Our Corriedale ewes tend to run a full gestation at 148 days, but can, on occasion wait as long as 154 days. Tomorrow marks the 148th day. It almost seems as if someone hit the replay button on us. After enjoying a few days of sunshine and “relatively” warm days, the forecast for the next week or more sounds more like it did when we were getting ready to begin lambing in early March: colder temperatures, damp northeast winds blowing off of Lake Michigan and snow. That type of outlook will make early morning barn checks much less pleasant. It is difficult to believe that at this stage of lambing at night we are usually hearing frog calls from the wetlands that surround us! Not this year!

6 April, Saturday - All of the lambing jugs were empty this morning, as we move Ariel and Chuck into the third mixing pen. The vacancy did not last too long. Vespa decided to go into labor during morning chores. She delivered a large white ram lamb. Thankfully it is a single, because one of the reasons that we did not spot Vespa’s pregnancy earlier was her lack of substance in her udder. Milk production is definitely going to be a problem.

By this afternoon the entire barn was in a very “pissy” mood: lots of head butting and running around, plus lots of complaints about the lack of food. In all this Vixie was the only one lying down, giving us hope that she too would go into labor. This hope was destroyed when we fed everyone an additional extra breakfast at noon and Vixie got up to join in the eating festivity. The food consumption for the flock has gone up substantially over the last couple of days. The grumpy behavior I can only ascribe to lack of sleep and the dreary, rainy, snowy weather for today.

7 April, Sunday - Vixie continued to toy with us early this morning at 2 AM, building nests and acting uncomfortable. At 6AM we found her with two ram lambs who were up, cleaned and learning to nurse. Thankfully, Vixie seemingly has a sufficient milk supply. Having milk is one of the major concerns we have with these unplanned pregnancies. One of the reasons we did not try to breed some of these ewes is that we know that when they had their last sets of lambs that they experienced some problems with milk production, in most cases due to mastitis.

In that vein, Umeka may have some mastitis problems this afternoon. A swollen right nipple and right side of her udder. She is now 18 days postpartum, and her lamb, Conchita has been growing well. We attempted to milk out as much of the side as we could, but Umeka was clearly in discomfort and made the milking effort difficult. We will test her milk and depending upon the results begin a course of medication.

Vixie proved to be the only ewe to deliver on day 149. Three to go….

8 April, Monday – Today was Umlaut’s day. Early this morning she delivered a white ewe and a colored ram. They were well cared for and had already nursed, which makes it difficult to know how Umlaut’s milk supply stands. At morning chores we weighed the two lambs so that we had a benchmark for gains by tonight. (By evening chores they had both gained weight; obviously mom has milk available!)  Looking at Umlaut’s lambs and her family line this is one of the ewe cases that we can be pretty sure about the father. Ukiah is the only sire who would have produced a white lamb with Umlaut. If he is the father of the ram lamb is another question.

Vespera was not eating breakfast and visiting every corner of the barn. by 9:45 AM she had some discharge. At 11:15 AM she was in active labor and quickly produced a ewe lamb without assistance. She seemed a bit confused by the ordeal, but that is understandable, considering that she is a five year old ewe who has never had a lamb.

Two ewes deliver on day 150. Only Quazar remains!

9 April, Tuesday – At 2 AM just about everyone in the barn was asleep. However, I found Quazar, standing outside Umlaut’s jug, quietly watching the lambs. I was hopeful that it was a good sign. It was not, as she spent the rest of the day sleeping and eating.

No lambing on day 151. Still one to go.

10 April, Wednesday - After a day of constant rain yesterday, it was a miserable night. At 2 AM Mother Nature could not decide between snow or ice pellets. In her indecision she gave us a few inches of both. It is a miserable mess!

Quazar’s udder and vulva are getting pinker, but still no lamb(s) this morning.

Day 152 and still waiting for Quazar.

11 April, Thursday - The cold, damp, gloomy weather continues, with more snow, freezing rain and sleet in the forecast. The spring bird migrants, especially the insectivores are having a tough time. This morning we felt especially sorry for an Eastern Phoebe perched in one of the cedars next to the house, unsuccessfully searching for insects.

Quazar still was showing no signs of lambing this morning. I spent a lot of time watching her, trying to detect any fetal movements, but I saw nothing. We were worried enough to discuss her case with one of our vets. We decided that if she showed no signs of lambing by evening chores we would start the process of inducing labor, knowing that can take up to 2 days.

Guess who must have been listening in on our phone lines? When we came down to the barn at 4:30 PM to weigh lambs and get ready for chores, Quazar was just finishing the delivery of one of the largest lambs we have ever had. He was having a little trouble breathing, but between us and Quazar we got the lad going. This image is of the two of them about 1o minutes after birth.

Once we got the two of them into a jug, clipped and dipped his navel and made sure Quazar had milk, we got her out of her jacket. By then the lamb was up and ready to nurse. Once he started it was as if he made up for the last few days when he should have been nursing. We are guessing he may top 20 pounds! Also not bad for an “old lady” of nine years!

With that, lambing for 2013 is over for us. We thought of going out for dinner tonight to celebrate, but the raging ice storm put those thoughts to rest quickly. We at least get to sleep through the night.

Ariel’s was now the last planned pregnancy. Early this afternoon she went into labor. Within a few minutes she delivered a large ram lamb, Chuck, and immediately got to work cleaning up the lad. She is another “first timer”, so it was especially gratifying to finish off the scheduled lambing on a happy, positive note.

Exactly three weeks after it started, lambing is over (sort of!). It seems like it lasted a lot longer, but I think that is more of a function of the advancing age of the shepherds. Overall it has been a successful lambing, especially when compared to last year. When we pulled the rams from the breeding groups last fall, they had marked 35 of the 36 ewes they had been given. We used three rams who had not had any previous opportunity to show whether they were good at their assigned task. They managed to successfully breed all 35 of their marked ewes, basically within one heat cycle. (The few ewes that were remarked had been initially marked right at the beginning of breeding and, therefore, were just finishing a heat when they joined the rams.) Axel, Andrew and Aries were obviously up to the task!

In all 53 lambs were born. The two that did not survive were very small and extremely compromised. It was best for them, their siblings and mothers that they did not make it. All of the remaining 51 lambs are healthy and growing rapidly or at least steadily. Pneumonia has not raised its ugly head, as compared to last year. We averaged 151.4% lambs per ewe, which is not outstanding, but considering that the group contained a large number of first time moms it is not too bad a percentage. The ewe lamb to ram lamb ratios is the amazing number. There were 31 ewe lambs and 16 ram lambs (including the 2 that died at or before birth). That ratio figures out to 37.7% ram lambs.

The best part of the day was the evening barn check. We knew that we did not have to set the alarm for 2 AM!

Coleen and Carmen enjoying the morning sun

2 April, Tuesday – Everyone, including us, survived the night without interruption (almost). Some idiot had to telephone us at 2:30AM with a wrong number! Otherwise it was a pleasant day to look after lambs and their moms.

Those who have been following these narratives will remember that even though I wrote that lambing was over, it really is not. Just to add emphasis to that point, this morning we found at least one additional ewe who is pregnant as a result of the rams’ extra night out. We are now pretty certain about Umlaut, Vixie, Vesperea and Quazar. They are all due on or about April 6th.

Between now and the first extra arrivals, we at least have time to get all the current lambs and mothers into mixing groups. It will mean that we can disassemble all of the jugs, except for the four we know we will need. (Just to be on the safe side we will leave one extra up.) We will not start making early morning barn checks until Saturday, April 6th. Until then we will have a couple of days with regular daily lamb chores and normal bedtimes!

