puppies on the run
puppy with shadow
Pat with young bulls
Tiarnan, Seamus, Maeve and puppies playing in the corn
Border collie puppy hanging out on the corn sacks
Hampshire ewes
Siobhan with Lulu
Antonio, Meghan, Oscar, Brittany and Gyp–hard at work
some early lambs
ewes with water bottles
Antonio and the unshorn ewes
In mid-winter, we shear the ewes that are going to lamb in March. When it goes well, we even shear before lambing starts! We do this for several reasons. Even though it seems early to shear, all goes better if the wool is off before the first lambs hit the ground. We raise our own bucks, which means that in order for them to be “of age”–at least some of them, by next winter, late winter/early spring is the time to be born. It is important for the ewes to be out of the wool for a couple of reasons. In cold weather, if the ewe is not cold, it doesn’t occur to her that her lambs might be cold and she should seek shelter. And when those lambs are looking for nourishment, it is helpful if tags of wool are not hanging down in strategic locations. Anyway, thanks to Cliff and Donna of Hoopes Shearing, we have spent two days shearing the early lambing ewes and the mature bucks. What did the bucks do wrong, you might ask? Well, then we don’t have to figure out how to get them staged for the main shearing in April (April, right Cliff and Donna?).
Often, well actually, always except for this year, it is pretty cold in mid-February and we feel guilty removing wool coats from the sheep while we are all wooled up in sweaters and long underwear. I don’t know if we have weather or climate change to thank, or blame, but this week, we had ideal shearing weather–not too cold, not too warm–Goldilocks Weather.
We do have a few lambs on the ground, due to errant buck lambs–born last March–you get the picture.
Sorry, but it was too dark in the shed to get shearing shots!
unshorn ewes, Brittany, Gyp, Antonio, shorn ewes–in that order
free at last!
Rambouillet ewes, after the blade
Sharon, working the pink chute
Donna loading fleeces into the brand new packer
which has a few glitches…Antonio and Oscar pushing out the first bales
Justin, who keep the wool packer working!
Maeve and Seamus checking out the new bales
Siobhan trying to push her siblings off the wool bale
Seamus and Maeve dueling with livestock working sticks
brands of growers on the side of the purple Hoopes Shed (with lime green accents and the pink chute)
Pat through the chute
ewe, ready to lamb
before
during
after
No
N
Cow
photo by Siobhan Lally
cows looking at Siobhan
photo by Siobhan Lally
even more cows
photo by Siobhan Lally
(no snow in mid-February)
This must be the February thaw.
It follows the January thaw, except
not much snow fell between
Aquarius and Pisces.
How will we know Spring?
Heifers on dry ground
she thinks she’s hiding
As storms pound the East Coast, and snow in Boston piles up, we watch our drifts melt away. We depend on snow for winter water for the sheep, and to bring summer moisture for everything. At Powder Flat, all our livestock are watering at reservoirs and wells.
The ewe lambs and old ewes still have a little snow below Lower Powder Spring
The purebred ewes watering at Powder Flat
The ewes watering below the Spring
Reflections
leaving the water hole
through the waterhole fence
Jean Carlos and Pat talk about water, with input from the dogs
Siobhan, Pat and Maeve
a plethora of guardian dog puppies
Siobhan with guardian dog puppies–we like ’em socialized!
It is only early February, but we do have lots of young animals around. We have had more than one litter of Livestock Guardian Dog puppies (hence the difference in sizes), a litter of Border collies, last summer’s colt crop, and–oh yes–one lamb. The little ones are fun, but soon we will have scores of lambs and calves on the ground, so this is the calm before the storm. Barring bad weather, which we have definitely not had, I consider the time between when the bucks go into the ewes in mid-December, and when the purebred lambs and the heifers’ calves start arriving in early March to be the lull. How can it be going by so fast? And why do I still feel so busy?
Maeve and Siobhan with an adult guardian dog,overlooking the sheep watering at Lower Powder Spring (one of them isn’t dressed right!)
Five (of seven) of Sam’s and Yonush’s Border collie puppies
the colts check out Maeve (no coat in early February)
the colts hanging out at Powder Flat
Learning to be horses
What does it mean when the (surprise) lamb sees its shadow on Ground Hog Day?
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