Animal (Mis)Behavior, or King in Action

Hi Folks -
From the very moment of his birth, King has been ready to be head-ram-in-charge and I watched a step in that process a couple of days ago.

We had moved the sheep from the south pasture to the west pasture and reconfigured a small section of the west pasture to give Thor-the-ram a better pen with shade and some grass (at least until he tromps it out). In the reconfiguration we ended up using a couple of fence panels that did not have field fencing attached to them. We eyeballed the lowest panel rail and since it was 110 degrees outside already and we didn't want to take the time to attach the fencing in the heat, we decided that the lambs were surely too big to fit between the lowest rail and the ground.

When I went to the pasture the next time I could see King in the south pasture and wondered what was up: how did he get there, and why did he even want to be there with no good new grass and no water? I watched a minute and he baaaa-ed a few baaa-s and here came the other lambs to him on their knees under the fence in the only portion of the only rail of the only panel where that could happen. King was working to create his own flock!!

Needless to say I headed right out there with the wire and field fencing, put a little alfalfa in the feeders and watched them go back underneath to get to the sheep-candy treat. I quickly propped the field fencing in front of the panels and began wiring. At 112 degrees I liked the task even less than I did at 110 degrees. And as soon as the dang panels that were suppose to be here a dang month ago arrive from the dang feed store, the ram lambs are going to get separated out --King is waaaay to interested in being, well, The King, and I can't risk fouling up the breeding date a 2nd year in a row.

Thinking fondly of ewe -
The Shepherd

Words in the Mailbox

Hi Folks -
The mailbox photo has nothing to do with the subject at hand -- I just liked the boxes!

Today it's sheep words in my mind, so think about these:

There is rambunctious, rampage, ramble, ramification, rampant, and cram -- yup, those describe male sheep.

Then there is lambast, clamber, flamboyant -- and those words certainly pertain to lambs.

Next there is beweary, chewed, and strewed -- all describing ewes.

And then there are the random words such as bellwether and crook.

Or there is the description of Shepherd's Pie as "hash covered with mash." (What?? You have never tasted Shepherd's Pie -- tomorrow comes the recipe -- it's a ba-a-a-a-nquet).

Thinking of ewe -
The Shepherd

1st Sheep Anniversary

Hi Folks -
Time zips right along and you can keep your fingers on only so many holes in the dikes, but there is a breather now and I am playing catch-up.

Both electricity and telephone are erratic in the area of the Wallow fire, so we are going to wait a few more days before going up. I have seen photos however, and right around Alpine, things don't look too bad. The upper two-thirds of the mountain immediately east of us has burned off; some areas have fared better and some worse than that. What our immediate area looks like remains to be seen. Rumors are rife and anger, oh my goodness, the anger is palpable. Now a blame game second to none will begin.

We worked with the sheep on Saturday reconfiguring fences to be able to move Thor to a shadier, cleaner location and to be able to get Shortcake (the beef steer) out of cow jail. The teen-age boys we have been hiring as farm helpers this spring and summer are gems -- they work like troopers and never give less than their best. I don't know what we would do without them; it's a dead cert we wouldn't be nearly as far along as we are. They are all off at Boy Scout Camp this week, so everybody gets a breather.

Thor was a little confused about why he was being moved -- in his little sheepy mind that should only happen when there are ewes available, but he took it in good stride and seems much better off with shade and grass -- ya think?? Besides any other little thing, it will do wonders for keeping his fleece clean, and since I (at least so far) refuse to jacket the beasties because of the heat, this is an honorable step to that end.

Shortcake bounded around positively thrilled with being out of jail, and I don't blame him. It's a pretty tight confinement for a big animal.

Today is the one year anniversary for my sending off the first installment of the first sheep purchase!! It's amazing to think that we are closing in on a year since serious sheep-ing began. We have the calendar fixed to do CD/tet vaccinations for the lambs, and then the ram lambs will be separated out of the flock because they will be old enough to possibly produce lambs of their own. Yikes!! August 20 the local buyer will be out to collect his lambs and leave us a new ewe lamb from Idaho. Miss Idaho will be a yearling pen-mate for our beautiful CVM late lamb Velvet since neither can be bred this year. And then the out of state buyer will be here to pick up her ram lamb and leave us two ewes that *can* be bred this year.

It's been an exciting year with a very steep learning curve. I am looking forward to the second year being just a little less of a roller-coaster ride.

Thinking of ewe -
The Shepherd

Neither Rain nor Snow nor Sleet nor Hail . . .