We managed to get through the night without any new lambs. That makes three straight Mondays without lambs. Today is the beginning of the third week of lambing. We started with a strange twist. At 6 AM both Winkie and Uhlayla were in labor. Winkie had already produced at least one bag, which looked a bit different than usual. In addition she was chewing cud, as if she was done lambing. We eventually decided that we had better doing some examining. The bag contained a very small, mummified fetus. Initially we could not find anything else still inside Winkie. Eventually it turned out there was a normal ewe lamb way back in there, presented backwards. With a lot of help, we got it delivered and life was again good for Winkie, her lamb, Cha Cha, and us.

Uhlayla, as she usually does, took her own sweet time. We managed to get all of our morning feeding chores done, before she got serious about a delivery. By 9 AM she had a good sized ewe lamb. It looked like she was not finished, but considering her usual lack of speed we decided to put her and the lamb into a jug and have a quick breakfast. By 10:30 AM she delivered a second ewe lamb, in the jug. It was hard to believe, but the arrival of Champagne and Chardonnay proved to be the last lambing of the day.

We are well into the establishment of the second mixing pen. This morning it was time for Whiskey and her lamb to move in. It was also time to remove the sutures that had retained her previously prolapsed uterus. It looks like it has done a very nice job of healing.

Weft and Winola continue to be on the mend. They still have a bit of recovery before they can join in with others, but we are very happy with their progress.

During morning chores I heard the year’s first Sandhill Crane flying by. Late this afternoon a couple of Robins appeared on one of the few bare spots of pasture. Perhaps there is hope for spring.

For those trying to keep track, here are the lambing numbers to date. Twenty nine ewes have lambed, producing 44 lambs. That is a decent, but not spectacular percentage of 152.7%. Of greater interest is the sex imbalance. Of the 44 lambs only 16 (36.7%) are males! We are now waiting on the last scheduled six ewes, all of whom “should go” sometime this week. It also looks as though we may have at least 3 additional pregnant ewes scheduled for April 6th (all the result of the unscheduled visit the rams paid the ewes after breeding was officially over.)

28 March, Thursday - The lambing pace is slowing; the shepherd energy level is lowering. It helps today to have more sunshine and a little warmth. The snow is actually receding slowly, which is nice. Perhaps the moisture is soaking in more than running off.

Naps are always appreciated around here. Viva and her boys Click and Clack always stick close together, awake or asleep.

Viva with Click and Clack

Vanilla could not decide if she wanted breakfast this morning. Once she got to work it was afternoon. By 1 PM she had delivered a white ewe lamb, Creampuff, who she got squeaky clean before we could get her into a jug. Waffle was not to be outdone and also at 1 PM she delivered twin ewe lambs, Cheesecake and Crumpet. The abundance of ewe lambs continues!

Yoko was given her freedom from the stanchion today. She does so-so in terms of accepting her lambs. This story is still looking for an ending. The same applies to Allspice. Her jug still needs high walls and her lambs seem like after thoughts to her. It does not help that neither Yoko nor Allspice seem to be producing a lot of milk.

Zahra and Clancy taking a mid-afternoon nap

We are down to 4 scheduled pregnancies: Xanadu, Artemisia, Ariel and Woolamena. Any of them could go at any time.

29 March, Friday – Another quiet night. The desire to sleep through the 2 AM alarm is becoming greater. It was another sunny, warmish day. Oh how it is welcome by everyone!

Artemisia was nice enough to schedule her lambing for late morning. She is another first timer. She managed to do an excellent job delivering both her lambs, a ewe and ram. The ram is smaller and arrived inside an especially thick sack. I was able to get it torn open as he arrived. I am not sure he would have made it out on his own, even with Artemisia’s help. The end result would have been severe fluid inhalation. A few hours later we are also starting to think that he may be challenged in other ways. He is having great trouble learning to nurse.

30 March, Saturday -  We lost our sunshine and warmth today. It was replaced by drizzle, rain and fog. We will take the moisture along with the very slow gradual melt of our snow cover. The south winds that brought the rain also seems to be aiding northerly bird migration. Our first Song Sparrow of the year was under one of the feeders this morning.

The remaining pregnant girls kept their legs crossed today and tonight. No new lambs today. The pause let us get caught up naming all the lambs. Artemisia’s boy, Columbus, is not doing well; he lost weight over the last day. We tube fed him tonight after unsuccessfully trying to get him to nurse from a bottle.

31 March, Sunday – No more lambings overnight. Xanadu is toying with us this morning at breakfast. She is now at 154 days, just about as long as any of our ewes wait to lamb.

The second mixing pen is now full this morning. It also means that our jugs are being vacated. We now have enough empty jugs to accommodate the last three ewes when they lamb. This morning we were able to start taking down some of the jugs at the back of the barn. It is nice to free up a little more room for the rest of the flock. This afternoon we set up the third mixing pen. Weft, Winola and their lambs were the first to move in. They all seemed happy to be there and we are extremely pleased to see how they are all doing!

Xanadu finally got serious. By late morning she produced a big ram lamb, already tabbed as “Cowabunga”. This is another case of a ewe who does everything on her own, with efficiency and care. That is a pleasure to deal with.

Artemisia’s boy, Columbus surprised us this evening during weigh-ins. He has suddenly started to grow! Hopefully he has finally learned how to properly nurse. His sister, Columbine has a big head start on him, but hopefully he can now keep up.

It is difficult to believe, but some of the lambs are now over 15 days old. That means that they are getting their 15 day weigh-ins. My how they are growing! So far the champion is Cupcake. She is now over 25 pounds and averaging .92 lbs per day. Cuddles has a couple days to go until her weigh-in. But she is definitely banking on the “cute” factor.

Cuddles

Our two moms with health problems are not fairing well, especially Weft. Winola is, at least, eating and drinking better. And finally, at 2 PM she is lying down for the first time since she delivered her lambs (i.e. about 60 hours ago).

With Viva’s delivery we finally finished the “mid-week” lambing push, “only” 3 days later. Now we are facing the weekend push of seven expectant ewes. Currently it looks as though they are going to keep us waiting!

24 March, Sunday – This morning it was Yoko’s turn. At 2 AM she was just finishing her second  delivery. This time she has two ewe lambs. Unfortunately, Yoko does not seemed to have learned from her first experience a year ago. At that time she “sort of” rejected her first lamb, Brewster. In that situation, after spending a number of days in the stanchion, she bonded to her lamb. This year, once in the jug, she decided again that she was not sure about motherhood. At least, she adjusted to the stanchion quickly. We had to strip out enough milk to tube feed the lambs. Unlike 24 hours ago, this was an early morning with very little sleep. Even if Yoko ends up loving these two lambs dearly, this will be her last chance with us.

Winola improves a bit today. She eats and drinks well, but still has difficulty getting up. She is producing a good milk supply and is up enough that her lambs are nursing well and growing nicely. Weft, on the other hand is doing very poorly; she is not responding to her treatment. Her milk supply is diminished or gone. Today we managed to get both of her lambs to nurse from bottles. We will thus be able to keep them going.

The remaining pregnant ewes kept us waiting…and waiting today and tonight. Their delay is at least allowing us to get some of the jugs emptied out. There are now 13 ewes with lambs in the first mixing pen. We will add one more tomorrow and then start a second mixing pen.

25 March, Monday – No new lambs overnight. It gave us a bit more sleep, but the 2 AM trip to the barn is still disruptive for all of us, human and ovine, even without any new lambs. Our outlook is not helped by the general gloomy weather that has settled upon us. It has been a long while since we saw the sun. The cold has moderated a bit; that does help. The view out the door of the barn to the first pasture gives a good perspective in terms of how far away we are from green grass and grazing. Usually by now we would have newly arrive bluebirds on top of the fence posts, but today the tops of some of the posts are barely peeking above the snow.

