I am no longer taking the sheep out to pasture in the Middle Field. Instead they are around the house and in the Front Field. I am offering a half bale of hay each day but it is barely cleaned up; they prefer the green stuff even though the pickings are slim.
I have also been giving the sheep grain now for a few weeks. This is called "flushing" and is done in anticipation of breeding. The ram lamb too has been getting lots of grain. He's a small ram lamb and growing. I need him to be a big guy! The ram, Birch, will go out with the girls this weekend.
Some sheep farmers hold back their ewe lambs and do not breed them the first year. We did this thirty years ago, holding them back until they were larger. It is hard on them as they are not finished growing and they are not always good mothers that first year. In the thirty years since I had sheep I notice that lambs gain faster. My market lambs were big, earlier. And so I have decided to breed the ewe lambs this year.
When I look at the four yearlings from my flock purchase in March they are all doing very well. They were all bred their first year. They are large sheep now and looking really healthy. Each of them had a single lamb and none of them presented as clueless mothers; they took care of their babies. And so if I breed my ewe lambs and next year they look like these four, I will be very satisfied. Also, I could have sold more lamb, so if I breed these four I will have more produce to sell.
Last night when I was putting the sheep to bed, Cotton, one of the yearlings from the original flock was very complacent. Not in an unhealthy way, just that she was standing right in front of me and not moving away. I stroked and poked her back and as she did not move. I stroked and poked some more and talked to her. I told her she was standing stock still like Millie does when she wants a hug. Then I realised she was in heat and therefore extremely "affectionate". I reached down and gave her a hug and told her she'd probably never let me do this again. It was an amusing experience.
When the last market lambs left a week ago I separated the llamas. I put Sheba in with Birch to keep him company and I left Henrietta in with the flock. I posted an ad on kijiji to sell Sheba. I have had one strange response. I'll have to freshen up the ad. In recently consulting with a llama breeder she felt that the lack of coyote interference on the part of the llamas is because there are two of them. She emphasised that it is very much a personality thing, that not all llamas make good guardians. As I described Henrietta and some of her antics she did express that those were characteristics that could make her a good guardian. And so we are moving forward with the ongoing predator control project.
In another vein, some girlfriends came to visit on Friday and we went for a good hike on the property. I had wanted to mark the trail in the bush while I could still see it. So, we circumvented most of the Middle Field and entered the bush back near the cabin. We explored some potential off shoot pathways that led us up a lovely hill scattered with chunks of the Canadian Shield. We crossed the bottom of the valley and onto the north side of the middle promontory that runs east-west down the property. We then came up the north side of the promontory and arrived back behind the barn. Before heading in we hiked over and up onto Table Rock to take in the view there.
It was lovely. It is a superb time of year to hike. All three dogs came with us. This was the first time that Millie has come for a hike with me, other than a field checking expedition. Beau could not get enough stick play, as usual. Ruby really liked my one friend in particular and would sit nicely for her - after jumping on her first.
After our hike we had a potluck lunch of soup, salad, chili, cheese, crackers... We took our tea by the wood stove. It was all quite lovely indeed.
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