# mysunwolf - four acres and some sheep



## mysunwolf (Jun 14, 2015)

I figured I should break down and start a journal, since I keep having the urge to post TMI in my lambing and other threads 

My spouse and I have four acres, a home on it, and plenty of critters. We have dabbled and experimented with quite a few livestock breeds and are currently very pleased with our sheep, pigs, chickens, and rabbits. We also farm cats, but can't seem to make any sort of living off of it (not that we make a living from the other animals either). Every now and then, they bring me dead voles as a reminder of what real food is, and can I please switch them from that dry processed junk I put into their bowls every night to real food. The two pet dogs are here to be companionable, and they do a great job. In the future, I hope to have some LGDs living with the sheep.

I was quite the chicken lady for a few years, but after getting my first lambs I knew that sheep were really what I wanted to focus on. The pigs are pretty much here out of necessity, since they act as dispose-alls for any garden waste, kitchen waste, and butchering waste. The chickens share in this duty, and we try to run the incubator all spring through the fall in order to have replacement egg layers and meat birds. For market, we import Cornish X chicks and raise them up to butchering size, since customers can't be bothered with heritage-type chicken (not enough breast meat?! who likes white meat anyways?). We also raise a few rabbits for market. Chickens and rabbits are processed here on the farm, while pigs and sheep are taken to the slaughterhouse and come back boxed up in plastic packaging. We sell at the farmers market and try to make back a little bit of our feed costs... plus a little extra to expand the farm!

I'm not that great of a homesteader, but I figure we all do what we can. I grow a garden every year to try and have plenty of organic veggies, since they are so expensive in the store. We buy or trade with other farmers and homesteaders for most of what we need, but I buy a huge amount of staples and "exotic produce" from the grocery as well. I like to imagine that we _could_ live off of what we produced (and we have in the past)... but why would I want to? We enjoy coffee, avocados, bananas, and cocoa a whole lot  I dry my clothes in a dryer, have plenty of fridges and freezers for food storage, and am really working on producing our own dairy products, while discovering that we eat so much cheese/butter/yogurt/etc that I'm not sure I have time to make all of it! We have a gas generator and are really hoping for solar panels in our future, but waiting to see what the technology does in the next 5-10 years while we save up.

That's pretty much the farm side of things. More adventures to come


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## Hens and Roos (Jun 14, 2015)

Very nice!


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## animalmom (Jun 14, 2015)

Love the picture!  That little beastie is smiling.  Such a great life.  Will watch for the continuing adventures.


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## mysunwolf (Jun 14, 2015)

Thanks to you both  

I sold a ram lamb from one of my favorite ewes on Friday, and have tried milking her the past few days afterwards. I still have to haul all 150lbs of her onto the milk stand, but once up there she puts her head right in the headgate. Then she sits very still and calm and eats her grain while I milk her. I think next year she is going to be fabulous on the stand.

Tonight was the first night I got a little drop of human grade milk


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## Hens and Roos (Jun 14, 2015)

That's great!


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## OneFineAcre (Jun 14, 2015)

Thanks for starting a journal
I read most of the journals even if I do not comment
I like to see the day to day activities
I think I learn more that way


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## mysunwolf (Jun 29, 2015)

@OneFineAcre I read through the journals too, mostly to see what everyone else is up to, but I do end up learning quite a bit! Much more through the daily narratives than when someone just states facts.

I've got to take more lay-o-the-land pictures, they are most useful in a year or more when I look back on them and remember how much work has been done. We have owned our land for less than 3 years and have experimented a lot in that time with different animals, plants, and management styles.

This is one of those photos:


 
It shows how the pig pens cut into the rolling green. It shows how huge our shade trees have become. And it shows how lovely the scenery is, of course. Here's what the pigs are up to when you get closer.


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## mysunwolf (Jul 1, 2015)

I'm just going to post a bunch of photos 

We grew some winter wheat this year, either for us or the chickens depending on if we have bugs or mold. But so far it looks beautiful and tastes delicious. Not as much work as you might think to do the growing, harvesting, drying, threshing, etc.


 
More photos of our new dairy sheep ewes, 70% East Friesian. I asked the breeder for black hooves since my 70% EF ram has nightmare hooves but excellent growth, wool, and parasite resistance. These girls have black hooves (excellent for resisting trimming and rot), okay parasite resistance, good growth, and very nice wool. I think we will be making some very nice lambs in spring 2016! The girls also have St. Croix and Navajo-Churro crossed in back in the line (see the elf ears?) to help with hardiness, and St. Croix helps with their year-round breeding ability.


 

 
On the Katahdin front, my ram produced some excellent offspring. We are retaining both ewe lambs after all as they are just too beautiful to sell for now. In the future, we will certainly be scaling back on the Katahdins and trying to just focus on the dairy sheep. 

Helena's ewe lamb is the nicer one. I really really like the hips, straight backs, and solid bodies on the two girls. 


 
Spotty's ewe lamb is more of a cull, but thanks to the ram is at least one step up from Spotty and her short body, susceptibility to illness, and curved back. And you can see she's got some great hips as well.


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## mysunwolf (Jul 1, 2015)

132 Cornish X peeps arrived this week:


The 19 peeps that I hatched from the incubator were actually glad to see 132 new friends:
 

One of the three pens of Cornish that are already out on pasture:
 

Photos from the backyard flock grow-outs:
   

Letting the sheep out of the barnyard and leading them to the far field for the day:


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## promiseacres (Jul 2, 2015)

Hi. We have 4 acres and sheep and chickens too!


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## mysunwolf (Jul 5, 2015)

promiseacres said:


> Hi. We have 4 acres and sheep and chickens too!



Hi! How many sheep/chickens do you have? And is your acreage attached to your house like ours is?


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## promiseacres (Jul 5, 2015)

Currently 17 sheep and 36 chicken and chicks. Yes our property is a big rectangle.


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## mysunwolf (Jul 8, 2015)

That's more sheep than us, but many fewer chickens  We're mostly homesteading as well, but selling our meat at the farmers market is certainly a great way to advertise our live animals.

Just had to brag on the sheep again. The lambs are 10 weeks so we weaned out the boys into the field with the ram. I am milking the mommas of the two sets of twins, and I think the extra corn at milking time is going to help them get back into condition very, very quickly. Plus, sheep milk!! I am getting about 1 cup a day from each sheep milking twice a day, plus they are getting trained to the stand in the process. I really need a ramp and a no-slip rubber mat to help these girls out though, they are certainly not goats and have a hard time with the stand. 

The first evening after the babies were separated out they produced quite a bit, but as usual it has slowed way down.



 

Hopefully I will get it together enough to separate out babies overnight in the spring so that I can have plenty more milk... though who am I kidding, when do I ever have it together on this farm?!


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## animalmom (Jul 8, 2015)

mysunwolf said:


> who am I kidding, when do I ever have it together on this farm?!



Ha, that is certainly something I know a lot about... getting it together, let alone having it together.  But then again, life is a work in progress, no?


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## mysunwolf (Jul 8, 2015)

animalmom said:


> Ha, that is certainly something I know a lot about... getting it together, let alone having it together.  But then again, life is a work in progress, no?



Absolutely a work in progress, which I guess is the only reason I have any hope for accomplishing more milking next spring  I have to remind myself that I will never be done learning about stock just like I will never be done with building fences


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## Poka_Doodle (Jul 8, 2015)

Quick question from someone that knows near nothing about goats, what do you do with the goat milk


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## mysunwolf (Jul 8, 2015)

Poka_Doodle said:


> Quick question from someone that knows near nothing about goats, what do you do with the goat milk



Now wait here a minute, first off these are SHEEP  Both of these things happen a lot: people thinking my sheep are goats, and people asking me what I do with the milk! 

My answer is: what do you do with cow's milk? With our sheepsmilk, we drink it, put it in coffee, pour it on cereal, use it in oatmeal, pancakes, make yogurt, cheese, etc...  Pretty much everything!


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## Poka_Doodle (Jul 8, 2015)

Oh, sorry.

I also have chickens


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## norseofcourse (Jul 8, 2015)

Woohoo! Another sheep milker, and it looks like you're doing great!

Are you milking your sheep from the rear or from the side?  How high is your milkstand?

I get people calling my sheep goats a lot, too.  Especially when they talk about the milk.  Sometimes it even makes me do it


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## mysunwolf (Jul 8, 2015)

@norseofcourse, I've been following your sheep milking thread and love it!! Very informative too. It has helped me a lot in my sheep milking adventure--though none of mine have peed on the stand, YET!

I am pretty bad at the training, so Darla (the wild ewe) almost didn't even come in the barn for the grain this evening since she knew milking would follow. I'm currently low on patience with timid sheep. It's nice to have the friendly Katahdins and dairy ewes who will do almost anything for some high quality feed. Maybe once I get my Chaffhaye the more timid ones will be more willing...

The milk stand is the ugliest thing in the world (though I didn't build it), and it's at least 18" off the ground, possibly more. Will have to measure. I really think a ramp has to happen, and definitely a rubber mat or something to make it more "grippy," the ewes get really frustrated with how slippery the plyboard is. 

I am still figuring out which milking position I like. I am right handed, so the animal faces to my left, and I milk all the quarters from their left side. However, I figured out that I like to reach my hand from behind and grab the teat from there while holding the mason jar in my left hand from the front. A lot like milking cows, in the end. I'm beginning to enjoy the fact that I can use the lower part of the udder in the "whole hand squeeze," while still making sure to remain as gentle as possible.

I will keep everyone updated with whether or not they settle down about the whole milking thing or just get more stressed about the whole experience!


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## Poka_Doodle (Jul 9, 2015)

@mysunwolf how many chickens do you have?


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## mysunwolf (Jul 9, 2015)

Poka_Doodle said:


> @mysunwolf how many chickens do you have?



We have over 200 right now, over 250 if you count chicks under 8 weeks, but they will mostly be gone by September since about 180 of those are Cornish X. We will keep 25+ egg layers, a few roosters, and some broody/pet hens over the winter. 

All of ours are mutts though. You have show birds, right?


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## Poka_Doodle (Jul 9, 2015)

I have show bantams. This year we have lost 7 of our chickens. I also have large fowl. Currently each pen has 7 chickens. The reason we had had them apart was because of roosters, although I lost the bantam rooster in May. We only have 1 mix breed now, a Naked Neck speckled sussex. County fair is near, check out my journal for more information, I will post much more tonight when I am not working on cat stuff


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## ragdollcatlady (Jul 15, 2015)

I am probably in the minority, but with my goats, I milk one side then I switch sides to milk the other. I have mostly nigerians and at first, my hands would cramp. So I would switch sides to give the other hand a break. I hold a milking cup under the goat with one hand and use my other hand to milk. Getting up and moving in the middle of milking keeps my body from getting too uncomfortable regardless of how I sit, especially when milking several animals.


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## ohiogoatgirl (Jul 16, 2015)

that must take a while Ragdollcatlady. I had saanens and alpine mutts and we always milked with both hands. at first you kinda trade off which hand is actually working and it takes longer until you build up the muscles in your hands. but once you get used to it it goes a lot faster two handed.
although I supposed with some of those shorties (pygmys, nigis) that sometimes one would be too short to bother with a bucket and be easier to milk into a small container.


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## Southern by choice (Dec 23, 2015)

Haven't seen you around but saw your pics scrolling through this am- clicked on one. Such pretty sheep!
http://www.backyardherds.com/threads/mysunwolf-four-acres-and-some-sheep.31390/#post-395516

I love the scrolling pics- fun to see them!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 25, 2016)

I apologize for being away from BYH all the time, I'm working a lot off farm and it's getting busy with spring just around the corner! Plus if I do get online, Facebook seems to take up most of my time...

I'm going to use this thread to post lamb updates so that I can sneak in photos of the other livestock as well.

You all may have heard, but Ginger birthed triplets a few weeks back. Two of them died within a few hours--I think they were stuck in the birth canal too long and may have gotten weak and/or inhaled fluids. Since momma had been throwing a fit trying to get the babies out of her, she hadn't had time to fully lick off or nurse the surviving baby, a tiny black ewe lamb. For the first few days we had to help this girl stand, find the teat, and nurse every 4-6hrs. She's finally a strong, healthy little lamb that bounces around. However, Ginger still has a terrible famacha score despite having been wormed and given supplements galore (I've thrown the book at both of these poor ewes, almost literally). I hope she'll recover in the next few weeks with frequent iron, B complex, vitamins, drenches, etc.

Dora birthed just last week, a single black ewe lamb during some of the nicest weather we've had all winter. I looked out into the field to see her trying to lick the lamb and run away from it at the same time. When I checked her over, she had mastitis with a rock hard, very hot bag, which was why she was not letting the baby nurse. We penned them, milked her out, took a sample for testing, started antibiotics and pain meds, and held down momma so the baby could nurse every 4-6hrs just like the last lamb. Now the baby is doing well and Dora's mastitis has eased up. Dora was dewormed right after lambing and her famacha score has already improved dramatically.

Both ewes and their lambs are generally stable for the time being. They've been kept in the barn so that we could easily access them but will go out into the barnyard pen with the rest of the pregnant girls once the weather clears up. Right now we have 60+mph gusts, bad wind chills, and snow.

Gratuitous use of lamby photos below...

Charcoal at almost a week:




Charcoal and Mocha hanging out with their moms:


 



Sweet baby Mocha:

 


They've got beautiful structures to them, I just love the way they look. The daddy was a black-faced Cotswold, and these mommas are Friesian x Cotswold x ???


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## mysunwolf (Feb 25, 2016)

Here are some photos from the last big snow of the other girls waiting to lamb.

Cow and Thelma:


 

 

Stud Muffin seriously getting into the hay:


 
Cow, Louise, and Thelma:




Puff is "guarding them" aka waiting until my back is turned so he can chase them 


 

And here are a few from yesterday, the big lug Puffers guarding his skull toy:


 

And momma Cow getting bigger:


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## mysunwolf (Feb 25, 2016)

Here's Cinnamon with the chickens. This critter's a handful and has a really high prey drive with high energy, BUT he likes to please, is really sweet, and can settle into relaxed laziness very quickly (something I really look for in my dogs ).



We butchered this guy for a friend last week, I was really proud of him and what the carcass and meat looked like.




The cats being lazy on a cold day:



My amazing Silver Penciled Rock rooster, with one of his daughters:




The flock was really not into the snow!



Zoe is 5 years old and still laying huge brown eggs a few times a week.




From the big hog pen, this is Shaun our boar and Ossa our sow chowing down on some apples.



They didn't enjoy the snow either. Here they were explaining to me that I better dump that bucket of feed quick before they got smart and jumped over the hog panels.




Our newest addition, two tiny guinea hog gilts


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## samssimonsays (Feb 25, 2016)

I adore the animals and LOVE the quality of the pics! What kind of camera do you have?


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## mysunwolf (Feb 25, 2016)

Samantha drawz said:


> I adore the animals and LOVE the quality of the pics! What kind of camera do you have?



Thank you! I love taking pictures. Right now I have a pretty old Nikon D50. It's not as old as some of the cameras I used to use, but in this digital age where a new smartphone or computer comes out every year, 2005 seems a long time ago. These types of early, high-quality digital cameras were once very $$ items... now iphones seem to have cameras almost as good that cost a lot less! But there's definitely something nice about a digital camera that thinks it's a traditional film SLR  I used to be quite the photography nerd but have forgotten most of it.


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## samssimonsays (Feb 25, 2016)

I think it takes amazing photos lol. I am no pro, only an amateur but I do love to take photos lol. Your little lambs are adorable. All of the animals look spectacular.


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## Latestarter (Feb 25, 2016)

Thanks for sharing all the pics. You have a great group of critters! I'm waiting patiently to get to a point where I can do likewise. Sorry to hear about the mastitis, but glad it's clearing up. The little black lambs are so cute! You have some nice looking sheep. I think Cow's coloring is awesome!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 25, 2016)

Samantha drawz said:


> I think it takes amazing photos lol. I am no pro, only an amateur but I do love to take photos lol. Your little lambs are adorable. All of the animals look spectacular.



Hahaha, that's all it takes! Love to take photos enough and you too can spend all your money on photography equipment  Or goaties maybe, since we get to choose our money pits. For me, it's now sheep. 



Latestarter said:


> Thanks for sharing all the pics. You have a great group of critters! I'm waiting patiently to get to a point where I can do likewise. Sorry to hear about the mastitis, but glad it's clearing up. The little black lambs are so cute! You have some nice looking sheep. I think Cow's coloring is awesome!



I hope you get to have some more critters soon, they can be a headache but so rewarding. Cow is my only hair sheep left, kept because she is mostly a pet and just so cuddly. I really love my sheep and can't wait to have more


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## norseofcourse (Feb 25, 2016)

Congrats on the lambs, all that hard work getting them to nurse and working on the mastitis sure paid off, they look great!  I hope spring comes soon for nicer weather for the rest of the lambing.


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## Southern by choice (Feb 25, 2016)

I think Charcoal is one of the prettiest lambs I have ever seen.
Just BEAUTIFUL!


Chickens- I love chickens they are such a hoot!
We have some feral chickens that originally were from our flock but cross bred and were brooded in the woods... hatched... next generation same thing- over and over... we thin them out but wow... they multiply back there fast!  Not human friendly at all and amazingingly hardy... sleep in trees and live off of what is in the deep woods... rain, ice, sleet, snow- they don't care. Funny thing is they are a mix modern games (bantam)- Cochin (bantam) and either penedesenca or EE 's.

Our "real" girls don't mind the snow either- you'd think NC chickens would be winter weather wimps. Not so  Turkeys will walk around with ice on their backs- they will NOT go for shelter and freak out if you try to pen them. 

I like your Pencilled Rocks!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 3, 2016)

We are almost done with this whole lambing thing! Only kept 5 ewes this winter and lambing still seems to have taken forever.

This is Stud, the sire to all but the two black lambs.



 

Louise decided to lamb last weekend while we were home. Thanks goodness she did because she really needed help. The lambs were extremely tiny, but she was still having trouble with delivery. I heard her moaning from 300+ ft away while I was working in the garden. Basically she was just a little too small to be able to push the babies out on her own. Not ringwom, but certainly a very tight fit. She is a first time mom but she is 1.5 years old so I was hoping she would have an easier time. Ah, dashed hopes. I gloved and lubed up and gently helped her deliver her tiny twins. The first one was positioned perfectly but was difficult to get the head to crest. The second one had a leg back and boy did it take me a long time to find that leg. Turns out he was upside down! They are the smallest lambs we've ever had. I estimated close to 5lbs but the scale told me they were 6-7lbs. They are doing well and we will be keeping the ewe lamb for sure. 


 

 

Then yesterday before work I went to check the barn and Cow had birthed twins! I helped her clean them and get them nursing, and she laid down and went into labor again. The third lamb presented breech, but as I gloved up to help she gave one more push and pushed the lamb's entire back end out, at which time I pulled and then swung the lamb to clear the fluids. I now have a bulb thingy for clearing nasal passages and the mouth and I LOVE it, I am convinced it has saved some of my lambs.


 


 

 

Meanwhile the mommas and the two black lambs are doing good. 


 

 

 
The mastitis test came back for Dora as Streptococcus agalactiae... what the heck? Apparently extremely rare in sheep and hard to control. The Penicillin hurt it but didn't kill it, so my vet recommended switching to an LA 200 type and seeing if that does it. I have also ordered the "Today" treatment, should be here next week, for this and/or future cases. Dora's baby is still growing well so I know that she is still producing enough milk for Mocha. 

4 ewes and 7 lambs and only one more ewe left to lamb. So excited.


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## Latestarter (Mar 3, 2016)

Great results so far! Grats on 2 more successful deliveries!


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## norseofcourse (Mar 3, 2016)

Wow, congratulations!  Glad you were there for both deliveries to help.

I have four ewes and my lambing season is still a month away.  Sure helps seeing cute lambs while I'm waiting!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 4, 2016)

As predicted, had to help Thelma lamb as well since her and Louise come from the same genetics. I could probably have let both of them do it on their own, but was pretty concerned about losing either the lambs or the moms if I did that. And not 100% sure they would have been successful. I jumped in sooner on Thelma's birth and it showed in lambs that were more vigorous and not as yellow (I know this part normal to wool people but certainly never had yellowed fluids in the hair sheep). Not sure yet whether or not I will be giving antibiotics to these two to prevent infection from my assistance.

Thelma had twins, one ewe and one ram, just like Louise  Only Thelma's are a little bigger and stronger. Pics to come!


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## Latestarter (Mar 4, 2016)

And the herd continues to grow! Grats on another successful (assisted) delivery!


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## Goat Whisperer (Mar 4, 2016)

For the most part (with goats anyway- I would think its the same with sheep) the antibiotics are not needed when you have to assist. They "weep" for several weeks after they kid (again- I'm talking goats) and that tends to clear everything out. A uterine flush would be better then antibiotics at this point- but I don't think she needs that right now either. 

If for some reason she spiked a temp you would probably want to do antibiotics and the flush.

Sorry about the mastitis 

Congrats on all those lambs! So funny that you say they are small, compared the Nigerian dwarf goat kids they look GIANT!


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## Baymule (Mar 4, 2016)

Pretty ewes and what a nice bunch of lambs!  Congrats on the babies!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 5, 2016)

Goat Whisperer said:


> For the most part (with goats anyway- I would think its the same with sheep) the antibiotics are not needed when you have to assist. They "weep" for several weeks after they kid (again- I'm talking goats) and that tends to clear everything out. A uterine flush would be better then antibiotics at this point- but I don't think she needs that right now either.
> 
> If for some reason she spiked a temp you would probably want to do antibiotics and the flush.
> 
> ...



Thank you, this is so helpful! I will let them be and lookout for signs of infection and/or a temperature over the next few weeks, but hoping for the best.

Honestly the lambies are not all that small compared to some sheep, just in comparison to my Katahdins last year! We got so used to 8-10lb lambs that these 6-7lb lambs seem tiny! But they're within a normal range. 5-6lbs is very light, and anything lighter than that is concerning.

The pelvic openings on the moms of both Thelma and Louise were so small that the intact water bags came out bullet-shaped instead of bulbous like usual (if that makes sense?). I took notes on Thelma's lambing and noticed that she started small contractions around 1pm, then real contractions around 2pm, and was restless the whole time, getting up and down and pacing and headbutting other ewes and lambs. Finally jugged her and started pulling on the two front lamb feet around 3pm or a little after. Same sequence with her sister Louise, only I waited longer to help her because I wasn't in the barn when she went into labor.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 5, 2016)

Thelma and her twins!! 



 
Mocha, Charcoal, Dora, and Ginger 


 

Louise and lambs (go home Louise, you're drunk).

 

Cow with her triplets! She stands 2-3 times as long to nurse as the other sheep, poor girl


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## Latestarter (Mar 5, 2016)

You have such pretty sheep and lambs, but I confess to a favorite... I love cow!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 6, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> You have such pretty sheep and lambs, but I confess to a favorite... I love cow!



I'd have to say that she's my favorite too  I'd do anything for that sheep. We bought her off of craigslist for $80 when she was 4 months old. She had been dam raised as a single because her dam had lost her twin sibling during birth in the January cold. This girl was already taller than her mother at 4 months. I figured her for a keeper from the moment I saw her based on size and bone structure alone, but over the next few months she began to come up to me in the field just for scratches and to hang out. We call her spacey because she is... she'll just lift her head up and a little sideways and stare off into space. I thought she was ill or stargazing or something was wrong, but we have kept her healthy on minerals, dewormers, supplements galore for two years and she still does this!  Now we just accept that it's part of her personality. Every time I have people out to purchase sheep, they ask to purchase her as well. Seriously, *every time*. And every time I tell them there's no way that I could ever sell her.


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## Baymule (Mar 6, 2016)

I am a Cow fan also. 

I have a favorite too, Sheepalicious. If she even hears my voice, she BAA's loudly and sometimes I have to go up to the wire and stick my fingers through to get her to shutup. She runs to me, nibbles my fingers and checks me out for treats. Aren't sheep awesome?


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## Latestarter (Mar 6, 2016)

I was already 100% sold on goats...Getting there on sheep


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## mysunwolf (Mar 27, 2016)

Got some nice photos of moms nursing last week in the rain.


 

 

Cow has gotten her triplets (Chamomile, Calendula, and Cappuccino) to 3 weeks old. Calendula is enormous since she takes two turns nursing, while Chamomile and Cappuccino are normal sized lambs for their age.

 

Bought some more hair sheep  I was supposed to get out of them this year, but needed some more butcher lambs since we only had 3 ram lambs. And somehow I came home with an old ewe and her daughter??? They were extremely shy from a large, hands-off flock, but after a few weeks of quarantine and grain feeding, they've really improved. Names are now Honey and Caramel  We'll try breeding them for fall lambs. 

 
Ginger is still struggling with anemia but getting her out to graze on the (mostly) clean pasture has really helped. Plus iron shots (my vet says not to give these too often as it's bad for their liver, but we give every now and then to help) and drench. I hope she fully recovers before the barber pole worms get really bad again in June.


 

So happy with this year's lambing season. Now to figure out how to get more land for all my new sheep


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## Baymule (Mar 27, 2016)

Love the new sheep! I notice you have collars on your sheep, may I ask why? Do they lead on a leash like a dog or is it for I.D. purposes?


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## mysunwolf (Mar 27, 2016)

Baymule said:


> Love the new sheep! I notice you have collars on your sheep, may I ask why? Do they lead on a leash like a dog or is it for I.D. purposes?



My ram leads, but that's about it! None of my ewes lead nicely. I have used them for ID (made lamb collars the corresponding colors), but now just use them for "leading" and then tying in for milking. I just got rid of my milk stand with a head gate in favor of milking from the ground with the ewes tied to the barn wall. Yes, I am crazy.


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## Baymule (Mar 27, 2016)

I like crazy. Join the crowd!


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## mysunwolf (Aug 31, 2016)

Sooo it looks like I haven't posted in a really really long time. It's been a difficult year, but I'm hoping things will get better once I do!

In April, we had our first piglets born on the farm. Small litter of 5 to first timer Momma Ossa.



 

 

 

And we adopted Lilly. She has been a rocky addition, but she is slowly growing out of her puppyishness. And she is SO CUTE!



 

 

Back when all the sheep were doing good...


 

Some of my beautiful black lambs.


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## mysunwolf (Aug 31, 2016)

Turkey poults for Thanksgiving.


 

More sheepies.


