TBear and I drove up to Orono on Friday evening for his first tournament hockey game. I had just sat down in the stands to watch him when my cell phone rang. "You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille," I heard on the other end. Whit had to stay home Friday night because he had two games to referee and chores to do on Saturday morning. The plan was for him to get up really early, do the chores and hit the road to meet me at the rink in Orono by 8am for the first game on Saturday. I asked him what was the matter. "Sheep number 5 is in labor." Our sheep have ID tags in their ears. Number 5 has a name, honey. It's Iris. Okay, he says, Iris is in labor and I have to leave to go ref a game! Fine, I said, she's a big girl, she'll handle it fine. Just let Rissie know so she can check on her and the lambs. Right. He hangs up. I watch the game for awhile but haven't heard anything from home so I call Riss and ask if she's checked on the ewe. Yes, she said. Iris dropped a sac of fluid but isn't doing anything more. Hm... it had been an hour at least since Whit called. It sounded like there wasn't much progress being made, and perhaps Iris needed a hand after all. I told Riss she'd better check her out. She called me back in a few minutes. By now the hockey moms around me are listening to me as much as they're watching the game. Riss tells me she scrubbed up and felt around. All she can feel are legs...lots of legs, and no heads. After a bit she sorts them out and delivers a sweet little ewe lamb... backwards.
Apparently, Riss was supposed to be making dinner for a friend that evening. I didn't know this when I was talking to her. Her dad is clueless of the situation and in the middle of a hockey game, I'm 110 miles away, and now I'm wracking my brain trying to think of who I can call to just go over and give her some moral support... and maybe take a towel and dry off a lamb or two. I knew Riss could handle this (it wasn't her first time by any stretch), but it's still a little worrisome when you're all alone dealing with multiple births. Deciding on my friend Tammy, who also has some sheep and lives in the same town, I call Riss back. Meanwhile, her dinner date had shown up just after she delivered the first lamb. I guess she handed him the lamb and a towel and turned to help with the next one. Ayup, nothing like showing up for dinner at Whit's End and winding up being a midwife's assistant at a lambing. It's always a good sign when the young man calls again the next day after an evening like that. He was a really good sport. I sure hope he was dressed for the barn... :)
Riss helped deliver and dry off three more ewe lambs before she was done. Quads! Unfortunately, one was stillborn and another was too weak to make it on its own, so Iris only has two now.
Piebald isn't exactly my favorite color scheme. : ) It kind of looks like someone threw paint on the poor thing, but they're all still very sweet. I love this age with the lambs. They're so snuggly. In case you didn't notice, we breed for natural colored wool...black sheep. We get a few white ones, but they're unusual. Surprised? Probably not. : )
TBear and I spent the night at Nutmeg's apartment in Orono. She made us homemade pizza, and her boyfriend had home-brewed beer to go with it. Those are cookbooks on the counter behind her. I don't remember being this creative in college. I don't even remember owning a cookbook until after I was married. I do remember boxed macaroni and cheese (4 for $1), and lots of rice and frozen spinach... : )
The next morning Nutmeg had pancakes and bacon ready for us when we got back from our first game. It was so wonderful to be that pampered! TBear and Dale chilled and played with a new DS game he bought on our way through Augusta. Then we were off to the last game.
Later we took the kids out to lunch at a very nice Japanese restaurant they had chosen, which was another wonderful treat for me. It's been a long time since I've had real Japanese cooking and I enjoyed it immensely. All in all it was a pretty good weekend.
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