Life lessons on the farm

"Is she your pet?"

"No, sir, I do not have any pet sheep."

"Is she valuable?"

"Well, the price of sheep is high...but she is not a show sheep, nor is she registered.  Her value is in her production and the training she brings to the dogs."

Every time I am faced with the decision of life vs. death....I always feel a little awe.  The power I have in a few words and more dollars.  When life is spent to feed folks, I am proud of my way here on the farm.  Birth through to the day of processing, my sheep are healthy, hormone free, and pass with as little stress as possible making for top quality fabulous tasting lamb.  However, when my order takes breath when no sense can be had from the matter...I am left with feelings of complete and utter inadequacy.  Missing the early signs, an ear droop; mistaking distance from the flock as pre-labor; buying hay when prices were low to feed a year later.  Today, I am down one ewe....almost full term yet a decision of mercy.  Sad I could do no more for three lives.  Knowing I am called to be a shepherd and that my money, even in the robust of times, is to better the whole and not the one. I now await the necropsy.

The skies reflect my mood.....and the fields, my tears.

They might be just sheep but I am their shepherd.  Lessons learned through the school of hard knocks are as valuable as painful.  I think I need a good birth to bring perspective. 

Seize the day.

Moving out....moving on.

The weather here in the valley has been frigid!  In an effort to keep stress to the new lambs a minimum...I divided the barn and had all the ewes and lambs in one part of the barn in addition to all the pregnant yet to lamb ewes in a different section.  The barn was tight, filled to the brim.  At the suggestion of a friend...I hung Christmas lights around the lambing areas so the sheep could see each other and their lambs.  Also I wanted to keep the night check disruptions to a minimum.  Somehow the sheep think they should be fed every time they see my face.  With snow and black ice road conditions, I moved out to the RV at the ranch. All in all it was a little stressful. Keeping the RV warm when outside temperatures dipped below 17 was challenging.  Kind of silly, but the atmosphere the Christmas lights gave to the barn made me smile every time I checked for lambs at night.

Now the temps are back to the high 40's so it was time to kick those frisky babies out of the barn to give room to the grumpy gravid ewes. Yesterday, I introduced the lambs to their new digs....I was not surprised....they loved the big area!

Today, they are officially kicked out of the barn hotel and into their permanent home. They have not really appreciated the benefits of the creep feeder just yet.  They love the hay bales I put out for wind blocks....let the king of the mountain games begin.

For my friends and followers....no, the big wide super huge ewe has not gone yet!  She was lapped by a kathdin ewe who lambed out twin ewes last night.  I just love katahdins...they lamb, clean them, feed them and away they go!  They are so hardy.  Plus no tail docking makes it easier on my tender heart who hates the whole process of banding lambs.

Tiny Dancer is doing fabulous!  I'll wait to turn her out until she is bigger than the katahdin lambs being born. I do need to pierce her ear.

Today, there are a couple of ewes looking like they will be moving into the labor and delivery rooms soon!  I feel so much better having the lambs and their moms turned out and room for the pregnant ewes to have personal space.  Now if that big woolly girl would go I would be eternally grateful!

Seize the Day!

Holiday: This One's For YOU!

First born lamb....looks more like a well-fed toddler!


Know how to tell the boys from the girls at Rocking Dog Ranch?  Boy's sport their ear tags on the right.....girl's on the left.  That is my G rated version of telling them apart.

My favorite girl lamb...shhh, don't tell the others!



Coyote Girl's ewe lamb


I mentioned in a post that I had to pull both of Coyote Girl's lambs.  I'm pretty sure I talked to CG the whole time I pulled and helped clean her babies up.  Okay, I'm chatty at times.  All that to be said, I do believe these lambs imprinted with me....so now when I come into the lamb area, they will come right up to me and let me catch them. They are so stinking cute, I always snatch them up....giving them hugs and kisses.  Wonder how long it will last?

The sheep I held back for dog work came running to get their viddles today.  As I look outside now, the snow is melting away.  Tomorrow is supposed to be in the teens overnight....then those cute lambs get kicked out into their new digs on Saturday. 

Now it is time to get some home chores done....washing and cooking and maybe a visit with the vacuum.

Seize the Day!

Finding Delight

The weatherman has been predicting a visit from winter here in the valley....making a last ditch appearance...right as my lambs are due.  Yesterday, I spent the day rearranging the barn to accommodate 25 ewes and a small ever-growing herd of frisky baby lambs.  Boy oh boy...do sheep hate change!  Well, at least the woolly girls did...the katahdins were so very thankful, moved right in and made themselves at home!  I moved out to the RV and will stay there until the cold snap is over.  It was so nice last night to get up, check the ewes, and be back in bed in less than 5 minutes.  I am so grateful to my electrician friend who came out and set me up with an RV plug-in.

Today, we have snow!  Not much, but I am a valley girl, like, ya know, and I do NOT heart snow!  However, my girls do!  Gyp met snow at the New Year's Day sheepdog trial...today, she was in puppy heaven.  Running, playing, even getting grumpy Snook into a "chase the puppy" game. 

I'm fighting off a bought of severe grumpiness.....in finding delight in the day, here is what I am thankful for: a barn where the sheep can come in, an RV with comfy beds, an spanking new plug in for that RV, and dogs that laugh in the snow!


