A few things done

We have had an out of town guest here this last week so my routine has been a bit different. So, for an update here are a few things I have marked off my to-do list:

I have found a guinea hog boar "husband" for my sow. I will be picking him up in Arkansas at the end of May or early June. You can see the farm that I am buying him from at the link Rudugast's ideal Livestock.
The boar we are purchasing is a boar out of Skyfire Oreo and by Skyfire Sargent Pepper. Both our boar and sow will be "shared" with our neighbors to do tilling, compost turning and in the fall cleaning up under the nut and fruit trees. Of course they will also "help" us by having piglets. Think Hawaii here (unless your a vegetarian then just think Cute).
By the way--- I may have some piglets for sale in the fall for anyone interested.

I have a platform set up to raise my 250 gallon water container up off the ground. It is a mini deck like structure and it is under the chicken roof and though I would like to use it for watering the garden, I have such a large garden that when a drought occurs 250 gallons is just a drop in the bucket. (It can be used for emergency water for us though--along with our Big Berkey if we really needed it.) Instead, I think we will set it up as an automatic gravity fed watering station for the chickens and any sheep that are penned in there---or who have access through the neighboring pasture. That way we can travel a bit more during this summer without worrying about who will water the sheep, chickens, etc. Always an issue in this day and age of small farming.

I have tomato plants ready to plant out. Some of the seed was sent to me from a fellow blogger and then I also have the tomato "accordion" that I really enjoyed last year and did well in the drought. I also have more asparagus seeds sprouted for me and some friends. I am working towards another 40 foot row of asparagus so we can have a large harvest each year. The plants that I grew from seed last year are very tall now and seem to be doing well. Last year they never got taller than a foot---this year they are all at least 5 feet tall.
In addition, basil will also go out soon---in about another week. Their still rather small.

A 40 foot row of sweet potatoes went in on two very rainy days---only to get sun burnt on the first sunny day. So they are now under some burlap shade and looking a bit better. Hopefully they will make it since they are the two purple varieties of sweet potato I purchased. The rest of my sweet potato slips (about another 40 foot row) come at the end of May from Sandhill Preservation.

I got a 40' bed of raspberries planted ---but not mulched yet. Hopefully I will finish that by tomorrow. I am using old bedding from the ram/chicken pen so it should be full of good stuff for the berry plants. All my berries came from Nourse farms and look really nice. I even got a few extra--which I shared with my neighbor.
I have the yellow "anne", black "bristol" and two reds: "carolyn" and "taylor". By next year we should be snacking on berries and in a few more making jams and jellies hopefully. We had raspberries at our previous residence--but of course we didn't bring them with us.

My perennial oxalis bulbs/corms (aka OKA or OCA) came today and I will take pics of them to show what they look like before I plant them tomorrow. They are part of my expanded perennial beds that I am adding and posting about last post. Of course I only was able to get a few corms of these--they are rather expensive. We will see how they grow and taste and maybe in the not to distant future I will have my own to sell or trade with others.

Lastly---my lambs are growing like weeds this year. The grass is green and growing---unlike last year when it stayed short and stumpy. I will have to put up some new pictures soon. This batch of lambs has been very fun as most all are about the same size. They are like one huge school of "fish" swimming around the pastures, ignoring their mothers and overall trying to get into trouble. Baaaaad lambs! ;-D

Have a great weekend everyone!

She lost her sweater!

Oh no! Well not really. She looks a bit less like a rag a muffin without her sweater don't you think?
Still small---she may not be a breeder this fall---but she is growing like a weed. Her mom is doing a great job producing enough milk for twins. Since their dam is a yearling we were somewhat concerned about plentiful milk. (Also when she was delivering I worried there might be three---oh no I kept thinking to myself).
Yearling ewes sometimes barely have enough milk to raise one lamb let alone two. Their just not fully developed the first year which is why some people choose not to breed yearlings. We do unless their just super small----because after all that is what nature intended.
Obviously Too does have a capacious milk supply---but these guys started out pretty small so they have a bit more catching up to do to be the same size as the others. They are almost keeping pace with the single lambs being raised by yearling moms. Considering they have to share everything---thats not to bad. For all of you that had to share with siblings I guess maybe you can understand that :-D

Doing well so far.

My small set of twin Icelandic lambs that I posted about yesterday seem to be doing o.k today. I will post pictures of them tomorrow after I go and check on them for the morning. Last night we spent every two hours (yuk!!) going out to tube the little ewe lamb since she was a bit lethargic and still not doing a good job of getting nursing. As I said it was chilly here yesterday and dropped into the low 30's last night with a wind that blew into the barn and over the hay bales I had set up. Yukky. Weather like that is hard on small small lambs that are struggling from the start because of getting cold.
However this morning she was looking much perkier and as the day went on and it warmed to the high 60's she really started to look good. Our only problem? How to get her to nurse from her mom. After consulting two friends (Jager Icelandics and Frelsi Farm) we decided that maybe we were feeding her so well that she wasn't ever hungry enough to try and nurse. So this afternoon I skipped one of her feedings since she was moving around and active----not lethargic or sleepy seeming at all. That seemed to do the trick and she decided (finally!!) to nurse on her own---a bit anyway. I had to help and encourage---but she took to it well enough and did some on her own.
Now we'll just keep an eye on her for a couple more days to make sure she is getting enough. She's not as aggressive of a nurser as her brother----but technically she is a day behind him after getting cold. She's doing well enough now though that she struggles and fights when I try and tube her---even squealing a bit so..... tomorrow if she looks good and acts well---I will optimistically post a picture of the two of them. Maybe I'll even let her model her sweater in the picture :-)

And to the weather.
It's been chilly here this spring 2008 but not with horrible late frost like last year. This weekend I will pick up some plants (because of my flu I am late on starting seedling or skipped some of the altogether) from our local organic place during their spring plant sale: Crabtree Farms.
I usually get a couple of jalapeño plants from them---we only need a few so it's not worth messing with a package of seed. This year I will probably buy a few tomato plants too. I have some tomatoes started but barely---they'll be later this year.
We are close to beans and many other things going into the ground. So it will soon get busy in the garden. Hopefully the rain we seem to be getting will keep coming as it has been. They say it will dry up this summer on us again---well we'll see. At least this spring has (knock on wood) been better so far than last.

