Anyway, it used to be a reason to get dressed up, wear something sparkly... we missed last year, I guess they changed the dress code, this year there were more people in t-shirts than anything. I dressed up, my once a year excuse. People didn't recognize me (I'm a t-shirt kinda gall, and I 'never' wear make up :) I felt over dressed and a little conspicuous, but I got over it. We had a nice time, spent too much money and even went home early. It was fun :)
34 Days to Go!
Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day! The temp got to over 50F, so I brow-beat or guilted as needed to get everyone out of the house to help start getting the garage ready for lambs.
This is one of three 6X6 lambing pens, all against this wall in my garage; to the immediate left of this pen on the south facing wall is a regular door, then to the left of that is the garage door. To the right are the other two pens. When done, there will be straw on the floor, a heat lamp hanging from the wall at the back of each pen, two feeder tubs hanging from the front panel (also the gate) of each pen, and there will be an alley way running the length of the pens leading to the door and out into an enclosed area so we can let them out to get sun on nice days. The thing hanging from the rafter here is a 50lb scale for weighing the lambs.
We have chairs an old couch and even an old kids bed out there so we can be comfortable while we watch and wait. We did this last year and it worked out really well, we didn't have any lambs born in the big pen. I got to thinking about that last night (while I lay in bed coughing and trying to go to sleep) and I realized the reason none where born outside the lambing jugs was because I had a marker on my ram and knew when everyone was due to lamb last year. No such luck this year, for some reason I didn't put a marker on either ram, so it is going to be a turkey shoot.
This picture is from last year; the outer area where they can sun. The ewe to the front is Honey, one of the first tunis ewes to come here. She had a ewe lamb, dubbed Aubrey and a ram lamb. The one to the back is Rose, she came to us in '06 from the Klemen farm in Ohio. She had a little ewe lamb that is now in Oregon. If you look close at honey, you can see scars in her wool; she was attacked by a tiger-striped brindle great dane/mastif cross dog we adopted (he was dumped on our road, presumably because the irresponsible people who had him couldn't handle a dog his size. He was beautiful!), he is happily living in Idaho now with people who don’t have livestock. It broke my heart to send him away, but the day after he attacked Honey, while I was at the store buying a chain so we could secure him while at work/school, he attacked one of our neighbors ewes and killed her. I am happy that he found a home.
3 comments:
How hard to have a nice dog and then learn he has an "issue" with livestock. I'm so glad you were able to find a good home for him.
It's fun to see more photos of your Tunis, especially since I'm not familiar with them.
I was still working on that post when you commented :) I had published it and realized I wanted another picture in it lol
There will be lots more tunis pics comeing!
Leo was a fun dog, I dont think I've ever seen a dog that had so much fun all by himself! I wish we had pictures of him, I may be able to find one or two at home. Have you ever heard the line 'and the big brown bear went lollopin' over the hill...' (in and English accent) from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? He would play in the snow by himself, and you could tell he was having more fun than you could ever imagine! That line always came to mind :)
I understand so little about livestock, it's always interesting watching you guys who do. I do worry that our guys are vulnerable when we're at work. Yesterday morning, one of our neighbors told Ian that a cougar has been sighted in our area. That scares me a lot. I understand coyotes. I don't understand cougars.
Post a Comment