Cows and calves with Battle Mountain
Calf, posing
Sheep Mountain with a frost of snow
Lucky Butte over the Little Snake
Cowboy crew–Rhen, Eamon, Cody, Brittany, Brenden, Amy, McCoy, Megan, Amy
Tag Archives: Sheep Mountain
Seasons of the Sun–a Villanelle
Sunrise over Sheep Mountain
Winter solstice sunrise glows and finds the arc
of season’s seeking arrow, its final icy end,
Stonehenge mountains, where light strikes its ancient mark.
This solstice sunrise lends end to winter’s dark,
This beam that glows before next season’s march begins.
Winter solstice sunrise glows and finds the arc
when the sun creeps north, and gleams a glowing spark.
Early shine ascending ‘til equinox transcends
Stonehenge mountains, where light strikes its ancient mark.
Three Forks and Sheep Mountain flank sunbeams’s stark
ascendance, springtime’s even days, recalling when
Winter solstice sunrise glows and finds the arc
that leads northward, as time and stars embark.
Summer solstice on Reed Draw, northern boundary’s end.
Stonehenge mountains, where light strikes its ancient mark.
Rocky Mountain monoliths measure light from dark.
Mountain henges mark the march, mark when time portends
winter solstice sunrise glows and finds the arc
Stonehenge mountains, where light strikes its ancient mark.
Indian Summer
Antelope under Sheep Mountain
Rock structure in Battle Creek–helping out both fish and irrigation
The Upper Meadow with cows and bales–both ready for winter
Cows with their calves
Ewes and lambs going into the Bull Pasture
Lots of sheep and one cow grazing in Don’s Meadow
Sheep Mountain is an extinct volcano
First snow lingers
Spring storm
Squaw Mountain
Sure enough–as soon as we finished shearing and started lambing, a cold, windy, snowy storm moved in. While we are happy to see the much-needed moisture, we have scrambled to try to save lambs. We estimate we lost about 150 lambs due to the severe weather. Our lambing grounds on Loco got a foot of fresh snow and we couldn’t get in there for several days. The herders were well-provisioned but couldn’t do much except get the ewes into sheltered areas.
This is the first year we have lambed ewes through our new shed on the private land on Cottonwood. We had preg tested the mothers of the replacement ewe lambs in March, and we sorted the mothers of twins into a bunch to be shed lambed. Our crew piled the straw bales to create wind breaks at each end of the shed, and were able to save most of the new lambs in the shed. We lamb later than most of our neighbors, and it is always a gamble.
Lambing shed with straw windbreak
Ewes pregnant with twin lambs sheltering in the shed
Ewes huddled behind tarp windbreaks
Baker’s Peak
Battle Mountain
Sheep Mountain
Horses at the lambing shed, with Muddy Mountain
Siobhan and Tiarnan in the mud
Springtime reflections
Bulls and Sandhilll cranes by Battle Creek
Blue Heron in flight
Heron at sunset
Cows in the Lemmons Place, Sheep Mountain
A new calf sporting a new eartag
Young bull in the willows
Old fence in the Big Meadow
Willow reflected
Spring calves under three mountains
Keeping an eye on the babies
The baby calves continue to arrive, keeping us and their moms busy. We have had, blessedly, a wet spring. We’ve gotten lots of wet overnight snows which melt into the ground the next day. As one of our irrigators said, “God gets all the high spots.”
Luckily, this weather has not been to stormy or windy, so it hasn’t hurt our calving. We did get a really wet snow today. It closed Interstate 80, but aminly gave us more water in the ground and in the streams. Our friends on down the Colorado River should be happy. It was this time last year that we had a killer storm that killed both calves and lambs, so we are grateful for wet weather that’s not too severe.
We are enjoying the return of the birds. Some are migrating through and some are coming to spend the summer. When we check the cows, lots of birds are in attendance. The cry of the Sand Hill cranes accompanies the calls of the mama cows and the baby calves.
in the Lemmons meadow
Baldie calf with Sheep Mountain
Cows and calves under Battle Mountain
Squaw Mountain
View from Lower Big Gulch, Medicine Bow National Forest
Sheep Mountain and horizon
photo by Eamon O’Toole
View from Sheep Mountain
Eamon took this photo before the leaves fell. It is taken from Sheep Mountain, looking to the west.
Ladder Ranch
