Shari’s Gone Country

You go to auction!

Yeppers, after all my ruminations on what to do, I (all by myself) came to the conclusion that ram had to go.

And that was the least of my problems for a while…

Getting him to market was quite fortuitous, as our neighbor was sending his lambs to market and we could put both the mean ram and the ewe with the rupture on his trailer. That would save us having to borrow a trailer and drive nearly 100 miles round trip, spend many hours, and come home with less money than we spent.

So… How to break the news that I wanted to send the ram to market…

I got Cindy to agree with me, as she, too, had been butted around by him. She could see that he was dangerous and really didn’t want to have to put up with him.

However, Bev was the one who’d bought him to begin with. She’d made the deal, believing he was what we needed. After all, he came from a neighbor, was only two years old, looked awesome, and would be a good fit for our little flock. At that time, we had just two ewes (or so we thought).

I crossed an invisible barrier and simply announced to her that he was going to the auction based on his attitude, and his wool type.  I didn’t seek her input… and that wasn’t good or right.

When Clyde arrived with the trailer, at first it was “No, he’s staying here!”.

On my way to the pen to get the ewe, I told Al (the ram), “He was one damned lucky boy”, believing he was staying.

By the time we’d loaded the ewe, Bev reluctantly changed her mind and agreed to send him.

So, Al… you’re off to a whole new world!

Ever since we sheared the sheep, and I put up the “Our Fleeces” page, we’ve been struggling with negative feedback regarding the staple length. What’s a girl to do, ‘cept more research!

I called folks all over Utah, and finally found some nice “sheep people” in both Oregon and California who were able to provide detailed information on what kind of sheep we have, and what we’ll need to do to improve our little flock.

Now, I’m the one who is most adamant about our “hobbies” providing some kind of return whenever possible.

The chickens provide us eggs, which we sometimes sell. Of course, since that’s Mom’s hobby, she gets to keep any egg money for her own use.

The horses are strictly for our own enjoyment. Besides, I’ve met few horses that ever paid for their own keep, let alone their own feed.

The sheep, though… they’re a “cash crop” in my eyes. We breed them. They produce lambs to both increase our flock size and to sell for meat. I also expect them to provide some wool to sell… and that’s where we’re having an issue.

These sheep were represented as black “Merino” sheep by the person who sold them to us. I believe her as she was led to believe they were “Merino”. Only one small problem… their fleece isn’t as “fine feeling” as the Polypay, and that’s not right.

Shortly after I got here (Dec 2006) we bought a ram, who was represented as 3/4 Merino x 1/4 Suffolk. He’s a big boy and over the past winter, developed a rather nasty attitude.

After much searching around, I believe what we really have are a type (not sure of the breed) of sheep called “marker sheep”. They are the one’s large sheep stations use to help them count their sheep. By maintaining about 1 black sheep per 100 white ones, they can easily count the black one’s and know if they have the whole flock in sight.

What’s all this mean?

Well, it means the fleeces we have for sale, are no longer for sale to spinners, as there’s no way they can meet the quality standards. It also means the ram we have is not the right ram for us. He can’t improve the fleece, and with his attitude, he’s really too dangerous for we women.

Now, this has caused a bit of consternation around here, as I pretty much did the research, presented the “bad news”, and set forth to make corrections without much input from anyone else… not the best decision I’ve ever made.

I am making the fleece available for alternative uses.

For example, we use it to line our chicken nests. The girls love it! They snuggle down in it and when they lay eggs, they are so nice and clean. With the cost of straw, our fleece is very cost effective.

You can also use fleece (wool) as insulation, or even as a permanent mulch as it will “felt” in time.

I know, I made sure you knew about our fleeces before I showed you how we got from “on the sheep” to “off the sheep”.

Because we have a very small flock, and virtually no shade for the shearer, we agreed to move our flock to the neighbor’s, where there is shade and a little better “catch” facility.

Last Monday afternoon, Bev picked up a borrowed 4-horse trailer in preparation for the “mini-roundup” and move.

The plan was to simply park the truck and trailer next to the sheep pen gate, open the gate, and stand there with some panels. One of us (most likely me) would shake the corn can and get the girls to follow me up and into the trailer.

That worked with one ewe for about 30 seconds! No, there are no pictures as we are about to get VERY busy.

With the corn can bait not working, Cindy left her panel and went for some hay. That was before I could close the gate, and yeppers… first “Merino’ followed Cindy to the hay stack, and then two more… Not good news as we don’t have our acreage fenced.

