Fall Colors... Or Say What?

Lilacs

Honeysuckle entwined on Forsythia bush

Forsythia showing both fall leaf color and blooms

Purple wildflowers alongside the road

White wildflowers profusely blooming in a brush pile

I did take these photos just this week, I swear! It's been a different year to say the least. We had a cold snap a while back and then allot of rain and very warm muggy temperatures--which evidently conspired to fool these lovely flowers into thinking it was Spring. While Lilacs, Forsythia and Honeysuckle in October isn't something you see around here very often, I'm enjoying their lovely fragrance and colors. Wishing there was some way to bottle up this wonderful sweet fragrance for the cold winter months ahead. Such a bonus--Lilacs in October!

In the last three or four days fall colors really have started to come to the Ozarks. One day the leaves were green and it seemed like the very next day shades of gold, orange and yellow were reflecting the sun. The weather continues mild with only a few chilly mornings so far. I expect that'll soon change overnight too.

Sumac in the fence row... true fall colors
(you can see how green the trees are behind)

Breeding Group Number Two

Featuring......

Locksfield Griffen
(Minwawe Tornado x Petit Pat Gwen)
2006 Black Smirslet

Locksfield Tabitha
(Locksfield Greystoke x Locksfield Taryn)
Moorit Ewe

Locksfield Willow
Fletcher Sundance x Fletcher Limmerick)
Grey Ewe

Fairlight Blackberry Winter
(DE Marius x Locksfield Willow)
Grey Ewe

Fairlight Luna
(Minwawe Redford x Locksfield Willow)
Musket Flecket Ewe

Shandrew Rouen
(Vista Vale Chester x Smoke Ham Sashii)
Black Iset Ewe (Double Coated)

Fairlight Duckie
(Fairlight Callum x Shandrew Rouen)
Black Iset Ewe (Double coated)

Locksfield Rain
(Fletcher Stonewall x Shandrew Rouen)
Dark Grey Ewe

Fairlight Mist
(Fairlight Jeffery x Locksfield Rain)
Grey Ewe (owned by Allena)

and last but not least......

Hope
(Blue (Merino) x Gracie (Dorset)

There they finally are! Whew... I didn't have current pix of Tab and Willow so had to 'borrow' some from the website. I'm too tired to figure out why they are so small and how to fix 'em. This breeding group consists of ten sheep total. I expect most of the lambs will be black or grey, but there might be a few moorit/musket surprises since several of the girls carry moorit and Griffen should as well. I have hopes for some flash, as some of these family lines have clicked in the past. Griffen has a very nice small tail, a smaller frame, excellent horns and a nice soft intermediate fleece with very little iset, so I think he will compliment these girls nicely. Next Spring should be an interesting lambing season. Good grief... next Spring... it'll be here before we know it!

It's done!

Blackberry Winter

Breeding group 'two' is now set up, and barring any unforeseen circumstances (like mass escape) that chore is done for the year. I haven't weaned lambs for the last three or four years, since all my girls seem to hold condition well. (read fat) Eventually they cut down on the feedings so that the lambs are virtually weaned except for a little 'comfort meal' here and there.

I guess I've never had this many lambs still here at breeding season. This year there are seven. Seven screaming voices. All day, all night. I made the mistake of removing one mom yesterday and then the rest today, so I'm prolonging the noise longer than I could have. You would think that I have ruthlessly weaned two week old babies, rather than six month old weanlings by the noise. My head hurts.

So this morning went smoother than I expected. The Shetlands all came in for feeding and got trapped. I wormed and trimmed hooves on the last four for the group. Then started sorting off the lambs. Since I usually do this sort of stuff alone, I had to think of something (short of catching and wrestling each lamb through the fence each time). I came up with a short cattle panel wired into the corner to form a triangle (have I mentioned I love cattle panels?), and used snaps to close it. The outer corner of the fence also had two snaps holding it closed. I would push in two or three lambs, close and latch the triangle piece, and then reach through and open the outside corner. This also prevented some certain sheep (Rouen, Duckie) from making a mad dash towards a weak spot and escaping. Although I could feel 'em watching me the whole time, just waiting, waiting for that split second of inattention. Once I got all the lambs out, then I tricked Hope (merino/dorset) and caught her, and pulled her in by a halter. Then it was all down hill--in a good way-- from there. I opened up the panels into the pasture with Griffen and the three girls. Of course much mayhem ensued, with chasing and fighting. They seem quiet now. For the moment.

