Discoveries

I discovered turkeys in my front yard when I got up this morning. I love their soft burbbling conversation.

I discovered that Joan of Arc's action took place in The Hundred Years War. What a long time to have to support military actions. Ten years in Afghanistan is miniscule by comparison.

I discovered this quilt block plan in my great-granmother's recipe book.

Memories

Recently we had a fire and lost a lot of stuff. Happily, my treasured possessions are all safe and sound. I keep this photo by my desks so that every day is a lovely day filled with happy memories of my grandkids and good times.

Today I made a new chili recipe. I'm getting ready for next weeks chili cook-off.

I also watched America's got talent. My favorite four are the final four. I'm happy.

Still working on cleaning up genealogy paperwork that I rescued from the ashes. Then I'll check to see if their work is done. If so I will trash the smoky smelling worksheets. I'll never replace the photos but that's not the reason for doing genealogy. As long as I focus on the eternal part of the work, I'm okay.

The Belles

Here we are with two of our newest lambs. These twins were born to a ewe that went blind during the early stages of her pregnancy. Luckily we had researched the possibility of breeding a blind ewe and knew how to handle the situation.

When it came time to turn the ewe and her lambs into the mixing pen we put bells on the lambs. The mixing pen is a small area where we put several ewes and their lambs at a time so they can figure out how to find their moms in the herd. After several days we usually send a mixing pen group to join a slightly larger band which we call kindergarten. Out kindergarten had some dirt mounds and logs where the lambs love to play games. Sometimes they are having so much fum, they ignor their moms.

We knew that our blind ewe and her little "Belles" would need longer to adjust so we held them in the mixing pen for almost a month. Eventually, they ewe would listen for the Belles and could find them anywhere in the small enclosure. Then it was time for kindergarten.

For a couple of daystThe blind ewe stayed in the barn and her Belles ran off to play. Eventually she was able to figure out where she was and started following her Belles around the field. The lambs thrived and mom seemed content. We finally took the next step and sent the little family to join the main flock.

The lambs were happy and their mom finally learned to call the Belles to her side. She only went after them when they wouldn't come to her or when we moved the flock to a new field. Once when we moved the flock the lambs didn't make a corner and mom got really confused. She ran and hit a fence with her nose and tore part of her lip on the wire. She needed her would flushed frequently so it was back to the barn for her and the Belles.

She was confined in a large stall that had openings to let the Belles join the current kindergarten class to feed and play. After she healed it was time to wean her lambs. They weighed about 50 pounds each. She is a champion ewe even if she's blind.

Lambing Adventures 1

Lambing season started in earnest on January 28 with the birth of triplets to one first time ewe and twins to another. We were excited, then the disasters I hope won't happen started. We lost all 5 lambs. They were very small--all under 5 pounds--and their moms did their best. The triplets seem to have succumbed to an udder infection their mom had; they all died with full bellies. It was really strange until we discovered blood in her milk while easing pressure on her full udder by stripping out excess milk and moving towards a gentle weaning that would preserve her bag. We gave her a round of penicillin and the milk cleared; hopefully she will do better next year.

The second ewe just didn't have colostrum the first 36 hours; instead, she had a gluey clear substance. We had colostrum on hand, but we slept through the four am feeding and the lambs died; first one then a few hours later the second. This ewe mourned their loss and protested when we tried to remove the second lamb from the jail. About that time another ewe gave birth to a set of twins. John quickly grabbed the second lamb and took it to the mother who had just lost her last lamb. She eagerly took to the task of cleaning that lamb and made it hers. Her whole body said, HAPPY! It is highly unusual to have a ewe adopt a lamb without the shepherd preforming a few tricks of the trade to fool the ewe into accepting a lamb not her own. A ewe that will eagerly adopt a lamb is worth her weight in gold.

