Happy Christmas Eve

S'more Courante

12/24/09

He was supposed to say "Merry Christmas"

but his mouth was full.

Memorial

Neil Winger

December 1957-December 2009

Helpful neighbor. Hard worker. Gentle soul.
Good person.

God Bless

Lots Accomplished!

LRO January

&

BL Vianne

I worked really hard through the good weather this weekend. I'm tired and my joints hurt, but so much around the farm is now ready for winter!

All the sheep were moved from the outer pastures to the sturdy pens near the house. Grain-trained sheep are such a pleasure to move. The ewe flock actually preceded me into their new pen and stood waiting by the grain trough. Good Girls!

Even the ramling flock, which has not received grain, followed nicely. It took longer, but no one went astray. Once Courante and Ash (the friendly ones) got a taste of the oats, they were eager to follow. The rest of the boys didn't want to be left behind, so they caught up after a few nibbles of grass. One look at the piles of alfalfa hay in their new pen and they galloped right in. Good Boys!

I moved the two breeding pens yesterday. I had one hand on Bombarde's horn while Anna ran loose beside us. The hold was mainly to keep any unwanted pushing from having momentum. The grain pan did the steering and I tried to keep up with the locomotive that is a full grown ram in determined motion.

Arvada was a totally different story. He dug in his heels and refused to budge. So I pulled. About half-way to his new pen, we passed the bachelor fence and he decided he should fight to protect his harem. Needless to say, I didn't allow this, and my interference was not appreciated. A little closer to the house, my arms felt like spaghetti and I gave up on trying to stay in control of Arvada. I let go and focused on getting his ewes to the pen. THEY at least had the sense to follow the grain. I left Arvada on top of the hill intently contemplating a charge down toward the bachelor pen. About the time the ewes and I got to the winter pen, Arvada came charging toward us and ran right into the confinement. I guess he decided it wasn't any fun to show off if his girls weren't watching.

After everyone was settled with hay and water, I pulled all the electronet up for storage. I brought up all the extra buckets, tubs, feeders, and temp posts. My yard hasn't looked this tidy since last fall. Feels Good!

Exceptions to the Norm

Beautiful Rachel

Breeding Season '09 is shaping up differently than I expected. Lack of time and space have been factors; as well as the projected departures of Bombarde and Arvada. I'm employing two practices that I don't usually favor: breeding ewe lambs, and breeding early.

For better or worse, here are the decisions I made for this season. I'm hoping for the best.

ShelteringPines Bombarde is paired with Bramble Anna Belle for a third time. She has been with him since November 3. I plan to keep her with him until about Dec 8. Hopefully I will get another dynamite set of twins from this cross. My wish is a polled ram lamb. But I wouldn't mind more ewe lambs either.

WhitePine Arvada was given Boston Lake Lyneth & Nhu (Anna's '08 twins), and also Little Red Oak January. January is the only ewe lamb I'm breeding this year. I wanted to put the girls most likely carrying polled genetics to Arvada before he left in hopes of some keeper ewe lambs. The fleece pairings of this group are also exciting. This group was put together November 7 and will disband around December 12.

Sometime this coming week I will put the 3 remaining adult ewes with their rams. Currently, I plan to put LRO Ash over WhitePine Silverthorne and Boston Lake Sian.

S'more Courante will get SheepyHollow Rachel. I feel bad he won't be getting more girls his first year, but I plan to use him heavily next fall.

Sitting out the breeding season this fall are the ewe lambs Boston Lake Darla Gay, Qdy, Vianne, and Leil.

Lambs should start arriving around the last day of March. The first four ewes will hopefully come in well before the other three, thereby keeping the barn from becoming too crowded. As mentioned above...I'm hoping for the best.

October Micron Reports

Click on a photo for its larger version.

I was excited to get my micron reports in the mail yesterday. Here are the results for the seven sheep I had tested. Each sample was scissored from midside, just behind the last rib.