We recorded no births today! We had time to catch up on other non-sheep tasks. We also discussed Weft’s and Winola’s conditions with Paul. We are all stumped. He wants us to try a different antibiotic, and in the case of Weft some injectable vitamin B (to hopefully stimulate her totally nonexistent appetite). The frustration is so intense when you seemingly cannot do anything for a ewe who is not only a productive member of the flock, but also a good friend. We now fear that we will loose her soon.

26 March, Tuesday – One more time…a 2 AM delivery! Allspice has two ram lambs. The three of them are scattered across the barn. Once into a jug she accepts them and lets them nurse. Unfortunately, her main concern is getting out of the jug. Up go the extra high panels again.

The frustration that Allspice produced is, however, offset by our other 2 AM discovery. Weft has had a terrible case of diarrhea, but she is also eating hay like mad! Despite our depression of yesterday I believe she has turned the corner in a positive direction. She continues to eat all morning and is much more alert than we have seen in a long while. We can now joke about how a good poop can really solve so many problems!

The first mixing pen is now full: 14 ewes and their lambs. The morning breakfast ritual includes waiting impatiently and complaining.

Once breakfast is served it is time to eat unless you are a lamb and must participate in the races around the feeders.

After some good exercise many of the lambs are now eating solid food. Lucky for them there is still room at the feeders!

Zoe does not eat during morning feeding, a sure sign that something is pending on the lambing schedule. By 10 AM she produces a single ewe lamb. Brie has a younger sister! Just like last year, Zoe takes her time settling in with her lamb, but by 11 AM they seem fine. That’s a good thing too. It is going to be a busy morning by the looks of it.

At 11 AM Willetta renewed our faith in good mothers by delivering a large ewe lamb and taking care of everything quite nicely. While Willetta finished up, Ultima started early labor. She took until 1 PM to produce a large ram lamb. Within 15 minutes the lad was up and nursing. Another morale booster! We became concerned as the afternoon wore on because Ultima had not cleaned. After evening chores we did an examination but could not find another lamb. Ultima got a shot of oxytocin. By bed time she had cleaned.

There are times when we wonder if all the work, long hours and problems are worth our efforts. But, if we can find time to visit with the healthy and seeming happy lambs we realize that this is what makes the experience worthwhile. Here is a taste of happiness!

Clyde and Chloe, Winifred's Twins

Yippe's Caitlin

Yuliya's Cecily

Today is the beginning of the second week of lambing. To date, 9 ewes have delivered 14 lambs. On the birthing calendar, today is the beginning of the big push. Three ewes are due today, 7 tomorrow, plus another 9 by the end of the weekend.

Weft signaled the beginning of the lambing push. Late this afternoon she delivered triplets, 2 ewes and a ram. She is a couple of days early. As with most triplets they are relatively small, especially the ram. The two girls were up and nursing quickly. The boy struggles.

Again it is unseasonably cold. The wind tries to suck the warmth out of everything. The snow continues to drift throughout the day and into the night. Weft’s little ram does not make it through the night. The ewe lambs, Chiquita and Chimichanga, are doing fine.

Wednesday, 20 March – The first day of spring…ya right!

Barn checks continue to be an adventure, especially those in the dark. Astrid provided a welcome surprise at 2 AM: a large ewe lamb, Claudia, all cleaned up and dry. The two were quietly snuggled up together, as if calmly waiting for us. This is how a first time mom should be (not to mention a mom of any age)! Astrid does honor to her namesake, another beautiful mother.

Just after sunrise Wobyn had delivered twin ewes, Cricket and Cuddles. They were cold, especially the first one. It is 11°F (-12° C). Inside the barn it is just above 40°F. Once we got them into a jug, we helped with the drying, Wobyn did the rest.

Wobyn with Cricket & Cuddles

After figuring that the rush to lamb had begun, it didn’t. I was at least able to clear the driveway and the path to the back door. It is reassuring to know that we again have access to outside help if needed. It is also wonderful to use the usual route to and from the barn.

At 8:45 PM Yippee surprised us with twin ewe lambs. She was not even on the big list of ewes due over the next few days. The lambs are obviously not premature. She and Axel were able to conceal her breeding date for at least 4 days. The lambs, Courtney and Caitlin, are big and vigorous. We will take it!

The two of us could not stay awake this evening. We went to bed a couple hours early and set the alarm for an earlier barn check.

21 March, Thursday – Winola greeted us with twins (male and female), Charlie and Charlotte, at 1 AM. After a couple hour’s sleep we came back at 4:14 AM to find Zinnia and Zita at opposite ends of the barn, each with a signal ram lamb. Zinnia’s is dubbed Chumley and Zita’s Calvin. Another short nap and at 7 AM Wendolyn was making all the preliminary motions for labor and delivery. We took time for a cup of coffee and a snack. Within an hour she had delivered a single ewe lamb.

Out of necessity we are moving the earlier moms and their lambs more rapidly into the first mixing pen. Despite those moves the barn is filling up with occupied jugs (individual pens for ewes with their new born). It is like “the good old days” when we bred more than twice what we do now! Trouble is, the shepherds are showing their age.

Another potential problem this morning. Weft does not get up for breakfast (she is usually one of the most eager). After we had taken care of every one else, we got her up. Her temperature was normal, but she was putting no weight on her front left leg. She likes to climb the fence waiting for her feed. We surmise that she may have tangled/caught her foot and has a sprain. No signs of a break at least. Gave her a shot of banamine (sheep pain medication). Within an hour she was up and eating. Later this afternoon she was still up. Hopefully we have dodged a bullet.

After having 7 ewes lamb in about 30 hours the flock decided to take a rest. We thank them for it! By evening chores Weft seems to have regressed. Her leg is no longer a problem, but she acts depressed and does not eat. Wanetta has a pair of smallish ewe lambs at 9:30 PM. Shirley is being “helpful” trying to adopt the lambs. We are going to have to move her into the new wing of the barn. This kind of “Grannying” is not only disruptive to us but adds a lot of pressure on the real mother trying to get her lambs started.

As we are finishing up with Wanetta, Umeka goes into labor. By 10:30 PM she delivers a monster ram lamb (14+ lbs). We had almost given up on Umeka as she was way “overdue” and was not showing much of an udder. A pleasant surprise, especially when it became apparent that she also had a good milk supply.

22 March, Friday – I found a “train wreck” in the barn at 2 AM. Whiskey had delivered a ram lamb and her uterus. We are out of our abilities when it comes to repairing a uterine prolapse. Thankfully we have a large animal practice with 24 hour on-call service. Randy, one of our vets, got here quickly. By 3:30AM we had Whiskey put back together and sutured up. We thawed some of our supply of sheep colostrum and tube fed the lamb. After a two hour nap we returned to find that Whiskey was up, looking good and eating hay. We are not sure of her relationship with the lamb; she seems a bit confused. At the same time we found that Ysabel had produced a large ewe lamb, almost as big as Umeka’s. The lamb was squeaky clean and already up and running! It appeared as if Ysabel had waited until we left the barn at 4 AM and then figured it was a good time to lamb without human interference.

Ysabel’s lambing proved to be the last of the day, for which we were exceedingly grateful. We spent much of the morning dealing with Weft’s problems and new problems with Winola. In both situations we had exhausted our medical expertise. Paul, one of the vets paid a visit. Diagnosing a sick animal of any sort is difficult and sheep are often especially challenging. In Weft’s case it was decided that she might have a uterine infection. Winola is off her feed and to our knowledge has not laid down since lambing 36 hours previous. Paul could detect lung noises pointing toward pneumonia. We now have treatment regimes for both of the ewes.

