Mama Bess

Bess had two boys last night. I named them Duane and Randy, Lisa will name the girls.

Duane is the one with the big tattoo on his leg.

Duane is a cute one.

Bess was embarrassed by her messy hind end so I gave her some modesty.

  Randy has a big streak of white on his head.

Tilly’s girls are already out in the pasture. The rest of the herd is in a different pasture so they won’t get butted or stepped on.

They are learning all about being a sheep.

The little girl lamb has a black leg like Randy but on the right.

Flowers are food!

Goodbye Serta

Hello mutton chops!

We got Serta loaded for her trip to Flemingsburg. It went more smoothly than we thought it would. You might not know it but Serta was a lunatic ewe. I got her cornered with a sheep panel and Lisa put on the halter, then Lisa held the panel while I tied her back feet. We flipped her on her back and lifted her into the cage. Her on-the-hoof weight was right at a 150 lbs. Her hanging weight was 96 lbs.

 

This one is Dusty, he is doing well. It was nice and warm in the barnyard.

Darrel was taking in the sun too.

This is Morty, he is a bouncy boy like the Larrys.

This was Ned. Heather came over and helped Lisa take him to the vet yesterday. He died a few minutes after they got back. The vet says sometimes calves just die.

We had some good news over the weekend. Tilly had her lambs. The second ewe lamb was less than two minutes hold here.

The first ewe lamb on the right was about 45 minutes old here.

I cropped out Tilly’s gruesome post-birthing bits. You’re welcome. I have pictures of the birth of lamb number two if anyone wants to see.

Cattle Drive

Lisa and Andy went over to Harrodsburg to pick up a Holstein calf. They came back with three. It was a good deal and we should be able to bulk them up to sell next year.

Paige isn’t really helping herd them.

They are very well behaved calves.

They went right in the stall.

They have a nice dry stall to stay in. We might keep them in all winter. They should be nice and big by spring.

  Sheep running down the hill.

Dolly Llama

Some of you have heard the bad news that Louie the llama died last Friday. It had been a record heat wave and we think he just couldn’t handle it. Louie’s job was to guard the sheep so with him gone they were unprotected. We found a pair of llamas in Flemingsburg and picked them up last night. It was dark when we got home so they stayed in the barn over night. Lisa took them out this morning to introduce them to the sheep. They seem to be getting along fine. They like sitting under the horseport and they alerted to Paige when she went down the driveway after Lisa.

The brown one is Dolly, the black one is Speedy. Dolly seems to be the boss, somehow I’m not surprised.

The sheep stayed clumped until they got used to the new arrivals. This is a good view of the new fence that carves out a new pasture.

They are both matted and full of burs. They need to be shorn but it is too close to winter to do it now.

Lisa combed a bunch of the burs out but there is still a lot.

 

Welcome Speedy.

 

Hello Dolly.

Lulu being Lulu. A whole new pasture full of fresh weeds and grass to eat and she puts her head through the fence to eat weeds and grass. Yep, that’s Lulu.

Horse School

Heidi went away to boarding school. She’ll be there for a month. Lisa will be going over once a week to learn commands, handling and riding.

Heidi’s school bus. They came on September first to pick her up.

The introductions went well. Heidi was her usual rude yet laid back self. Mike said the rudeness will go away quickly.

She was a little stubborn but finally got in.

We got all the field wire hung.

This was the run up to the middle stretcher.

Here I’m releasing the tension on the wire after this section was stretched and stapled. Next I unrolled the wire all the way to the top. There was a thunderstorm so we had to stop for a while but came back out and got it all nailed up. Paige has decided that she is a farm dog.