Between that day and now all lambs are thriving and doing well. The older ewes have presented their lambs without problems. We now have 28 lambs, including three sets of triplets, running races and jumping from the hill while their mom's bellow desperately to get their attention every time a hawk flies over, a cat wanders near, or the geese start yelling. The joyful melee makes me smile; I love lambing season despite the occasional trials and dissapointments

Creating Pasture For Sheep

This past month we have been busy creating additional year-round pasture for our sheep. This has involved both getting irrigation to the hill pasture and creating vegetative barriers to prevent erosion of top soil when we plow and plant pasture. We completed the irrigation system yesterday We also had some help from the NRCS crew yesterday: they came our to help dibble in the plants for the vegetative barriers. It rained last weekend and the soil was just right to till the beds in preparation for the grass plugs. A native plant nursery raised California Blue Rye Grass for us. All we had to do was pop out the plugs and stick them in the holes made by the dibble. However, the soil was so soft that everyone soon abandoned the dibbles and just made a little hole with their finger for the plug. It took the eight of us about three hours to plant a plug every six inches for the whole 2,600 feet of barrier. We will have to protect the seedlings until they reach their full size of about 18" in diameter and 24" in height. After that we just have to make sure that the sheep never eat them lower than 3 inches. After the vegetative barriers are established we will till and replant the strips of pasture between the barriers. That way any runoff from tilling will be caught by the barriers and our soil will stay put.

Sheep Diseases

We have been learning about sheep diseases this year. We have expeienced the diseases of pregnancy (one the result of not enough nutrition the other the result of eating too much), a rare form of pneumonia that only on occasion has been known to affect sheep, hoof rot, and now Bluetongue of a form never before recorded.

Bluetongue is a virus vectored by nasty little gnats. As with many viruses there are a three known strains for which the sheep can be vacinated. Those strains cause the sheep to run a very high temperature, to break out in mouth sores, to cause a blue discoloration to the gums and tongue, to develop sores at the top of their hooves, to loose their appitite, and in general become lethargic and depressed.

Then there are our sheep: No temperature, normal behavior, no sores, no blueness, just ears that swell up. In June we had the first case of swollen ears. We put the ewe in the barn checked her temperature everyday--she was normal--administered a round of antibiotics, a good dose of electrolites, the best hay and a little grain. She appreciated the attention but her ears stayed swollen. We finally said, "Oh well" and sent her out to be bred. Over time the swelling abated but her ears were left deformed; she now has cauliflower ears. (See photos)

About a month later we found another ewe with a single swollen ear. We decided to ignor it and see what happened. Her ear swelling ebbed and we had another cauliflower ear. John and I decided that if there were anymore swollen ears, we would take the sheep into UC Davis Large Animal Clinic for an evlauation.

September 1st we brought home a new Tunis ram named Ranger. After holding him in isolation for 30 days, we put him to work with the all the ewes with the hopes that he would breed any ewes that the other rams had missed. About mid October we were moving the ewe band and Ranger and we noticed he had a swollen ear. We pulled him out of the flock, hooked up the old horse trailer and took him to the clinic. By the time we got there the swelling was gone! We felt embarassed but asked the vets to give him a good once over anyway. The vets gave him a clean bill of health except for a foxtail seed in his ear. They could tell that the ear had been swollen but they had no idea what the cause.

I had done some online research on various sheep ailments and had found a mention of rare cases of swollen ears under a Bluetongue description. The vets all said since he had not exhibited anyother symptoms the doubted that was the problem. They thought perhaps he had gotten his head stuck in a fence. We asked that he be tested for Bluetongue anyway.

The next day we got a phone call from the vet: Ranger had tested positive for Bluetongue. Since he was asymptomatic no treatment was recommended. The vet asked if we would meet her with Ranger and the other two affected ewes so she could draw blood for a determination of the strain of Bluetongue that hit us. They suspect the strain has heretofore been unknown. No matter, next year we will vaccinate against the three known strains that California gnats carry.

Rain, Rain

It is raining! That is something to celebrate after having been in the grips of a drought since January. However, we are still irrigating as no matter how much it does or doesn't rain today, it will not be enough to quench the thirsty ground and keep the grass green.

We advertise grass-fed, grass-finished, all-natural lamb so keeping grass green and fresh is a top priority for us. We love it when mother nature helps out. Here's hoping for an end to the drought!