Also, if your interested in more lamb pictures, my friend Nancy Chase of Ingleside Icelandics has what she termed a "lamb-a-palooza" event recently. She should have pictures up by tomorrow on her blog Keepingthefarm---she had so many lambs in a short time that she had to take off time from posting and hasn't gotten their pictures up yet.

Lastly---we're looking for a guinea hog boar this spring/summer of 2008 to buy, borrow or trade (sheep?) for.
Contact me if you know of someone that would like to allow us to do one of those things. Trade for sheep or a guinea hog piglet? Borrow? We are creative and will consider most any idea. Travel is not out of the question.

More Signs of Spring

I have seen more signs of spring "sproinging" around here. Forsythia blooming (thank goodness not in December like last year) crocus popping up and lots of robins visiting. Yes, definitely time to plant----now just to finish getting over this flue (aka influenza) that I picked up. Thanks for the well wishes from everyone though.

One more sign that it is "that time" of year are my sheep----we see signs of wool break starting. Sadly this may be my last spring with them. Though we are looking forward to the changes we expect this year we are sad (very sad----I have cried) to get rid of our sheep. As with all humans I comfort myself with the "someday maybe I will own some of their decedents again" kind of mental talk. It helps a bit.

Anyway---before things get too deep----I just wanted to put up some pictures of them. Tex (our white ram) is going into serious wool break. It's beginning is triggered by daylight more than anything else. We will allow him to wear his somewhat ratty looking coat for a bit longer since it is still dropping below freezing each night. However he is becoming annoying with it since he dragges himself across everything to try and rid his body of it. As a matter of fact you can see our broken gate in one of the pictures. Not the "top of the line gate", Tex pushed and pushed against it to scratch until a failing bracket (welded on by the gate company) broke. Luckily none of the sheep were hurt since we didn't know this was about to happen and didn't get it fixed before the gate ended up on the ground. I will go today and buy a replacement bolt on bracket and we will re install it.

By the way---the sheep were not very good picture takers today because Mikey (the pyrenee) was dashing and smashing his way around them in excitement for me showing up. I have been very house bound and Mikey just LOVED having me out there---he couldn't contain his enthusiasm :-D The big lug loves me.

Pictures of sheep

Aleda---with her beautiful fleece






group shot













Mom and daughter---both good looking girlies :-)




Princess my only black girl left----some of them should have black lambs though.











Ms Secret---a relaxed looking pause in between Mikey rampages

Let the breedings begin!

So this morning---after a bit of work over the weekend--- we have now officially begun our breeding season. Icelandic sheep are seasonal breeders and so they start "gearing up" in the fall, about September, as the days start to grow shorter. Then as we get into October and move to November the rams and the ewes (surprised?) will start to fight and jockey amongst their selves to reestablish and affirm their position in the group. While we wait for the true period of readiness--- we make lists and decide who will get to breed who.

One advantage we have always appreciated about this seasonal breeding aspect, is that we can put the ewes, rams and lambs together for most of the year--which is very convenient care wise. However, in the beginning of September, we do separate all the rams out from the ewes and give them their own pasture or pen. That way when we put them back together we know for sure who is the sire of which lambs. We like to choose the sire of each ewe's lambs based on the various aspects, both pro and con, of each sheep. I know they would probably like to choose for their self---but such is the life of a domesticated sheep.

Generally I would like the sheep to be separated into their respective breeding groups by the middle of October. This year though we have been so busy, and gone at times, that time started to race away as our rams languished in the ram pen and the girls in their own pasture.
So this weekend we finally finished fencing another part of our yard and we now have a small group there (in our back yard). Those are the sheep in the picture above. The brown sheep is my ram Guy and the white and black sheep are two of our ewes. Guy is three this year and we are breeding him again since he is by far one of the largest rams we have ever seen. The reason for him getting only two ewes though is that unfortunately his horns are actually "scurs". They are not fully formed horns---but he didn't' turn out polled either. Personally since we raise them for meat, parasite tolerance, and heat tolerance, horns really don't fit into the upper part of our breeding program. We do have to consider them though since others like them and we do sell some of our sheep for breeding. Guy is really a great sheep---so it's easy for us to overlook his horns.

We also have a larger group in our back pasture with our new ram Tex. He is being quite the vigilant guy back there even though he is just a 7 month old ram. He has been fighting with his girls (a natural occurrence each year as the young rams have to convince the older ewes they ARE in charge), keeping them grouped and not letting them spread out and checking religiously to make sure they haven't come into heat in the 5 minutes since he last checked. I am hoping in his vigilance that he might give me early lambs this next year. The very end of March and beginning of April would be my preference---but I don't always get what I want.

My last group is up in the "new ram pen". No longer new---but now used by the rams for the last few months it was a great place to send our last two ewes and their ram. We have two white ewes that may never, because of the way the color patterns in Icelandic sheep work, throw colored lambs for me. White is actually a pattern in Icelandic sheep---not a color. White pattern covers EVERYTHING. So if even one parent passes the white pattern---then the sheep will be white.
I think maybe my girls got that pattern twice, once from mom and once from dad, which means they will only be able to pass white making their lambs always...... white. Easy to understand right? It can seem confusing I know.
So, these two beauties are being bred to a ram that absolutely passes on color---Ike. At least then, though their lambs will be white, the lambs will have the potential to throw colored lambs in their future breedings. Ike also has magnificent heat tolerance. He sailed through this past summer even during our hottest of hot and driest of dry days, so we don't have a problem breeding these two "northern girls" to him at all. He also has the most fleece of all our sheep---so again, a nice thing to try and pass along.

So now the count down begins. From the day that the first ewe is bred I have 145 days until lambs arrive. Hopefully this year rain will arrive with my lambs ---unlike last year. It seems like a long time but with thanksgiving and xmas coming up it will go fairly quickly. It's the last month that always gets me---I am a fairly impatient person after all.