For the next 30 minutes or so, we coaxed, herded, backed off, headed off, and tried every trick we could think of to get the girls back into their pen. Clyde, our neighbor showed up to help bring order to circus.

Finally, with all the girls back in the pen, we once again tried to load everyone. Now, the plan was to take the lambs along as we figured they’d run right into the trailer to be with their Mama’s.

Never, ever let anyone tell you sheep are dumb. They do think, and they think pretty fast. They’re also curious, can be fooled once, maybe twice, but after that, it’s “sheep 1 - humans 0″.

The girls finally found the hay in the trailer completely irresistible, but the lambs weren’t convinced. With only 3 of the 10 lambs in the trailer, we changed directions and removed the 3 lambs, leaving them home. As they’re 60 days old, the separation wasn’t as traumatic as we’d expected.

Off to Clyde’s, just a short 1/2 mile jaunt. Off loading was much less stressful, as all we had to do was convince the gals this was a good place to be. After all, one of the matriarch’s offspring from last year is here, as is our ram.

Bruno, the Boxer thinks he’s a sheep dog, and is trying to help with this herding process. A few months ago, we were feeding Clyde’s sheep and found one of his little lambs out. I’m sure that had it not been for Bruno’s herding ability, we’d still be chasing that lamb.

Phillip, or “Flip” as he’s known locally is our shearer. He also owns several pretty good-sized commercial flocks and runs the crew that does virtually all the commercial shearing in SW Utah and eastern Nevada.

Because there are only 21 sheep between us, Flip takes his time with each animal. He even takes time to comment on our quality and the difference between what our animals looked like last year, compared to this year. Rather than rip through the sheep at 2 minute intervals, he takes between 4 and 5 minutes per animal.

As each of our sheep are sheared, we load them back into the trailer for the short trip home. Even Algernon, our ram, is coming home. “Freezer” a yearling wether becomes payment for the shearing. Flip notes he can almost taste his chops!

With our flock done, we turn our attention to moving Clyde’s flock from their pasture to the catch pen. The plan this time is to move all the ewes and their lambs. We’ll shear the ewes, leaving them in the catch chute, and then drive them back to their pen, leaving the lambs in the catch pen.

Clyde’s girls seem to know the process and we need only worry about any of them wanting to take a side trip into the garden (tasty morsels there, ya’ know). Moving Clyde’s flock is a snap compared to our flock.

By about noon, we finish with the shearing, and get everyone back in their places. Yes, Clyde’s lambs are putting up a bit of a fuss, since they’re now permanently separated from their mothers. Our girls arrive home and you should see the lambs trying to figure out what happened. Without their huge fleeces, our ewes aren’t much bigger than some of their offspring, and they still have a month until weaning.

Oh, and just who is that great big guy behind that fence? The lambs meet their daddy for the first time through the fence.

We deliver “Freezer” to Flip’s “mutton pen” where he’s the only black sheep, take the trailer home and give a huge sigh of relief. That’s one job we won’t have to do again until next year.

As I said earlier, since the first of the month, this has been a wild ride indeed.

Last fall, when it was time to breed, we put a harness and color marker on Al (our big ram). The idea is that you can see the marks on the ewe’s rumps, so you know if they’ve been bred.

I very carefully looked for the marks (they’re quite obvious), and then entered the breeding dates into our fancy “Ranch Manager” software. That gave us pure dates for lambing… that’s what you call it when the ewe’s have their babies.

According to our software, “Annie” and “Carolyn” were due April 6, with “Merino” right behind them on April 7. Due April 12 would be “Beulah”, with “Amy” due last on April 18.

Well… so much for plans and software. Someone forgot to tell the ewe’s.

Sunday, March 30, “Annie” went into labor. Now, we’re real rookies at this sheep business. I have 16 years of commercial rabbit production, and hung out with “sheep folks”, but I’ve never actually been through the lambing season, except for a couple days of observations at the neighboring sheep ranch last year.

Being rookies, all we really knew was that we were supposed to stand by and stay out of the way. We had a pretty fair idea she was in labor, as we could see the contractions, and she was separated from the rest of the flock, and was really uncomfortable.

What we didn’t realize until much later… the next morning, was that she had ruptured internally. We got to her in time, so she’s still with us, but will be put up for auction as she’s no longer capable of breeding, and carrying lambs successfully.

Cindy and I spent the entire night with the truck parked at the sheep pen. We made hourly, even 15 minute rounds to check on her. At one point, we could see a little hoof and nose… but were helpless to help her in the dark of night.

