Tag: ewes

Typical March Weekend

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In typical March fashion, Mother Nature threw a little bit of everything at us over the weekend.

We awoke Saturday morning to a beautiful sunrise, then just as predicted in that old saying – “red in the morning, sailor take warning” – a strong wind picked up and it began to rain.  Luckily it started right as we finished morning chores because it rained, and rained hard, all day and all night.
Those ewes that chose not to seek refuge in the barn, spent the worst of it standing completely still, facing into the storm.  We suppose this prevents the wind from ruffling their wool so that much of the rain just rolls off their lovely, lanolin-saturated locks.
More rain early Sunday morning and we, along with the rest of farm, were feeling pretty soggy.  Just as if on cue, as we finished dressing to go out for chores, the rain suddenly turned to snow.  It was a very wet snow, but it sure made our world a little less grey, a little more cheerful and turned the back pasture into a wintry, snow-globe complete with these fine, good-looking ram figurines.

What a Weekend!

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In a stroke of luck, the stockyard was open on New Year’s Day, and the roads were open enough that our neighbors could finally get their trailer into the barnyard. We took the cull ewes and seven more of the ewe lambs to Grantsville.  This will surely help our hay bale count.

The stars just seemed to align this weekend, and the combination of snow melt, fairly warm and mostly decent weather blessed these shepherdess/s with hours of pretty comfortable outside farm work.  This and the fact that not one single ewe was marked the second time around meant that the breeding was complete and the groups could be moved.

Breeding harnesses came off.  (That Davita… she will snuggle with anything that is not another cat.)

Liam, Aragorn and Poseidon, the three older rams, were crammed and twenty-four hours later moved back to their original pasture.

A brand spanking new, fancy shelter was put together (by Terry) for the goat boys and they were moved to the pine grove paddock via halter and truck.  You have no idea how exciting this is to have them in a virtually, inescapable paddock for the remainder of the winter.   No longer will we be greeted by surprises in the barn when going to feed in the mornings… no tearing down of fencing… no leading the ewe lambs into trouble.  (They only do these things in the winter… maybe they find winter boring.)  Right now there is a lot of noisy complaining but they will adjust, and there are plenty of rocks and fallen trees to amuse them.

The 33 breeding ewes and the ram lamb, Braveheart, are all now in the barn pasture.  Moving lanes were built with temporary fencing and this all went pretty smoothly.  This group of ewes appears to be kind of flighty.  Hopefully they will settle down before lambing.  Speaking of lambing season… there was much excitement around here that everyone appears to have been caught  during the first 17 day cycle… until it sunk in that all 33 ewes will probably lamb within an intense 3 week period.  We will have to start planning for that.


And last, but certainly not least, Betty Lou Moo Moo and Beefcakes were brought over the pasture and through the woods from Madison.  They followed Jonathan and Megan up the hill to about 50 feet away from the fence line.  Surprisingly they came closer and closer by calling “C’mon Betty” “C’mon Beef” (all of our animals seem to equate the word “C’mon” with the word “Food”)  and it went pretty smoothly once they were enticed through the open gate with a little grain.  More temporary fence lanes were put up to connect the two gate openings and we had a bale of hay waiting on the other side. Ahhh, success.

There is still a little bit of organizing and housekeeping to do, but all in all, considering last year’s winter feeding challenges, we are pretty (pardon our language) damn excited!

Poseidon and His Girls

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Poseidon is our 4-year old colored ram.  He is a Cotswald – Border Leicester – Coopworth – Wensleydale cross.  He is probably the most agressive of the rams, especially when he is in with the ewes.  He growls at us when we try to come in the gate, but is usually easily distracted.  The quickest lesson learned by a shepherd/ess is to not turn your back on a ram; especially when he is in a breeding group.  Poseidon produces an amazing fleece with long, curly locks, and his lambs do the same.

