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For generations, ranchers have practiced the art of skin grafting orphan lambs and calves onto new moms who often aren’t receptive to the idea of an additional or new offspring to take care of. When a lamb dies, its cape (the skin, hide and wool) is cut and peeled away from its body in a way that creates a coat or vest-like garment. This is then fitted to an orphan lamb to be grafted back to a ewe whose lamb died. Confused? It makes more sense when you’re in the lambing barn making decisions for the overall good of the flock and watching it play out.
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“Why am I here?” was the question that drifted hazily around my over caffeinated, but sleep deprived mind as I fought fatigue, bone-chilling cold and the emotional instability that comes from spending all night in a lambing shed with 1,1100 ewes, 3 teenage daughters and an ornery dog. Continue Reading