Baymule
Herd Master
You did not depress me, glad I could cheer you up. I love you! The herd is here for you, we all will cheer you up.
Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along
- Thread starter Ridgetop
- Start date
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Ridgetop
Herd Master
I have been putting this terrible news off for several days now. My dear friend, who has “adopted” me as her daughter, has had terrible news from her doctor. She is the friend we cruise with. On our cruise, just as we arrived in Hawaii, she noticed that the lymph glands in her neck above her collar bone had suddenly swelled up. As soon as we returned home she saw her doctor who scheduled an ultrasound. The glands have continued to swell. After the ultrasound her doctor scheduled a needle biopsy. Today she told me that the biopsy showed her cancer has returned. She will be having more tests to find out what type and where it has settled. She just had a lot of tests and a clean bill of health several months ago but had been feeling poorly during the cruise and since. We have been worried about her for some time since she has continually been losing weight for the past 6 years. She also has had terrible stomach and colon problems but all the tests over the past several years have been coming back negative until now. Her doctor told her that at her age (89 in May) chemo would kill her so that only leaves radiation. Her daughter died years ago from pancreatic cancer, she herself had breast cancer, and many members of her family have died of cancer. We are very worried about the prognosis. I will find out more Friday. At any rate, I can't consider moving until I know what is happening with her. We will continue getting the property ready for eventual sale though.
DH told me that as soon as we finish with our taxes he wants us to drive up to Washington state.
I vetoed that plan due to the Covid 18. DH insisted that we would be safe traveling up there. I just rolled my eyes at him and told him I wasn't going anywhere for a while. My brothers and sister live in King County - about to be quarantined within their county! LOL When he heard that on the news he still didn't think it would matter but when I pointed out that King County was where they all live he decided we should wait to go to Washington for a few months. 
No need to take a long road trip right now anyway. The weather in Washington is cold and wet. Why bother driving up there in bad weather, staying in motel rooms and eating food prepared by strangers with this virus floating around. We are old so prime candidates for contagion although we don't have any underlying problems. Still why take chances if there is no need?
Bubba will be 4 years old in 9 days and seems to have finally realized how to act around newborn lambs. One ewe that didn’t look quite ready was left in the field pen with the ewe who has a month old lamb. One lamb was curled up quietly in the barn while the mama ewe was at the bottom of the pen 200 feet down, with the other mama and the month old lamb. DS1 climbed down to see if there was a second lamb – the only reason for her to abandon her newborn - and there was. Bubba somehow had gotten into the pen with them as well. DS1 was carrying the lamb and yelling at Bubba who was snapping at the lamb while DS! Tried to carry it up the hill. I started down the hill to help him but DS1 yelled at me to stay where I was because he didn’t want me to “fall down”. Impertinent boy!
Bubba knocked DS1 off balance causing him to almost fall. He dropped/set down the lamb. Mama rushed over to her baby and Bubba rushed over to both of them. DS1 started to yell at Bubba thinking he was going to get rough with the lamb and ewe. SURPRISE!!! Instead of trying to steal her lamb and drive off mama, Bubba assumed the correct guardian dog position in front of the ewe. With about 5 feet between them, he sat down in front of her watching as she cleaned her lamb and coaxed it to nurse. I told DS1 not to grab Bubba but to just watch him for a while to see f he behaved himself. Bubba got up and took one step toward the lamb and the ewe swung her head toward Bubba. Bubba backed up and sat back down again. He didn’t move again until DS1 picked up the lamb and carried it up the hill. Bubba resumed his snapping trying to get the lamb from DS1. Once back in the barn with the lamb in the ground Bubba again backed off and just watched the ewe and lamb. Rika was in the barn eating the placenta and although Bubba passed right by her, he didn’t argue over the tasty tidbit.
It was a EUREKA MOMENT! My baby boy has grown up to be a wonderful guardian. Apparently, Bubba has very definite ideas of WHERE his sheep should be and where they should stay put. When they escape from the field and wander in across the driveway, he tries to put them back. He actually gets in our way as we struggle to do the same which is very annoying. When turning the sheep out on the field for the first time after they have been penned in a different area for several months, Bubba gets upset and tries to drive them back to the other area. After about a week in the new area he calms down but them gets upset if they are driven anywhere else. He is apparently COPD.
