Columbian's lambs

As Penny was shearing, we noticed that Columbian had huge udders. When we let her back out with the other sheep, we knew to keep an eye on her. Sure enough, about 5 P.M. I saw her licking a lamb. We observed her for a while, and came to the conclusion that she could not be done. Since Truffle's mother kept trying to take the lamb, we moved Colombian to a pen and decided to tidy up after shearing and check again. When an hour had passed and Columbian had still not delivered a second lamb and had no afterbirth, Penny and I were sure that something was wrong. Never having done it before and really not knowing what I should do, I let Penny slide her arm up into Columbian. I thought it was funny when she said she felt three legs, where there should have been only one. I was also worried, because she said they were breech. I told her to go ahead and try pulling them out. I was sure they were both goners (we had decided there must be two more in there) and was amazed when she pulled out a ewe and then a lamb. Both living and, with a little help, drinking from mom. Penny was cool as a cucumber. She has loads of experience it appears. I hope to not have much more!

Looking at the lambs this morning, the ewe is going to turn a much lighter shade - grey, one ram is uncertain and the other ram looks like it might be brown. Unfortunately, these lambs are out of the ewe that has had ram with messed up horns for the past three years. I will castrate the rams and keep the ewe, to see how she does. The lady that I bought the ewe from three years ago was breeding for polled Shetlands. Kind of dumb on her part, since it is not a registrable animal. Also not a very good practice, because things like horns growing into the skull and into the eyes are real problems. I will keep these for the fleeces, but definitely will not sell them. It is not until they are about 9 months old, that the problems become obvious. Too bad, because they have the loveliest fleeces of them all.