It is coming fast!

Shearing DAy, April 12, 2019. We need help, please. 

Jobs will include moving sheep into the catch pens and out after shearing, sweeping between shears, providing water for the shearers, skirting the fleece, labeling and tagging and bagging fleece, and the final clean up. 

We welcome all volunteers. Children around 12 can help under supervision please. There are accommodations for 6 in the house and 4 in the camper in their sleeping bags. Lunch of beans, homemade bread and salad is provided for all. Shearing will be in progress from 8 am to approximately  3 pm. If you can join us, please let us know. 

​Thank ewe!

I like to think that I have an indomitable spirit. Once when I was quite young, maybe a teen or early twenties, that was how I was described. It stuck in my memory for some reason, likely because I liked that idea. So, with that indomitable spirit, I formulated a plan, and set to work. Six hours later, I had done it! I managed to remove three huge rams and get them on the other side of the farm to their home, plus put medicine in all the sheep and a few goats, except one, Kara. 

Kara is a jerk! I am not sure why, because she was a triplet from Daphne, my best goat, and Daphne's kids are wonderful. Her twin sister, Kia, is sweet natured and curious and comes to me to get a little pat, but Kara heads for the other end of the pen, wildly screaming every time she sees me, as though her life is at stake should I come near her. She is on the sale list, though she is beautiful, an F1 (first generation cross) mini Nubian in a lovely fawn colour. She was bred to Wimpy the Second this year, a tri colour Nubian buck. The mini Nubians, except Marie, who decided she wanted to get bred by Stevie Wonder, not Wimpy and somehow got herself out of one pen and into the other, rather miraculously, are going to have 3/4 Nubian babies. I am hoping they will be hardy enough to this climate, since Nubians do struggle with the extreme cold. Anyhow, I will have to work on Kara today, plus the other goats in the other pen and the rest of the rams across the driveway pen. Not many, compared to the hundred or so I managed yesterday ALONE!

I broke the cuboid bone last week in an unusual way. It is the bone that the metatarsal attaches to and it is a hairline fracture, nothing much really, and does not require casting or even bandaging. But yesterday, a big ewe stepped on it, and after that I was walking like Festus from Gunsmoke (you will have to look that up if you are not very old). Today it is swollen and painful all over again. I was out to check on the critters this morning. Bob Cotswold had his big head stuck in the feeder, so I rescued him and other than that, the plethora of ravens eating the dog scraps, was dispersed because I picked up the raw bones and meat bits. Anyhow, that broken bone still makes me hobble around in pain, but I will definitely have to treat the goats and the rest of the rams. One untreated animal with lice can reinfect the entire farm and I do not want that! Fortunately, sheep lice do not live on humans, but they can bite humans. Gross! I only got one bite from yesterday, whew! 

Today is beautiful! It is warm and melting, the usual January thaw. It snowed last night, enough of a dusting, maybe 3 centimeters or for those who better understand inches, around an inch and a little bit. But the snow is squishy and soft. I am just finishing my second cup of coffee and will have a cup of bone broth with fat before going out. There is an inch of beef fat on the bone broth in the pot and in the cup, I would say the fat, melted of course, covers the broth. I am attempting to reset my leptin using the Keto diet. 

Speaking or resets, yesterday, after wrangling those sheep, my knees were so painful that I could only hobble. Couple that with the broken bone in my foot and I felt a hundred years old! I have been reading a lot about cold thermogenesis and healing, so I put ice packs on my knees and left them there an hour. The pain and swelling disappeared with no medication and lasted through the night. Today, there is little swelling and little pain. I think there is definitely something to the idea. Long ago I happened to catch a short documentary on open heart surgery in a remote area of Siberia where they had no medication for pain. They used ICE!. The person was put to sleep and then covered in ice until the skin temperature was a certain level and they operated and closed and continued the use of ice until the person was well enough to gain normal function, which was not long and the recovery was nothing short of miraculous. I tucked that tidbit away in my mind. There is an American doctor who is promoting ice therapy, cold thermogenesis, and used it on himself after surgery for a speedy, pain free recovery. I must say, it worked on my old knees! 

