Desert Weyr Blog
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More Sheep Moves
While Bob and Carolyn were here, we arranged for a visit to Joe Sperry’s flock of Polypay sheep to watch them being loaded onto the truck. His sheep are due to come down the mountain. Joe has a lovely flock of sheep. He moves them to his ranch in Delta using big trucks rather than… Continue reading
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Chasing Down Sheep
We just heard word that one of the range flocks was going to be moving their sheep through town. They’re coming down from the mountains to their winter pastures. We rushed off in search of the sheep! We found them, passed through the flock, and got in front so Bob could take some pictures. The… Continue reading
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Meet Sofia, Our New Guard Dog Puppy
It’s time for us to get another guard dog puppy. We need to raise and train dogs relatively frequently to be sure we have enough to guard our sheep. This time, we’ve selected a Karakachan puppy. We’re eagerly awaiting Hopping Acres Sofia’s arrival! Continue reading
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Making Sausage
Bob and Carolyn are showing us how to make a special Boorvoorst sausage. We’re using a mix of our mutton, our beef, and pork from a neighbor’s pig. This recipe also uses cider vinegar made from our apples. Of course, I never did get a final picture of the product or us eating it, but… Continue reading
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All About Mutton Is Coming to Paonia
This year, for Garvin Mesa Celebrate! Day, we’ll be hosting Bob Kennard for a book signing. Bob is the author of “Much Ado About Mutton,” a wonderful book about the history of mutton as a premium meat. We’ll also be serving smoked mutton samples for guests. Come out and visit us on the 31st of… Continue reading
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Farm Shop Update
Most folks do a spring cleaning, but we’ve added so many new products and sold out of others, so I decided it was time for a Spring shop cleaning. We completely reorganized the farm shop. I think it came out pretty well! I’m adding many of the new items to our online store as well.… Continue reading
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Black Welsh Mountain Sheep Characteristics
I use a variety of characteristics to evaluate our flock of Black Welsh Mountain sheep each fall. I also look at their NSIP EBVs for important traits. Every year, I evaluate them to determine who stays, who will be for sale, and who will go to the butcher. We’ve sorted the rams, ewes, and yearlings,… Continue reading
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Yard Sale
We’re cleaning out a bunch of stuff, so I’ve decided to give away and sell some of it. Nothing will be shipped – you must be able to come pick up your things at our farm in Paonia on Garvin Mesa. Some things are already gone, and I’ll be adding more later. Free stuff For… Continue reading
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Chicken Butcher Day
This past Saturday was chicken butcher day. We rented a trailer and hired additional help to process all of our birds. It went very well. We scalded the chickens first, then plucked them. Next, we went inside for gutting, chilling, and finally, packaging. We also hosted another person who had about 25 of their own… Continue reading
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New Chicken Feeders
We’ve been looking for a better way to put food and oyster shell in the chicken tractor. Our existing feeders don’t do well, and dishes waste a lot of feed as the chickens scratch it out. I looked at a number of online DIY PVC pipe feeders, and here are the results. It’s a relatively… Continue reading