Oh, and it was one of those very rare foggy nights on the desert. No moon, no lights visible anywhere. We couldn’t even see the horse corral just 50 yards away.

By sunrise, we had determined we needed help… so, we got on the phone to our various neighbor/mentors. We got Clyde and Amber’s answering machine. Linda was on her way to work. Our last hope was the shepherd at the sheep ranch.

While Cindy and I captured Annie and prepared to pull the first lamb, Bev raced to the sheep ranch to get Pedro. Luckily, he had a few minutes, a new-born quadruplet to graft to the ewe, and understood how much he was needed.

First words out of his mouth… “You girls are no sheep herders!”

“Of course, Pedro. We’re rookies… and once upon a time, you were a rookie, too. We’ve pulled the first lamb, but there are more and we don’t know how to get to the rest.”

It was a sad sight. Annie had three dead lambs in her. We successfully grafted the little bummer (a ewe lamb) we named “Stormy”. All in all, while we felt very badly, we were also elated with the fact that we’d been able to save the ewe and the bummer.

On April 3, Bev was “on watch” and came in to announce that “Beulah” was in labor. Sure enough, she presented first a small black bundle. Cindy and I watched as she cleaned and nosed the little rascal, trying to get it to stand.

“Come on! Get up… I’ve got more coming and you have to be independent.”

Unfortunately, Beulah had to turn her attention the next little guy, leaving Cindy and me to pitch in and help. We had some colostrum ready. The little guy was brought into the house and given a nice soft warm bed as well as a good meal.

In the mean time, Beulah gave birth to three more little lambs. The second little guy was on his feet in just minutes, finding his way to “Mom’s teat”. The next little girl was quickly on her feet, too.

The last little bundle came out kicking. I was “on watch” at that time and marveled at how active the little guy was… but he was having a tough time standing up. Beulah hadn’t bothered to bite off the umbilical, and it was twisted around his back legs… No wonder he couldn’t stand up.

Cindy to the rescue!

Within a few hours, the little guy we rescued had died… another sad moment. But, he had weighed less than 5 pounds and his siblings were all over 8 pounds, so it wasn’t totally unexpected.

The April 6 and April 7 due dates passed with no activity.

Finally, Tuesday April 8, “Amy” dropped a pair of twins. These little gals tipped the scales at 10 and 12 pounds each. What beautiful little ewe lambs. We named the chocolate one “Mouton” in honor of one of my business partners. Her maiden name was “Mouton”, which means sheep in French, and her birthday was April 6. The other little gal is named “Dixie” in honor of our original mentor. These were all her sheep last year.

Thursday morning, I was greeted with two more little lambs, compliments of “Merino”. She had two little boys, who look like identical twins. These little guys were kind of small, and not on their feet for hours, so once again… it’s Cindy to the rescue with some nice warm colostrum.

We’ve gotten real good at milking sheep this week, as we’ve felt the need to make sure each ewe has had milk for the lambs. So far, no bottle babies, and that’s a very good sign.

The score? As of this entry, we have four little ewe lambs, “Stormy”, “Princess”, “Dixie” and “Mouton”. We have four little ram lambs, which we’ve already committed to sell to a neighboring Mexican family at weaning time. We’ll make a little, they’ll take them and feed them out, using some for food and sharing others with friends.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting an autobiography.

Why? Well, because I believe you’ll find my story inspiring… and hopefully, you’ll discover no matter what you’ve done in life, there’s always more to be done.

I’ve got it pretty much written (had it posted on the domain in past years) but need to polish it a bit… that translates to take out some of the “sales talk” from a past life. I’m sure you won’t mind a bit if that stuff has gone missing.

Oh boy, the little chicks are rapidly becoming young birds. Monday they turned 2 weeks old and got the run of virtually the entire coop.

The coop is 8 x 8 and built on a concrete pad that was already here. Their outside run hasn’t been fenced yet, but will extend about 32′ west of the SW corner and 25′ north of the NE corner and then complete the rectangle. We’ll then divide the pen diagonally back to the NW corner, establishing two separate runs.

I’m finding an inward opening screen door made from 1/2 inch hardware cloth would be a perfect addition. That way I can leave the door open and also when I want to go inside the coop, it will sweep the curious birds inward.

Tomorrow we’re building a “junior roost” to help the youngsters get up the the bigger roosts. I found one dropping, so someone has been working on their flying skills.

As soon as I see birds flying 4 feet or higher, it’s time to clip wings. These are all heavy breeds, so don’t really expect to repeat the process more than twice as they’re growing. After a while, they’ll learn flying isn’t something they have to do.

