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Tag Archives: lambs

Spring is rushing over us!

12 Apr

Spring has definitely sprung, if not with weather, then with spring work. After a dry winter, we have had series of spring rains and snows. In the meantime, we have lots of baby lambs and calves arriving. We are trailing sheep to spring country and preparing to shear.

Cows with calves at Powder Flat

Heifer eating afterbirth

Wild horses watering at developed well

windmill from the ground

ewes and lambs

docking the early lambs

bum lambs in a box

lambs warming up in a tub

rainstorm with Battle Mountain

 
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Posted by on April 12, 2018 in Animals, Events, Folks, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

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In Like a Lamb

05 Mar

Hampshire ewes with her twin lambs

 

For us, rain, sleet, snow or shine, March always comes in like a lamb. We raise our own rams, Hampshire and Rambouillet, and the ewes start lambing March 1st. After the winter wait, the long months of lambs growing in the womb, we get to see these babies. With them lies our future. Their future, likewise, depends upon us. It is a long time between lambs on the ground and rams, dusted with iron oxide, jumping out of the horsetrailer to join the ewes, starting the cycle anew.

In the shed

Ladies in waiting, protected by guardian dog puppies

ewes and puppies

Oscar helping a lamb find a mom with a skin graft

Edgar and Oscar conferring

plenty of feed on hand

Oscar with his lambing crew, Tiarnan and Seamus

Babies in a box,
waiting for milk replacer,
or a new mama

Luis feeding a baby lamb

 

 
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Posted by on March 5, 2018 in Animals, Dogs, Family, Folks, Peruvian sheepherders, Poetry, Sheep

 

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Lambs on feed

25 Nov

Hampshire-Rambouillet crossbred lambs

Our lambs are happily ensconced at Harper’s Feedlot near Greeley. They are eating corn and growing every day. Pat, Tiarnan and I went to visit them recently. The weather is warm–too warm for this time of year–so all the lambs on the feedlot are doing really well.

lambs enjoying the sunshine

Tiarnan surveying the lambs

 
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Posted by on November 25, 2017 in Animals, Family, Folks, Sheep

 

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Docking 2017

25 Jun

Belle helping the humans

Go that-a-way!

When most of the lambs are on the ground, we are faced with the next big task–docking. This is a major job which involves handling each and every lamb which has recently been born–giving it an earmark, castrating it if it is a male, judging if it is replacement quality if it is a female, vaccinating for enterotoxemia and tetanus, cutting the tail, and last, but not least, stamping on a paint brand. This operation involves a lot of moving parts with a lot of coordination of critters and people. It calls for all hands and the cook!

Heading into the corral

Bringing up the ewes

Docking crew ready to go

McCoy, with the docking crew and the Dinkum Docker

Siobhan taking a break

Rhen and Tiarnan–the happy dockers!

 

Tyler, German, Juan and Rafael at the docking board

German holds lamb while Kimmy castrates

Jaime putting a lamb into the Dinkum Docker

Tyler and Jaime

the multi-talented Kimmy vaccinating

Rhen branding for Pepe

Brittany counting tails

After the docking

Luka supervising lunch

Time for rest and contemplation of tails

 

 

 
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Posted by on June 25, 2017 in Animals, Dogs, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Peruvian sheepherders, The Bellwether: Dunkin

 

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Image

Lambs on the lookout

24 Jun

 
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Posted by on June 24, 2017 in Animals, Sheep

 

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Guard dogs coming in

23 Jun

Here’s the guard dogs checking things out as we bring the lambs in to dock in the Cottonwood Pasture.

 
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Posted by on June 23, 2017 in Animals, Dogs, Sheep

 

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Twin Lamb Haiku

07 May

Twin lambs on the ground,

Safe and sound with their mama,

Their whole life ahead.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2017 in Animals, Poetry, Sheep

 

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