Category: Farm Life
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Sheep AI Experiment, 2009, Part Three: More Ram Collections
With the USDA folks back, it was time to collect semen again. This time, it will be a slightly different freezing protocol. Here you can see the rams in the sweep, ready to go. They are not happy – they know what’s coming. One ram, Desert Weyr Kai, got to go in with the ewes. Continue reading
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A Solar Update
It’s been almost a year since we installed the solar hot water system. It provides both domestic hot water and supplemental heat for our radiant floor system. We learned several usage tricks early on, and they have not changed over time. We need to plan on doing most laundry and major hot water usage in Continue reading
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Ewe Sorting and Lamb Vaccinations
We got one batch of ewes sorted out today. This group will go to the live cover ram as a control for the AI procedure. They’re now all sorted into breeding pens, and they’ve had their fall dewormer to kill nose bots. The potential AI girls are now in the other pen, closest to the Continue reading
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Sheep AI Experiment, 2009, Part One
Today was the start of another sheep AI experiment. We started our 2009 trials with the USDA-NAGP people. We collected semen from 14 adult Black Welsh Mountain rams. Each ram had its picture taken in front of a size-marked tarp for future reference. While I managed to get pictures of the picture-taking process, I didn’t Continue reading
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Feeding Sheep
The sheep are in the winter pens now. Here you can see the ewes eating hay and, later, a nearly-empty feeder. We’re going through more hay than normal, but we also have more sheep than normal. A good selection of ewes, ewe lambs, and ram lambs is for sale if you’d like to start your Continue reading
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Eating the Melon!
We decided to see if the melon that I harvested was any good to eat. It was wonderful, so we ate the whole melon! It was so sweet and tasty. I saved the seeds to potentially replant next year since it’s an open-pollinated variety. Continue reading
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Harvesting the Last of the Garden
With a frost coming, it was time to harvest the last of the garden. My only other crops left were melons. One was a watermelon and one was a cantaloupe. The only one that reached a respectable size was the cantaloupe. It’s not ripe yet, but I harvested it anyway. Better gardeners than I have Continue reading
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Last Hay of the Year
Judd just got the last hay of the year baled and delivered today. We buy hay from our neighbors. This second cutting looks especially good. There was more hay than we expected. We won’t need any additional for the year, and we’ll be well set for winter. Our next job will be to send a Continue reading
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Farm Tours and Sheep Coats
No pictures today. This morning, before our farm tours started, we sorted some of the sheep and put coats on them. They’re now in the winter corrals on hay. They look a bit silly in their coats, but it keeps their wool clean. The tours are part of the Paonia Harvest Festival. Promptly at 11, Continue reading
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Weaning Time
Today, we finally sorted all of the ram lambs from their mothers. We have several who are already sniffing the ewes. I just hope they weren’t fertile yet! We also weighed all of the lambs. Most are looking good. A few of them aren’t as big as I’d hoped, but they’re also still quite young. Continue reading