The crazy hours that we have been in the barn have not only fatigued us, but has taken a toll on the flock. With some quiet time on Friday afternoon, just about everyone was napping!

Tired sheep

We finished a long day with the good news that Whiskey and her lamb had worked out their differences. At our bedtime the lamb was contentedly nursing.

Pictures from the last few days are in short supply (just like our sleep reserves). Hopefully time will permit more opportunity for photos.

At evening chores Walnut told us that we were back on watch. She was uncomfortable and appeared to have dropped. She waited until 10 PM to deliver two medium size ewe lambs, Cashewe and Coconut, who insisted upon heading to opposite corners of the barn. After we scooped them up and got everyone into a jug, life was much less chaotic. We had been concerned about Walnut’s milk supply as she had a touch of mastitis last year, but she seems to have a good supply to start with. That’s an extra relief!

Saturday, 16 March – Now they are playing games with us. Unabelle and Zahra are slightly “overdue” and Annette is due tomorrow. No sign of lambing the entire day and evening. At least it afforded us time to get jackets on the first three ewes that lambed in addition to trimming their hooves. Tomorrow they should be ready to start the first mixing pen.

To bed a bit earlier, but I still had to set the alarm for the 2 AM barn check.

Sunday, 17 March – Unabelle finished lambing just before I got to the barn at 2 AM. By then both the ram and ewe lambs were up and looking for nipples on which to nurse. We were a bit concerned as Unabelle seemingly did not have much milk. We left them at 3 AM knowing that we would have to monitor the milk issue. At 6 AM the two lambs appeared to have gotten sufficient milk. They were up, active and not complaining. We weighed them so that we would have a bench mark for whether they were getting enough milk.

On top of it all, it was cold this morning: 8° F (-13° C)! Those temperatures are not fair. We purposefully have pushed lambing later into spring to avoid the cold, yet here we are. It appears we will have some more nights with comparable lows. As long as we do not have strong easterly winds the barn is holding temperatures pretty well.

Annette was not eating breakfast, but waited until mid-morning to go into labor. She delivered a large ram lamb unassisted at 10:20 AM. She was another first timer, and darn it all, she just could not quite get the hang of bonding to her lamb even though she seemed to want to. In the jug all she wanted was OUT. We set up the higher fencing; stripped out some milk to tube-feed the lamb and to get some oxytocin flowing in Annette; gave her food and water and let them work on their relationship. At least she was not rejecting the lamb. By 1 PM they are standing together and she is letting the boy, Claude, nurse.

Annette and Claude

The first mixing pen is established. Annabel, Yuliya, Yvonne plus assembled lambs are now in their communal home. The lambs are having a ball and driving their mothers crazy. This is a good time!

Zahra got us caught up on the lambing schedule. At 1:15 PM she was in labor and by 1:45 had delivered a big, wrinkly, white ram lamb. This was her first delivery and thankfully she renewed our faith in good mothering genes. The little guy was licked squeaky-clean. Zahra did everything right and was exceedingly cooperative on top of it all. One problem popped up however. It was obvious that by evening chores the lamb was not nursing, in addition to which he was cold and shivering. We stripped out some colostrum and tubed him. By 8 PM his condition seemed no better so we repeated the milking/tubing routine. While he still shivers he is, at least, warm and dry. I am not sure if he will survive the night.

Monday, March 18 - Zahra’s boy Clancy survived the night and the cold. This morning he is nursing contentedly. Hurrah!

Zahra with Clancy

More good news. We let Æbleskive free from her stanchion this morning. Her lamb, Cupcake, had definitely thrived on unlimited free access to milk. She has gained over 1 pound a day since birth! Their relationship seems to have been resealed and so far they are bonded as if nothing negative had happened. Hurrah one more time!

Æbleskive and a 15 pound Cupcake

Annabel skipped breakfast and was acting very uncomfortable all morning. She is a first timer, which always is a bit of a concern for us, since she does not yet have a history of how she will deal with the whole process. Around noon she did a nice job of delivering a ram lamb all on her own. She has done her homework and had all the procedures down pretty well for a first timer. Her boy was a good size (12.7 lbs) and smart enough to figure out how to nurse as soon as the two of them moved into their jug. By the way this is Andrew’s first lamb.

Chauncey has arrived. Here he is, with mom, a couple of days later.

Last year Yuliya was our first ewe to deliver. This year she came in second. After we had our dinner we went back to the barn to find that she had already delivered another set of twins, a big ram and slightly smaller ewe. She was doing a fine job on her own, along with Shadow, who had decided to help, in the hopes that she could adopt the ram lamb! It would be a good choice, as both lambs are cuter than normal. That’s probably Axel’s, their dad’s,  genes showing through. These two, Cecil and Cecily are his first lambs.

Cecily and Cecil

When we went to bed, Yvonne was still vigorously building nests in the back end of the barn.

Wednesday, 13 March - I checked on Yvonne at 1 AM and 5 AM. In contrast to last night, she was very quiet and still. By morning chores she had not gotten up and had significant amounts of foamy nasal discharge (something we had not experienced before). We called our vets and luckily Joel was able to get here within a half hour. In between our call and his arrival, Yvonne said to heck with all of us and went into labor. Joel was puzzled by the discharge, but could not detect anything unusual. Yvonne was not totally dilated, but Joel was able to tell that a lamb was presented backward, something we needed to be watchful about. We left her alone at 9:15 AM; an hour later she delivered two nice ewe lambs all on her own. They were a bit small and not very vigorous. Eventually, we helped them out by stripping some colostrum from Yvonne and tube feeding each of the lambs with the milk. Carmen and Carmelita perked up and now are doing well. Yvonne’s nasal discharge also dissipated. All is well.

Today is an interesting contrast to last year. Spring still seems a long ways off. There are some hopeful signs however. The Horned Larks have arrived back and are frequenting the exposed shoulders of Clark Lake Road. Not that it is a sign of spring, but we had a dramatic visit from a full grown, immature Bald Eagle, resting for a time on one of the large branches of a maple tree just beyond the barn.That is truly one large bird!

As a contrast for a year’s difference here are scenes exactly a year apart.

Rainbows on 13 March 2012

Snow and cold on 13 March 2013

Thursday, 15 March – We hit our first speed bump this morning. Between 2 AM and 6AM Æbleskive delivered a big, vigorous ewe lamb. When we arrived they were half way across the barn from each other. Æbleskive is another first time mom. It appears that in a confused state, she left the lamb. We eventually gathered them into a jug, where mom would have little to do with her daughter. After failing to convince her of the fact that she had a lamb that needed attention, we hauled out our stanchion. Once Æbleskive was restrained the lamb learned to nurse. Mom has become more tolerant and accepting, but based on past experience we will need to leave her stanchioned for a couple more days. It was not a good way to start a day and served to take a lot of the joy out of it.

Winifred set things back on a happier plane just before evening chores. She rapidly delivered a medium size ewe and a large ram. Before the ram landed on the ground the ewe was already up and nursing. We figure she wanted to stock up, knowing she would have good competition from her larger brother. It is a joy to have an excellent mom like Winifred. She put smiles back on our faces.

Chauncey is already a friendly chum and helps in the smile department. He is already checking out what is going on in the main pen.

Shearing went quite well. Mother Nature gave us a bit of a break weather wise. We fit shearing in between snow storms so that shearer and our out-of-town helpers were able to travel without major problems.  Temperatures moderated enough that, with the barn closed up, the flock only showed some discomfort for a couple of days. Now they have acclimatized.

