RIP Little Lambie

Some days are more challenging than others.  

I try to live a happy, easy going sorta life. I don't sweat the small stuff, I take things as they come, and well, love and laughter are my most favourite emotions.

But no matter how hard you try to stay positive and look on the bright side of life, every now and then life will slap you right in the face, with a punch to the heart at the same time, just in case you didn't quite get the message.

During lambing I'm regularly checking the sheep, just keeping a close eye on the flock. If there are newborns, I will check that the Mum's are OK and Lamb's are feeding. If the lambs are feeding, then all is good. Just by watching and observing on a regular basis, you know when something is wrong.

Tuesday, 7am, 17th July 2018.

This morning before I headed off to work, and on my routine flock check, I came across a new Mum who had given birth overnight. She was with s lamb who was walking and feeding, but not too far away, about 10m there was another lamb, in a little black ball, sat down in the grass, near the birthy gooey stuff, bleating for her Mum. I stood at a distance just watching, Mum & Lambie were bleating back and forth, but the little Lambie wasn't moving. So Mum had twins and after a while I went in for a closer look, and the Lamb was small, essentially a bag of bones, there was nothing to her. Looking at her twin, who was up and about, she was tiny. I gently picked her up to see if she could stand on her own, but she kept flopping back down on the ground. I tried a few times gently trying to get her to stand on her own, but she couldn't do it. What the heck do I do now?

I started running through scenarios in my head... If Lambie can't stand, then she can't get Mum's colostrum, and that is a problem. Lambie needs to stand. How do I make her stand? She needs to be stronger. How can I make her stronger? I can feed her, I can warm her up and then hopefully she will have enough energy to stand and walk to her Mum, so she can drink her Mum's colostrum.

So that is what I did. I sent a text message to work to say that I wasn't going to be in today and I picked up Lambie, and I took her back to the house. 

Fortunately I was a little prepared, I had colostrum powder in the cupboard, for this very emergency. I quickly made up a small batch, and sat on the floor in the living room in the sun with Lambie and tried feeding her. 

Feeding was painfully slow, she couldn't grasp the idea of sucking from the teat on the bottle, so I was giving her drops at a time. She was swallowing the colostrum that was getting in her mouth, and after a couple of hours, I think we managed to get through about 50mls. The more colostrum she took, the more active she became, after about 3 hours she was wobbling around, and had a very loud voice box, bleating whenever she lost sight of me.

At this point, I started calling her Priscilla, a Drama Queen, she was very loud and wanted constant company.  After about 3 hours,  I gave her another feed, and by this time she had finally worked out how to suck the teat, although she still needed help getting the teat in her mouth. After the second feed she was peeing, which was good to see, suggesting her insides are all working.

Lambie finally settled in for a nap, a short 15 minutes, but once she woke, she was very active, following me around the house, so I decided it was time to re-unite her with her Mum. Everything was going to plan.

I carried Lambie back down to where her Mum and twin were. I sort of cornered Mum, and put Lambie down, and I backed off, and with all the bleating going on, Lambie made her way back to Mum, and all was looking good. A lot of bleating a lot of sniffing by Mum, and just when I thought all was going well, Mum started head butting Lambie, pushing her away, then she walked away with her twin. Lambie couldn't keep up. I tried this scenario a few times, and Lambie really wanted to be with her Mum, she was very persistent, but I then decided, Mum really doesn't want her, and is happy with just the one lamb. So I went in to collect Lambie, who wobbled her back to me as I approached. It was time to adopt my first lamb. 

We've had about 20 lambs born successfully over the last 3 years, so Lambie was to be my first lamb that we would have to raise by hand.

Back home, inside, Lambie seemed a little down, she was a bit quieter, I wondered whether she was sad about her Mum. I feed her a little more, and she slept a little after. Like before, after a short nap, she was very active up and about, being all "Lambie", so I started thinking, this girl just might make it. Even Max seemed to tolerate having her around.

I needed to start thinking about daycare, for when I was at work. With the help of my neighbour Lee, my friend Jane and myself, I had worked out a little roster for daytime feeding, for the next week. I set my alarm for every 3 hours during the night to feed Lambie. She was so skinny and small, we have to get her weight up, so small regular feeds would be required for the next week. So by about 8pm, I had a plan!

Unfortunately, that was all it was to be. 

