Enter, Stage Left
Last week I tootled blithely to the barn in the morning after telling Greg I was intending it to be a quick visit. I intended to peek at the chicks, check water, and throw hay to the sheep.
Shortly after I arrived, I sent a text that said something like: I lied. We may be having lamb today.
I wasn’t talking about dinner plans. I made an adrenaline-induced typo/word omission inspired by seeing one of our sheep acting oddly.
I won’t go into the messy details today, but here are the Cliff’s Notes:
- WOW was that an awesome experience to witness (and we actually recorded it from beginning to end)!
- Jane, the mom, gave away not one single clue that she was pregnant. Not one. And I checked a whole bunch of a lot. The other three ewes in her group lambed together over 6 weeks previously. I figured she was sitting this dance out. I figured wrong.
- The lamb was a slow starter. It took him almost 24 hours to get nursing figured out. We learned that determination to avoid bottle feeding a lamb for the next 6-8 weeks could make us try all kinds of things. After a very long night of not sleeping in the barn, a very patient ewe, and some supplemental top-offs from a bottle, we are very relieved to say all is going swimmingly.
Watching a lamb learn the world is a lot of fun. We’ve been loading up the photo libraries on our phones (Seriously. We had to buy more storage.), and friends and family are patiently accepting the lamb spam we’ve been sending. But as we’ve been collecting all these photos and videos, our Chief Ewe has made sure we’ve been paying attention to her, too.
Georgiana rules not by force or by argument, but by presence. She moves calmly and things happen around her. We’ve got another ewe who ranks near the top of the hierarchy who very occasionally takes a fit and puts on The Jerk and chases and butts other sheep for a short period of time.
Not Georgie. She glides about, demanding her share of the conversation, feed, and attention.
I went to take video of little Fitz this morning, and if you look closely, you can see the view lurch now and again. That’s because Georgiana was behind me, leaning against me, slowly putting more and more of her weight against my back and side. Friends, she is not slight. She’s a consequential creature, and she’s got power in those haunches.
She is also not shy and has no qualms about getting right up in your business.
I’m thankful she’s friendly, because the next generation is watching her. Eliza and Betsy are following in their Auntie’s hoofprints already. Maybe they, too, will influence with quiet steadiness.
Here’s our newest lamb, Fitzwilliam (Fitz for short), named for his sire, Mr. Darcy the Sheep. He’s bravely going to meet and hang out with his cousins all by himself for the first time.
Greg’s Got Questions
Thank you to those of you who participated in the poll last week!
The winning question was: Would you care to explain the origin of the roosters’ names, Elvis and Cogburn, for your readers who might be curious??
I think Elvis was given his name by Greg’s nephew due to the decorative feathering he has on his legs. They make him look a little like he’s wearing those white sequined pants and performing in Vegas.
The credit for Cogburn’s name goes to Greg. In a rare break from our Jane Austen theme, Greg took inspiration from an old Western, Rooster Cogburn. I’ve never seen it, but it looks promising. John Wayne’s in it, so that’s an automatic win for Western fans, right? Then there’s Katharine Hepburn to class it all up.
I had toyed with the idea of calling Cogburn after Wellington to stay on theme. We do refer to the chickens as “the regiment” at times. But how could we NOT go with “Cogburn” once that came up? And after all, there will be other roosters.
Greg’s Questions for This Week:
Here are the questions up for the vote this week. I’ll answer the winner in the next newsletter. (As a matter of procedure, the poll function takes you to another page to submit your vote, so if that happens to you, you’re on the right track!)
Question 1: As with all these Jane Austen-based sheep names, I need a bit more explanation to understand the connection. You said Fitzwilliam is named after his daddy, Mr. Darcy the Sheep, but what’s the connection there? (Please be patient with me, all you Janeites who are trying hard to not roll your eyes at me. I’m still learning!)
Question 2: And sticking with the theme of my ignorance of most things Austenian, does Georgiana’s personality match the Austen character she’s named after, whoever that might be?
Question 3: Georgiana’s wool is less white than the lambs. Is that because of dirt or some other substance in the wool or does the wool actually become more off-white as sheep age?
Happy knitting,
Kiersten J
