Who Have I Become, My Sweetest Friend

My home is not only a full fledged construction zone but is also now a baby animal barn. I have all ten chicks still on the dining room table. I also have little nugget (which is not her name, I decided not to name her until after ten days so as not to get attached.) sleeping in the living room. I've got baby bottles, baby chicken food, lamb milk etc spread out through the house. I was told to expect a couple of the chicks to die after the first day, they said, "if you hope for twenty chickens buy twenty five." I hoped for ten, and I'm nearly there! In another week or two they should be ready to get out of the house and into a special baby chicken coop outside. I still have to build that coop, fingers crossed it goes more smoothly than the last one!
The lamb is doing shockingly well, far better than I imagined. She's eating lots and easily. Last night I had a bit of a scare, she hadn't pooped for a while. I googled, as I do. I terrified myself with all of the possible things that could go wrong, I massaged her little bum hole (WHO HAVE I BECOME), I wiped her down with a warm cloth. I was ready to give her a baby enema when I remembered my grandmother saying about her dogs who occasionally faced the same problem, "Give them a little bit of vegetable oil, it'll get em moving." I will admit, I didn't ever follow her advice. I have never given any animal or human a spoonful of oil, until last night. HOT DAMN, Grams was spot on. Thanks little Gma for yet another pro trip that saved me!
Within about twenty minutes she gave me some poops to clean up. I nearly cried with joy. Apparently my entire life will now just be me worrying about what goes in one end and comes out the other. I'm unsure if I'm still a normal person or not if I can get so fired up over having to clean up a lamb poop.
I have to get her a little suit or something to wear, I would like for her to be outside sometimes enjoying the sunshine and the grass but she gets too cold. Grams always said that there was nothing better for a sick baby than some fresh air and sunshine, except for me of course. I was allergic to the sun as a baby.

We had a two minute adventure outside before she got chilly

She is a precious little thing, I'm trying not to get attached but this morning after her 7:30am feeding we had a nice three hour nap together on the couch before her next feed. So I'm not sure if I'm doing the "emotionally distant" thing the right way. How can you not fall in love with a teensy tiny baby that cuddles up under your arm and puts her head in your hand to go to sleep?! You would have to be dead inside, and though I have moments that I believe/wish I was, clearly I still have a tiny grinch heart beating because it is full of love for her. 

In other news, our yak bull is coming tomorrow! How exciting is that!? Maybe next year we'll have little tiny baby yaks running around, though I hope with all of my heart that the moms will be the raisers, not me. I haven't had a decent sleep in so long. I'm constantly tired. The difficulty is that none of the other animals understand/care that I have a tiny baby to look after, they're just like, "bring me treats human servant!" They do not cut me any slack, none at all. Calpernia and her lambs are doing so well, the babies have fattened up and are spending their days climbing all over mom. Next week I think they'll be ready to leave the pens and head on out to the pasture! Not with the yaks of course, their own little nursery pasture. Mostly I'm just waiting for the babies to get big enough that they can't fit through the holes in the wire sheep fencing. 

It's been a roller coaster out here on the farm, some days I feel like I can do anything, and somedays I feel like I'm terrible at farming. Today though, I have kept a baby sheep alive that the vet said would probably die, so I'm feeling like a damn QUEEN! 

Sleepy little baby, this is probably my favourite thing she does