Another good thing about this whole scenario is knowing that all the dogs can get into that small pen leading from the barn even when they are locked out of the barn! That small pen is where we like to put mamas with tiny lambs since it has enough barn space to shelter them all in heavy rain. However, it lays alongside the property line and the neighbors do not have it fenced. Predators might be able to get under or over our property line fence since it is open beyond that. Knowing that all the LGDs can access the pen from the rest of the field is very reassuring.
The last 3 ewes all lambed this morning. 4 ram lambs. 1 sets of twins and 2 singles we thought. Well, last night another surprise. 14 hours after giving birth easily and successfully to a nice large ram lamb, my last Axtell ewe delivered a second ram lamb! Sadly, this one was delivered rear feet first and although the sac opened on his rear feet, his head stayed encased in the sac. He was dead when we found him. I am not sure if the ewe, as a first-time mama, did not realize she was delivering another lamb and so did not try to take care of him, or if he was born dead. There was no orange discoloration as usually occurs when the lamb in distress. This lamb was probably born from the other horn as we had experienced years ago with a large Suffolk ewe. That ewe had a gigantic ewe lamb around 5 pm and twin ram lambs at 7 am the next morning! Luckily the boys were in the barn doing the milking and saw her delivering. They got me and we made sure she took care of the lambs. That Suffolk had numerous lambs before so was experienced. she raised all 3 lambs easily. I had checked that Suffolk inside after lambing the ewe lamb and she had no lambs left in her, so I knew for sure that she had emptied that uterine horn. The other lambs were in the other horn! I did not go into this ewe after she had the ram lamb in the morning - he was dry and fed already and she had passed the afterbirth. But since the other lamb was born 14 hours later, I am pretty sure that this is what happened this time as well. Always surprises!
At any rate, we have finished lambing for this year. I will have to take a good look at the ewe lambs and their pedigrees to decide which ones I will keep as replacements this year. I will probably keep them all. I need to replace the 2 Axtell ewes – one of the replacements will be the surviving ewe lamb from the prolapsed ewe. I have decided to take a chance on her since I want that bloodline and she is all I have from 2 ewes with the same lines. She is really bouncy and vigorous. My granddaughter has named her Snowflake. We docked her today, but left on about 2-3" of tail. The best Axtell ewe is the one that had the 2 ram lambs 14 hours apart. I will not be keeping any ram lambs but breed her next season and hope she twins again. That double horn pregnancy is a fluke so hopefully she will conceive in just one horn this time like normal. I have 2 Moy sired ewe lambs and 2 Axtell sired ewe lambs born last fall, this ewe lamb out of the prolapse Axtell ewe is sired by Lewis. I will probably keep all of them. The West Coast Dorper show was moved to Reno, NV, and I don’t think we will be able to go. I will be looking at the on-line sale in May and then again next October to see if there is anything affordable that I like. In the meantime, I have 5 little ewe lambs to watch to see how good they are and how well they shed out.
All the lambs are nursing well which was to be expected since now I have received my order of 25 lbs. of powdered lamb formula, DS2 picked up 15 quarts of frozen goat milk, and 2 pints of goat colostrum from his old 4-H friend. DS1 also found 2 quarts of goat milk at Target. Apparently the grocery does not carry goat milk anymore!
Now that I have a good supply for any bummer lambs, I will not have any more emergencies! 
That is the always the Ridgetop way. LOL I also finally located some more nipples to fit regular mouth canning jars. I already have nipples that fit on soda bottles and that I can fit to a lamb bucket, but I prefer using canning jars to feed new lambs and kids. The nipples are available from Caprine Supply and are the ones sold for the EZ Nurser bottle. They fit on the canning jar with a ring over them. I like them because you can rinse them out with cold water then sterilize them in the dishwasher. Washing canning jars in the dishwasher is so much easier than trying to wash out soda bottles. I use the half pints for colostrum and the first feedings, pints as they grown and finally quart jars. I never feed more than a quart at a time and by the time they are several weeks old they are only getting 1 quart am and 1 quart pm. This encourages them to eat hay faster. With the canning jars you can also make a day’s supply of formula/milk, seal it, and store it in the jars in the fridge until time to feed each day. Actually no need to heat to body temperature either, just take a little of the fridge chill off and feed. DS2 hates the EZ Nurser nipples since when the lambs and kids get older, they can butt the nipple and push it into the jar spilling milk everywhere!
