Equinox sunrise
beaming south of Sheep Mountain—
Winter is coming.
Category Archives: Events
Moving Camp to Battle Creek
sheep in the Aspens above Battle Creek
Summer is slipping away for our sheep grazing in the National Forests. We haven’t had rain lately, so the vegetation is drying up. We have been blessed with a rainy summer so there’s feed on the ground. The ewes are getting restless as the sunshine days grow shorter and the nights get colder. We had our first frost this morning and soon the leaves will change the color of the hillsides. A few eager trees are already throwing out some yellow. We move the sheep camps every few days to fresh feed. Today we moved Edgar’s camp from Aspen Alley to the Battle Creek Campground.
Maeve and Sharon with the newly moved camp.
Edgar and Sharon
Wool Away
San Antonio bound
We just sold three years worth of wool. In 2020, the Trump trade war with China, and Covid 19, caused the previously decent price of wool to plummet. We decided to keep that year’s clip in hopes of higher prices in the future. We’d heard stories of sheep producers who had held their wool throughout the Depression, then sold several year’s worth for good money when the United States entered World War II and needed wool for uniforms and other strategic goods. In 2021, the wool market and the trade situation had not improved, so we kept a second year’s clip. We have a large shed where we can store the wool, so were not accruing storage charges at a wool warehouse. This year, we visited with the wool buyers, who advised us that the world political situation was not improving, but that prices were up somewhat. We decided to sell the 2020, 2021 and 2022 clips, which required two semis with long flatbeds. The first truck driver was from Uzbekistan, and spoke limited English. He was very cautious and conscientious, and when the wool was loaded, strapped and tarped, it looked as neat as could be. The second truck driver was from Denver, but spoke fluent Spanish, which was very helpful with our Spanish-speaking employees who were loading the truck. He even helped load the bales of wool, which weigh 400-500 pounds each. The wool was secured and headed for San Antonio. Our fine Rambouillet wool is usually sold to another buyer who uses it for U.S. military uniforms. We think this fine wool will end up in mills in Italy. The blackface wool goes on to become blankets and sweaters. The shed looks empty without three years worth of wool bales stacked up.
Aaron with hayhooks
Juan with skidsteer, Aaron ready to load
Juan, skidsteer and bale of wool
emptying the shed
Loading the trailer
Lalo making sure the bales are in the right place (33 on each layer, fewer on the top)
bringing up the tarp
Lalo tarping the wool bales
securing the tarps
ready to roll
Lambs losing their tails, gaining vaccine
ewes and lambs on Cherry Grove
We’re almost done lambing and it’s time for docking the lambs and getting everyone ready for trailing and summer’s grazing on the Routt and Medicine Bow National Forests. Sheep are naturally long-tailed, and if those tails are not cut short early in life, they can have problems later with manure and flies. The assembly line process also includes earmarking, castrating the males, vaccinating for diseases and a stamp with a paint brand. The ewes also receive a fresh brand and everyone is counted. We usually run two docking lines with all hands on deck, and bring up a hot lunch and plenty of cold drinks.
ewes and lambs ready to go
docking crew working two lines
Seamus vaccinating
hats and lunch
after docking
Branding Time
McCoy bringing in a calf
It’s that time of year again. We have lots of baby calves who need vaccines, brands and earmarks before they head up to the Forest with their mothers. We have a great crew this year. Everyone knows how to work together to minimize stress on both cattle and people.
calves gathered in the Elephant Corral
Bubba, Tiarnan and McCoy bringing in the calves
Siobhan at the ready
Rhen on the water tank
Bubba and McCoy
branding crew
McCoy and Eamon
Shearing at Badwater
wooly ewes waiting for the shearers
It’s that time of year again. The shearers have shown up and shearing is underway. Each year it takes a lot of moving parts for fleeces to roll off the sheep and into the big bales. Our shearing crew are contractors who come out of California. We are their last client of the season. This is good because they are not under pressure to move on to the next producer, but nerve-wracking because we want to have the ewes shorn in time to trail to the lambing grounds north of Dixon. Lambing starts around May 10th.
We were fortunate with the weather this year. We had a snowstorm right before we were ready to start. The weather cleared and was warmish and nice for most of the week, allowing us to get through the “main line,” as the wool buyers call the running age ewes. The yearlings were next, followed by a brief, but not killer storm–always a worry for freshly shorn sheep.
Our crew packed up their portable shed–the shearing equivalant of a food truck–and moved to Powder Flat. The early lambers and the rams were there, and soon they too had given up their winter coats. Beulan and Maria the llamas were also shorn, much to their spitting disgust, but they are ready for summer.
wooly ewes with wagons
waiting in the corral
shorn ewes, ready to lamb
Frank and Gramps, son and father, on the job
Modesto and Eamon counting sheep
shorn ewes with birds
Edgar with unshorn llamas at Powder Flat
shearer at work
Meghan and Maria
Megan with Beulah
Beulah, freshly shorn
the wool packer baling the fleeces
bales of wool
fleeces in line
Heifers to the high country
Chandler on Cora, waiting for the trucks to unload
We plan to run heifers this coming summer (I have faith that summer is coming). We have hay on hand so decided to bring the heifers in now. They are from South Dakota, and are used to cold and snow. I was happy to see their fuzzy coats.
backing the truck up to the chute
Mc Coy ready with his rope
Welcome home!
heading for the hay pile
Winter sunrise
sunrise over Flattop and Lucky Butte
Winter sunrise paints
the sky, illuminating
mountains and tractor.
Chandler heading out to feed cow and horses
Flattop, Lucky Butte , Squaw Mountain, and Chandler
Christmas blessings
old cow barn
Blessed light returns,
the sunset’s glow sliding north
painting Christmas Eve.
Squaw Mountain on Christmas Eve
Sheep Mountain
Sheep Mountain with sheepwagon
candle with hymnal
St. Paul’s on Christmas Eve
Ladder Ranch
