Monday, August 6, 2007
It's all about sheep this week...
Yes, we're officially on "lamb watch". Our two girls, who are pretty pregnant, should be due sometime between now and the middle of August. I'm having to guess the dates as we didn't actually see the breeding, and we didn't have any "markers" on the ram. Of course, all our sheep are black, so marking is a little difficult... have to use white or yellow.
Since Merino didn't drop her little load before Aug 6, we can pretty safely conclude she's bred by our big boy, "Little Algernon" aka "Al". We had put them together in mid-March.
The other gal, Carolyn came to us "perhaps bred". She was sold to us in the "four sheep w/babies" deal in early May. Our mentor wasn't sure of her breeding date, but thinks it's somewhere in mid to late March, as she was the only ewe we thought wasn't preggie when we had the roundup first weekend in March.
We got the lamb pen built, as well as our first "lamb jug". That's a place where Mama and her babies will go for three or four days. We'll have nice pine shavings down, and a private area so she can bond with her babies.
It still needs the 4 steel corner rods, which we'll pick up tomorrow when Bev is in town.
We also got our first "drive by feeder" built this weekend. We still have to install the fence panel, but can get that done later in the week. This will help keep the alfalfa and hay off the fleece, since I believe I've found a substantial market for our black Merino fleece. What's really cool, is that this becomes a part of the fence line.
Hopefully we'll get the fence panel tomorrow or this weekend... we'll need the truck, and I believe Bev is taking a Senior Citizen to town (Cedar City) in his little car.
The very nice Mexican family returned yesterday and bought our other white ewe lamb. They said Crybaby needed a playmate. Next Sunday, they're coming for three of the "extra" pullets we have.
It's nice to see a little income to help with all the "outgo" around here.
Labels: Sheep
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