Out Like a Lamb...or two!

J.J. and Avoca

J.J. (2 year old 1/2 Shetland, 1/2 Icelandic) started our 2011 lambing season off right, with twin lambs- one ewe, one ram. Best of all, she had them dried off and up and nursing before Nate discovered them this morning. I was in a bit of a hurry this morning, trying to get out of the door before seven to be ready for a meeting, with two boys in tow. I had turned on the television and scanned for lambs when I got up at 5:30, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I guess I better quit relying on technology and just get my butt outside.

The lambs are very dark, I haven't looked at them closely enough or in good enough light to determine if they are black or moorit. The ram lamb is the smaller of the two, and seems to be having some sight issues. He's struggling with finding the teat and bumps into the walls on occasion. I'm on my way out to give him a shot of Super B complex. Not too concerned, for he's destined for fall butcher lamb anyway.

If you follow this crazy rambling blog very often, you might remember that we only name girls around this place. (When we have broken down and named boys they end up with crazy names like Marshmallow, and hang around the place to become pesky rams.) So without further ado, the naming theme for Rice River Lamb Company 2011 is..............................................................

Irish Whiskeys

(Please tell me you can think of one besides Jameson, though I don't drink whiskey so I had to rely on my friend google.) Thus J.J.'s new daughter is named Avoca. Though Kohen and Nate are both calling her Avocado.

Off to the check on the ewes, and lambs in the conveniently located (ten paces from the house) lambing barn, er, garage. Look for a posting on shearing soon, it was a great time.

Meat

Isaiah overseeing sausage making last weekend, proudly wearing his apron made my Gramma Butchy.

We've been busy with a lot of meat processing around here in the past two weeks. I decided I better blog about it before more exciting news takes front page (namely lambs.)

Last summer my craigslist lurking paid off. I found an ad for a meat saw and grinder. It was a drive, but dad and Nate made the trip and hauled home some heavy Hobarts. After setting up a makeshift "meat shop" they tested things out with a whole beef that we bought. Things worked well, and they had all the meat processed and wrapped in about five hours. Family pitched in and helped for the day with kid wrangling, wrapping, and hauling. Half of the meat now resides in our freezers and half in my parents. Our 60+ pounds of hamburger took less than ten minutes to grind, twice, with the large grinder. Having a father who used to cut meat for a living didn't hurt either.

Last weekend Dad and Nate decided to test the grinder a bit more. 160 pounds of beef, pork, and venison were transformed into potato sausage, bratwurst, italian sausage, and snack sticks.

All of it tastes great, and is being thoroughly enjoyed by all. Nate smoked the italian sausage and snack sticks.

It is a great feeling to have plenty to feed the family. Mukwah didn't mind the giant bones that came his way either. Both weekends of meat processing he was loose the majority of the time, without wandering away. Is it surprising that he didn't leave the meat shop door?

Kohen and Isaiah loved the process as well. When we were processing the beef Kohen was up "helping" before I was. I don't know if I'll be able to eat the flank steak, seeing his perfect kindergarten printing on that white wrapped package brings a smile to my face. Last weekend Isaiah informed me it wasn't a "meat shop" anymore, it was now a "sausage shop." Whatever the name, I like it.

SHEARING NOTE: Shearing is next Saturday, the 26th, in the evening. Onlookers are welcome, help is appreciated. You won't even have to brave a walk across the awful ice to the barn, we are shearing/lambing in the garage again. Hopefully this will be the last year before the barn is completely set up, though I do admit I don't mind the very short walk to do lamb checks!

