Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Sheep

It's been a busy day on the ranch.
We started out early riding horseback to take the 2 year-old heifers back to the North Pasture after weaning their calves this past week.
The mother cows were reluctant to go,
but go, they did.
We've had some beautiful rains here in the past week and there were puddles everywhere we rode and blades of new green grass shooting up.
The pastures are freshened and growing again.
Good news for a cow.
After taking the cows out, we rode down to the Shearing Pens where we always work sheep. The shearing pens were used extensively "back in the day"
when our ranch was exclusively a Sheep Ranch.
Now we raise mostly Hereford cattle
and just a few sheep on the side.
The ramshackle building you see
was used for shearing sheep
and these weathered and worn corrals were used for sorting sheep,
and we use them just the same today.

Our Border Collie dogs, "Jessie" and "Sue" are helping us corral and sort the sheep....
and they LOVE their jobs!


The ewes here have been sorted away from their lambs
and will be turned out that gate to the left of the horses.
They'll be free to graze as they please.
Most of the lambs will be sold at the livestock yards tomorrow,
but we did keep back about 40 head of ewe lambs
which will go back into the herd as breeding ewes.
I also talked the men into saving back a couple lambs
to take to the butcher for next week.
(Can you say, "Lamb chop?")
Click on pictures to enlarge them.

8 comments:

  1. Thank you for your kind words about my heart(s). And for allowing me to have the link to your blog. IT'S WONDERFUL! I will be back :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Miss Lily,
    You've just received the Nice Matters award on my blog.

    M

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh that does sound yummy roasted leg of lamb with rosemary and mint jelly. I love the Madelin music. Your ranch hands have been busy. It is so wonderful t see live at its top!
    The dogs are delighted to have the work to do. So awesome to see them in their element living it up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the glimpses of your ranch ~ beautiful!

    Debbie

    ReplyDelete
  5. ~Cam and I are fasinated with the pictures. What hard but fun work it would be at your homefront daily!

    It's nice to see Jesse and Sue working hard too.

    Love the music!
    Enjoying your blog so much!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Come visit me I have something for your. Your Courage is honored and your beauty exclaimed. Scroll down.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gerry, I'm glad you stopped in.

    Michelle, thanks for your thoughtfulness.

    Donetta, it's a good life. Yes, I'm looking forward to the lamb very much.

    Clarice, I'm figuring you mean that it looks "bare" because it's wide open. Yes, it is. No trees but those planted by us, and we don't plant trees in the pasture.

    Deb, I'm glad you stopped in.

    Debbie, It is hard work here, but it's a good way to live. Nothing like going to bed tired each night.

    Thanks everyone for your kind comments and for stopping by to "visit" with me here.

    Jody

    ReplyDelete
  8. You just need a couple of gum trees and I would swear the pictures were of Australia.

    ReplyDelete

I love reading your comments. Thanks for stopping in. Sorry, but due to spam, only registered users can comment.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...