 

 

New ram, EFxTunis.


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## luvmypets (Aug 31, 2016)

Love the pics! I will hopefully be getting my first piglets next march. Edit: So sorry you had some rough time with your sheep, I hope things get better for you


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## Latestarter (Aug 31, 2016)

Great pics! Grats on the 1st piggies and the puppy!  I have no idea what problems you've been dealing with but when you say: 


mysunwolf said:


> Back when all the sheep were doing good...


 It leads me to believe that it hasn't been good  Whatever it is/was that you've been dealing with, I sure hope you're past it with minimal loss/damage. Fall's coming and then winter and hopefully a renewing spring. Glad you stopped by with some pics.


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## babsbag (Aug 31, 2016)

Beautiful pictures. I hope things are getting better.


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## mysunwolf (Aug 31, 2016)

We've had two lambs this year that just fell over and died from barber pole worms. A third one, a ewe lamb, has gone to my neighbors to be nursed back to health since she was so far gone. I am not able to put a lot of energy into the animals right now due to a difficult run in with Lyme disease. I've had to quit my off-farm job during my first round of treatment and am now on the second round. It's hard to explain to people how terrible and epidemic this disease is unless they have seen it happen to someone they love.



Latestarter said:


> Great pics! Grats on the 1st piggies and the puppy!  I have no idea what problems you've been dealing with but when you say:
> It leads me to believe that it hasn't been good  Whatever it is/was that you've been dealing with, I sure hope you're past it with minimal loss/damage. Fall's coming and then winter and hopefully a renewing spring. Glad you stopped by with some pics.



Thanks @Latestarter, I really needed that spring talk!!! I am really hoping for next year to be better, not that sheep won't get sick somehow (I'm sure they will), but that I'll have the energy to help them before it's too late.


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## mysunwolf (Aug 31, 2016)

luvmypets said:


> Love the pics! I will hopefully be getting my first piglets next march. Edit: So sorry you had some rough time with your sheep, I hope things get better for you



I LOVE your pigs by the way! I thought about getting some just to have people mistake them for sheep! Piglets are so much fun, but are especially so when you have good piggy moms.


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## luvmypets (Aug 31, 2016)

mysunwolf said:


> I LOVE your pigs by the way! I thought about getting some just to have people mistake them for sheep! Piglets are so much fun, but are especially so when you have good piggy moms.


Those would be some interesting sheep! I'm so excited to breed Patricia, the mangalista breed is very old, they were bred with wild boars. The people we got them from said they are spectacular mothers.


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## Latestarter (Sep 17, 2016)

I read your post when you did it and I have no idea what happened... Normally I would have responded, and I guess I just got sidetracked. The beautiful pics of your ewes and scenery were at the top of the opening page, which brought me back here to your journal. Hope you're doing better after your 2nd treatment. Are you back mobile again? I've seen you back on the boards again, and it's good to have you back!  Sorry you lost the lambs to worms. That had to hurt. Was your neighbor able to save the one you sent to her?

Have you started looking at a breeding schedule for your ladies yet? Or has it already happened? I'm also curious as to how the Friesian mixes did with milking? Or maybe that was for this coming year? So many questions...  One final one... How is Cow doing? Still stargazing I hope?


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## mysunwolf (Nov 29, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> I read your post when you did it and I have no idea what happened... Normally I would have responded, and I guess I just got sidetracked. The beautiful pics of your ewes and scenery were at the top of the opening page, which brought me back here to your journal. Hope you're doing better after your 2nd treatment. Are you back mobile again? I've seen you back on the boards again, and it's good to have you back!  Sorry you lost the lambs to worms. That had to hurt. Was your neighbor able to save the one you sent to her?
> 
> Have you started looking at a breeding schedule for your ladies yet? Or has it already happened? I'm also curious as to how the Friesian mixes did with milking? Or maybe that was for this coming year? So many questions...  One final one... How is Cow doing? Still stargazing I hope?



Thank you, I so appreciate your post, even if I did get it a few months late.  Just didn't get any notifications!

I am still having health troubles, I've reorganized the farm so things are a little easier. My neighbor was able to save the lamb I gave her, with MANY doses of wormer and drylotting for the rest of the summer. I can even still see her across the fence and visit her when I like  I'm hoping their daughter gets a chance to milk her next spring.

My brain has been so scattered I've neglected my notes this year, but all of the girls were bred at some point to my 70% Friesian ram Stud. We actually sold Cow and the last of our hair sheep to an acquaintance who has so far been happy with them. I miss her quite a bit  But her teats were truly too small for my project. I can only keep so many sheep on our small property, so I am keeping the ones that meet the requirements. Now if we can just get a handle on the foot rot--it's just mild enough to be not-quite-an-issue, but just bad enough to limit the sheep's immunity during the warm wet months (basically April to August here). And keep me in quite a bit of back pain, even though I broke down and bought a sheep chair from Premier.

I milked four 50-70% Friesians spring 2016 and they were incredible! Great teats, good udders, and a decent amount of production. Plus delicious milk for my cereal, coffee, cream sauces. Next year going to try some quick soft cheeses.

From the four ewes I milked this spring, I have two ewe lambs that are 20-35% and one that is 70% that I will milk in 2017. I also have two Dorset/Suffolk ewes that I will not be milking but will save the lambs from and incorporate them into the program (may even save a ram lamb from them to be the next stud, we will see). All the ewes have been bred to Stud Muffin, even his daughter, and should lamb in February/March. This year we'll be setting up a nice creep feeder area and will begin locking the lambs up overnight to milk moms in the morning. I'm so excited! 

Mostly I've been lurking around BYH just reading posts and journals and seeing what everyone else is doing.   I will try to update this journal a little more often!


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## Latestarter (Nov 29, 2016)

So sorry you still have the health issues. I hope during the "rest period" over winter you'll be able to get it under control. Sorry you had to let Cow go, but you have to do what you have to do. Glad the worm infested lamb survived. Hope she works out well for the neighbor and the daughter. Nice that you have a promising spring to look forward to  Looking forward to spring lamb pics


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## norseofcourse (Nov 29, 2016)

It's great to see an update from you!  Sorry about the troubles you've been having.  Sounds like many things are going well though, good to hear milking went well this past spring.  Hope things go even better for you next year!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 1, 2017)

We are still trying to sell a good deal of our flock. It's part of the process to slowly, slowly downsize our farming operation into something more manageable for us. But in the meantime, a good portion of the girls will be having lambs! No one seems to want to buy pregnant ewes, especially in February. I'll try to keep this updated as things progress. I have 9 total ewes, with 8 assumed bred, to be lambing over the next two months. Photos to come...


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## Bruce (Feb 1, 2017)

That is pretty funny, seems a lot of people here are more than happy to buy pregnant ewes. Talk to @Mike CHS !! Are these people just looking for a pet or two and don't want to deal with lambing?


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## mysunwolf (Feb 1, 2017)

Bruce said:


> That is pretty funny, seems a lot of people here are more than happy to buy pregnant ewes. Talk to @Mike CHS !! Are these people just looking for a pet or two and don't want to deal with lambing?



I have never had a problem selling pregnant ewes before, but I have always sold hair sheep. Maybe the wool sheep are not as popular? All those interested so far have never had sheep, only chickens, goats, etc. and would like a few milk sheep for their homestead, so I think that is why they are nervous about lambing!


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## Bruce (Feb 2, 2017)

Well they won't be milking any sheep if they don't go through lambing!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 2, 2017)

Bruce said:


> Well they won't be milking any sheep if they don't go through lambing!



 Yep, that's what I told them! I am more than happy to hold onto my sheep indefinitely, and I was already sad to be missing their lambings, so it works out pretty well for me.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 5, 2017)

...and the sheep have sold  They went to people who are new at sheep who really wanted some dairy sheep, so I flooded them with info (oops) and told them to please call me or their knowledgeable neighbors for help if needed! I had to hire help this winter, but I had finally gotten the hoof problems eradicated, everyone doing good on famacha, and all the ewes nice and conditioned but not TOO conditioned, so hopefully this group will do very well for their new farmers.

I now just have 5 ewes, 1 of which is destined for butcher soon. The other 4 will be here to stay and keep my LGD Puff company, since my sweet/wild guardian puppy Lilly has found a home guarding cattle and her new people.

Why is it that plans always go a completely different direction than planned? I am going to try and not purchase a single breeding animal in 2017--let's see if I can follow through with that plan.  I think I need to review the meaning of "downsize" a few more times.


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## animalmom (Feb 5, 2017)

Good luck with your plan and downsizing.  I honestly wish you well with that, but you do realize you are surrounded by very capable, persistent enablers who are shameless.  OK I am shameless most of the BYHers are nice.  I mean, I mean just how much room can one more little itty bitty lamb take up and if you get her mom at the same time you won't have to feed the lamb and if you get a handsome ram at the same time you will always have nice little itty bitty lambs that you don't have to feed because you have the mom.....  See, shameless!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 5, 2017)

Too true, all the BYHers are the *worst influences*!


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## Latestarter (Feb 5, 2017)

Glad you were successful in finding a buyer. I'm sure you are feeling relieved at present. The remorse will strike later when you look out at the mostly empty pasture and wonder why it looks that way. Then will come the urges to fill it back up.  Hope you're feeling better.


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## Kaye (Feb 5, 2017)

You know, when the ones you still have start to need new friends. Or maybe a nice little goat would look good on pasture. Ohhhhh, and when you decide to go with a totally new animal!! 
Oh, good luck with the downsizing!! lol


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## Bruce (Feb 8, 2017)

animalmom said:


> Good luck with your plan and downsizing.  I honestly wish you well with that, but you do realize you are surrounded by very capable, persistent enablers who are shameless.  OK I am shameless most of the BYHers are nice.  I mean, I mean just how much room can one more little itty bitty lamb take up and if you get her mom at the same time you won't have to feed the lamb and if you get a handsome ram at the same time you will always have nice little itty bitty lambs that you don't have to feed because you have the mom.....  See, shameless!


Especially you and @Baymule


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## Baymule (Feb 9, 2017)

Nothing cuter than baby lambs....... except maybe MORE of them! LOL


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## mysunwolf (Feb 23, 2017)

Sorry for the poor quality photos, I have been using the camera on my phone and it's terrible! But it gets the job done.

WARNING, this photo is creepy and kinda graphic.

 
We butchered a whole bunch of pigs last fall at home and at our friend's place. Since we were so worn out, we only salvaged one head and the rest went to the dogs. I picked the skulls out of the field this spring and started them soaking to rot off any excess flesh. When I filled the buckets with water, bubbles started to come up from the bullet holes! Could not resist getting a photo.

As far as my pregnant sheep, there are still no lambs!! I was contacted by the people we sold the sheep to and they informed me that one of the ewes had given birth. This was the ewe that was supposed to be my first sheep to lamb, and she was due February 4th. She lambed on February 20th, so I'm assuming the calculations are at least one heat cycle off (I lost my mind last summer and went overboard with the Valbazen at the wrong time).

Anyhow, they are just hanging around the drylot area (a little muddy today, we had a lot of rain recently) waiting to drop lambs.



 

Ginger is HUGE again this year, we are hoping for another round of triplets.


 

And then this happened 


 

As soon as we get any actual developments with udders or lambs I will be sure to post photos.


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## Bruce (Feb 24, 2017)

View looks good from up there!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 25, 2017)

Bruce said:


> View looks good from up there!



We decided he needed a woolen perch, nothing else would do 

By the way... we have the first lamb!!! 

Charcoal decided to just have one gorgeous ewe lamb, so she is already producing way too much milk. Which makes her udder tight and uncomfortable and for some reason she only wants the baby to nurse from one side! We are watching her for mastitis but so far she looks to be doing okay. I milked out some colostrum and it was THICK and yellow, I will milk out some more today. She is also not doing a good job cleaning the baby, so we are cleaning the baby for her. A little confused and seems to still be in pain from the birth, so she will be in her own private barn for a few days.


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## Bruce (Feb 25, 2017)

Congrats on the lamb!! 

Since she is overproducing, you get to take some for yourself


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## Baymule (Feb 25, 2017)

Beautiful lamb!


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## Goat Whisperer (Feb 25, 2017)

Congrats!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 26, 2017)

We have two more from Dora as of this morning, will post an update later today.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 26, 2017)

We went out to check the ewes around 7 this morning and found two little lambs in the barn! It was 22 degrees F so we spent a few hours getting both babies to nurse from their mom in turns, plus toweling them dry.

Dora is trying to reject the white one for quite a few reasons.
1) She believes she is only supposed to have one lamb at a time.
2) She has never had a white lamb before and all of the lambs that were "not hers" have been white in the past.
3) The white one was weaker so I had to towel it off quite a bit more as it couldn't suck enough milk down to stay warm, then it didn't smell as good to mom.

Dora ate part of the placenta already, I've been rubbing the remaining pieces all over the lamb every few hours to encourage her to accept it. She is doing much better accepting it as of the last hour. She has been cleaning both of them very well and has good milk. So far no sign of mastitis this year 




 

 

Both of the lambs are girls which is funny because we were hoping for one ram out of Dora. Now it's up to Mocha to produce a ram.

Charcoal is still not cleaning her lamb at all  There was orangey/yellow poop everywhere on that thing when I checked on them this morning. I pulled the worst of it off her butt and wiped up a good deal, but that stuff is sticky. And Charcoal is producing so much milk that the baby has even runnier poop from the overly-rich colostrum. Despite that, her lamb is already growing, jumping around, and just being a healthy little critter.


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## Baymule (Feb 26, 2017)

Adorable babies! That new lamb poop is some gooey stuff ain't it? Congrats on the new lambs!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 27, 2017)

Tried to get some better photos of the lambs but the barn lighting is really not cooperating. Hopefully we will get them out to the barnyard this week and I'll be able to get some nicer shots.

Charcoal's lamb is growing extremely well already.


 

The flock without babies is very interested in Dora and her situation. 


 

Dora and her lambs are doing pretty good. The white one now has a bit of discharge from her eyes--my guess is it's a bacterial infection from me repeatedly smearing placenta all over her body yesterday to get mom to accept her. I've got some antibacterial ointment I'm going to try. She is not producing a whole lot of milk, but it is enough so far.


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## luvmypets (Feb 27, 2017)

So cute! Im anxiously awaiting the arrival of Rosie's lambs. I dont she can hold out much longer.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 27, 2017)

luvmypets said:


> So cute! Im anxiously awaiting the arrival of Rosie's lambs. I dont she can hold out much longer.



I have been following the thread and honestly can't believe she has not lambed yet!! I'm still waiting on one of my ewe lambs, her name is Mocha and I think her and Rosie are at a similar stage. I've got Mocha's due date as March 9th. This is her from January.



 

This is a terrible photo of her udder from a few weeks back.


 

It doesn't look much different now, but with FFs I always have a hard time.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 28, 2017)

We banded tails, gave Dora's lambs tetanus antitoxin and BoSe, and integrated Charcoal into the main flock today. Dora's white lamb is now developing soremouth  This poor creature is a wreck... I can't tell if she almost rejected it because she knows its immune system is not up to snuff, or if its immune system is not great because it didn't get as much colostrum in the first 24hrs. But Dora has fully accepted it as her lamb now, so we at least dodged that bullet!

Ginger is acting like a beached whale. We're still watching her for signs of toxemia, drenched her with a little calcium and PG just in case, but so far she is doing very well she is just HUGE 

No progress at all on little Mocha.

When we let everyone out to graze, Charcoal's lamb learned about the electric net straight off. Then she started nibbling grass with her mother... at 4 days old. 



 

 

After I let them back in, Charcoal's lamb started bouncing around and annoying Grandma Ginger  Wish I had gotten a photo of that.


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## Bruce (Feb 28, 2017)

So nice!!!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 28, 2017)

mysunwolf said:


> _The white one now has a bit of discharge from her eyes--my guess is it's a bacterial infection from me repeatedly smearing placenta all over her body yesterday to get mom to accept her._



I was *so wrong*! I just did some more research and inspecting, and this little gal has entropion eyelids, our first case (I am pretty sure it's from Stud's genetics). She's going to the vet tomorrow since we don't seem to have the stomach for doing any of the cures ourselves.


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## Bruce (Feb 28, 2017)

That is a drag @mysunwolf !! I hope it doesn't set you back too much.


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 28, 2017)

Inverted eyes are generally pretty easy to fix. First option is to keep rolling the eyelids out. If that doesn't work, get yourself the smallest alligator clips (I found them at Home Depot) and clip them on under the eyelid (not right on the rim). A day with the clips on should fix the problem unless it's extremely severe. 

Inverted eyes are not always genetic. The really bad cases are probably, but the ones that are easily fixed are most likely from birthing stress. We generally see it pop up in lambs that were a bit stuck.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 28, 2017)

Thank you @purplequeenvt ! I am honestly a little freaked out about putting clips on the eyelids or messing with them much myself. I have tried to roll them out but they are rolled very tight and keep wanting to go back. 

I know, I can give vaccinations and push in prolapses and help ewes give birth, but something about the eyes stuff is very disturbing


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## mysunwolf (Mar 1, 2017)

Ah, one of the eyelids has rolled out from me messing with it! I'm going to see if I can get the other one to do the same. I'm going to try your alligator clip method on the other one.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 1, 2017)

Oh, and the real reason I got online--Ginger had triplets!




 

They're the same colors as last year, but this year they are actually alive.


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## norseofcourse (Mar 1, 2017)

Congrats on Ginger's triplets!!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 1, 2017)

I'm so happy about the triplets  It was so painful last year to lose 2 of 3 while I was right there, unable to do anything. This year @Southern by choice recommended I use Safeguard during the pregnancy since momma's eyelids were so pale. It was very "gentle" yet wormed her enough to allow the babies to come out thriving.

Update on the little entropion eyelid lamb: its right eye stayed in the proper position, but its left eyelid would not change even with all my pinching tactics. Took it to the vet, who first wanted to stitch it open, but I asked her to try the Penicillin injection into the eyelid first. So far it's working, we'll know for sure in the next week.


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## Baymule (Mar 1, 2017)

I am so happy for you! Ginger is a beautiful ewe and her triplets are so cute!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 2, 2017)

Tried to get some more photos today but the lighting was terrible! Too sunny and beautiful for photos!  The original 3 lambs had a blast playing outside today. Ginger's will get to come out in a few days. And we'll have to put in ear tags before then because they're all starting to look the same.

Here's Ginger and the triplets.



 


 

 

Charcoal (Ginger's lamb from last year) with her single lamb.


 



And Dora with her twins. I am particularly in love with these babies, though the white one is the one with the eye issues.


 

 

 

 

And finally Mocha (Dora's lamb from last year) is due March 9th, and we're expecting a single.


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## Latestarter (Mar 2, 2017)

Nice looking lambs and glad no serious issues at this point.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 4, 2017)

Latestarter said:


> Nice looking lambs and glad no serious issues at this point.



Thank you! It has been a relief. Not sure what was different this year except that I seemed to catch most of the births about 30-60 minutes after they'd happened.


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## CntryBoy777 (Mar 4, 2017)

They all look just wonderful and ya have done a great job with them. I really would like to have some here, but for now I just have to admire those of others. May be if things get settled in a couple of yrs, I can look to add a few to our situation here. Just depends on if my health will hold out that long.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 4, 2017)

As an interlude to the whole lambing thing...

We got more piglets!! A few months ago we gave our breeding sow to our neighbors, and then a few weeks ago we butchered the last of the feeders, but after 10 days without any pigs I had more kitchen scraps than I knew what to do with. Sooo I went out and bought two GOS/Large Black feeders (my favorite breeds). Meaning that our property was pig free for 12 days 

They are pretty freaked out from the whole catching experience, but have finally started to follow me around asking for food. Plus they're adorable.



 

Now to find some steers at a reasonable price...


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## mysunwolf (Mar 4, 2017)

CntryBoy777 said:


> They all look just wonderful and ya have done a great job with them. I really would like to have some here, but for now I just have to admire those of others. May be if things get settled in a couple of yrs, I can look to add a few to our situation here. Just depends on if my health will hold out that long.



Thank you, I tried so hard to make sure the ewes were healthy and happy this last year, looks like it has paid off! Health is such a tricky thing, human or otherwise. I am so young (under 30, at least ) and honestly thought my health would be good for a while yet because why not?, but I have just felt so terrible for the past couple of years from Lyme. It's been unexpected and a lot has changed. Just finally feeling almost well again. I very much hope that your health will hold out long enough for you to get to have sheep and all of the other stock that you don't have yet. And hey, sheep are much easier than goats!


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## Baymule (Mar 5, 2017)

Haha on the pigs. We just bought 3 Red Wattle pigs and DH is already saying we can keep them longer than the "regular" time to slaughter. I think he likes them 

I like your spotted pigs!


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## NH homesteader (Mar 5, 2017)

Love the pigs! GOS is my favorite breed!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 10, 2017)

Our 4-ewe lambing season is FINALLY over! DP and I have been down with a nasty stomach bug for almost a week now, but today was a little bit better. Mocha chose a good day to have her baby in that regard. Of course, the drawbacks were a below freezing temp, winds of 20-30 mph with gusts at 50 mph, and that she dropped the baby out in the middle of the drylot with zero protection from the elements instead of going into the barn. AND that her udder is so full and sensitive and she is a first time mom and doesn't want to let the baby nurse. Ah, Mocha. At least she is as cute as a teddybear.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 10, 2017)

Now @luvmypets we all just have to wait for Rosie!! And @newton the goat!


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## CntryBoy777 (Mar 10, 2017)

Congratulations!....it is so Cute.


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## norseofcourse (Mar 10, 2017)

Congrats!


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## Latestarter (Mar 10, 2017)

Grats on the new lamb and glad you're feeling a bit better. Would have been much better had Mocha done what any sensible ewe would have done and had her lamb in the protective confines of the barn. Of course most ewes aren't that sensible which is why shepherds may place the about to lamb ewes in confinement, right? Anyway, success has been achieved and hopefully the new born will be able to nurse and relieve Mocha of her over-full udder and everyone will be happy in the end.


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## ohiogoatgirl (Mar 10, 2017)

With the goats we would always milk out some and freeze it for emergency use. Good to have if needed later on plus relieved the new mom a bit. I don't know if this is common with sheep though.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 11, 2017)

Latestarter said:


> Grats on the new lamb and glad you're feeling a bit better. Would have been much better had Mocha done what any sensible ewe would have done and had her lamb in the protective confines of the barn. Of course most ewes aren't that sensible which is why shepherds may place the about to lamb ewes in confinement, right? Anyway, success has been achieved and hopefully the new born will be able to nurse and relieve Mocha of her over-full udder and everyone will be happy in the end.



I had checked on her at 3:30p and she looked like she would go sometime in the middle of the night to me, so when I went back in the house I said, "We should move her into the barn near the house this evening before sunset." So at 5pm we went out to move her and there was a lamb on the ground!  Much to our surprise. I don't usually jug ewes before lambing (as it stresses them out to be away from their flock), but I do if the weather is bad like it was yesterday.



ohiogoatgirl said:


> With the goats we would always milk out some and freeze it for emergency use. Good to have if needed later on plus relieved the new mom a bit. I don't know if this is common with sheep though.



We often do this as well, I have a nice stash of frozen colostrum from my girls. If I weren't having other issues and concerns with Mocha I would definitely do this to relieve an overly full udder. I'm in contact with my vet about my flock's hard, under-producing bags this year. There are so many things it could be, or I could be making it all up in my head.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 11, 2017)

I know this sounds absurdly simple, but I think the problem is that the feed this year has too much sodium in addition to protein and is causing udder edema right around parturition. And that I fed too much of it before they had lambs on the ground. Checked the udders today and they are looking really good (except Dora with her weird lumpy udder and teats of course--she has other issues entirely, but is still nursing fairly well).

Since it was a nice day, I rearranged the electric net and everyone had some field time. Though Mocha is still holed up with her new lamb in that blue shed you see in this pic.




 

 

I have a photo of her father in the exact same pose.

 
Lamb party!!

 
Puff, trying to convince me of how trustworthy he is.


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## luvmypets (Mar 11, 2017)

Need...lambs... -reaches forward-


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## mysunwolf (Mar 11, 2017)

luvmypets said:


> Need...lambs... -reaches forward-



You really, really do!! Rosie needs to hurry up!


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## luvmypets (Mar 11, 2017)

I told her its a full moon, she best get on going


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## Bruce (Mar 11, 2017)

Maybe you could sneak one of yours up and put her with Rosie


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## mysunwolf (Mar 12, 2017)

Bruce said:


> Maybe you could sneak one of yours up and put her with Rosie



Hm, not a bad plan... my ewes would probably never even notice


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## Latestarter (Mar 12, 2017)

I mean really! What a nice group of lambs there  More lambs than adults even  I'm sure they really enjoyed being out on some fresh ground. I have no idea about the sodium and feed issue. I have to plead complete ignorance there. I do hope that whatever you've determined, solves the problem(s).


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## mysunwolf (Mar 29, 2017)

Eeek it looks like I haven't posted in a while! I have no more pictures of cute lambs, which is what I know you all want. They are starting to get bigger and I am thinking of them now as "real sheep" and watching them to see what their names should be, how their personalities are, and thinking about who will make the best replacement ewes. 

Last night I separated the lambs from the moms so I could start milking! I left little Mocha's lamb out because he is really too young for these shenanigans but also I don't plan to milk her at all. No, Dora has her lumpy udder issue so she is out of the line for good, and Mocha just doesn't have much milk and is a KICKER ugh.

Milked Charcoal first and she was a dream. Has never had a collar on and has never been milked, though I have practiced touching her udder. When I clipped her to the barn wall she did get concerned because she wanted to be near her baby. Meanwhile when Ginger was clipped she started nosing around for grain right away, she remembered milking no problem! Charcoal settled down and stood still for udder cleaning. I put the grain in front of her and she inhaled it while I milked her. She was very very tight after 12 hrs of no nursing, and I could tell she was too nervous to let down all the way as well, but she gave a good pint before it turned into a trickle and I decided to let her lamb clean it up.




 

Keep in mind the babies are still hollering at this point in their overnight pen area.

Let Charcoal out of the barn. Then moved Ginger to the milking spot and clipped her in, where she continues to search for grain! I wash her udder and realize that it's not that huge, it hasn't overly filled the way Charcoal's had, still very soft which I like for milking but it concerned me a little that she wasn't producing the way she should. She's also very anemic again this year, despite worming her twice since lambing and getting her onto fresh ground. I'm considering iron supplements at this point, but we'll see. She eats her grain much slower and, as usual, tends to kick a bit with the left teat but if I milk from the back I solve the problem. She gives a solid quart before it really slows down and, again, I decide to let the babies have that last bit.

