Shari’s Gone Country

We’re nearly finished with as much of the chicken coop as necessary before we order our day-old chicks.Got the roof on, and have nearly finished installing the roosts. Window are cut and the only thing remaining before ordering our chicks is to screen in the windows, and screen in the sofit area.

Dixie stopped by and commented she has “brooder” lights. We also have wrangled a small brooder, which will hold 50 chicks for a couple of weeks. Our plan is to put the chicks straight into the coop in their “warm area”.
That way, they can become used to humans and noise as we continue working on the exterior. They’ll live in their little area for about a month before allowed outside in their daytime pens.
While working on the coop, we had the little bummer out. He’s so cute in his little red harness. This weekend, we introduced him (very carefully) to the ewes and ram. He’s way too little to go into the pen by himself.

This morning I took him to the feed trailer while I fed the flock. He had his own little pile of alfalfa and was a happy little guy. He jumped and ran back and forth between the pen and the trailer.

No problem getting him to follow me… he really believes I’m his “mother”.

That’s all we’re hearing from Cindy’s Mom, who just can’t wait to have truly “farm fresh” eggs and chicken.

We have the “perfect spot” for an 8×8 foot coop, a concrete pad that has both water and electric (currently not functional) to it.

The coop is being built on the pad to the right, and the outside runs will be towards the tree and to the right (towards the sheep pen).

Bev and Cindy both have considerable construction experience, so aside from allowing me to pound nails into the plywood, I was “the mule”… You know, carry this, hand me that, wait for me… Geez, I got tired just watching them work.

All Mom will have to do is come out the back door, cross the driveway and walk about 60 feet to get to her chickens.

We’ll have a “peaked” roof… slope is 4:1, so not real steep, but enough to handle the snow load. This next weekend, we’ll have the roof on, and be ready to order our chicks.

Mom wants eggs. We figure as long as we’re going to have a hen or two for her, we might just as well have some brown eggs to sell. Total chicks on our list is 50. That should yield about 20 hens. Another neighbor aka “The Egg Lady” told us she has 15 hens and is getting about a dozen eggs a day.

I’d be thrilled if Bev could take orders in St. George or even Cindy taking orders in Enterprise to sell 10 doz eggs a week. With the price of eggs rising… and brown eggs on the high end, we could pretty much cover our costs and make a little profit.

We got the nest boxes installed (full of tools right now), the door, and a few of the rafters up before the wind got too bad. Time out for a couple days as the weather is pretty “iffy”… forecast for better than 30 mph wind and thunderstorms.

Here I was, working away on a web site. Cindy had gone to work at another farm, and Bev was filling in on the Senior bus, when the call came in.

“This is Dixie. I’ve got a ewe that’s stuck in the same position for four hours. I need help now!.”

It was like “tag, your it”… so off I went.

Shortly after I caught up with Dixie near the lambing pens, she had me at the head of the ewe. My job was to contain the ewe while she pulled on the little lamb. Within a couple of minutes this yearling momma had her first little ewe lamb.

Sorry, no pictures as there were no free hands.

I’m happy to report that both Ma and little lamb are doing very well. By the time I left she had the little girl up on her feet and was cleaning and nursing her.

It was a “planned loss” day, as we took Missie to the vet to have her put down. At 15, she’s lived a very full life and crossing the Rainbow Ridge was a only a matter of time. Over the past few weeks, she had been losing bladder control and we found a massive tumor inside her mouth.

Wouldn’t you know it, the regular vet was out of town, so we were referred to another very nice new vet. I was absolutely amazed at his compassion. Cindy and I were there to hold her as “Doc” administered the injection and then confirmed her passing. Then, to my amazement, he allowed us privacy for as long as wanted.

Sad task completed, it was time to again look to the future… off to purchase building materials for our chicken coop, and surprise, surprise… put a greenhouse on lay-away.

Personal side note: With blue skies and temps in the 70’s, my poor ears are sooooo sunburned. Shortly I’ll get a pic of me in my summer straw.

Every once in a while, we’re treated to spectacular sunsets. This is the most beautiful sunset I’ve seen since arriving in December. If you didn’t know for sure you were looking at a sunset, you’d think there was a huge range fire.

I let Sarah come play one-to-one with “Freezer”. What a hoot! The first picture is kind of “game on”… while the second one… well, let’s just say he’s not taking any guff from her.

Another life lesson learned. Breakfast is served outside, and you’re on “all fours” from here on out.

There’s one thing I can be sure of. I have a shadow, a little black lamb whose name is “Freezer”.

Early last week… just a couple of days after the “sheep roundup”, Dixie stopped by to share the joy of one of her older ewe’s having quadruplets. Yeah… that’s four little lambs and just two teats.

The little black one is a small ewe. The little guy in front with the white “top-knot” is destined for the freezer. I’m not sure which of the others are ewe and ram… but know the ewe will stay in the herd and the little guy will either go to the freezer or the market in a few months.

That’s only the beginning of the story…

Sunday evening, after having worked all weekend on various projects, we got a call from Dixie. The little black guy with the white top-knot was up for adoption. His little black sister had died earlier, the result of both being the runt, and not strong enough to jostle for the two teats.

We hurriedly finished dinner, and told Mom we were going to Dixie’s. We didn’t tell her why.

Last year she got to be “Mom”. I’ve seen the pictures and have been told she even let the little lamb sleep in her bed.

I’m “Mom”… and I’ve even learned to say “Maaaaa–a–a–aaaa”! I’m not nuts… this little guy has his own pen about 15 feet from my bed.

He wasn’t real interested in his first bottle… took three attempts over the evening and into the next morning to get a mere 6 oz of Lamb Replacement down him.

He really looks pretty good. Dixie just wants to make sure he’s raised to our advantage. We’ll probably add some true “bummers” in a month or so as her yearling ewe’s have their first offspring. Any that drop twins will have one removed to us.

Now, I’ve got plenty of help as three of the dogs participated last year with this “bummer business”. They’re very attentive and actually concerned about his every move. They wash his face and his butt, and herd him around the back yard. This is Coda getting the face-washing honors.

As you can see… he has imprinted nicely. I can now expect him to be my shadow for the next 5 or 6 months. He’s living in a big dog crate in the kitchen right now. I’ve got a little stool where I sit and feed him.
Last night, Sarah “assumed” the overnight duty. She was up fretting every time he moved around. Of course, she’d whine… and then he’d cry. So, at 2:30 AM I was feeding him.

This morning… a minor miracle… He took all his bottle while standing on “all 4’s” from just inside his crate. Shortly after that, he has settled down for a nice, long nap.

Last evening, we took him out front for a little exercises “sans dogs”. As he was “maaa-ing”, the rest of our little flock was paying very close attention. Was fascinating to see them all lined up at the fence peering our way to see who was crying.

Oh, and he really does have a name… Freezer.