March 5, 2020
One of my good keeper lamb has some strange injuries. The inside of her rear legs are covered in punctures and scrapes, and she has 2 long shallow cuts on either side of her neck. I will post a picture. We think she must have become entangled in wire somehow but are upper flank, we are worried about some sort of sharp metal somewhere. It happened during the day or we might think that something had gotten inside the perimeter. With 3 large adult, 2 and ½, Anatolians in their prime we are leaning to the wire idea. We will have to check out the property. In the meantime, I washed out the punctures and cuts and have been giving her 2.5 ml penicillin each day. I will check the punctures to see if they are swelling and sowing any infection. If I see any, I will have to open them up, drain then if necessary, and use the dry mastitis tube antibiotic on them. Those tubes can get to the bottom of the punctures and are very useful in treating puncture wounds. I keep them for the dogs, but they will work on the sheep too. Unfortunately, the punctures had started to skin over when we saw the wounds. I think the daily penicillin injections will work.
On an amusing note (much needed at this point) our newborn lambs have learned how to get through the pen bars in the jugs. They have gone visiting each other to play together. At first DS1 replaced them in the correct jugs. Then he saw that they returned to their mothers for meals and naptime. This morning one of them had managed to get inside the large walk-in scale that was living in one of the jugs – unfortunately he couldn’t figure out how to exit it! He was returned to his jug. We will tag this weekend although all 5 of these little rams are destined for freezer camp. . However, I like to keep records and compare weight gain among my lambs so I can see which ewes produce the best. We are going to weigh all lambs this weekend and separate them the older ones. I want to grain them a little to finish them off before they go to the butcher. The small ones might go to a Halal butcher depending on what they are prepared to pay. The man said his customers want them at 40 lbs. because they are tender. My lambs weigh 40 lbs. by 2 months old so that would cut costs of raising by several months of feed. I could get the ewes back into production sooner which means I could more easily plan my breeding schedule.
March 10
The ewe lamb with the punctures is recovering with 2.5 ml penicillin every day. Today one of the butcher wethers turned up with similar punctures to one of his back legs. DS2 is wondering if Angel s trying to play with the lambs. She is 16 months old and hasn't done this before. We will have to keep an eye on her. Tomorrow we will move that lamb into the barn with the ewe lamb and start him on a course of penicillin. My 18 gauge needles arrived today - after DS1 picked some up from the feed store! Oh, that Ridgetop luck! Found another 2 lamb buyers today so that is nice. The wife's father is Basque so she grew up eating and loving lamb. She was thrilled to find out I raised them.
Anyway, been raining hard here today which is good. We need it. The Field of Celibacy is completely cleaned out of any green stuff. The rams have eaten every morsel. It is just about time to separate the ewes out and move them into breeding flocks with the appropriate rams.
The oven parts have finally come in to repair the oven. It is only 4 years old and has taken a month to get the parts to repair it. It is difficult to cook for 5 adults and a couple of occasional children using only my microwave and an Instapot. We are getting a little tired of stews. It reminds me of when we remov=deled the kitchen and had no stove at all for months.
The2 repairmen are coming tomorrow to pull the oven out of the cabinet, repair it, and reinstall it. Meatloaf and baked potatoes here we come! 
DH told me that as soon as we finish with our taxes he wants us to drive up to Washington state.
I vetoed that plan due to the Covid 18. DH insisted that we would be safe traveling up there. I just rolled my eyes at him and told him I wasn't going anywhere for a while. My brothers and sister live in King County - about to be quarantined within their county! LOL When he heard that on the news he still didn't think it would matter but when I pointed out that King County was where they all live he decided we should wait to go to Washington for a few months. No need to take a long road trip right now anyway. The weather in Washington is cold and wet. Why bother driving up there in bad weather, staying in motel rooms and eating food prepared by strangers with this virus floating around. We are old so prime candidates for contagion although we don't have any underlying problems. Still why take chances if there is no need? Bubba will be 4 years old in 9 days and seems to have finally realized how to act around newborn lambs. One ewe that didn’t look quite ready was left in the field pen with the ewe who has a month old lamb. One lamb was curled up quietly in the barn while the mama ewe was at the bottom of the pen 200 feet down, with the other mama and the month old lamb. DS1 climbed down to see if there was a second lamb – the only reason for her to abandon her newborn - and there was. Bubba somehow had gotten into the pen with them as well. DS1 was carrying the lamb and yelling at Bubba who was snapping at the lamb while DS! Tried to carry it up the hill. I started down the hill to help him but DS1 yelled at me to stay where I was because he didn’t want me to “fall down”. Impertinent boy!