We have an abundance of snow of the ground for once. Much of the snow arrived just before, during and after shearing. It meant that we did not have time to move any of it until it became hard packed and frozen. Even if I could have moved it, the tractors are drifted in down in the machine shed and we have no where to go with the snow even if we could move it. The moisture is always welcome, but we fear a rapid thaw and the resulting flush of run-off around and through the barn just at the moment lambing picks up.

Shearing is always the first time that we get a good idea just how many of our planned breedings were successful. The week prior to shearing, a few udders were beginning to peek through the fleeces and body widths seemed to be increasing. In the two weeks since shearing (sans fleeces) there have been few questions as to who is pregnant. We had tried to breed 36 ewes last fall. We knew that one was never bred. Of the remaining 35, all but one seem to be pregnant. Based upon breeding dates, lambing should take place within an 18 day window. In reality, a couple of ewes will deliver a couple of days ahead of schedule and a couple will wait a day or two extra toward the end.

The biggest unknown was whether any of the other ewes that we did not plan to breed have become pregnant. It may be remembered that four of the rams got in with all the ewes four nights after we had officially terminated breeding. If there are to be any lambs resulting from that night of partying, they will not be arriving until April 6th. It is therefore, a bit early to detect if there are any additional pregnant ewes. At this point we are suspicious of Umlaut. It will be hard on all of us (shepherds and sheep) if she or any others are pregnant, as they will be delivering over a week after the last scheduled planned pregnancy.

Tonight (Saturday) is the last one in which we will sleep through. With the first deliveries scheduled for Tuesday, experience has taught us that we may have the first arrivals beginning Sunday. The first couple of lambing jugs are already set up. Our lambing kits are supplied. My first 2 AM barn check will be scheduled for Monday. Hopefully we are all set. It is quite obvious that some of the girls are primed and ready!

Baby (or Babies) on Board!

First, we figured the old guy was here because of the weather. Over the last month the temperatures have bounced from balmy to cold. There is so much snow up against the barn that when it warms up the melting snow tries to flow through parts of our place. The old guy was busy trying to make sure we kept dry (which was nice of him!). That’s why we weren’t too surprised to be seeing lots of him. Then he started getting either grumpy or fussy or both. He spent an entire day just shoveling a path from the door out to the manure storage, all the while mumbling about how there was too much snow on the slope to even get the skidloader anywhere near to help. Then, lacking his mechanical help, he spent three days shoveling out the bedding in the lower portion  of the barn. That’s when the veterans knew that something was up. They started whispering about “shearing”, not that we youngsters understood.

Once the lower part of the barn was squeaky clean, the shepherds moved in a large flat board, a slotted table and all sorts of other stuff. The next day a bunch of strangers started showing up in the barn. Before we knew it these people herded us into a pen next to the cleaned up area. Over the next two days we all got sheared. Here’s me, in with the rest of the girls, waiting for the the inevitable.

It soon became apparent that the old shepherd was first taking each of the pregnant girls out of the pen for shearing. That was nice of him, because those girls are getting a bit uncomfortable. That took the entire morning and into early afternoon. Once they were finished with each of us, the ewe got to eat breakfast back in the main pen, while the rest of us watched and waited. Later in the afternoon it was my turn. I didn’t exactly know what to expect, but it all happened so quickly I hardly had time to think about it. The shearer treated me nicely and gently, but he also didn’t give me an opportunity to object. So here I am, just getting started with my first ever shearing.

Before I knew it I was a few pounds lighter and headed for a late breakfast (or was that brunch?). I briefly caught a view of the nice lady shepherd and a friend picking up my fleece  and elegantly throwing it out on the slatted table next to where I was sheared. I had seen enough and got the heck out of there (I was hungry too!)

Later on, after I had eaten, I watched them do the same thing with the next fleeces. Up on the table the nice lady and her friend proceeded to pull the dirty wool away from the main fleece. Once they were finished they had the best of my wool all sorted and in a bag with a label that said “Brie”. The wool that had some hay mixed in went into a separate bag (they said it was for “machine cleaning and spinning”) and the wool from my legs and belly went into the “garbage bag”. Anyway, here’s what my fleece looked like on the table before the two ladies went at it.

By the time they were working on my fleece, the shearer was busy shearing another one of us. This went on for the better part of two days. Two days after that we all got our booster shots. Those of us who are not pregnant even got new clean jackets. Now they are finished; all the extra folks are gone: life is back to normal, sans fleeces. (I am sorry, but there are no pictures of me post-shearing. I am, after all, just a bit modest!)

It was nice of the shepherds that they waited until the weather was not so cold. Even so, it took a couple of days to adjust. They have made it as comfy as possible, and closed up the barn enough so that the next snow storm didn’t blow inside. As you may have heard, there are a bunch of the girls who are pregnant. Without their full fleeces you can really see who they are. Rumor has it that the new lambs will begin arriving in a little over a week. By the sounds of it, that means that we will be seeing a lot more of those old shepherds in the very near future. That’s about it for now.

Respectfully submitted,

Brie

One of our early winter tasks is to get the composted organic matter removed from the manure storage and spread on our hay ground and pastures. I am not inclined to do that until there is a good frost in the ground. Without the ground being solid, the numerous trips across the fields with the tractor and manure spreader results in the ground being chewed up by the lug tires of the tractor and then packed down by the weight of the full spreader. It took until late December before there was enough frost in the ground to even attempt the task. It helped to also finally get a bit of snow cover. My week between Christmas and New Years was spent hauling compost. By December 28th the last of 44 loads was spread. Now there was room to clean out the barn again. By New Years, what snow we had again melted.

January pulled a switch on us. It became suddenly cold. Then a week later it warmed up. This last week it again cooled off. We reached -8° F (-22°C) a couple of nights ago. It has meant making sure that all of our cold weather procedures were working in the barn. So far, all of the pipe warmers and water bucket heaters are working just fine. One just has to remember not to touch any of the metal panels with a wet bare hand. Unfortunately, equipment in the house has not been as trustworthy. We had to deal with a day without the furnace. Thank goodness for the good old Morsø wood stove!

The sheep are coping well with the yo-yoing temperatures. It helps to be fully fleeced with at least 3 inches of wool. Hopefully, temperatures will moderate by late February when it is time for shearing. Shearing will be the first time we have a good idea which of the ewes are pregnant, since lambing should start just a couple of weeks later. Hopefully, only the ewes that we intended to breed will be pregnant. There is, of course, the little matter of four of the rams getting in with the entire ewe flock for a night two days after we had officially closed breeding. There is a “morning after” shot that can be given to sheep. We decided that we would give about 40 of the ewes the shot since that group includes the older ewes, ewes whose health might be threatened by a pregnancy and ewes who no longer have sufficient milk to raise healthy lambs. There are another 40 ewes that we did not intend to breed but who did not get the shots. We are counting on just a small percentage of that group being in heat during the boys’ night out. So, we shall see….

Away from the barn, we found the time to sand down and re-varnish the kitchen floor. The re-varnishing has been a frustrating experience, since the quality of today’s varnish is not as high as it was when we originally remodeled the farm house. After may extra coats it looks like we finally have gotten the floor back to the way it once was! The old maple flooring looks good again.

Aside from manure, sanding and varnishing, we have found some time to devote to fiber. Currently on the big loom is a blanket made from our mill-spun yarn. The colors are natural (white and two shades of gray) and white naturally dyed with indigo and black walnut hulls. This photo shows the warp for the blanket, all ready to tie-on to the loom.

The pattern is a simple Swedish Goose-eye. Here is how it looks after about half woven.

