After the Rain

The earth has come alive again. The grass is greening up, wilted leaves are standing up again. Its amazing to see the transformation. It took a few days, before the parched earth responded to all the rain, but then suddenly the brown grass had a green tinge and the drought was over!

My pumpkin 'patch' (four rather pathetic plants) had been hanging on grimly during the hot and dry weather. I was only able to water them enough to keep them alive. They do have a deep mulch and that has helped. After the rain, I think they have grown not inches but feet! Suddenly there are vines everywhere and tiny little pumpkins setting on the ends of blossoms. It will be touch and go if they grow and mature before frost, but since they are 'sheep feed' it won't really matter too much anyway. In the back of the pumpkin patch, the morning glories, which have had a few miserly blooms on wilted vines are now extravagantly putting on blossoms and sending out new shoots. The gourd vines, which I didn't think had any gourds on them, revealed several hidden away, exposed after the rain rearranged leaves. One is way up in the cedar tree and another on the side of the house---almost up to the roof!

June

While the lovely rebirth of the earth lifts ones soul, there is also sadness on the little farm. June, my big Dorset girl died Friday morning. She was the one who was caught up in the vine during one of the hottest days. Always fragile, she didn't quite bounce back from that, although on the surface she 'seemed' okay. Foraging with the flock, eating her grain heartily and going about normal sheepie business. But there was a look in her eye. Wednesday I came home and she was very weak, but still trying to be the strong sheep, she was up and staggering around with the others. I put her in a stall. Shortly after that she went down. She never got back up. I treated her with the things I thought would help. She rallied somewhat and remained alert during Thursday, although she refused her grain. She ate a few cookies. Thursday night I ceased treating her, I knew she was dying. She had the look of it in her eyes. I checked on her several times during the night, and made sure she was as comfortable as possible. I put a foam pillow between her head and the stall so she could rest easier. At 4:00 a.m. she was breathing loudly. At 6:00 a.m. she was gone.

Beautiful tall June, with the dramatic eyes. It seems strange not to see her walking across the field with her long, long legs eating up the ground. June was one of my original four sheep. Always first in line to get through the gate to sample whatever food was available. She is the second adult sheep I have had die in almost seven years. There have been five total---a stillbirth, a tragic lamb accident, a surprising unexpected older lamb death, and an older ewe---but it never gets easier, and there are always 'should haves' one puts them self through.

But one carries on, the body that was June has to be taken care of, the other sheep need to be fed and settled for the night. The morning comes and the count is different, but the needs are the same. And the sun comes up and glistens on the newly refreshed earth. Then, maybe, if I squint just right, I can see June striding off ahead, heading up to those eternally green pastures. Just maybe.

Gentle Soaking Rain........

...........Or Not.......
......and I'm not complaining......

.....But five inches of rain in a short time, has to go somewhere........

Here it makes an island of the Shetland barn....

.....a River of the path to the garage

.....Boone's pen and house a pond, with toys floating pathetically around....

Should I go save 'em Mom? Or will you buy me new ones?
(Boone in the backyard)

'Flood waters' breach the hastily constructed barriers to the breezeway

Here is the backyard again--6-10 inches of water--and I know where it went!Right into the backroom of my house! Flood control at work in the house.

.....But I ain't complaining (much), just a little tired! I was taking a vacation day today, so was really glad I was home. Having a pretty nice little day too, sorting things out for a garage sale, listening to the gentle rain on the roof. Still listening as the gentle rain turned into a drumming down pour. Then I realized my hallway and back room were flooding. In what is a blur now, I went out into the down pour and dug some trenches to try and divert water, piled more straw and dirt against the back outside wall to create a dam, put extra 2 x 4's across the breezeway moldings to add more height, moved everything that might get damaged away from the back wall, mopped and sopped with numerous towels to stop the slow spread of the water across the back rooms, and killed a bunch of ants that were moving to high ground. (I think this backs up my theory! ha)

The rain is mostly gone now, and I think those first 2 or 3 inches really soaked in so that should help a great deal. We are in for 'sauna time' now as the humidity climbs. But we got rain, by golly!

