When I bought my 8 ewes they were already bred to lamb in April. I was new to everything and totally alone meaning I had to learn on the job. Google and YouTube were my friend, answering my questions and showing me steps along the way. I needed to know how long I should leave an ewe in labor before intervening, google helped me out. I needed to know how to tag a lamb, YouTube had my back. Isn’t it a wonderful time to be alive. I was NERVOUS that I would screw up, and in some ways I did, but not bad enough to be detrimental. However, the fact that I took no pictures during my first lambing season should tell something about how preoccupied my mind was. In my first lambing season I lost no lambs, every ewe had a healthy lamb, and I thought I was a natural.

The following year went by without a hitch. I grazed until October, weaned healthy lambs, kept the ewe lambs and sold the males for meat.

Next spring was round 2 for lambing. This time mother nature kicked me in the butt. In April it was cold and windy. Ewes were delivering lambs well but the weather was not conducive for lambs to thrive. I checked the sheep often, multiple times a day between my full time job. At this point I still lived in Blackfalds, 30 minutes away, so I would check the sheep late in the evening and go home. In the morning I would wake up early and drive back to check sheep again. This however was not enough. Throughout the lambing season I would find cold, weak lambs during the morning check. I would rush them to the floor of my truck and crank the heat. Many times I could warm them up, tube them with colostrum and get them going. However the small, weaker lambs were unable to pull through and I lost 4 over the lambing season. I swore that I would never go through another lambing season where I didn’t live on the same property as the sheep are so I could take better care of them.

Once again, the hunt for land began and some major life changes were just around the corner.