early morning truck ready to load
up to the chute
the last lambs waiting in the corral
Meghan on the job
Oscar, Edgar and Pepe bringing up the lambs
guard dog and horses supervising
Pepe
Category Archives: Dogs
Sorting Gate Haiku
ewes heading for the sort
Ewes through the dodge gate,
dart left, duck right, straight ahead—
Destiny awaits.
Edgar at the sorting gate
guard dog hard at work
Avencio catching a ewe
in the corrals
Rhen helping Avencio and Oscar to doctor a ewe
crossing the Battle Creek bridge
Fall Gather
Chica bringing down the cows
The cows and their calves have happily spent the last three months grazing on the Routt and Medicine Bow National Forest. October 1st is the off date for our Forest grazing permit. Friends and family help us as we bring the cattle down from their summering grounds.
Cows through the trees
Eamon, Rhen and McCoy
Rhen and Pal
Rhen looking for cows
Rhen, still looking
Home at last
Tending camp with Tiarnan
Leo’s camp with guardian dog puppies
Tiarnan helped tend two sheepcamps. We drove two and a half hours to Shirley Basin, where Guillermo is tending the bucks (well away from the ewes!). We took a back road through several gates, a muddy slough (didn’t get stuck, but it was a near thing) and a “Beware of Radiation” sign. On the way home, we left water for Leo in the Medicine Bow National Forest. I was lucky to have Tiarnan as a helper guy and good company!
Tiarnan filling the water bucket at Guillermo’s camp.
Tiarnan helping tend camp
Shearing 2018
Wooly ewe with bell
Photo by Elizabeth Campbell
2018 shearing is complete. The crew showed up in a timely manner, the ewes moved through in an orderly manner, and we thanked our lucky stars because many years bring problems, from weather to a late crew to the late arrival of our sheepherders from Peru.
First the ewes trailed from their winter pasture on the Red Desert to Badwater, which is spring and fall country. The shearing crew showed up and set up their shed and baler. We brought the bunches through, staging them for the trail south to the lambing grounds. We got two days of rain, which was welcome, but finished in time to trail several days ahead of lambing.
We then moved on to Powder Flat, where the ewes who had lambed in March were still in the wool, and the bucks, still in their red “working clothes”, awaited. We had a glitch when my dog, Cora, hit the automatic locks on the pickup as I was hauling the shearing shed to Powder Flat. Unfortunately, the pickup was at the main gate (fondly know as The Portal), and my phone was inside. After several hours, which included a long walk, much unhitching and hitching and dragging heavy vehicles around with a tractor, we were able to haul the shed to the waiting shearers and get started. Pat brought the extra keys, liberating the truck and the dog.
After two half days, all were sheared and ready to head into the spring season and events.
Border collie with sheep
Photo by Elizabeth Campbell
Ewes, waiting to be sheared at Badwater
Sharon at Badwater
Wooly sheep in chute
Photo by Elizabeth Campbell
Newly sheared ewes
ewes at Badwater shearing
shearing, with shed and truck
David on the wool bales
Hampshire bucks waiting for the shearers
Rambouillet bucks
shorn ewes with lambs at Powder Flat
Rhen supervises the loading of the chute
Riley and Siobhan, back to back
Rhen at the Craig Wool Warehouse
Ladder Ranch
