Saturday, February 04, 2017

Today it begins...

 
From wild and woolly...
...to domestic and well-coiffed.

It's been a busy couple of weeks with Littles staying with us for a week, a new grandbaby being born, and then came shearing on January 29th.  The herd produced a gross of 3125 pounds of raw wool when weighed at the Wool Warehouse.  A couple days after shearing we bagged the ewes (checking to see that they are making a milk bag) and sorted off the late, May-lambing ewes.  We branded the ewes that will lamb now with red paint and branded the bucks, late ewes, and yearling ewes with green.  Hubs applied the insecticide as we counted each group out of the gate.  
Tally:  
199 ewes to lamb in the Lambing Barn
93 head to Buck Pasture:  12 Bucks, 55 Yearling Ewes, and 26 Ewes.

No sooner did the men have the Sheep Barn cleaned up and bedded with a thick layer of straw and set up the lambing jugs -- BAM!!  --  the first lamb was born -- TODAY!

Although it is not spring here AT ALL, our spring season has begun.  Today on the bleak prairie we made it up to a chilly 19 degrees with a stiff breeze and a skiff of snow that blew around. We still have a good, deep, crust of snow on the level that refuses to melt with ice underneath.  We're not exactly "pushing up daffodils" here.   We start our spring season on the ranch with early lambing and just a week or two after we complete that job, we start calving heifers and then cows and on and on it goes until pretty soon we are in the field sweating and making hay bales for all our critters.  The "spring" seems to go by so fast once it begins.  And today it begins.  I'm pretty excited!

In honor of the first lamb born, here are pictures!


 

10 comments:

  1. Welcome little lamb. You are busy for sure. Brrr...19 degrees.

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  2. How great! The lamb is so precious. I pray for a tad warmer lambing season from now on.

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  3. Is the ewe a first timer? She seems to have the look I get from my Lamancha first fresheners "where did *that* come from?" What a cutie hope you have your running boots on!

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  4. Wow a new lamb already? You are going to be a busy lady for awhile, busier than you already were. That is impressive the amount of wool and all of your lambing for 2016!!

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  5. A new little Lambie! And with her new haircut, her mama has wrinkly skin too LOL. I always feel so sorry for your sheep -- having to brave the cold weather without their heavy coats. They all manage to survive, but ... brrrr! I can't believe it's lambing season already!!!

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  6. Little babies and little buggers. Let the late nights begin. I'm bummed to hear it only got to 19 degrees there. It was 41 here today. I didn't even need my snowshoes. Good luck.

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  7. I am excited to see photos of a newborn lamb! I love reading about your farming adventures!

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  8. neighbors are lambing here and the weather is similar...at night anyway. it's such a joy to stop and watch lambs as they investigate their universe. such pleasure!

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  9. Do the newly shorn ewes have to go immediately out into the 19° and cooler weather? :-(

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  10. I bet that first ewe was just WAITING for the menfolk to get that barn nice and ready before she had her lamb :) Just like a woman, haha!! It always seems WAY too early to me to take their winter coats off, but I know you ranchers have just the right timing for them, and they are comfortable. Have an abundant spring!

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