Bubba knocked DS1 off balance causing him to almost fall. He dropped/set down the lamb. Mama rushed over to her baby and Bubba rushed over to both of them. DS1 started to yell at Bubba thinking he was going to get rough with the lamb and ewe. SURPRISE!!! Instead of trying to steal her lamb and drive off mama, Bubba assumed the correct guardian dog position in front of the ewe. With about 5 feet between them, he sat down in front of her watching as she cleaned her lamb and coaxed it to nurse. I told DS1 not to grab Bubba but to just watch him for a while to see f he behaved himself. Bubba got up and took one step toward the lamb and the ewe swung her head toward Bubba. Bubba backed up and sat back down again. He didn’t move again until DS1 picked up the lamb and carried it up the hill. Bubba resumed his snapping trying to get the lamb from DS1. Once back in the barn with the lamb in the ground Bubba again backed off and just watched the ewe and lamb. Rika was in the barn eating the placenta and although Bubba passed right by her, he didn’t argue over the tasty tidbit.
It was a EUREKA MOMENT! My baby boy has grown up to be a wonderful guardian. Apparently, Bubba has very definite ideas of WHERE his sheep should be and where they should stay put. When they escape from the field and wander in across the driveway, he tries to put them back. He actually gets in our way as we struggle to do the same which is very annoying. When turning the sheep out on the field for the first time after they have been penned in a different area for several months, Bubba gets upset and tries to drive them back to the other area. After about a week in the new area he calms down but them gets upset if they are driven anywhere else. He is apparently COPD.
Another good thing about this whole scenario is knowing that all the dogs can get into that small pen leading from the barn even when they are locked out of the barn! That small pen is where we like to put mamas with tiny lambs since it has enough barn space to shelter them all in heavy rain. However, it lays alongside the property line and the neighbors do not have it fenced. Predators might be able to get under or over our property line fence since it is open beyond that. Knowing that all the LGDs can access the pen from the rest of the field is very reassuring.
The last 3 ewes all lambed this morning. 4 ram lambs. 1 sets of twins and 2 singles we thought. Well, last night another surprise. 14 hours after giving birth easily and successfully to a nice large ram lamb, my last Axtell ewe delivered a second ram lamb! Sadly, this one was delivered rear feet first and although the sac opened on his rear feet, his head stayed encased in the sac. He was dead when we found him. I am not sure if the ewe, as a first-time mama, did not realize she was delivering another lamb and so did not try to take care of him, or if he was born dead. There was no orange discoloration as usually occurs when the lamb in distress. This lamb was probably born from the other horn as we had experienced years ago with a large Suffolk ewe. That ewe had a gigantic ewe lamb around 5 pm and twin ram lambs at 7 am the next morning! Luckily the boys were in the barn doing the milking and saw her delivering. They got me and we made sure she took care of the lambs. That Suffolk had numerous lambs before so was experienced. she raised all 3 lambs easily. I had checked that Suffolk inside after lambing the ewe lamb and she had no lambs left in her, so I knew for sure that she had emptied that uterine horn. The other lambs were in the other horn! I did not go into this ewe after she had the ram lamb in the morning - he was dry and fed already and she had passed the afterbirth. But since the other lamb was born 14 hours later, I am pretty sure that this is what happened this time as well. Always surprises!
At any rate, we have finished lambing for this year. I will have to take a good look at the ewe lambs and their pedigrees to decide which ones I will keep as replacements this year. I will probably keep them all. I need to replace the 2 Axtell ewes – one of the replacements will be the surviving ewe lamb from the prolapsed ewe. I have decided to take a chance on her since I want that bloodline and she is all I have from 2 ewes with the same lines. She is really bouncy and vigorous. My granddaughter has named her Snowflake. We docked her today, but left on about 2-3" of tail. The best Axtell ewe is the one that had the 2 ram lambs 14 hours apart. I will not be keeping any ram lambs but breed her next season and hope she twins again. That double horn pregnancy is a fluke so hopefully she will conceive in just one horn this time like normal. I have 2 Moy sired ewe lambs and 2 Axtell sired ewe lambs born last fall, this ewe lamb out of the prolapse Axtell ewe is sired by Lewis. I will probably keep all of them. The West Coast Dorper show was moved to Reno, NV, and I don’t think we will be able to go. I will be looking at the on-line sale in May and then again next October to see if there is anything affordable that I like. In the meantime, I have 5 little ewe lambs to watch to see how good they are and how well they shed out.