At 9pm, I was preparing a little more colostrum for her next feed, and as I picked up Lambie, who was sitting down, I noticed her little heart wasn't beating as quickly as before, and she was very limp, back to how she was earlier in the morning, so I realised something was wrong. From then on for the next 30 or so minutes she was on a very quick downward spiral. I tried putting her in a recovery position, what I thought might be a recovery position for a lamb, so her air/lungs were clear so she could breathe easily. I gently massaged her back, and under her chest, thinking if I can create some sort of circulation within her little body. I could see her eyes watching and moving with me, blinking slowly, she did let out the odd single bleat, but as time passed her little heart beat was weakening along with her breathing, both declining very quickly. 

I knew she was dying, and there was nothing I could do. I was holding her head in my hands, and I still gently massaging her, talking softly to her, calling her name, and then she made one last bleat, and died then and there in my hands. 

Time of death 9.50pm 17th July 2018.

I haven't felt sorrow, like this for quiet some time.

It was a very intense 14 hours with Lambie, I went to bed grieving for little Lambie that night. I'm so sorry Lambie, I'm so sorry I couldn't help you.

I will miss your little head butts and the sound of your bleating.

RIP Little Lambie.

New Lambs - Twins Very Colourful!

Down Wattle Lane - Now NZ Distributor Of Unicorn Fibre Products!

We have some very exciting news to share! 

We've now become the NZ distributor of Unicorn Fibre Cleaning Products! 

Unicorn Power Scour

Unicorn Fibre Wash

Unicorn Fibre Rinse

After a successful trial run of the products, we've decided to take on the position as the NZ distributor, as these products are truly fantastic cleaners and it fits well with our lifestyle here Down Wattle Lane.

www.unicornclean.com

We have our first big shipment on it's way from USA, hopefully arriving in about 5 weeks.

So if you are a retailer wanting to stock these products, or your are a commercial wool scourer, or if you just scour your own wool fleeces to spin, please get in touch or visit our website:

www.downwattlelane.co.nz/shop

Unicorn Fibre Cleaning Products - Now Available Down Wattle Lane!

We've started a little commercial venture, not intentionally, but I guess it add's another dimension to Down Wattle Lane.

It all started out with our Arapawa sheep. 

I have a wool sack full of Arapawa fleeces, and the idea initially was to clean the wool, spin it, then knit and or weave it into snuggle rugs. Something to snuggle into while relaxing reading a book or watching tv at night.

After a little research it was going to cost a small fortune to wash/scour the fleeces, and to card them ready to spin into yarn. 

So my overactive DIY gene, got started researching as to how to scour your own fleece at home.

From my research, to get the dirt, grease, and lanolin out of the fleece, you need to soak the fleece at 70 degrees plus in hot water, with a good amount of dish detergent, followed by some rinses and then drying.  After my first couple of attempts, I felt the wool still smelled a little "sheepy" and the wool became rather course.

So that had me asking myself, surely their is a scouring detergent that has been designed for the very purpose of cleaning raw wool fibre. 

The answer is YES! There is, Unicorn Fibre Power Scour, made in the USA. After some further research, and youtubing, and I just had to have some! 

Although the cost of importing it from the USA was going to cost me around $50 for a small 100ml bottle, so to get around that, I ordered a small shipment, for myself and to share with others, which brought the cost down to about $15 a bottle.

So how is it? It's great! The Power Scour is very effective, you can wash at a lower water temperature - 60 degrees, you only use about a table spoon of Power Scour Detergent per fleece, you actually use less water, the wool comes our cleaner, brighter, softer and it smells better. So I'm convinced, but I would love to hear what other people think.

www.downwattlelane.co.nz/shop

Lambs 2018... continued

They just get more adorable every year!

March Born Lamb With May Born Lamb

Lambs 3 Days Old

All is not done, 

there are more lambs to come...

Twin Lambs April 2018

We've had lambs very early this year and over the weekend we've had our first set of twins. Born sometime between 9am and 4pm on a very wet Saturday. 

I had been waiting for her to give birth, for the last two weeks Mum was bulging from the sides and had a very big udder, so I knew she was due at anytime.  She also had twins last year too. 

We have history, me and this sheep.  She doesn't like me at all and I don't understand why, but I'm very proud of her, she is a good Mum to her lambs. Sheep must be like people, sometimes no matter how hard you try, you just don't get along with some people.  

She has always been very difficult, as she is the one that jumps the pen fence, she is always the runner from the flock, won't come to eat the sheep nuts when the rest of the flock do. But that is how I could tell she was due, as she wasn't running away from me... she was too big!

One Boy & One Girl.

Well Done Ole Girl!

Quick Update From Down Wattle Lane...