I'm just so pleased with my girls. The only other thing I could hope for would be some improved parasite resistance!! Guess that will have to come with future generations.


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## samssimonsays (Mar 29, 2017)

Wow! I can't believe I haven't gotten any notifications from your journal! Congrats on all the lambs, good luck on all the changes and I hope you are feeling better and treatment is working! That Lymes is no joking matter.... We know an entire family who suffers from it.  It is not a thing to mess around with.


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## Bruce (Mar 29, 2017)

Just because people like pictures of jumping bean lambs doesn't mean we don't also like pictures of all the animals!


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## Baymule (Mar 29, 2017)

Milking sheep! You are an inspiration and my hero!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 29, 2017)

Thank you all for being so supportive!  It's just awesome to know that there are folks reading this thing. My crazy homesteading adventure just keeps on keeping on. If the weather ever coincides with me having energy, I'll take my camera out and get some nicer photos of all the girls and the babies. We have had some beautiful spring weather here, the grass is finally growing, the birds are chirping, the parasites are blooming... 

@Baymule you are too kind! I was so desperate for milk this year, but kept having to wait on the dang dewormer withdrawal times. I certainly have sheep that would be no fun to milk. This and last year we trained all the lambs to human touch, practiced touching their teats from the first day they were in the world, got them used to following the bucket, going in the barn, and being restrained. My ewes get sweeter and calmer and more fun to milk every year. 

But I bet you could milk some of your ewes! Check which ones by putting out feed and touching all their udders, see who flinches the least  And choose the ones with twins/trips. You could even start milking when you wean, but of course you get less and production drops faster and you are locked into the milk schedule. I'm so excited that with the milk sharing this year, I could technically skip a day or two and not have to worry about mastitis (though still have to worry about production dropping).

The hardest part is actually the orifices. I have gotten used to milking ewes with short or tiny teats (though I did sell most of those even though their production was great), but if the orifices are small it takes 2-3x as long to milk and by then they've finished their grain, plus the udder gets a lot of wear (though really not any more than from the lambs). Ginger's orifices are massive, but Charcoal's orifices are pretty tiny. I'm hoping Stud comes from a long line of large-orificed ewes so that all the lambs are easier to milk!


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## norseofcourse (Mar 29, 2017)

So good to hear how things are going!  I am looking forward to milking my sheep this year again, too.  What do you use the milk for?


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## mysunwolf (Mar 30, 2017)

norseofcourse said:


> So good to hear how things are going!  I am looking forward to milking my sheep this year again, too.  What do you use the milk for?



Pretty much everything! Mostly in coffee, cereal, etc. But this year I'd like to try making some cheeses again. Going to start with ricotta and mozzarella and go from there.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 30, 2017)

Finally got out to take some nice photos today! They are all getting so big and doing so well. It's always nice to say we had a 175% lamb crop with half of them first timers, but not such a big deal when there are only 4 sheep!

Puff guarding the sheep.


Ginger with the triplets.


The white triplet ewe lamb up close.


Dora's twin ewe lambs.


Charcoal and her huge ewe lamb.


Mocha and her adorable ram lamb.


Mocha's little guy up close.


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## Baymule (Mar 30, 2017)

Your lambs are all so cute. I just love the badger faces!


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## Bruce (Mar 30, 2017)

mysunwolf said:


> It's always nice to say we had a 175% lamb crop with half of them first timers, but not such a big deal when there are only 4 sheep!


Hey, 175% is 175%!!


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## Latestarter (Mar 30, 2017)

Thanks for sharing the pics. They all look so healthy and happy!


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## CntryBoy777 (Mar 30, 2017)

Will Charcoal's lamb maintain the black wool, or will it turn to brown like hers after a shearing or 2? They really do look really good.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 2, 2017)

Milking is going well, production is improving a little every day, and my two main ewes produced 2 quarts between the 2 of them today. Woohoo!


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## mysunwolf (Apr 2, 2017)

CntryBoy777 said:


> Will Charcoal's lamb maintain the black wool, or will it turn to brown like hers after a shearing or 2? They really do look really good.



The little black lambs will fade to brown like their moms. I wish they would stay black, but the sun has other ideas  I wish my shearer would come over soon, though, it's going to get hot quickly this year.


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## Baymule (Apr 3, 2017)

2 quarts! That's awesome!


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## Mini Horses (May 23, 2017)

I'm in VA, also! 

Love your lambs.  I don't have sheep but, milk goats.  This years have 5 first year milkers that I've owned for a while.  But, been really good to milk, some resistance at first.   It is so true, imprint at birth!!!! 

I enjoy reading what others are doing -- good, bad or otherwise.   Sometimes it helps you realize you are not the only one interested in doing these things.


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## mysunwolf (May 29, 2017)

I realize I haven't updated in forever! I've been busy starting controversial threads and bothering folks in other ways  I'm good at that.

Have not been milking due to a bunch of off-farm jobs in addition to my ewes having heavy parasite loads. My best milker is basically too old to milk at 5-6 years! She was drawing herself down too much and I still can't get her much higher than a 3 on her famacha. So off the milk line she goes. And who wants to do the whole setup when you're only milking one sheep? So no milk for me.

This is Ginger, my oldest ewe at 5-6yrs and the best milker.



 

This is Dora, she's 4-5yrs and has had a few bouts of mastitis so I don't milk her, but she has produced some lovely lambs for us. She also has really interesting fleece.


 

But I am really looking forward to next spring. I'm going to breed all the ewe lambs this fall, regardless of whether or not they make weight. That will be their first "test" since I refuse to wait until they're 18+ months to breed them. Probably will sell the ones that don't do well with my program next spring or sometime thereafter. And will start milking them and see what they produce! 

Here is Charcoal's single ewe lamb, Squid Ink, aka Madame Squid. She's already made breeding weight at 90 days old. She was skittish for a while, but the last few weeks has decided that scratches are the best thing ever. Can't wait to milk her next spring.


 

Here's one of Ginger's triplets, this girl actually has no name yet. The other triplet, James, looks exactly like this girl, except has Ginger's coloring. Both of these girls should be incredible milkers, but may be a little temperamental health-wise (like their mother), and I'm still waiting to see how they perform parasite-wise. All the triplets are pretty small, something I don't like to see.


 

Oh, and this is Little Boots! Aka Lil Dog. She is the friendliest lamb but so far I see her as the poorest producer. Her sister, Snow, is a little more muscular, but both of the them have the poor feet of their mother. However, they are both very very parasite resistant, so that is a plus. Only time will tell how they will milk.


 

My new ram lamb is EF/Awassi/Lacaune crossed with Icelandic/Clun Forest/Cotswold. A true mutt who is small-ish, super hardy, stocky, awesome forager, great feet and personality, as well as decent dairy genetics. Not sure how resistant to parasites he is yet, we'll see as the summer goes on. Hopefully he'll be able to breed by this fall. I think he's going to make some beautiful crosses with my older ewes. Will be interesting to see what the crosses with the younger ewes and ewe lambs will look like.



 

I've got an awesome rotational strip grazing setup this year. It could use some more sheep right now, but I think next year when the ewe lambs are full grown it will be perfect. I use my scythe to cut a path for the electric net, then I have 3-strand electric wire as an aisleway that also electrifies the net when it's connected.

For an example of how much more forage I have using this setup... I grazed the sheep on this strip in March, mowed, grazed cattle, and today went out and the grass is up to my shoulders. Good thing the sheep are thinning it out before I get my riding mower out there, otherwise there's no way I could mow it down!


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## mysunwolf (May 29, 2017)

Oh, and we have *calves!* I didn't think I would ever have cattle again. But I really, really needed some more animals to mow down the grass this year. So purchased a big 350lb calf, and then a bottle calf to be her friend. Already looking forward to beef in fall 2018


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## Mike CHS (May 29, 2017)

Amazing how fast the grass is growing this year.  I have had to use the tractor to cut paths for our netting since the mower can't handle it.


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## Baymule (May 29, 2017)

I love your sheep, so lovely! But I have to admit that I am envious of your lush beautiful GRASS!!! I am admiring that lovely GRASS and FORAGE that is just over the rainbow-WOW! One of these days, when I grow up, I want GRASS just like THAT!!


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## Mini Horses (May 30, 2017)

Pretty sheep -- as I've said before -- but the grass is awesome!!


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## CntryBoy777 (May 30, 2017)

It all looks good!!....sorry ya are having problems with parasites, hopefully the load will decrease as summer takes over and the moisture subsides a bit.


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## mysunwolf (May 30, 2017)

Mike CHS said:


> Amazing how fast the grass is growing this year.  I have had to use the tractor to cut paths for our netting since the mower can't handle it.





Baymule said:


> I love your sheep, so lovely! But I have to admit that I am envious of your lush beautiful GRASS!!! I am admiring that lovely GRASS and FORAGE that is just over the rainbow-WOW! One of these days, when I grow up, I want GRASS just like THAT!!





Mini Horses said:


> Pretty sheep -- as I've said before -- but the grass is awesome!!



Aw you guys!! Thank you!! I love my pasture so much. I wish I had a tractor most days. But with only 3 acres it doesn't make enough financial sense. One day, I will have my 20 acre sheep farm and then I can have a tractor. 

I think this year was the perfect storm for tall grass: a wet spring, strip grazing, plenty of chicken manure (from broiler tractors), my riding mower (I can now mow behind the sheep, the grass _loves_ this), and we frost-seed almost every year. This last year was just spot-seeding some patches that my free range pigs had dug up, and now I have a good couple of sections of peas, barley, oats, and clovers. This next fall and winter we'll be sewing timothy and birdsfoot trefoil. I also hand dig thistles, and am working on identifying every single plant so that I can leave good forage and start my crusade on the bad stuff. Mowing has really helped with the horsenettle. Next year will be my "war on burdock." I just love nurturing the pasture, it feels like a unique animal of its own  I may be just a bit crazy.



CntryBoy777 said:


> It all looks good!!....sorry ya are having problems with parasites, hopefully the load will decrease as summer takes over and the moisture subsides a bit.



Thank you! And the only problem here is that the summers are wet too... and the falls. Winter is our dry season, and that's only about half the time. Worm loads usually peak in June/July, then begin to fall in September/October. Plus we haven't had a day over 90 degrees in two years  Perfect conditions to grow barber pole and tapeworms, yuck.


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## CntryBoy777 (May 30, 2017)

That sure does make it difficult on ya. The seed is pretty pricey, but if ya have any lespadeza there it would be worth nuturing and alowing them to eat it....tho, I know goats eat it, but unsure about sheep. It is a natural parasite control, not that ya wouldn't still have to treat them, but it could lessen the load for them some. I have a few patches around here that I'm hoping to spread. The ducks and chickens love it too.
I know what ya mean about tending to the pasture/field, I feel and do the same thing. I'm trying to improve the grasses and other available plants, also.


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## norseofcourse (May 30, 2017)

I have pasture envy here, too... looks wonderful!


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## Baymule (May 30, 2017)

I have a war on poison hemlock, black nightshade and pigweed. I pull my wagon and pile them in it, then toss on the burn pile. I have sand, think beach without the ocean. We got over 70 loads of wood chips from power line contractors that are composting right now. I plan on spreading them in order to add humus to the oil. We have spread them around the barn, driveway and other bare areas to help hold dust down. Yeah, I totally get where you are coming from on your pasture improvement. I am even letting a patch of Bermuda grow in my garden so I can harvest sprigs from it to plant in other areas.


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## Bruce (May 31, 2017)

My wars are burdock and stinging nettle. Nasty stuff both and they both have roots nearly to China so you can't easily pull them. Good luck with your wars!


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## Baymule (Jun 1, 2017)

Thanks for the reminder @Bruce. I also have Texas Bull Nettles. I HATE THEM!


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## mysunwolf (Jul 26, 2017)

Boy, I am terrible at keeping this thing updated  

All is going well, the grass has finally slowed down its growth with the dry spell we're having. But I've got a lot of forage stocked up, so even with the 2 calves and 14(!) sheep, there is still plenty of nice lush grass (2 acres of it, actually). 

The current pair of pigs, Bananas and Bean, are about 200lbs and having a grand ole pig time. 



 

 

The calves, Starfish and Shelley, are doing a great job cleaning up fields after the sheep.


 

And the sheep are doing well. We have had ram troubles all summer, so I'm going to pick up yet another one this week. We are cursed as far as rams go, so no surprise there.

Dora, always photogenic:


 

Dora's ewe lamb Boots:




James with Ginger, her dam.




Ginger's other ewe lamb, Peaches.


 
Charcoal's ewe lamb Squid.


 
Mocha's wether lamb, Angelface.


 

Photos of the new ram coming soon...


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## Bruce (Jul 26, 2017)

They look great @mysunwolf !


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## CntryBoy777 (Jul 26, 2017)

They sure do!!....I wish we could say "Fall is in the Air", but with heat indexes hitting 113° here, it will be a while longer...tho we are to get a break this wknd...hopefully.


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## greybeard (Jul 26, 2017)

mysunwolf said:


> Boy, I am terrible at keeping this thing updated
> 
> 
> Ginger's other ewe lamb, Peaches.
> ...


Interesting fence. I'm not familiar with that type.
What's it called?


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## mysunwolf (Jul 27, 2017)

Bruce said:


> They look great @mysunwolf !


Thank you!! 


CntryBoy777 said:


> They sure do!!....I wish we could say "Fall is in the Air", but with heat indexes hitting 113° here, it will be a while longer...tho we are to get a break this wknd...hopefully.


We are at our hottest point in the summer as well--granted, that is 89 degrees  But it's hit the point in the season where I realize that there's less than *3 MONTHS LEFT* until frost and possibly hay feeding and definitely breeding season. Plus have to get the garden crops harvested and processed and all before then so that I can work hard on processing apples at that time. Not that I _have_ to do any of this, I go to the grocery store as much as anyone else (I bought two bags of apples last week). I just really love having all those delicious canned and frozen and fermented products all next year  And someday I'll get my hard cider recipe right...



greybeard said:


> Interesting fence. I'm not familiar with that type.
> What's it called?


This is just the electric net from Premier (ElectroNet 9/35/12), I invested in a lot of it last year. I have an aisleway that use 3-strand electric twine, and I use the net to rotate cows, sheep, and pigs around, and to keep those species out of the mobile chicken coops. It usually works unless I've done something to mess it up


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## misfitmorgan (Jul 27, 2017)

I love the electric net from premier 1....that will be what we use for all of our grazing areas. We do plan on putting up a perimeter fence of wire at the new place...assuming we get it.


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## mysunwolf (Jul 28, 2017)

Hopefully I can get out and take a better photo soon, but here is Zee, our new ram (estimated about 50% EF, 50% Zwartble). He is 3 months old and around 120lbs...


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## Baymule (Jul 28, 2017)

120 pounds at 3 months old? What a big boy! Love him!


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## mysunwolf (Jul 28, 2017)

Baymule said:


> 120 pounds at 3 months old? What a big boy! Love him!



I love him too, and he is HUGE!! Granted, he is A) a single, and B) has been offered creep his whole life, but even taking those things into account it is impressive weight gain and really shows the upper limits of his genetic potential. If I ever get my flock codon tested, I'd be awfully curious to see what his results were.

I'm excited to see his lambs crossed over all 9 of my girls. He was already successfully mounting ewes when I picked him up, so hoping he will actually be fertile by the end of August and we can have our regularly scheduled breeding season.


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## Bruce (Jul 28, 2017)

Clearly not a mini breed!


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## CntryBoy777 (Jul 28, 2017)

Ooooo!!....he really looks nice.....sure hope he breaks your streak and turns into a real Champ for ya....


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## mysunwolf (Jul 29, 2017)

misfitmorgan said:


> I love the electric net from premier 1....that will be what we use for all of our grazing areas. We do plan on putting up a perimeter fence of wire at the new place...assuming we get it.



I've been following your journal, a really hope that you get it as well  Purchasing property is not something I enjoy. We have woven wire perimeter fence and it makes me feel so much more secure. Friends of ours have no fencing and just use the electric net, and have had quite a few scares!


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## mysunwolf (Jul 29, 2017)

Bruce said:


> Clearly not a mini breed!


They are definitely on the larger size of the sheep spectrum, Zwartbles rams can weigh up to 220lbs! I think this guy is on his way.



CntryBoy777 said:


> Ooooo!!....he really looks nice.....sure hope he breaks your streak and turns into a real Champ for ya....



Thank you @CntryBoy777!! Though technically a few rams ago, his "bad luck" was just that he was so flippin expensive  He turned out to be an awesome guy, but I will never pay that much for a ram again (and no I will not say how much he was ).


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## Bruce (Jul 29, 2017)

Probably in the range $1 < Ram < $1,000,000
Close enough


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 1, 2017)

Your 9 girls.....i thought you cut back to 4 girls.....sheep math


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## mysunwolf (Aug 1, 2017)

misfitmorgan said:


> Your 9 girls.....i thought you cut back to 4 girls.....sheep math



 I didn't even realize that!! Well, here's some sheep math for you all... I did have only 4 girls! But then they had 7 lambs. 5 were ewe lambs, and I had sold their sire so I could retain them. So that makes 9 girls. Plus 2 wethered ram lambs is 11 sheep in my flock. And then I bought a ram, later got a replacement for him but the breeder didn't want the original back, and then bought a third one since I didn't like the looks of the replacement. So 11 sheep plus 3 rams makes 14 sheep. And I have one "freemartin" ewe, which makes 15


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## CntryBoy777 (Aug 1, 2017)

Now that's some slick mathematics there,....I tell ya....


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## mysunwolf (Aug 6, 2017)

Well, you all are lucky in that you are the first ones to see any of the photos I take  Went out this morning and _finally_ got a good photo of Zee, the new ram. Plus the other sheep. One of my wether lambs had bottle jaw yesterday  even though I have been keeping up with eyelids every 2 weeks, I'll have to bring them up every week now that it's August. Either the cattle are not helping parasite levels at all, or the cattle are helping parasite levels quite a bit, and either way is a scary thought!

Here's Zee in all his magnificence. His conformation and temperament and coloring and hardiness are all exactly what we've been looking for, let's hope his milk production genes match up as well.





His current buddy, Molly the freemartin (this year I really plan to butcher her, really).




The rest of the flock under the pine tree, Ginger and Dora guarding the others.



Charcoal watching over the lambs like her mother used to do.


James and Peaches. If I can just get these two to survive to adulthood, they will be *stellar* milk sheep. And just look at that fantastic conformation.


Charcoal, demonstrating what I mean when I say "pear-shaped" bodies. Her and her mother have "pot-bellies" that always make them look pregnant! It's actually really helpful for cooking large, multiple lambs in there  Makes sure there is enough room for the babies and the organs. Plus her and her mother have huge hips, the lambs literally just fall out of their back ends (was like watching a wild animal give birth).



Half sisters Mocha and Charcoal. They're closely bonded and so are their mothers, Dora and Ginger.



Dora's twin ewe lambs from this year, Snow and Boots (Lil Dog).




And last but not least, my beef calves! Starfish (Star) and Shelley (Shell).


Here is the reason I'll be grass feeding and finishing my cattle (with some whole corn and barley thrown in there as well to round them out). That pasture on the right is almost 12 inches high all the way across that acre. We were well below rainfall for June and July. Since April it has been grazed by sheep, then cattle, then mowed. Then grazed by sheep, chickens, and cattle, then mowed. And here we are again. It's going for at least one more round... maybe it will even get a fourth round of grazing as stocked forage in December, if the weather predictions are correct.



Don't get too jealous now, all that rich, lush, thick forage is great and all, but it's also the reason we have unstoppable footrot and barber pole worms so...


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## CntryBoy777 (Aug 6, 2017)

They all look just wonderful and the new Ram seems to fit right in with the others....just Handsome. The cattle seem to be content and growing, too. If ya could get some lespedeza to grow there it would belp your sheep out with the parasites as it is a natural help with those parasites. It does sound as if the rotational grazing is working out for ya too. Hope the hoof problems get better soon, and some of the moisture will give ya a break.


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## Latestarter (Aug 6, 2017)

The pastures do look great, and it's really super that they rebound fast enough that you have to mow between rotations... IMHO that's a fair indicator that you need more animals! 

Any chance you can leave one pasture fallow long enough to eliminate the worms? Then confine and deworm all the animals before putting them into that pasture. Then cycle through the rest/other pastures the same until the worms are gone?

ETA, your animals look great! Where's a pic of that gorgeous pyr that protects them?


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## mysunwolf (Aug 6, 2017)

CntryBoy777 said:


> They all look just wonderful and the new Ram seems to fit right in with the others....just Handsome. The cattle seem to be content and growing, too. If ya could get some lespedeza to grow there it would belp your sheep out with the parasites as it is a natural help with those parasites. It does sound as if the rotational grazing is working out for ya too. Hope the hoof problems get better soon, and some of the moisture will give ya a break.



Thank you @CntryBoy777! I love Zee, some would say he is not "masculine" enough but I will be using him on ewe lambs so a pin head is appreciated.

Lespedeza is used around here by the highway guys to stop erosion on hillsides. I'm worried about planting it on the property in case we ever sell, don't want the pastures to look like roadsides  I may try feeding out the pellets though, I've found a company that sells them (even if they are $$$, yikes).



Latestarter said:


> The pastures do look great, and it's really super that they rebound fast enough that you have to mow between rotations... IMHO that's a fair indicator that you need more animals!
> 
> Any chance you can leave one pasture fallow long enough to eliminate the worms? Then confine and deworm all the animals before putting them into that pasture. Then cycle through the rest/other pastures the same until the worms are gone?
> 
> ETA, your animals look great! Where's a pic of that gorgeous pyr that protects them?



Hahaha I definitely need more animals!! Part of the mowing is making sure that the weeds that nothing eats (thistle and horsenettle and burdock oh my) stay down and don't seed out and make more of themselves. But the other part is that otherwise everything gets way too tall (was taller than me at one point this year, and I am 5'5'').

That's a good idea about fallow pasture and I hadn't ever thought of it like that. I'd been thinking I'd have to sell out of sheep and graze cattle. But in reality I could just mow and feed hay... I think it would have to be 120 days to get rid of all the parasites  And from what I hear, even then it's no guarantee. We used to take the ewes off the fields October through April, just because we needed that recovery time. Now that the grass is recovering so well I feel sad not using all the forage lol. Right now the fields get 90 days of rest from sheep, with cattle and mowing in between. I have begun to suspect that there might be something else at play that I'm not getting... like barber pole worms can lay dormant for 120+ days. Or I really just need new sheep  Though if you could talk to all the neighboring sheep producers, they would tell you they have the same troubles. The only sheep that seem to survive here are hair sheep, and even they don't always do well.

You make a good point, Puff hasn't made an appearance in a while! Poor guy was so sad after I butchered all his chickens, he's been sulking for over a month. Once I get the laying hens out on the field with him I think he'll feel a little better.


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## CntryBoy777 (Aug 6, 2017)

I have noticed that there are a couple of people here selling lespedeza hay in a square bale for $5/ea, so ya may can find some there as well. I have seen their ads on local craigslist, it would be worth checking out.


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## Baymule (Aug 6, 2017)

Zee is beautiful!! And yes, I am jealous of all that grass! I finally got a small patch in one of my pastures and was so proud of it. I was able to graze the sheep on it 4 days! If I can ever get grass established I'll be able to stop buying so much feed.


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## Bruce (Aug 6, 2017)

Can a flock of meat chickens make inroads on the worm population in the field??


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## mysunwolf (Aug 6, 2017)

Bruce said:


> Can a flock of meat chickens make inroads on the worm population in the field??



We used to run 400 birds a year on the property and didn't notice one lick of difference in parasite loads! The flock of 40 "wild" guineas that roams the neighborhood and roosts in my trees does more scratching of cow pies than all those chickens ever did. Right now we run a single batch of 100 meat chickens each year, and they definitely don't do much parasite wise. I think poultry don't physically consume enough grass to really ingest and kill the microscopic worms that live there. Unless I had maybe 400 birds on there at the same time--and then I'd need a larger property for sure


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## mysunwolf (Aug 11, 2017)

Took some bad photos of Puff yesterday. He is so unattached to the sheep, so very attached to chickens. Still acts out in frustrating puppy bursts, but generally my chill guardian guy.


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## mysunwolf (Aug 14, 2017)

So this time the facebook crowd got to see all the cute photos first...


 

 

 

These are piglets from the sow that I gave my neighbor. I can't remember what the boar was, but he was red. They are SO CUTE! And they like to lay in their feed while they eat it.

Big pigs have a date with the processor for the end of September, and so do all four male lambs. Culling a little early this year because I have a ton of family events in October and I think we'll need all the meat we can get!

I'm also currently incubating 60+ guinea eggs, and have 10+ keets hatched in the incubator, waiting to go out to the brooder (which is not set up yet). Since these are eggs from the community guineas, I'm hoping to repopulate the shared flock and increase our defense against ticks.


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## Mike CHS (Aug 14, 2017)

With our tick population I think we need 50 or 60 of those.


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## CntryBoy777 (Aug 14, 2017)

Oh my those piggies are so Cute!! I'm thinking about adding a colony of guineas here....I just hope the coons, possums, hawks, and owls don't do too much damage. I know I'd have to replace them along the way, but just hope it isn't devastating.


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## Baymule (Aug 14, 2017)

"Community guineas"  sounds like a pretty good idea! 

The piggies are adorable!


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## mysunwolf (Aug 15, 2017)

We already have about 40 community guineas, or we did going in to winter last year... I think they've gotten picked off and such. They reason they're community guineas: have you ever tried keeping guineas confined to just one property?  So we all just "let" them roam the 35ish acres of our 3 adjoining properties.

The tick population here is seriously reduced. I used to get them on me almost every time I went out the door, and now it's maybe a few each year. The LGDs that patrol 2 out of the 3 properties help protect the guineas from predators--otherwise, they would get picked off fairly quickly  A coop is helpful, if you can train them to go in it.


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## Baymule (Aug 15, 2017)

That makes perfect sense to me!


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## mysunwolf (Aug 24, 2017)

Breeding season is underway! On August 17th, Ziebolt went into the paddock system with *every single female on the property*. Since then, he's bred all the ewe lambs and younger ewes, but I haven't seen him mount the older ewes, nor have I seen raddle powder on their butts. We're going to switch out powder colors after about 21 days to see if he has to re-mount anyone, since he's only 4 1/2 months old! 