All the lambs are nursing well which was to be expected since now I have received my order of 25 lbs. of powdered lamb formula, DS2 picked up 15 quarts of frozen goat milk, and 2 pints of goat colostrum from his old 4-H friend. DS1 also found 2 quarts of goat milk at Target. Apparently the grocery does not carry goat milk anymore!
Now that I have a good supply for any bummer lambs, I will not have any more emergencies! That is the always the Ridgetop way. LOL I also finally located some more nipples to fit regular mouth canning jars. I already have nipples that fit on soda bottles and that I can fit to a lamb bucket, but I prefer using canning jars to feed new lambs and kids. The nipples are available from Caprine Supply and are the ones sold for the EZ Nurser bottle. They fit on the canning jar with a ring over them. I like them because you can rinse them out with cold water then sterilize them in the dishwasher. Washing canning jars in the dishwasher is so much easier than trying to wash out soda bottles. I use the half pints for colostrum and the first feedings, pints as they grown and finally quart jars. I never feed more than a quart at a time and by the time they are several weeks old they are only getting 1 quart am and 1 quart pm. This encourages them to eat hay faster. With the canning jars you can also make a day’s supply of formula/milk, seal it, and store it in the jars in the fridge until time to feed each day. Actually no need to heat to body temperature either, just take a little of the fridge chill off and feed. DS2 hates the EZ Nurser nipples since when the lambs and kids get older, they can butt the nipple and push it into the jar spilling milk everywhere!March 5, 2020
One of my good keeper lamb has some strange injuries. The inside of her rear legs are covered in punctures and scrapes, and she has 2 long shallow cuts on either side of her neck. I will post a picture. We think she must have become entangled in wire somehow but are upper flank, we are worried about some sort of sharp metal somewhere. It happened during the day or we might think that something had gotten inside the perimeter. With 3 large adult, 2 and ½, Anatolians in their prime we are leaning to the wire idea. We will have to check out the property. In the meantime, I washed out the punctures and cuts and have been giving her 2.5 ml penicillin each day. I will check the punctures to see if they are swelling and sowing any infection. If I see any, I will have to open them up, drain then if necessary, and use the dry mastitis tube antibiotic on them. Those tubes can get to the bottom of the punctures and are very useful in treating puncture wounds. I keep them for the dogs, but they will work on the sheep too. Unfortunately, the punctures had started to skin over when we saw the wounds. I think the daily penicillin injections will work.
On an amusing note (much needed at this point) our newborn lambs have learned how to get through the pen bars in the jugs. They have gone visiting each other to play together. At first DS1 replaced them in the correct jugs. Then he saw that they returned to their mothers for meals and naptime. This morning one of them had managed to get inside the large walk-in scale that was living in one of the jugs – unfortunately he couldn’t figure out how to exit it! He was returned to his jug. We will tag this weekend although all 5 of these little rams are destined for freezer camp. . However, I like to keep records and compare weight gain among my lambs so I can see which ewes produce the best. We are going to weigh all lambs this weekend and separate them the older ones. I want to grain them a little to finish them off before they go to the butcher. The small ones might go to a Halal butcher depending on what they are prepared to pay. The man said his customers want them at 40 lbs. because they are tender. My lambs weigh 40 lbs. by 2 months old so that would cut costs of raising by several months of feed. I could get the ewes back into production sooner which means I could more easily plan my breeding schedule.
March 10
The ewe lamb with the punctures is recovering with 2.5 ml penicillin every day. Today one of the butcher wethers turned up with similar punctures to one of his back legs. DS2 is wondering if Angel s trying to play with the lambs. She is 16 months old and hasn't done this before. We will have to keep an eye on her. Tomorrow we will move that lamb into the barn with the ewe lamb and start him on a course of penicillin. My 18 gauge needles arrived today - after DS1 picked some up from the feed store! Oh, that Ridgetop luck! Found another 2 lamb buyers today so that is nice. The wife's father is Basque so she grew up eating and loving lamb. She was thrilled to find out I raised them.
Anyway, been raining hard here today which is good. We need it. The Field of Celibacy is completely cleaned out of any green stuff. The rams have eaten every morsel. It is just about time to separate the ewes out and move them into breeding flocks with the appropriate rams.