Poseidon

Dierdre



Hera and Athena (triplets)



Poseidon is in with a grand group of girls:
4014 – Fiona – Coopworth – Blue-faced Leicester cross
40 – Athena – Coopworth – Border Leicester cross
41 – Hera – Coopworth – Border Leicester cross
620 – Daireann – Coopworth – Blue-faced Leicester cross
817 – Dierdre – Coopworth – Blue-faced Leicester – Wensleydale cross
910 – Julie – Coopworth – Border Leicester cross
930 – Havva – Coopworth – Blue-faced Leicester – Border Leicester – Wensleydale cross

Sunny Sunday

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After Saturday’s miserable weather (blowing snow, 11 degrees windchill), we were all (every one of us) searching for our spot in the sun yesterday.

Belladonna
Pumpkin

Davita

Aibreanne

Everyone, that is, except the guineas… and what were they searching for?  Well they apparently were doing some soul-searching, as they spent hours (yes, hours) Sunday morning staring at their reflections in the side barn door.

Belladonna Meets the Ewes

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Sunday morning presented the opportunity to introduce Belladonna to the grown-ups, since we had the ewes in the barn paddock.  She is constantly exposed to the lambs, but has not spent much time off-leash around them because of both their age-appropriate tendencies to run and chase; not good habits for a guard dog.  But around the ewes, she was much calmer and displayed a great natural inclination to sit and observe while occasionally investigating a new sight or sound.  All in all, the five hours Bella spent with the ewes was a great success, and we will continue her exposure this week with the ewes that were not moved with the breeding group.
Bella was particularly enchanted with our old girl.  Curly did not back away at all when she approached, and this certainly intrigued Bella.  She spent a lot of time slowly prancing up to Curly, tail wagging wildly.  Then she would suddenly spin and run away, looking back over her shoulder as if to say, “Catch me, catch me, if you can!”  Quite entertaining. 

Groundwork for Breeding

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We began laying the groundwork for breeding season this weekend.  We brought all the ewes back over to the barn paddock, and reviewed their health and lambing records with a critical eye.  We then made culling decisions, one of the hardest and least pleasant tasks leading up to breeding.  But tough decisions must be made, and once they are, the ewe is silently thanked for the joy she has provided with her unique personality, for the contributions she made to the flock and for the memories she has given our family.

We then began work on the breeding ewes.  We are so grateful for the deck chair that we purchased several years ago.  It makes these tasks so much easier.  Lucy was the first victim lucky ewe, and her best friend, Minerva, seemed quite concerned; offering her support during the entire process.  To get the ewe into the chair, we get on each side of her, back her up, position her legs, gain leverage and (as gently as humanly possible) tip her into the deck chair.  This can become quite comical with some of the larger ewes, as we are a bit on the petite side, but with tactical positioning and leverage, eventually we have been able to tip even our largest rams.

As we catch each ewe, we do a quick FAMACHA test.  Next, we clean and trim her hooves.  This gives her a good foundation for the extra weight she will be carrying come spring time.  Most of the ewes are quite content lying in the chair, and Lucy, although this was her first time, acted as if she was at the spa – stretching and pawing at us when we paused and turned to pick up a different tool.

The final task in breeding ewe preparation is crutching.  We use blade shears to trim away the wool in the area surrounding the vulva.  We feel this is necessary in our long wool sheep to ensure that a greater percentage of the ewes are settled during breeding season, and indeed we have had very few open ewes.
After two long days, we were very happy to finish just before twilight on Sunday.  We managed to get all the breeding ewes moved over to the paddock on top of the hill, near the ram paddock, for flushing.  We seem to running a little behind with everything this year, so it feels really good to be one step closer to “The Turning In of the Rams’.

Autumn Views

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Late summer was so dry that as fall approached, the green leaves began to fall from some of the trees.  So, after weeks of worrying whether there would be any fall color at all; we feel so blessed to be surrounded with an abundance of autumn beauty.  Many leaves are now beginning to fade and fall, but here and on Flickr are a few of our favorite ‘Autumn Views’ from the past couple weeks.