After I shooed all the lambs out I dismantled the catch pen and set up a 'no-ram's land' section and finished out their night pen. So glad that is all done.

I wanted to take some pictures of the girls for the post on the breeding groups. I attempted to do that yesterday before sorting them out today. Well, evidently me 'stealing' five members of the flock within two days had made an negative impression on them. I thought I would share some of the pictures I got with you. I was not amused.

They did finally settle down a tad, but in the breeding group post--if they look rather alert and suspicious, now you know why!

Off to wash windows! She will never catch us now! Sheep-napper!

Vacation...It's hard Work....

Griffin checks out the girls while the girls check out Griffin!

....but I still love it! This is officially day two of a week's vacation. Whew, it goes by fast. And boy am I already sore and tired! ha.... Nothing a heating pad and Tylenol won't cure though.

Since I put everything off to the last possible minute this year, I am still scrambling to get the girls their pedicures and wormings before going to the ram. The rest of the sheep will get theirs too, but these girls are first on the list.

Yesterday, it rained some in the morning. One minute it was hot and overcast and the next this huge dark cloud bank came up. By then I had captured Blue (The big mean Merino ram) to trim his hooves and worm. The plan was to catch him and his buddy wether, Lanny Wilson and get them both done. Alas Lanny is so stinking scared of everything, I didn't get him. I was about half done with Blue when the deluge came so I didn't pursue trying to figure out a way to catch Lanny. I just finished Blue and let him go. I'll have to ponder it, and come up with a way to get him wormed at least. Blue has nasty feet--mostly from an inexperienced new Shepherd (me) feeding too much grain to an undernourished, half starved young ram lamb. He finally grew and got fat, but I think I foundered him a bit in the process. Anyhoo, in the best of times they are long and tend to grow funny. Blue is quite tame once you catch him, but any other time he would cheerfully like to do me in. Since I don't have any kind of chute or table, and he is far too big and stout for me to 'take down' anymore my technique is to simply lure him along the fence line where I've made a little alley with cattle panels (he always falls for this!). Once he gets in there and busy sampling the grain, I squish him between the fence and panel and wire it all up tight. Then I shove a nice stout stick in front of this front legs and one behind the hind legs. Then I halter him and tie his head up, so he won't slobber and chew on me. Usually he will fuss around with his feet, but in the end I just wait him out and trim the feet like a horse. Worming is absolutely no problem--he loves the stuff and sucks it down as fast as he can---getting the syringe away is usually tricky. I was glad to get this done though.

Next on my list was finishing the catch pen and re-working Blue and Lanny's feeding situation for the winter. I plan to feed them square bales (if I ever get any)until the weather is cold and the rains are pretty much gone. If I feed them a round bale now, with the warmer temps and rains, most of it will rot and mold. The shelter for these boys is a simple hoop house (made out of a wooden ground frame, with a 16 ft cattle panel bowed over it, and tarp over that.) I have attached it to the side of the girls barn, so that only one end is open. The end that is attached to the barn, has now been reworked, with hay feeders installed so I can easily toss hay into them and it will be in the dry. While I had the boys penned up I went ahead and picked up limbs and threw on the burn pile and then set an old haystack on fire (see above for reason ;-)

I also got the breeding pasture and pen checked over and some panels put up in 'iffy places' (like my chicken pen that last years flock demolished for a few twigs of green.)

Allena called later in the afternoon and then brought Griffin and Mist over. I went ahead and caught up the Shetland girls after she called, as I was afraid it was going to rain. The sheep won't cooperate in the rain and would have headed for the barn instead of the catch pen. This left me quite a bit of time to get the three girls that were headed to her place wormed and pedicured. I also was able to get all the lambs wormed. The three girls did pretty good but they still are a bit hard to load at times. Certainly not as bad as it could be I'm sure. They got impromptu halter lessons on the way to the truck. Actually leash lessons! Mist and Griffin unloaded fairly nicely and walked sedately to their pen. The girls all ogled Griffin when he was put in the pen next to theirs. I think they were all a bit impressed. He is a nice looking little feller. He is actually a lovely, lovely fellow! They won't share a fence line except at feeding time.

This morning, I got four more of the ewes wormed and hooves trimmed. I turned Tabitha and Willow in with Griffin and Mist, so that Mist wouldn't get swarmed with bossy ewes all at once. These two are fairly mild natured and so far everyone is doing fine. I turned them all out on grass so that kept them quite occupied.