Hi Folks -
The fire update from Alpine is lookin' great! People who lost homes were notified yesterday by the county sheriff, and people who lost lesser "outbuildings" were to be notified by certified letter in the next couple of days. No notification yesterday. Hurrah!! Fire is now officially 405,000 acres and 5% contained. I am so sad for the change in life this will make for everyone who lives in the area. Two comments I have read I find particularly appropriate: one woman innocently asked "what's mop-up?" On 400,000 acres -- mop-up would be the rest of the summer, darlin'. The other comment was from a 91 year old man whose family brought the first sawmills into the White Mountains. He noted that anything that grows needs to be harvested, and asked how the forest took care of that before the US Forest Service came on the scene.

On a different and far lesser note, I appear to have changed the "follower" setting on this blog in some way and none of the followers show up on the first page. So if that's -- ewe -- sorry! I'm working on it, but am a techno-challenged grandma.

Thinking of ewe all from the tops of the mountains to the heat of the desert -
The Shepherd

Up in Smoke

Dear Folks -
Darling granddaughter's visit came and went all too soon. We had such a grand time and for a day short of a week were treated to a child's perspective on life which is certainly kinder, gentler, and more direct than an adult's. It was lovely. But now it is back to the real world, and the real world is a hard place to be at the moment -- too much happening.

Our grandson coined the word "genormous," and that pretty much sums up the forest fire burning in eastern Arizona. We have had a family home there for more than 25 years, and this has been a sad, sad week as more than 300,000 acres have gone up in flames, and no end in sight -- zero percent contained more than a week after it began. The photo here was taken in Oregon, but our sentiments in Arizona are the same. The "boots on the ground" have been fabulous, and miraculously only a handful of cabins and other buildings have been lost but the forest, of course, is gone. The Monday-morning quarterbacks are going to have fun with this one for years but for me, the bottom line is the principle of choice and accountability taught in the teenage-girls program at our church: you can always choose your action, but you cannot choose the consequences. Through inaction and ignorance, years ago the political choice was made to ignore forest health, and now that those who made that choice are safely out of the picture, the rest of us pay the consequences.

On a happier note, I think our ram lamb St. George is sold! If that all works out, it would be wonderful. His lot will be different than King's, but he will be with somebody who understands sheep at an intuitive level, he will have lots of hay, and lots of ewes -- not a bad life for a ram, all in all.

Thanking firefighters everywhere, and thinking of ewe -
The Shepherd

Coop de Ville

Dear Folks -
Well, with the very much looked-forward-to week-long visit from a darling granddaughter, the days have sort of escaped me and I discover I haven't written anything all week.

We made excellent pasture progress on Monday (likely the last cool day until the first of November). The farmer changed out a bunch of water nozzles to put more water in some places, and less in others. Also repaired line breaks from trenching for electrical, built a permanent levee instead of the bags-of-mulch deal I had concocted, mulched and fertilized parts of the south pasture, and wrangled a couple of great crews of workers. One group were the trenchers to get the electrical line in, and one group cleaned out the beef steer's pen (and a huge atta-boy to them). I understand better now how the rock-hard floors of native African huts are constructed with cattle manure and tamping, just like Shortcake the steer did. Our guys were going at it with picks, hoes, shovels, rakes, and they did a great job. If we are lucky, we don't have to do it again until Shortcake becomes Beefcake.

Once Shortcake was let out to "freedom" though, he realized that there was a world outside his pen and there was no stopping him for a while - he kept hoppin' the fence. Finally had to add another panel and solidify the project. I now understand oh-so much better what my son-in-law meant when he said that you can *never* own too many panels. We had to have a few to build a temporary containment pen for Shortcake, and then another sturdy one to block off the break-through spot.

Today, we are adding in a few chicks of a different breed -- the newbies are Blue Ameraucanas that actually lay blue eggs! They are the brightest blue in the Spring, but still blue year round. So (knock on wood) we will have several shades of brown from the deepest browns of Cuckoo Marens to barely tinted rosy ones. There will be white ones from the oh-so-productive California Pearl Leghorns and everything in between including both green and now blue Ameraucanas. Who needs commercial dyes when we have the Coop de Ville?

Thinking of ewe -
The Shepherd

Patrotic Holidays

Hi Folks -
Since this is Memorial Day week-end, I have sort of been thinking about summer's patriotic holidays. And growing up in Utah, we had an additional one which was July 24, celebrating the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley. It was a great occasion to use up all the sparklers left from Independence Day!

I find it sad, though, how few people actually celebrate Memorial Day for the purpose it was created. I remember going with both my parents and grandparents to "clean-up" cemeteries where ancestors are buried, removing wind-blown trash and sun-faded plastic flowers. I even recall my grandmother calling it "Decoration Day" which really harkens back to its origins of honoring those who died in our country's wars. My father served in the Korean War, his father served in World War I, my husband's father served in World War II, and other relatives served in other wars. The earliest military service to our country I can document was Robert Dunning who served as a soldier of fortune from 1675 frontier Pennsylvania in King Philip's War in New England. To them, and all others who serve and served, the most appropriate thing I can say is "thank-you."

Thinking of ewe -
The Shepherd