Here is the breakdown (I'll fill in w/photos): 
Ziebolt/Zee -- 2017 ram lamb

Ginger -- 5 yrs
Dora -- 3yrs
Charcoal -- 1.5yrs
Mocha -- 1.5yrs

James -- Ginger's 2017 lamb
Peaches -- Ginger's 2017 lamb
Snow -- Dora's 2017 lamb
Boots -- Dora's 2017 lamb
Squid -- Charcoal's 2017 lamb


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## Mike CHS (Aug 24, 2017)

We were hoping to hold off for another week but the ewes are hanging out by our ram and his nose tells him it is time.


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## Baymule (Aug 24, 2017)

Yes we want photos!!


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## CntryBoy777 (Aug 24, 2017)




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## Bruce (Aug 25, 2017)

mysunwolf said:


> Ziebolt went into the paddock system with *every single female on the property*.


Sheep speed dating???


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## Baymule (Aug 25, 2017)




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## mysunwolf (Aug 25, 2017)

Bruce said:


> Sheep speed dating???





Truthfully, I think of it more like The Bachelor. But instead of choosing just one of the ladies, he gets all of them. Are those shows just a new, even more horrible form of speed dating?


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## mysunwolf (Sep 10, 2017)

Boy things have been busy around here. I have a large amount of family in FL right now, my grandmother is in the hospital, inventory of pottery is literally almost zero, and winter is coming. My stress level is a little high right now. Then tonight I was told my new large-boned ram will create lambing complications in my fine-boned ewes, and somehow that was enough to push me over the edge into panic land  

But at least my whole property still looks really pretty?

Piglets are SO CUTE. But boy can they root. They have already torn up their 32'x32' pen to dirt. They don't get rotated to a fresh paddock for a few weeks.

  

My laying hens are so pretty! I cuddle with them all the time, like a new chicken mom. Who knew I could fall in love with chickens all over again?
   

My (weaned) bottle calf is a little rough, I'm going to do a fecal and probably worm her a few more times this fall. The older calf steals all the grain most evenings. I think we'll butcher the big one, Star, next fall, then hold onto the little one, Shell, for another 6 months to fatten her up. We'll see how they look after another full season of grazing.


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## mysunwolf (Sep 10, 2017)

Lest we forget, here are the sheep! With the pastures looking this way, I have at least enough stocked forage for everyone until the end of November. After that, we'll see.


     

Last but not least, the house dogs, since I never seem to post them. They are so perfect and well behaved that they never seem to make it into my rants


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## mysunwolf (Sep 10, 2017)

Oh, and I forgot the barn cats and their antics. This is Fred. He is a goof.

 

In addition, the guinea operation is going very poorly. I hate incubators! But we have 15 keets, so that's at least something.


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## ohiogoatgirl (Sep 10, 2017)

Really? They think the ram will make lambs that are too big? 
I have a cormo/shetland ram who is from a farm with little shetlands. High twinning rate and almost no issues with the pregnancies or lambings. Even one ewe (the year previous to me buying him) a ewe lamb got in with him and had no problems with her or her lambing either. And that farm is quite strict about not breeding ewes until their second year because they are too small. 
Not to say it doesn't happen. But from everything I have read or seen/heard from others is that the biggest thing to worry about a ram is if he is stocky and wide or wide head with a slender or small frame ewe.


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## CntryBoy777 (Sep 10, 2017)

All your animals look excellent to me...like always...and it looks like Fred is a Siamese.....great name by-the-way....and love the keets. What kind of trouble did ya have with the incubator?....I'm wanting to get some next Spring, and have thought about using an incubator to hatch some....


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## mysunwolf (Sep 10, 2017)

ohiogoatgirl said:


> Really? They think the ram will make lambs that are too big?
> I have a cormo/shetland ram who is from a farm with little shetlands. High twinning rate and almost no issues with the pregnancies or lambings. Even one ewe (the year previous to me buying him) a ewe lamb got in with him and had no problems with her or her lambing either. And that farm is quite strict about not breeding ewes until their second year because they are too small.
> Not to say it doesn't happen. But from everything I have read or seen/heard from others is that the biggest thing to worry about a ram is if he is stocky and wide or wide head with a slender or small frame ewe.



You have just saved my evening, I think I'll be able to sleep tonight now  Usually one person's opinion on the situation wouldn't sway me so much either way, but clearly I'm a little stressed  I purchased this guy for a lot of reasons, some being that he has a pin head and narrow shoulders for easier lambing. Here's hoping things work out in Jan/Feb


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## mysunwolf (Sep 10, 2017)

CntryBoy777 said:


> All your animals look excellent to me...like always...and it looks like Fred is a Siamese.....great name by-the-way....and love the keets. What kind of trouble did ya have with the incubator?....I'm wanting to get some next Spring, and have thought about using an incubator to hatch some....



Thank you @CntryBoy777, as always you've managed to make me feel good about my animals  

Fred is 1/2 siamese but got all the looks, none of the personality (or so I'm told). Sweetest, quietest, most gentle barn cat we have. Just love him. 

I borrowed 2 different incubators from different friends, and I got 1 egg to hatch out of a LOT of eggs. I don't have a really sensitive thermometer to monitor the temps, and I think the thermostats get out of whack really easily. Honestly, I would recommend watching Ideal Poultry or similar and wait until keets go on sale. In the long run, I've found it to be much less expensive to just buy the live keets than to try all this incubation nonsense!


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## Baymule (Sep 10, 2017)

Low on pottery? Do you make pottery? And your grandmother is in the hospital with a hurricane running amok? And you can't do a thing about it. Take a deep breath, hurricanes, even bad ones, fizzle out and this one will too. Your grandmother is getting cared for despite the hurricane. 

Hug your dog, hug your sheep, hug a chicken. They are great de-stressers.


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## mysunwolf (Sep 10, 2017)

Baymule said:


> Low on pottery? Do you make pottery? And your grandmother is in the hospital with a hurricane running amok? And you can't do a thing about it. Take a deep breath, hurricanes, even bad ones, fizzle out and this one will too. Your grandmother is getting cared for despite the hurricane.
> 
> Hug your dog, hug your sheep, hug a chicken. They are great de-stressers.



Oh man Bay, if one more person is kind to me I'm going to cry out of relief  THANK YOU for those words, I hugged my sheep all evening, I think I'm going to go hug my dogs now.


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## mysunwolf (Sep 10, 2017)

And yes, pottery is our living! Farm is our food. Works out kind of nicely most of the time, as long as we can keep up


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## Baymule (Sep 10, 2017)

Do you have a web site or facebook? How do you market it? 

Things will work out, they always do. Even when it seems your world has turned to crap, there is a glimmer of hope somewhere in there. Look for it, find it and hold it tight. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better, but it always gets better.


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## ohiogoatgirl (Sep 10, 2017)

mysunwolf said:


> You have just saved my evening, I think I'll be able to sleep tonight now  Usually one person's opinion on the situation wouldn't sway me so much either way, but clearly I'm a little stressed  I purchased this guy for a lot of reasons, some being that he has a pin head and narrow shoulders for easier lambing. Here's hoping things work out in Jan/Feb



Yeah I would try not to worry about it right now. He isn't built like meat brick and giant head  I wouldn't see any reason to think that unless there was "probable cause" with his parentage and you seem to have fairly well thought that over with his body type and all.


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## mysunwolf (Sep 11, 2017)

Baymule said:


> Do you have a web site or facebook? How do you market it?
> 
> Things will work out, they always do. Even when it seems your world has turned to crap, there is a glimmer of hope somewhere in there. Look for it, find it and hold it tight. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better, but it always gets better.



All this was sorely needed! Thank you  

Here is the website. We market everywhere, hence why we can't keep up. We had to take online sales down because we ran out of stuff  My spouse goes to shows all over the east coast, and I deliver to galleries within a few hours drive. The crazy life of artists


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## CntryBoy777 (Sep 11, 2017)

A better way to look at it is, if you are out of stock, then it is obviously selling.....and, if it is your "Living", then your inventory isn't just sitting and collecting dust....hoping to be sold. That sounds like a good thing to me, and by-the-way, after seeing your work I can totally understand why....it is just Beautiful and that should give ya plenty of incentive to "Supply the Market".....


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## Baymule (Sep 11, 2017)

BEAUTIFUL WORK!!! Both of you are truly gifted. How wonderful it is that you can follow your passion and make it your work and living. You both are blessed. 

On a trip to north Alabama some years back to visit my husbands mother, we went to see a 9nth generation potter. He dug his clay and milled it using a mule (walking in a circle) driven stone mill. He had a wood fired kiln. He fired the kiln and let it cool for a week or two before opening it. It was very fascinating. We had him make us a face jug on the spot and he later shipped it to us. It is in a box somewhere in the portable building-I really need to go find it!

I just looked him up and he has passed away, but 2 of his sons continue the family tradition.

https://www.jerrybrownpottery.com/


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## mysunwolf (Sep 11, 2017)

Baymule said:


> BEAUTIFUL WORK!!! Both of you are truly gifted. How wonderful it is that you can follow your passion and make it your work and living. You both are blessed.
> 
> On a trip to north Alabama some years back to visit my husbands mother, we went to see a 9nth generation potter. He dug his clay and milled it using a mule (walking in a circle) driven stone mill. He had a wood fired kiln. He fired the kiln and let it cool for a week or two before opening it. It was very fascinating. We had him make us a face jug on the spot and he later shipped it to us. It is in a box somewhere in the portable building-I really need to go find it!
> 
> ...



Thank you!! I live every day sure that there's no way we'll make a living doing this. And every month we manage to pay the bills and save up a little more for emergencies and surprises. Winters are tough, but I try to preserve food all summer so that that's taken care of. 

What an incredible experience you had seeing that potter!! I have always wanted to dig my own clay--maybe someday, when we purchase that magical dream property. Love the fact that he used a mule to mill too!! The face jugs are something I admire everywhere I go, they're one of my favorite pottery traditions--looks like Jerry Brown Pottery has a bunch of these, they're just incredible. There is so much traditional pottery just off the mountains, the red clay staining the soil to the south. I love to hear stories of old pottery families.


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## mysunwolf (Sep 11, 2017)

CntryBoy777 said:


> A better way to look at it is, if you are out of stock, then it is obviously selling.....and, if it is your "Living", then your inventory isn't just sitting and collecting dust....hoping to be sold. That sounds like a good thing to me, and by-the-way, after seeing your work I can totally understand why....it is just Beautiful and that should give ya plenty of incentive to "Supply the Market".....



 Well thank you! A curse and a blessing, being sold out all the time.


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## Bruce (Sep 11, 2017)

mysunwolf said:


> Oh, and I forgot the barn cats and their antics. This is Fred. He is a goof.


I don't think most barn cats look like Siamese! Don't tell him he is supposed to be a spoiled house cat.



mysunwolf said:


> I have always wanted to dig my own clay--maybe someday


I have LOTS of clay, come dig it out  Of course it probably isn't the right kind of clay for pottery. Lots of nice designs, the patterned soap dishes especially caught my eye.


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## Latestarter (Sep 11, 2017)

Echoing all the others... beautiful animals, beautiful art work, and glad you mind has been put somewhat at ease.   You're doing great!


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## mysunwolf (Oct 13, 2017)

Not a whole lot new here, but wanted to post some updates.

Big pigs have become bacon! Some very, very tasty bacon. Haven't tried the other cuts yet, but they look really good.

 

Little pigs are struggling to eat all the household scraps. The family pressed cider last week and so we have been dumping the pulp to them for days and days! "Better as Bacon" has become our favorite phrase for getting rid of any unwanted food scraps. Going to press some more apples next week.

I am pretty sure the sheep have all been bred now... maybe  I hope all the action last month took. I think that means I can re-integrate Zee with the other rams, and then add them all back to the main flock for easier management. Maybe.

Little calf has had pneumonia twice  My vet says it's going around, and/or that she may not have gotten as much colostrum as she should have. She's also severely underweight. I put her in the paddock that has a barn where she can go in bad weather, and she has sheep friends instead of cow friends. I'm running big calf in the field behind the sheep, and she is getting FAT just on grass.

Finished my A-frame chicken coop today, hopefully will move it and the chickens out onto the field soon. 
 

The popcorn I grew has dried and successfully pops, and boy is it good. Got pickles to last another 2 years, and pickled beets. Did not get enough green beans canned this year. Going to can some of this cider. Leaves are starting to turn colors here, but the weather has been warm and rainy, meaning the grass will hold up through December!


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## Mike CHS (Oct 13, 2017)

Those pigs look super healthy and I like that shelter idea.


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## Baymule (Oct 13, 2017)

I recently built a couple of A frame chicken tractors for growing out chicks. They sure are handy! 

Your pigs sure are pretty. What do they weigh when you slaughter them?


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## mysunwolf (Oct 13, 2017)

Mike CHS said:


> Those pigs look super healthy and I like that shelter idea.





Baymule said:


> I recently built a couple of A frame chicken tractors for growing out chicks. They sure are handy!
> 
> Your pigs sure are pretty. What do they weigh when you slaughter them?



Thanks all, I love raising pretty pigs. These ended up a little small, maybe 225lbs or so live. I prefer at least 250-300lbs live.

Also love the A-frames. I've never built one this big with these kinds of materials before. Primary objective: heavy enough that it can't blow away.


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## mysunwolf (Oct 28, 2017)

Been busy here with pottery, and the weather has been all over the place. Some mornings it's 28 and frosty, others it's 55 and balmy. The grass is very confused! I'm even more excited about my regenerative grazing plans for the property now that winter is coming on. I can see where I've done things wrong and where I've done things right and how to improve for next year (hint: raise more chickens is a big improver!). And went out and took a bunch of photos on this warm, drizzly day.

Down to 11 guineas in the fields (3 froze at various points during bad weather the last few weeks). I have 5 more in the brooder still, off the lamp, but scared to put them out in the field in case the weather turns bad again. So they sit in the brooder, making more poop and spilling good gamebird feed everywhere!

 

Puff napping on the stairs.
 

Meghan caught a fat house mouse and devoured the whole thing, starting with the head.
  

Photos of the A-frame on the field! The sheep broke in and ate all the chicken feed yesterday right before I had to leave for a Drs appt  So I put out baking soda for bloat and dolomite for copper and said "good luck." They were fine yesterday evening and fine today, so hopefully that's the end of that. Better latch will go on the door soon, plus I'll plan to only feed the chickens scratch when the sheep are in that particular field. 
  

Just some photos of the basic "strip grazing" setup, plus some happy sheeps.
  

And some photos of my little butterballs.


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## Latestarter (Oct 28, 2017)

Gosh... look at all that table meat on the hoof/foot! I know there's some beef hiding in and around there someplace too... Wouldn't that make a great BBQ? Beef/chicken/pork/lamb...   Lookin' good there!


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## Baymule (Oct 28, 2017)

55 is balmy? Girl, down here we call that WINTER. 

Love your pastures! So beautiful! What lovely, healthy animals you have. Your hard work is showing.


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## Bruce (Oct 28, 2017)

And down your way it is closer to freezing! We had 60 something today, will be mid 50s overnight. I've seen quite a few Texas plates lately, I guess those are the ones that figured out where the warmer fall weather is


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## Baymule (Oct 28, 2017)

It is freezing!


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## Baymule (Oct 28, 2017)

How is your grandmother? You were so worried about her being in the hospital with a hurricane roaring in.


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## mysunwolf (Oct 29, 2017)

Latestarter said:


> Gosh... look at all that table meat on the hoof/foot! I know there's some beef hiding in and around there someplace too... Wouldn't that make a great BBQ? Beef/chicken/pork/lamb...   Lookin' good there!



How'd you know I go out and stare at the field and drool  thinking of all the meat!  I talk about cuts to family and friends while the animals are still alive and standing right in front of them, they don't usually appreciate it... so I cross them off the BBQ list


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## mysunwolf (Oct 29, 2017)

Baymule said:


> 55 is balmy? Girl, down here we call that WINTER.
> 
> Love your pastures! So beautiful! What lovely, healthy animals you have. Your hard work is showing.



Whaaaaatt? 55 IS balmy! Winter is COLD! 

@Bruce we are having colder weather than usual too, and it's driving a lot of locals up... north?? My sister lives in Chicago and they have been consistently warmer than us all season. And here I thought Virginia and I had an agreement about our winters that we would NEVER get colder than Chicago.


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## mysunwolf (Oct 29, 2017)

Baymule said:


> How is your grandmother? You were so worried about her being in the hospital with a hurricane roaring in.



Hey, thank you for asking. Hurricane went around their FL house with zero damage. My gram had a bit of a rocky recovery period for about a month where we weren't sure if they were going to have to do more surgery. They are snowbirds and stay down the road from me during the summers and go back down to FL for the winters, so they had to get her well enough to travel. Now she is back home to FL and pretty much back to herself--walking 1/2 mile every day and cooking almost all the meals for her and grandpa! She is 89, so these are big achievements. And they're happy to be back where it's not so cold


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## Baymule (Oct 29, 2017)

That is good news. You are blessed to have them live so close to you during the summers. How wonderful that they both are in such good health and spirits!


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## Bruce (Oct 29, 2017)

mysunwolf said:


> And here I thought Virginia and I had an agreement about our winters that we would NEVER get colder than Chicago.


One year on a January day, it was warmer here than at my Mother's house south of Los Angeles. Of course that was during the January thaw and it was unusually warm, high 50's if I recall.


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## mysunwolf (Dec 20, 2017)

All right folks, I am horrible at updating this thing, lurking is much more fun! And I haven't gotten out to take any good photos in a while. The holidays was a mess of cleaning and cooking and more cleaning and they're still not over yet. The "spending money on presents" thing is not happening much this year, if money is to be spent it's going towards new tires, home improvements, farm equipment. Though we did buy some FL citrus for friends!

The weather here is still balmy y'all  60 degrees today and overcast. Though it'll be in the teens by the end of the week.

I bought two more pigs  from the same litter as the first two. They are smaller but just as sweet and adorable. 




 

The sheep were able to graze the fields up until December 12th! I was so proud of the rotation. We'll see what happens when I have more full-grown ewes on it next season.

Now they're on the winter lot, bored and eating round hay, nom nom nom.



 

The calves and the rams are together in a pen in the back yard, where hopefully I will till all the manure and hay in and grow a garden in the spring.

I took 4 sheep to butcher on Monday, including Molly! She has finally left the property after all this time of not breeding! I can't wait for those tasty mutton chops  Also took down Luc, my first ram I purchased this season who was an amazing little guy, despite his poor growth rate, but after shearing we discovered that he had a small hunch in his spine, so off to butcher he went. The other two to go were Angel and Twisted, my sweet little wethers  I'm really really upset about butchering these guys, but the best comfort will be when the meat comes back. We are planning to sell lamb at the farmers market again next year, so we took them to a USDA place. 

That's about all going on... things have quieted down a bit now that winter is really here. Excited to spend a nice quiet holiday this year with our family of 3 (me, spouse, spouse's mom). 

Yesterday I made this crock pot pork roast using pork shanks, hope to make many more dishes like this this winter.


 

Happy Christmas to all you BYHers!


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## Latestarter (Dec 20, 2017)

I bet those pork shanks were wonderful! Love me some pork! Your animals look great! Glad you're getting some down time over the holidays. I completely understand tight money...


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## CntryBoy777 (Dec 20, 2017)

The shanks look really good and it sounds like winter prep is in full swing. Less to feed and water during the cold and meat in the freezer is certainly a plus....and allows some room for others to hang around, grow, and replace the meat in the freezer too....or sell. Is the pottery business still keeping ya busy? We don't celebrate the holidays, so we don't have to endure the hoopla.....


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## mysunwolf (Dec 20, 2017)

Latestarter said:


> I bet those pork shanks were wonderful! Love me some pork! Your animals look great! Glad you're getting some down time over the holidays. I completely understand tight money...



Yep, and we ate it again for lunch today! Plus pork chops for dinner, we're eating good right now. Money is not bad, but tighter this year for sure.



CntryBoy777 said:


> The shanks look really good and it sounds like winter prep is in full swing. Less to feed and water during the cold and meat in the freezer is certainly a plus....and allows some room for others to hang around, grow, and replace the meat in the freezer too....or sell. Is the pottery business still keeping ya busy? We don't celebrate the holidays, so we don't have to endure the hoopla.....



I am so glad not to have even more mouths to feed! The calves already eat more than I realized. We have been making pottery like mad the last few months, and finally slowed down for the holidays. I fired the last kiln of the year on Sunday! 

Heck, it must be kind of nice not to have to endure all the craziness that is the holidays... plus all the commercialization and money spending. Have you ever celebrated them?


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## CntryBoy777 (Dec 20, 2017)

Yeh, stopped in '99....tho, it was difficult to convince others of the fact....so, I resorted to hand-made gifts for a select few and that subsided in '05 after the 1st heart attack. It was then that my Biblical views changed and have withdrawn from any participation since.....my wife still gives the grandkids gifts, but they are from her and not both of us. I don't push or force my beliefs on others, but hold to them despite others....


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## mysunwolf (Dec 26, 2017)

We had a scare over Christmas with Charcoal, my favorite ewe. Her upper respiratory infection came back and she went off grain. So we gave her Zactran (vet loves this for pneumonia and other respiratory stuff) and today she finally perked up again. These sheep sure like to scare me.

Took a quick photo of Charcoal lined up with the others eating off the round bale after enjoying her grain with everyone today. So glad to have her back to herself, she is more like a pet... they all are, at this point.


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## Bruce (Dec 26, 2017)

Whew, glad you caught that @mysunwolf


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## CntryBoy777 (Dec 26, 2017)

Yeh, we all get attached to certain ones, especially....but, it is attentive care that makes the differences when something changes in their behavior....


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## mysunwolf (Dec 26, 2017)

I was so glad to have caught it!! I know we're not really supposed to get attached to the meat animals, but I do let myself get attached to the breeding ewes and it hurts me most times.

Charcoal will come up to me in the field when I gently snap my fingers and call to her. She likes hugs and scratches and pets. She's like a big dog, and a great milker to boot. So when she didn't come up to me for some love, and then didn't come for grain, I figured there was something very wrong. I am such a baby about these sheep, they really tug the heartstrings


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## CntryBoy777 (Dec 26, 2017)

I understand the emotions and the closeness.....certainly don't mean to sound cold-hearted or calluse, but when the animal is destined for meat, then once the hide is removed they are all the same.....and when done at a younger age they are at the peak of healthiness and it sure beats finding them dead in a pasture of some sort of disease that wasn't foreseen. It truly is difficult for some to see go, but the flip-side to it is knowing they didn't suffer and are providing ya with sustinance....


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## Baymule (Dec 26, 2017)

We all have our favorites!


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## mysunwolf (Jan 21, 2018)

So as usual, it's been a while. Exciting things are finally starting to happen, I can *feel* spring just around the corner.

I've been helping my neighbor with his second lambing and it's going pretty well, although we did lose 1 female and I feel responsible for that  She was born on the concrete and then crawled through a gate to more concrete when temps were in the teens. Mom couldn't lick her off properly of course, and by the time I got there she was moved to a pen. Her mouth was warm and I helped her nurse quite a few times that day, but the next day she was cold and fading fast. I gave the lamb to my other sheep neighbor and asked them to try and save it, but she was already too far gone. Should have tubed her that first day. Ah well, lessons.

Another few moms lambed and all went well, then a mom had twins and rejected one the second day. I can't decide whether it was because I moved her from her placenta, touched the lamb too much, the lamb was weak, or the mom was still sick with pneumonia. But I brought both babies to my house to warm up and bottle feed overnight, made sure mom had milk, and returned the boy to her in the morning.

The female is now my house lamb


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## mysunwolf (Jan 21, 2018)

The cows and pigs are doing well, but the pens are pure MUD. I hate mud.

Starfish and Shelley, our lovely baldies:


 


 

Our pigs Maple, Bacon, Tater, and Chip (cause, you know, you can never have too much pork):


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## mysunwolf (Jan 21, 2018)

And my favorite part, the SHEEP!

Charcoal is pregnant with a Zwarbles/East Friesian/Cotswold baby! I think she's the only one that my young ram was able to succeed with. We'll know for sure about the other ewes by March 9th, that's the birth date for when I switched rams. But Charcoal is 100% pregnant and probably due on February 3rd. Can't wait for my share of lambs!





Charcoal's daughter from 2017, Squid (~50% EF, ~25% Cotswold):


 

Charcoal's mother and Squid's grandmother, Ginger:


 

Ginger's lamb from 2017, James (~70% EF):


 

Dora:


 

Dora's daughter from 2017, Boots:


 

Dora's 2017 lamb, Boots (50% EF), with Dora's 2016 lamb, Mocha:


 

Dora's 2017 lamb, Snow (50% EF):


 

Dora's 2017 lamb, Snow (50% EF), with Ginger's 2017 lamb, Peaches (~70% EF):


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## Bruce (Jan 21, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


>


That is SO Picture of the Week worthy!!!


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## mysunwolf (Jan 21, 2018)

Bruce said:


> That is SO Picture of the Week worthy!!!



Thank you! Everyone loves the lambie on the couch with pups  She's currently racing around the room trying to get the (old) dogs to play with her.


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## Mike CHS (Jan 21, 2018)

I agree with Bruce that you should submit that for the nomination.


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## CntryBoy777 (Jan 21, 2018)

Great pics of some great animals!!.....


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## Baymule (Jan 21, 2018)

Your pigs look lovely! They are so easy to raise and sure fill the freezer up! The lamb is precious, love the picture.


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## Latestarter (Jan 21, 2018)

Nice to have some friendly dogs to keep one warm while resting on the living room sofa!   Everyone needs one of those there house sheep!


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## mysunwolf (Jan 22, 2018)

Thanks for all the love for the critters, baby lamb has been a huge hit  She is around here as well. I'm going to have to buy some bigger diapers! 

Ooh, and before I forget, a few updates from earlier in the year, and the MEAT!

In November we grazed the sheep on the side of our gravel road. It was okay, though the sheep were terrified of vehicles (I don't drive a lot in the field when the sheep are in there) and I became concerned that they were going to break through the net. Or that someone was going to walk away with the fence charger.




 

We've had some cold days this year, horribly cold with windchills below zero and all. Puff is always happy to curl up in the coldest, windiest spot on the farm as long as he has his buddy Tangerine (not my cat, but I guess she is now).