The oven parts have finally come in to repair the oven. It is only 4 years old and has taken a month to get the parts to repair it. It is difficult to cook for 5 adults and a couple of occasional children using only my microwave and an Instapot. We are getting a little tired of stews. It reminds me of when we remov=deled the kitchen and had no stove at all for months.
The2 repairmen are coming tomorrow to pull the oven out of the cabinet, repair it, and reinstall it. Meatloaf and baked potatoes here we come! 
High Desert Cowboy
True BYH Addict
I am sorry about the news for your friend. That’s not news anyone ever wants to hear but hopefully it will be something that can be managed. my grandfather was diagnosed at 89 with prostate cancer and today’s he’s fit as a fiddle. So there’s plenty of hope yet!
Everything else sounds pretty good beside the dead ram lamb, that’s one of those heart breaking things that happen. I’m curious if it is the dog chewing on your sheep otherwise you might have a chupaovejas running around.
Everything else sounds pretty good beside the dead ram lamb, that’s one of those heart breaking things that happen. I’m curious if it is the dog chewing on your sheep otherwise you might have a chupaovejas running around.
B&B Happy goats
Herd Master
Very sorry to read about your friend 
, wishing you all stregnth to face the challenges that lay ahead 
, wishing you all stregnth to face the challenges that lay ahead 
thistlebloom
Herd Master
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Ridgetop
Herd Master
I spoke to my friend tonight after she met with her oncologist. The cancer is definitely back but they are not sure where is has metastasized yet. She is going in for a PET scan. The doctor thinks it is in her upper body but not sure whether it is in her neck, jaw, lungs, etc. More waiting to find out.
Yes, it is probably the young Anatolian bitig the lambs. Angel is 16 months old and that is when the second phase of play begins with the dog trying to play with the lambs like she does with the older dogs. Naturally the lambs just run and bleat instead of turning around and biting her back like another dog would. My friend, Erick, who breeds Anatolians called me this morning on another matter and when I mentioned the wounds in the sheep, he immediately said it was probably Angel doing play behavior since this is the age when the second stage of that shows up. DS1 and I are planning something to stop the dog being able to get at the lambs. Angel can get through the bars of the large 7 bar corral or under them and get in with the lambs - she did it this evening after dark. DS1 went out to see why one of the older ewes was bellowing, caught Angel in the corral, scolded her and brought her out. She wasn't going after any lambs, so may have gone into the corral to see why the ewe was calling. We removed her lamb today and put him in the barn and he is on antibiotics. The ewe may have been calling for him and upset Angel who went to check it out.
Tomorrow I am going to take plastic mesh horse fencing and zip tie lengths to the bottom of the 7 bar corral panels. We are also going to separate the lambs from their mamas since the ewes are almost dry. The lambs will stay in the larger corral and we will separate the ewes into the smaller corral. They will only be in the corral at night since they are turned out during the day. Angel might find herself locked in the Field of Celibacy since the older rams will not tolerate any such play from her. Angel is large, heavy, and strong, but the rams, while fairly gentle, won't put up with any puppy biting at them or trying to play with them. In the meantime, we will go out with Angel and allow her in with the larger lambs while we watch her to discipline her if she tries to go after the sheep. Eventually she will grow out of this phase. We just have to teach her that it is a no-no and keep the lambs safe while she matures. It seems to be the dogs that are most attached to the sheep that try to treat them like playmates. Very annoying!
I will flush the ewes and in another month or so turn a ram in with them. At that point the older wether lambs will have gone to slaughter. The young ewe lambs that are not ready to be bred will go in with the nursing ewes and their lambs.
The schools here are preparing to close for 2 weeks due to Corona virus. Maybe I can get over to DD1's hose and we can finally hang up her pictures and get more stuff put away. They moved into the house before Thanksgiving and have not finished unpacking! DGS1 is in trouble again. His punishment was to clean the entire house. DD1 told him since he did not want to study to get a good career he should learn how to scrub the house so he could get a secure job as a janitor when he grows up. We are now picking him up 2x a week from school to make sure he has supervised study time for homework. I thought I was finished with this. However he now has his grandfather, me, and his uncle chastising him when he stops working. Horrible!