I wasn't too surprised with any of them. While I don't think in terms of microns and numbers, the reports did not change the standing I had already given each sheep according to my own assessment of fleece characteristics. It feels validating to know the numbers support my personal preferences.

Bombarde had a higher micron than I expected. I thought long and hard about how that could be and suddenly I had an epiphany: Last spring's micron report was from a rather large lock sample that was dangling off his rump. This was likely snagged by Unicorn's horn in some tussle. I suspect that this sample was not the full spectrum of fiber I would have obtained had I scissored off the same lock. Perhaps some of the courser fiber remained anchored while the finer fiber ripped out? Probably. Although it is evident from both reports that Bombarde is very consistent. Maybe this is just the difference in his third fleece and his fourth fleece? I shudder to think of how naive I was of the whole micron sampling process back then. Whatever the reason, I appologize if the initial report was misleading. I understand now how carefully samples need to be collected and how they are difficult to compare unless they are collected in the same manner.

Arvada

4-2-08

Black Kat

Ash

4-30-09

Modified Moorit

Bombarde

3-22-06

Musket Kat

Courante

spring 09

Black Kat

January

4-29-09

Moorit Kat

Jchen

5-1-09

Black Kat

Roux

4-26-09

Musket

Holding Out...

...for Breeding Season to begin.

S'more Courante

This is the time of year when I want to throw the girls in with their designated boyfriends and just get it all over with. But no...later March or Earliest April is NOT the best time for lambs to hit the ground at my farm. I'm still working at my seasonal job...the world is still cold and frozen or cold and mud...and the grass won't show up for another month. I tried it once, and it wasn't worth it.

So I hold out a little longer. Sometime after Thanksgiving I'll match everyone up. After that I keep an eye out for "evidence" in the pens. Guesses and suspicions get scribbled in my sheep date-book. And I long for that run of three tolerable warm days after the first of the year to tear down the breeding groups and put the rams into some sort of squeeze pen. I don't want them to kill each other with space to fight, or freeze to death from lack of room to bed down properly.

Why do I do all this work? By January I've forgotten. Sometimes the only reason I keep going is because it would be a crime to let these sheep starve in the dead of winter. Keep it all going until spring when I can sensibly sell out.

Nature has her tricks, though. About the time I start crying at the slightest provocation during the daylight because I've been sleep-deprived from doing 2am barn checks since the beginning of April, there comes a perfect lamb. And if it's not perfect, the next one might be. One whole year...to create this promise of hope that carries enough momentum to perpetuate my love of being a shepherd.

Ram Lambs
early October

As it happens, my ram situation is still in flux and might change dramatically before Thanksgiving. My original published breeding plans have been thrown out the window. I'll need the next few weeks to come up with new ones. But time to reflect and consider is something I have.

Indulgence

Here they come!

I took the camera straight out to the sheep pastures this evening when I got home from work and the driving kids to their sleepovers. The sun was actually shining and I didn't want to miss my chance to take some pictures. Here they are running to see me.

I've missed the girls. Chores have been done in the pouring rain or well after sunset lately. A sliver of new moon was lovely the other night...but that isn't exactly enough light to assess the flock or photograph by.

LRO January

So I indulged myself with a little sheepy time this evening.

My main objective was to get some nice fleece photos of the girls. Silvy, Leil, and Qdy tried to nibble the zipper pulls off my jacket and the pocket flaps off my backside. Very hard to steady the camera with little sheep yanking on one's clothing. They are very persistent animals!

Then Leil likes to run up behind me and bump me as high up on my back as she can whenever I'm walking away from her. It's a game with her...like she's seeing how high she can fling herself through the air and she's using me as her measuring stick! It doesn't hurt, but it doesn't feel good either. I admit she's got me, though. I have half-turned a couple of times and caught her in the act and it's truly hilarious. Surely she could get some votes on America's Funniest Videos.