Managing my Hay

So, since this drought has gone on for so long we have worked very hard to "manage" our hay appropriately. I mean---when you can't even steal a bale of hay because it's so scarce well...you have to care for what you have.
Waste---especially of hay is always an issue. All livestock love to walk, climb, fling, roll in, run through, and poop on their hay. I don't know why but there you have it.
Round bales come under particularly aggressive attack---probably because they are big and don't get eaten as fast, but small squares are not really that much safer from the "waste fairies".
For a long time we didn't have to worry about hay and so we didn't really care about the waste. The bales were only $25 dollars for about a 650 to 800 pound round bale. Need a new one?---just drive down the road a mile or so and pick up a new one. Or just across town about 10 minutes away there were even nicer rounds. So, though we did try and keep the animals from completely destroying them it was inevitable that eventually some of it did get wasted.
Last year the weather started to show it's true colors and we became a bit more conservative with hay feeding since it became a bit harder, though not impossible, to find hay. Rounds were tarped in the driveway and fed out in small piles or stuffed into moveable fence panels tied to the regular fence. Square bales too were fed out in small piles or stuffed between the two fences like filling in a pita pocket.
As we moved into summer though and we were STILL feeding hay----we really began to give serious thought to how to feed the hay through summer then on into the winter so that NO hay was wasted. By now hay had become and will remain difficult to find. If you do find it---it's pricey. We now can only get square bales for $7.50 each---though I heard they went up since last we bought. That's $7.50 for just a measly little 70pounds of hay. You do the math in comparison to what we used to pay. Also---though I only have to feed out not quite one bale worth of hay a day I will have to feed more as it gets colder and there is no green grass left to help supplement.
So, after deciding it had become somewhat imperative that we design a hay feeder of some sort I stumbled on the two sided feeder that premier 1 sheep/livestock supplier had on their web site---it's in the downloadable instructions/chart section.
Well, after all my procrastinating for years now---someone should smack me. This feeder was so easy to build that I did the first one, which was the bigger one, in about 3 1/2 hours by myself. The second, though smaller one made by my husband and I for the rams was even quicker. Somebody kick us for being lazy! I tell you what! And wow! how easy to put hay in to it instead of trying to stuff it between two fences. Humph!---how disappointing that it took so long to become aware of this "labor saver" of a feeder.
Also, as a really great bonus---it has a "trough" area that can be used for grain or alfalfa cubes without any spilling. Since it's so stable and part of the whole unit--they can't knock it over while they fuss and fight amongst their selves during feeding. That part is o.k for my ewes----but a huge (HUGE) convenience for the rams who bash around so much during feeding of grains or cubes that most of the feed in lower troughs or bowls gets spilled and smashed into the ground.

And cheap! though we did already have a livestock panel specifically for goats/sheep that we had purchased at Tractor supply for $25 dollars---the wood was very cheap. (small aside to those who try this---we own very large bolt cutters that make easy work of cutting the 16 foot panels to the correct sizes). We even used some of our scrap lumber pile for the bigger one so total cost for it was under $50---most of it being the part of the goat panel we used. The smaller one obviously was cheaper though we did have to buy new wood for some of it---but it used the leftover part of the goat panel in it.
I wish I had built this years ago because not only is it easy to feed hay in but it also keeps the fleeces much nicer than the way we had been doing it. We spent much less time picking VM (vegetable matter), specifically hay, out of the fleeces after we sheared this summer.

There are two issues that we now need to address to make this feeder fit us even better.
One: A roof. The feeder needs some sort of roof that is easily moved, lifted off,or tipped so hay can easily be put in and it could then be used in an open area of a pasture. Both of ours are under cover---the big one is used to divide our "catch pen" and the smaller is under the new chicken coop addition.
Two: Wheels. Wheels and maybe a hitch of some sort, along with a roof would make it easy to move the feeder from pasture to pasture or just around a pasture so they don't "beat down" the grass in one area.

So here are the pictures. The last one shows how we dealt with the open end of the smaller hay feeder. It also allows one more animal to eat at that end. Plus an extra picture of my now healthy Princess (with hay hanging off her face and body!)

Good day all---here's to rain

Some news (but without a picture)

I meant to take a picture of my ewe Princess that I have posted about on numerous occasions lately---but I forgot. However---she is doing great even though she didn't get the ice cream that Tim was sure she would like :-)
Yesterday we let her back into the pasture and she seems to be doing fine eating and drinking as she is suppose to. She did "relax" a bit around the pasture--- a little more than normal---but after almost 3 weeks in the barn I think she was a bit tired schlepping up and down the hill. That's to be understood though.
How we got to this point is started in my previous post New treatments for sick sheep . After that all we did was add, first some apple tree leaves (any edible shrub or tree leaves would do though) then some grass. At first I gave her only 5 apple leaves which have less moisture than grass so they would be less likely to cause frothing/bloating or vomiting. We built up to lots of them---fed every few hours that day. The next day I started slowly adding grass to the apple leaves until she could eat quite a bit. By the third day she was back on her hay and drinking lots of water herself and voila! She's well :-)
Today--she had some serious head banging and butting confrontations with a few of the other sheep. She is, and of course was, my top ewe----so she has to reassert her dominance over the others. Seeing her butt another of the ewes so hard head to head a number of times and then chase her down to get in a few more whacks ascertained me that she is completely well. A sick sheep does not fight. She also got in a few whacks on my new ram lamb who is not quite big enough yet to take on the "higher" status adult ewes yet. He will soon however---but full rut and a bit more weight will help him out there.
Needless to say I am relieved that my ewe made it---and I now have a much clear idea of how to treat a poisoned ruminant. Hopefully I will never again have to---but at least I now know more than I did before which is always good. Practice makes perfect they always say---however I am not sure you can ever been practiced with livestock since they always always find some new way to stump you.
Have a great day all.