I was asked today if I was going to discontinue the bridge club due to the virus. I said no, that I would wait until the senior center decides close to do that. Seniors are more at risk, so I will keep the club open but will tell everyone that they can decide whether to come or to play at a friend's house. It is only one day per week and most of them continue going to Costco, the grocery store, the hairdresser, etc.
Yes, it is probably the young Anatolian bitig the lambs. Angel is 16 months old and that is when the second phase of play begins with the dog trying to play with the lambs like she does with the older dogs. Naturally the lambs just run and bleat instead of turning around and biting her back like another dog would. My friend, Erick, who breeds Anatolians called me this morning on another matter and when I mentioned the wounds in the sheep, he immediately said it was probably Angel doing play behavior since this is the age when the second stage of that shows up. DS1 and I are planning something to stop the dog being able to get at the lambs. Angel can get through the bars of the large 7 bar corral or under them and get in with the lambs - she did it this evening after dark. DS1 went out to see why one of the older ewes was bellowing, caught Angel in the corral, scolded her and brought her out. She wasn't going after any lambs, so may have gone into the corral to see why the ewe was calling. We removed her lamb today and put him in the barn and he is on antibiotics. The ewe may have been calling for him and upset Angel who went to check it out.
Tomorrow I am going to take plastic mesh horse fencing and zip tie lengths to the bottom of the 7 bar corral panels. We are also going to separate the lambs from their mamas since the ewes are almost dry. The lambs will stay in the larger corral and we will separate the ewes into the smaller corral. They will only be in the corral at night since they are turned out during the day. Angel might find herself locked in the Field of Celibacy since the older rams will not tolerate any such play from her. Angel is large, heavy, and strong, but the rams, while fairly gentle, won't put up with any puppy biting at them or trying to play with them. In the meantime, we will go out with Angel and allow her in with the larger lambs while we watch her to discipline her if she tries to go after the sheep. Eventually she will grow out of this phase. We just have to teach her that it is a no-no and keep the lambs safe while she matures. It seems to be the dogs that are most attached to the sheep that try to treat them like playmates. Very annoying!
I will flush the ewes and in another month or so turn a ram in with them. At that point the older wether lambs will have gone to slaughter. The young ewe lambs that are not ready to be bred will go in with the nursing ewes and their lambs.
The schools here are preparing to close for 2 weeks due to Corona virus. Maybe I can get over to DD1's hose and we can finally hang up her pictures and get more stuff put away. They moved into the house before Thanksgiving and have not finished unpacking! DGS1 is in trouble again. His punishment was to clean the entire house. DD1 told him since he did not want to study to get a good career he should learn how to scrub the house so he could get a secure job as a janitor when he grows up. We are now picking him up 2x a week from school to make sure he has supervised study time for homework. I thought I was finished with this. However he now has his grandfather, me, and his uncle chastising him when he stops working. Horrible!
I was asked today if I was going to discontinue the bridge club due to the virus. I said no, that I would wait until the senior center decides close to do that. Seniors are more at risk, so I will keep the club open but will tell everyone that they can decide whether to come or to play at a friend's house. It is only one day per week and most of them continue going to Costco, the grocery store, the hairdresser, etc.
Baymule
Herd Master
Angel. Maybe the wrong name? LOL Lets see..... what name comes to mind? Ha! How about Chewy? Stinker? Muncher? LOL LOL
Big hugs for your friend. I truly hope she doesn’t suffer in misery. Knowing you, you will keep her cheered up as much as possible. Then you’ll call me for a Texas drawl fix. Haha.
Big hugs for your friend. I truly hope she doesn’t suffer in misery. Knowing you, you will keep her cheered up as much as possible. Then you’ll call me for a Texas drawl fix. Haha.
- Thread starter
- #958
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Angel may become known as the Dark Angel! DS1 seems to think she mostly "plays" with the lambs when they are let out in the morning and again when they are brought in at night.
DS1 went out and separated the lambs and their mamas this am. He put the lambs in the smaller corral and the ewes out on the field. Shortly afterward, we looked out and the lambs had crawled out from under the bottom rail of the corral and rejoined their mamas on the field! We have a 50-100 foot roll of 48" woven wire that we have not used yet to make more pens. DS1 is going to cut it in half and I will zip tie the 24" pieces on the bottom of the corral panels. I suggested using the vinyl horse net but DS1 said that he doesn't want to use it since it is very flexible and Angel could push it up to get into the pen. The woven wire is stiff and will be better. However, it started pouring rain so we can't go out and install it. I have to kneel to zip tie it on the panels and don't fancy kneeling in clay mud! At least the rains have finally come. Weather report says they will continue for a week or more. So glad since our forage has not grown in well, and what there was has mostly been eaten. DS1 went down and opened the barn gate so the dogs can shelter from the rain if the deluge hits. Otherwise they don't seem to care. Angel was laying in the open dirt with the rain coming down around her this morning. However, we feel like better dog owners by letting them into the barn even if they don't want to take advantage of it!