 

Plus, in late December, we picked up the meat from the new butcher and they did a fantastic job!! The lambs I took in were still a little young and small, but the butcher managed to make the cuts look really incredible. Molly was the perfect size for us, and since no one seems interested in buying mutton we will be consuming her ourselves  Her meat has a deep richness, while still being as tender as lamb. Here are the loin chops, to get a better idea of how amazing her meat is and how great my new butcher is:


 

Plus, these folks at the slaughterhouse did not grind all my legs of lamb like the other one did (TWO YEARS IN A ROW). In fact, they kept out exactly the number of legs I requested and cut and packaged them to perfection. If anyone lives around Southwest VA, mid VA, south WV and needs a good USDA butcher let me know.


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## Baymule (Jan 22, 2018)

We are fortunate to have two good slaughter houses near to us. One is owned by Mennonites, the other is also family owned, but USDA inspected. Both are good. There is nothing like your own meat that you raised. We sold a half pig in November, they are already asking for a_ whole_ pig. LOL


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## mysunwolf (Jan 27, 2018)

Baymule said:


> We are fortunate to have two good slaughter houses near to us. One is owned by Mennonites, the other is also family owned, but USDA inspected. Both are good. There is nothing like your own meat that you raised. We sold a half pig in November, they are already asking for a_ whole_ pig. LOL



Honestly am really jealous of people with good slaughterhouses near them. Somehow where we settled they are just few and far between. 

It is actually really expensive to raise pigs and chickens for the table, compared to the grocery store, but you're right that having our own meat is worth it!


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## mysunwolf (Jan 27, 2018)

I went over to my neighbor's farm one morning last week to feed and check on everyone, and the ewe with pneumonia was dead in her jug w/the male. This is the same mom that had rejected her female lamb just after they were born. So I pulled the male too, and now have two bottle lambs in the house.

The male is still pretty scared of people, but he's coming around. When they have energy they run around the house in circles, chewing on things and playing lamb races. When they're tired they sleep cuddled together in front of the heat vents. We are going through a LOT of diapers, and the female still has nasty, runny poop. We're waiting on a culture of the fecal to see if it's salmonella, giardia, crypto, or maybe just sensitivity to the dumor replacer. Probably not ecoli or she'd be dead. The male's poop was fine because he was on mom for about a week, but since being on the replacer has taken a turn for the worse. We are doing electrolytes in between feedings, and probios and yogurt in the replacer.

On my farm, all the animals are doing really well with winter. We have had a respite from our crazy cold temps, and I've enjoyed not having to constantly thaw waterers. The health testing for my flock came back negative again for Johnes, OPP, CL, brucellosis. And it came back positive for pregnancy!! Every single ewe is bred. That means I don't have to worry about trying to put the rams back in with them this breeding season.

It also means that we are indeed set for breeding. The first date is Charcoal on 2/3/18, then Squid on 2/25/18. After that it's going to be really murky since we had all the rams running together and the ewes were standing even though some of them they were already bred (let this be a lesson for those of us who always say "ewes won't stand for the ram if they're bred," it's a lie).


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## CntryBoy777 (Jan 27, 2018)

Sorry for the loss and struggles....
Good news on the test results and after our week of dealing with toting water, I'm sure glad ya are having a reprieve from it....certainly not any fun at all.


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## Baymule (Jan 27, 2018)

Having endured a few days of bucket toting, I can say that I am glad I don't have to put up with that all winter! Congrats on having all the ewes bred and a clean bill of health. Sorry about losing the ewe and I hope you can get the lambs eating and pooping right.


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## mysunwolf (Jan 27, 2018)

Baymule said:


> Having endured a few days of bucket toting, I can say that I am glad I don't have to put up with that all winter! Congrats on having all the ewes bred and a clean bill of health. Sorry about losing the ewe and I hope you can get the lambs eating and pooping right.





CntryBoy777 said:


> Sorry for the loss and struggles....
> Good news on the test results and after our week of dealing with toting water, I'm sure glad ya are having a reprieve from it....certainly not any fun at all.



Thank you both  it's not my ewe that died but it still hurts as I just started helping out with this flock a few weeks ago (and of course I now have the labor of caring for the orphan lambs). Two already had frothy pneumonia when I came in, and one had to be put down last week. It's a miracle this other girl survived as long as she did. Hopefully with a solid vaccination  and worming program, plus working the flock on a schedule for check-ups, this farm won't have as many problems as they had in the past. Actually the main problems are coyotes and dogs, but they are not willing to get a guard dog as of right now for fear of being able to keep it home and/or it turning on the sheep.

How did you know?! I am so sick of carrying water!  This is the worst winter since we moved here in 2012. The only upside is keeping up my arm strength through winter


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## Bruce (Jan 27, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> The only upside is keeping up my arm strength through winter


There is always an "up side" right?


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## Latestarter (Jan 27, 2018)

Sorry you have to deal with the neighbor's dead animals and problems. It's generally enough just dealing with one's own problems. Start out by stating I am just curious and know nothing... Have you considered that the replacer may be causing the scours? Is it soy based? I ask because a lot of folks with goats have commented that it's better to just use store bought whole cow's milk over replacer. Hope the lambs both get "right" and thrive. 

Congrats on the clean test results and the pregnancy verification. Gotta be a huge relief for you. Get yourself ready for a busy spring!


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## mysunwolf (Jan 27, 2018)

Bruce said:


> There is always an "up side" right?



Oh yeah! Last year I advertised free gym memberships on Facebook, but no one came 



Latestarter said:


> Sorry you have to deal with the neighbor's dead animals and problems. It's generally enough just dealing with one's own problems. Start out by stating I am just curious and know nothing... Have you considered that the replacer may be causing the scours? Is it soy based? I ask because a lot of folks with goats have commented that it's better to just use store bought whole cow's milk over replacer. Hope the lambs both get "right" and thrive.
> 
> Congrats on the clean test results and the pregnancy verification. Gotta be a huge relief for you. Get yourself ready for a busy spring!



I've definitely thought about blaming the replacer, but it's all milk based, no soy, so I'm not sure. It's the Dumor (TSC brand) Lamb Replacer. I have raised two batches of bummers on this stuff in the past and can't say I haven't had any problems, but all the lambs grew and were generally okay on it before. I think this little lamb may not have gotten colostrum--neighbors farm was trying to be hands off and I was trying to work with them on this, while trying to explain that sheep are not exactly hands off. Hence why I'm so worried about bacterial issues. The male is still _mostly_ solid. 

I'm thrilled for our personal lambing to happen. We only have 9 ewes this year, but we're anticipating 13 lambs hitting the ground over the next 2 months (5 first timers and 4 experienced ewes). Can't wait for milk in March too!


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## Bruce (Jan 28, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> Oh yeah! Last year I advertised free gym memberships on Facebook, but no one came


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## mysunwolf (Jan 30, 2018)

Fecal from the bottle baby FINALLY came back today as positive for E coli  but negative for everything else. Since she has it, I'm guessing her brother who sleeps in the same crate has it as well--his poop is mostly solid but becomes runnier every day. We have been doing probios and electrolytes for over a week and the poop hasn't improved, so I'll pick up a better antibiotic (not penicillin) tomorrow at the vet. I'm a little ticked that I submitted the fecal to the vet last Thursday morning and it just came back this afternoon... because meanwhile my little bottle lamb was and is scouring like crazy. But they did have to send it away to a lab for culturing. Grateful that I'm not footing the bill.

Luckily the lambs are still full of energy. Finally got the male banded so he is eating a little less from the pain, poor guy. The female has started headbutting and mounting him just to prove how impressive she is. We can't seem to get them down to 3x a day feedings even though they are 2 weeks old, so they are still being fed 4x a day. They are also chewing on everything, mostly power cords(!) and junk mail, and me. We are not very baby-proofed here, but we are trying.

My neighbor is done lambing the Hog Islands as of this morning! The last ewe had twin boys, one that was 6-8lbs and one that was 3-4lbs, the tiniest lamb I've ever seen. I almost pulled him today because the temps are below 20 with bad wind chills. But he was nursing and active and behaving just like his bigger brother, so he gets to stay but in the jug with mom and with active monitoring around the clock. I think he is the result of a pinched cord, so just plain bad luck.

I think we'll wait a week and then put the sheep into the far field. Just hoping the coyotes don't eat all of our hard work


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## CntryBoy777 (Jan 30, 2018)

....oh the joys of animal ownership....and a big welcomed Thanks the neighbor should have for your willingness to help....I'd take ya to a steak dinner....or whatever ya had a hankering for.....


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## Baymule (Jan 30, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> I think we'll wait a week and then put the sheep into the far field. Just hoping the coyotes don't eat all of our hard work



You need LGD's  

For the e coli, what about a mix of apple cider vinegar and honey, diluted with water? It's my go-to for intestinal upsets and even food poisoning.


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## mysunwolf (Jan 31, 2018)

CntryBoy777 said:


> ....oh the joys of animal ownership....and a big welcomed Thanks the neighbor should have for your willingness to help....I'd take ya to a steak dinner....or whatever ya had a hankering for.....



Ha, I agree! Steak dinner!

He has been paying me in hay, even though I tried to refuse, so I'll take that.


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## mysunwolf (Jan 31, 2018)

Baymule said:


> You need LGD's
> 
> For the e coli, what about a mix of apple cider vinegar and honey, diluted with water? It's my go-to for intestinal upsets and even food poisoning.



I know, I have been trying to persuade them. They (he and his wife) adopted two anatolian mixes from a rescue a few years ago when they were first getting back into cattle and into sheep. Mostly those dogs were hiking buddies and protection for the farm and property from bears and coyotes. But one day as they were walking the dogs near the sheep field, the dogs took off after the ewes and began slaughtering them. They only lost a few, but I think they were pretty scarred having watched their own dogs do that to the stock. I have talked to them multiple times about adopting puppies from good stock and training (and volunteered to do it), or about paying a little more and bringing in a proven adult guardian--not just some mixes from the shelter who have probably never even seen a sheep. But so far I can't get them to come around.

Very interesting about ACV/honey! I've been scared to do anything other than yogurt for fear of making it worse, but I don't see how that could hurt. I'll try it some today.


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## Baymule (Jan 31, 2018)

I mix half ACV and half honey, then dilute with water. It works for me!

Too bad about their dogs. A couple of good dogs would make all the difference in the world to them.


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## Bruce (Jan 31, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> He has been paying me in hay, even though I tried to refuse, so I'll take that.


Never turn down someone's offer to thank you with something useful - item or help. It is an insult  Obviously you weren't doing it expecting a "reward" but a person might not ask for help when they need it if they think you are turning them into a charity case when they DO have something to give back but you won't take it.


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## mysunwolf (Jan 31, 2018)

Bruce said:


> Never turn down someone's offer to thank you with something useful - item or help. It is an insult  Obviously you weren't doing it expecting a "reward" but a person might not ask for help when they need it if they think you are turning them into a charity case when they DO have something to give back but you won't take it.



This would be EXCELLENT advice, if this particular neighbor didn't own half the hills around my property and beyond so he is not in danger of becoming one of my charity cases  But point is taken.

Actually, I am really bad about that particular thing. I just want to do kind things for people and get nothing in return, I honestly had never thought about how that would classify it as charity for most people. Now I feel pretty naive


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## CntryBoy777 (Jan 31, 2018)

It is difficult to become a good "Receiver" when your thoughts and actions are "Giving" driven....I know cause I'm that way and it is difficult to accept another's kindness and thanks, when ya are just doing what ya do.....I didn't learn until I was in my 50s...so, don't be too hard on yourself.....


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## Bruce (Jan 31, 2018)

Charity doesn't always mean money  The sort of thing I'm thinking about is non cash. I pay Al down the road when he mows my field, it is a hired job, not a favor.

I brought it up because my neighbor across the road is one of those "I'll do for you but you can't do for me" types. If I'm always on the receiving end and he's always on the giving end because he won't let me reciprocate, I become a "charity case" in my mind.  

I don't feel a need to "keep score" and be equal but I do want it to be "I'll help you when you need help and you'll help me when I need help". Some things just take 2 people!! He has really bad shoulders, there are things he probably shouldn't do with help that he does by himself. I'm home pretty much all day every day, what is 10 minutes of my time? NOTHING!

I did manage to sneak my way in to help when he and a friend were having trouble getting a junk car onto a trailer. So junky in fact that the engine was dropping out and catching on the end of the trailer.


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## Baymule (Jan 31, 2018)

True. True. Sometimes you have to be the receiver instead of the giver. if you deny someone's gift, then you rob them of their blessings. Listen, feel and pay attention to all your senses, you will know when you need to be the receiver, that someone else has the satisfaction of giving, no matter how large or small the gift. 

We had a large furniture store. We delivered new furniture and took away the old furniture. if it was pretty nice, we held it in the back room to give away. Sometimes people's house burned and we were able to give them what we had. Sometimes people were just so desperately poor and didn't even have a bed to sleep in. Sometimes we gave away brand new furniture to people who had nothing. We gave some furniture to one little lady who lived in the Senior apartments and delivered it to her, several times. Miss Mary would walk to the doughnut shop and buy us a box of day old doughnuts. It was a sacrifice for her, she was very poor. Not once did I tell her not to do that. She was proud to do something nice for us and I would not take that away from her. For all the giving we did, sometimes it was time to receive.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 1, 2018)

All of your advice means so much to me, no one has ever explained these things to me outright before. I honestly was taught that how much money someone had--perceived wealth, at least--dictated if you could give to them or not, accept their gifts or not, and also who they could give to and receive from. Maybe this is a city mentality. Since moving to the country I have had to learn a whole different culture and I _love it_, I would never live anywhere else. But I am still learning things daily about country culture, and honestly Appalachian culture, because it's so distinct.

Maybe it's not just country culture, maybe it's something else, because I see a lot of people judge someone else's wealth and decide what is and what isn't theirs to give. That doesn't seem right at all now that I spell it out.

Thanks @CntryBoy777 that makes me feel like I've got a lot of time to learn! At least, oh, 20 yrs or so 

@Bruce honestly this happens to me with a lot of my neighbors. Of course just because I'm home almost all the time doesn't mean I'm not working (I usually am, except when I'm bumming around BYH ). But I always tell them that I really truly would like to come over and help out, even when they don't *need* it. Every now and then they take me up on. Sometimes I have to invite myself over to help out and then I worry I'm forcing my presence on them, and/or that I won't be much help anyways. 

@Baymule I love that furniture store story, perfect illustration of something that I see so many times in my community. A whole lot of people that I see would not have accepted her doughnuts. A lot of people in Miss Mary's position would have left the doughnuts anyway, another important action as a giver that I'm still learning.


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## Bruce (Feb 1, 2018)

It can be difficult to know if someone is working on something and COULD use help or they are fine just beating on it a bit. I'll err on the side of being "less helpful".


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## Mike CHS (Feb 1, 2018)

Most of our neighbors will offer if they are out and about and most of us have no problem saying No Thanks if we don't need it.  I'm not bashful about accepting help either but there are some things I would rather do myself since I can keep my own pace.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 9, 2018)

Well we have two lambs, I've been bad about posting! Charcoal lambed a few days ago, one male and one female, both from Zee. She outright rejected the white female and I had zero success trying to get her interested. (I'm going to kill her, possibly literally.) So we are milking Charcoal out and feeding it to our new house lamb  Though the male keeps stealing all of the milk and leaving very little for me to milk out for sister. Tonight he is inside as well, and we'll milk mom in the morning and see if we can't get a full day's rations for the female. I have Pipestone milk replacer on order but until then I'd like her to be on her mom's milk since she is doing so incredibly well. Growing good and perfect poop.

Here are my bad phone photos, I'll have to get good ones later.

Carbon:



 
Princess:


 
Princess from today, hanging out in the pottery studio.


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## CntryBoy777 (Feb 9, 2018)

Uh-Oh!!....I think the word has gotten out thru the BAaa....BAaaa.....vine on just how wonderfully Great ya are as a BB MOM!!..... 
I guess ya are not counting sheep at nite to go to sleep....no...wait....well, ya are counting them Literally....all day Long.....poor young'un ya are.....sure Hope things work themselves out for ya....and I bet the assistance on the potter's wheel there sure comes in right Handy I'm sure....


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## Latestarter (Feb 10, 2018)

Sorry mom wouldn't accept both. Hope it all works out. Congrats on 2 healthy lambs.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 10, 2018)

CntryBoy777 said:


> Uh-Oh!!....I think the word has gotten out thru the BAaa....BAaaa.....vine on just how wonderfully Great ya are as a BB MOM!!.....
> I guess ya are not counting sheep at nite to go to sleep....no...wait....well, ya are counting them Literally....all day Long.....poor young'un ya are.....sure Hope things work themselves out for ya....and I bet the assistance on the potter's wheel there sure comes in right Handy I'm sure....



 Crud, I bet you're right! Now, WHO TOLD THESE SHEEP?! They're on different farms... 

Mom only had 2 cups this morning, now I am just pissed. We added a little whole milk (unfortunately pasteurized) to stretch it for Princess, I think I have some goats milk in the freezer that I'll thaw to add for the next few days too. Hope she does not scour too bad. Maybe mom's production will start to increase. She is already getting 1.5lbs/day of whole grains and sweet feed, but I may need to up the protein. I think I can hear her out on the field right now hollering for more alfalfa... 

Nope, I am counting SCREAMING LAMBS every night before I sleep  and all day


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## Bruce (Feb 10, 2018)

Don't turn that wheel on!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 10, 2018)

Bruce said:


> Don't turn that wheel on!



That was my first thought!!


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## Baymule (Feb 10, 2018)

I just LOVE  that pottery lamb! Can you make me one?


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## mysunwolf (Feb 10, 2018)

Someone commented on Facebook that it looked like we had found a new way to spin wool


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## mysunwolf (Feb 12, 2018)

It's been raining and raining and raining here. The thaw has been up to 70 degrees and now back down to 30 tonight. No freeze for over a week, maybe two. I have got to get my seeds spread over the fields before we lose this frost-seed window.

I had to delay my clay run this week since they were sold out, so now I have to find something to replace my time today--maybe it's a tiny clay animals sort of day.

Pretty much a mud factory over here. Mud and mud and more mud. And also strange puddles and springs rising up in places I wish they wouldn't. Next time someone remind me to build the pig pens at the highest point on the property, not the lowest.

Instead of photos of *pig soup*, I took one of Princess next to my new pond that appeared overnight.


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## Mike CHS (Feb 12, 2018)

I would say your ground is beyond saturated.


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## Baymule (Feb 12, 2018)

And by mid summer, we'll be begging for rain.


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## luvmypets (Feb 12, 2018)

Its so gross here as well. Every step I took on my route to feed the pigs, I sunk in over an inch of mud. Even the pigs shelter got flooded so they are in the barn right now.


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## Bruce (Feb 12, 2018)

Mike CHS said:


> I would say your ground is beyond saturated.


Looks like the ground at my north fence most of last summer. Clay doesn't take much to saturate.


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## frustratedearthmother (Feb 12, 2018)

luvmypets said:


> Every step I took on my route to feed the pigs, I sunk in over an inch of mud.


ONLY an inch, lol!   

I would do cartwheels in an inch.  My mud is always over my ankles and in some places I have to walk very slow or I'll splash it over the top of my boots.  Mud running down inside your boots is not fun, it's colder than ... well, it's cold, AND it makes it really hard to get that boot outta the mud!  

I'm so over this mess!


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## Bruce (Feb 12, 2018)

Yep, best not to have loose fitting boots when you have that sort of mud.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 12, 2018)

So this is what we're dealing with in the pig pens. This is what 2/3 of them look like. I have to go pick up another camper shell for a pig shelter so we can open up the 3rd pen. They sink so low in the front section that the mud is above their hocks. See why I call it pig soup? Mmm delicious.




 

I have lost my boots multiple times in this mud  I honestly try not to go in there when it's like this. The cow pen looks similar. And yes, we have a large amount of clay in the soil.


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## Bruce (Feb 12, 2018)

Milk Chocolate Mousse!!

I think I just lost my appetite for dessert.

That is incredible. Seems like one needs a french drain to be their pig pen "floor".


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## mysunwolf (Feb 12, 2018)

Bruce said:


> Milk Chocolate Mousse!!
> 
> I think I just lost my appetite for dessert.
> 
> That is incredible. Seems like one needs a french drain to be their pig pen "floor".



Yep, and these are 32'x32' pens that were in 6" barley a few months ago. The whole pig experience these last few years has really made me appreciate industrial ag. At least they get concrete floors that can be hosed down. I think I'm actually going to make a ditch on the downhill side and encourage water to run off. Possibly we will pour small concrete pads in each pen in the future where we can put the feeder and waterer.


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## Latestarter (Feb 12, 2018)

I thought your pens were on a hillside under a large tree? That looks like upwellings in the center... I bet the hogs would LOVE those in the summer... Not so much now.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 13, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> I thought your pens were on a hillside under a large tree? That looks like upwellings in the center... I bet the hogs would LOVE those in the summer... Not so much now.



They are, this is the view from uphill. Those aren't upwellings... they are "pits" the pigs dug rooting for roots, that filled with water when we got 3 inches of rain in 2 days lol. That they then churned to perfection. Seriously, if anyone wants to see the mud that nightmares are made of, just come hang out near my pig pens.


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## Latestarter (Feb 13, 2018)

wow...


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## Baymule (Feb 13, 2018)

That is some serious mud. It sure makes me glad that our place is sand. We used to own land that was black gumbo clay. My DH grove his truck off in it once and it took a bulldozer to drag him out.


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## Bruce (Feb 14, 2018)

At least he got it back! Could have sunk and become a fossil.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 14, 2018)

Oh do I wonder about the things that disappear into the mud. There's a hill on my grandparent's property that has old cars, stoves, mattresses, microwaves all partially buried in mud. An old trash pile in the woods from before there was large item pickup, and more earth slides over it each year. What gets buried, what gets uncovered?

Bad news for animals, good news for plants: it's raining again


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## Latestarter (Feb 14, 2018)

Looks like you have a lot more coming in behind what's already there. That long line over eastern Arkansas is just to the south and east of me here in NE TX. But, there will be more for me as well over the next several days and my goats (and I) are not very happy about all the mud.   Hang in there... a summer filled with drought is no doubt to follow.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 14, 2018)

UGH not excited about more mud. And you're right about the drought! Though ours usually only last about 2 weeks at a time.


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## Baymule (Feb 14, 2018)

Oh we have whalloping long droughts, burn bans, 100 degree heat, BIG air conditioning bills!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 14, 2018)

Sorry I haven't been on in so long. Almost 2 weeks ago I was helping someone vaccinate their sheep and decided to close the barn door once they got the sheep all inside. Well the sheep didn't like that, and as I tried to block them in with my body, a big wether jumped into the air and bashed right through me, smashing my hand into the doorframe while he was at it. Reason #5961 that I dislike Icelandics. Now my right hand (guess which is my dominant one?) is in a cast because they can't be sure that one of the bones in my thumb isn't broken. So now we have begun one-handed lambing, and spouse is out of town. I'm trying not to have a constant pity party, it works most days!

In other news, my bottle baby has been stealing the colostrum from my ewes (you may have seen part of this in a comment I made on another thread). So I'm planning on tubing colostrum to newborns whose dams have none. It's also blizzarding and in the 20s! 

I also had a ewe lamb, Snow, prolapse on Monday, and had to call for help with the dang harness straps. Then she lambed through the harness yesterday morning! A day early.





Unfortunately we'll be culling both as soon as they are ready. But they are doing well, and my neighbor helped me pour the colostrum down the tube since it was a little tricky one-handed.

More lambs to come! In the meanwhile, I'm hunkering down, the weather is horrible today but tomorrow is supposed to be 50 and sunny.

Here's my snow photos.


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## CntryBoy777 (Mar 14, 2018)

That has to be very difficult to manage one handed....hate to hear ya are injured and it being cold surely doesn't help matters any either. Glad things worked out for the ewe and lamb and hopefully the temps in the 50s will get rid of all that white stuff for ya too.....except for the mud it will make ya feel better....and warmer too....


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## mysunwolf (Mar 14, 2018)

CntryBoy777 said:


> That has to be very difficult to manage one handed....hate to hear ya are injured and it being cold surely doesn't help matters any either. Glad things worked out for the ewe and lamb and hopefully the temps in the 50s will get rid of all that white stuff for ya too.....except for the mud it will make ya feel better....and warmer too....



Yes, I'm so excited about the warmer temps... but not the mud!


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## Mike CHS (Mar 14, 2018)

People don't believe me when I tell them I've seen one of my wethers jump straight up almost to shoulder level but they can when stressed. Glad you weren't hurt any worse.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 14, 2018)

Mike CHS said:


> People don't believe me when I tell them I've seen one of my wethers jump straight up almost to shoulder level but they can when stressed. Glad you weren't hurt any worse.



Thanks. I almost wish I had video. Learned my lesson, don't get in front of a sheep that is bigger than you. Or the lesson might have been only work with sheep when there are appropriate handling facilities, ha. I did and do feel like an idiot for getting myself injured. At least I was still able to vaccinate the sheep and hold ewes in the chair for hoof trimming afterwards


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## Baymule (Mar 14, 2018)

That sucks that your arm is in a cast. You really didn't need that right now! I like looking at the snow pictures, but really glad that we don't have that snow! I hope your lambing goes well for you.


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## Latestarter (Mar 15, 2018)

Was going to say the same thing... lovely pictures/scenery, but I recall all to well what it is to have to work in it, and what it becomes when it melts. Sorry you got injured. Heal up and good luck with the rest of the lambing.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 15, 2018)

Dora had giant twins! I helped a bit just because I was around and she was so upset that the baby wouldn't come out (bit of elbow lock). One ram lamb and one ewe lamb. They are so so gorgeous, and hey, Dora has colostrum! She must have successfully fended off our evil barnyard fiend, Madame Princess. 




 

Weather is gorgeous today, so I threw out Snow and her lamb to make room for Dora and hers in the jug (only 1 because I didn't get them set up before my hand issue).


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## Baymule (Mar 15, 2018)

AWWW.... they are so darn cute! Love the lambs!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 15, 2018)

I've got to get some photos of these guys when they're not all sticky with birth fluids!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 17, 2018)

Lamby photos!

Carbon is 5 weeks tomorrow and enormous, around 50lbs or more. We'll probably be retaining him as a ram for a year or two.


