Category: Health
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We Lost a Ram
Our ram, Desert Weyr Kirk, died today. We had a veterinarian conduct a postmortem to find out why. He had a perforated stomach from an ulcer, and he had peritonitis. It was probably the result of the injuries he sustained in his feeder accident back in May. Continue reading
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Off to Wales!
While Ken stayed home to care for the farm, I headed off to Wales again to continue my judge training. The goal is to become an approved judge for Black Welsh Mountain sheep eventually. My journey started with an uneventful flight from Grand Junction to Dallas. Next, I flew overnight from Dallas to London Heathrow,… Continue reading
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Spring Work Continues
The last couple of days, we’ve been vaccinating the sheep and doing toe trims. I can’t do too many toes before my hands give out, so we do them in batches. The pregnant ewes are now completely done, except for the spring dewormer. I do that 24-48 hours before we turn them out on pasture,… Continue reading
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Spring Tune-Ups Have Started
It’s time to start the first part of the sheep’s annual spring tune-up. The yearling rams all got tags inserted and toes trimmed. 30 sheep, times four legs per sheep, times two toes per leg, means my hands are tired! Continue reading
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Spring Pedicure
This was part of the spring tune-up for the sheep. We trimmed toes. Today I did 30 sheep, or 240 toenails. Prompt: Pretend words don’t exist – only images. Make a photo today that conveys a story to those who see your work. Continue reading
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Shearing Floor Setup
We’re getting ready to shear the sheep this Saturday. This is the sweep and floor for the shearer. The alarm was set for 12:35 PM. Prompt: Set an alarm for a random time today – any time you choose. When it goes off, pick up your camera and find a photo near where you are. 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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Culinary Students, Ram Sorting, and Chicken Processing
The culinary school students came back today for more farm work. Today, we evaluated all of the adult rams, trimmed toes, and gave dewormer as needed. We then took a field trip to Karla’s to pick up our chickens, which were butchered yesterday. The students got to see a bit of the butchering process. Next,… Continue reading
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Labor Day Labors
Today, we had four students from the Culinary School of the Rockies out to help on the farm and learn about where food comes from. We had a busy day! Starting at 7:30 this morning, we worked on most of the flock. We had several tasks to perform. The most important one was vaccinating all… Continue reading
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Sheep Happens
You never quite know what can happen during morning chores. This morning, after feeding all of the critters, we were watching the adult rams. One was being chased by both Becky and the other rams. We’ve learned that when that happens, you must get the picked-on sheep out of the pen, or he’ll get injured.… Continue reading