The final home for both water and feed will most likely be below the nest boxes (which aren’t completed yet).

Our plan is to hold off on a lot of the final construction until we can let the birds outside in about three weeks.

One thing we did learn, and will be correcting is that our big black lab could dig her way into the coop with not much effort. She’s dug into the engineered “plywood” enough to get our attention. Now a roll of flashing is on our list. We’ll be installing it around the coop base and up the corners.

Last week was one of “those” weeks.

Just after I wrote the last post, we had a quick family meeting…

Bev was asking us to approve her reasons for leaving the job she got in St. George. You see, she’s a cancer survivor, and the chemotherapy really slowed her down. She’s a retired cop and thought sure she could handle a dispatcher’s position.

Unfortunately, learning the new computer system and having to type while carrying on two different conversations, was more than her stress level could handle.

On top of that, fuel and food was costing about 40% of her take-home pay. And gas just keeps going up.

We all agreed that it was best. It would get her back on a regular schedule instead of shift work, and with Cindy going back to work at the farm, the income difference would be minimal.

After that, we settled in for a week of nasty weather… wind storms, rain, maybe snow and sleet. About all we did from Tuesday to Friday was go out to feed while struggling to stand up.

Bev returned to her “old job” driving the Senior Center bus. Thursday included a trip to St. George. Since I’m 61 and eligible to ride the bus… I am able to do the “animal feed” shopping and bring it back on the bus. At least that’s the feed that is bagged and any other equipment we can fit into the bus. Sure beats spending our gas money!

This weekend, Cindy, Bev, neighbor Dixie and I attended the “Downunder Horsemanship” seminar by Clinton Anderson. What an awesome time. Cindy and Dixie are the horse owners. In fact, Dixie is a breeder/trainer. Bev and I both love to ride, but have never owned our horses.

Starting later this week, I’ll be working a horse under Dixie’s tutelage.

While I grew up riding horses, took a couple years of English riding lessons, and earned my “horsewoman’s badge” in Girl Scouts, as an adult, I’ve had very limited time on a horse. I don’t really remember doing any “ground and foot work” with any of the horses. So this is all new territory for me.

About those fence post holes… we managed to fit everyone into our current configuration. We’ll dig a little later.

Ok, now we be sheep herders for sure!

Last weekend our neighbor, who has been so helpful to us came for help from us. She and hubby are giving serious thought to leaving the desert for Colorado. Her kids are settling there and she’d love to be closer to them. Also, employment for hubby (a welder) would be much better.

Anyways, she offered us her four Merino ewe’s at a really good price. The original plan was that we’d get them when they move and could make payments on them.

Wouldn’t you know it? She lost her “trade hay for horse training” deal, so no more feed means she has to disperse her flock immediately. She got a really sweet deal on her PolyPay flock and we are now moving the Merinos and lambs to our pen.

Yesterday was the first “roundup” day… No pics as it’s wasn’t the least bit pretty. Cindy got a good trampling and will have some ’splaining to do at her next mammogram (this week).

Here are pics of yesterday’s success.

This is Annie. She’s a yearling Merino. Until we get Dixie over here to clearly identify each one, I’m at a loss to say if she’s bred, had a lamb and lost it, or has not yet been bred.
This is Beulah. She’s a real prize as she dropped quads this year. She’s “Freezer’s” mama and those are his surviving brother (black w/white face) and sister.
We’ll be keeping the sister for our flock, while raising the little boy for Dixie’s freezer. In return, she’ll give us some of her lambing equipment. Ain’t it nice to have good neihbors?

Monday we enlarged the brooder as the peeps are now a week old. They’ve nearly doubled in size. Next week, they’ll get pretty much full run of the chicken coop… This is gonna be fun.

We’ve added some boards for roosts and the concrete block for a combination roost/toy. They now have almost 27 square feet of space.

In time, we’ll name the hens, but the cockerels (save one or two) will be nameless and headed for our dinner table and freezer by fall.

Don’t hold me to this… but we may be adding another horse, too. Eventually we want to have 3 horses so we can all ride together. I’ll need to find a Welsh Pony for myself as my legs are too short to hoist my lead-filled butt into the saddle on a full-sized horse.

Last time I rode (in 2000) I had to stand on the wagon tongue to mount a beautiful Appaloosa. At that time a friend and I were traveling The Oregon Trail and were doing a short Wyoming segment by covered wagon and horseback.

Ok, time to get out of here and start digging holes for fence posts. We have to enlarge our pen and get some lambing jugs built as our own ewe’s are both preggie. Don’t ya just love it?