 

Snow and her little ewe lamb, a few days old.


 

Dora and twins (Zorro and Spot).


 
Dora's ewe lamb Spot. I need better photos of her, she is gorgeous.


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## Baymule (Mar 17, 2018)

I love your black and white lambs!


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## Mike CHS (Mar 17, 2018)

They are adoreable


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## Bruce (Mar 18, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> Carbon is 5 weeks tomorrow and enormous, around 50lbs or more.


He is huge! You sure he wasn't born a month late?


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## mysunwolf (Mar 18, 2018)

Bruce said:


> He is huge! You sure he wasn't born a month late?



 I'm sure. His bottle baby sister is normal sized, about 30lbs or so.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 18, 2018)

Baymule said:


> I love your black and white lambs!





Mike CHS said:


> They are adoreable



Thanks, I'm in love with all of them as usual! But the black and whites are my weakness


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## mysunwolf (Mar 19, 2018)

Another lamb this morning! This one's almost definitely from my Icelandic cross ram. Boots is being a hot-and-cold mom, one minute licking and purring and nursing the baby, the next slamming it repeatedly into the wall. We're working on it! Boots is only 13 months old so that can cause mothering issues too, but I like to see what they can do this young as it gives a better idea of how they'll do later.

Mom and baby are currently jugged and I closed off the barn so they can't be disturbed. Plus used disinfectant wipes on her nose. Tubed the lamb colostrum since Boots has almost none (thanks Princess). The lamb was dry and full-bellied this morning at 6am so she was born sometime in the night. 

I'll try to get some photos today!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 19, 2018)

Quick cell phone photos of mom and baby. We put some blankets over the jug panels and mom has settled down a little. I think her hormones are finally coming in too. But we'll plan to keep them jugged for a few days, and until this next snow storm passes.


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## Baymule (Mar 19, 2018)

Look at that sweet little face! what's not to love about lambs?


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## CntryBoy777 (Mar 19, 2018)

It looks like she came out Smiling....so sweet and Cute!!....


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## mysunwolf (Mar 20, 2018)

Baymule said:


> Look at that sweet little face! what's not to love about lambs?



I tried explaining this to her mother too, I think it worked 



CntryBoy777 said:


> It looks like she came out Smiling....so sweet and Cute!!....



She DID come out smiling! She nearly got mushed by her mom and the rams, but as soon as we got her safe in a jug and taught mom how to have a lamb her smile got a lot bigger. Perfect little personality, though she'd prefer to approach you rather than you approaching her.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 24, 2018)

Babies are all doing good, BUT we have massive amounts of snow falling from the sky! AGAIN! Another ewe is due today/tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. 

Good news is that Boots has fully bonded with her lamb and they are back with the main flock.

Bad news is it looks like Snow (prolapse girl) has very little milk, so I may try to start supplementing her lamb.

Check out this weather we're having, 4 days after spring starts.
  

Girls are enjoying the barn today.


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## Bruce (Mar 24, 2018)

You could move up here, it hasn't snowed in over a week.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 24, 2018)

Bruce said:


> You could move up here, it hasn't snowed in over a week.



 But you're in the land of the snow! Right? I've never been up there. What are your temps right now?


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## Bruce (Mar 25, 2018)

RIGHT now? 67°F
Oh, you meant outside  25°F

We SHOULD be in the land of snow but it seems the biggest/mostest snow has run south of here the last several (many?) years. DW keeps asking how it is we live to far NORTH for snow. Her brother and sister-in-law live in southern NH. SIL didn't want to live were there was as much snow. They get more than we do most years.

But yeah it does get a lot colder here than it does in Virginia.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 25, 2018)

Well it was 30 degrees here yesterday, but it will be 25 tonight! 

I grew up outside of Chicago and boy did we see some snow, it's nothing like what we get in the mountains of VA. Your poor SIL


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## mysunwolf (Mar 25, 2018)

Mocha had twins! Two ram lambs sometime early this morning. I had jugged her last night so she wouldn't drop them in the snow like she did last year. Cleaned both off thoroughly and both had nursed a little, then she rejected the white one and kept the black one  WHY they do this is beyond me. I know it's genetic and that I'm shooting myself in the foot for all future generations of these sheep. But I keep hoping to breed it out. And hey, what else am I doing with my house if not keeping baby lambs in it?

Pics to come.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 25, 2018)

Well here is Sammy the new house lamb, I'll have to get a photo of his brother later today. Sammy is around 10lbs and his brother around 8lbs.


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## Bruce (Mar 25, 2018)

Apparently Mocha is not color blind. Tell her black and white are both GOOD colors!


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## mysunwolf (Mar 25, 2018)

Her and her sister are both so bad. Actually seems like all my black ewes might have this prejudice. I hope to import some more ewes in 2019 for some more genetic diversity, maybe they won't have mothering issues. If I was a commercial dairy this lamb rejection wouldn't be a problem, but alas I am not. The worst part is the white lambs are just so healthy! And perfect. And moms have plenty of milk. They just have to be picky.


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## Bruce (Mar 25, 2018)

Perhaps Mocha needs to be bleached and given a mirror


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## mysunwolf (Mar 25, 2018)

Well that might work...


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## mysunwolf (Mar 25, 2018)

The non-rejected lamb actually turned out to be 6lbs, hope he does okay. 

This one we named Timmy


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## Baymule (Mar 25, 2018)

Knock on wood.....(rapping on head) I haven't ran into that yet. I am blessed with ewes that give birth untended, never reject a lamb, raise their babies and are good mothers. You really make me appreciate my sheep! Sammy is awful cute though..........


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## Mike CHS (Mar 25, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> Well here is Sammy the new house lamb, I'll have to get a photo of his brother later today. Sammy is around 10lbs and his brother around 8lbs.
> View attachment 45772 View attachment 45771



I so don't wan't to do this but I love it that you do.


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## Latestarter (Mar 26, 2018)

I don't know that she really "wants to do that" either... just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes...


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## mysunwolf (Mar 26, 2018)

Baymule said:


> Knock on wood.....(rapping on head) I haven't ran into that yet. I am blessed with ewes that give birth untended, never reject a lamb, raise their babies and are good mothers. You really make me appreciate my sheep! Sammy is awful cute though..........



You should appreciate your sheep! Most small flock buyers are sold culls. I had just as many problems, but of a different sort, when I had Katahdins. The nice things about the current sheep I have is that they have great temperaments, are huge and make big lambs (not a lot of meat until 12 months though), MILK and udders are incredible compared to other breeds, and they will literally "poop" out a 12lb baby with no problems (especially if I know when lambs are coming so my feeding schedule is correct). The cons are sacrifices that are made for good dairy animals. I have a number of friends working on dairy sheep lines that have it all, but they are still hard to find and more expensive than most of us can afford.



Mike CHS said:


> I so don't wan't to do this but I love it that you do.



I think I secretly must love it, otherwise I'd sell my sheep and ewes who didn't give me a house lamb every now and then


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## mysunwolf (Mar 26, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> I don't know that she really "wants to do that" either... just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes...



A bit of both for sure. My wallet doesn't appreciate bottle lambs, but my heart does (until we have to eat the boys of course).


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## Latestarter (Mar 26, 2018)

Are you milking your sheep this year?


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## Wehner Homestead (Mar 26, 2018)

I’m now following you too! Can’t wait to see what the rest of your lambing year holds! I like the black and white sheep too! Your pottery definitely interests me too.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 26, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> Are you milking your sheep this year?



I would be if my right hand wasn't in a cast  Seriously, it's been a battle trying to get the doctors to figure out if it's broken or not. And now I'll need PT from how inactive it's been regardless. Might be time to invest in that milking machine I guess...


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## mysunwolf (Mar 26, 2018)

Wehner Homestead said:


> I’m now following you too! Can’t wait to see what the rest of your lambing year holds! I like the black and white sheep too! Your pottery definitely interests me too.



Thanks for following! It's been a wacky year already, but it's always something. Looking forward to following what's going on at your place too. And I love my black and white sheep a whole lot!!


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## Baymule (Mar 26, 2018)

I showed my husband the picture of Sammy the house lamb. He emphatically stated that a lamb would NEVER be in the house! I told him he would be the first one to hug and cuddle it, he's such a big softie! LOL LOL


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## Latestarter (Mar 27, 2018)

You know he would to Bay... He'd have that baby lamb right square in his lap as often as you'd let him!


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## Bruce (Mar 27, 2018)

Maybe that is why he doesn't want one in the house. He knows it would be a house sheep eventually because he would miss it too much.


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## mysunwolf (Mar 27, 2018)

Bruce said:


> Maybe that is why he doesn't want one in the house. He knows it would be a house sheep eventually because he would miss it too much.



Yep, THIS right here!


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## mysunwolf (Apr 8, 2018)

I haven't been on because not much has happening lamb wise. I have one girl, Squid, due on the 10th or 11th and she is looking big. But the others are really taking their time. This is the longest lambing season we've ever had. 




 
(The girls eating their hay, before I turned 5 of them out onto the field. The other 4 are still up at the barn, waiting to lamb, eating hay that I don't have and can't afford.)

But in other farm news, on Thursday we got 400+ chicks in the mail from 3 different hatcheries. I split the chicks among neighbors and friends who had ordered with me, and took home around 100+ Freedom Ranger meat birds, 25+ Partridge Rock pullets and White Rock cockerels, and 50+ Royal red broilers. We are running a "test batch" of Royals for a hatchery to compare to the Freedom Rangers. And I couldn't stand being without my Plymouth Rock chickens! Hopefully this means I'll get back into breeding them again, though not within color or to any standards other than my own.



 (Double brooder boxes, with two 250 watt lamps for below freezing temps.)




(Chicks!!) 




(Partridge Plymouth Rock pullet) 



 
(Royal red broiler cockerel)

We also took all 4 pigs in the trailer down to the USDA processor last Monday, even though the two smaller ones still hadn't made weight. Heck, my bigger ones barely made it to 250 at 8 months. Not my best batch ever. I may give the pens some time to rest before bringing in more piglets. 

The freezer's almost empty of pork, so it will be great to get the boxes back this week and have more stuff to sell. The online farmers market is still going on, and we just had our market meeting for the seasonal market which starts May 11th. I will be sharing a booth with friends who grow fruits and veggies, hopefully for a reduced fee! Since I absolutely hate setting up and only have a couple of coolers, I never have a lot of beautiful veggies to throw across the table to make my spot stand out. So this will be a nice change from previous years.

OH, and our bottle lambs Sammie and Princess are doing great! They get to hang out with me when I work in the yard and are both getting so big.


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## Baymule (Apr 9, 2018)

Kinda hard to sell frozen meat in a freezer.....definatelyy doesn't have the WOW! factor. What about cubing some meat up and cooking in an electric skillet? Stick toothpicks in the cubes (small) and give out as samples. Get the seasoning just right to tantalize the nostrils and taste buds. While people are munching, run your mouth about how they are raised, happy pigs, etc.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 10, 2018)

Baymule said:


> Kinda hard to sell frozen meat in a freezer.....definatelyy doesn't have the WOW! factor. What about cubing some meat up and cooking in an electric skillet? Stick toothpicks in the cubes (small) and give out as samples. Get the seasoning just right to tantalize the nostrils and taste buds. While people are munching, run your mouth about how they are raised, happy pigs, etc.



I have never done this but I plan to this year! At the market meeting, those who wanted to do samples attended a food safety lecture. There are a ton of regulations for doing market samples, but here in VA they are mostly guidelines UNLESS someone gets sick, then VDACS will unleash hell. So they taught us preventative measures. Most of it is common sense, but there were good tips and examples of mobile hand washing stations. Might try it this year, especially with mutton--I want folks who like lamb to realize that it tastes about the same.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 11, 2018)

Squid had her lamb! A single white ram lamb. She is about 14 months old and being just as stubborn as the other first-timers about motherhood. Easy birth, great job licking and cleaning baby, calling to him, but confused about nursing. We're working on it like we always do. I didn't even notice she was in labor, I was mowing the lawn for the first time this year and just as I was finishing up saw a little white lamb wandering around just outside the barnyard. He's a cutie.


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## Bruce (Apr 11, 2018)

What a nice surprise for you!


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## Queen Mum (Apr 11, 2018)

Cute baby!


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## mysunwolf (Apr 12, 2018)

It was a great surprise! Of course, I had this as her due date  She just "didn't look ready" to me yesterday morning. I'm really great at this of course  

I made sure the baby got a full belly yesterday evening, and sometime in the night Squid finally figured out how to nurse on her own. Hormones finally kicked in! My young first timers always seem to have such a hard time with this part of things.

He is so freaking cute. Moderately split testes so no breeding, I have no idea which lines this is coming from but it's going to drive me insane trying to figure it out. I'm just banding any that have it and keeping any intact that don't. But I may be doing some purposeful line breeding this fall to try and narrow down the source.


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## Baymule (Apr 12, 2018)

split testicles? Can you post a picture please?


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## mysunwolf (Apr 13, 2018)

Hm, well I banded the worst case I've seen this year, but I'll get a photo of the most recent guy today. It's disturbing but some are less noticeable than others. Mostly a cosmetic issue but still not something you want in a breeding animal of course.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 13, 2018)

Baymule said:


> split testicles? Can you post a picture please?



Ta-da!




 

These are shaped like a heart. Best I've seen is just weak attachment of the two halves of the sack, not really an issue and looks almost normal. Worst I've seen is two separate testes sacks that look like fat fingers, really disturbing. It all certainly cuts down on ram lambs I can sell, though


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## Wehner Homestead (Apr 13, 2018)

Very interesting...


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## Mike CHS (Apr 13, 2018)

I haven't run across that yet but I would be looking at the male/female that is passing the trait. I'm sure you already are.


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## Baymule (Apr 13, 2018)

Thanks for posting that picture. I haven't seen that before. Since a breeding ram is all about the testicles, anything like that is certainly not wanted. That makes you


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## mysunwolf (Apr 14, 2018)

Mike CHS said:


> I haven't run across that yet but I would be looking at the male/female that is passing the trait. I'm sure you already are.



Yes, though I think it's in both my lines. Stronger in one than the other, almost bred out in a few certain individuals. I assume it's recessive. Very common in the dairy breeds, I assume for the same reasons as we have other negative traits: because along the way someone decided more milk production was more important. 



Baymule said:


> Thanks for posting that picture. I haven't seen that before. Since a breeding ram is all about the testicles, anything like that is certainly not wanted. That makes you



It's so frustrating!! It doesn't affect the females in any way, just the boys.


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## Latestarter (Apr 14, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> It's so frustrating!! It doesn't affect the females in any way, just the boys.



Maybe that's because females don't have testes?   Just a thought...


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## mysunwolf (Apr 14, 2018)

Peaches lambed this morning, I discovered her in labor when I went out to feed Sammie. She had the head out but was really straining and crying, so again I just pulled the elbows out so she could do the rest. But then she left her lamb laying in the dirt and trotted back to her mom and sister. *Sigh.* She was extremely traumatized from the whole thing and doing major teeth grinding. This ram lamb is HUGE, too. These last few ewes were over-fed during the wrong times of pregnancy because I thought lambing would be in February / March. So I kind of screwed up the whole thing this year for the first-timers.

Gave Peaches banamine to ease the pain, she is extremely swollen and still hasn't passed the placenta (unusual for my girls). Then gave molasses water, which she sucked down, and nutri drench to her and baby. Then held her while baby nursed. She's not headbutting baby, she's just ignoring him, not calling to him, just generally spaced out and confused. Obviously they are jugged. We'll see how it goes over the next few days and if I can get them to bond.

Peaches has the best FF udder I have ever seen at 13 months old, has great parasite resistance (was wormed least out of all her peers, and as an adult is wormed 1-2x a year as a precaution), and her ram lamb does not have split testicles, so these are the good things. The ram lamb will be for sale, just have to get him stabilized. Hopefully next year she'll do better and I'll do a better job feeding, but if not more milk for me! I hope to weigh him soon, I think he's over 12lbs


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## mysunwolf (Apr 14, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> Maybe that's because females don't have testes?   Just a thought...


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## mysunwolf (Apr 14, 2018)

Oh and here is part of a larger article on judging goats that I found. Some breeds of middle eastern goats have split scrotums.


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## Baymule (Apr 15, 2018)

that's a handsome ram lamb!


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## mysunwolf (Apr 16, 2018)

I've got to get some nicer photos of him soon, he is very dairy and just beautiful. Almost identical to his father. 

Peaches is letting him nurse but still not calling to him. But he is really strong and active and doesn't seem to mind at all.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 19, 2018)

Paxillon, "Pax"! He is all legs and will be tall. His dad is pushing 300lbs so he'll be big, too. 




 



Still can't get his mom to mother him properly, though  She's still jugged, but now I have a halter on her so I can easily restrain her a few times a day. Pax's belly is always full though, so I know he's cornering her in the jug to nurse. But when I tried letting them out she was kicking him off again. If I have to keep her jugged for 4 weeks I guess I will...


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## Wehner Homestead (Apr 19, 2018)

I really like his markings!!


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## mysunwolf (Apr 19, 2018)

Thank you, me too!! I'm a sucker for the B/W sheep  We have had black East Friesians, but the Zwartbles influence makes the marking more striking.

Here's his sire, Ziebolt, from this winter (he's 50% Zwartbles, 50% EF).


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## Latestarter (Apr 19, 2018)

Like the hourglass face blaze. Dad looks almost as big as the steer he's standing by...


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## mysunwolf (Apr 19, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> Like the hourglass face blaze. Dad looks almost as big as the steer he's standing by...



He is big, that's for sure. Not really sure on his weight but somewhere above 250lbs, different folks guess different things. Someday I'll have to run him over a scale. Some of his lambs have his hourglass look, and others have a "Zorro" look. I even have one lamb named Spot, you can guess what she looks like  

Our lambing rate is way down this year due to all of our first timers having singles! All of our older moms had twins so far. I have one older girl still to go, I think she'll extend the season until May (!!!) if she's pregnant at all (she tested positive with a blood test but she has no bag). And I only have one first timer left to lamb, she is due tomorrow. Will keep you all posted! I wish this lambing season would end!


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## Baymule (Apr 19, 2018)

Pax is a gorgeous boy! Wow! I really like his markings, he is something special.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 19, 2018)

Baymule said:


> Pax is a gorgeous boy! Wow! I really like his markings, he is something special.



And he is just 3 days old in that photo! I have another very special ram lamb named Carbon from my favorite ewe and Ziebolt, but unlike Pax I think Carbon will stay here for a season or two so I can do some inbreeding, I mean linebreeding, lol.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 21, 2018)

Well we had and lost a beautiful lamb yesterday, I have been crying since. I'll post photos and the story later.


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## Wehner Homestead (Apr 21, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> Well we had and lost a beautiful lamb yesterday, I have been crying since. I'll post photos and the story later.



I’m SO sorry!!!


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## Baymule (Apr 21, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> Well we had and lost a beautiful lamb yesterday, I have been crying since. I'll post photos and the story later.


Big hugs my sheep sister, I am so sorry that you are going through the heart break of losing a lamb. We suffer the pain and sadness of loss that we may rejoice in the joys of birth and new life. The good outweighs the bad, but when you are in the midst of loss it is hard to see around it.


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## Latestarter (Apr 21, 2018)

Sorry to hear that MSW... what a shame.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 21, 2018)

Thanks to you both, I'm not sure I can write the story out without crying again. But here's the basic stuff.

James was the last ewe to lamb in April, and since her sister had had trouble I was watching her closely. Well sure enough, she labored for a solid hour and made no progress, so I went in to pull the baby. All went easily enough, I had to massage quite a bit to get the head out since these last couple lambs have been so big. I got baby partway out, then waited for mom to do the rest, but she was too tired. So I pulled baby the rest of the way and handed her off to mom:






Things went well after that. James, the mom, was tired and licked baby while lying down. Baby wanted to stand and nurse but mom wasn't ready. I gave her warm molasses water and got her up so we could nurse the baby. James was reluctant to nurse as a lot of my first timers are, so I held her still while I got baby latched on 3-4 times and got some good drinks. Went off to do other things for a few hours, came back and find a pool of blood under the baby, still dripping from the umbilical cord which has now become really thick and large. I check for intestines in case of hernia, then tie the cord about 1-1.5inches below the belly with dental floss to stop anymore blood loss. Try to get baby up to nurse, but she is becoming weak. Give her some "Power Punch," try to get her up nursing but she refuses. Leave her for another hour, come back and she is even worse off. We tube her 60mls (and we do so correctly, I am now a tubing pro). She seems to be perking up a little at first, but then goes downhill again to where she can barely lift her head. I bring her inside to warm her up and she is crying out in pain and fading fast. It's now that I see that she hasn't even passed the meconium yet, though it is just right inside her anus. At this point I have no idea what's wrong and have done everything I know how to do, and the lamb is weakly calling out in pain intermittently and lying flat on a towel in my living room, can't even lift its head, didn't respond to me doing the warm water bath w/a trash bag trick. Nothing.

Basically, we give baby 0.1cc banamine and give her back to mom so she doesn't have to die alone. James was distressed all night and into the morning, kept pawing at the baby to get up and nurse. It was breaking my heart. A beautiful baby ewe lamb and I have no idea what was wrong with her, but didn't have the heart to do a necropsy. I made sure James had seen her dead all night and then in the morning made sure she had a chance to say goodbye, and then I buried her. I think James is comforted a bit by her sister and her sister's lamb grazing with her today, but she still calls for the baby every now and then.

I have lost lambs before, but for some reason this has just about killed me.


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## frustratedearthmother (Apr 21, 2018)

Some of them take their place in our hearts so very quickly.   I'm so sorry for your loss.


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## Mike CHS (Apr 21, 2018)

I know that was hard to write out.  Sorry this happened to you.


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## Latestarter (Apr 21, 2018)

It's so much harder when you've been there to pull the baby. And then have to watch helplessly while everything you try just isn't enough.  It's a hard thing to bear. I'm very sorry for your's and James' loss. Hopefully she'll get another chance next season and have better luck. Perhaps James and her sister just shouldn't be bred again... or maybe they need a more strict diet in the final month to 6 weeks to help slow the baby growing inside? Not sure what the right answer is...   Thanks for sharing. In time it will pass.


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## Baymule (Apr 21, 2018)

Some of them just get inside your heart. And James trying vainly to get her baby us probably didn't help any. Watching a ewe grieve is gut wrenching. Big hugs.


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## Wehner Homestead (Apr 21, 2018)

Some just get to you more than others. Farming has its ups and downs and I’ve often heard my DH’s uncle saying that every day of farming is a gamble. Hoping that a positive turn of events is headed your way. I wish I could tell you that you’ll forget but some always leave an impression on your heart. I’m so very sorry that you are hurting!


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## promiseacres (Apr 22, 2018)

sorry


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## mysunwolf (Apr 22, 2018)

Thank you all for the kind words and virtual hugs, they mean so much. I have no idea why this lamb affected me so much 

I will definitely be breeding these two again, it was most likely the over feeding and the fact that they were first timers that caused the issues. I was pretty sure lambs would be in Feb/Mar, had absolutely no idea what was in store for this season--possibly lambs in MAY?! I think they will be much better moms on the next go around and hopefully will produce some ewe lambs that survive. 

I think this lamb died because she was weak from the umbilical bleeding and mom accidentally stepped on her... I probably should have pulled her when I noticed her umbilical issue 

Wish this wasn't the almost-end to my lambing season. Next ewe is due in May and always has triplets, I'm not looking forward to dealing with that. We are out of hay so I've kicked everyone onto the nice pasture.

Thank you, BYH family, for making this day more bearable.


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## CntryBoy777 (Apr 22, 2018)

A contributing factor of getting so close, so quickly is due to the bottle lambs ya been tending to....ya sure did everything ya could've to help the little one out, but sometimes it just isn't enough for one reason or another....it is unfortunate, but ya have to feel good that ya gave to it all ya had to give....ya can always 2nd guess yourself til the cows come home, but there isn't any reason to hang your head at all....you'll get thru this and you've gained even more experience from it....


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## mysunwolf (Jun 1, 2018)

Did not realize it had been over a month! Well, here's the general scoop and goings-on...

I know our lambing season ended tragically, but really I was very pleased overall. Ginger, the last girl we thought might be pregnant (she tested positive on the blood test) is definitely NOT pregnant. The theory is she aborted shortly after the blood test, or a false positive. Wish I could have found a fetus if that's what happened, since I would have liked to have it tested.

The lambs are growing up, I have two ram lambs listed for sale but we are keeping all the ewe lambs. The sheep finally got shorn last week and they have been much cooler ever since, it's been unseasonably hot and incredibly humid. 

Freshly shorn girls (from L to R James, Squid, Charcoal--in the back, and Mocha):



 
Dora with Spot, her gorgeous black and white lamb:


 

View of the field:

 

Our 150ish meat birds are free ranging in the field. We did lose one to a predator, and never figured out what but best guess is a possum. Puff felt really bad for days after the loss, and we haven't lost a bird since (I'd first suspected him but it became clear pretty quickly that it was something else). The birds are eating us out of house and home, almost literally as many bills have been put off to buy feed for these guys. If I can sell some it will help offset, but we won't see that money for months.



 

 

I finally got some spring pigs! They are just Durocs, not my favorite breed, but they sure are pretty and should grow okay.



 

Cows are doing good, since getting shorn the sheep match them. 

  

 

Garden is doing really well this year, I sold my gas tiller and bought a little electric cultivator. Much easier for me to use, doesn't throw me all over the place or have trouble starting. Doesn't bust sod, though. We have all the usual stuff planted: corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, greens, peas, lettuce, herbs. It's really nice to have a full garden after so many years of not having the energy!

We are working nonstop in the pottery studio as well since this is the show season. 

I helped a friend butcher a lamb that they purchased from a nearby farm today, and it was fun to be able to show them the whole process and get a refresher myself.


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## mysunwolf (Jun 1, 2018)

Oh, and I took some udder shots! The girls are really coming into their milk this year but I have too many others things going to milk them. It's a bummer since the udders look so nice! Might do some belated milking next month.

Charcoal is the best milker, besides her mom, and has the best udder:


 

Mocha's udder isn't as large, she hates to stand for milking, and she really doesn't produce much, but she grows some nice lambs.


 

Peaches' udder is lopsided but only because her huge lamb is favoring the one side. She is now 15 months old and has this udder, I can't wait to see what she looks like next year. My bet is she will milk nicely too. She is also Ginger's daughter, like Charcoal, and stands well for practice milking, but she is higher percentage dairy.


