Wolves in this Wood

Ponderous Leil

It was very windy yesterday. But by 10pm, when Clancy went out to fix the fire, the night was calm and beautiful.

Clancy and the boys found a wolf kill on our driveway early this morning. Several deer had opened up a round bale of good alfalfa a few weeks back. The blood started there and ended a few yards down the road at the carcass. The heart and front shoulder of the fawn were devoured. Tracks were all around. It was simultaneously shocking and natural to behold.

As I passed by, a swirl of black crows twined upward from the remains...only to circle back down again in my rear-view mirror.

Seven hours later, as I returned home, a complete skeleton rose above a rug of hide. Each rib was clean and the spine and legs were visible from a distance. Clancy and the boys reported that the hide was picked clean from the inside. There was even less left of the deer than there appeared to be. The wolves had opened up a carcass. Undisturbed, the crows, the eagles, and perhaps even a fox or coyote, had made short work of their daylight discovery.

There isn't anything left of that carcass for a wolf to eat tonight.

Feisty Ewes
AnnaBelle & Silvy

Loss

I've been putting it off...

Something about writing it here makes it so final...

This was the moon rising on the night...

We lost Sally.

Beautiful Sally
1997-2010
our best girl

Silvy & Qdy for A.M.

Silvy on the run!

Silvy & Qdy

Qdy cute

Wide & square.
Little tails
(dirty backsides!)

Roux for A.M.

Boston Lake Roux

ShelteringPines Bombarde x Boston Lake Rai Min

2009 Musket twin

Aberrant horned half-poll?


Stout & square

Deep January

Clancy took this photo of the sunset reflected against the Eastern horizon.

Looking West, our view has dramatically changed. A friend of the family has been logging off the mature aspen in our deep forest. We knew we had a lot of aspen mixed in with our hardwoods, cedar, and balsam. We knew it would look different with it removed. But it REALLY looks different!

The older I get the more I am learning to accept the positive aspects of change. The aspen was overly mature and was starting to blow over. Though it isn't thrilling to see piles of branches that need to be burned, it is interesting to see the lay of the land a bit more. Some pretty young hardwoods will have more room to develop. And my sheep will have another acre or two of grazing within view of the house.

Like everything else around this farm, it will take work to make the logged off areas look the way I want them to. Rather daunting. But exciting too.

Acceptance

Courante & Roux

Life has a way of knocking our good intentions for a loop: My complicated musical-breeding-pens plan for the ewes and rams this fall never happened. Lack of time, lack of sleep, and lack of space interfered with getting the breeding groups put together and dismantled more than just the one time.

Lyneth

So here's what really happened:

Anna Belle went in with Bombarde on November 3, 2009 and was pulled out December 24. I'm fairly positive she was bred on November 23.

Lyneth, Nhu, and LRO January went to Arvada's pen on November 7, 2009 and they came back out again on December 24. I jotted down that Nhu was bred on November 29. Then I saw Arvada very interested in Lyneth in late December. I'm hoping he managed to do his job since he had plenty of time and I didn't have the space or time to use a clean up ram.

Darla Gay

Only the above 4 ewes will be lambing this spring. I unintentionally gave Sian and Silverthorne the year off. Some regrets there, yes...but I'm not complaining. As I was praying about my frustrations this fall, I realized that God is more than likely looking out for me. I made the choice to not put new breeding groups together over Christmas break. The prospect of a small lambing season is almost a relief. If life is too busy now to simply rearrange sheep...what is it going to be like this spring?

Leil

I have accepted the ramifications of not pushing myself, or my plans too hard. It feels a little odd to have so many sheep right now and not be planning for a big lambing season. But I think this is exactly what I needed. This time next year...there should only be two polled rams and maybe one prospect ram lamb living at Boston Lake Farm. There will also be a more select group of ewes. I'm looking forward to my flock and my efforts being that succinct.

Too Cold

Isaac was having some fun snowboarding in the back yard on Christmas Eve.

Today started out -37 degrees F. Too cold to snowboard. Too cold to even go to work. So we are spending the day indoors trying to clean house.

Happy New Year to all!