Late in the evening on May 6th, Inga gave birth to the seventh male sheep in Tønsåsen this spring. Inga's behaviour left no doubt about what was about to happen, so we were able to watch, which was a first (with viking sheep) for both Klaus and me.Then, on May 8th, we found Martin-the-goose in a condition that prompted us to put him down straight away. He couldn't lift his neck and had blood on his beak, and our theory is that he's been injured in a close encounter with Albert-the-buck. During the lambing we've tied Albert to a pole next to the goose garden. The geese have a habit of teasing the sheep through the fence, but Martin may not have realised you don't do that when the sheep has big horns.
Tassen has now started to feed directly from a milk bucket on the wall, which is a big relief. That said, Susanne has done a great job helping us with the bottle feeding. She has made the bottle feeding of Tassen one of her 4H-projects, and for us it's been invaluable to have someone making sure Tassen didn't go hungry when we were at work until late.
With cold wind and regular snowshowers, this weekend has been a bit of a spring setback. But we refuse to get depressed and are instead excited about the timid blossom of crocuses in the otherwise lifeless flowerbed.