The prolapsing ewe is still hanging in there and seems to be doing well. Her prolapse goes in and out seemingly at will! I left a call for the vet but have not herd back and DS1 says that if she can continue to do well without obvious pain it will be better for the lamb. He is right, but I hate seeing her like this. I will be gad when we can wean the lamb - maybe even a little early. I wonder how early I can wean her. We can keep her in the barn longer and I will get some Calf Manna for her.
The Los Angeles mayor has banned assemblies of more than 50 people for the duration of the Corona virus. I don't know how that will work with churches and Costco. Many nursing homes are banning visitors, and our Joslyn Senior Center where we play bridge has been directed by the city of Burbank to close indefinitely. Since seniors are most affected by this virus, that is a good idea, but now I have to call 100 members to let them know not to show up tomorrow. Many of the tables had backed out already - we were down to 11 tables from 20! Even if the center had not decided to close, our Board has decided to hold the bridge club in hiatus for at least 3 weeks.
Lots of computer work to do so having tomorrow off from bridge will work for me. If it dries out for a while, we can put up the wire.
DS1 went out and separated the lambs and their mamas this am. He put the lambs in the smaller corral and the ewes out on the field. Shortly afterward, we looked out and the lambs had crawled out from under the bottom rail of the corral and rejoined their mamas on the field! We have a 50-100 foot roll of 48" woven wire that we have not used yet to make more pens. DS1 is going to cut it in half and I will zip tie the 24" pieces on the bottom of the corral panels. I suggested using the vinyl horse net but DS1 said that he doesn't want to use it since it is very flexible and Angel could push it up to get into the pen. The woven wire is stiff and will be better. However, it started pouring rain so we can't go out and install it. I have to kneel to zip tie it on the panels and don't fancy kneeling in clay mud!
At least the rains have finally come. Weather report says they will continue for a week or more. So glad since our forage has not grown in well, and what there was has mostly been eaten. DS1 went down and opened the barn gate so the dogs can shelter from the rain if the deluge hits. Otherwise they don't seem to care. Angel was laying in the open dirt with the rain coming down around her this morning. However, we feel like better dog owners by letting them into the barn even if they don't want to take advantage of it! The prolapsing ewe is still hanging in there and seems to be doing well. Her prolapse goes in and out seemingly at will! I left a call for the vet but have not herd back and DS1 says that if she can continue to do well without obvious pain it will be better for the lamb. He is right, but I hate seeing her like this. I will be gad when we can wean the lamb - maybe even a little early. I wonder how early I can wean her. We can keep her in the barn longer and I will get some Calf Manna for her.
The Los Angeles mayor has banned assemblies of more than 50 people for the duration of the Corona virus. I don't know how that will work with churches and Costco. Many nursing homes are banning visitors, and our Joslyn Senior Center where we play bridge has been directed by the city of Burbank to close indefinitely. Since seniors are most affected by this virus, that is a good idea, but now I have to call 100 members to let them know not to show up tomorrow. Many of the tables had backed out already - we were down to 11 tables from 20! Even if the center had not decided to close, our Board has decided to hold the bridge club in hiatus for at least 3 weeks.
Lots of computer work to do so having tomorrow off from bridge will work for me. If it dries out for a while, we can put up the wire.
Baymule
Herd Master
This is a good time to stay home and only go out if you have to. Bridge can wait. Besides it will give you a chance to fix the corral. LOL LOL
I know it must distress you, watching the prolapsed ewe. You care deeply for your animals and you don't like seeing her like this. Prayers for you, the ewe and her lamb. We know how this will play out, just not when.
I know it must distress you, watching the prolapsed ewe. You care deeply for your animals and you don't like seeing her like this. Prayers for you, the ewe and her lamb. We know how this will play out, just not when.
Bruce
Herd Master
The one time I used a CPA he screwed it up, I got audited. He would have gone if I paid him. I went alone.