Have a wonderful cell phone free day! Ha! Imagine that! Let's see tomorrow if I manage to get the rest of the critters on the farm medicated today. Toodle doo!

My dear sweet orphan lambs, except Gina, the Icelandic, are penned separately within the ewe pen so I could keep an eye on them and whilst doing so, tame them so they are comfortable and easy with me. Next will be to halter them. Three of the lambs are purebred Shetlands, one is Icelandic, one is Cotswold and one is Jacob. These lambs were selected to stay on the farm for their very fine fleece and their mother's natures and abilities as well as hardiness. Thus far, I am so very pleased with the little angels. 
At first I would catch a lamb and sit her on my knee, stroking her head and fleece, and speak softly to her. This went on for three weeks. She would slowly sink into my embrace, close their little eyes and sigh deeply. My heart would hold them dear for a few minutes and then they would be set down, but not freed. Standing close to me was a little difficult for them at first, though as time passed, they also relaxed enough that bolting was not the first choice. 
Then I brought some tasty treats, alfalfa, new grass, weeds and dandelions, and held it for them. The Shetlands were already comfortable enough that they came immediately. Gina, the Icelandic did not come at all. I caught her and held her again and it was as though she suddenly realized she was safe, and she gave in to her instincts and became my friend. The next day all of the lambs came to me running! 
They will still require more work, and haltering will be a process, but then the lambs will remain tame and calm for the rest of our lives. They will be easy to shear, easy to milk, yes milk, and their lambs should also have no fear of me because their mothers will be so calm. Although this process will take a couple of months and twice daily visits, the results will last a lifetime for me, or rather the rest of my shepherd career. 
Sitting peacefully among nature, holding a lamb, stroking its fleece and listening to its heart beating, has to be one of the most tranquil events one could behold, and I get to do this daily. I am so blessed here on the Fat Ewe Farm. I wish you were here to share this joy!

Whew! The last week has been filled, well over-filled with a bunch of too busy days. Some days as many as ten different people came to the farm for one reason or another. There is the John Deere lawn tractor to fix, the smart car got sold, a few looking at the two trucks I have for sale, my new solar fridge arriving, people coming to buy goats and bed and breakfast guests. Some of those days I got up earlier than I would have normally to make breakfast for my guests. And of course, the third to last goat had triplets and today alone, 3 sheep had lambs with one set of twins. Rosy needed help with her single HUGE ram lamb. My goodness he is big! The sire was a Babydoll/BFL and although the lamb looks Babydoll, he is as large as a big Blue Faced Leicester lamb. Too bad it is a boy though. I don't usually make wethers out of the sheep, but I think that one would make a great companion ram for those who have just one breeding ram. I cannot find my elastic applicator though! 

There have been moments of planting some things in the flower beds, painting some new planters, ensuring the sheep and goats do not stay out long on the first green grass of the season and then last night, I stepped on a 3 inch nail. Ouch! I soaked it in the tub along with my old bones and went to the hospital for a tetanus shot this morning just after 9. I got out of the hospital finally , at 12:30. The doctor was in a clinic and only came over for emergencies, my situation, not being considered anywhere close to emergency. So, I visited with my friend Alan, who has brain cancer. He was making plans for his funeral and I tried to cheer him up, but when I arrived he did not know who I was. Sad. 

There will be a few more of these crazy days before life gets settled down somewhat. Once the two trucks are sold, and the old fridge I was using is also gone, and the goats and lambs, then the animals can go out to their summer pasture and life should be quieter. Except there will be gardens to plant and yard clean up to finish, and it goes on. The thing that is not getting accomplished, that always gets pushed to the last, is my own little hovel. It desperately needs a day of cleaning and organizing, but somehow all those other jobs are taking the priority. 

I soaked my foot again in the tub along with my bones, as I do every night and sleep calls. Sweet dreams all. 
​

This should be the last big year for me for lambs and kids. I am hoping to downsize the farm and sell 2/3rds of my sheep and goats. The lambs I keep will be for fleece or meat. I love lamb meat and although meat is a by product of my fleece farm, i am fortunate to have a supply of grass fed lamb. This year they may be some goats in the freezer as well. Goat meat is delicious and again, although I do not raise animals for meat, when the little boy goats do not sell, they are eventually put in the freezer. It does not make good economic sense to raise them over a winter and feed them because the market price in the spring is hardly better if at all. If they do not sell as breeding bucks, then they really need to go. 

