April 15 Out to do barn check last night at 10pm and all was quiet, no goats kidding, only one sheep that was due soon, O’Grady, had that far away look in her eyes. Cold and damp with misty freezing rain mixing in with showers of sleet…just when we had had a taste of Spring. Back again at 4am and there was O’Grady with two lambs, one white one next to her and one moorit wandering in the aisle. I was pleased and baffled, fully expecting moorit spotted lambs. She had been VAI’d so I was certain of the sire (no mixing up of the semen straw or ewe). I knew she was bred to Sigurfari.

Jugged up the mom and babes and gave mom her warm sweetened bucket of water and some of the lovely hay we have stashed for lambing. Still wondering about the lambs. Was it one giant spot and one mini spot that I hadn’t seen? Lambs weighed, ram 8.5, ewe nearly 7 pounds, umbilical cords trimmed and dipped in iodine, a couple squirts of Baby Lamb Strength Oral each and back to mom. Helen’s Girl, looking huge and mournful, ready to have her lambs born, was resting with no sign of imminent labor.  Sadie, ever wary, was chewing cud and not looking interested in having lambs today, giving me the eye, and reminding me that she isn’t due for 3 more days. Lights off, back to the house. Still freezing drizzle and the dirt driveway had a slippery feel underfoot, and the trees a dusting of ice.

Time for coffee!, no sense trying to crawl back into bed. Puppies out, puppies back in, coffee made, still wondering about those lambs. I could see that AI sire’s picture in my mind, lots of moorit on a spotted sheep, and O’Grady is moorit grey spotted with moorit just on her face and head. Ahh, the light dawns on me, as the coffee hits my brain, and I find the AI catalogue, looking up Sigurfari…that the sire’s picture firmly entrenched in my mind was Skrauti, not Sigurfari! So my giant spot is really a white lamb and the mini spot is a solid moorit lamb. My brain is again engaged, the second cup of coffee poured, let the day begin, Mystery solved.