New treatments for sick sheep

So as I have mentioned in the post "whys and what for" (and another) about our sick sheep I just wanted to update the situation.
The reason I am boring everyone with this on going problem is that in the coarse of raising sheep or goats it becomes very very obvious to most people that vets either:

1. Know absolutely nothing more than textbook information about these animals ---so why pay them when you can read it yourself?

2. Don't really care if they live or die. Especially with sheep. EVERYONE says " a sheep lives to die" Again---I don't believe that but whatever.

Anyway in the course of recovering from a bad case of poisoning by fungus our sheep's rumen shut down. Now THIS is serious stuff---way beyond the poisoning. Why? Because a sheep (and goat and cow) being ruminants have a fine balance of various microbes which help them digest their food in a sort of fermentation type process at points. To have these microbes completely die off is very very serious. If you have never seen a ruminant vomit---it's not a pretty site AND you wouldn't be the only one who has never seen it. By the time a ruminant gets to the point of vomiting most people write them off and put them down. Well, my ewe didn't look as if she wanted to die however any bit of solid food that passed her lips was almost immediately rejected by her "stomach". Imagine an animal standing there---looking normal but not being able to eat at all. Slowly they will starve to death or die of dehydration as they try to eat and then vomit out fluids.

So, our goal is to reintroduce the digestion process again. Just as if she were a human that had a bad case of flu----who doesn't immediately restart eating by choosing a thick steak needless to say.

How are we doing it? Well that is why I wanted to post this since there is very very little information on line. If you don't have the correct books---your out of luck.
We didn't do fancy expensive vet stuff like intravenous fluids or anything like that---of course we didn't wait until she was really bad either so.......you can however give fluids under the skin if you need to. We didn't as I said.

What we did do was start with fresh ginger from our local store. We bought a pound of it for 3.49 and haven't used much of the total amount so far. We grated it some of it and put about 1/8 to a 1/4 cup of the grated in a lidded bowl with an peppermint leaf tea bag (2.49 for the box of peppermint leaves only---25 bag count ---no flowers, or green or black tea etc added) and steeped it with about two cups of water and two tea bags. We strained it then drenched the ewe with 60 to 90 cc/ml every 15 minutes for an hour and a half to try and settle the rumen.
After that I took plain regular fat yogurt with live culture (or low fat---but not the no fat--- WATCH the ingredients) and thinned it with some ginger/peppermint tea and added a teaspoon of probios powder ($2.49) and electrolyte powder ($1.99). The electrolyte powder also has some added Dextrose so it was a calorie boost also---which was why I chose that particular brand. Both products were meant to go into drinking water but she wasn't drinking much at this time since her stomach was so upset. The tea added was so it would go through my drench nozzle attachment to my 30 cc/ml syringe. I force fed her that (about 90ml again) once every half hour---checking after 5 minutes to make sure she didn't vomit it. After a few times the ewe decided---"Hey I like this stuff" and started taking the drench nozzle in her mouth on her own. We upped the amount she ate each time and by the time 6 ish hours had passed I added some corn syrup to add calories to the mix----and by then the ewe was sitting in my lap begging me to hurry and feed this to her faster. At that point she was eating within a two minute period one cup of the yogurt mix---sucking on the drench nozzle as the last of it went down her throat. For some reason she would not eat it out of a bowl though (must be sheep/texture thing).
One other idea I have been told about since this began is a high calorie livestock supplement that has more calories than the corn syrup does called "Dyne" The person who recommended the dyne says she has used it on sick llamas and lambs---so it would surely work on adult animals too. I will get some---but don't have any currently.
My point yesterday was to try and get about 3000 calories into her (based on her normal weight of about 150 pounds) so she would have a maintenance amount of calories to live on. Hence the dextrose in the powder and the corn syrup so that the calorie count would go up for each feeding.
3 large yogurts cost about $7.50. So in time---this could get expensive but I could have also supplemented with dextrose shots but chose not to. I hate to give lots and lots of shots HOWEVER if they are going to possibly die the rule of thumb is this:

Try anything and don't worry about wether it will kill them or not----if they are about to die what do you have to lose? You may save them

Also---a vet would cost me a lot more so..
Starting today---we added cooked rice. Last night at the last feeding I had added a bit of blender ground cooked rice---which had the yogurt mix blended with it. Today I didn't grind it and it was mixed with a small bit of her yogurt and put in a bowl. Since she was so hungry (no night feeding) she was willing to lick it out of the bowl. This is basically a "BRAT" diet. You know the doctor prescribed bananas, rice, apples and tea for sick kids.
She likes the rice and so slowly we will work up to solids. I am not sure exactly how to go from yogurt and rice to hay and grass but we will figure something out. In the mean time---she looks lots better. Yesterday she had finally gotten weak enough that she wasn't standing again---but by later last night she was not having problems getting up or standing. So we are on the right tract it will just take time and hopefully work out for us.

By the way---during all of this the ewe has been receiving Bcomplex shots. These vitamins are manufactured by the rumen when it is working correctly. If it is not working correctly -- they are not being made. So don't forget those B shots---even with other illnesses :-)

Don't forget when adding anything to the diet small amounts first---working up to large. Even with the yogurt which has the live culture the rumen needs---small amounts. Better small amounts more frequently than to over whelm the system and have the vomiting reoccur.

Just a quick picture

Here is a picture of our winning ribbons from the Tennessee State Fair along with the Best in Show Ram fleece rosette ribbon and the pewter plate that we received for Best in Show Fleece.
They're nice---but the money we won will be even better :-D

Have a great day!

