death happens.

The last few nights have been cold. I mean REALLY cold.

It got even colder than -11.

Unfortunately, ranches don't close due to the weather. Ranchers and farmers keep on working. The only thing that changes is how many layers of clothes they put on! The few Ewes that are on the ranch are pregnant. They aren't supposed to be pregnant but one anxious ram got in their pen and well, the rest is pretty obvious. They were brought back from the winter range (where most of our sheep are right now because the winters are milder there) to be watched in case they have trouble birthing. J checks on these Ewes every three hours throughout the night.

The dogs anxiously wait outside the barn door for the new additions.

Monday afternoon we had our first lamb! It was a girl. She is healthy and mama is doing good.

We had our first set of twins yesterday at about 1pm, both boys. She did well for her first year lambing, delivered both of them on her own and licked them clean just like she is supposed to.

One of the boys was considerably smaller than the other, wouldn't suck, and was very weak. J began bottle feeding him, but he would take that either.

J moved on to syringe feeding and that seemed to work. Throughout the night (every three hours to be exact) we went out and fed the twin via syringe. His last feeding at 3am was a good one, he was looking strong.

This morning we got up to feed again and sadly the little guy didn't make it. I've known death was bound to happen on the ranch it's quite obvious that it comes with the territory. Pop told me that from the very beginning, many times.  I knew I would have to deal with it eventually.

I will say that knowing it is bound to happen doesn't help when it actually does happens.

So there they are...my first tears shed on the ranch. RIP little guy.