What Ants Can Do When You're Not Looking

For those who know me, they've also heard me gripe on and on about my 'ant problem'. A problem that has grown progressively worse over the last 4 or 5 years, as we continue in dry conditions. My theory is that without rain to drown out their colonies they just keep multiplying and multiplying...a theory not based on any real knowledge of ants!

Anyhoo.... outside, inside, everywhere the ants have taken over. You put something down outside and come back a few days later, and its covered with an ant colony.

Inside it has been a long hard battle. The war wages on everyday. I don't have one or two ants here and there. No, what I have are long, streams of ants making their way inside to any tiny morsel of something they can find. If they smell food, they come. I worry sometime that they will swarm ME some night....

I've tried everything. One year I used two full bottles of Terro liquid bait. Every time I would pour it out, it was like calling in the cows, the ants would form a circle around it and dig in. I never saw any decrease in the numbers. The only thing that finally stopped them was winter. I've tried sprays, bombs (something very wrong about ants traipsing over the puddles left by a bug bomb, and not even the slightest bit affected by it), a million home remedies (baking soda, cinnamon and others I've tried and forgotten). I've rotated bug sprays, I've plugged up every hole I can find. (I live in an old cement block/brick schoolhouse, so there are still plenty of holes!). I've put stuff around the foundations--fancy expensive ant stuff and plain old sevin dust. Nothing has made a difference. Nothing.

So as if that wasn't bad enough, suddenly, in the midst of the terrible heat and drought, my well stops working one morning. I was filling water troughs and hadn't even taken a shower yet. I was very upset, as visions of the well going dry or the pump burning out filled my mind. So the pump man was called, but in the meantime my Mom stopped by my house and the water was working again... huh....

The pump men spent about 30 minutes installing a switch box, sure that was what the problem was. It was an expensive 30 minutes for me---$80.00 plus the parts (total $147.00). Okay, so it could have been worse, I think.

A day or two later, the same thing happens! The water goes off. My Dad went up to the well house and tapped on the pressure switch box, and the water comes on. This went on a time or two, water went off, water back on, until finally the pump men were called again.

In the meantime before the pump men came my Dad took out a bunch of insulation that was in the well house---covered with millions of ants (and I do not exaggerate!)--ants of all colors, sizes and types. I also will mention that this isn't your typical well house---its a very large building that I also use as a semi-storage place.

The pump men came. One of them has a terrible phobia of spiders. The well house was also full of spiders.... I provided a can of spray. One spider elicited about 30 to 60 seconds of spraying. I'm not sure what would have happened if a spider had gotten ON him. I can't laugh too hard, because I myself have an unreasonable fear of spiders. So they took the pressure switch off this time and ..... you guessed it--it was full of ANTS. Yep, chock full of them. They will cause the switch to short on and off. Once they get in there you can't clean them out good enough, so they put a new one on. They also covered the outside entry point with Vaseline to keep the ants from crawling in there again. I'm going to bug bomb the place and quit storing stuff in there and find some different kind of insulation to cover things up, that won't be so messy.

If you look at the above photos (this by the way, ladies, is a pressure switch, in case you ever need to know! ;-) you can see gobs of little orangey things--that's some of the remaining ants. Many of them were knocked out before I took the picture. All said and done, the ants cost me over $200 and lots of worry. I am thankful though that my well and pump seem to be fine.

I guess this falls under the 'who would have thought' catagory!

BEAUTIFUL RAIN!

After six weeks of no rain, bone dry conditions, last night the rain finally started in earnest. We have had a couple of teaser showers, but nothing that had even settled the dust.

It rained off and on all night and has been steadily raining all morning. Its glorious! It's wonderful! I thank God! Rain means pasture, perhaps second hay cuttings! It also means the trees will perk back up and maybe some of the garden will have survived. Thank You! Thank You!

