SA Farm's journal

[SA Farm]

Another cold but sunny winter day. Lady finished quarantine, so she and Mac moved out to the barn to hang with King and Queen until winter’s over and we can finish putting their own pen together. As long as the boys don’t start any serious brawling, it should be fine.
Queen was not impressed with the interloper female, but they seem to be working it out.
Left to right King Lady Mac Queen

Kit was feeling energetic today and felt the need to prove that she can still get a ton of air when she wants to!

As can her mom I wish I’d caught it a few seconds earlier, but still good.

 

[thistlebloom]

Great pictures! Wow, your sheep leap around like goats, that is some serious height!
That picture of your turkeys is very nice, I like the composition.

 

[SA Farm]

Wow, your sheep leap around like goats, that is some serious height!

Yeah, they sure can fly when they want to! Foxy was always springy like a deer and with being half Jacob, Kit’s even more spry than her mom
Probably one of the reasons I warmed up to sheep is that they aren’t nearly as different from goats as I had thought and expected.

DH got the last of the supplies we need for the brooder shed yesterday.
I also put 2 dozen eggs in the incubator yesterday, so the countdown has begun (assuming fertility). I’ll candle in a few days to see how we’re doing. If we have hatching prospects, I’ll have to keep on DH for the next three weeks until he finishes the building

I’ve also been working on getting DH to build me a bigger, better sheep enclosure this year. I was thinking of just making a hoop house, but DH says he can do better. Let’s hope he’s right! I need more room for my sheep and their stuff. Feed, hay, a myriad of supplies. They have a lot of stuff and if we are going to expand our flock, we’re definitely going to need more room!

 

[Ridgetop]

First rule of livestock keeping - BUILD BIGGER!!! BUY BIGGER (trailers - feeders)!!!

Most common mistakes made by new animal keepers are:
First, Underestimating the amount of space you will need in housing, storage, and pens.

Second, Underestimating the amount of feed it will take for your animals and the storage needed for hay.

Third, Underestimating feeder space, size and number of feeders and waterers, and amount of equipment.

Fourth, Underestimating how fast this animal keeping project will grow!

Fifth, Underestimating how much work it will be!!!

REALIZING HOW MUCH FUN YOU WILL HAVE!!!

 

[SA Farm]

For real - on all of it!
I think we’re doing pretty good about most of those items. The sheep have their own storage shed for feed and supplies and I have a small shack I’m using for hay, but it doesn’t hold enough, so I put down pallets and tarped the rest with some plywood to help hold it all together lol. We have a new hay shed waiting for us to get a base together. Once that’s up we’ll be good there and have more room for other stuff!
It’s really just the housing and fencing we need to do better with. We have a mobile pen that we rotate around the yard when I’m not out there with them letting them free range, but we need another one...or, even better, two...this year
We’re building the place up slowly but surely. Every time we can afford to get supplies in, we do. It’s just annoying at the moment that my housing is mostly a bunch of smaller enclosures instead of one big one. It’ll be fabulous for jugging the ewes for lambing, but kind of a pain for the moment.
I make it work, but I’m definitely working towards making it better - and easier for all of us. DH has a really hard time keeping up with it on the rare occasions that I can’t do the chores myself. I don’t find it that difficult, but would still like to make it easier all around

 

[Ridgetop]

It will all work out. But the time you have it finished according to "The Big Plan" you wil realize it needed to be different!

That is why we are continually rearranging and rebuilding!

 

[thistlebloom]

It will all work out. But the time you have it finished according to "The Big Plan" you wil realize it needed to be different!

That is why we are continually rearranging and rebuilding!

This is so true. We've been at this house almost 20 years and are just starting to feel like we may be done changing stuff around.

 

[SA Farm]

Yep. Nothing is set in stone...concrete, maybe, but not stone
I know it’ll work out. Between the two of us, DH and I have enough knowledge and skill to make the majority of things work. For everything else, there’s research - usually starting with the search bar here

 

[Baymule]

Flying sheep! I love the pictures of your sheep playing in the snow!

 

[SA Farm]

Um, wasn’t I just saying that I was doing better about this sort of thing? Wasn’t I just telling DH that we can definitely only keep one ewe lamb this year if we get one?
But she’s sooooo cuuuuute! And DH said to go for it because he’s definitely going to do some serious building this year.

Yeah. I did a thing Don’t know how this little Jacob cross eweling appeared in that shed, she just showed up out of nowhere
Her name, of course, is Coy. Short for Coyote and is the final canine predator we INTEND lol to add.

D$&n it, @Baymule you tried to warn me about the addictive quality of becoming a sheeple
Now I have all the colours I ever wanted