live
7 ewe lambs
9 ram lambs
lost two: one ewe lamb to electric fence, and Cooley's ram lamb, stillborn
The color breakdown is as follows (of 18 lambs):
8 black
3 moorit
4 white
3 black & white spotted
We turned all of them out on pasture last night for a few hours, and then I turned them out this morning. Yes, even poor recovering Cooley. She's still not out of the woods, but just wants to be with the rest of the flock. I've ceased her prevail shots, but I can tell she is still sore. Heck, my hands hurt for two days after that event.
Nate and I made the decision to avoid rotational grazing with the electronet fence for now, after losing the lamb last weekend to the fence. We will turn them out for the day, and then everyone will be locked back in the smaller pen by the barn for night. After losing two lambs last year to an owl/eagle, I am more cautious. Daisy and the three dairy goats (Nora, Brie, and Pippa) are in the field with the sheep this morning.
River, who likes to sleep in my closet, which can lead to some issues.
Last night was the first time I used River, the border collie we got this winter, with all the sheep. He does a great job herding the sheep, but we have to work on his donkey skills. River helped get all the sheep back to the barn last night, but instead of "turning off" he decided to chase the donkey a few rounds. Guess we need to work more on recall. After five minutes of laying still while I shut the gate he was back in his own head. Right now he can see all the sheep and goats from the great room window. It is driving him crazy. I know if I turned him outside he would spend the day walking the fence line.
This little ewe was Pamela's contribution this year. My sixth graders named her Portia. She is small, but vigorous. Pamela is a ewe that came with the rest of the shetland flock four years ago. She had a ram lamb at her side. She also had a case of a blocked teat, and a horrible looking udder that was quite large, hence the name Pamela. Pamela is one of our oldest ewes, and a horned ewe. However, this trait has never been passed on to any of her daughters. Last year she had a single ram lamb. Two years ago she gave us Cornelia and Marie, who are still part of the flock. When we sheared I was not impressed with Pamela's condition. She was much thinner than the rest of the flock. Wish that happened to me as I get older!
DIG, my new favorite beer. I love the artwork on the bottle too.
A quick Purry post. Purry is the cat that I brought home as a "door prize" from last falls Farmers Market Party. She is a very sweet kitty but had wanted to start going outside this spring. We had her fixed, since we have some feral cats around. For about four days we had been letting her outside during the day, and she would not venture much further than the front yard. Well, last Wednesday we came home to find her dragging herself across the front yard. She was paralyzed. The next day I ran her to the vet on my lunch break. X-rays and exam later, the vet believes she was hit by a vehicle. Her pelvis was crushed. So, we brought her home with pain meds and it's been a week of TLC. She has regained use of her left hind leg, and is able to move around the house. Slower than perfect Purry, but she's doing ok.
We live at the end of a dirt road. Not a lot of traffic. However, they are replacing our underground power lines, so there has been a lot of vehicles and equipment. That is probably what happened to our poor Purry. The power company has also annoyed me greatly with all the unscheduled power outages the new lines have caused. I have eggs in the incubator that are two days away from hatching. We'll see if they hatch or not!
Better head back out to check the sheep, Enjoy the beautiful weekend!
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