My Sheep Journal~ I'm a grandma! Black Betty had twins!!!

[abooth]

Hi Bee, I am in your neighboring state of Kentucky and it is so dry here. I have a pic on my fridge from July of my two Cheviot lambs. They are standing in knee high green grass. Now when I look outsid eit is brown and barren. It is supposed to rain all day here but it is sloww in starting. I have been feeding hay for a few weeks now. They always have a full haynet in their shelter but I have been sprinkling my better hay around the paddock so they can pretend they are grazing. I feed supplemental grain because I have a ewe lamb I hope to breed this fall and would like her to reach her target weight when she is 7 or 8 months old.

 

[Beekissed]

Same here...starting to look like Texas here. I've never seen it this dry in the mountains. I'm going to start feeding hay next week or so....much to my dismay. I really like to finish the year on fall fescue as it seems to make them so chubby going into winter and seems to really sustain them.....won't be able to this year at all unless we get some frequent, miraculous rains.

 

[Beekissed]

I'll be selling my lovely sheeples soon and so will be ending this sheep journal. I am writing a book on homesteading and how to make do this winter and need to concentrate on it fully.

Keeping hair sheep has been an education and a treat. I love everything about them. A lady at church bought a small flock when she got acquainted with mine, so I will be selling my girls to her. They will have a nice green valley in which to romp and rest.

Oh, how I will miss their funny faces!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Aw, I'm sorry to hear that!

 

[abooth]

I will miss your sheep journal. It has been my favorite part of this forum.

 

[Beekissed]

Thank you, Abooth! That means so much! I will tell you this...I am writing a book on homesteading and just hillbilly make do kind of stuff and will be including a chapter on raising small livestock on small acreage.

I'm taking time off raising animals and just life in general to develop a website and blog to discuss aspects of the book to see if there is enough interests in the content. I'll post links to it here when I get it up and running.

The book will be titled Hillbilly Women and What We Know. It will be sort of a how to book on making do in a practical way and how to raise a family on the cheap. When I was growing up we homesteaded off grid and we learned so much...and I'm still learning.

I'll have step by step pics on how to process chickens, gut and skin deer or small livestock, how to make bread, cook on a woodstove, grow a garden, clip chicken wings, dose a sheep, trim hooves, etc....simple stuff really but seems to be a lot of folks wanting to learn it right now and don't have a grandma around to show them.

It will really be a book about women and for women, so I'm hoping that the book will garner interest from all the women who are now trying to find economical ways to raise a family by getting into growing their own foods.

Sound like anything you all would find interesting?

There will be lots of pics of my life as a youngster on the homestead, more pics of what we learned since then and I hope to follow this book with one about the new generation of hillbilly women...their suburban/country life and would like to showcase women all over the US who are doing their own kind of homesteading...but without the actual homestead.

One chapter on goats~women who raise them, milk them, make their own cheeses, etc. Best breeds for a small holding.

One on sheep for fiber, milk and for meat and the women who are now getting into sheep. Best breeds for each.

Chickens definitely and the ins and outs of owning them while living in zoned areas and the difference in backyard chickens lives.

Frugal lifestyles and how folks are managing in a hard economical landscape.

It should be fun and informative and help others develop their own skills in this area.

 

[abooth]

I would be very interested in a book like that. Good luck with your new adventure!

 

[Beekissed]

Well, after some long hard thought and many tears, I've decided I can't lose my girls. Will be fixing up winter pen and feeding station after next week and reseeding all pastures and garden plots.

I can't lose my gals....for some reason for which I do not know, these sheep have become quite dear to me. I feel a special bond with them, much like the one I have with my dogs. Funny..... :/

So....for now, the sheeples will stay!

I took a look at where they would be boarded for the winter and, though it was nice and they would have other healthy sheep with which they will reside, they would be in a winter pen just like here. Six of one, half dozen of the other really.

Anyone ever use bark mulch to keep winter penning drier and more solid footing than mud? If so, how did that work out?

 

[goodhors]

Because bark is a natural product, it will be breaking down over time. With busy sheep hooves churning it up, that may be faster than you think.

Horse folks in some areas have experimented with bark mulch for footing in riding areas. All said they cursed later, as footing turned into a slippery slurry with use. It actually got to be WORSE footing with the mulch, than it ever was just riding on frozen ground. Again, the bark was breaking down while wet, trying to turn back into dirt.

A suggestion for your shelter, maybe some of the pen area, would be using stall mats. You could lay the mats, put bedding, mulch over them, and clean off the wet stuff every week or so, add to your compost pile. Then spread new bedding, whatever you choose. I have used the mats for covering some AWFUL mudholes, and it works pretty well, you only sink a little! Sheep are not much weight on the mats, and things should stay in place pretty well over the season. Mats let you scrape up bedding easily, give the animals a dry base place to lay down and insulates them from ground cold pulling heat out of them.

I know mats are not cheap, but sometimes they are on sale. Sometimes you can find mats used at lower prices. I think having mats allows you to have a better stall area with good footing, able to keep it both clean and neat with bedding removal. Can't do that on dirt, especially ROUGH frozen dirt!

Another mat alternative is the foam puzzle mats that interlock for kids. Come in packages of 1ft or 2ft squares. You lock them together for a big mat, put that on the ground and bed over. These mats are much lighter weight, so they might move around under the animals. Not rubber, so a fork might poke holes in them. Actually not much cheaper either, for the footage they cover. Handling them in squares is easier than solid stall mats. They do come in bright colors!

So I would probably not use bark mulch as bedding unless it was over a mat so I could clean it out regularly. Any mud you have normally, will be much increased and end up as nastier stuff with the mulch as a cover. Sheeps could end up to their knees or higher, in muck stuff. Then you have hoof and skin problems because they never dry out.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Why do you need to put them in a winter pen? I take it to mean that's going to be a smaller area than where they are now? Aren't they roaming your yard?

If you do use bark, I'd try to find a mill that has large pieces. It'll take much longer to bread down than regular old flowerbed shredded mulch.

Perhaps you can do some grading in their pen to help water drain away quickly?

ETA: I've also seen/heard of people using pallets as walking areas in heavily travelled paths. You may need to do some minor work to move slats closer together so hooves can't slip through, but many times you can find free pallets from warehouses, so it's just a little elbow grease involved.