Wednesday morning we got the call from the PO… we have a box of peeping chicks for you.

Bev, Cindy, and I quickly got all the chores done. That meant feed the horse, the sheep, prepare the bottles for the lambs and get them fed, and make sure everything was right for the peeps, including turn on the brooder light to preheat their new home.

The gals at the PO had already “inspected” the chicks. Apparently they peek at each shipment… they’re just so darned cute. They also told us this was the healthiest batch of chicks they had seen come through the Post Office this year.

Our hatchery of choice is Welp. They’re located in Bancroft, IN, but have “satellite” facilities elsewhere. Our chicks originated in Albuquerque, NM. That’s one reason they are so bright and healthy.
We taught each how to drink before moving them to their new home. What a hoot! Mom was inspecting each one before handing them off to either Cindy or myself. Bev was taking the pictures.

Their brooder is in the chicken coop so we never have to fully relocate them, just remove the carboard from around them and spread more shavings. We can even expand the brooder in a week or so when they really become active.
Ok, so what did we get?

We got 5 Astrolorp females and 5 Astrolorp males, 5 Plymouth Barred Rock females, 5 Buff Orpington females, 5 White Rock straight run, 5 Golden Laced Wyandotte straight run, and 5 Silver Laced Wyandotte straight run.

That will give us a good assortment of brown egg layers, as well as some very tasty meat. Mom wanted lots of “color” so we have black, black and white, brown and white, red, golden, and white birds.

The first day we monitored them every 30 minutes and then finally every hour. By bed time, we were pretty confident, but I did get up at 1 AM to check/adjust the temp and then again at 6 AM.

Believe me, our dogs think we’re nuts. We finally had to leash two at a time and take them on a farm tour after the big black Lab (the only one that gets out without a leash) reported back to the rest. She’s still patrolling the coop exterior looking for a way in… I figure she’ll be a great help if we ever have a problem.

Since my last update, we’ve dug a 160 foot trench two feet deep and put new heavy wire into our well, dug out a broken water line, received two more bummer lambs, ordered and received another 2000 redworms to re-start our worm project, and have finally ordered our chicks.

The water line issue was really an emergency. It was supposed to be a “dig, find, and replace” of an old leaky frost-free that’s in our way at the chicken coop. Well, just 8 inches under the soil, we found dripping… that’s never a good sign when you expect the junction at a depth of at least 30 inches.

To complicate matters, the idiot who built this place ran underground electric wire in the same hole. He had both 220 volt and 110 volt. Thankfully our neighbor across the road had a tester so we could confirm it was not hot. What we still aren’t sure of, is whether or not it’s connected to either the main service or our panel.

Oh, that project took over 10 hours and we had to call more neighbors in to help us… Not a fun day!

The electric wire to the well was to solve a safety issue. For whatever reason, the previous owner allowed a contractor to run 14/3 wire 160 either just a few inches below the ground or on the ground, up and over the wall to the well. Last year the pump had to be replaced and this is most likely one of the causes.

We were finally able to get the project done correctly, digging a two foot deep trench, and encasing 10/3 wire in plastic electrical conduit from the point of exit at the house to the well head cover. Strange but for whatever reason, with the turning on and off of the water… the hot water heater is now screaming for replacement… does it ever end?

The chicken coop is nearly ready for the chicks. All that’s left is to temporarily close off all the “ventilation” and build the rest of the brooder. Cindy and I will get that done this weekend.

Freezer is growing fast. I’m starting to wean him now as he’s getting more than enough nutrition. He’s so funny when I let him out to play. Since his pen is only about 8 by 16, I like to let him run around when I’m working outside.

Our little female bummer is a screamer. She’s so loud we had to move her to the garage, just to get some sleep. She screams for attention… not because she’s hungry. Here she’s meeting Sarah.
Last night, a neighbor brought us a crippled up bummer. Now, this may sound cruel, but we’re using him as a “bed warmer” for her. He wants to live, but will never be able to stand. I’ll keep him for about five days or so, and then return him to the sheep ranch to be put down properly.

Cindy has re-started the worm project. We had a 100% total failure that may have been caused by our alkaline soil. Our worms disappeared… and no, they didn’t go walkabout. We frequent a forum of worm raisers and the only things we can identify are perhaps (no way to measure) a high ph and or salinity, and also not enough moisture.

This time, the worms are being raised in shredded paper, and are living in her bedroom. The temp is about 9 degrees warmer, so that should also help.

Our 35 chicks will arrive this week. We scaled the project back a bit to better fit our house as well as our budget.