Tag: fall

Let the Games Begin!

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After taking a group of ram lambs to the stockyard, Saturday morning, we settled into establishing our breeding groups for this season.  We have been working them out on paper for a couple weeks; finally Saturday is THE day!

We gathered the breeding ewes into a small paddock that we set up with temporary fencing, and armed with our breeding master list began to split and move them.  We set this up right at the corner of our two largest breeding group paddocks.  So the majority of the ewes didn’t have to be coaxed to move very far.  They are separated by sturdy perimeter fencing as we have found that no matter how many ewes a ram has to himself, he does indeed tend to think that the grass is greener on other side.   




After the ringing (removing the wool from the belly) of Poseidon and Aragorn, we positioned the rams’ breeding harnesses.  These have a wax marking crayon attached that enables us to identify on our breeding chart when a ewe has been bred.  We will change the color of the crayon in 17 days and if a ewe is marked a second time, we know that she was not caught during her first cycle. 

We moved the lovely Juliet, last year’s bottle baby to the graveyard field paddock with the ewe lambs as she is still quite small.  Hopefully she will do some catching up this winter and can be bred next fall.

We decided to keep the ram lamb 1032, Braveheart, and put him with a small breeding group in the barnyard.  He has great registered Border Leicester bloodlines.  His dam is Charity and his sire is Aragorn.  Charity is out of Hope and Liam.  We will use him this year and maybe next, then sell him as a proven ram to another farm.
Braveheart’s breeding group (left to right)
924 – Meara – Coopworth – Blue-faced Leicester – Wensleydale cross
613 – Hebe –  Coopworth – Wensleydale – Border Leicester cross
912 – Roisin – Border Leicester – Coopworth – Wensleydale cross
922 – Funella – Coopworth – Blue-faced Leicester – Cotswald cross
We think that these ladies’ breed and fleece characteristics combined with those of Braveheart’s will produce wonderful lambs with beautiful wool.
More on the other breeding groups tomorrow.

Sugar Coated Sunday

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“The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event.  You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?”
— J. B. Priestley

Our first significant snowfall was to occur this weekend.  They were predicting an accumulation of 4 to 6 inches.  Instead, it spit snow off and on Saturday, and on Sunday we awoke to this magical, sparkling, sugar-coated world.

As the sun burnt through the fog, it began to heat up the snowy ground, and large billows of steam began to rise; creating another, almost surreal world where grazing ewes and newly shorn ewe lambs became mere shadows, spirits moving through the rising mist.

Shearing Day

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Thursday dawned cold, wet and foggy; pretty miserable.  Luckily we put the lambs in the barn the night before, so they were warm and dry. 

We had a wonderful group of helpers – Jonathan and Travis caught and threw the lambs, Mom prepared bags and made notes, Nancy bagged and David and Delores were the shearing mat sweepers.   Now, I know you are wondering what were those two shepherdesses doing?  Well they were helping with all of the above, along with fleece grading, catching and sorting ewe lambs from ram lambs.  A busy, busy barn full of somewhat damp and chilly but cheerful workers.

And these two guys – the shearers – Melvin and Joe; we can’t say enough about how great they are.  We sheared 49 lambs and were done before noon.  Thank you everyone for all your help… feeling so blessed to have such great family, friends and neighbors

Now onto the big job of skirting… hope to start that later today!

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 Lessons

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One of Autumn’s lessons is to carefully watch your step as you go about your daily chores

but Autumn’s greatest lesson is to gently remind us to look up… lift up our eyes
”Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”  — John Muir