On February 9th and 10th, Pat made his last visits to the sheep camps. On February 9th, Pat and I attended the junior high basketball games to watch our grandson McCoy play ball. McCoy’s other grandparents,Jeff and Georgia Stocklin, came down from Ten Sleep to enjoy the games. Since it was a while between the morning game and the afternoon game, we four grandparents decided to run out to Powder Flat, about 45 minutes away, to see how the preparations for lambing were going. We raise our own rams, and our Hampshire and purebred Rambouillet ewes lamb in March at Powder Flat. We have a winter crew who tend the one band of ewes who winter in the Powder Wash country. Things were in good order and the boys won their basketball game.
The next morning, Pat, Seamus and I headed for the Red Desert to visit with the sheepherders there and to bring home a trailer full of rams. They have completed their task of breeding the ewes so that we’ll have lambs in May and June. We were happy to see that, in utter contrast to last winter, conditions are great, with lots of dry feed which grew up last summer, and just the right amount of snow. It’s a “Goldilocks Winter”–not too much and not too little. We had a great day.
It is with a heavy heart that I report that these were Pat’s last visits to the sheep and the sheep camps. One February 13th, he had a severe stroke, and he died on February 25th. I will post more on this later. Here’s some photos from those visits.
Georgia, Pat and Jeff at Powder Flat
blackface ewes at Powder Flat
Anthony readying the corrals
ewes on the Red Desert
Happy ewes
Pat, Oscar and Jose on Cyclone Rim
Sharon and guardian dog
trailer, ready to load
Seamus bringing in the bucks
rams in their working clothes
Pat and Pepe
January 30, 2021
Ladder Ranch