It's so easy to be busy being busy, and time does fly when you are having fun.  Below is just a quick update on Life Down Wattle Lane.

Our two duckies are much bigger, below you can see how much they have grown. We have just moved them to the big pond, it has taken them a couple of days to adjust to their new environment, and they've only just taken their first swim in the big pond. Previously they could touch the bottom of their small pond, but the big pond is about 2m deep, so they've been a bit hesitant about taking the plunge.

 

 

Over the last month, weekends and evenings after work have been filled with mowing lawns, digging drains (by hand & shovel), keeping a close eye on the sheep for fly strike, weeding the garden, building new fences, chopping fire wood, adding some finishing touches to the cabin, but it's nice to take your time to smell the roses.

We've added steps the the cabin, solar power is now connected, and we  have created a path from the house to the cabin lit at night with sensor solar lights.  Also, we've created a small garden bed with hibiscus plants and chinese lanterns on the path side of the cabin. The bedroom part of the cabin is ready to use with a curtains now hanging, and a bed & linen. We still have yet to start work on the bathroom.

White Butterfly on a wild Penny Royal flower.

We have some free wild Turkey's if anyone wants them. They are very destructive to my plants and tree's, they have no respect for all the work we've been doing and they crap all over the place.  I break their eggs when I find them, but there are about 14 of them that have taken up residence. No matter how many times I chase them out of the garden as soon as I turn my back, they are back again. FREE TURKEY's! 

On a happier note, we were surprised with a bouncing bundle of black joy yesterday, a healthy new lamb! Very much out of season, but better now than in the middle of winter. Very very cute!

A Bizzy Buzzy Worker

Bee of the Month! 

One of our bee's, working a clover flower on a hot summer's day.

Out For A Duck!

If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck!

We have ducks... well ducklings, this weekend our family has grown by two Muscovy Ducklings!

Very cute... if I do say so myself...

The two girls are rather small, and there is a real chance of a Hawk snatching them, so we've built a small pen to house them in for a couple of weeks until they are a little bigger. But the plan is for the girls to keep the vege garden in order and to wander free about the property. Already we have noticed they are excellent fly catchers and love eating grass and bathing. They seem to really like to keep themselves clean which is great, but I do feel they are going to absorb a lot of my time, as the are so cute and I quite enjoy just hanging out with them!

Our Harthouse Cabin Arrives...

Earlier this year, mid winter 2017, Gary mentioned that his family might be coming out to visit in 2018, and a quick conversation about sleeping arrangements, the size of our house, we came to the conclusion that putting family in a tent on the lawn wouldn't do. So we needed to do something about guest accommodation for family, friends and visitors.

We started researching about adding an extension onto the house, and to add another bedroom, ensuite, around 30sqm, we were getting quotes of around $100,000. Which was crazy for an extension which is much more straightforward than a new build! We built our entire house, 90sqm for less than $200,000.  I think part of the NZ housing/building crisis is how expensive materials and labour has become with the housing boom.

So we had to rethink our plan.  

Back in January 2017, while at the Mangawhai Domain Summer Gala Day, a local market day with stall holders selling their wares, we came across the Harthouse Cabins display.  So I got in touch with Cliff, the creator of the Harthouse Cabins. You can find him on facebook: Harthouse Cabins  

Cliff has been excellent to deal with, and is quite the craftsman.

When building a dwelling/sleepout/cabin to avoid building consents etc, the interior floor space must be less than 10sqm. Now what I love about the Harthouse is that the interior floor space is maximised to the 10sqm, and as the walls curve outwards, and the widest part being about eye level, this design feature creates an amazingly spacious feeling in such a small space. The Harthouse does not feel like a small tiny box at all, but it did tick all our boxes ☺.

Front View

Rear View

Geoff & I Installing Foundation Posts

Cliff Delivering Cabin

Interior View From Front Door

With our cabin, in time, we are planning to connect services for an ensuite, so we have a small room at the back of the cabin for the ensuite, which will require consents etc. However for now its a storage space, but we're still within our 10sqm internal floorplan. Amazing!

Interior View Curve Of Wall

Max Inspecting Workmanship... It Passed!

View Inside-Out

So we still have a few things to do:

> Install steps up to the cabin,

> We plan to decorate the exterior white walls with mural style paintings,

> Furnish the cabin,

> Connect solar power,

> A lot of planting around the cabin,

> Then finally work on the ensuite... down the track.

So still a work in progress, but we're in no rush, as Gary's family decided they will now not be coming in 2018.