Sleep deprived

You'd think, now that lambing season is over with, I'd get some sleep. I have been, somewhat, all things considered. But last night I awoke to the sounds of a doe giving birth to twin goat kids. Did you know I raise registered Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats too? And hand milk twice a day, every day, 365 days a year (unless I can get out of here for a vacation, which I haven't done for almost 2 years now)? Goats usually make allot of noise giving birth. My sheep are pretty darned quiet. I wonder why they are so different? I was up from 2am until 3:30am... that's a strange time to be awake at this time of year in Alaska. It's not very dark. Hardly dark at all actually, since it's still dusk at midnight and dawn is in the sky by 3am or so... an eerie time of the night to walk out to the barn. It's very quiet. But, as my predator post comes to mind, you step out and listen for a minute, look around carefully for another minute, before proceeding. Something could be in the driveway. Or near the barn, or over by the sheep paddock. So I look out the windows first, step out the door and look second, and third, keep my ears and eyes open on my way out to the barn. I'm already woozie from being awakened by a screaming doe, sort of like having someone shake your bed violently. Not very pleasant. I want to hurry to her to be there, comfort her, make sure her kids are ok, but I don't hurry, I walk carefully. ME told me about her snakes...I remember snakes. Who'd want to step on a snake. Who'd want to run into a predator going through your yard. I'd like neither, thank you. I'm looking forward to sleeping tonight. I worked hard today and it was a good day. I also danced, just a little bit, with one of my herding student's dogs and some of my sheep. It was a good day to dance.

The photo above is of a 3/4 Shetland 1/4 Suffolk ewe lamb on the right with her boyfriend, a handsome little black Shetland ram lamb with a nice Krunet. They stayed that way for a long time.