Getting Sick

When you have livestock it's a guaranteed that eventually one of them will get sick.
Animals are never easy when they do get sick since you can't ask them what's going on such as: did you eat anything strange? Where does it hurt exactly? Does it also bother you to (fill in the blank)? When did you notice the symptoms starting?
So when it happens you have to take the visible symptoms and do huge searches to find exactly what you think may be the cause of the problem. This however is not always an easy thing because:
1) Most vets have no clue (or don't really care?) about sheep and/or goats. So asking the vet is like wasting your precious time (and money) sometimes. Now that is not to say they don't sometimes come up with something good but....a stopped clock is correct twice a day.
2) Many, many, many (seems like thousands) of sheep and goat diseases all have the same symptoms. Very annoying and confusing to say the least to try and find out what is exactly the problem. That's where the talking sheep could really help you out.
3) Most sheep and goat books out there are very very basic and really don't address the various treatments of sheep nor the more "in depth" causes of the disease. I don't mean cause as in bacteria or virus but is it related to mineral problems or well....lots of other small things that can help avoid the problem to start with. Also by treatment I don't mean "call your vet" as many of them say I mean things like this: give (blank) intramuscularly, not subcute at the dosage of blah blah ml's per 100 pounds of body weight for blank number of times per day for 4 days. Or something like that. THAT is extremely helpful. Many times I tell my vet what I need to treat my animals. I have a hard vet though and have to make my case. Sometimes I don't get the drugs I want which can be annoying but I consider myself somewhat lucky that they will generally give me what I want. I do know some people whose vets will give them anything and others whose vets won't give them even something so simple as a prescription bottle of minerals so.....
And lastly
4) Sheep die fast. You don't have much time by the time you see major symptoms to figure out your sheep is sick. Some people say sheep die at a drop of a hat and they are too hard to raise. I don't find that to be true but I also believe that it goes along with your style of management of your sheep. Sheep are prey animals so their main goal is to hide their problems to see if they get better. If they don't hide their sickness then the big bad (wolf, bear, coyote, fox, wolverine, badger, large prey bird etc) will swoop in and eat them. So paying very very close attention to your sheep will make a huge difference in how much time you have to treat your animal and how far along the problem gets to progress before treatment starts. If you only visit your sheep once a week or barely glance over them for 15 minutes a day---one could be very sick before anyone knew about it. "Eye of the shepherd" some of the people I know call this: eye your sheep every day, your "eye" knows what is normal---so go with your gut. Also,sometimes the problem is as simple as we just didn't know a symptom was a symptom----until we look back later and go "ah hah" THAT was a symptom.
There have been points especially with lambs and new animals, that they are very sick before we figure it out. Animals that have been on our farm a long time are much easier to figure out and diagnose since you "know" their "normal" reactions to things.

So my point of this article?
One of my best sheep is very sick. We did think we would loose her for sure. Now? maybe she will live.
What's wrong? Absolutely no clue. We are treating for a number of things so every few hours she gets 4 shots, one of antibiotic (in case its a bacterial disease), one of vitamin C (in case it's a poisoning), one of Thiamine (since it seems as if its a b1 deficiency) and one of Vitamin B complex (to keep her rumen working correctly since she is not eating or drinking yet and to help with micro nutrient problems) She also gets some probios paste for her stomach and 120 cc of water every hour. She is alert but not moving around much yet. We will see.
Did we see symptoms---yes but it was one of those "ah hah" didn't know THAT was a symptom. Also---she was very good about hiding it.

So my point of this? Just remember when you raise livestock that yes, there will be times when they are sick. Hopefully they don't die---and that is what we are working towards in our case----but sometimes even the healthiest best cared for animal does some how get sick. It's the nature of the beast.

A few good books I would like to mention:
The Veterinary book for Sheep Farmers----British publication but has actual Vet treatments and helps with diagnosis.
Also both of Laura Lawson's books Lamb problems
and Managing your ewe

"Cultivating" friends who have raised sheep longer than you also helps :-) since they can become indispensable in helping to decide what to do.

Have a great day all

Finally some pictures--2nd post of the day

I have taken some picture of my new sheep finally---not many and most of these I used on my web site too but I did promise I would show them so here they are. By the way---I did finally come up with names for all of them. Not the most innovative names---but easy to say and remember names :-D

here we have "EL" which my husband said was not technically a name but I told him one of the blogs I read: Fast grow the weeds----SHE calls herself EL so what the heck. This ewe is very pretty and unique---so EL is the perfect name for a "pretty and ewenique ewe" hehehe













Here we have "TOO". Yes, I know it's silly but it's a play on words. First she is the half sister to one of our ewe (as in two) and we just HAD to have her also (as in too!) She's a friendly little thing---just like her half sister. She's watching me in this picture but wouldn't look up.






















This is "TEX" my new ram for this year.
Not only are we originally from Texas but I would have to say that Tex is wearing a "ten gallon hat's worth" of horns on his head. Also.....this is the "T" year for tattoos---so for once I matched the name AND the year code!






















Then we have "Paris"---we had trouble with her name so...We'll stick with this though I am not sure it fits her as well as another would have, but there you have it. Sometimes you go with what you have.
















Finally we have "Gray Lady" aka Lady, as in "you know the little gray lady we bought". She's very refined so it fits her well.





















All these sheep are "technically" lambs---but they will go on to breed and have lambs for me this next spring. Watch for them----it will get here quicker than you think.

Soon I will mostly be blogging about the garden again (and then there is Christmas too). Woosh! I am ready for fall and winter when the sheep pretty much don't need me as much as they do after lambing and on it the early fall.
I have already started some perennials from seed and will have to find a spot to grow them through until this next spring planting. However---I need landscape plants. I will blog about them soon----less sheep more plants :-)

We have a winner!

About a month ago a very nice lady from Tennessee contacted me about sending some of my Icelandic sheep fleeces in to the Tennessee State Fair. Kim, as she is known, handles the fleece show there and is trying to develop it into one of the larger shows in the country. As far as I can tell she is becoming somewhat successful at it since it has become one of the largest for the southeast and a pretty large one for the East in general. Kim would eventually like to have as many breeds represented in the fleece show as she can---you know all those "rare" or "less well known" breeds of sheep---in addition to the "common" breeds that are at every show across the country.
Anyway---since she already had some Icelandic breeders sending in fleeces she wanted to see if she could get some more and have as large of a class as she could. So she contacted me to ask me if I would send or bring some. I told her yes I would be glad to "promptly" send some but in the end I ding donged around. Finally--days before the judging---I sent in a few fleeces. I had almost backed out of because I have been so busy however I basically promised her and would have felt kind of bad if I hadn't sent some.
So up to the Tennessee State Fair I sent a solid black adult ewe, a solid moorit ewe lamb and a solid moorit adult ram. These were pretty much the best I still had left since either 1) any other candidates were already sold and mailed or 2) the sheep had done some "dirty deed" to their fleece like scratching against the water trough and felting sections of it. I of course hoped one or two would place to pay for the shipping to the show and back to me (Kim was so very nice to offer to ship back as an encouragement for me to please send some). I was not holding my breath though. I knew my fleeces this year were the nicest we had ever had, but I wasn't sure how they compared to others. After three continuous years of vitamin/mineral work for our flock we are finally getting close to getting it right---and it's starting to show. As I said though---I didn't know how they compared to others.