Bella



Nell striking a pose

Join with me in thinking birthing thoughts for that big truck sized ewe today.......she is over-due and needs to go!

Seize the Day!

Tiny Dancer

Saturday, one of my Coop ewes gave birth to two of the tiniest lambs I have seen.  Both weighed in about 5 pounds each.  I'm not exactly sure what happened....my sheep friends think that maybe the ewe had triplets and was reabsorbing one.  Needless to say, I feel a bit inadequate.  The smallest of the two was not thrifty so she went to live with another friend.  The lamb that stayed is now called Dancer....I'm singing Elton John to her.  She is sporting a sweater sleeve cut just to her size.  She is feisty....time will tell.

Today, my other coop ewe lambed.  Earlier in January, she ended up with a broken jaw and I almost lost her.  It took me some time and help from my shearer to figure out what was wrong.  First I thought she had bottle jaw from the edema under her chin.  She lived off the protein block I had in the barn as she could not chew.  Once the broken jaw was proclaimed....I attacked with vigor...as my good friend Shannon said.....just get her through to lambing.  Grain, soybean meal, alfalfa, molasses....all in a pen just for her and my other coop ewe...twice a day all you can eat Rocking Dog Ranch buffet.  The work paid off with twins...the girl weighing in at 9 pounds and the boy a good 8 pounds!

They hit the ground ready to rumble and are already starting a good sibling rivalry.

                              

Soon enough they will figure out that one on each side works better!

It is supposed to snow here tomorrow and into the weekend.  They are saying 2-6 inches on the valley floor.  I'm scrambling trying to sort out how to handle the hair sheep that should begin lambing tomorrow.  I'm hoping that this time the weatherman is wrong.

Gyp thinks that maybe lambing should get over with already...she is tired of not working sheep! At 1/3 done...I'm ready to agree with Gyp.  A full night's sleep sounds refreshing right about now!

Seize the Day!

Coyote Girl

Just about three years ago, I went down to Geri's for a day of doggin'. When I got there, Geri told me her flock of sheep had come in from their walk about graze and she was missing a lamb.  A few hours later, we looked out and saw the most pitiful sight....the missing lamb was attempting to come home.  Somehow, she had survived a terrible coyote attack....left ear hanging, bite marks in a few places, and most radical....huge deep gashes on both sides between her stomach and her flank all the way up to her spine.  A small 2 inch flap of skin could be lifted to see her spinal cord.  Besides the ear flop, she was dragging a back leg.  Geri asked me to take her home, the range grazing life her sheep lived would not allow for the lamb to live long.  Having already had a few really bad experiences with free sheep....I almost said no.  However, my heart got in the way and I had an empty dog crate....what the heck. 

That is how Coyote Girl came to live with me.  With the help of a vet friend and a local goat milk producer, I nurtured the lamb who was about three weeks old.  She lived with the flock and I hand fed her 4 times a day.  With a lot of care she eventually started healing, the ear would droop only occasionally, and her back leg limp became less over time. Believe it or not, she ended up being a really great puppy starting sheep...calm and good in the round pen.  I was not going to breed her but she was infatuated with Hoosier the ram....so one day, I opened the gate and she started the journey to becoming a mom.

Yesterday, with a little help from me, Coyote Girl gave birth to twins.

A little 10 pound girl and a little 11 pound boy.  They seem all legs and ears...and way bigger than the 8 pound coop/blue face lambs I have been having. 

It makes me think of that George Strait song...."I Saw God Today":
I've been to church
I've read the book
I know he's here
But I don't look
Near as often as I should
Yeah, I know I should
His fingerprints are everywhere
I just slowed down to stop and stare
Opened my eyes and man I swear
I saw God today

Events like this bring me back to one thing I really love about the life I get to live.  Tiny miracles!  A small lamb that beat all odds and survived a coyote attack, to heal and go on to have twin lambs, and for me to be there to help her when she needed just a little more muscle to get the job done. 

I saw God today!

Seize the Day!

Smokin in the Boys Room

This here is the surprise lamb of a few weeks ago......definitely a Gerber lamb!  He reminds me of my youngest son, who at three, met Pluto at Disneyland.  With an impish grin...he ran right around and pulled Pluto's tail...then scurried of shrieking with delighted giggles. I think I will call this lamb Jake Jr. Today, I thought I caught this lamb smoking behind the hay stack....and I do believe he has hot wired the tractor.  He can not wait for his tiny cute little innocent girl friends to break out of jug jail.  I think he has mischief and mayhem planned....and I do believe I heard him humming "Take you for a ride on my big green tractor". 

Do NOT let that face fool you.....I certainly have my eye on him!

Today, 831 brought twins into the world!  A girl and a boy....both white with the nappiest fleeces that will leave my spinning friends drooling.

Today, a good friend stopped in and helped me band and pierce ears.  I think this year's tiny pink ear tags are really cute! 

Nothing like a little "mama love" to ease the pains from the day.

                              

I continue with the drives back and forth for lamb checks.  Tomorrow and Friday, the weatherman says snow here in the valley.  All I can say is, please let him be wrong!

Seize the Day.