A NEW DIRECTION FOR THE OLD RAM

[farmerjan]

Cute pups, and @Bruce is right, super composition on the "wine " picture....
Have read that things are really under lockdown there....
Spring will come.... one of these days....
So glad that the lambing is going well. That really helps.
Is your daughter still coming out to help with Jenny? I know that it has to be hard on you.

Are you still doing the radio program?
Glad to see your posts...

 

[Ridgetop]

The scenery view in the wine picture is lovely. Those rolling hills remind me of California. I hope the weather has gotten better.

I hope you and Jenny are doing ok. I know her condition will continue to deteriorate. I am so sorry for you having to go through this. I think it is worse for the caregiver at this point since she no longer knows who you are. Although feeling ost in a strange life must be horrible for her. Hugs to you both.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day from Downunder ,hope you folks are all well and coping with your various degrees of "lockdown"?

Thought it was time for some "lamb spam" ,hope you all enjoy...T.O.R.

 

[Baymule]

I love your spotty sheep!

 

[Mini Horses]

I'm with Bay -- eye candy! But I also appreciate that fence in last pic!

 

[Bruce]

I'm not a big fan of canned spam
nor email spam
but LAMB spam is great! Thanks!!

I hope all is going as well as it can be for you and Jenny.

 

[Ridgetop]

Do you have a lot of trouble with dingoes as predators? Here we have coyotes. England has foxes which are about the size of our smaller coyotes. Do you keep guardian dogs in Australia against predators?

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day and "thank you" everyone for your comments....Mini, that fence can be the basis of a valuable deterrent for escapees and intruders as well. It's plain wire (I use medium tensile gal wire for ease of handling and tying off),erecting is time consuming because you have to thread every wire through the holes .I assume that your steel post are hole stamped the same as ours. The closeness of the bottom holes is such that only "mice " can come through and the tension is such that it is quite difficult for anything to "dig under". A tension gauge on your strainers is a "must"(IMO) and I use a tension of 150 kgs a running meter as a guide. I do think it would be possible to run 1 or 2 "hot wires" above this point to deter "climbers". When straining wires I tie off the ends first and and strain to the middle, this means you do not lose and tension at the end points and the tension is maintained over the whole distance .On undulating ground you will have to "tie down" some steels. I have used this system on strains of up to 300 meters.

Dingo's are not a problem for us this close in ,but out west on large runs 10,000 acs and more they are now using close woven mesh 6 ft high with an apron on the ground to deter 'diggers". The English Fox is our worst one and yes some folks are using LGD's and Al Alpacas, in fact we bred the Italian Maremma's in the 80's when we had the goats.

Thank you Bruce, things with jenny continue to progress at an increasing rate and the correlation between my name and me is all but gone now. In the main increasingly Jen's care is all consuming and there are days when the time for a Bourbon or two can not come "quick" enough (lol)...T.O.R.

 

[Ridgetop]

Hugs to you both. It is harder for you to go through this than poor Jenny.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day folks ,the other pup is now ready for a new home. Along with the photos of him I thought a pic of his father and granddad .His dad is shown supporting a pup on the first time he was asked to control a mob ,note the ram who turned back on the pup ,but he held his ground. His grandad was a wonderful dog and produced many good working dogs over his lifetime.