This is a bit late, but here’s hoping that everyone had a nice holiday season. We were in the middle of lambing 180 ewes and are now waiting for the last 10 to go. I haven’t written on here since July, so here are a few things that have happened since then:
July 28: These are our January born replacement ewe lambs, learning to come when we call, since we don’t use a herding dog.
July 30: Kind of glad, kind of sad, to see our March/April born Dorset ram lambs leave on the truck. In only 3 to 4.5 months, they are gone. They weighed 81 to 136 pounds and averaged 115 pounds. Now the pens are empty and quiet, and we have less chores to do.
October 21: As usual, we are always looking for ways to make things easier and more efficient, so my 79 year old dad, Dave King, made me this cart for hauling pails of grain. I love it! It is so light and maneuverable and will save my arms and back.
November 5: The ram has been busy the last few weeks. He has all 41 of the January born ewe lambs marked to lamb in March.
The March born ewe lambs, who are in a different pen, are also marked by their ram to lamb at the same time.
November 18: We are using raw, unwashed wool to insulate a little old 16 x 30 barn so it can be used for a chicken house.
Along with being fire and pest resistant insulation, wool is such a great renewable, environmentally friendly product that can be used for so many things!
“Sheep wool is a natural insulator because it has a crimped nature which traps air in millions of tiny pockets. Sheep wool insulation has an R-value of approximately 3.5 to 3.8 per inch of material thickness, 0.3 to 0.6 points higher than fiberglass, cellulose, or mineral wool.” – Healthy House Institute
December 28: The weather has been so warm that we have been feeding the ewes outside and putting them in the barn at night in case something lambs.
Today, this ewe decided to lamb a long way from the barn so I brought her lambs in on the toboggan with a big “ewe escort”!
