Farm Mothers

                                           One of Hariett's spotted lambs

                                           Louise before having triplets

                                           Pygmy goat twins and Thelma's smallest

    In honor of Mother's Day, I want to share with you the mothers we have on our farm. Harriett, the sheep, was the first to birth this spring. She birthed two of the cutest brown and white spotted lambs. We weren't sure if she was pregnant but one morning in February a man working on our house said he had spotted some lambs in our west pasture. So we ran out there and, sure enough, Harriett had come through. She's been a good mother and the lambs are healthy and growing too fast for my liking.
    Then Louise, one of our pygmy goats, gave birth to triplets-three times the cuteness. Sadly, the smallest only lived a few weeks. But she's been a good mother and her kids are growing super fast and healthy. There had been no mistaking she was pregnant because she was as wide as she was tall before giving birth.
    We didn't think that Thelma, another pygmy goat, was pregnant because she never got any bigger.
But she surprised us on Easter evening. We went out to the barnyard and saw a tiny little kid. At first we thought she was one of the twins but then realized she was smaller than anything we have had birthed here. Thelma has been a good mother. Her little kid thinks she's as big as the others. She looks like a bunny when you see her ears sticking up out of the grass and she is jumping around.
    That's all the babies we had this year. We thank God they are all thriving and growing. We are getting twelve new ewes in a few weeks so we could have two dozen lambs next spring. I hope so, they are fun to watch.
    Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers. I'm thankful that I had a good mother. She has been gone four years this summer. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her and miss her. If your mother is still alive, spend time with her and tell her you love her. Have a happy day!