by CoombeMill
23 February 2012 23:04
A beautiful new born lamb on Shrove Tuesday
It was all hands on deck on Tuesday evening when the guests staying in http://www.coombemill.com/scandinavian-lodges/trebah discovered a lamb lying on the drive to their lodge. It had tumbled out from the field, bleating but no sign of Mum. Farmer Nick brought him straight to me in the house while he and the children set off in search of bottles, lamb milk and a make do home. An old bedside cabinet has done the trick as a home and a quick trip to our friendly neighbouring farm at the top of the lane sorted the milk till morning. (Trip to the pub for dinner now aborted!)
After posting some early pictures on Facebook, Pancake was suggested as a name with it being Shrove Tuesday. Just like my pancakes, the name stuck! I have been doing night feeds and Pancake has been smothered in love by all the children. Even the guests were only too keen to come and have a stroke at the end of the reed run today.
He seemed to be doing so well, taking to the bottle and looking remarkably spritely after his start in life, but things are never so straight forward with animals. This morning we noticed that he was limping on one leg quite badly and realised that the tumble to the road side where he was found must have been worse than we first though. He joined us on the school run this morning so we could ask Richard up the lane what he thought his chances were. Richard farms sheep in their hundreds and has far more experience than us.
He thought it was probably bruised at the shoulder and not broken and that he was worth fighting for. The children were delighted and skipped off to school. I have been watching Pancake all day and now fear the worst. He is hardly drinking anything and loosing the fight to live. The children are going to be heartbroken, they have all gone to bed and I have warned them that Pancake is unlikely to be still with us in the morning. Sometimes farming teaches such harsh lessons to children.
In anticipation of more lambs to come, Farmer Nick and Ted have been moving the rest of the sheep today into new green pastures. The pregnant Mummy's were delighted at the lush grass in their new field and Farmer Ted and I sorted their field shelter with lots of hay as a delivery suite! We are all watching eagerly now for signs of more lambs and hoping for some "happily ever after" endings.