Anyways, late at night this past Sunday I received a call from Kim. Good news. My black ewe had taken first in the ewe class though my lamb had not placed----the judge felt it was TOO soft to correctly represent the Icelandic breed (better that than some other faults aye?). However the ewe lamb did sell to someone :-) and would not be coming home to me. Yeah! Also, even better news my ram fleece placed first in his class AND then went on to beat out some pretty heavy competition to win Best in Show! So now not only do I get some cash for winning---but I also get a special ribbon and a "pewter" platter. Go figure. I am not even into that sort of thing-- however I am glad that my fleeces did so well.
Kim said the Judge narrowed best of show down to a Romney, a Rambouillet (which is basically a type of merino sheep) and my Icelandic ram. She said he finally said that to him my ram's fleece was just so nice and epitomized what an Icelandic should be that he couldn't not give him Best in Show. Also, Kim and the Judge both said they absolutely loved the color--she said the judge raved about it! My ram does have a very odd color---and for an Icelandic who does not carry the gray gene, he for some reason has a "grayish" almost blackish cast to his brown. Very different. Very unique.
Now just to give you an idea how big this is for him and us just let me tell you----"primitive" breeds like Icelandics, Karakuls etc RARELY ever beat out sheep like Ramboullet or Romney or a few other better appreciated breeds for Best in Show. So for a primitive to win Best in Show is a pretty big deal!

Since this ram is technically "sold"--- and to a lady who wanted to add him to her flock specifically for his fleece attributes---I'd say I represented him well AND she got a sheep that hopefully will do for her exactly what she hopes he will.
So next year we are again sending in fleeces to the fair--as promised to Kim (again)-- AND I already have the moorit ewe lamb's fleece from next year sold since it was so appreciated! How about that!
I will post a picture of my "winnings" when they get to me---which could be a week or two I was told.

Also, thanks for helping us make our booth a success at the "fair" this weekend. We appreciate it and enjoyed seeing everyone. We were one of the few booths that actually went beyond breaking even and actually made money. The town did not do it's best to advertise this year---and it showed---but luckily we did well.
I have also been asked by the lady that is running the "museum" in our downtown to 1) please come and do a spinning demonstration periodically there when the antique train comes into town on Saturdays (bringing tourist from Tennessee) and 2) to offer some of my knitted items and hand spun yarns in the gift shop.

** A quick plug for my "sponsor": SmallMeadow Farm---check out the site it is updated with fleeces, fiber and hand spun and/or hand dyed yarns. Check it out :-)

Overall---a DAMN good weekend wouldn't you say? :-D At least in regards to sheep!:-D

The Bachelor Pad

Every fall we get to the point of deciding where exactly are we going to put each group of breeding animals. Always the conundrum since each ram's group has to have a gap between the other group(s). Why? Because rams will fight through fences even if they can't see each other. They will bash down fences, gates and anything in between them to establish who is top dog and to "get the girls". If one ram is older and obviously the dominate ram---they will still fight until the dominate ram can "gather" all the girls from the other side. Needless to say the girls stay well out of this battle and are not that interested in being gathered (most of the time). However during all this the poor shepherd ends up constantly trying to repair all the damaged things and keep everyone apart and in their correct place--not always that easy with rams in the grip of rut. Though they are usually fine with the shepherd ---they can be much harder at this time to control and to get their attention. Bull headed would be the description that comes to mind here---and annoying.
Now fortunately---we have always been successful BUT we have at times had gates accosted when another group did not have an "appropriate" distance. So, as I mentioned--with each year comes the new decision of who goes where.
This year to help us with that---we made a new pen. It is a small area and will technically be the official "bachelor" pen for the rams after breeding and until they go back in with the girls after lambing. Until that period of time however--one breeding group will go into this pen which will make it easier on us as far as keeping a good distance between the other group. Also, as fate would have it we will end up with only two rams. So, with this new pen it actually will work out well for us by allowing more of our pasture to rest during the winter (especially after this hard drought year) and possibly even re seed more of it if it ever rains regularly again.
Ike---who is pictured above with the chicken on him will come in this pen with his three girls. All the rest of the girls will go into the back pasture with our new ram "Tex" (yes, kind of a silly name---but there you have it).
My point of posting this was to show how we are allowing this pen to overflow into the chicken area. Ike as you can see is taking full advantage of it by laying in front of the chicken coop door. This morning I had to change the hinges on the door since Ike kept knocking it close by laying against it. No sooner had I done that then two of the rams (both soon to move to new places) squooshed their selves through the door and hung around inside the coop. The chickens as you can see are fine with this---they just climb over the rams to get in or out.
The "long view" picture up there is the beginning of the attachment to the back of the coop that will be the new shelter for whatever animals end up in this pen over time. A place to keep their hay dry and for them to get out of the worst that winter dishes out (if winter ever comes!). The tarp is a temporary side to help with sun control right now but the roof and posts only took a couple of days to get done. Eventually it will be finished---we are much quicker with animal shelters than our own :-D and a group of sheep will move in for a few months. The girls would be glad to know they are just going to be temporarily ensconced---but since they can't understand me I am sure they will fuss at me all the while they are there.

