The Brown Ewe: Part 2

We chose brood and hoped we had made the right choice.

Each year, we choose three ewe lambs for breeding replacements. Fern, aka 1055, aka the Brown Ewe, was our top choice from the 2011 lamb crop. She had a good pedigree, conformation, temperament and color.

When she became ill, I didn't expect to breed her. But a few months after her near-death experience, she was fat and healthy looking. We didn't know if she had some health problem lurking that we knew nothing about.

When, one March morning, we found her with twin ewe lambs, we were relieved.

The lambs are 60-90 days old now. Mamas and babies are mostly shed out. As we trim hooves, vaccinate and tag the ewe lambs, we evaluate them, noticing their temperaments and weights.

"I can tell these are Fern's babies," comments the husband. "They have the same soft expression that she does."