by a predator and eviscerated. It’s a disturbing sight – the open ribcage, the body cavity covered in blood, the deep black of its wool and its delicate head on the ground, eyes open.

We have a five-foot tall fence around the pasture. It is sufficient to keep out a dog or a coyote. It could have been a bobcat. The lamb could have died from another cause and the buzzard ripped it open. Last week, we’d lost another lamb, a white one. It was probably the same cause, although I didn’t see it myself.

I will move the lambs into a pen in the shed during the night. Yet I know there’s something out there that threatens the lambs and will return.

This morning when I got up it was twenty-six degrees. Just a few weeks ago the temperature had reached eighty degrees. The heat activated the jonquils and the fruit trees in the yard. The plums trees are covered in fragile white blossoms when the freeze hit. The north wind blows the petals away.

At Pillow Road, February is the cruellest month.

This is the earliest date of birth for lambs in the three years we’ve had sheep. In previous years, they’ve come in late January or February. Also, it’s our second set of twins, after a single birth last year.

More of this morning’s photos on this Flickr set.

We went in and called the vet and got her out within an hour. I don’t know that she said “my sheep has fallen and can’t get up” but we said it was an emergency. When the vet arrived, she checked the sheep and nudged it and this time the sheep jumped to its feet and stayed upright. It walked around and then headed away to join the rest of the flock.

The vet said that the sheep was likely fine. It didn’t seem to have any neurological damage, which might cause it to fall over, and it was obviously not blind. It had somehow fallen and ended up on its back against a slope. This sometimes happens to older, more arthritic sheep and this male was relatively young. According to the vet, the sheep would have died if it did not get assistance. A sheep’s stomach produces gas continuously, and when it is on its back, the gas is trapped and the sheep becomes bloated. The vet said she gets calls likes this even from people with a lot experience raising sheep. It happens. Sheep are particularly helpless.

We have to watch the sheep more closely for a few days.