The sheep were pretty sure they would melt this morning when it was time to go out on pasture. They told me in high pitched whiny voices that maybe I should just bring them some food to the barn. However I was sure they would be fine, and rudely shoved them out into the gently falling rain. What they didn't know was that I had clipped some limbs for them the night before, so they had a fresh treat waiting for them. This shepherd is hoping that it rains softly all day and washes some of that awful accumulated dirt and mud out of their fleeces. They will probably all shed a pound or two just in dirt.

I hear thunder in the distance, so I best end this for now. I hope all who are in need of rain, also get good gentle soaking showers today.

Saving June

The hot weather makes everyone crabby and unfortunately seems to impair our thinking abilities--whether we be four-legged or two-legged. Getting through the day with a minimum of effort and movement seems to be what everyone is trying to do.

In an earlier post I talked about Blue, the ram getting himself hog-tied with string from a big bale of hay. That was at the beginning of the week. Thursday night was a bit hectic after I got home. When I pull into the garage, I generally do a quick look over on the sheep. I don't usually do a headcount, since its almost impossible to do without going out into the pasture. Instead I look up and down the fence and about making sure no one looks hung up or distressed. Things looked fine. Shortly after I got home, the pump man came (again---more later on that!) to look at the pump. That took some time, then I was busy doing my normal evening chores, and getting everyone watered and on and on. Finally it was time to call the sheep in, and when the 26th one came through the gate and there was no 27th, I had that familiar feeling of dread sink over me. I thought I knew who it was that was missing, but did a quick scan over again to make sure. When a sheep is missing and you don't hear bellers out in the field from the abandoned sheep, it is a very bad thing. I quickly gathered up a halter, a small can of feed and a bucket of water, not knowing what I was getting into, and because of the heat, not wanting to travel back and forth. June is a big old Dorset ewe. She is very tall, but not really stocky. When she was just a lamb she developed pneumonia, and it has left her with some lung damage. She also has a delicate metabolism and has had a couple of spells where her thiamine absorption has gotten out of whack. I have learned how to help control this, but I have to keep ahead of the game to do it. I expected to find her stretched out dead, but at first I couldn't see anything at all. Finally I saw her standing in an area where there are some shade trees and some old dead fall. Exactly where she was standing when I got home. Because of her distinctive tall frame, she is easy to spot. However since she was standing in one of their normal hangouts, I thought everything was fine.

As I got closer, I was thinking that perhaps her thiamine was off again, but since she hadn't had any change in her feeding habits (which is usually what causes the problem), and it usually comes on with slower symptoms, I wasn't sure why she would. Then closer still, I could see she looked horribly stressed, and decided that the heat had just been too much for her. When I got up to her, though, I realized she had been 'tied' to a tree by a grapevine! For Pete's sake! It was effectively tying her neck to the tree, but not cutting off her airway. However, she would not have been able to lie down or move for how ever long she was caught up. It was likely not more than 5 or 6 hours, as my Mom usually does 'well being' checks mid-day on the sheep, and she thinks that June was in a different spot at the time. The weather, however was relentlessly hot that day.

So, because I didn't think to bring a knife or any kind of cutters, I had to maneuver the vine off over her head. I slipped the halter on and poured some of the water over her neck and top of the head. She didn't like that at all, and had enough wherewithal to stagger off towards the home paddock, with me encouraging her from behind. She was very out of it, eyes glazed, and so very hot.

