Lambs, Rambo & a new fence

Ewes and lambs are doing well. All of the lambs are of very good quality but we still have a bunch of ewes that we hope will lamb.



The lambs are learning about the electric fences. But some just look especially cute as they rest.


This is Rambo


He is now on mom number 4, Ken, who is the only one able to get him to drink. We don't have very many bottle lambs here, he is our 10th in 12 years, so we are not skilled at raising them. Rambo was upside down and backwards and by the time I got him out he wasn't breathing. Ken got him going and when he stopped breathing several times Ken got him going again. So now Ken has a small wooly child. Rambo is doing well now.


We are getting another internal divider fence built and this is where it will go. We had to move the gated pipe to give Larry room to build the fence. It should be done by the end of July.

New Fence Done & Wide Loads

The new middle divider fence is now finished. It looks wonderful and will be a much better fence than our temporary welded wire one.





The sheep, on the other hand, are really looking like wide loads. I hope they lamb soon, they are really getting big.

Culinary Students, Ram Sorting and Chicken Processing

The Culinary School students came back today for more farm work.

Today we evaluated all the adult rams, trimmed toes and gave dewormer as needed. Then we took a field trip to Karla's to pick up our chickens that were butchered yesterday. The students got to see a bit of the butchering process and then came back to our house and helped us turn our chickens for the year into piece parts for our freezer. We got 24 chickens dismembered in 1 hour. It was sure nice to have additional knife skilled workers to help deal with the chickens.



Here are the students from left to right, Erica, Kade, Leah and Garrett.

Thanks folks, we had a great time and really appreciated the help.

Edited to correct spelling of names, Sorry!

Labor Day Labors

Today we had 4 students from the Culinary School of the Rockies out to help on the farm and learn about where food comes from.

We had a busy day, starting at 7:30 this morning we worked most of the flock. We had several task to perform, most important was to vaccinate all the lambs. We also took the opportunity to evaluate all the ewes and lambs. We have to start selecting sheep for slaughter and for sale so having extra hands to hold sheep, scribe, vaccinate and move sheep was most welcome. A job that would typically take Ken and I 2 or 3 days to finish got done in one very long morning.


I did not get many pictures at all. This is Kade holding up a ram lamb for his shot and evaluation.

I was really please to be a host farm for these students and we had a great time. I hope they learned a bit about what goes into producing good local food in a sustainable manner.

Porch Work Continues

The Back Porch is coming along.


The roof supports are in and the basic framing is started.




The crew deciding what to do next.

Painting

To save time and make it easier all the lumber was primed and painted before the roof assemby started.




The back is almost ready for the roof to go up.

Porch Concrete Poured

Originally Bill was going to build the roof first but some lumber didn't arrive so the concrete got poured instead.

Sample Socks, Cloak and Concrete

We got samples of the socks we are having made from our Black Welsh Mountain wool. We will be offereing both a hiking crew and a terry sock in mens and womens sizes. These are the first 2 samples.


I also put a label on my fabric.


Bill used the tractor to do final filling of the holes before the concrete truck arrives.


Getting the size just right.


Concrete truck pouring the footers.




The extra concrete will be used to change the orientation of the pad for the propane tank. We need to rotate it 90 degrees so its easier to use the new walk-through elk fence gate.


The rams came up to be in the shade but Winnie was very concerned about the concrete truck so was right there with them.

Ready for Concrete

Nearly ready to pour the concrete footers.

Porch Construction

The posts holding the roof need to be set in concrete piers. They will have a large footer so the next thing was to get them positioned properly and dig the holes.

Winnie & Construction

We moved Winnie in with the rams so we could let them out to graze the front pear orchard. She's really being good about staying with them.


Construction Work Started.


First task was to remove the old porch cover.

Porch Construction Started

Bill's back to add a covered deck out back of the house. First task is take down the existing small covered porch.

The construction trailer.

Taking down the old small porch.

We'll add a concrete patio to the right between the door and the garage and deck on the left that will wrap around to the front and side decks. There will be a cover over most of it but the part over the deck will be narrower than the part over the patio.

Goodbye Old Truck

We sold our old 1951 Dodge truck today. At one time I had visions of restoring it but reality set in and I know I'll never have the time or skills to do so.

The new owner restores old cars as a hobby and he's promised to come back when it's all done and take us for a spin in the truck.

It was an interesting trick to get the truck up on the trailer, took all afternoon but we managed it.

It's sometimes hard to let go of potential projects. But I feel a lot better knowing the truck will be lovingly restored to working order by someone skilled in the art.

Shearing Done!

I was too busy to take any pictures but we got the entire flock shorn yesterday. We had a good crew, a bunch of folks from Ravelry came and the Clocks and people from Mesa Winds Farm. We started about 8:15 am and got done about 1:15 pm. 132 naked sheep on the mesa today. Eifion shore straight through, then we had lunch then off to do other flocks in the valley. Finished with a couple of pints at Revolution Brewing. Ken and Eifion are off to do the last 2 flocks today, I'm home sick with a cough and stuffed nose.

Wool looks pretty good, I'll start skirting when I recover from this cold.

Shearing Day

Saturday was our sheep shearing day. Friday we picked up Eifion. That was the good news. The bad news was his shearing equipment in his luggage didn't make it on the same plane he did. He tried to shear the first flock with my Lister shears and got it done but it was clear the rest of the 30 or so sheep to shear on Friday were not getting done. We got them all rescheduled to Saturday and Sunday. The lost luggage came in at 7pm and we finally got home about 9:30. He shore 2 rams to test all the equipment and then went to bed. Next day we got started at about 8 am. He did the rest of the boys first as it was starting to rain and they were not under cover. The girls all had coats on and so even a light rain would be ok. Then we started on the pregnant ewes. Here they are in the sweep waiting to have their coats taken of and get shorn.
Here is Ken taking the coat of a sheep in the chute. We had helpers, three neighbor kids and our friend Monica who were most welcome. Eifion got through all 118 of the rest of our flock by 1pm and we stopped for lunch. Many of the fleeces are really nice and the sheep were all in good shape.
With our flock done we set off to try to do some more that had been rescheduled. He did 31 at once place then 4 at another. Home for a good mutton steak and wine dinner.

Sunday we started out again with several stops. 2 at a winery where we also got a bottle of wine to try. 2 more at a new place for a person with her first sheep. 6 at another new flock and the 4 more again a new place. We had a person flake out on us. I'd called to confirm that we'd be there on Sunday several days earlier. But when I called to say we were heading there next I was told that they had already gotten their sheep shorn. They didn't even have the courtesy to call and tell me to cancel our stop! I was rather angry and they will not be able to get their sheep shorn again by anyone I help with.

Next stop was for 2 groups totaling 20 sheep. 5 of them hadn't been shorn in two or three years and they were a breed that is supposed to be shorn twice a year. Eifion soldiered on and did an excellent job but it was very tough going. He charged more but not nearly enough for that amount of work. Last stop of the day was for 15 more dairy sheep. Then home to dinner.

This morning we woke up to about an inch of snow after major rain, hail and wind last night. I'm just glad we got all the sheep done as you can't shear wet sheep and it would have been a real disaster if the storm had arrived a day or so earlier. We took Eifion to the airport today. I think his planes got all messed up as the flights have been delayed or diverted but he hasn't called so I assume he's managing to get home somehow.

Next sheep job: vaccinations, federal flock inspection and wormer before they go on pasture to lamb.