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Dandelions’ sweet bounty,
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Tag Archives: puppies
Ladies in Waiting
pregnant ewes with the new shed
guard dog doing her job
guard dog puppy playing with Border collie puppy
ram lambs hanging out
rams, llamas, bulls at Powder Flat
Solano, pet lead sheep, hanging out with Border collie
The Fall Sort
ewes trailing into the Sheep Mountain pasture
October 1st is the off-date for our summer grazing permits on the national forests. We spend a lot of time staging the trailing off of both cows and sheep. We consolidate sheep bunches, move them onto private pastures, and bring every ewe and lamb through our corrals and sheep chutes at the Home Ranch. We sort the lambs off the ewes. Some lambs will go to a feedlot to gain more pounds, and some will stay home and become replacement ewe lambs.
The ewes are sorted several way. Ewes with good health and good udders stay with our bunches. The “good old ewes” who are short on teeth but otherwise sound will go to buyers, usually in the Midwest, who can care for them for several more years, in conditions more forgiving than Wyoming’s Red Desert. The “killer ewes” or culls will go to slaughter.
All this involves a lot of moving parts, but when we’re done, we’re ready to move onto other late fall pastures before the long trail to the wintering grounds.
Meghan, Cora and Raul bringing up the sheep
ewes and lambs heading down the chute
Edgar and Cora at the sorting gate
Meghan and Leo
Meghan sorting lambs
ewes lambs in the corral
Pat, contemplating
Cora is a working mother. Puppies for sale!
Mom of the Year–Lady and the lambs
Sam and Siobhan feed the plethora of bum lambs
Every year, we end up with a number of bum (orphan) lambs. They are motherless due to a variety of circumstances. Some ewes have more lambs than milk. Sometimes a ewe dies, leaving an actual orphan. Some lambs are weak, or injured, or just lost.
We sometimes are asked why these motherless lambs are called “bums”. It’s because they are “bumming” milk from their compatriots, or at least the most successful ones do.
This year, we have ended up with more bums than usual, partly due to our decision to lamb all the almost two-year-old ewes in the sheds. They did produce more lambs than milk. These are lambs that might have died on the range, so we are glad to have them back at the Home Ranch. This year, we decided to go all in, and raise them in an “organized” manner.
Raising bum lambs involves a lot of extra time, labor and money, as we purchase lamb milk replacer, which costs somewhat more than illegal drugs. This year, our efforts to supplement the lambs has been aided by Lady, the livestock guardian dog mom. We put her and her seven puppies with the multitudes, figuring it would be a good bonding experience for lambs and puppies alike.
Little did we expect that Lady would take her responsibilities so seriously.
Lady nursing two of her puppies and two of her lambs
the Lady and the lamb
Puppies, and colts and lamb, oh my!
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?
New Year’s Day at Powder Flat
Winter cows at Powder Flat
Pat and I celebrated New Year’s Day by visiting our employees, cows, horses, dogs and birds at Powder Flat (the sheep were a little father out). We could do this because we spent New Year’s Eve partying hardy with Pat’s Mom Marie, 98; Maeve, 8, McCoy, 4; and Rhen, 2. The cows are enjoying the bounty brought by last summer’s rain. They are still grazing, and looking fat and happy in spite of a couple of 30 below nights. We also admired two–count ’em two, litters of Livestock Guardian Dog puppies–seven each. That means puppies for sale! We also visited with last summer’s colts and a lot of birds who are enjoying the corn and hay.
Antonio and Tiarnan check out guardian litter number one
Four noses: Tiarnan, Antonio, guardian dog Mom, pups–litter two
Antonio, Pat, Oscar, Tiarnan and Eduardo at Powder Flat
Mother and child reunion
Future cavvy
Birds of a feather
Battle Mountain and Baker’s Peak from the west
Baker’s Peak and Mount Oliphant
Winter grazing at Powder Flat
Powder Flat headquarters with Powder Mountain to the north
And on the way home–the ones that got away, from the hunters
Buck lambs bound for Iowa
Buck lambs, wet but eager to be chosen
Each year, our friends Rodney and Janet Fleming come for a visit from Iowa. It is a true busman’s holiday. The Flemings raise sheep in Iowa, and they come to see us so that they may visit sheep camps, participate in general ranch work and visit about dogs and sheep. They also pick out a couple of ram lambs to take home to their ewes in Iowa. We raise both Hampshire and Rambouillet rams to breed to our own commercial ewes. This gives us the opportunity to select for the traits we want, and that the rams, who have never been pushed on grain, are hardy when it comes time to go to work under sometimes tough conditions in Red Desert winters.
Meghan and Rodney bringing up the Hamp buck lambs
Jean Carlos coming to help with his entourage of guard dog puppies
Jean Carlos and Pepe with more puppies
Rodney with his top choices
Ladder Ranch
