"Surprise!"

It had been a kinda cruddy month here, and we've been a little sad.  Life's just like that at times, but it doesn't really make you want to blog much.  So we weren't.

First off, Charlotte's bummer lamb that she had been bottle feeding for the past 2.5 months died very unexpectedly about three weeks ago.  This little lamb absolutely adored Charlotte, and the feeling was mutual.  We developed a whole new understanding of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."  It was just heart-breaking to lose her.

Then last week, as I already blogged about, Phantom kindled her litter too early, and then died the following day.

Stuff like that just doesn't contribute to a feeling of confidence in what you are doing.  In fact, it makes Charlotte start worrying about all the other animals.  We were all feeling the weight of these losses.

So this morning as I'm working in the garden and Charlotte is taking care of rabbits, Lydia starts yelling:  "Ella had a LAMB!"

We all came running.  And there she was, a tiny lamb, perfectly healthy, lying there in the pen.  With her mom and Ben.  And ewes are not supposed to have rams around to bother them during lambing, and lambs are not supposed to be bothered by rams, either.

So we got Ben out pretty quickly.  He's still in his own quarters, all by himself.  He's not very happy.

Ella has accepted her lamb completely and is working on cleaning her up.

Lydia immediately gave the lamb to Charlotte.  Charlotte is in love again.

And the lamb's name?  "Surprise!"