Ewes and lambs on Routt County Road 129,heading for the Routt National Forest,
photo by Pepe Cruz
phot
Tag Archives: routt national forest
Merry ChristMoose!
We saw this moose on Tennessee Creek in the Routt National Forest the other day. We haven’t seen moose in the area before.
Along the Savery Stock Driveway, and beyond
Late June brings our annual trailing from the lambing grounds, north of Dixon and Savery, to our Forest grazing permits on the Routt and Medicine Bow National Forest. We start the sheep on the trail for the Colorado permits first, since it is a longer drive. All has to be planned throughout lambing and docking, so that the oldest lambs are in one bunch, and ready to go first. It is about 40 miles for the sheep who are heading for Farwell Mountain, near Columbine, Colorado.
We try to stage the sheep so that they are one day apart, which makes it easier to move the camps as we go along. We count the sheep through the government corrals on the Stock Driveway. This gives us an accurate count as we head into the Forest, and is required by the Forest Service as part of our permit rules and regulations.
It is also our last easy chance to corral the sheep and dock any lambs which have been born since the last docking, put paint brand numbers on the marker sheep, and pull out any bum lambs who need to go to the Home Ranch for TLC.
Once we leave the corrals, we are officially on our summer country (even though the Colorado bunches still have days ahead of them on the trail). It is time to face the bears!
working sheep at the Government Corrals
Pepe, Bahnay and Salomon putting numbers on the marker ewes
Salomon, sheep and guard dogs headed for Farwell Mountain
guard dog leads the way
Ewes drinking at the ditch near Three Forks
Filomeno on the job
almost to the Routt Forest
dust along the road
heading into a tinderbox
Modesto, Bahnay and Riley
Oscar at Haggarty Creek, Medicine Bow National Forest
Teofilo at dawn
looking for her lamb
First day on the permit
The blackface sheep move to summer quarters
We have a farm flock of purebred Hampshire sheep. We lamb them out early (March) at Powder Flat, and raise our replacement bucks for the commercial herd from these ewes. They also produce replacement ewe lambs and some future lamb chops.
In late spring, usually mid-May, we truck them to the Bull Pasture, near the Home Ranch. They hang out there for a couple of weeks, then trail about 15 miles up to the Johnson Ranch, a private inholding in the Routt National Forest. There they spend the summer, growing and fending off bears and coyotes.
A few days ago ( and a couple of weeks earlier than usual), Meghan, Siobhan and granddaughter-of-the-heart Bahnay trailed them on up to their summer pasture. They (sheep, horses, dogs and ladies) really did walk all the way, but I caught them on their mid-day break.
Meghan, Siobhan and Bahnay hard at work
Hampshire lambs taking a break
Guard dog, likewise
Fox in Three Forks Ranch meadow
More on Dunkin, Life and Times
Jose with Dunkin and his dogs
north of I80 at Creston Junction, April 2009
Dunkin and friends
on the trail to the Routt National Forest, June 2009
Dunkin
Cottonwood Pasture, October 2010
Dunkin and Friends: repost from July 2010
Pepe with Dunkin
Johnson Ranch corrals
Routt Forest
Faithful blog readers will remember Dunkin, the bum lamb who grew up into a bellwether–a lead sheep. Dunkin was saved from certain death, and obscurity, when Pepe found him standing by the side of his dead mother as a newborn lamb. Pepe adopted him as a pet, and we even carried milk replacer on a pack horse to Dunkin his first summer. He is now a VERY large sheep, splitting his time between hanging out with the other sheep, and hanging out at the camp with the dogs. He is currently living with Modesto’s bunch, but recently reunited with Pepe.
Dunkin with his friends–Richar. Pepe and Modesto
Johnson corrals
Routt forest, July 2010
Dunkin (of blog fame), Dot (of National Geographic fame) and guard dog pup
Multi-species representation
Chain Lakes, Salomon’s camp, February 2011
Johanna with Dunkin at shearing, April 2011
Dunkin with lamb buddies, October 2011
Ladder Ranch
