It Is Certainly Never Boring!

 Last night I did chores in snow and ice. I fed up in a snowy slushy mess, the 4W Drive had trouble staying on track and I had to be super careful where I stopped for fear of never starting again...at least until the snow froze or it all went away.

I took video of Gracie moving the sheep. The new lambs are so unbelievably cute, they move with the flock like toddlers going to work with mommy. The video was lousy, so I'll spare you.

This morning I woke to sage green pastures. No snow. Nada. Zip. Zero. Nil. All of it had vanished in the night. It was raining hard, but I was happy, and so were the sheep!

About 11am it cleared and the sun came out. It was so warm I came out of my layers, and when I came back to the house after doing chores, I opened the windows to air the stink and let the cats have some fun on the roof.

I made my lunch, and noticed darkening skies. Thunder cloud skies, the sort reserved for big changes of weather in the warm months. Yippie! Spring is actually here.

I started to hear thunder so headed back out to move sheep back over to the east side where there is cover. The new lambs are a few days old and are strong, but cover is still a good thing in a storm.

Grace and I head out to the gate, and while the sheep had been spread all over the field only minutes before, they were now all bunched up under the maple be the fence. In a thunderstorm. And they say sheep aren't smart. I started to send Grace when I spotted the ewe with her lambs down in the bottom of the field. Honestly, I couldn't imagine what her problem was, after all the lambs were now four days old and can keep up with the flock....

So, I had Grace gather the flock and I start walking down the field. If I took the flock down to the ewe, she would simply fall in and bring her lambs along with her. That was the plan anyway. As I got closer I could see only one lamb. I turned to see if the other was with the flock when I saw the flock standing looking at me, not moving like they should be. Off to the left I see the ewe with her twins. SURPRISE!!!

The reason the ewe was off by herself in the field is because she was lambing. Right now. In a torrential downpour (did I say it started to rain?) Gah, sheep have great timing!

Grace worked the flock down the field to meet me with the ewe and her first born. I could tell there was more on the way, a wee bit of sack was pushing out for me to see and to decide we needed to get to the barn now. In the rain. In Auntie Em wind. Oh, and the thunder. Yes, there was thunder too.

I turned and grabbed up the lamb and prayed the ewe would follow, especially if the flock was travelling the same way. We trudged up the field, me occasionally bleating to the mama ewe, Grace pushing the flock from behind...through the gate and past the barn wen the flock. Somehow I sound enough like the lamb to keep mama from taking off with the flock into the field, and I get her turned about and into the barn with her baby...just in time to realise that my Grace (The Best Sheepdog In The World) has stayed behind and has been patiently pushing the OTHER mama ewe and her twins toward the paddock, and safety with the rest of the flock.

By the time I closed gates and watered the ewe in the barn, the rain had all but stopped, but the wind was going strong. Grace and I headed to the house to get dry, drink tea and talk about our adventures.

More Sheep on the Lamb

Yesterday I picked up hay for the 'starving' sheep. This is always a big event as the flock either gets penned up, or is allowed to get crazy and either follow the hay wagon, or run out the gate to prune the yard.

Needless to say, Grace noticed instantly that they had chosen to run out the gate. Of course, the stubbly brown stuff also known as grass was way more interesting than the new hay.

As you can see, grazing happened in the midst of the agility equipment....

As I was cleaning water tubs, one noticed the feeders were filled with new hay...and of course, the rest followed quickly behind. After all, the poor dears were starving.

Grace was not pleased that she wasn't allowed to push the sheep off of the feeders and waited, hoping to hear the command to move...

This girl is just waiting her turn.

And this old girl wants to know just why I am watching her eat. She was one of 5 lambs born to my old Suffolk ewe Sophie.

Grace suddenly realised there were stragglers...she had to get them as she was certain they would never find the feeders on their own.

The little guy.

Liz. Not thrilled.

Grace determinedly waiting for more work to appear.

"LOOK! More sheep Ma! See? See??"

And waiting again....

Happy sheep....

Raw Milk Kills? Really?

I drank milk when I was growing up.

Lots of milk.

Processed of course, mostly bought from a local dairy.

As a teenager I had access to raw milk. I drank lots of it.

My favorite way to consume it was on oatmeal for breakfast. Sweet creamy delight.

Once I lost access to the raw milk, I totally lost my taste for drinking processed milk and now only cook with it.

Good blog post on Raw Milk:

http://homegrown.org/blog/2011/02/why-we-farm-trying-raw-milk/

Sheep -- On the Lamb

It really is deceiving how innocent sheep appear. Really, it is. Because deep down, each sheep had the deep seeded desire to escape. Really.

Now I know that seems hard to believe. After all, how could anything that appears this sweet be bad?

Trust me. Sheep may not be malicious creatures, but they are bad. Always looking for a way out. You know, to the greener pasture. The one on the other side of the fence. Or in our current weather pattern, the flock (mainly the big red ewe that leads the flock) is certain there is a HUGE cache of sweet alfalfa hay right on the other side of the blasted fence that keeps them from getting to that fictional hay (or maybe they think it is fresh spring grass?).

Now, Carm looks innocent enough, but when it comes to her dinner she is a force to be reckoned with. It came as no surprise when I looked out the window this afternoon in time to see half of my flock o the wrong side of the fence headed down the neighbors yard to find the elusive Holy Grail of (non-existent) hay.

You see, in the snow and ice, several limbs had come down on the fence. Initially, the fence was not bothered by the limbs, and the limbs were frozen into the ground so I left them to deal with later. The was just the opening Carm and the girls were looking for, as they took the opportunity to walk up the limbs just enough to topple the fence, allowing them the escape route they had been looking for!

I pulled the branches (now thawed) away from the fence, and Grace and I foiled their escape plans. We circumnavigated the entire farm to get the flock back to their home field, but of course Grace thought that was a blast and is rooting for another great escape tomorrow!