The Garden Spot

The pool is gone and we had a big bare spot so it seemed like a good spot. Andy brought his tiller down with him from New York. He was kind enough to till the garden for us. Lisa started the collards in the little seed starter thingy. We worked some more on the sheep pasture too. We got the rest of the insulators on the posts. I cleared the fence line with the weed eater and Andy came behind me and strung the wire. When we were out by the road he was down wind. I got him back for flinging the mower discharge on me the other day. The electric wire is mainly to keep predators away from the sheep. We saw another stray dog in the pasture with Bahloo yesterday. She was getting anxious and running around. She may be a giant horse and could kill a dog easily, but she is still a flight animal and a dog is a predator, she could hurt herself on the barbed wire. Andy took a couple of shots at it but missed. It was about 600-700 feet so he's forgiven for missing. If you didn't notice my updated profile, the sheep now have names. The girls are Dolly and Lulu. The boys are Larry and Larry.

Sheep Smell Bad

I don't know if any of you have lived in close proximity to sheep but I'm here to tell you they stink. Horses poop all over the place but their poop doesn't smell anywhere near as bad. We are working to move the little lambs to their very own pasture. Lisa worked on the electrified wire and Andy and I worked on the sheep shed.


Lynne came down with Andy this time. They put a plank walk out to the barn through the mud. Yes, the mud has returned.


Heidi came over to lick the Kia. The smelly dorpers.

Andy mowed the front part of the sheep pasture while I cut the wire and re-stretched it.

Andy was coming around to fling debris on me.

Hanging the beams on the sheep shed. Andy broke the tractor, he fixed it too.

We got the roof on. We need more nails and plywood to do the walls. The opening will be on the high end. The other walls will be enclosed.

The vet said that sheep only have teeth on the bottom jaw which seemed weird. But when they graze you can see them lifting their heads to bite.

More Pictures from Yesterday

These are some shots taken by Bryan. I don't think he'll mind me sharing.

A Woman and Her Horse

Cathryn took Bahloo for a ride today. They had fun. I was working all day so I wasn't out much. It was a busy day, they kept expecting me to do work.


The sheep lined up along the fence.

She looks like she's enjoying herself. Cathryn, it's okay to love your horse...

Sheep Shed

Heidi helped install the sheep's shelter. We got the gates finished so we moved into the sheep pasture. Bryan dug some more awesome post holes. The 2x3 boards around the bottom are just to keep the posts square while the concrete sets.

Mike Rowe and Sheep Castration

There have been comments and questions about the male sheep being castrated. We have seen the "Dirty Jobs" episode where Mike does that to the lambs. These little guys have gotten too big to do it that way. We'll have the veterinarian take care of it. She'll probably come out this week or next. I'll get pictures, okay? She was talking about banding them but we'd rather have them cut so we can have lamb fries. They're big enough that if you sliced them right you'd get a good sandwich at least out of each lamb. When in Kentucky, do as the Kentuckians do.

This is Mike Rowe discussing the lamb episode. Even if you don't watch his show this is a fascinating commentary.

Post Hole Hero

I got a few things done today. We've had two whole days of beautiful weather and I was off work too! It's been in the 30s at night but in the 60s and sunny during the day.


Can you tell what this is? I made a feeding trough for the lambs. They figured out what it was for right away. Well, once Lisa dumped food in it anyway.


I'm putting gates in the fence between the pastures. These are both in the lower pasture. The first one is at the bottom, below the creek. Now we'll be able to get out there to mow and this is to be the sheep pasture.


This one is in the upper part of the same pasture.


Cathryn and Bryan came down to help after they got back from their excursion. Bryan is a badass on the post hole digger. Cathryn was the pick operator.


Bryan could be on the Olympic Post Hole Digging Team. If they had one. And if it was a sport.

Dorpers

We have sheep now! There are to males and two females. They are Dorper lambs and are four months old. We saw them on craigslist and went over today to look at them. They looked delicious so we brought them home. This variety of sheep is bred for meat. The wool sheds and they don't need to be sheared. It's more like hair than wool. The lady we got them from is a veterinarian who works as an animal pathologist at the University of Kentucky. Needless to say her animals seemed well cared for. She is going to come over and show us how to trim the hooves and castrate the males. She said she could bob the tails too. We won't breed these males because they are too closely related. We'll breed the females to another ram when they get older. The male lambs will go in the freezer.


We put them in dog crates. They're about the size of a medium sized dog. 50-60 pounds.

The mommy ewes. Piper got to go, of course.

The horses were quite curious about the new livestock. Heidi found the open bucket of lamb food and was munching out. Sundown couldn't reach, she was bummed.

They all have black heads, one of the males has a white stripe on his head.

Horse Park

These are some pictures from Lisa and Heather's trip to the Horse Park yesterday. I meant to put them up sooner. Heather should be putting some up on her blog too.

Horse riding

Bahloo is getting some work. She seems to do okay with everyone riding her.

Heather and Bahloo

Heather rode Bahloo today. They seemed to doing well. Bahloo took the bit and everything.

Ford

Andy and I went down to try and figure out if there was a way to get the lawn tractor across the creek. Bahloo helped. It's too deep so we either need to build a bridge or put in a gate to the lower area. We should be able to tie in a gate near the driveway gate.


Lisa was making dinner. Piper was her witness.

Bahloo helped Andy check the big rock.

Brush Cut

Lisa put Andy to work today. He went down and mowed the upper part of the front pasture. It took a while because it needed more than one pass to get most of the weeds knocked down. He couldn't get the tractor through the creek so the lower part is still uncut. We got some snow tonight. I went to let the dogs out and everything was white again. Maybe 4 or 5 inches so far.