Lastly, here is a bit of the pattern detail.

This about wraps things up. With a little time and luck the blanket will soon be finished and we should then have a more timely update for the Ewe Turn.

Back at the end of September there was no pasture left for us, so the old guy put these large hay bales out for us to eat every day. They didn’t taste as good as our homegrown hay, but we got used to it. (We had to, I guess, we had no choice!) It can get kind of boring going out to the same pasture day after day. The pasture with the hay bales is right next to the road. That meant that we got the usual amount of humans beeping their car horns at us as they drove by. Even the folks on those little, smelly mopeds did it. I can’t understand why they are all so scared of us. You’d think they believed that we were all about to jump over a four foot high fence, run up the hill and attack them. After a while you just get accustomed to it and ignore them entirely. I used to wonder why lots of the flock say that the shepherd guy is grumpy. I can now start to understand that a bit. We overheard a few things he had to say about those horn blowers. It wasn’t too pleasant.

After about two weeks of us eating these big bales and ignoring the horn cacophony, Mr  and Mrs  Shepherd got all of us together in the barn one day. They started sorting us into different groups. They put all of us lambs and all of the older retired ewes in one big group and then they made smaller groups of about 12 younger ewes (like my mom). When they had one of those groups set up, they would kick them outside the barn. The next thing we knew they were hustling one of those handsome rams out the door. The shepherds, ewes and ram would disappear out to one of the distant pastures. They repeated this three times. Then it dawned on me, these were the famous Breeding Groups! Now I know…. Boy was I put out when I saw my hearts delight, the guy called Axel, go charging off with one of those groups and I wasn’t included. Mom had warned me that they never let us lambs go off until we were another year older. A girl can dream at least…. There were still three rams left in the barn addition. Were they ever ticked off when it turned out they did not get any breeding groups. For the next few days they took it out on each other.

We missed not having lots of the flock with us. We could see and hear them off in different pastures. But once they were all settled in, the rest of us just got to return to our boring, big square bales of hay and car horns. The strange thing about this period was that all of a sudden it started to rain after nearly getting no rain all summer. The ewes and rams in the breeding groups got wet, since they do not get to come back to the barn. The old bearded guy seemed to vacillate between being happy and then grumpy. Every day that it would rain he kept us indoors and fed us our winter hay (which tasted really good!). On those days we could see him running around our big bales trying to cover them with tarps. That was nice of him; wet, moldy hay tastes terrible. All that extra work put him in a foul mood, but then he would lighten up when he realized that we were getting much needed rain. He seemed to get even grumpier when the nice lady went away on vacation in the middle of all this.

Then came early November. The nice lady returned. The next day, the two of them brought each of the breeding groups back to the barn. They grabbed the ram from each group, removed his marking harness and put him back into the ram pen in the barn addition. The old shepherd made the ram pen smaller so that they had less room to back off and fight each other. After a few days they sort of settled down. I personally think they stop fighting ’cause their heads were too sore.

It was nice to have everyone back together, even if the nice lady went back on vacation again. The old bearded guy decided that we would not go back to more large bales. I think he was tired of covering and uncovering them, plus he was worried that we might not have any water. It is, after all November and it is supposed to get very cold, meaning the pipes on pasture would freeze. So he has been feeding us winter hay plus grain (hurrah!!) each day inside.

Even on a dark, gloomy morning, eating home grown hay is pretty nice!

And now I know why they say he is grumpy! A couple of days after everyone returned to the barn and the rams were back in bachelor quarters, we had a party (without shepherd approval, I should add). One night while the rams were fighting with each other, they managed to bust open a gate to their pen. Next thing you knew they came over to join us. I learned a few things that night which I don’t think I should share with you. Did we ever have a rousing good time (at least until the old guy showed up the next morning)! He said some things that weren’t too nice and I learned a few new words I hadn’t heard before. Old grumpy got all of the boys back into their quarters (which I might add now has an extra chain around the gate!). As you can probably imagine, breakfast was served a bit late that day!

Viola, still has parts of breakfast on her face!

So that about covers it. Hopefully I have gotten you up to date. I am hoping that the old guy starts writing here soon. I am tired after all this extra work. I promise to keep  eye on him for you. Respectfully submitted,

Brie

So much is happening in such a short time that it is hard to keep up. I will give it a try. Of late, we have had an additional regular breakfast guest. This female Pileated Woodpecker has been spending a lot of time in the maple trees around the house. When she is just outside the window, one realizes her size is truly amazing.

The instances of Pileated Woodpeckers visiting us have diminished over the years. I suspect that it is due largely to the subdivision of the large tracks of woods in our neighborhood and the resultant destruction of habitat.

As if they were trying to conjure up a flush of Fall colors, Gretchen and her friend Sandy had been busy dyeing yarn in September. Here is Pussa passing judgement on these skeins dyed with Dyer’s Coreopsis and Cota (Navajo Tea). They seem to complement her colors quite nicely.

Mother Nature, not one to appear to out done, decided to show off her Fall color techniques. It has been one of the earliest and sudden Fall color transformations that we have experienced. I suspect much of it can be attributed to the very early spring leaf-out of the trees, followed by the extreme dry conditions of the entire Summer. At the beginning of the last week of September, the trees were nearly all still green. That week the sheep began grazing pasture #3 (the extreme southeast corner of the farm). In a normal year it usually takes 10 to 11 days for the flock to work from the east end to west end of that pasture. This time we had to give them bigger sections to compensate for the lack of dense forage. It took them only 7 days to finish off the pasture. On the 29th of September they had their last day on #3. As can be seen, in one week the trees at that end had already started to fill with colors.

The next day I returned to take down the movable fencing in #3. Within a day the transformation of color had accelerated. This image was taken in the afternoon of September 30th, about 30 hours after the previous picture. Here is the view from #3 looking back to the barns that same day.

Now, not even a week later, the colors are spectacular. If the strong winds that we are experiencing today continue for another day or so the leaves will soon be off the trees!

The flock is now on the small pasture, next to the road and behind the barns. We are feeding large square bales of hay. This image was their first day on this pasture since mid-Summer. After the first day, the green hue had been removed. None of the pastures have come back during the last month; the grazing season has effectively ended. The flock will remain with large bales on this pasture for the rest of the Fall. It is now a “sacrifice pasture”, i.e. it will be over-grazed and over-fertilized. Hopefully, next Spring we can recondition it, depending upon sufficient snow cover and adequate Spring rains.

It will be interesting to see if we move on into Winter at this rapid pace. One of our harbingers of Winter is the arrival of the Dark-eyed Juncos. Usually they move in from their northern territories around the second week of October. The first Junco we saw this year was on September 27th; they arrived in force!

Well first off, I have been to the end of the earth. Perhaps I should backtrack a little, so that this will make more sense to those of you who have never been there. We have been busy grazing nearly all the pastures. A while back we cleaned up the place the shepherds call “The Orchard”. Why they call it that I don’t know, as there are no trees there to speak of, but humans really do some odd things at times. But I digress…. After the Orchard we went to the first pasture, right outside the barn and then we moved on to the second pasture, just next to that one. I figured for sure the old shepherd guy would then take us to the third pasture. (I am finding out that he does lots of things that are excessively orderly.) Well he fooled me this time.

When we finished the second pasture, he opened the gate at the top of the hill and we headed west. The veterans in the flock started whispering about the big hay field that stretches all the way to the end of the earth. It seems, that at the most, we only get there once in a year. So here we are, grazing lush grass and deep alfalfa. It is hay the old guy usually cuts and bales for us. I don’t know if he is being nice to us or if he just ran out of energy trying to bale more hay in the heat.