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## CntryBoy777 (Jun 1, 2018)

Sure glad things picked up for ya...and it sounds like ya have been busy.....and it appears that ya have been extremely Busy....the girls seem to be enjoying their new "wardrobe" and that was a great pic with the cows and sheep....
I can understand being busy with pottery....it is Beautiful work y'all do.....


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## Baymule (Jun 1, 2018)

150 meat chickens? I thought I was overworked with 50ish, wound up butchering 44. Is that your year's supply of chicken? What breed? I raised Cornish Cross, first time, was pleased with lots of meat. I love the comparison of the sheep to the cows, haha! Piggies! I see 4, do you put one in the freezer and sell the others? Your green pastures are beautiful!


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## mystang89 (Jun 2, 2018)

Wow those are some beautiful udders! Great looking herd. They all look very well taken care of.


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## mysunwolf (Jun 2, 2018)

We've been so busy that I haven't had a day off, or two hours off, in weeks! But I think I'll relax tonight by doing laundry  



Baymule said:


> 150 meat chickens? I thought I was overworked with 50ish, wound up butchering 44. Is that your year's supply of chicken? What breed? I raised Cornish Cross, first time, was pleased with lots of meat. I love the comparison of the sheep to the cows, haha! Piggies! I see 4, do you put one in the freezer and sell the others? Your green pastures are beautiful!



Well we meant to only raise 100 but I got offered 50 free ones, and who can say no to free chicks? Hahahahaha. So I built another Salatin-style pen and have them all out on the field. The two of us eat about 50 a year, plus mother in law is another 12 or so. The rest are for sale, if folks will buy them. We don't have much of a market around here. They're official Freedom Rangers, grow better than standard colored broilers and are much tastier. I like the meat off of them better than the Cornish because it's more flavorful and actually retains texture in soup. They are much less feed efficient than a Cornish, but still better than a heritage-type breed. And in general we have fewer losses in the birds. This year we've had more problems than we usually do, but so far still under our 7% losses goal. We'll see, we have one more month left (these take 10-12 weeks instead of 6-8). 

We actually don't get to eat much pork as we end up selling it! We have to pay up front to get all the hogs USDA butchered, and then slowly make it back in packaged frozen meat sales over the course of the next year. People will buy breakfast sausage at $6/lb pretty much all day. We eat the packs that lose the seal and that kind of thing. No more pork chops or bacon for us, unless folks decide not to buy it. 

As usual, I wish the grass would stop growing. We had 11in of rain in May alone, and in between that it was HOT and humid. So the grass would be over my head if we hadn't had the cows this year. I'm creating smaller and smaller strips out of the field as paddocks so that I can get the "trample action" when the sheep and cows graze it. We move fields every 1-2 days, and the sheep rotate in first, then the cows. The rain, manure, and strip grazing keep the fields insanely lush.


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## Baymule (Jun 2, 2018)

We sold 10 of our 44 chickens, cut, vacuum sealed and that paid for over half of the expense, even counting $40 worth of ice when we butchered. 

right now we are raising 2 Hereford hogs, one for the same customer that bought the chickens and half of the other goes to his sister. Since the processor we use doesn't do bacon or ham, I brine the bacon, DH smokes it and I cut and wrap it for our customers. I get $4 a pound for the pork. 

We have worked hard to get pasture started here, reclaiming it from brush, weeds and green briars. The soil is sand. I hope to have pasture that looks like yours does!


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## mysunwolf (Jun 6, 2018)

So I took a blurry video of my chickens running at me...


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## mystang89 (Jun 6, 2018)

LOL, I dont know if you've seen Ice Age 2 but that reminds me of when Sid the Sloth found all the other Sloths and they all mimicked him for some reason.


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## mysunwolf (Jun 6, 2018)

I hadn't seen it (only saw the first one) so I had to look it up... you're right!!  It's really appropriate that they were going to sacrifice him in the end too, because you know if I fell over in the field all those birds would eat me.


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## mystang89 (Jun 6, 2018)




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## Latestarter (Sep 26, 2018)

Hey there Lady... nothing from you in quite a while. Hope all is well there!


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## mysunwolf (Sep 27, 2018)

Hey @Latestarter, thanks for reminding me! I'm just ridiculous and won't sit still long enough to write this all out. Here goes...

It was very exciting this year because I sold my first sheep to the auction! We shipped them with a large group up to New Holland. Of course it was a bad sale  but we got enough out of our lambs to buy a new flatbed sheep trailer! Photos to come.

The parasite situation is insane and even expert help can't seem to help me. I have tried everything to no avail. Somehow was able to keep everyone alive this year, we'll see about next year. It hasn't stopped raining every single week since July. We are above average rainfall, apparently that's the new normal. *Beautiful* pastures. Horrible barber pole worms. 

Kept 3 ewe lambs out of 5, but will probably only keep 2 long term. If these girls weren't pets I would send them all down the road and start over to see if my genetics are why I can't get a handle on parasites. I think I may start outcrossing to some hardier meat breeds in the next few years, depending how things go with my neighbors' dairy plans, so we can have less worming work during the June through September season. You all honestly don't want to know how many times I've had to worm GROWN EWES this season, let alone lambs. It's a nightmare. 

Hope everyone here at BYH is doing well in their parts of the world, seems to have been a bit of a rough season for most folks. 

I'll try to get you all some photos soon!


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## Bruce (Sep 27, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> Of course it was a bad sale  but we got enough out of our lambs to buy a new flatbed sheep trailer!


That must have been a lot of lambs sold! Congratulations.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 27, 2018)

We have seen more Barber Pole worms this year but we are able to catch them earlier since we started doing fecals more often and catching them when the load isn't out of control.


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## mysunwolf (Sep 28, 2018)

@Mike CHS We caught them early through fecals and FAMACHA and had to worm most of the flock in June. But the loads just kept increasing all season. They always peak in August/September. We have to worm so often in the late summer, the wormers are not working in the early summer of the next year.

I'm getting really good at eyelids and can easily tell the difference between the scores, and we bring them up to check every 2 weeks, sometimes every week. And I'll say that the lambs have not had a 1-2 score since July. The adults, it varies.

That hurricane weather didn't really help us, eh?


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## mysunwolf (Sep 28, 2018)

Bruce said:


> That must have been a lot of lambs sold! Congratulations.



We had a lot of boys this year! My best performer at the sale was a very nice 100+ lb ram lamb with a LOT of gorgeous fat that I was planning to keep, but decided not to based on his dam's line and history. Couldn't sell him as a breeder either so off he went. If he'd had a tail I think he would have brought more, as it was a Muslim holiday.


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## Bruce (Sep 28, 2018)

I gather there is no way to break the barber pole worm cycle? Is there some intermediate host?


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## Latestarter (Sep 28, 2018)

@Mike CHS recently posted on his journal that spraying the pasture with a 10% chlorine bleach solution will not really harm the grasses but will kill like 96%+ of the barberpoll stage # in the pasture.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 28, 2018)

The study that we are experimenting with follows up the bleach application by spraying nitrogen.  We won't know the affect on our fields for a couple of months unfortunately since that field is fallow right no.


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## mysunwolf (Sep 29, 2018)

@Mike CHS I'll be eagerly following along, we have got to do something about it.

I was thinking of keeping the whole flock on drylot and feeding hay for a year while mowing the fields. But I have had them get barber pole in drylot from eating through the fence! And then we'd have to feed a cocci preventative as they seem to get that every time they're in the lot.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 29, 2018)

I'm pasting the info that is also in our Journal to make it easier to find.  I lost track of the report and greybeard tracked it down.  We have one small paddock that we only sprayed nitrogen on to give us something to compare to with our fecal results but I'm not sure how scientific the result will be since the smaller paddock houses the lambs that have required more worming and will be culled once I'm sure they are clean.

============================================================================================
A bleach solution (10%) should get a 99% kill rate if followed by nitrogen. Nitrogen fertilize alone will get around a 96% kill.
Like almost everything else, both are very short lived in their effects on soil/grass parasites.

_Laboratory studies we conducted at North Carolina State University showed that 96.6% L3 barber pole larvae were not moving or dead when immersed in solutions of liquid nitrogen fertilizer (containing 32.7% urea and 42.2% ammonium nitrate (21.1% ammonium and 21.1% nitrate), corresponding to field applications of 30 lb of nitrogen per acre. Another laboratory study showed that a 10% solution of household bleach (5.25% sodium hypochlorite) resulted in 99.1% of L3 larvae not moving or dead. Higher solutions of household bleach caused lysis (disintegration) of the larvae._
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/decrea...ures-is-liquid-nitrogen-fertilizer-a-viable-a

https://www.tuskegee.edu/Content/Uploads/Tuskegee/files/CAENS/Caprine/alternative methods-min.pdf


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## Bruce (Sep 29, 2018)

Can the soil be tested for the worms/eggs? That might be better than the variability of individual animals ability to resist them and therefore showing a higher or lower concentration.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 29, 2018)

I don't know if there is a soil test or not but it wouldn't be of any use telling me what sheep are better able to tolerate a worm load of x number of eggs and which ones aren't.  I think part of the problem that @mysunwolf is having is the size of her acreage so if there is a way to reduce the number of parasites in her pastures, that might help her.  Most folks I know are resigned to the fact that you aren't going to get rid of the parasites but you can shoot for sheep that can carry a load and stay healthy.  We don't worm most of our sheep if they are staying in condition unless they have an egg count that is in the danger zone.

The 4 ewes that we kept out of original 10 haven't needed worming since we brought them home and none of their lambs have needed worming.  Ringo is another that hasn't been wormed in almost two years.


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## mysunwolf (Sep 29, 2018)

Thanks for the numbers on nitrogen and bleach @Mike CHS.

Yes, we only have 3 acres of pasture so even though we only have 4 ewes/acre, the worm load still builds up unreasonably.

Our other issue is we started with sheep that had bad parasite resistance and are working our way up. Much better to start the other way around and maintain. We literally started our current flock lines from two ewes, one who always did well with parasites and one who did not. Now it doesn't seem to matter, they all do poorly, because the wormer is losing efficacy. 10% of poor-doers are culled every year, but in the meantime we have bigger issues.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 29, 2018)

They are hard to beat.  We tried Prohibit and then Cydectin on one ewe lamb and she just kept getting worse.  We finally wound up giving her Valbazene at double the recommended dosage for three days in a row which seems to have worked.  That was on our vets recommendation and he said you're going to lose her one way or the other so it can't hurt.  We had him run a fecal on her just to verify we were seeing the correct results. She is a cull but I want to get her clean before sending her off to the market.


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## Bruce (Sep 29, 2018)

Mike CHS said:


> We don't worm most of our sheep if they are staying in condition unless they have an egg count that is in the danger zone.


Doesn't that just leave them to increase the load in the pastures? Seems like though THEY can stay in good condition, they would be "Typhoid Mary" with respect to adding a bazillion eggs to the ground.



Mike CHS said:


> I don't know if there is a soil test or not but it wouldn't be of any use telling me what sheep are better able to tolerate a worm load of x number of eggs and which ones aren't.


True, but it will tell you if your bleach/nitrogen efforts are moving things in the right direction. If you have a count of 1,000 eggs per pasture unit (square foot, square yard, square something else) and it goes down to 100 after the treatment, it is clearly worth doing. If it only goes down to 990, you are wasting your time and money.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 29, 2018)

We rotate our paddocks so by the time we get back on a previously grazed paddock, the larva are dead since they had no host to keep the life cycle going.

As far as the egg count I have a year or more of history on all of our sheep and the egg count has been consistent on most of them. Based on the egg counts after the spray treatment there would be an expected decrease in the parasite load in the sheep which is all I am working toward. If it starts getting higher the animal gets wormed.  You can only run so many tests before the $200 lambs you sell have cost more than the sale price.  The North Carolina tests were run by dozens of people with a budget to go along with that.


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## mysunwolf (Sep 30, 2018)

@Mike CHS What about the data that says barber pole worms can live dormant for up to 9 months in the soil? I'll have to find the article. Basically says if it never dries out, they just sit and wait and don't die out. And very few of us can do 9 month rest periods. We aim for 90 days rest and we still rarely succeed, usually only get to 60 days before the grass is out of control.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 30, 2018)

I've seen the data that shows the dormancy periods and I don't know enough about how fast they come out of dormancy to have an answer.  We do fairly fast rotations and other than two months in winter, we don't have sustained moisture that breaks the dormancy so I think that has worked in our favor.  I wish I was more expert but we just started looking at this seriously in the last year.  On a side note, a friend of ours has been working on another study about small ruminant parasites with a doctor in Texas testing a new wormer for the blood sucking parasites but he couldn't give me much info.

We don't get 90 days off of most of our paddocks so our sheeps resistance has still been the best preventative for us.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 30, 2018)

One thing I meant to add is that I cut and spray all of our fields at least once a season so that more than likely has much to do with our fairly low worm load if the studies are correct.


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## Baymule (Sep 30, 2018)

Just throwing this out there for thought and conversation..... What about running another species in the pasture, like a steer or two, being grown off for slaughter, to consume the grass, and hopefully help break the worm cycle? Rotate the pastures like you are already doing, but maybe dry lot the sheep for a short period inbetween the sheep/cattle grazing.


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## mysunwolf (Oct 1, 2018)

Yes we definitely rotate cattle through, as well as chickens (and this year turkeys). Doesn't seem to make any difference here. I think mowing, haying, and/or drylotting is a good bet.


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## Baymule (Oct 1, 2018)

You are doing all that you know to do. I like @Mike CHS research and actions on spraying the pasture with a weak bleach solution, then nitrogen fertilizer.


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## Mike CHS (Oct 1, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> Yes we definitely rotate cattle through, as well as chickens (and this year turkeys). Doesn't seem to make any difference here. I think mowing, haying, and/or drylotting is a good bet.



We dry lotted our sheep the first winter we had them and had the lowest egg count ever.


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## Bruce (Oct 1, 2018)

Which kinda suggests those nasty worm eggs can live a long time in the pasture without a mammal host doesn't it? Must have been a reasonably long time between whenever the last animals were there and when you bought, improved and then brought in sheep.


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## Mike CHS (Oct 1, 2018)

Our worm count is still low for the sheep on pasture.  We have only had to worm 3 out of the 47 that we had at one point.  Our property has never been used as pasture in the memory of any of those that have been her for their lifetimes.


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## Bruce (Oct 1, 2018)

So where did the barber pole worms come from? Maybe a small load with your first ewes?


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## Mike CHS (Oct 1, 2018)

Deer are carriers also and of course some could have came with the sheep.


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## Baymule (Oct 1, 2018)

Mike CHS said:


> Our worm count is still low for the sheep on pasture.  We have only had to worm 3 out of the 47 that we had at one point.  Our property has never been used as pasture in the memory of any of those that have been her for their lifetimes.


Kinda too bad you can't drench them with some Clorox...…  Pristine pasture and they brought the worms with them.


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## Bruce (Oct 2, 2018)

Unless they were already there from the deer.


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## Baymule (Oct 2, 2018)

Bruce said:


> Unless they were already there from the deer.


Well then, give the deer a snort of Clorox!


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## mysunwolf (Oct 3, 2018)

Baymule said:


> Well then, give the deer a snort of Clorox!


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## Bruce (Oct 3, 2018)

I wonder if that works for meningeal worm.


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## Wehner Homestead (Oct 17, 2018)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!


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## Bruce (Oct 17, 2018)

Congratulations pre announcement (here)?


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## Wehner Homestead (Oct 17, 2018)

Bruce said:


> Congratulations pre announcement (here)?



Go to @samssimonsays journal.


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## Latestarter (Oct 17, 2018)

CONGRATS once again!


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## Bruce (Oct 18, 2018)

Wehner Homestead said:


> Go to @samssimonsays journal.


I know, I saw it there. That is why I know what you are talking (typing?) about.


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## greybeard (Oct 18, 2018)

Studies using different approaches for control of both barberpole and meningeal worms. Everything from tannins to lespedeza, to copper oxide particles...it is multiple pages long. 

https://www.science.gov/topicpages/h/haemonchus+contortus+worms


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## mysunwolf (Oct 18, 2018)

I was trying to hide it, hard to make a casual announcement like that I guess  Thanks all.

And thanks @greybeard for that link, following small ruminants consortium advice has gotten me nowhere.


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## Latestarter (Oct 18, 2018)

So do you know boy/girl? Or like Sam, keeping it a surprise?


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## greybeard (Oct 18, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> So do you know boy/girl?


or one (or more) of each....................................?


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## greybeard (Oct 18, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> So do you know boy/girl?


or one of each....................................?


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## mysunwolf (Oct 18, 2018)

Hahaha, no there is just 1! But they haven't been able to tell us at the scans yet. I'm so happy to have a baby that I don't really care what sex so we may wait a bit to find out as well  It's going to be tight around here but new life is my favorite thing.


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## Bruce (Oct 18, 2018)

Now the hard part, picking out names. Good thing ours both came out girls because we couldn't come up with a boy's name we particularly liked. And no, we didn't know gender on either one until they presented themselves to the world.


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## greybeard (Oct 18, 2018)

I so wish I had named one of mine "Spawn".


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## mysunwolf (Oct 19, 2018)

We have got some good ole hippy names picked out! Hopefully nothing too crazy. Not telling though  You'll have to wait 6 months like the rest of us!


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## Baymule (Oct 19, 2018)

The singer, Roy Head, and his wife named their son Sundance. He is pushing 40 and has a career in country music. Sundance went on American Idol and explained his name as, his mom and dad were hippies. LOL Roy is a wiry little guy and does back flips off the stage. Sundance is what we call "a big ol' boy" LOL. Sundance then went on The Voice and won. 

So are y'all kicking around the name Sundance? When you said a hippie name, it reminded me of Sundance. 

I am very, very happy for both of you and your baby that will light up your lives.


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## mysunwolf (Oct 20, 2018)

Now I've been thinking about the name Sundance all day! But that might be a little too much even for me lol. Love that story, thanks Bay.


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## Bruce (Oct 20, 2018)

Well if you don't like Sundance, there is always Butch


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## mysunwolf (Oct 20, 2018)

Oh lord


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## Latestarter (Oct 20, 2018)

Hmmmm a daughter named Butch... Kinda has a "ring" to it....


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## Baymule (Oct 20, 2018)

Y'all are awful at picking out names.   I am sure that @mysunwolf and her spouse can pick out a MUCH better name!  Just not Sundance, LOL 
Sundance is a BIG man, I would imagine anybody making fun of his name wouldn't last very long.


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## Bruce (Oct 21, 2018)

Given what some "celebrities" name their kids, it could be a lot worse!


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## mysunwolf (Oct 21, 2018)

I'm with you @Bruce, some stuff that celebrities come up with is absolutely bizarre. Though I'm usually good unless kids are named after purses, clothing, cars, etc.


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## Baymule (Oct 21, 2018)

You mean that you would reject the name Dooney Burke?  I suppose Flannel and Khaki would be out of the question.  Well, there's always appliances!  Microwave, Frigidaire, Amana, Electrolux, Jenn-Air, Whirlpool, Dryer, Dishwasher...….there is a LOT to choose from!


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## Baymule (Oct 21, 2018)

All in fun, but I am really thrilled and happy for you. A baby is a precious gift, as your child grows, you will see the world through her/his eyes and it will all be brand new again. Just be sure to not do anything heavy and take good care of yourself and your baby!


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## greybeard (Oct 21, 2018)

Baymule said:


> You mean that you would reject the name Dooney Burke?


How 'bout Stony Burke?
(most here are way too young to make that connection)


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## Bruce (Oct 22, 2018)

I looked it up @greybeard, must not have been much of a show, only lasted 1 season. Jack Lord did a lot better in Hawaii Five-O ... 12 years.  Book 'em Danno.


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## Baymule (Oct 22, 2018)

Stony Burke was a rodeo cowboy and so handsome!


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## greybeard (Oct 22, 2018)

Bruce said:


> I looked it up @greybeard, must not have been much of a show, only lasted 1 season. Jack Lord did a lot better in Hawaii Five-O ... 12 years.
> Book 'em Danno.


Wow, I never realized you could speak Hawaiian.....


The Stoney Burke plots were more often than not, just plain hokey. Being called 'Stoney Burke' quickly became synonymous around here for 'drugstore cowboy' even while the series was still running. Jack Lord and his character couldn't make a pimple on Casey Tibbs butt and the only ones in real life in my part of the world that seemed to admire 'Stoney' was the buckle bunnies of the day..


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## mysunwolf (Oct 24, 2018)

Hence why we are NOT going with cowboy names! Lol. Too many bad rodeo stories, and besides it'll just encourage this kid to stay in the country (guess that wouldn't be so bad).

All I have is this bad cell phone pic of my new goat in the sheep flock and the lovely grass we have, as usual.





Most of my flock will be going to auction this winter as culls, and I'll use the money to buy some new ewes of a hardier, less productive meat breed to cross into a few of my nicer dairy ewes. Looking at Gulf Coast Natives. Can't bear to get back into hair sheep, yet.


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## Baymule (Oct 24, 2018)

Your grass is gorgeous. Your sheep are beautiful and look so happy in all that grass! Cute goat. So why can you not bear to get hair sheep? Because everyone calls them goats?


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## Latestarter (Oct 24, 2018)

OK... why only one new goat and why are you upset about hair sheep? I'm feeling a might confused... like that I might have missed something important here...


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## mysunwolf (Oct 24, 2018)

Nothing important, I just got out of hair sheep on purpose a few years back and regret it daily! But I am too stubborn to get back in! Also my neighbor is a shearer and likes the extra work, believe it or not. And someday I'd like to learn how to shear properly (of course, not in my current condition). I also just want something a little bit different, and there are not a lot of "rare" hair sheep breeds, at least that I have found.

But yeah, I _hate_ that everyone calls my hair sheep goats!!! Not sure me getting a goat will help  Taking her was actually a favor for a friend/neighbor who I work for. They have too many pet goats, so I took this one off their hands because she is a pain in their operation. Too standoffish. They have her triplets and two wethers, and I'll be getting one of the triplets for company for my momma goat when she dries up.


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## Latestarter (Oct 24, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> I just got out of hair sheep on purpose a few years back and regret it daily! But I am too stubborn to get back in!  ...I also just want something a little bit different...



OK... yaknow, you ARE in the same general area as @farmerjan and she raises a sort of Dall sheep (or some such) with the big rounded ram horns that hunters drool over. Now I wouldn't exactly consider that your ordinary, everyday, domesticated ho-hum sheep... Perhaps you could discuss getting a few of her ewe lambs for grow out? I believe they are hair sheep, very meaty and good for eating (I've tasted wild mutton before and it was VERY tasty). If you raise them with lots of personal contact, they might even become friendly...


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## mysunwolf (Oct 26, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> OK... yaknow, you ARE in the same general area as @farmerjan and she raises a sort of Dall sheep (or some such) with the big rounded ram horns that hunters drool over. Now I wouldn't exactly consider that your ordinary, everyday, domesticated ho-hum sheep... Perhaps you could discuss getting a few of her ewe lambs for grow out? I believe they are hair sheep, very meaty and good for eating (I've tasted wild mutton before and it was VERY tasty). If you raise them with lots of personal contact, they might even become friendly...



Hm, but these are white too if I remember, and I really need some color in the flock! And don't they all have horns? We're hoping for no horns, but if the rams have horns that might be okay just as long as the ewes are polled. Preferably also something that is not too wild, I've never heard of the Dalls being tamed. I know, I know, sounds like Katahdins are the way to go for us, and I might go back that directions someday.


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## Baymule (Nov 26, 2018)

Hope you had a good Thanksgivings and all is well with you and yours.


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## mysunwolf (Nov 26, 2018)

Thank you @Baymule, the same to you! We have a wonderful friendsgiving every year, for most of us whose families live too far away. This year we contributed the turkey (as we often do), it was 42lbs! Had to be roasted in pieces.

I really so have to get some photos of the animals, I know that's what y'all want


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## Baymule (Nov 26, 2018)

We did that last year, had a bunch of people over that didn't have family nearby. This year it was just the two of us and our son. I cooked and we ate until we hurt. LOL


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## Baymule (Dec 14, 2018)

How are you doing? I've been thinking about you and your soon to be blessed event! Hope you are well, and don't overdo yourself. Big hugs.


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## mysunwolf (Dec 14, 2018)

Thank you @Baymule! All is going really well, I'm not taking it easy by any means  But I am trying to get help with our 80lb square bales, moving hay rings, etc. Mostly listening to my own self and other ag ladies about what I can and can't do! Had a scare lambing out a neighbor's ewe after talking to some other folks, so my OB is testing me for diseases now (I wore gloves and did plenty of laundry, but we are being cautious). And no more lambing, calving, etc for me until after the baby comes. I had to turn down a few jobs this winter already because of my "condition" 

We are also redoing our house, hiring folks and doing some ourselves. And we have to be finished before March just in case I turn into a whale by then and can't move  Luckily the family keeps stopping by for visits and turning them into working vacations, I'm very grateful to them.

Some ladies on another forum are helping me plan the baby shower and we are going with spring planting/farming themed  . I'll have to take photos of that for sure, but it's not until March.

I haven't taken any photos at all recently. We had 20+" of snow last weekend and it's still around, so I've been shoveling for days and having a fun time sliding around in slush to get to the animals! Made DW haul water a few times since my hoses were buried. Pretty unusual weather for this area at this time of year, but not unheard of. At least the power stayed on.

Trimmed hooves yesterday the footrot is back with a vengeance, and this mud isn't going to help. Looks like we really have it for good, now.

Got gifted a free 8+ year old high % dairy ram a few weeks ago, hopefully he still has enough pep in him to breed my 7 girls this fall. He has all his teeth still, but boy have they been worn down. My other guy, Zee, is only 50% dairy so we may put him up for sale next season once we have a replacement (even though I still love him, he's a very well behaved ram). I have a call in to a dairy down south for two ewes or ewe lambs next spring as well, so that should help improve, or at least diversify, our genetics.

Sending 3 ewes to the sale barn for culling next week, and will probably send some more next fall when the lambs are weaned. Right now we only have 1 BIG calf, 15 sheep, and about 18??? chickens right now, so we are massively downsized. Still not looking forward to farm chores and lambing season with a 1 month old baby, that's for sure... do I sound crazy yet? 

