While doing chores last night I took the opportunity to measure Mercury's "waistline" if that is what you would call it. I snugged the twine down thru her fleece, marked it, and then laid it against the tapemeasure. Mercury measures a whopping 66 inches (that's 5 1/2 feet) around her widest part. She still has about a week to go if she carries out to full term, or 145 days, which means those lambs will get a bit bigger and heavier yet.
Okay, typically I am not one to 'count my chickens before they hatch', but I have to believe that poor Mercury (* see her picture below) is probably lugging around triplets, and not the 'Goodyear blimp'. She had triplets back in 2007, a set of Cocklaw daughters, but I don't remember her getting this gianormous. For this lambing season she was exposed to our new UK Rossiebank import.
I think this weekend after I shuffle some adult and yearling rams around to make more space in the barn, I'll set Mercury up with her own comfort stall area so she doesn't have to compete with the other more nimble ewes for feeder space and a quiet place to lay down. She deserves some pampering .
