It's a boy. . .

. . . well, I am pretty sure it is. Of course, I was pretty sure that neither of our ewes were pregnant. (We forgot to actually confirm it and now Dyna won't let us close enough to)

Saturday morning a group of freshman girls from Bates college came down to do a service project at the farm. What a joy!! Extra help, and with the good weather and soft soil we had every intention of building beds in our education field. Saturday of course had other plans for us. It was about 27 degrees when I pulled into the farm, the ground was frozen! There was no soil turning to be done. Not right off anyway.

After a tour of the farm, we determined that not being able to feel our toes was simply too much. We went inside to do some planting. Maybe this was a good thing, after all Molly and I found out that the farmer's market is starting up two weeks earlier than we thought. So, we started plants, mostly flowers, and waited for the temperature to come up a bit.

That morning, the day before the beginning of the holy week, the temperature never got up above 37 degrees. At about 10 the Bates crew and I decided that there wasn't going to be an optimal time to dig trenches so we just went to it. On the way out to the field I noticed that Dyna wasn't acting right. She was pawing at the ground, laying down and then getting up again. She would come in, and go out of the barn repeatedly.

After getting the crew started in the field I decided that Dyna needed some watching. After heading back to the barn it was time to do what any good farmer would do. . . .call the wife!!! Dyna was still acting really strangely. With Amy on the phone googling "Sheep Health Issues" while grabbing the sheep handbook the problem became suddenly VERY obvious.

Mid sentence I said, "Why don't you try googling. . .oh gosh those are hoofs!"

Dyna was delivering the lamb that she wasn't pregnant with. Some frantic yelling to Mike Blais (our former intern who was out in the field with the Bates crew), and a call to security for medical gloves (in case we had to intervene) and we were off and running. Delivery took fifteen minutes, and Bates (we named the lamb in honor of the Bates Freshman girl's crew that was there to help us) was up an walking with in twenty minutes.

Molly, Alyssa, Amy and the Kinder-Garden auxiliary, Heather, Stu and his kids, Campus Security, 5 Bates girls, Mike B., Charmaine from marketing and Dana P. (our autumn intern via the phone) were all present and accounted for within an hour of the delivery. Alyssa was our photojournalist and Molly was in the helping get little Bates started nursing - Bates learned that milk doesn't come from momma's knee caps.

So, as of this morning, Palm Sunday,Bates was running around his jug and looking great. My new fear. . . if Dyna was actually pregnant what does this mean for Dani?!?!?

Stay tuned here for updates, or swing by the farm for a visit. . . .