I'm still lurking on BYH quite a bit, even though I haven't been posting often. Hopefully that will change soon!


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## CntryBoy777 (Dec 14, 2018)

Sounds like ya have a Whole lot going on, even though ya have downsized some....and the weather is increasing the difficulty factor too....be extra Careful with your footing as your center of balance changes regularly in your "condition".....


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## Baymule (Dec 14, 2018)

Being pregnant doesn’t make you an invalid, it just means pay attention to what your body says and it sounds like you are doing that. Keep us posted!


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## Bruce (Dec 14, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> Still not looking forward to farm chores and lambing season with a 1 month old baby, that's for sure... do I sound crazy yet?


You strap the baby on and get done what needs to get done! Your baby will know how to take care of the animals before it can walk.


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## Latestarter (Dec 14, 2018)

Good to hear from you and that all is well! The term "kidding season" now has new meaning  Hang in there!


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## Baymule (Feb 3, 2019)

It’s been a month and a half, checking in on you! Hope you are well and baby is healthy and kicking! Don’t you know that you are supposed to check in with your BYH family at least once a month? LOL


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## mysunwolf (Feb 4, 2019)

Baymule said:


> It’s been a month and a half, checking in on you! Hope you are well and baby is healthy and kicking! Don’t you know that you are supposed to check in with your BYH family at least once a month? LOL



Hahaha, thanks @Baymule! I was not aware of that rule lol. I am terrible at taking any photos, and nothing much is happening here on the farm.

I'm still pregnant and baby is doing really good! Although I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes, so that really puts a damper on my mood. I've said goodbye to pasta, rice, and processed sugar while I wait to meet with the nutritionist and get my finger pricker machine. But crap, I really miss chocolate!!

Sheep-wise, all are doing well, except for an outbreak of lice (!) from our new ram. So we'll treat them once they're shorn this spring. Talked to my hay guy, and he'll have enough bales to last the winter so we can save our squares for jugging ewes during May lambing. Next challenge will be lambing with a brand new baby!

Butchered all our chickens today, so that leaves us with sheep and a cow to be butchered this fall. Our downsizing has gone a little too well, so I'm going to get some piglets if I can find any nearby!

We're also re-doing the house, moved out for two weeks while the floors were re-done, now finishing up painting, trim, cleaning out closets, sorting through baby clothes, etc. It's a really busy time, with tons of doctors appointments, and luckily my energy level is fantastic!

Hope everyone here in BYH-land is well!


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## Bruce (Feb 4, 2019)

mysunwolf said:


> and get my finger pricker machine.


You need a finger pricker machine?? I have one (a OneTouch, and lancets) that I don't need any more. Had it for the diabetic cat but she died last summer. I'd be happy to mail it to you.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 4, 2019)

Bruce said:


> You need a finger pricker machine?? I have one (a OneTouch, and lancets) that I don't need any more. Had it for the diabetic cat but she died last summer. I'd be happy to mail it to you.



Thank you, this just made me cry! Probably the hormones, but still  What a kind and generous offer. I _think_ we are good for now, but I'll let you know if the situation changes. Insurance is a b****.


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## Bruce (Feb 4, 2019)

Could be the insurance company will just pay for it. The real expense are the test strips which your insurance should pay for. Of course there was no insurance for the cat. If you do want the tester and all, I can get it there in a few days. I think I have some strips that are still good through this month.

Insulin is expensive too but I happened to be talking to the guy across the road when the cat had been on insulin for about a year. One Solostar pen cost $85 at the grocery store (they were kind enough to let me buy a couple at a time instead of a full box of 5). Turned out he is diabetic and on the same insulin. But instead of the ~3 units twice a day the cat was on, he needed 70 units at a time. He wasn't willing to stab himself multiple times when the 100 unit pen had only 30 units left so instead of throwing them away at his house he started throwing them away at mine. One of his discards was a 5 day supply for the cat.


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## Latestarter (Feb 4, 2019)

So glad to hear from you and thrilled that the baby is doing well and so are you! Lots on your plate, but you seem to be thriving!


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## Baymule (Feb 5, 2019)

I am glad to hear from you and that you and baby are well and good. You have been busy, doing LOTS of things! We are on a low carb diet to lose weight, so no sugar, carbs for us either. I would crawl a mile over broken glass for a brownie! LOL Keep us informed!


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## greybeard (Feb 5, 2019)

The cheapest glucose meter and test strips that I have found are ReliOn.
Their test strips were cheaper fully OoP & OTC than my copay was for AccuChek strips.
Most insurance will pay most of the cost of strips/lancets, but they also limit how many they will pay for in a 90 day period. Mine paid for 100 lancets and strips every 90 days and a new test meter every 6 months, with a copay only for the strips and lancets.  (Lots of Dr offices will give you a test device free, as the device companies give them to the Dr's for free so they can prescribe that particular device's test strip Once per day was not enough for me when I was first getting started and needed to determine what my diet/exercise regimen should be in order to keep my sugar right)

IF, you will need more than 1 strip & lancet per day, an insurance company will probably pay for more IF your Dr writes a prescription for more than 1 per day and also attaches the correct diagnostic code for your pharmacy to use.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 10, 2019)

@Bruce and @greybeard, so far insurance has paid for everything, which has helped a lot. OneTouch is what I have. I poke myself 4x a day, and numbers look okay for now. During pregnancy and with GD you actually have to keep your blood glucose much lower than with regular type 2. They gave me 33ga needles which have to go so deep to get any blood at all with my fingers... so paid OOP for 30ga so I could be in a lot less pain! Right now we can manage it easily with my diet, so hoping to avoid the insulin route. Can't imagine treating one of my barn cats for diabetes, with all the hassle and expense! Insulin costs a fortune these days.

Thank you @Latestarter, there is a lot going on but it's the good stuff! Now if I can get this pregnancy anxiety under control I'll do great lol.

@Baymule yes, we were doing low carbs too! Before pregnancy, at least. Turns out I was making up for it in fruit sugars. Worst part about diabetes in general, and GD specifically, is that going into ketosis is not good at all, so I actually have to eat more carbs than most folks can on a keto or low carb diet! I also have had to cut my fruit quite a bit, especially in the mornings. But it's a hoot what I can/can't eat. I have a required range of grams of carbs per meal and per day, and can't have blood glucose levels dip below 60 (and preferably they're above 65). Yet I also can't go above 140 at any time (peak is usually 1hr after the start of a meal). Kind of frustrating doing this balancing act!


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## greybeard (Feb 10, 2019)

mysunwolf said:


> can't have blood glucose levels dip below 60 (and preferably they're above 65).


70 and below is indicative of hypoglycemia, tho I realize you being pregnant, levels are lower anyway. I can't imagine mine ever getting that low, as it's normal fasting and 2 hrs after eating  range is high 90s to 110.
Before I was on some meds, embarked on more exercise and began eating better, 200 was not unusual at all.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 10, 2019)

@greybeard sounds like my FIL, his numbers were really high routinely. Yes, for pregnancy, levels are normally lower, so the BG level for hypoglycemia goes down to 60. I still feel crappy when I wake up and my levels are below 70, though. With my diet (we eat a LOT of meat, fats, and starchy veggies) and exercise (maybe 20-30mins/day) I can keep things under 140 all the time (except when I mess up and have fruit with breakfast, like today). I know for non-pregnant folks it's good if they can keep it below 180 all the time.

With my 100g glucose drink, I went to 204 after 1hr and 180 after 2hr, and the Drs hated those results. But honestly it's all fairly arbitrary. They updated the numbers and the process in 2008, and this doubled the amount of women that got diagnosed with GD.


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## greybeard (Feb 10, 2019)

My twin brother had levels that were beyond his test meter's upper limits. (he had other more serious health problems tho)


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## greybeard (Feb 10, 2019)

mysunwolf said:


> With my 100g glucose drink


Which brand do you drink?
I usually drink Boost..the chocolate flavor.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 10, 2019)

greybeard said:


> Which brand do you drink?
> I usually drink Boost..the chocolate flavor.



That is scary about your brother! 

In this case, there were a 50g and a 100g drink, just for the gestational diabetes tests. Not sure what brand it was, but they're basically the same thing as Glucola only generic versions. We got the choice of orange or lemon lime, so I did lemon lime. It was SO GOOD, both times, which told me I might have a sugar problem.


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## misfitmorgan (May 17, 2019)

Did you ever have that baby?


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## Baymule (May 17, 2019)

WE NEED UPDATES!!!


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## Bruce (May 17, 2019)

Yeah!!!


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## mysunwolf (May 25, 2019)

Hey all!! I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, thanks for the reminder! My life is so busy with taking care of him that it's hard to find time to eat, sleep, shower, etc. Let alone post online  Currently grabbing a bite to eat while he naps (thanks, baby!). 

At some point I'll find time to type out my labor story. Let's just say that 1) he came a week early, 2) my water broke before labor started, 3) I labored for 49 hours total, with an epidural around the 36 hour mark, and, once I dilated, pushed for 5 hours! It's been a rough recovery to say the least. He is beautiful and the greatest thing in the world 




 

Oh, and we are currently in the middle of lambing season! Haven't gotten photos of them as I've been so busy, but they're adorable too. Promise I'll come back and update some more.


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## Bruce (May 25, 2019)

Babies of all sorts being born!!!! Sure am sorry your delivery was WAY less than easy! Rest up when you can.


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## B&B Happy goats (May 25, 2019)

What a handsome baby , congratulations  ! long labors are horrible,  thank heavens we get the gift of life  at the end


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## animalmom (May 25, 2019)

Congrats to you and your wee man.  He's a cutie!


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## Baymule (May 25, 2019)

A hard labor, but what a prize! he is a beautiful boy, gorgeous! I am so happy for you, you are a great Mom.


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## mysunwolf (May 26, 2019)

Funny story: I forgot to mention that after my water broke and we went to the hospital to check on baby, we came home and moved hay for the cow and worked sheep during the beginning stages of labor  Got all the CDT done and some deworming before we had to head back in to the hospital.

Has anyone heard from @samssimonsays with an update?


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## Mike CHS (May 26, 2019)

mysunwolf said:


> Has anyone heard from @samssimonsays with an update?



I got a PM back in December about a drawing she is doing for me but nothing since then.


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## Baymule (May 26, 2019)

Girl, what won't you do?


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## Bruce (May 28, 2019)

Mike CHS said:


> I got a PM back in December about a drawing she is doing for me but nothing since then.


Oh, not good. I hope everything is OK!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 16, 2020)

All right lovely BYH folks, I miss you!! Our LO is 10 months old and can entertain himself for some small stretches of time, so I figured I should write something here.

I can't say much yet as we don't know if it's going to work out financially. BUT, my neighbor and I are applying for a planning grant for our sheep dairy. Hopefully 75+ ewes. I work at a local cow dairy and am learning how to make aged cheese on a larger scale. This year I'm also doing sheep milk shares with some of our new dairy ewes, who have just started lambing! 

I built the farm back up a bit. We did turkeys last year, and my mother in law helped us by babysitting while friends came to help with processing. We're doing turkeys again this year, and meat chickens, and I have egg layers again! Plus last fall I bought two beef bottle calves, they are freemartins and are gorgeous. I picked up a breeding pair of kunekunes late in 2019, and some Durocs in January 2020 to butcher sooner. This year I'm planting a bigger garden due to all the food this child eats!! And am making progress on my swale/apple orchard/duck habitat space. 

Thanks for reading! I hate being so out of the loop here.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 16, 2020)

Oh, and I adopted an Anatolian Shepherd x Scotch Collie puppy and am raising him to be a porch guardian! Here he is with the true livestock guardian, Puff.


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## thistlebloom (Feb 16, 2020)

Love the pictures! You already have a garden in??


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## Mike CHS (Feb 16, 2020)

You sure have made some huge steps. Congratulations!


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## Baymule (Feb 16, 2020)

I love the pictures, the animals look so healthy. You take good care of them. I used to say that when you have a baby, you drop out of life for the first two years. LOL I'm glad that you dropped in to say hello to us, I know your hands are full.


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## Bruce (Feb 17, 2020)

You may have been gone but we waited for you!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 27, 2020)

thistlebloom said:


> Love the pictures! You already have a garden in??



Yes! This is the garden we started in summer 2019 and have just kind of kept going. I think we're Zone 6B or something like that, so we use row cover and mulch and plant good winter crops. The #1 winter crop we grow is spinach, followed by curly kale, lettuce, and turnips. I really want to try carrots this year! The beets we left in the ground and they stayed good until December. Then I left them in the soil until this week so they would keep weeds down and aeration up. This week I pulled them, fed them to my sheep, and planted peas. It's about time to plant spinach, kale, etc again too! I'm obsessed with year-round gardening and hope to have a greenhouse someday.


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## mysunwolf (Feb 27, 2020)

Baymule said:


> I love the pictures, the animals look so healthy. You take good care of them. I used to say that when you have a baby, you drop out of life for the first two years. LOL I'm glad that you dropped in to say hello to us, I know your hands are full.


 
You are TOO RIGHT, this baby thing sure takes up a lot of time  I thought I was busy before, but man was I surprised. We're doing okay now that we got the poor thing sleep trained, he sleeps 7:30p-6:30a daily and gives me some time to work in the evenings. Plus naps, and I carry him around a whole lot! Even though he's over 22lbs


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## Baymule (Feb 27, 2020)

Babies are great, you will see the world all brand new again through his eyes.


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## Mike CHS (Feb 28, 2020)

I planted a lot of beets last year but they never seemed to be drawn to them.  They nibbled on the greens and I pulled and chopped a bunch but they just left them.  Who knows what draws their taste buds?


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## Baymule (Feb 28, 2020)

Mike CHS said:


> I planted a lot of beets last year but they never seemed to be drawn to them.  They nibbled on the greens and I pulled and chopped a bunch but they just left them.  Who knows what draws their taste buds?


Plant them some pumpkins. Mine love pumpkins. It's fun to feed pumpkins to sheep. I hoist one over my head and slam it on the ground. It busts open, they swarm it like hungry wolves. LOL


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## mysunwolf (Jan 21, 2021)

Hey all, I know it's been a long time! Just wanted to stop in and give the annual report 

SO MUCH happened in 2020! Covid hit our pottery business hard in the first half of the year (since small gift shops had to remain closed, and many shut down). Luckily we had just gotten into wholesaling, and were able to see the business bounce back once our larger and/or online retailers went live again. The holidays were so crazy that DW didn't sleep much at all.

In May 2020 I quit my job at the local dairy, right before they started laying people off! I decided to stay home with my babe and take care of the farm. We also decided to get pregnant again, so look out for boy #2 coming in June!

In February 2020, my mom made an offer on the land next door (28 acres), and eventually we acquired it! She lives in FL, and bought it for us to farm on. She helped pay for some fencing, and in August 2020 her and my uncle invested in a herd of 9 bred Angus/cross cows with calves at their sides. They've needed a bit of TLC due to having accidentally been bred too young the first time, but they are beautiful stock. We added our two bottles calves, an older lame cow from the dairy I used to work at, and a guardian donkey with a torn ear to the herd (she is a useless guardian, but it's nice to have a donkey to look at).

We had a streak of bad luck starting in March 2020. It began with my totaling my old Toyota Highlander (best car ever), and didn't stop until Thanksgiving.

In this bad luck, I adopted an older puppy, Bash, to be trained by Puff, my best Pyrenees/Anatolian boy. Then Puff died of a large seizure (he had a history of them) only a few months into training the new recruit. I adopted a puppy, Lil, and an adult dog, Sully, in the hopes of creating a good pack, but had trouble keeping the adult dog in the fences and training him with the stock. I rehomed him with a rescue to a pet home, and kept both puppies. Lil we adopted at 3 months old in May 2020. She was a Karakachan cross, who had incredible instinct and was terrific with the stock. The older puppy, Bash, we adopted in March 2020. He needed a lot of work, and now I was out my best dog and had to do all the training myself. Then the small puppy disappeared after only 3 months of being an excellent little trainee and a wonderful companion. We're still not sure what happened, but all resources were exhausted and no trace of her anywhere. 

Meanwhile, Bash was left alone on the new property, so I brought him back over to our home property and chained him up until I found some time to train him. He is still our only LGD right now, though we will probably get a puppy in Spring 2022. A few months back he finally started to understand his job, and I can watch the wheels in his head click as he continues to make more connections and become a better dog.

In July I purchased a kunekune quad consisting of a boar, a barrow, and two gilts. They were 3+ years old and had never bred, but I decided to take a chance because they looked like nice stock. I added them to my boar and gilt that I already had, and watched my home boar start breeding the new females. 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days later, the gilts all became sows! Millie, my original girl, only had two and promptly squished them. I fattened her up and culled her a few months later (we're still eating and selling her delicious meat).

The other two sows were excellent moms, each having 6 babies and doing a fantastic job of raising them. I sold 5/12 from the two litters and decided to retain the rest, either due to defects or keeping back some females. In January 2021, I purchased my first registered kunekune, a nice young boar to breed with my two sows! Plus their gilts when the time comes. We are officially in the kunekune business. 

We raised double the number of turkeys that we usually do, and still managed to sell all 24! Two days of processing later, and I swore I'd never do another turkey season again. Guess we'll see. We don't make quite enough money for it to be worth it, but it's a nice service to the community to provide fresh-never-frozen, local, pasture raised, nonGMO fed, broad breasted bronze turkeys for Thanksgiving. 

We raised two batches of meat birds in 2020. Due to Covid and the meat scare, we sold out of the first batch which was actually intended for us! So I was forced to ask the hatchery to ship us another round of birds for our own freezer. We love love LOVE Freedom Ranger Hatchery and their birds. This year we raised Color Yields, and they are some lovely tender birds with white pin feathers that are still excellent foragers with great tenderness and flavor in the meat.

We did very well keeping all the lambs from getting barber pole worms this year! Instead, my market lambs all started to drop dead from a combination of coccidiosis and clostridium about a month before they were supposed to go to market. I actually had to contact a lamb share customer and inform them that I had lost their lamb and couldn't fulfill their order. What a horrible reminder that sheep are so fragile. My ewes and ewe lambs avoided the deadly outbreak as they were separated, so that was the good news. We bred everyone for more lambs in August/September 2020, and began lambing last week (January 2021).

The good news is that lambing has gone well so far, and we're getting a decent number of ewe lambs this year. We're going to try some different techniques for raising them in 2021 as clearly I can't properly manage a feedlot-style operation for my ram lambs.

Towards the end of the season, we decided to go visit my family in FL for Christmas despite Covid. I slaughtered a bunch of animals in preparation, including a rabbit we had acquired from out of nowhere, and two piglets that I didn't want to carry over the winter. In doing this, I got to use a rifle and shoot my first animal, one of the piglets! This was only the second time I've ever fired a gun. I've got a lot more practice to do, but I was proud to be as accurate as I was. The FL visit went great, we mostly wore masks and distanced when possible, and we got to ring in the new year in a much warmer place.

All in all, we struggled a lot all 2020 financially with the baby, loss of income, and a lot of new farm critters to feed. I still haven't paid the man for the cattle that we have, but he seemed just fine with that. Hopefully I will not lose enough money this winter that I can pay him this coming summer. We are behind on farm and house goals because we had to divert all money to paying electricity and food. I know many folks live like this all the time, and I'm grateful that our savings carried us through. And towards the end of the year and the holidays, business picked up enough that we could stop worrying so much.

Currently, I have a bunch of lambs and kunekune piglets running around. There will be a fresh batch of pullet chicks to add to the brooder in February. The cattle will be calving in March, as well as our ewe lambs lambing. I'm going to breed my kunekunes again in April, and will hopefully be delivering my second baby in June.

Wishing you all a peaceful 2021!


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## Baymule (Jan 22, 2021)

Whew! That's a LOT going on! First up, CONGRATULATIONS on the baby coming in June. Really happy for you!

Sorry that 2020 has been so tough for y'all. It hit lots of people real hard, I am glad that things are getting better. 

The pigs are sounding good, you have quite the herd going, wish you much success with them. Around here, with Covid, suddenly everyone wants to be a farmer and raise pigs and a garden, oh and chickens too. Slaughter facilities are booked out over a year in advance and feeder pig prices are just stupid. 

Cows! Calves and more to come! Are y'all going to keep a steer for the freezer?


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## mysunwolf (Jan 22, 2021)

Baymule said:


> Whew! That's a LOT going on! First up, CONGRATULATIONS on the baby coming in June. Really happy for you!
> 
> Sorry that 2020 has been so tough for y'all. It hit lots of people real hard, I am glad that things are getting better.
> 
> ...



Bay, I am so glad to talk to you! 

2020 was a rollercoaster, I'm glad to be off that particular ride. I think a lot of people had it much worse than us, so that looking back I feel lucky. In the moment, I certainly felt cursed. 

We have been able to get pig slots 8-10 months in advance, but beef slots have been impossible. Luckily there's a processor about 3hrs away that has openings. I have scheduled 2 bottle babies for February and 5 steers for September. I've been grateful, we scheduled a pig date right when the Covid mess hit and were able to get some processed, even if they were small. The kunekunes take 12-18months to reach 200lbs, BUT we don't feed them May through October, they just forage. I'll take that as a win. We are also perfectly capable of butchering our own, but it's so nice to have some to sell for customers.

Since my mom and uncle own part of the herd, I told them we can share some beef with them  But they pay for processing! So far so good. We are keeping a beef back for us to eat on, but also to have some more product to sell at the farmers market and start establishing a reputation as beef folks so that we can sell more shares instead of sending so many to auction.

Can you tell I'm excited to be expanding my farm?

OOPS and forgot the most exciting thing. In the Fall of 2020, I enrolled in the local community college and am taking science courses. I already have a bachelor's in sociology, but I want to apply to a veterinary sciences program. Doing school part time, I should be done with my vet school pre-requisites by Spring 2023 and can apply to vet programs for that fall. 

Do I sound crazy yet?


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## Baymule (Jan 22, 2021)

Not crazy at all. Sounds to me that you are living a life others can only dream about. Reach for that golden ring on the merry go round, grab it and go for it!


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## Baymule (Jan 22, 2021)

With all you have going on, I know life is going to be busy, busy, busy. BUT, please check in with us from time to time!


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## Bruce (Jan 24, 2021)

mysunwolf said:


> Do I sound crazy yet?


Yes! 2 small children and Vet school? You must be the Energizer Bunny! 

It does seem you had enough 2020 to cover several normal years. Hopefully all the animals will work out this year and more than pay for themselves. 

Thanks for checking in!!


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## mysunwolf (Feb 24, 2021)

If all goes well tomorrow morning, we'll be sending out first calves to auction! We have to get the whole herd into the working area, then somehow sort out just calves into the smaller loading area, tomorrow morning. Our infinitely generous neighbor is going to then come over and help load them onto his trailer, help me register at the auction house, and potentially help me move the remaining calves to our 4 acre property for weaning. I'll keep you updated in case it's a rodeo! I'm trying to be careful as I'm 6 months pregnant now. But sometimes things just have to get done.

Today the toddler and I transplanted grape vines from a weedy section of our front yard to a spot in our mini orchard where the pigs cleared sod last season.

The yearling ewes will start lambing next week, I can't wait to see the babies. Then our first calving sometime in March/April.

It's been a busy year already!

Vet school application is due in September 2021 for the fall 2022 school year. Now to make the big decision as to whether or not I can afford to have student loans that big on a large animal vet's meager salary...


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## Baymule (Feb 24, 2021)

Student loans are predatory loans at their worst. You don’t have to pay them back until you graduate but the interest is started immediately. The money piles up, once you start paying it back, unless you pay 2-4 times the payment, the balance continues to grow. 

Rounding up, separating and loading the calves sounds like fun! Lucky you to have such a helpful neighbor. Just be careful and don’t hurt yourself.


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## Bruce (Feb 25, 2021)

mysunwolf said:


> Today the toddler and I transplanted grape vines from a weedy section of our front yard to a spot in our mini orchard where the pigs cleared sod last season.


I bet you got a LOT of help from the little one 



mysunwolf said:


> Now to make the big decision as to whether or not I can afford to have student loans that big on a large animal vet's meager salary...


That is a tough one. I'm all over the place on student loan forgiveness. $50K? I don't think so, $10K, yeah I can go with that. Something in between? 🤷‍♂️

BUT, government student loans should be really low, if not NO, interest.


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## B&B Happy goats (Feb 25, 2021)

No interest would be best in my opinion....


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## mysunwolf (Jan 28, 2022)

Just thought I'd pop in again and say hi. I miss actually having regular talks with everyone here, but I have so little time anymore  

You can always check out my instagram for more photos, but I'll share some below.

We grazed partway into January this year. Then there was a giant snowstorm, and that pretty much ended that for the sheep. Although the cattle continued to graze through the snow! We are exceptionally short on hay this year, so I'll be glad when winter is over for sure.

We still have our herd of Angus crosses on the 30 acre property, and so far they are doing fairly well, although we have had a huge amount of loss and mysterious illness in the calves, and just recently a cow. I say mysterious because we have done multiple necropsies and consulted with multiple vets, and there's no definitive answer or prevention strategy. We're assuming leptospirosis and treating accordingly. 








Obviously I still have my small flock of dairy sheep crosses. They are still my favorite animal on the farm and honestly the most enjoyable overall, except maybe during parasite season. 










We also still have some egg layers and do sell a few dozen a week. Just enough to pay the feed bill.




And we still have our kunekune pigs! I have a breeding pair and the sow is going to be 5 or 6 this year, so we have saved back three of her gilts and purchased in one more gilt to have some more for breeding. Sadly, I didn't save them back soon enough, because we have so many piglet requests and none on the way! The older sow just didn't take the last two times I've tried to breed her.







The kids and the going back to school thing are keeping me busy. Because of the lack of reliable childcare, I delayed my application by a year (can only take one class at a time while watching the baby), and so will be applying this fall for potential acceptance for next fall. Mind you, vet school is so competitive and I am way off my game--I haven't been in school for over a decade, and am older and have children now. Plus I am having trouble getting any vets to let me shadow them for my required shadowing hours! Hopefully things will settle themselves into place soon. I'm going to do my best and see how things play out.

If you read all that, I hope you are also doing well with your BYH life  and thanks for stopping by!


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## Baymule (Jan 28, 2022)

I'm so glad to hear from you. It sounds like things are going well for you and family. Children do keep their parents busy, plus running a farm. Stop by more often, if you can. Always enjoy your posts.


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## Bruce (Jan 28, 2022)

Nice of you to swing by and update us


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