Sunday, April 22, 2012

Shearing yesterday. I woke up yesterday, and had a leisurely morning, knowing that the rain would not come until much later in the day. But, as it neared 6:30 am, I started to see ominous looking clouds... So, I pretty much hurried up to get there. When I got there I could see that it did rain a little bit over night. Moved panels around, and got everyone in. I put the lambs in the small side room, so during the shearing they would not get bumped around. I put in a tray of grain for them, and they were pretty happy in there. When Ray and his son got there, they immediately set to work setting up. The room I use works well as it is big enough, but not too big so you can catch sheep pretty easily. I stood outside the room, so I could move out the wool and guard the gate (as Cheviots, ahem, have been known to leap small buildings). So, it went really well. One of my 2 year old Chevs has diarrhea, which I will treat today. Ray gave me some suggestions. I think it is due to too much grain when I let her in with the mothers the other day, by mistake, to eat... Anyway, shearing was over with really fast, and not a single cut on anyone- that's important to me. What nice thick fleece. They all looked in good body condition. I am happy with how they fared over the winter. Now I can see how big the lambs look next to their mothers. This ram definitely put some size into them... Maybe he will stay. I just have to figure something out... Maybe a pen at John's place. We got maybe half to three quarters of an inch of rain last night, and a lot more expected today. I hope we do get all three inches that are possible. This will be JUST what the ground needs. I called my hay guy to get on the list for this winter, because last year I was at the bottom of that list, and got only what was left... John had a Coyote in his sheep field yesterday. This is BAD. I hope and pray that he does not lose any lambs, especially the ewe lambs. I am almost thinking of bringing them home at 8 weeks instead of 12 to ensure their safety.... Today I am going to clean- I cleaned out my third and final closet yesterday, filed papers and shredded more papers. Now I can get down to the nitty gritty of cleaning; now that I have space to store things. It's been really good. Well, that's it for now.

3 comments:

Kathy said...

Sounds like a good day.

Did any of the lambs have trouble recognizing their mom after they were sheared?

Dancing shepherdess said...

Yes, they were running away from them at first...

Unknown said...

I love the ne look on the sheep after shearing