Snow Flying

It may be March 12, but in northern Minnesota the snow is flying, the wind is blowing, and the "feels like" temperature is 7 degrees! Even that fine forecast doesn't daunt me from preparing for Spring, at least the necessities.
This morning found Nate, my dad and I along with pockets of vaccinations, in the sheep pen. It was time for CD & T, and BosE shots for all the sheep. This is the first year I've vaccinated everyone with BosE prior to lambing. Last year we lost two lambs from white muscle disease. We are in an area that is severely deficient in selenium. Even with free choice mineral, we made the decision to have some added protection this year.
The process actually went quite smoothly. (After three years you would hope that we would start to figure it out!) I caught and vaccinated, Nate handed me syringes, and dad held up a piece of plywood over the exit to the pasture. Along with a donkey. Daisy has been very loving lately and wanted her share of attention. She did get some pats, rubs, and loves, along with a dose of wormer.
Of course the infamous Shrek was too smart to be caught easily. She saw us block her escape and headed into the sheep shelter. Saving her until last, I still had to bite the bullet and crawl through the small door (all the snow has made the opening a lot smaller than it was in October!) and corner her and Cocoa. Cocoa was an easy catch and I vaccinated her inside the shelter. Before I could even turn her lose Shrek headed out the door. She is a sheep with some serious intuition. Once Nate grabbed her she stood calmly for her two shots. She may be a headache but she gives us beautiful fleece and lambs. She's also managed to survive with far less wormings than the rest of the flock. I'll admit, I sometimes give up before catching her when vaccinating. Nine out of ten times she won't even come near the feed when we are watching.
I took the opportunity to feel udder development on all the girls. My hope is at least fourteen of them are bred this year. April will be busy!
I just looked back at pictures from March 20th of last year. Darla Gay arrived then, and the field was bare of snow. The picture will be slightly different this year.
Besides vaccinating I managed to get some seeds planted, and some spring cleaning started. Tomorrow will be another meat shop day, with plans to make 100+ pounds of sausage. Potato sausage, venison/pork snack sticks, and italian sausage are all in the works. This means the smoker will be fired up tomorrow too.
Come on spring, I want to see geese flying, not snow!

Spring...where are you?

Kohen with the red girls Gertrude and Gwendalyn.

I've got it, the spring bug that is. Yesterday I sat down with my calendar and realized it is less than four weeks till lambs could arrive. Not a happy thought when every outside surface is buried under snow and ice.

Our plan is/was to lamb in the barn this year. Novel concept right? The past two years lambing has taken place in the garage. Nate the great does a nice job of converting out two stalls into a large pen and four lambing jugs. The concern now is if the snow will be gone enough to move the hogs out of the barn and into their pasture pen, easier said then done. From there we would set up jugs (small pens the ewe and lambs are located to, assists with observation and bonding) and move the sheep into the barn. I admit the garage had its advantages, namely an eight step walk from the house, convenient on middle of the night checks.

I do realize that we live in Minnesota, where the weather is known to make crazy shifts, but I don't want to count on that.

Vaccines have been ordered, the shearer called, I'm trying to get the pieces I can control taken care of, and hoping that the weather turns around. Unfortunately, our forecast includes snow in the next few days.

The animals are getting ready for spring. Turk is currently in the tree gobbling and displaying for the hens, who happen to be on the ground. The chickens have increased their egg production, the goats are getting fat (they aren't due until May), my seed starting materials have at least made it to the back porch, and the boys are talking about novel things like gator driving, grass, and mud. I spent some time with the sheep yesterday, and felt udders on a few of the friendlies. Darla surprise me most of all. She has some good development. I'm excited to see what Isaiah's favorite sheep and Marshmallow will present us this spring. It will be Darla's first lambing.

I get anxious to get the sheep sheared, it's so much easier to see the condition of everyone. It looks like Jacobs is carrying twins again, but I'm a bit concerned about Pamela, she's one of our oldest girls and has started to look a bit swaybacked. She also lost one of her horns which had been cracked since last spring. I get so excited at the thought of new babies, and watching my ewes with great mothering abilities take care of their babies. Nate thinks that all the lambs should be market lambs this year, and that our flock should shrink a bit. I refuse to make any decisions yet.

One of the things I am most looking forward to is June, and not having to use 2 1/2 gallons of gas each day to drive to work. Mukwah will be much happier when he gets more free time too.

Today is a busy day too. Nate and my dad are headed out to pick up our beef. We bought a whole this year and it's been hanging for nine days. The guys have converted a side room of the morton building into a meat shop. I'll spend the day with freezer paper, a sharpie, and tape, lots of tape. Tonight will be capped off with some fresh cut steaks on a wood fired grill (coals taken out of the outside wood boiler and thrown in the webber.) My mouth is watering.