This summer we lost a dear friend in Sable, our 10 year-old Natural Colored dairy ewe. Sable was the last of our ewes born at our first farm, MountainWood Farm, in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state. She moved with us as a youngster to our QuietWaters farm in Monroe WA before accompanying us to MT.
Sable sustained a back injury after moving to Montana a few years ago and retired from lambing and milking. Though she enjoyed the past few years and gave us her gentle companionship, the injury never fully healed and recently the pain became too great. Reluctantly, we made the hard decision to put her down.
We have MANY cherished memories of Sable. She was the gentlest and sweetest sheep we ever owned and quite beautiful. Her first lambs were unassisted quads. She effortlessly "popped them all out" and set about mothering each and every one of them. This assiduous mothering became her hallmark.
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| Sable often ended up "babysitter" due to her tolerant, sweet nature. |
It is common for ewes who have "multiples" to have trouble nursing more than 2 lambs consistently. Even if there is plenty of milk, the strong lambs do not let the weaker lambs get "hooked on", and usually ewes do not take note of who is eating when. To evenly nurse 3-4 lambs a ewe has to keep track of each lamb and their intake, and consciously stop the strong ones from getting too much. Then they must rouse the weaker ones to the "milkbar" regularly. This is a lot to ask of a ewe!
On a memorable occasion, Sable's black ramlamb, one of triplets, was exceedingly weak after a very difficult lambing. The other 2 were strong and eating well. With no luck, I had been working for 10 hours to get that weak one up and nursing. Exhausted, I finally went to bed, expecting a dead lamb in the morning. Sable must have been more exhausted than I after lambing, but, she did not give up on that lamb. She nudged it and bleated softly to it, licked and massaged it with her tongue..... all night apparently. The next morning, to my surprise, I was greeted with a healthy nursing black lamb--and Sable's look of complete contentment.
Her last lambing occurred here in Montana and was again memorable for me. It was the sweetest lambing I have ever enjoyed. Usually we lamb the ewes in a small, indoor enclosure--a "jug"-- to keep the ewes and lambs together and bonding; and be able to assist as necessary. But, this was a gloriously, sunny May day. Sable begged to go outside into our newly-fenced, grassy cottonwood stand. I knew bonding would not be a problem for this experienced ewe. She chose a green, shady hollow in the cottonwoods to bring us her 3 last lambs. All beauties of course. She clearly loved lambing outside in the spring breeze and filtered sunlight. Me too.
Thank you Sable for your generous gifts for these past 10 years.
Silkies are pretty fluffy-- but so far I have had little luck in actually spinning their feathers! However I do love having them around!
We are still glad we did not breed the ewes for spring lambs.....but about April I needed a lamby-fix. We enjoyed a visit to Warner Sheep Ranch in Ft. Shaw. Diane and John raise about 300 Targhee crosses for wool and meat. The lambs were-- as always--adorable. The sweet, warm smells of a full lambing barn may not dance on everyone's senses like they do mine....but it was heaven to me!
My 5 girls have put ALL their energy into making great fleeces this year, and it shows when I finger their locks!
