Desert Weyr Blog
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New Farm Store Coming Soon
We’re moving to a new online system for our store. We hope to be back up by Tuesday, October 12th. The new site will allow you to order meat for pickup here at the farm or for delivery within Paonia. It’ll still allow for the shipping of wool and other products nationwide. We look forward… Continue reading
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Juniper Gulch Ranch Solar
The project to add a grid-tied solar array to the house site up at Juniper Gulch Ranch is almost complete. Final inspections should be today, and swapping the meter for the net meter may be as soon as tomorrow. We hadn’t really planned on doing this project this year, but the combination of tax credits… Continue reading
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Hungry Sheep
Our pastures are now functioning as exercise lots. There’s no feed to speak of in them, so we’re putting hay bales out for the sheep to eat. We’ve done this before during droughts, and the increased fertilizer from the sheep eating in a concentrated area has improved the soil for the next few years. It’s… Continue reading
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Garden Bounty
I have a black thumb. I have been known to kill plants easily. However, this year, my stepdad is staying up here, and he always has a garden. We’re doing one, too. It’s been a wild success – lots of peppers and tomatoes, and even a large batch of peas, not to mention the lettuce… Continue reading
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Hay Is Arriving
It’s a bad year for hay with the drought, so we’re getting what we can get, when we can get it. This is a nice batch of grass/alfalfa mix hay that we’ll use to flush the ewes for breeding this winter. Our goal is to go into winter with the barn full. We’ve stored hay… Continue reading
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Dog Days of Summer
It’s summer, and things are very hot. We’re going through a major drought. The hot weather is coming about a month early; we’re getting late July-early August weather in late June and early July. The guard dogs are still on duty, though. Leena and her lambs enjoy finding some shade in the heat of the… Continue reading
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Mountain Mutton
We were honored to provide meat for the celebration of life for Jerry Hatem of Aspen. Our mutton was featured at the barbecue on the back side of Aspen Mountain, overlooking Mt. Hayden, where family and friends gathered to celebrate his life. Take care, everyone. Continue reading
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COVID-19 and Our Farm
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an immediate effect on our farm. Although Colorado has opened up starting this week, we’ve made the decision to close the farm to tours and visits this year. I realize that this is a difficult time and that visiting our farm is a special treat for many, but we cannot… Continue reading
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Not Dead Yet!
OK, so posting on this blog has been low on my priority list, and it hasn’t been getting done lately. However, both the farm and the sheep are doing well, despite almost no online activity. 2020 lambing has finished successfully. We had 23 ewes bred and 43 live lambs. No stillborns and no triplets, which… Continue reading
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2019 Lambing Is Done!
Lambing for 2019 has officially finished. We bred 36 ewes, and every single one of them became pregnant. This is a first for us! Usually, at least one ewe fails to conceive. Sadly, we lost two ewes. One was an accident, and the other was pregnancy toxemia. Our lambing percentages were decent – 57 live… Continue reading