Now that the Winter '24 lambing season has started on our farm, it's time for me and the family to slip into our waterproof over-trousers again, along with a coat that has so many pockets that you look like a walking-talking apothecary cabinet. Oh, and, don't forget the lambing gloves... Yes, the arm-length ones.🧤😅
🐑 Lambing Season 🐑
- Winter '24 -
Well, the way our Winter '24 lambing season kicked off was rather unsurprising to us, really. As we expected, the first one of our ewes to birth her lambs was in fact the ewe we have called Harriet Houdini. Of course, there is indeed a story that inspired our naming of her.
For context, for the story of how this particular ewe of ours became The Great Harriet Houdini, we have 9 rams on our farm - all of whom are very conscientious and passionate about their work with our 600+ ewes. In fact, they are so enthusiastic that we have to keep them in different paddocks to the ewes when it isn't breeding season. Despite having a calendar that we note our semiannual breeding schedule on, there is another, more physically-obvious, way to tell that breeding season is approaching... The ewe's fence line strut. Flocks of ewes will find the fence line of the ram paddock and take turns, in smaller groups, to strut their stuff for the rams, who are eagerly watching them through the fence.
Now, back in the weeks leading up to this most-recent breeding season, we of course went to the ram paddock to do a general, routine checkup on our 9 knights in wool armour (partly to also make sure none had suffered a heart attack from the, rather raunchy, show that the ewes had been putting on for them at the fence line those past few weeks). When Guy and I arrived, we hopped out the Polaris to do a headcount of the rams. We both counted 10. To ensure we both hadn't suddenly developed dyslexia, we counted the rams again and again. However, for both us, all 3 head counts came back as 10. We inspected the fence lines of the ram paddock first, and all were intact and impenetrable still. So, we then inspected the flock of rams closer and, who did we find cowering in the middle, hoping to not be spotted... a ewe.
Since everyone in our family 'swears' that they have never accidentally left the ram-paddock gate open whilst they were in there (not even a little bit🤣), well... I guess one can only then conclude that this 'magical' ewe did, somehow, 'Houdini' herself in there. Hence why she is now fondly known as, "The Great Harriet Houdini".
