norseofcourse's journal - spring and show update

WOW... It's like "I will NOT be denied!" Hope you get some down time so you can get another one built.

I haven't had much time to update here lately - I've been able to check in now and then and post on other threads, but that's been about it for the most part. So here goes:

The sheep and lambs are doing well. Roving Jacobs came down and sheared the lambs, and she was kind enough to also bring her scale to weigh everyone, which was great! Some of the lambs weighed more than I would have guessed, and some of the adults weighed less than I would have guessed. The lambs ranged from 53 to 84 pounds, and that's at ages of between 3.5 and 4 months. The average weight was 68 pounds, so they're doing pretty good

On the down side, I have had some parasite problems, and I'm pretty sure ivermectin isn't working much anymore here, and valbazen may not be either. I have been reading up on copper oxide wire particles. I kinda dosed one of my ewes ('kinda', because she managed to chew the capsule and spit it out, so I'm not certain how much of the copper particles she actually ingested). I think she got some, so I really didn't want to re-dose her. I'll be getting a balling gun this weekend to dose most of the lambs. I still need to get the McMasters slides for fecals - I know, I know, and it's on the list...

We had a long spell with no rain. I talked to my neighbor, and she said it was ok to let the sheep graze the 15' wide lane between our pastures. I blocked off the ends of it and restrung my electric fence to let the sheep in. It hadn't been mowed much, so it was a feast of overgrown grass and vines and stuff for them, they loved it! Unfortunately, my neighbor's pasture is hi-tensile wire and she hadn't been keeping the electric on, so my sheep quickly learned to hop through her fence and graze in her pastures, too. She didn't mind - but I worried. The sheep went further each time, and if they would go through her fence on my side, they would go right through when they got to the other side, and that's not good. They could get to neighbors who could have dogs, or poisonous shrubs they may eat, or possible other dangers. So I restrung the fence to close them back into my pasture.

But the 'grass is greener' and some of the lambs braved the shock and kept going through my fence. And two of the adult ewes, at times, joined them. The lambs are bad enough, but I can't have the adults breaking out. I confined them to their 'home' pasture, which has the most strands of electric. I cut apple limbs and put them in their pasture to help keep them occupied (they also have grass, and hay in their feeder, and pellets twice a day). It was starting to work - they went two days without a breakout. Then this evening when I went to feed, Brosa and three of the lambs were in the neighbor's pasture and they wouldn't come when I called.

I will have to put solid fencing at least around their home pasture, or part of it. I have pretty much decided to use the wire cattle panels from Tractor Supply. I just need to figure out if I need more t-posts to support them. 6 or 7 panels should be enough for the two fenceline sections I believe they are getting out of.

I've started getting my hay in for the winter. 120 bales so far, at least 180 to go. Had to delay it for a bit - I was hitching up the trailer to get my first load, and the brakes on the truck went out. At least it happened in the driveway, not on the road with a loaded trailer... One of the brake lines had sprung a leak, so it spent some time in the shop and they replaced both lines.

The tomatoes and zucchini are doing well. I've been taking zucchini in to work, and I've got a list of friends who want some, too (along with what I eat). They're growing just as well as they did last year, the manure and black plastic system works great. No weeding, and I think I might have watered them once, when I planted them. I'm also using black plastic by the tomatoes, but only on one side. Next year I'll have it on both sides, out about 2', and it should work better. I did discover you have to water tomatoes during a drought - they survived and did fine, but the tomatoes crack once we get rain again. I started watering, but did lose a few to cracking.

Sheesh, anything else? Well, found 2 yellow jacket nests in the backyard (or one big one with two entrances), I still have to kill. Fall is fast approaching, which means cooler temperatures, but fewer daylight hours. I've managed to get some spinning practice in, and I got a new (to me) set of hand carders and got a lesson from some people in my spinning group on how to use them.

I've done very little milking this year, but I hope to get back into it next year. I'm sure there's more things I'm forgetting, but that's some of the highlights - hope everyone else's summer is going well! (or winter to those south of the equator)

Hope you're able to keep the former "escape-artists" in! I've had a little bit of experience with that myself!

It's hard once they've tasted "freedom" to re-restrict them... Best of luck getting them vagabonds back under control!

I might, just might have got the escaping under control. The last 'escape' was August 28, two of the lambs. I've kept them in their home pasture most of the time, only out in the main pasture when I can be out there and cut branches/trees down for them, which has only been a few days a week. I'm going through a bit more hay than usual for the time of year, but that's better than escaping sheep...

