Unexpected

May 11, 2026

I checked our cameras at 2:30 am. All the ewes was calm and resting and I fell back to sleep with relief. Maybe my feeling that my favorite sheep Demelza was close to lambing was just wishful thinking.

At 5 I tried to blink the sleep out of my eyes as I checked them again. Demelza was stumbling up the gentle slope from the corral to the barn with an intensity that made my heart jump. I quickly switched to the barn camera as she went inside. She immediately laid down and started straining and it didn't look right.

I got into the lambing overalls I had laid out the night before and ran down as fast as I could, grabbing gloves as I went. But as soon as I saw a grossly swollen head and watched her try her best to deliver her lamb, I knew it was too late. I got ahold of the lambs’s legs and worked with Demelza to deliver her dead lamb.

We were both heartbroken.

All day, I watched her closely. She was so exhausted and sore from the ordeal, she struggled to walk and refused to leave the stall where she had last seen her lamb. I gave her some pain meds and put food and water in easy reach.

It wasn't until the next day that it crossed my mind to find a bum lamb for her. I don't know why it took so long, but within 3 hours of the thought, we were on the way to pick up a little Hampshire ewe lamb.

As we wound our way around hills and streams, the cassette tape I recently picked up played music that sounded like the soundtrack to an old feel good Western movie. The road was more of a dirt track than anything and we saw wildlife nearly everywhere we looked. I will treasure that evening forever.

Little Cookie was one of the saddest little lambs I've seen. She hadn't eaten for 12 hours as the family that had her was running errands in town all day. My 12 year old held her on his lap and she nibbled his ears and cried in little lamb bleats most of the way home.

It was a good two hours round trip and I fondly dreamed of a happily ever after for Cookie and Demelza the whole time. Demelza had tried to steal another ewe’s lamb earlier that morning, so I was sure of success.

It was love at first sight… for Cookie. She began nursing right away and was treated to a kick. We secured Demelza and let Cookie drink her fill. Her belly was satisfied, but her little heart was not and she cried in the stall next to Demelza all night.

The next two days were more of the same: we helped Cookie nurse multiple times a day, but she got no nurturing and she continued to run around bleating.

On the third day, Flopsy began showing signs of labor. I kept a close eye on her. Finally, she began to push. Everything was going well, until I saw that only one hoof was presenting with the lamb’s black head. Gloves on, I quickly felt for the 2nd little hoof. Working against Flopsy's useless pushing, I finally reached back far enough to get ahold of the leg.

By the time I could deliver her very large lamb, he was dead. She stood up and turned around and I whisked her lamb away before she saw it. As she ran around the corral bleating for her baby, I used my gloved hands to rub amniotic fluid from the dead lamb all over Cookie. It only took a few minutes and then we removed him and presented Cookie to her new foster mom with bated breath.

Flopsy was ecstatic. She lavished every bit of her mother love on this very long legged, skinny baby put before her. Cookie soaked in every ounce - and enjoyed all that colostrum, too, I'm sure.

When I did late night lamb checks, I found them snuggled together in perfect happiness.

They are now nearly inseparable. Cookie quickly learned her adopted mama's particular bleat and goes running for her food every time she calls. Flopsy is the most attentive little mama and Cookie doesn't have to call out very long before she comes running to be sure everything is ok.

Their story carries loss, as every adoptive story does, but it's also full of love and the sweetest redemption after heartbreak.

The God of Love - “ah, benedicite!”
How mighty and great a Lord is he!
For of low hearts can make high, of high
He can make low, and unto death bring night;
And hard-hearts he can make them kind and free. - William Wordsworth

I did not get a meal plan put together for this month - and if you're missing it, know that I am as well!

This month has been well-spent so far in greenhouse and garden care and prep, along with keeping track of all the lambs and getting into the rhythms of milking again. We've also managed to fit in some time for adventures off the farm.