Once in the paddock, I pushed, and pulled her up to one of the stalls and locked her in. She was refusing any food and could only stand by propping herself against the side of the stall. I went to the house and made up two 35 cc syringes of A-lyte/water mixture, another syringe with 12 cc's of nutri-drench and an injection of Thiamine (just in case). I was able to drench her orally with the A-lyte and nutridrench, however I felt like she needed more to get her re-hydrated. Unfortunately I had only had a little of the A-lyte left. I went back to the house and rummaged around in the 'sheep cabinet' and found some Pedialite in individual small bottles. I was able to carefully drench her with another 140 ccs of the Pedialite. She was still so distressed, and you could feel the heat just steaming off her. I didn't think I had anything to lose, since I felt I was losing her, so I dragged the hose up there and started running it over her legs, belly, back and neck. She didn't like it much, but after a bit, she felt less hot. Since it was so hot in the barn, after her 'treatment' I turned her out in the lot with the other sheep. A really good north breeze had come up, but you couldn't feel it in the barn. She went and staggered across the lot and found a corner of fence to prop herself in. It was dark by then. I went in the house, but checked on her several times over the next few hours. I finally dozed off and when I woke it was after midnight. I got up and put Boone out and went out to check the sheep. June was walking in big aimless loops, still staggering. I was just getting ready to get the halter and put her in a stall, when she fell down. She was able to lay on her brisket in the 'normal' sheep resting position and she seemed like she was content to stay there so I left her. I got up at 4:00 to check her again, expecting her to be dead, but she was laying in a different spot and best of all chewing cud. Several hours later when I fed everyone their grain she dove in with gusto. She was still unsteady on her feet, but definitely stronger. She looked horrible though--you can tell it took alot out of her. The drenching with the hose didn't help either, since it just stirred around all those weeks of dirt accumulation! The next day after I got home in mid afternoon I drenched her with about 70 ccs of A-lyte (restocked) and gave her a handful of cookies. She seems to be doing okay, but I'm not sure how she will do long term if this heat continues.

One time a fellow shepherdess was telling a funny story about having company over at their house. About mid day or so, she told her guest that she needed to go and 'count sheep'. Her guest thought this extremely funny and had a good laugh over it, but to the shepherdess it was a normal part of the day.

Counting the sheep is deadly serious to the Shepherd. Only when that 27th comes in, does the Shepherd smile and relax.

Easy Summer Salad

Easy Rice Salad

Last week I had company on a Friday night. Fellow Sheep breeders, we had lots to discuss, and sheep to look at. We planned a quick and easy meal, with Allena and her family bringing some store bought fried chicken. The weather has been unreasonably hot, so something light and easy was needed. I finally decided on two side dishes--one being the always kid-favorite and easy to fix Macaroni and Cheese and the other a 'cold rice' salad. I'd never even heard of one, much less fixed a dish like this, but when I did a quick search on 'easy side dishes' a version of this came up. I modified it and it really did taste good. Here is the 'recipe'.

Rice (I used the five minute as rice and I struggle) Prepared as directed & refrigerated
Sea salt (to taste)
Balsamic Vinegar (I added about 3-4 squirts--again add to taste)--blend well, and if you can let the rice/vinegar sit overnight as it adds flavor)
Fresh Tomatoes & broccoli (cut up and have ready to add--you can add whatever types of veggies you think will compliment the taste--I used both red and yellow tomatoes for color)
Sharp shredded Cheddar cheese
Can of red pinto beans, rinsed and drained
An hour or two before serving, add the veggies, cheese and beans, toss together

Provide Italian dressing for individuals to use over salad.

This salad doesn't keep well after a few days--the broccoli develops a strong bitterness to it for some reason.

Takes less than 15 minutes to pull together! Enjoy.

Weather

Looking West Across My 'Yard'

The weather is stifling. Its unbearably hot, and its terribly dry. The temperatures have been in the upper 90s, with some triple digits. Indexes are upwards of 106.

I keep doing everything I can to help the 'old folks' survive, as they are the ones I worry the most about. I have several 'old folks' around here--Ariel the collie, many elderly chickens, some older sheep. I use some fans on the dogs and chickens when I'm home. You can see in the above photo, just barely, towards the back right hand side, the umbrella I bought and put up over Eddie and Sue (chickens). My Mom found a fan that works off batteries so we are trying that on them during the worst of the day.