Thus far, the first lamb is born, a lovely black purebred Icelandic ram lamb. He mother is very small for an Icelandic. She and her twin sister and the ewe lamb I bought locally are all very small. They are maybe even smaller than the Shetland sheep on the farm. Icelandic sheep should be larger. I suspect somewhere there was inbreeding in their lines and the result was very tiny lambs. The little ram lamb born today is about 5 pounds which is ideal for a first time mother and typical of a smaller Icelandic lamb. 

The goats are almost done with their kids. Some were bred to the Nubian billy and the others to the Nigerian Dwarf. There are also some Nigora, or NIgerian Dwarf and Angora goats. Those goats do have spinnable fibre, so are valuable for their fibre. Nigerian Dwarf goats are kept for milk and pets. They have been a great seller on the farm until this year. Wouldn't you know it! This is the year I need to sell them to downsize the herd too. Today, Thirteen had twin doelings. They will be NIgora, but there is a slight overlap between bucks and they could be Nubian. Time will tell. Right now they are hard to distinguish, except they are healthy little girls and Thirteen is a very good mother, which is rare for Angora goats, who have been bred too much for fibre that their maternal instincts have suffered as a result.  Bonnie, the Spanish Cashmere and her two Cashgora girls are left to kid. I would say they will kid tomorrow or very soon. Bonnie may have a new home with her kids too. Then the goats are done. 

The problem is that the weather is not cooperating. I deliberately leave the breeding until late, starting in May (very late April) so the weather will be warm and temperatures will not dive down too low and frozen lambs result. But we are plagued with late snows and very cold winds. In 2 days the temperatures are supposed to rise finally and spring will be on its way. The thing is, tomorrow is the initial due date and I think there will be quite a few ewes giving birth. I will be out early to check on them, though most should proceed on their own and not require any help from me at all. Primitive breeds are like that. They have retained excellent maternal instincts and abilities and also their ability to lamb on their own is so much better. I far prefer two lambs to four or five, as some of the modern commercial sheep are now starting to have. I would rather be hands off than hands on! Tatiana, a Romanov ewe, will likely have four lambs this year though. They are known for that, for multiple births. That is where their value lies for commercial operations. They increase the lamb numbers in the second generation cross ewes. 

Anyhow, we are off to a great start. There won't be much sleep over the next few weeks. My fingers and toes are crossed for a healthy lamb crop. Many will be for sale with their dams and sires if you are interested in starting out with sheep or adding to your own flocks. Wish me luck!

I love my little Icelandic girls, but they are little. For some reason, Jewel and her twin sister Gem, are very small for Icelandic sheep. Thor was a smaller ram, but the ewe was a gorgeous full sized lovely ewe. These twin girls should be much larger than they are now. Georgie was from the auction, and came with the ram Gunnar. He is spectacular, halter trained and fantastic, with one exception. His horns are growing too close to his head. I will have to take some photos in to the veterinarian to see what, if anything, can be done for him. I think he must have a headache every day, or maybe not. Maybe his skull had just gotten used to the tight wrap, much like the African tribes who mould the skulls of their young by binding them. He does have a great set of horns with a full curl, but on one side there is a scar on the horn so they would not be valuable should he be sold. I have no intentions of selling him just yet. 

Jewel calls to me when she hears my voice. I am hand feeding the sheep now, since they are in breeding pens until the end of this month. Then the ewes will all go together in the winter pen and the large BFL ram who was born exactly a year ago, will have a chance to learn what breeding is like, if the rams have missed anyone. Georgie is a beautiful red sheep, Gem is true black and I am not sure what Jewel is called. She was born red but her fleece is cream coloured and her face and legs are red with her eyes surrounded by cream. They are very pretty girls and I am hoping they will have some pretty little girls too. I will have to wait until May to see. 

Sitting on the throne of judgement is really a matter of perspective. 

