Category: Farm Life
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Sheep AI, Day Three
Day three proved to be hectic. We had poor post-thaw motility on the frozen semen for some reason, so we had to rearrange and collect the rams again and use fresh, cooled semen. With 56 ewes to inseminate and 15 rams to collect, it was impossible to get any pictures of the proceedings. Our cell Continue reading
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Sheep AI, Day One
We volunteered to be a test flock for a new sheep AI procedure. The plan for day 1 was to give the ewes their shots to bring them into heat. I didn’t get any pictures of the procedure, as we were working fast to get them all done. For the actual inseminations, we’ll be putting Continue reading
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Flat Stanley and the Sheep
Flat Stanley was freezing, so we made him some coveralls. We have to do some sheep work outside. This was his first introduction to our sheep toys. Ewes are in the chute, ready to be worked, with Stanley watching. Continue reading
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Flat Stanley
Flat Stanley arrived from Tennessee to visit us for a while. Here he is with Larry and Andrew as they work on the new elk fence. Continue reading
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Larry’s Back!
Larry’s back to do the next section of the big elk fence. This will be the last tall fence we put in. It will go from the hay barn to behind the house, and it’ll enclose a small section of the cedars pasture. We had to start taking down parts of the old fence so Continue reading
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Toe Trimming and Deworming
I finished trimming toes on at least half of the adult ewes today. The sheep have better feet this year compared to other years. We’ve been culling for poor hoof growth patterns for a while, but not very heavily. It seems to have made a big difference this year. Our next batch to do is Continue reading
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Sorting More Sheep
No pictures, but a lot of work. Today, we sorted all of the adult ewes into their breeding pens. I also got the toes trimmed on half of them. We’ve still got to trim toes on the rest of the adult ewes, all of the rams, and all of the lambs, but it’s a start. Continue reading
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Guard Dog
Winnie is now guarding the adult rams who have not only their winter pen, but the entire west side of the orchard to run in. We’re hoping they’ll clean the ground of fallen apples. Continue reading
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Making Cider!
Our orchard was primarily used to grow apples for cider. My mother had Kate’s Sweet Cider as a business when I was in high school. We still own the crusher and press, and I’d hoped to get it all running. This year, we had a huge crop of apples. We couldn’t get pickers, so most Continue reading
