Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool?

Well, this little bit doesn't but it sure is sweet! Today "we" had a baby. A pure black little male and we saw it when it was about 20 minutes old lying down by its mom under a piece of metal Beth had leaning in the field for just that purpose. It was one of two but the other one died or was born dead with a very unpleasant disfigurement I won't describe. This little bit tried getting up a time or two but balance was not one of its fine skills at that moment.
Later when Mom was a little more relaxed, Beth picked up the baby and holding it at Mom's eye level she backed up into a fenced field and Mom went with her. She held it at her eye level because Mom would be looking down for it where she expected it to be and not follow Beth if the baby were up high, in fact might go back to the shed where the smell of the baby is if she couldn't see it.

After lunch, we were able to go into the pen to give Mom some extra food and the baby stayed close by. Because Beth let me feed the Mom, I was able to reach out and pet it. Perhaps tomorrow I'll be allowed to pick it up. We have to leave tomorrow and if we didn't have train reservations to go to Edinborough, I might beg another night or two for us because all the rest of the ewes look like they are about to POP! Especially "Milky" who is obviously going to have twins. I mean, if you could ride her, your legs would be sticking straight out!

Ground water here on the farm is quite a problem. There is apparently a very old underground field drain that has silted up over the who knows how many years it has been here, maybe a hundred, and is not draining the water so it is backing up all over the front field so a neighbor who has a couple of different size diggers, the kind you ride around inside a cab, has been digging trying to find where it is leaking. When he and Beth realized that it was irreparable, they decided to build a large pond to hold the water and create a drain off from it. Beth is delighted because she has been wanting a pond for quite some time so Neil started digging it out yesterday and finished it today with his small digger and has almost finished the drain down to the bottom of the field, about 150 long.
John and I went over to view the pond progress this morning and curious me wanted to walk over to see the other side and not realizing how much ground water there was in this area got stuck in the mud with my "spotted" wellies and I mean I was stuck! Both feet!! If you've ever done any yoga, I was in the goddess pose - feet splayed about 2 feet apart and knees bent and nowhere to go. John had to grab one arm as I slushed my left foot up and down trying not to pull my foot out of the boot because it would have landed in the mud in sock only. When I got that one out, he and Beth had to pull me out together to get the other one out. At this point, I have no idea where the left foot went to avoid getting stuck in another spot but out I got. Of course, I was laughing so hard the whole time, I wasn't much help! Thank goodness John was too busy helping me to get a picture!

The drain Neil has dug is over 2 feet deep and at least a foot wide and Beth feared that any new lambs might fall in there so she decided to move all "the girls" to an enclosed field. So with the call "Sheep!" all 14 came running, some waddling because they are ALL pregnant and followed her into the field expecting something to eat. Food and family and the flock is everything. Not much different than some of us!

Speaking of food, we gathered eggs this morning from the three hens (they used to have about 240). Picked up a dozen which John and I carried in our pockets up to the egg sorting machine! When they had all those hens, they had to sort them so Beth sorted these just for a demonstration. What an amazing thing - it sorts by weight and gently dumps them into the proper tray and along the way, it the light is turned on, candles them. Then we went inside and had them for breakfast! Beth and John plan to start another egg production by ordering 60 chicks. They have 4 hen houses that hold 63 each and they sell the eggs to hotels and restaurants.

And speaking of food, the four of us went to a nice little restaurant in the village and 3 out of four of us had fish and chips! Oh, heaven. And if we eat it often, it might send us to heaven much sooner than we had planned!