We have been here nearly a week already and there is still lots left. And yep, we got to the end of the earth just a day or so ago. My mom told me about it, but I didn’t believe it at first, but there it was. The hay field stops at the bottom of the hill, then there is a solid line of trees and nothing behind them. It has to be the very edge! Just look; there’s nothing beyond the trees!

Yo Yo Baah and the rest of my buddies in the early morning at the end of the earth

Just about every morning out there we have had the company of a pare of Sandhill Cranes. They are kind of stand-offish, so we don’t get to talk with them much. Usually they take off by mid morning, making all sorts of racket when they leave. Rumor has it that they fly to Denmark (wherever that is!), since that is somewhere east of here, but I don’t know for sure since the old bearded guy never takes us to graze there. We also have had a visit from a small flock of Canada Geese. The old timers talk about a time when one of them tried to teach us to fly (obviously unsuccessfully). I was hoping we’d have better luck, but I guess it is not to be.

So here we are in the evening at the end of the earth. It is getting dark and we need to get home…NOW!

It would be fun to fly back to the barn each evening, ’cause it is really a long walk.

It's a long way back to the barn!

However, we still outdistance the old shepherd. We make it back to the barn long before he does. That at least, gives us lambs time to goof around at the entrance and visit those sexy rams. Don’t tell anyone, but I am kind of partial to one of them named Axel.

Axel - what a hunk!

Perhaps I will get to know him better soon. Then I can tell you all about him. Maybe next time…

Love from Brie

Within two days of the first Nighthawk sighting the last family of Barn Swallows left the barn and the farm. That event is always the exclamation point at the end of summer! Once again the barns are strangely silent during the day. Their departure is at least three weeks earlier than last year.

It was as if the birds had responded to a false alarm because by the last week of August the weather reverted to the hot, dry days of the entire summer. Compared with much of the Midwest we had managed to squeak through with just sufficient moisture to keep the pastures green just when we thought they were going to curl up and turn brown. I have been amazed (and pleasantly surprised) how well our pastures have held up. We have only received an inch of rain in August, scattered over the entire month in small batches, but it has helped. The areas that the sheep have grazed have grown back. The hay ground eventually recovered from first cutting to the point that I could make a second cutting. As of this morning the barn is virtually full. We should have enough hay to make it through winter. Not too long ago I did not believe that we would ever put that much hay away.

Va Va Voom and friends grazing hay in early morning

This last week the return of the heat along with strong, dry winds seems to have finally tipped the balance for the pastures. They are no longer responding to the morning dew; the areas of thinner soil are now drying up. Luckily we did not have to cut all of our large hay field to fill the barn. The sheep are finishing the job for us on the six or so acres that the front the eastern edge of the field. They seem quite happy with the lush grass and alfalfa (which even though is in full bloom appears to be quite tasty). I am hoping that the couple of weeks that they take to finish off that section of the hay field will give us time to get some rain to get the other pastures started again.

Just a few of the melons, peppers and tomatoes

Extra irrigation has done wonders for much of our vegetable garden. Our tomatoes, peppers and melons are especially productive and tasty. Even with the B&B it is difficult to keep up with the four different varieties of melons. The artichokes have not been nearly as happy; I have not been able to convince them that this is coastal California!

The hot, dry weather at the end of the month made cutting, drying and baling hay a simple task (as long as it did not get so windy that the windrows decided to march off toward Lake Michigan!). The last day of cutting convinced me that the birds are onto something as far as the seasons. Every pass through the field with the haybine would flush three or four Sora Rails. An area of just a couple of acres contained at least 50 rails. For a bird of the marshes, the beginning of fall is the only time that I ever see them in our hay fields. The Soras are on the move. When you watch them flop out of the hay and barely make it a couple of hundred feet before they seemingly tumbled back down, it is very difficult to believe that some of them are headed to as far away as Peru. They are in much closer touch with the seasons change than we are and they are heading south!

Hello everyone, this is Queso writing. It has been a difficult summer for all of us in the flock. I should have tried to write something , but you probably remember that I am not much with words. That is where Nanoo Nanoo was so skillful. The flock elders have gotten  together a number of times to discuss the situation and how it has limited our communication with the rest of the sheep world. Finally, I think we have come to a solution. First let me try to bring all of you up to date as best I can.

As I think the old shepherd guy has already described, it has been very hot and very dry. It has not been the most comfortable of summers for us. In addition to the adverse weather, we have also had to deal with a number of painful losses. As you know Nanoo Nanoo has died. Shortly after her demise we lost a number of senior flock members. Lots of us are getting on in years, but in the space of just over a month the four oldest members of the flock passed on. Hope, Kassia, Luscious and Mindy have all passed away. They were all old, but we somehow never expected their passing. It is still very difficult leaving the barn every morning and knowing that those five are not coming with us.

These losses left us without anyone to speak up for us. Us old gals just don’t have that knack for writing. So, we have finally come up with a solution that we hope my work for all of us. We talked with all of the youngsters and explained the situation. It took a while, but we finally got someone to volunteer to become our spokes-sheep. I have offered to continue taking pictures. As I am about written out, let me introduce Brie.    —   respectfully submitted, Queso.

****

Hi everyone, my name is Brie. Thanks Queso! I am not quite sure what is going on here, so I hope I am up to the task that you and the rest of the elders have given me.

Let me introduce myself. I am a lamb in the flock (For those of you who do not know, that means that I was born this year (March in fact). My mom is Zoe (she’s a real sweety!). My dad is Rhett. I never got to meet him, since he died early this year. Everyone tells he he was very special. If you knew my parents you would know that I am a colored Corriedale.

I was lucky enough to get to know Nanoo Nanoo before she left us. She did tell me a lot about her job with the flock. I just hope I can remember something of what she told me. She did have some pithy things to tell me about the old shepherd. I still have not decided about that guy, but I will let you know as I grow into this role. Once I get this job figured out a bit I will try to get back with some of the important news from this place. I look forward to making your acquaintance!

Brie

4 August 2012 -

My first big piece of news. Today all of us got to return to grazing green grass. Wow are we happy! It has been two weeks of eating stale, tasteless hay in the same place. The veterans tell me that there have been years in the past when this went on for nearly two months. I hope that I never have to go through that. Anyway…I thought I better let everyone know the good news, just in case you may have heard us whooping and cheering this morning and you were wondering what was going on here.

Brie

One of the pleasant surprises of this year has been how well most of our legumes have been holding up. The lack of protective snow cover in the winter, followed by early warm ups and subsequent freezes were all a worry. Add to those conditions the limited amounts of rain this spring and summer truly threaten the overall welfare of the pastures. These are also prime conditions for stressed plants to be subject to greater than normal insect damage. Our alfalfa crop was hit early by leaf hoppers and was significantly defoliated. Not so the trefoil! It seems to have thrived, especially in #3.

Suzanna and friends, enjoying trefoil for breakfast

The sheep attacked #3 with gusto, starting on July 9th. The yellow blossoms of the trefoil were especially attractive to the sheep. After the first day of grazing I was gravely concerned that the flock was cutting the pasture down too short. The next day’s allotment was therefore larger, but the extra portion seemed to make no difference. I also knew that when we finished #3 we would have no additional pastures to graze, as nothing had regrown in the heat and drought. So we plugged onward.

By the 19th of July we were down to two segments of #3. That morning, out of nowhere, we got 4 inches of rain. In two hours it rained more than it had in over 7 weeks! It would have been nice had it been a gentle “soaker”, but we are not complaining!

