A Great Farm Diary: Womerlippi Homestead Annals: A lost triplet

Saturday, March 27, 2010

A lost triplet

After Tillie gave birth to the second lamb around 1.00 or 1.30 pm yesterday, I relaxed a little, perhaps too much. Aimee came home soon thereafter and we watched together for another hour or so to see that both lambs were on their feet and trying to feed, then we went indoors around 3pm.

I lay down to catch up on some of my missed sleep from jet lag and night checks. Later, around 4.15 pm and after that, I went out again several times to look for the placenta. By dinnertime nothing had happened and I was worried enough to look up "retained afterbirth" in the Storey book on sheep management. The book said to wait at least six hours before doing anything, so I checked one last time at 5.30 pm, made a dinner for myself and some pasta for Aimee, and then checked again at 6.30 pm.

And there was a third lamb, fully shrouded, and the entire plancenta, all in one package, warm but still. I peeled off the caul and slapped it once or twice to see if it would breathe, but gave up when I saw that there was no heartbeat. Perhaps there had been one when it was born, but I doubt it. The fact that it came with the placenta led me to think it stillborn, being the last lamb after 6 or 7 hours of labor. At some time or other the cord had probably been pinched, cutting off the oxygen.

So this death probably couldn't be helped, except perhaps had I felt inside for another lamb right after pulling the second one out, which I didn't even think to do. Thinking about it, Monday morning quarterbacking, I probably would have explored inside Tillie if there had been a long delay after a first lamb, but not after a second. I just wasn't expecting three.

We've never had a triplet at Womerlippi Farm. We still haven't had a live one. And I doubt Tillie, a rather aged ewe that we weren't even planning to breed, could have handled a third lamb. The two she has are doing OK, but they are small and very frail as lambs go around here.

But boy, Mother Nature is really kicking our butts this time around. Shepherds 3, lamb deaths 2. Not good. I hope we don't lose any more.

And I have learned a hard lesson or two about shepherding.

2 comments:

AnonymousMarch 27, 2010 at 3:11 PM
dunno - sometimes you can do more harm by overchecking... you just do your best. 2 is a good result, the ewe is fine. Perhaps the third just wasn't to be
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MickMarch 28, 2010 at 8:11 AM
Well, considering how tired and beat up Tillie is after all this, you might be right. Now we're worried that she's lying down too much and not feeding the two she has often enough.

But she is back to her feed, which is a good sign.
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Welcome to our Farm Blog.
The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.

The earliest posts, at the very end of the blog, tell the story of the Great Farm, our purchase of a fragment of that farm, the renovation of the homestead and its populating with people and animals. Go all the way to the last post in the archive and read backwards from there to get it in chronological order.

After getting tired of spam comments (up to a dozen or more per day), I required commentators to be Google "registered users". You can write me at mwomersley@unity.edu if you have a serious comment or question and are not a registered user.

Spammers -- don't bother writing -- there's no way I will post your spam to my blog. Just go away.

The Farm

The "Womerlippi Farm" is actually a homestead or smallholding where most of the food is grown for our own consumption and that of our friends and family. We raise Corriedale/Romney-cross sheep, feeder pigs in season, and Golden Comet, Aruacuna, Black Laced Wyandotte, Brahma, and Buff Orpington hens. We have wooded pasture, old apple trees, and a large kitchen garden. We build and maintain our own energy-efficient buildings, service and fix our own vehicles and farm equipment, and generally live a thoroughly self-reliant lifestyle. Our farm goals are less economic and more psychological/spiritual and lifestyle oriented. We like an independent, quiet home life with a lot of interaction with animals and the earth. Farming, building and energy-related engineering were also part of our education work at the former Unity College. Having said all that, we're practical people and grow a lot of pretty solid food and fiber. We're also happy to sell you some eggs or yarn or lambs.

PS: "Womerlippi" is a combination of our last names, "Womersley" and "Phillippi." The one is broad Yorkshire, the other Greek, although Aimee's ancestry and home culture is Pennsylvania Dutch/Shenandoah Valley Church of the Brethren. When Aimee and I married, she didn't take my name. She said she "wasn't trading up."

Why is this "A Great Farm Diary?"

Because the setting for the events recorded here is the "Great Farm" of Jackson, Maine, that's why. (Not because this is such a great farm, although we like it.)

Started by privateer and financier Israel Thorndike in 1806 as a vacation home, the famous Great Farm of Jackson was an agricultural showcase for this area of Maine, and Thorndike used it as such, an advertisement for his private land office business, as he disposed of the famous Waldo Patent, in which he was a part owner. Land purchasers could work off their mortgages as laborers on the Great Farm. Most deeds in Waldo County trace back to Israel Thorndike.

Thorndike, born to a family of modest means, went to sea to make his fortune. He captained a privateering vessel during the Revolutionary War, and tweaked the nose of the great Royal Navy more than once. He then settled to a life as a financier, merchant, and captain of industry in Boston. He remains listed as one of the fifty richest Americans of all time. He was the author, with Eldridge Gerry, of the first recorded gerrymander, and so his name went down in history for that peculiarly undemocratic deed too.

He was, in short, a rich, arrogant, unrequited arse, whose primary redeeming feature was impressive ambition. If you are such a person, you should feel ashamed. My work in academia has introduced me to many such wealthy people, and frankly, I'm tired of them. The world doesn't revolve around you and your silly ideas of what is important. Grow up.

Our own much smaller farm sits on a few acres of the original 2,000 that Thorndike developed as an agricultural showcase. As he was a famous Federalist, while Aimee and I are obvious neo-Jeffersonians, of sorts, I doubt he'd be pleased with what we've done with the place. But we don't give a rat's wotsit. As I said, we like it this way.

Read the very last posts in the archive for more details, or use search terms like Israel Thorndike or "Great Farm history" in the Google Blogger search engine (above, on the left).

How this Diary is Arranged:

From Mick:

The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.

The earliest posts, at the very end of the blog, tell the story of the Great Farm, our purchase of a fragment of that farm, the renovation of the homestead and its populating with people and animals. Go all the way to the last post in the archive below, click on the link provided, and read backwards from there to get it all in chronological order.

To find out what is happening right now, read the first post first.

Other blogs by Mick: UC SAR, UC Sustainability, Farm Diary

Enjoy.

Farm Produce

Purchasing Womerlippi Farm produce in season can be done by email arrangement, and/or by shopping at the Marsh River Coop in Brooks.

We sell yarn, fleece, lamb, and livestock for meat or breeding.

The yarn is Bartlett Yarn's 4-ply, a medium-thick yarn, in natural gray and brown, as well as natural dyes. It is soft and bulky, and makes nice old-fashioned knitwear. You can buy it for $7.50 a skein by emailing womersleymick8984@gmail.com. We ship priority mail, minimum four skeins at a time. The shipping is extra. We also have raw white and brown (natural colored) fleece in large quantities each spring, unwashed, untreated. Email us at mwomersley@unity.edu and name your price. Expect to pay shipping or pick up in person. Coming to the farm itself without prior appointment is not recommended. We have a child. We also have a dog who bites. We like that he bites, because we have a child we want to protect. If you come unexpectedly to the farm, stay behind any temporary hot-wire gate or fence, or park in the driveway, until someone comes. We'll know you're there because the dog will tell us. Loudly. Annoyingly. They will wake us or our kid, if we are asleep. We will be mad about this.

If no-one comes, we're not home. Go Away.

If you are yet more foolish and try to get out of your car and/or cross a gate or fence, expect to get bitten by a shepherd dog, rammed by a ram, or chewed out by a shepherd.

A Great Farm Diary: Womerlippi Homestead Annals