Michigan Fiber Festival

So, as I previously mentioned I would have some "special" pictures for everyone soon. Well I flubbed a bit---I do have some pictures but not as many as I would have liked to have brought back to post.
The Michigan Fiber Festival is held every year in Allegan, Michigan around the third weekend of August. We have only gone two times now but both times we use it as a mid way point to pick up sheep that we are buying for our farm. I purchased 2 ewes and a ram from Jager Icelandics, one ewe from Little Cabin Farm and another ewe from Ingleside Icelandics. I also picked up sheep for a lady in Atlanta.
In actuality our trip started with us meeting Nancy Chase (Ingleside Icelandics) in Nashville,
picking up a ram of hers and then meeting some very nice people from Wisconsin in Indianapolis to
give them the ram---basically a delivery. Unfortunately we were late meeting them ---three minor fender benders, a fire at the side of the road and a horrible storm all contributed to us being 2 and 1/2 hours late. Ack!! I hate doing that to people---but it was out of our control. They were very nice and understanding about it though---Thank you Cathy :-)
After that we camped that night in a state park in Indiana and it was just gorgeous. The weather was perfect and the bugs were doing their whole "forest chorus" thing----which I totally miss. ( We used to live surrounded by a forest and I miss it very often ) By the way---I forgot to take pictures of any of this part.
The next day--Friday--- we diddled around for a while but eventually made our way to the festival at about 3pm. Some of the Icelandic breeders had arrived and were set up and some hadn't made it yet, so we went to wander around the fair. When our sheep got there we helped get them in a pen and I took one picture of my husband watering afterwards.




















Eventually most arrived and we ended up eating a little "pot luck" dinner----that fortunately did have some "pot luck" to eat. A number of us were from way way out of town so we shirked our duties of bringing a dish. The others were very gracious to share with us---and I did get ONE picture of this. I am not in it of course :-)




















Saturday dawned wonderfully cool (late fall weather seeming for us---breezy, dewy and we needed a light jacket) and we got started for a busy day.
I fed and watered all the sheep and then we went off to eat breakfast. I took some pictures of downtown Allegan which is a very cute little town to stop at and even spend a night if you ever go through that way. It's not large, so a week worth of things to do might be hard to find unless you were there for something specific---but it is very cute and clean. The people are pleasant and friendly---which makes the stay enjoyable just because of that. By the way---you can tell by the picture that the weather was wonderful that day.























































Later that afternoon---I showed some of the sheep for Jager Icelandics. Of course, Barb kept giving me the polled sheep---which don't have the handy dandy handles on top of their head to control them with. Some people halter break their sheep---but not everyone does so they can be a bit of a pill sometimes. Little ballerinas doing high jumps on the end of a "string". Then they will throw their selves down into the flooring and roll in it as they have a fit about being held still and cover the very fleece they are being judged on in wood chips. Baaad sheep.







































Unfortunately none of my victims, err....sheep, placed at all. Though I think the judge thought my handling technique was good (which it wasn't) since she chatted to me a bit (a no no) and I placed right on the other side of the ribbon every time. However---a good time was had by all and there were lots of sheep to see. We got to talk with friends not seen for a year, made new friends and saw lots of fiber related STUFF.
I even broke down and bought some yarn---a rarity for me. I am a very very good person about not buying on whim---but I did like this yarn and since it is boucle, it is out of my skill range to produce. I will post a picture of it when I start the project. I think I will make something for my mother's upcoming 60th birthday with it.

Anyways---we had a great time. Made it back safely and now have sheep in our quarantine area. My new ram is wonderfully built (I had to shear him to figure it out though) and my new ewes all seem to be somewhat friendly and curious. Overall---good purchases. I will post pictures of them another day.

A bit of Stormy Wether

Well the rubber band didn't kill him :-) and this guy is now officially a wether---or as we sometimes say: an IT--neither male or female. I happened to get this picture of him the other day after he was sheared. He looked kind of cute laying there all comfy and cool now. (We are extremely HUMID lately---so thick you could cut it with a knife)
Long ago this little guy acquired the name "Stormy"--- since his life has been just that. His mother didn't do well for us this year from heat we thought---but now we wonder if from a genetic issue (not for sure). Any how---he didn't grow well because of his dam's problem, his twin brother died, then his mom was culled, then he came close to being culled too---over all quite the stormy life. So, I have to admit---I was kind of surprised to see the name fit him even more after he was sheared. His gray undercoat does give him a cloudy sky kind of appearance. Luckily---his personality is not that at all and he should make a fine companion for the ram's and lone sheep that need a friend to "sleep over" with them. He may even become a mascot of sorts to take to fiber fairs for "show and tell".
So though it's kind of silly he will forever be known to us as "Stormy the Wether" but hopefully the rest of his life will be full of sunshine :-D (cause if not he will be culled!)

Woosh!

So,
We are finally getting some rain regularly. Though not the amounts we need to beat back this drought we seemed to have been alloted at least enough to turn the grass back green and to grow it just a little.
Add to that the sale and butchering of a number of sheep-- and we again have breathing room in regards to our pastures.
Currently we have 3 more sheep to move on to another farm, a couple more to go to slaughter and 5 to come home to us at the end of August. That will move us into fall with the total of....17 sheep. Just one more than last year---and he will be a wether. Cute little guy too---perfectly sized to be a wether since he is smaller than usual.
This will be our first year to carry a wether with us. We have debated it many times---but never have decided to keep one. The other day we decided: yeah! we need one for animals that need to be quarantined or to be a friend while a sheep recovers if hurt or any number of other reasons. So...we neutered him. He wasn't happy about it though. We used basically a rubber band that is so tight it will squeeze the blood out of the testicles and they will dry up and fall off. He looked a bit "sick to his stomach" for about 2 days, but he looks fine now (I checked him frequently since I was a bit worried about him).
The testicles have not fallen off yet---but it won't be long.
So now he gets to live a life of companion and fleece animal. Wethers actually give the best fleeces since they are not rams (coarser fleeces) nor are they producing ewes (pregnancy and lambing can sometimes make a fleece not quite the best).