Wonderful rain on dry pastures

Prior to the rain, we managed to locate a supply of large square bales of hay. We had taken delivery of the first 6 bales the night before the rain. We had an option for enough additional bales to get us through as much as 8 weeks without grazing. Even with the rain, by the last full week in July, there were no pastures ready to graze. Since the 23d, the flock has been eating (reluctantly) large square bales plopped in the middle of #4. The flock definitely has a taste for home gown hay, be it on pasture or baled. Hay from elsewhere just does not taste as good. So here we are, still in #4, still eating baled hay.

Eating large square bales on what was left of pasture

Two days ago it rained another half an inch. The combination of the two rains over two weeks, plus temperatures which are decidedly cooler (i.e. highs near 70°F or 21°C), has gotten the pastures to start growing. With any luck we may get back onto a grazing schedule once the girls have cleaned up the current group of three large bales.

We are extremely thankful that we have manage to survive brown pastures and very hot temperatures. The last 18 large bales were delivered yesterday and are now safely protected in the machine shed. It was a bit bizarre unloading them as the pastures now look so green compared to a week ago.

We buy hay; it rains; things turn green

Hopefully the bales are security for the future feed wise.

We managed to set up pastures for the sheep which at least afforded them some shade nearly every day. On a couple of occasions when the humidity was also high it was apparent that the flock was uncomfortable. They did however have lots of fresh water and good grazing. As a result, they have coped with the worst of the heat. As of this morning the temperatures are finally moderating here.

Unlike the sensible sheep, the stubborn shepherd was stuck in the midst of haying when the temperatures skyrocketed. It is amazing how quickly a cutting of hay dries under these conditions. I usually figure that after cutting, the hay will need at least two additional days to dry down enough to bale. Last week I was cutting hay one afternoon and baling it less than 48 hours later. In this weather it is not much fun stacking bales on the wagon as they come out of the baler. (Thank you Larry for all the help in that regard!)

Stacking these same bales in the barn is a sweaty experience, especially as a mow fills closer to the top. Often we would bale one afternoon and wait until the next morning to unload. The barn is a bit cooler at that hour. Unloading cannot proceed until the wagon has officially passed inspection. After climbing to the top of each wagon Pussa wasted no time getting back down and headed for the shade.

We still teeter on the edge of a severe drought. We were lucky to get rain totaling nearly an inch in two days mid-week. Half an inch of that moisture fell on newly cut hay. (As a result of that rain this hay lost some nutrient value, but once the rain passed it dried enough to bale in just over a day!)

Under these conditions it helps to look for positives. It seems to be a wonderfully productive summer for butterflies. Sitting in the shade on the front porch lets us watch a regular lepidopteran parade in the front flower garden. This Great Spangled Fritillary seemed to spend the afternoon there and was much too busy collecting nectar to be bothered by the camera’s presence.

We have also had non-paying extra guests join us for breakfast at the B&B. At least one and sometimes two White-tailed fawns have leisurely walked passed the dining room windows this week. The twins seem to be hanging out most of the time very near the house. On one of the hotter afternoons I had to herd them away from the road for their own safety. They ended up in the shade of an ash, just behind the vegetable garden. So far the garden has remained off-limits!

For a time we were becoming especially concerned about the lack of moisture. A good series of heavy rains at the end of May gave all of our hay a good healthy boost. Unfortunately, that rain was not followed up by timely subsequent rains. It was four weeks before we again saw any significant rain. Hopefully the last few days’ moisture will keep everything growing again.

The first flight of young barn swallows are off the nests. The morning ritual of taking the sheep out to pasture includes a sizable aerial armada of swallows, feasting on the bugs that take flight as the sheep ramble through the deep grass. Grazing the “orchard” pasture gives the young swallows a wonderful perch while waiting for their parents to serve them fresh breakfast, lunch and dinner. The volume of swallows also makes photography a challenge. One never knows when a swallow will suddenly swoop into the picture. It looks like we are growing monster swallows in these parts!

The accelerated spring into summer schedule has at least allowed us to get a good start on our vegetable garden. The last few days of rain has temporarily put haying on hold. However, it has meant that I could get the garden nicely weeded and cultivated. Yesterday was the first time in at least four years when I can claim to be caught up with weeding the entire garden. Unlike last year I will not be hunting down carrots and onion that were totally engulfed in weeds. The special benefit from working in the garden has been that I have had the sheep quite near by to entertain me. (I suspect that they feel just the reverse, i.e. I am providing the entertainment for them!)

The marigolds are already starting to get into production for summer time dye sessions. The tomatoes are blooming and at least some of the sweet peppers already carrying good sized peppers. Now all I need to do is get my back straightened out and figure out how to stand up straight enough to bale hay this coming week!

This is the lambs’ and their moms’ first day on pasture. This is Bianca who is already in a jacket and usually has lots to say.

Bianca’s mom, Viva had to show her how those nifty outdoor water buckets work. She has it figured out now.

This little guy is Bob. He always wants to get his picture taken, but he is still a good lad.

Bubbles is excessively fuzzy. She likes to smooze with the shepherds. That is usually a good thing.

So here they are, the moms and lambs spread out on the first day of pasture. By the third day of grazing all of us were finally together in one nice big group.

I will try to get some more up to date pictures for everyone. But, I am really not much with this writing thing. Some of us have started to talk about how we can honor Nanoo Nanoo by keeping her narrative alive. We just need to find a volunteer to take over. I will let you know if we have any success. I hope that no one minds that I used my old friend’s account in order to get these images published. Respectfully submitted,

Queso

As testimony to those thoughts, it is fitting that recently new life is being celebrated daily in and around the barn. I am finding egg shell halves on the floor of the barn nearly every day. The barn swallow chicks are hatching. Shortly we shall see their fuzzy, yet otherwise naked heads peeking above the lips of the nests, everyone eagerly anticipating the arrival of meals.

The flock is nearly finished grazing the third pasture. It is a long, quiet walk out there in the early morning to set up the new fencing for the day’s grazing. There seems to always be something new to experience, during the trip out and back or while I am moving the temporary fencing. A few mornings ago I met up with a very serious and determined skunk, rumbling across the second pasture. It seemed to have realized that it had not gotten back out of sight before daylight and was making a comical beeline to the rubble of the old lime kiln on the western slope of that pasture. I suspect the skunk has taken occupancy of one of the woodchuck burrows in that area.

The next morning I was greeted by the appearance of an Eastern Mockingbird in the thicket next to the pathway into the third pasture. For us, a Mockingbird is a rare occurrence. It would be nice were they to grace us with their presence and songs more frequently. Not to be outdone, this morning a young White-tailed Deer fawn was stationed in the grass of the very first segment of pasture next to the barn. As soon as it noticed me it very quietly and smoothly melted down into the grass. That sighting was Mother Nature’s confirmation that it is the end of May and that the fawns are being dropped, seemingly everywhere.

The plants and trees are way ahead of schedule. We began grazing the flock earlier than normal. The hayfields are ready for cutting, at least three weeks earlier than normal. Luckily I got the vegetable garden planted timely this spring. The transplants seem to be happy about that and a lot of the seedings are germinating well.

The Gallery has now been open since May 18th. Prior to the opening, Gretchen and some of her dyeing buddies spent nearly a week dyeing yarn and roving with natural dyes. The resulting colors brighten any space, especially the gallery. Since that time Gretchen has been doing smaller dye projects every weekend while the Gallery is open. The first weekend was devoted to the blues of indigo dyeing. This past weekend centered on the reds of cochineal. She will be doing additional dyeing throughout the season. The schedule is posted in the Ewe Turn, (the right hand column: Upcoming Events). Anyone who is interested in the process is welcome to stop by on those days.