Is a person fat? Well, how fat? When compared to another who may be 100 pounds heavier, a few pounds overweight doesn't seem so much. 

Is that much money enough? Again, look at the alternatives. When there is a lot of money, a lot of money is spent. When there is less, less must be spent. Compared to what you used to make, perhaps you are a lot poorer, but compared to those who do not have homes or jobs, you are still rich. 

Wanting what we have and having what we want are almost the same thing, IF the perspective is also in balance. 

My farm life is very wonderful. I have more than enough of everything except time and money, but I have enough money because I have the power to earn more when I need it. There is not much I can do about time, or is there? I can sell some more animals until the time that I have is enough for the work I have to create that balance. Then there will also be some time for recreation and fun, though at present that does not happen.  Again, it is a matter of balance. 

Loving what we have and having what we love are related. There are some not so great aspects of owning a farm and being alone in a foreign province where the locals are very cliquish and unfriendly. And for every bleak side there is that silver lining. I have a farm. I have followed my passion, again. I have made another dream come true and am living the life I created, my own reality. 

Really, whether we judge ourselves, others, our lives, our wealth, our poverty, or anything else at all, it is just a matter of perspective and changing how we are looking at things. I am choosing to be filled with joy and be happy. I am the master of my own destiny. You can be that empowered too. You can if you allow yourself to be. You can. 

I go through a whole lot of effort to provide safe, dry and clean places to birth the lambs. The sheep seem to have different ideas. Red had twins at the manure pile base. I brought some clean straw and put it down for her. The lambs do not really care, but Red should. The wet lambs get covered with the manure and she has to lick them clean, thereby ingest the feces of the sheep. This is not good for the worm situation either. Red has two beautiful ewe lambs, a dark dark brown almost black and dark red. The girls will stay here on the farm, but Red and Thor, the Icelandic ram will be off to a new home in 3 months when the girls are weaned. 

Enya had her little guy outside, as they all did except the man bred sheep, the Blue Faced Leicester, who had her lamb in the shelter. At least the shelter is quite clean with good straw down and it is out of the wind and dry. It was 5 degrees today, but the wind was very cold. I hate to see the little lambs shiver, so I towel them as dry as I can to give the moms some help, especially if there is more than one. Enya is a primitive sheep, a Jacob, and she has a crossbred lamb, Shetland sired through the fence of all things. The ram she was with missed the mark I guess. Gwen, the BFL is not a good mother and leaves her little girl alone. The baby cries and finally lays down, but Gwen does not come back for a long time and if I bring the lamb to her she ignores her and continues eating. If she does not smarten up, tomorrow I will lock her up in  a stall in the barn with the lamb. I love the wool of the BFL sheep, but they simply do not compare with the primitives and need lots of interventions to be healthy and thrive. They would do well in a warmer winter climate too. 

Lyssa Cotswold had her single lamb, a large boy, outside the shelter.She had a bit of a time with him, making all kinds of noise and demonstrating her discomfort. The lamb was presenting correctly with the head between two little hooves, so I left her and went to finish the chores. When I returned she was still moaning and groaning and the lamb's front hooves and nose were out, but the head was not wanting to cooperate. I gently grasped the feet and pulled very lightly down and the head passed and the lamb slipped out. I am pretty sure Lyssa could have done that on her own, though just a little assistance was welcome. She was licking the air like crazy, but not the lamb, so I toweled him off as much as I could. I watched to see if he could latch on to a teat and drink, but he was a little confused as to where it was, so I laid Lyssa down and clipped the fleece from around her butt and udder so he had a clear path and bingo! He was nursing on his own. 

Obe had her boys cleaned and they were dry by the time I was out of the house this morning, twin rams. She is an excellent mother, only her second time, but her instincts are spot on and she is attentive and is always mothering her babies. I made a final round outside at 9:30 and there were no sheep isolating themselves or showing any signs of labour, so all should be well until tomorrow. They tend not to have babies in the dark. Those farmers who have barns and leave the lights on, in my humble opinion, are encouraging night births out of synchronization with nature. I will be up early to check again in the morning. 