I feel like I haven't done much besides work and farm chores lately! And some days I would have loved to work outside on stuff, we've had temperatures near or over 90, and with humidity too high to comfortably work outside. Sometimes my glasses fog up just carrying water buckets. I can't imagine working a farm back before all our modern conveniences, when they had no choice.

I had to take off work yesterday. One of my ponies was showing colic symptoms. When the vet got here, he found her heart rate high, and a temp of 104.5 I had thought she felt warm, but my thermometer had a dead battery. With all her symptoms he suspected Potomac horse fever. He sent blood for testing, but the results will take 7 to 10 days, so he started treatment for it right away. She was on Banamine till her temp came down, and she's on antibiotics twice a day. Her appetite is back and she's acting pretty normal now, but I'm also hosing her hooves twice a day, as Potomac horse fever can cause founder. She's 28 but still in good shape - I'd appreciate any good thoughts you can toss her way.

We have a big storm system heading here, so I'm going to shut down for a bit. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Here's hoping your horse gets back to 100%.

Really hoping your ol' gal makes a full recovery!

Thanks for the good wishes. She seems to be responding to the antibiotics, but she's not out of the woods yet. Her appetite's starting to improve, but the diarrhea hasn't cleared up yet. I'm adding Probios to her feed in hopes that will help. I'm also watching her for signs of founder.

I put Elding in a separate pasture today, he'll stay there till he goes back with the ewes in early November. He's starting to get interested in the girls, although they're not interested in him yet.

Time sure flies - guess that means I'm having fun, right?

My pony that was sick is still doing well. Not certain it was Potomac, but whatever it was, it responded to the antibiotics.

I've been sorting through fleeces, getting ready to take some to be turned into roving (ready to spin):



This is a wool sorting table/drying rack I made, it works great. 3 by 5 feet, so I can put a whole fleece on it to pick through and clean out the second cuts and vegetable matter and other stuff. It'll also work great for laying out a washed fleece to dry. The surface is 1/2" plastic 'hardware cloth', so it won't rust. I got so many comments on it at a fiber show earlier this year (I had set it up and was sorting fleeces during the show), that I'll be making several and hope to sell them (using something a bit nicer than the orange plastic baling twine lol).

I thinkthe ewes may be starting to come into season. It's close to the time of year I first saw Rose in season last year. I'm considering shearing the ewes, their wool looks long enough, and it'll easily grow back enough before it gets too cold. Here is Lukka, she's got a beautiful coat:



And here is Brosa:



The pics of Rose and Gracie didn't come out quite as well, but their coats are nice, too. Elding's wool isn't quite as long.

I'm still working on the hay feeder... other stuff just kept leaping to the top of the to-do list. I have finally been able to work on it lately, so fingers crossed I can get it finished soon.

I got 300 bales of hay in, but I may get a bit more; I'm considering keeping one of the ewe lambs from this year, most likely Gracie's moorit and white. She's got a good growth rate, nice wool, she's a twin, and I like her body structure better than the other moorit and white lamb I considered. Her parasite resistance isn't perfect, but it's acceptable, and she is more resiliant than some of the other lambs.

The air is getting crisp in the mornings, leaves are starting to turn color - I love fall, I hope we have a nice long beautiful one before winter hits!

I've made some progress on the hay feeder, hope to have it finished soon.

I decided to dose all the lambs with copper oxide wire particles (COWP). I'd dewormed them with Ivermectin earlier this summer, and it didn't seem to have much effect. Last year I had one lamb that didn't respond to ivermectin, nor to Valbazen, and I finally used Levamisole (Prohibit), which worked.

So I'd been reading quite a bit about the COWP. There have been some studies, and even a recent one that combined COWP with ivermectin, showing better results than either alone. It was also interesting to note in some studies that the worm load in the untreated (control) group also went down, although not quite as much as the treated sheep.

So I got some Copasure and divided a couple capsules into .5 gram doses for the lambs. I checked all their eyelids and all were pink to pale pink. I don't have all the stuff to do my own fecals, yet, so I'll only have eyelid color and body condition to go on for now. Most of the lambs will be processed in a few weeks, but if there's an effect, I should see a difference in a week or two - we'll see.

I got a good close up look at all the lambs. The biggest is Rose's single, she also had the best eyelid score. The next biggest, and next best eyelid score, was Gracie's wether. If he was a ewe, he'd be worth adding to the flock, his wool is quite nice. Of the two moorit and white lambs I've been considering, Gracie's is the bigger, and slightly better eyelid color. Brosa's lamb has more extreme 'corkscrewing' of her wool, but I'm not sure that's a good thing. So it still looks like Gracie's ewe lamb will be the keeper.