Driving Miss Violet

 

Our sheep Violet is a very special girl. It’s true that I paid the most for her of all of our sheep due to her cool coloring and having been pregnant, but I love her for her strength, her tenacity, and her intelligence as well as her beauty. She is a survivor.

Yesterday she proved that once again. I decided that the best course of action for her, in her last days of pregnancy, facing a move to Illinois, was to take her up ahead of her due date. To do that I left ahead of my husband and son Nathan, who stayed behind with the movers, and packed up Anne, Daniel and Holden, myself, and Violet. We traveled up this week in my Toyota Tacoma with only the most important and barest necessities packed into backpacks and totes. The enormous dog crate was meticulously strapped into the bed (by Hans) with a special foam lining fitted to the floor to help minimize vibrations, and we also brought a supply of hay, water, and food for our sweet girl.

We left at 5:40 am and hoped to get to the new barn by 8 pm or so (7 their time). Our first stop was three hours in. Violet was looking anxious (panting) but otherwise looked really good. No signs of labor so far. We plugged in the new horse trailer camera we’d bought and Anne sat in the front seat while I drove, watching her periodically.

I prompted her to check and glanced down when it was safe. “Doesn’t she look like she’s getting up and down, up and down? Doesn’t that look like labor?” I worried. “She’s just finding a comfortable position.” Anne tried to comfort me. But a while later she was staring intently at the tiny screen and said “Uh, I think I see a little white baby head.” “What?!” I was luckily right at an exit and pulled off quickly into a gas station.

Sure enough, we all jumped out and rounded the truck bed, and there they were… TWO tiny white lambs! Just born! Oh they were so beautiful. The boy had been born first because he’d already been licked mostly clean and the girl was sticky and wet as Violet began the cleaning process on her.

A quick survey was all that was needed to see that labor was over, no more babies, and Violet had everything under control. They both got up on their legs like they’d been doing it all day and wobbled over and nursed with no problem at all from their mamma’s pendulous udders. What a blessing! She is experienced. They got with the program, despite their world moving at seventy some miles an hour upon their launch into this lifetime. What a tremendous success!

I just stood and stared at the trio in awe. The kids were captivated too and we were all instantly in love of course.

After letting them have some time to be cleaned and nursed, we got back on the road. I worried nearly as much having the babies back there bouncing along as I did with a pregnant Violet, but I was thankful and somewhat relieved. The day was ridiculously long, and the drive was quite hard with rainstorms and traffic, but we got them nestled into their new home in a lovely horse stall as soon as we could, and then went on to our hotel to wrap up from our journey.

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Driving our Miss Violet up to Illinois went better than my plans, as God’s plans always are. And I was relieved of the staying up all night watching her that I would have done, and any helping with the deliveries that might have been necessary, and they came in their own time, and in their own very special way. What a blessing!

Because the babies were born as we were just about to leave Tennessee and enter Kentucky, we decided to name Violet’s daughter and son “Tennessee” and “Tucker”.

So blessed.

What new and exciting things have recently popped into your life?