Category: Farm Life
-
Chickens, Sheep, and Nice Lambs
The dinner chickens arrived on the ninth of June, but I didn’t get a chance to get pictures until today. We lost more than usual in the first few days, but they seem to be okay now. We’ve got sheep on both sides of the center divider fence, plus a dog in each group. Winnie… Continue reading
-
More Lambing and Solar Work
Desert Weyr Alice is a first-time ewe, and she seemed to be having some lambing problems. Ken was holding her head while I checked to see what she needed. Fortunately, she was quite calm during this process. She ended up having a nine-pound, five-ounce lamb with horns about half an inch long. The horns got… Continue reading
-
Building a Lamb Box and a Second Solar System
We’ve had a lot of cold and rain here, and we had some lambs born in the irrigation ditch. We made a small lamb box to put the coldest lamb in for a few hours. It worked well, and by the time the lamb got warm and climbed out, everything was fine. The hay in… Continue reading
-
Lambs and Dogs
Here are the triplet lambs. They’re doing well, and Mom seems to be feeding them all so far. Winnie is also doing well in protecting her new sheep. Continue reading
-
Lambing, Again
We finally have our first lambs of the second batch: a set of triplet ram lambs. We put them all in a wire panel jug for a few hours, just to be sure Mom could count to three. She did seem to lose track of one when we first moved her, but she seems to… Continue reading
-
Mowing the Lawn
Ken finally got the mower we got last year working. At first, it was blowing a lot of oil smoke, but that soon cleared up. He had to rebuild the engine. Since the sheep did not finish grazing around the guest house before they had to move for lambing, there was actually some lawn to… Continue reading
-
Surprise Lamb and Bull! Plus Woolly Lawnmowers
Today started out rather interesting. We’d planned to make a trip out to Grand Junction to do the in-between batches for lamb shopping, but we had to change our plans. First, we had a surprise late lamb. It was nine pounds, nine ounces, and is doing fine. Mom had him up, dry, and nursed when… Continue reading
-
Winnie and the Lambs
Winnie has decided she’s the official lambing pasture guard dog, along with Kimball. She seems to take up a station near the youngest lambs, staying there until newer ones are born. She’s being very alert and watchful and doing a great job. Continue reading
-
Mother’s Day Special!
The ewes are finally lambing! This Mother’s Day, we had three ewes lamb, resulting in five lambs. We got four ewe lambs and one ram lamb. All are doing well, although I had to assist two of the ewes. One had twins whose legs were back, and the other was a first-timer and didn’t dilate.… Continue reading
-
One Less Coyote and Grazing Ewes
We were finally able to get a clear, safe shot on the coyote that’s been hanging around. We generally try to leave the coyotes alone. As long as they respect the fences and the dogs and don’t bother us or the sheep, we don’t bother them. The last time we had to kill one was… Continue reading