Still shearing

Got a real shearer out to shear the nine bucks and rams. And I was glad, I am tired and although my bucks are sweet, they are big and can really stretch you out, sometimes I don't spring back so easy and have to pay for it with a pulled muscle. So I am down to 18 more does to shear, most are older does with little hair and they are not hot. I can finish them up a few each morning and stop when it gets hot. By the time I get through shearing it will be time to start again. It just works better for me to shear a few a day and I still have time to do all the many things that have to be done.

Finally

Finally some rain and relief from the heat and humidity, but I know it will be back. The days are long and longer. So I am up early to cook breakfast then out to feed before the sun heats up the earth. It takes a lot of cleaning and filling water tanks and buckets when it is this hot, but I am doing everything to keep all the stock as cool as possible. It is cool at night so they are fine as long as they get a break from the heat. Vaccinated the lambs today, you can almost see lambs growing, they gain weight so fast with all the good milk they get from the ewes and now they are starting to eat a little grain and hay. Got the tails docked during the cool spell last week, they are healing well, so there is something good that came from the dry spell.

Wild things

I have never seen so many wild flowers, every seed must have germinated. This wild yarrow is all over the woods. Picked a bucket full and have it soaking in the dye pots, will heat it up today and see if there is any color to be released. If the rain holds up there will be plenty of plants for natural dyeing. Just be careful where you step, there is an abundance of snakes, ticks and chiggers out there.

Careful where you put your hands

I went to milk Tanner last Sunday evening in her pen. She has twins but still had too much milk for them and needed milked down a bit. I caught her and put the halter on her, but she wouldn't budge, just shaking her head and grunting uh-uh. After struggling with her for a few minutes I looked up to see what she was looking at, and saw this pair of snakes mating on the side of the barn. So, we moved to another spot for our milking. I don't mess with rat or king snakes as they won't harm you and they keep the rats under control. But I did kill a pair of very aggressive water moccasins racing toward me on the pond earlier that day.

Daisy before

Daisy was the last doe to kid and a week behind all the others. I kept a check on her every hour or two the last 48 hours. She was waddling around the last 24 hours in search of the perfect spot to drop her kids. She finally chose the right spot and got started.

Daisy during

One kid out , one to waiting to be born.

Daisy after

Daisy and her new twins, dark red buck and brown doe. Great mom.

Happy sheep

The wool sheep have enjoyed the wonderful and cool May weather. Perfect for growing new fleeces. Still have many goats and a few more sheep to shear before summer arrives. I am thankful we have had great spring weather here, so many haven't been so fortunate. Took advantage of the cool temperature to get everybody in to be wormed this week, it is time for parasite season to begin. Something the shepherd has to stay on top of, I will be watching everyone closely and bringing them in more often to be checked. I have been top dressing my feed with DE and it seems to be helping, it doesn't mean you can stop treating for parasites, but it might stretch out the worming schedule. A top quality fleece comes from a parasite free sheep or goat.

Pandora

After a day of pacing and up and down, up and down, Pandora decided to have her twins about 1:30 this morning, it was pretty exhausting waiting on her, I know how fathers feel. The birth was normal with average size ram lambs, both healthy. She is the best cleaner upper with that rough tongue until they were washed white as snow and talking to them all the while. They were up within minutes to get a drink of colostrum, she has plenty. Every cat and chicken that comes near her is chased back out of the pasture. Very protective, she worked hard for those lambs.

Busy week

I thought Badger was going down on me Sunday night, she just wanted to lye stretched out in the barn in front of the fan. She would eat her grain but was not interested in grazing. I was sure she was going down with ketosis and had at least triplets in her, so I started her on Sheep drench and propylene glycol, she felt better right away. But, I was shocked when she lambed Monday afternoon, it was a 17 pound ram lamb that was making her uncomfortable. He was covered in yellow amniotic fluid that shows how stressed he was trying to get out. Mom was a bit stressed too.