When I get home, the sun is burning in from west and most of the place is exposed since the big Mulberry went down in the Ice Storm. It is like an oven to even walk outside. The first thing I do when I get home, is fix Eddie and Sue some refrigerated tomato or some other type of cold scraps, and take that and a tray of ice cubes out there. I have to chase Sue around to get her up in their pen, then I fill their water with the ice cubes and turn the fan on them. Then I turn on the box fan for Ariel and let Boone out of his pen to explore the yard or lay in front of the fan, whatever he decides (but it usually involves wading in his two kiddie pools!). I do a quick survey to make sure everyone (Chickens, sheep) look okay, and open the door to the big chicken house to let it air out. By then, after being in the air conditioner all day, I'm toast. I haven't been doing too much outside in the evenings. It seems to just take all the time and gumption I have to water everything and get ready for the next day.

Sure am praying for some rain (six weeks since our last one) and some cooler temperatures.

The Trouble with Some Sheep

This

....Plus This = Big Trouble

Blue (the Merino Ram) has always managed to get himself tangled up if there was any remote opportunity to do so. Usually I leave the strings on the big round bale I put out for him and Lanny Wilson (the wether he lives with). This is so they don't immediately waller the hay bale down and waste a bunch of it. After they eat at it awhile then I cut the strings. I don't use a cattle panel around it because guess who gets their head caught in it. So anyhoo, he has a penchant for getting caught up in various forms in the strings. Lanny never has.

This morning when I went out to do chores, I saw Blue laying down, which was odd. I was afraid he was sick, that the hot weather had finally gotten to him. I went ahead and fed the girls and kept glancing up there. I finally saw a bit of the string around his leg, and then realized what he had done. I never saw such a mess. I finally got some grain, scissors and the hose w/water on (this was my safety tool, once he was free, I would grab the hose and blast him with it, when he decided to chase me). He had the twine wrapped around his hind foot, just above the hoof line about four times, really, really tight so that I couldn't even hardly get the scissors under it. Then he had it looped up and over the back of his neck, under his belly and around the other hind leg---in affect he had 'hog-tied' and thrown himself! He was really subdued and let me work at getting him free. When he started moving around a bit, I just lifted his hind leg and threw him off balance again. After I removed all the string,I poured out some grain on the ground and left him to eat at it while I got out of the pasture. He lay there for a long time and after about ten minutes he finally got up. He was limping but putting weight on the foot when I left. There was big red mark on it. Hopefully no permanent damage. He seemed fine tonight. He would not have been so fortunate if he had done this during the daytime, in the 106 degree temps. I doubt he would have survived. I was happy to be only about five minutes late for work after the big sheep rescue.

However a proper roving blog reporter would have had her camera with her to record the unbelievable sight of a self-hog-tied-sheep.

4,000 Free Books......

....and I only took 32!

Granted by the time I heard about it and got there, they were getting pretty picked over. Still, I've waited my whole life for someone to say here are a thousand books--take what you want!

I'm not sure what the story is, but I think a smaller school library was getting rid of its older books/surplus and this man bought them because he couldn't stand to see them destroyed. Then, in conjunction with one of the churches offered them free to anyone who wanted to come by and get them.

I didn't look really hard at the books that caught my fancy, but just grabbed them up and stuffed them in my box and moved on. After all there were other free book shoppers all over the place. My co-worker and I both went, in fact she is the one I heard it from, so between us we carried out two good sized boxes worth.

There were many, many kids books--the older ones from the 60s and 70s. I read books like this all the time in grade school. Strange little stories with wonderful illustrations. I buy old children's books when they strike my fancy, because many of them are beautifully illustrated.

I got quite a few books about kittens and cats, dogs, horses. "Nic of the Woods" about a long tailed cocker spaniel has the most wonderful detailed blue/grey toned drawings.

I also got books called 'The Cherokee Removal", "Three Ships Come Sailing", "The Magic Carousel", an older Ag book on Pasture Management and on and on.

Do I need 32 more books? Naw... but that doesn't stop me.

Mercy Hay & Mis-er-ee

"Mercy Hay" and my feeble attempt to disguise it from the sheep, since they can see it from their night pen.

