Feelin' a bit sheepish...

[Beekissed]

Whoop! God is good and throughout the Bible, used some very unlikely people to achieve results. I’m sure you were thunder struck by this particular man returning your ram. Glad he is back. So what’cha gonna name him? Surely something to highlight his jumping abilities!
Basketball (bounce bounce)
Leaping Larry
Jumping Jack
Wings
Ram Runner

I had already named him Ezra but am now thinking Esau would be more appropriate....Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew and God didn't like him much, plus he was covered with red hair, like this ram. But...he really is just a big ol sweety and I didn't want to give him a bad name, so he'll likely stay Ezra. Ezra means "helper" in Hebrew and I'm hoping he's going to help us develop some better, bigger stock here.

We'll see how he wears on us and see if he earns a different name as time goes along. I really like this guy...I think he was just very lonely, having never been away from a flock before. I caught up Rocket and put him in with him, but left Ezra tethered so they can get accustomed to one another. Rocket cozied right up to him and he to Rocket, so it could be what was needed to keep him in the fencing. We'll see. Getting another ram and ewe, along with her twin lambs, on Friday.

Will take some pics of this boy today.

 

[wolf]

...and loving it! Getting back into sheep in a small way and need a place to journal about it all.

Starting again with Katahdins, my fave breed, and will keep a very small herd of one full time ram, a wether and a few ewes until I see what my pasture can support. Won't have the wether until my first lambs, so for now it will be three.

Doing all this on a very low budget, as that's the way I love to live. No fences yet but I live in a unique situation that sort of creates fencing around our meadow for now...surrounded by forest, no near neighbors and none with any livestock for over a mile. One LGD that will not likely bond with the sheep at all until we have lambs...I can see him wanting to nurture those. Right now these two old biddies I bought would rather stomp him into the ground rather than bond. They've never been worked with much by humans and never had a LGD at all..they had a llama.

So, will be working on fences, have put up a temporary penning situation until I can build a permanent sheep barn of sorts. Will likely be a pole shed situation, as we have plenty of trees on the land for use. Only three acres of grass/pasture right now and would like to just keep that much, though we have 20 acres in total here.

Have collected free enormous pallets for use in fencing....six large stacks of them. These have 3x3 and 4x4 framing and are 10-12 ft. in length. Were used to move metal sheeting. Will put these back into the woods to give the sheep plenty of browse along with their pasture...we have a lot of stuff they love to eat in those woods~honeysuckle, multiflora rose, greenbrier, saplings and evergreens of all sorts. Then we'll fence the pasture side of each paddock with regular woven wire sheep fencing with wooden posts harvested here on the land.

Hope to milk these few ewes if possible, just enough for Mom and I to use for making cheese and such. Both ewes have passable udders, nice and even, small but well placed teats...not huge udders but we'll see what the ram can add to the mix~his dam has a huge udder and regularly feeds twins and triplets with ease. Could be I'll be able to breed upwards with him.

These ewes were from a flock someone was getting out of...no longer wanted to do sheep, was switching to horses. Supposedly these sheep were from strains of Katahdins bred by a fellow in OH who worked with OU on the improvement program but eventually got out of sheep altogether.

I picked out the two most likely to succeed, though I still felt like they were a tad small for Katahdins~both short and short bodied. Both had just weaned lambs, both had twins but the elder had also nursed and weaned another bum lamb along with her twins. I liked that and felt she may come in handy, though she's already an old lady in sheep years at 7 yrs of age. The other is 3.

View attachment 65579

Shine, 3 yrs, is on the left and Rose, 7 yrs, is on the right. They were both about 2-2.5 conditioning upon arrival but are starting to fill out a little on good graze and browse. I should have them where I need them to be by Nov. breeding.
View attachment 65580
So, will try to record successes and failures here so I can learn as I go. Will only be using grains for training purposes, would really like to keep them on grass based nutrition as much as possible.

Just starting to get the feel of sheep again and remembering how much I love sheep. I hope to get to the place where I can use them for milk, meat and for keeping the meadow mowed, but also for the bond between sheep and shepherd. I really love that part of it.

My grandgirls are loving my having sheep also and I can't wait until spring when they get to experience the lambs.

So far I have square bales of first cut hay but will be getting a couple round bales of second cut here in a week or so. Will set them up on a self feeding style, using cattle panel placed tight against the hay to prevent too much waste.

Experimenting around with some nipple waterers retrofitted to insulated drink coolers so I can keep water cool and fresh in the summer but try to use an aquarium heater in them this winter as a heated waterer...don't know if that will work, but it's worth a shot. Already had the coolers on hand and the fittings are cheap. Since all water has to be carried and comes from a well, I'm interested in better watering solutions than buckets.