I am grateful for these little babies born today. Lambs are sweet natured, innocent and full of life. They bring joy to my life just being around them and that is why I am a farmer!  The video is Lyssa complaining about being in labour. 

I read a lot. As a matter of fact, maybe I read too much. I am always researching and looking up things I want to know and learn. When I decided to be a farmer, I already knew I wanted to be an organic farmer, since my lifestyle was primarily organic for years prior. What I did not understand, is that in some areas, the theory of organic farming is not only not practiced, but frowned upon. I spoke to an elderly lady today, a well known business woman in the small town of St. Paul, and she told me she sees absolutely no value in organic cotton as opposed to regular cotton or synthetic fabrics, with her preference being the synthetics because they are easy care. Whoa! I told her I make soap, lotions, salves, creams and blend essential oils and again, she said that none of those things appealed to her because she can go the store and buy any of those much cheaper and better than the hand made ones. Whoa again. 

And it is that way with sheep too. The production farmers who raise sheep want bigger, fatter, faster growing lambs so they stuff them full of grain as soon as they are able to nibble food. I cannot find evidence of my theory on this, yet, but I think that the early feeding of grain forever ruins the sheep's ability to thrive on forage, and that is likely the same for goats and cows as well, also being ruminants. I am basing my idea on only what I have seen in the past three years as a farmer. The sheep I have acquired as adults, who have been fed grain from babies, do not adjust well to a grass fed operation. They are always 'hungry' and some even have to be taught to eat hay. 

The Angora goats that came to the farm were from a fibre farm where they were fed pelleted feeds and straw for roughage. This was done to keep the coats clean so the fibre, mohair, would fetch top dollar. When the goats came home, they were fed hay, as rumunants should be, and they nearly starved to death. I eventually had to go buy some pelleted food, that which they were used to, and sprinkle it on the hay, to teach them to eat hay. Two of the does never did thrive and were made into meat, which, I must say, was delicious. The third managed to adapt and has done very well. 

Many of the sheep that have come from grain heavy farms also struggle with forage based feeding. The Cotswolds were from two different farms, the ram from one and three ewes from another. Only one ewe managed to switch over and I have kept her. The ram and the other two ewes could never gain enough weight to thrive, so I sold them (to a grain feeding farmer). The Cotswold ewe I have kept is robust, fat and healthy and has given me one single lamb per year for the past two years. Cotswolds are not known for multiple births, but twins are not uncommon. Her lambs are big and healthy, so I am fortunate there. One of her lambs, is like her mother, thriving on the hay and pasture, but the other is smaller and thin. All ewes, sheep, get the same care, with worming and supplements in the form of alfalfa at the onset of pregnancy and the month prior to delivery and the month after. They do not get grain, though sometimes I have given them some field peas. 

The sheep that seem to thrive on the forage based feeding system also seem to be more worm resistant than the grain pigs. I , so far, cannot find research that shows a correlation between grain feeding and poor worm resistance. I am only going by what I observe in my small flock. The animals that do not thrive on hay and pasture are sold or go for meat. I am particularly interested in breeding those that not only do well on the grass feed, but also are parasite resistant, and have strong hooves. Good feet are paramount to health for ruminants. The breeds that I favour are primitives, those that have not been improved by man and are the way they have been for centuries on end. The Icelandic, Jacob, Shetland, Finnsheep (to some degree, but lots have been altered) are all short tailed naturally and do not require tail docking to keep the flies from chewing them alive in the summer. They are hardier than the commercial 'white' sheep breeds that have been created by man and which did not evolve long ago. 

I am not really interested in a lamb that is for production. This started out to be a little fibre farm and as soon as I find ways to keep the fleece free of vegetative matter, because they are hay fed for 7 months of the year, the fleece quality will be good enough to sell for hand spinners and felters. But, well fed sheep also have better pelts. That does not translate to grain fed sheep. 