I've been amiss in posting this last week, as I've been all caught up in being miserable in this heat wave. Yes, its hot here, very hot and no relief for awhile. Temps are in the upper 90s with index ratings in the 100-105 degree mark. As for rain? What is that? By my best recollections, our last rain was around July 5th. It's very, very dry. What's left of the grass is brown and withered and crackles when you walk. Puffs of dust follow behind as one walks about. The sheep have chronic dirty noses, where the moisture from their nostrils collects dust and turns to mud. My pastures are gone. I'm not sure what the sheep are eating, but they seem pretty picky when I put out hay for them, so they are obviously getting something. I find it hard to remain optimistic. I'm still praying for rain soon, so that we might have some fall pasture.

I had a serious blow delivered last week when I called to confirm with the people I buy round bales from. Due to the extreme heat/drought they have decided they best not sell any hay this year, so they would have enough for their cattle. Now to be fair, these are neighbors, who were really doing this as a favor to me, and are very kind people. They felt pretty bad about it all, so in the end they brought me two very nice rounds of hay from this year to get me through the next few weeks. Mercy hay. This despite it is several miles away and it was hot and their tractor was not running well at all. Nevertheless, I was a bit laid low by this bad piece of news. The next day I called the local feed store to see if they had some square bales in so I could buy a couple until the neighbors delivered the above mentioned hay. I had picked up the newspaper so I could scour the ads for hay for sale later that day. I was still pretty bummed. When I called the feed store, I got a woman, and asked her how much the hay was and if they had any in (in a side note---this is such a ripoff! The sheep won't even hardly eat this hay, but it is three times expensive as hay from a farmer....venting over...). She said they did and gave me the stats and then in a lowered voice. "I don't know who you are but my husband is baling squares today and if you pick them up out of the field they are only $2.50 per bale". I felt caught up in a bad spy movie. That was a good deal however, unfortunately I was at work at the time so told her I couldn't. However the conversation quickly turned to rounds and that her husband also bales those. Finally I asked her, who are you? I thought the voice was of someone I knew but I wasn't sure. When she told me, I laughed and said oh, this is (my name inserted). She laughed too and seemed relieved. So the upshot is that they were going on vacation, but when they get back her husband is suppose to deliver me 15 4 x 5 rounds. It ain't cheap, but neither is it over the top either. Its suppose to be a nice mixed grass second cutting with lespedeza, grasses and some clover. Once that was done, I had to scramble and ask another neighbor, who has cattle and a tractor with a bale spike if he would help me out and either loan the tractor and himself or just the tractor, to unload the bales. Bless my neighbors, I've got some really good ones, and he readily agreed to help. I've also got a lead on some more rounds that might not be as expensive, so will be following that up. I haven't heard from my square bale guy, but he promised me he would have enough for me....and I know if he can he will provide, but I think he was depending on second cuttings too. I am always amazed how God can answer heartfelt prayer so quickly and creatively!

When my neighbors were bringing the rounds last week ---which was a long process, as my lovely neighbor lady called me twice and my folks once, to let me know, a) they were loading it and would be along after while and b) they were getting ready to start and finally c) they were on the way :-)--I decided I better trim back some of the trees that line the driveway. Since the Ice Storm some of these branches keep drooping lower and lower. I ended up cutting quite a few branches back of Redbud, Hackberry, and Mulberry. Later I divvied it up and made sure all three batches of sheep got some. They are so hungry for green that they dove in with gusto, as you can see by the pictures. They even gnaw on the bark in the days after. Nothing to waste, and later I'll gather up whats left of the branches and move them to the brush pile.

I have lots more on the blogger thought pile to post, and hopefully I'll be more inspired to do it this week. I had a very fun visit with fellow shepherdess, Allena and her family last night, so I'll be posting about that later to.

Have a great weekend and stay cool.

Theft in the Tomato Patch

Somebody has been stealing from the tomato patch........

And I know who it was........