Anyways---as I ramble on about wethers I am reminded just how quickly the "circle of life" moves around. Not long ago I blogged away with time to spare then we came to spring, lambed and moved into summer and it all fell to the side with our endless amounts of things to do. Here we are again---almost time to go to Michigan to pick up this year's new sheep----and then there will be fall shearing (and fall festivals), breeding season and then the wait for lambs (and time to blog and do some of my "own" things). Yes----it sounds long---but it won't be when you add Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the other things we come across in a year. My...how time does fly. And they say children make it seem fast. Well who ever said that never raised sheep :-)

Cheryl: if you are still reading I hope your house is coming along just peachy!

One for the freezer

We had a sad night Monday---we had to butcher one of our ewes. For some reason she has never really done very well for us here---even as a lamb. She was born on this farm so we know her whole history and we keep very good records to compare the animals with (this is because I know I have the memory of a gnat at times)
Was she just a bummer to start with? Was it heat? the long term drought? genetics? Is it that we should have supplied more this or that in her minerals? Whatever it is---we finally decided that even if we knew for sure that she will do better by the fall (which we were pretty sure she would)---she could no longer be allowed to contribute to the gene pool. Luckily we had chosen not to sell her lambs. One is in the freezer with her already and the other will be a wether for us to use in situations when we need one to keep another sheep company. He seems well and fine so far---so he can be an experiment in whether or not this passes steadily in genetic lines or maybe is just a "bad match" of parents every so often.
Though I try and "harden" myself to the lambs because you always know some of them will end up in the freezer--- either because they don't sell or they aren't good enough to sell---I had a little trouble with this girl. Yes, I weeped just a bit. But...it is a necessity to cull and only keep those that will do well for us or others and not have lambs that might potentially have problems too. Part of it is raising good animals and part of it is about supplying the meat for ourselves. I have to admit---I have always weeped a bit with the animals. Even sometimes the chickens that I have come to like quite well. So I do wonder at times why I am not a vegetarian. I have tried to be a vegetarian---but I do like meat. I suppose if I lived near a CAFO operation and had to see the care ( or lack ) of the animals----that might have been my catalyst to not eat meat. When on the other hand I am raising them myself, I at least know they had the very best life that they could have had.
One problem we have come across lately is selling our meat. We have run into the problem that there are no longer (must be recently) any NON regulated butcher shops around us. All of them are required to be inspected. Which means that any cow, sheep, pig (farm animal basically) that comes to them to be cut and wrapped MUST be killed in front of the inspector ---by them. However, my issue is that I do not want to take my animals on a trip and pull them out in a strange place and have them stand around in a holding pen to be butchered after they have completely freaked out and been stressed to the nines--by a stranger. I have always felt very strongly that life and death should occur in the place of the animals life. It is the way nature intended it. Animals aren't hauled out of the woods to a processing facility to be butchered under supervision---then later that week the wolves come and pick them up all neatly wrapped.
SO...I have come to a conundrum. How to now sell my meat? Legally---I can't sell it to anyone without that inspection. I could get into huge trouble. Just ask the raw milk people---and they are doing it the "legal" way to start with. I think from now on we will (after this season) set ourselves up with the intention to sell only to those who want, and will, butcher the animals their selves here on our farm. We may have to invest in a station for them to use---with water and a table---but it will be much more "humane" in my opinion than the other way. Besides---if you take them to a butcher that can only butcher on Tuesdays (that is the day the inspector comes) how do you know for sure that you get back your organic animal and not someone else's? Maybe---since not much lamb/sheep is raised around here---I would. But what about a cow or pig? How would I know for sure? Of course---if we killed it ourselves and had him package it---we would still wonder about that, but I just thought I would throw it out there for thought. Since it is something we have wondered about.

As to the issue of packaging the meat, we bought a "food saver" machine. Yes, I know it requires plastic bags to save the meat in. Something I would rather not use--plastic I mean. However---I am horrible at wrapping air free with butcher paper and we loose meat periodically because of freezer burn. So I decided that I would at least invest in the food saver and use it on the larger cuts that are more likely to wait for longer times (roasts are for fall and winter---not the middle of summer) and might become freezer burnt during the wait.
Beyond the problem of the plastic---this thing is neat, neat, neat. After you put in the meat it sucks out all the air and then seals the bag for you. Nice! We had so much fun that we spent quite a bit of time watching it and commenting on how it sounds like a motor cycle. It "shifts" as it does different aspects: like pulling out the air and then sealing the edges etc. It was so fun to do that I was reminded of when we got our first front loader washing machine----it was fascinating watching the clothes go round. Oh the joys of mundane things. To bad I didn't get that much joy out of laundry now :-D

Anyways---hope all are well. We seems to be beyond busy lately---however for some reason there doesn't seem to be a lessening in things to do. Why is that?
Oh yes---we got RAIN finally! Real rain---almost a whole days worth. Amazing :-)

Just Relaxing

Just thought this was a little funny. Excuse the color---my camera was set to "fluorescent" instead of daylight.
Still prayin' for rain here.

Drought & Desperation

Well,maybe the long term, on going drought is driving the sheep to desperation. I think Aleda, one of my Icelandic ewes (yes, females can be with or without horns) decided she needed to see if there was a back up meal just in case the pastures turn to dust and we can't find more hay.






For those of you wondering: Yes, we are still in a very very bad drought. We have had microscopic amounts of rain and about 1/2 of our pasture is now brown.
Sorry to those who live on the coast but we are hoping to have a hurricane hit and bring us some rain! Unfortunately, hurricanes are one of the ways that we get quite a bit of our yearly rain. For two years now they have pretty much passed us by: last year we got a bit fat zero from any of them. Odd considering how damaging they were to other parts of the country.
Yes, I know it is a weather pattern related to the change from el nino to la nina and back again ---and we should have rain as it finishes---however that does not make the grass grow or the trees quit dying. Bummer huh.

One last thing: yesterday evening we had very very "smoggy" skies. Why? Well, of course the smoke from the wild fires in south Georgia and north Florida. The wind was blowing this way and it was fairly thick (though Atlanta was much worse supposedly) and you could even smell it just a small bit---odd isn't it.