The grain fed sheep that have been on the farm are greedy sheep who fight for a morsel of grain. It is like heroin to them, fixating on a sugar high immediately. Research has shown that grain is not the answer to keeping the sheep warm in winter. It is akin to coffee for humans, or sugar, where there is an instant rush and then nothing except the desire for more. Hay is proper food for runimants and it is digested slowly, chewed twice and provides energy to the sheep, provided it has adequate protein. Not all hay is the same, so I have discovered. The hay I had last year was planted hay and the sheep did extremely well on it. This year's hay is just pasture grass and is variable from bale to bale, with some being better than the others. With the alfalfa supplementation, they seem just fine. When they are shorn, then real condition scoring can take place. It is harder to asses when they are wearing their thick wool coats. They will be shorn at the end of this month. 

In conclusion, I want to stress that sheep farmers are not doing the sheep any service when they feed them grain and when they worm them routinely, whether they need it or not. Instead of breeding the parasite resistant sheep that thrive on forage based feeding, they shove grain down them as early as they can, never giving the sheep a chance to live naturally. And, with routine worming, the worms are now resistant to many of the antihelminics out there, and they are no longer working. What if only the parasite resistant were kept as breeding stock? The flock would be a hardy, naturally resistant flock, strong and the costs to the farmer would be way down through parasite deaths, plus the elimination of grain would cut the feed bill. 

Grass fed meat has been proven to be much healthier for humans to consume, though here in Alberta, most won't touch it because they are used to sweet, well marbled meat that grain produces. I want to say that there is a direct correlation between human health and grain fed meat consumption, too. But that is another topic for another day. Suffice to say that this farm will endeavour to breed the sheep and keep the sheep that thrive on our forage based feeding system and are parasite resistant naturally. Too bad I have just started farming. If I had another thirty years (I would be ninety then if that was to happen), I would have created some darn healthy sheep! In the meantime, I am doing my best to learn as I go and have a thriving, healthy and well loved flock of sheep at the Fat Ewe Farm. 

The ram lambs were born in May through June of 2014. These seven little boys were weaned in October and were still very small, so they went in with the little goats kids and the two Nubian does for company and warmth. The Nubians and kids have a round granary as their barn and it does keep them totally out of the wind. With the 14 bodies in the barn, the temperature can be twenty degrees warmer than the outside. For night that have been especially cold this winter, the extra warmth provided by the sheep has been good for the goats and the lambs too. 

But goats and sheep do have different nutritional requirements. Goats are browsers and eat from the top down given their choice, whereas sheep are grazers and like short grass the best. They both eat weeds and the goats prefer tree leaves to grass. Good hay for the sheep and goats will have lots of natural weeds in it. But the does benefit from the extra protein and minerals in alfalfa, though for rams, it is too rich and sometimes the extra calcium can cause urinary calcuali, little calcium stones that must pass the urethra, a painful condition. Baking soda helps with that, but prevention is better, so now that the lambs are older, it was necessary to separate them. Goats require greater amounts of copper in their diets, but too much copper is harmful to some breeds of sheep, so the concern for feeding minerals and mineral salts is also there. 

Moving the ram lambs is always a process. They are not tame and friendly, but not wild. They have not been haltered, nor ever fed grain, so leading them with the lure of a grain bucket means nothing to them and haltering one is a process. The term "jumbuck" is a young lamb on a tether, likely originating from the jumping and bucking they do. My poor arm and shoulder muscles will never be the same. I moved the first that way and then my son devised a plan. I had already thought that plan through, but felt I could not execute it on my own. Since he was there to help, we put the ewes in the barn, then opened and closed several gates, and along with the border collie, Robbie, got the rest of the ram lambs into the other goat pen. The goats were then easy to lure out with a bucket of grain, since they all knew what that was and they followed me to the pen where the lambs left from, to be with the rest of the goats. 

Then war broke out. The two herd bosses, Cecelia, the Nygerian doe and Mattie, the Nubian doe, had words. Cecelia has horns and knows how to use them. She won. The herd is still divided and I have been feeding them separately and will continue to do so for the next while until they sort things out between themselves. I noticed the Nygerians were sleeping in the shelter, while the Nubians still had their barn. What I would like to see is all the goats in the barn. The Nygerians are pregnant, but the Nubians are not bred this year. 

And poor Raven, the lone little buck was left with the ram lambs and has gone hoarse crying for his girls. I will move him along with the two little bucklings when the weather warms up somewhat. Oh the fun with the critters never does end!