Tomorrow is the day when I'll turn the rest of the ewes (hopefully) in with Griffin and have the breeding pen officially set up.

I have a long list of stuff I want to get done, but I'm sure it'll not all get marked off. I'm also just enjoying doing chores in the daylight, eating a late breakfast, having time to do Bible study and walk my dogs. Its just real nice to be more relaxed for a change.

Well, I best get back to work! I'll be posting the other breeding group as soon as I get pix of them.

Breeding Group Number One

Featuring Sheltering Pines Jerome
(Underhill TS Eliot x Sheltering Pines Camelot)
Moorit/White Smirslet Flecket

and....

Fairlight Magena
(Minwawe Redford x Locksfield Tabitha)
Moorit

Fairlight Birdie
(Fairlight Jeffery x Shandrew Rouen)

Fairlight Selena
(Minwawe Redford x Fairlight Blackberry Winter)
Moorit (possibly Fawn)

This little group of ewes will be joining Sheltering Pines Jerome over at Allena's for the fall breeding season. Two of these ewes are Minwawe Redford daughter's and will hopefully carry enough spotting genetics to click with Jerome and produce some spots. The third ewe, Birdie is a lovely little black Fairlight Jeffery daughter. Jeff is a Stone Ridge Harris son, and has produced some pretty flashy Ag fleckets. Birdie's mother is a Windsor River grand daughter so I'm hoping there might be some color coming from this cross as well. Birdie is a last minute substitute for Fairlight Luna, another Redford daughter. Luna has picked up an off and on cough and I did not want to stress her by moving her to a new location or risk her 'sharing' with Allena's sheep. She seems fine, but I don't want to take any chances. The idea was to send all the moorit based Redford daughters to Jerome to get moorit lambs and up the chance of 'splash'.

However, sending Birdie instead should be interesting too. It might let me know if Birdie carries moorit and it will be fun to see what she produces. I'm excited about all three of these matches, and it will be hard to wait to see what is produced in the Spring! Jerome has a 'kindly' or UK type fleece, and the two Moorit girls have an intermediate fleece type. Birdie has a primitive double coated fleece.

I will be setting up a larger breeding group here with seven more ewes (plus one from Allena) with Locksfield Griffin. I'll post pictures of them when I can.

Whew... can't even believe its fall already! So much to do, so little time! ;-)

Autumn is upon us.....

Fall Colors

Ringo

(Doesn't every farm need a mascot or three??)

...or so the calendar says. The temperatures belie the season. The next few days are suppose to be very warm in the upper 80s and lower 90s. It seems strange and its hard to think it really is fall. Leaves are falling, but there is very little color change happening. The sumac in the fence row seems to be one of the exceptions and has turned a brilliant scarlet.

The sheep are subdued again, as the hot weather makes them uncomfortable. The weather is suppose to become more seasonal next week. I hope so. Next week I set up the breeding group here, plus send three ewes to Allena's to go to a different ram. I will be posting pictures later on.

I evidently pulled my back at some point, so I've had some off and on problems the last week or two. Very bad timing as I need to get the girls wormed and give them their pedicures! Its feeling much better today, so hopefully I can work on some of the sheepies this weekend. I have most of the catch pen set up and will finish that up tomorrow. I also need to make sure everything is ram proof in the breeding pasture, before Locksfield Griffin joins the girls.
Next week is vacation and I have lots on the to-do list! I'm hoping to get things caught up around here and ready for winter. It will be nice to have some time off too. I'll try and be more consistent with the blog. It promises to be a busy fall! In lieu of pretty fall foliage photos I thought I would post these um, unusual ones I took the other night. The purpose was to get a photo of the Harvest Moon, but the moon is barely visible in the photos as a tiny round white speck in the middle. I'm not sure what this 'crop' is--I think its millet or maybe milo. It seeded itself years ago when I had a bird feeder on that side of the house. Every year it reseeds and comes up---quite an abundant crop. The birds start feeding off it in early fall and pretty much have it harvested by late October. Does anyone know if the stalks could be fed to the sheep? I mow around a selected number of plants in the Spring and let it grow all summer. It would take over the yard if I didn't mow bunches of young plants down. Hope you enjoy the photos (and they don't bring to mind images of Children of the Corn!)