Cool! I live in Virginia in driving distance from WV. I had sold a bunch, and only kept one ram and two ewes. Yes, Katahdins. This Spring both ewes had triplets. The elder ewe suprised me with a set of Painted rams - some wild colored boys - two red, one black. They look like Pinto horses. The younger ewe had a red ewe, a white ewe, and a black ram. I'm hoping someone would like a young ram later this year, that can throw a little Splash o' Color into their flock, cause I sure can't keep five rams! 😱

 

[Beekissed]

Cool! I live in Virginia in driving distance from WV. I had sold a bunch, and only kept one ram and two ewes. Yes, Katahdins. This Spring both ewes had triplets. The elder ewe suprised me with a set of Painted rams - some wild colored boys - two red, one black. They look like Pinto horses. The younger ewe had a red ewe, a white ewe, and a black ram. I'm hoping someone would like a young ram later this year, that can throw a little Splash o' Color into their flock, cause I sure can't keep five rams! 😱

Wowza!!! I wish MY ewes would do triplets! I'd be content if they even did twins....I've only had one lamb twins and she's an oldster. Those are very pretty lambs....but, once again, the prettiest ones are boys. Just not fair.

 

[Beekissed]

New ram and newly weaned Rocket have been very quiet and content today, so that seems to have worked.

 

[Baymule]

Ezra just needed a friend.

 

[Baymule]

Cool! I live in Virginia in driving distance from WV. I had sold a bunch, and only kept one ram and two ewes. Yes, Katahdins. This Spring both ewes had triplets. The elder ewe suprised me with a set of Painted rams - some wild colored boys - two red, one black. They look like Pinto horses. The younger ewe had a red ewe, a white ewe, and a black ram. I'm hoping someone would like a young ram later this year, that can throw a little Splash o' Color into their flock, cause I sure can't keep five rams! 😱

Those are some pretty lambs! My Katahdin lambs were all spotty, had 3 tri color! Solid black, black and white spotted....All boys! The 7 keeper ewe lambs are of course, white.

 

[wolf]

Wowza!!! I wish MY ewes would do triplets! I'd be content if they even did twins....I've only had one lamb twins and she's an oldster. Those are very pretty lambs....but, once again, the prettiest ones are boys. Just not fair.

Wasn't like I was expecting it! 🤣🤣🤣 I'd just sold 5 last year to ease my feed-bill - and now have 6 to replace the 5! When Mutt had the first triplets, I figured Sunrise would have twins... but she surprised me! Told my feed-store man "Gee, I only had two ewes! And they both had triplets! It's like putting a single quarter in each of two slot-machines and hitting the jackpot both times! What's the chance of that?"

 

[Beekissed]

Can't get any good pics of that new ram due to him moving so much now that he's tethered.....soon as I come in the paddock, he starts to try to get away from me. I'm the bad guy right now. So, will just post pics I took when he first got here....not good ones but at least he's standing still.

 

[Baymule]

He does have a nice long loin. He’s a nice looking guy and will be an asset to your flock. Hope you can get him calmed down. Mine are all spoiled brats. Treats go a long way to making you look real good, but you already know that.

When we have people and/or kids visiting and they want to experience the sheep, I give them whole corn to hand feed. I put kids in a chair so they don’t get run down. LOL My sheep will do anything for corn.

Maybe a little corn in a pan while you sit near and let him get used to you would work. Your ewes settled down nicely for you, now work your magic on him.

 

[wolf]

I always like the mane these guys grow! With Woolies you don't notice it much cause it gets lost in the curls - but with Hairies it stands out! Some get almost lion-like! I've had three rams go through to breed my girls - first one was so awful, I couldn't wait for him to get the job done and freeze him! Second one was good to start, and would mind his manners when we were face to face, but would sneak around like a cat behind the shed or a tree and hit me from behind. I ended up belling him cause he was so stealthy - and he went to freezer-camp. This third one is a lot more like my eldest ewe in temperment (so far) - I've gotten enough experience with the previous two to be able to read the thoughts going through his skull - and assert a "Don't go there, Twink!" as I hold my bamboo-pole horizontally to give the impression I'm wider than I am. Sometimes he'll try to paw at my legs like I'm a ewe, and I refuse to allow that, either! No matter what - don't screw with me Bub! But I feel good crossing the pasture and doing chores with him about with his family. He'll come watch out of curiosity, then get bored and go back to his girls and lambs. He's over a year old and so far so good. Yeah, feed-bucket time they're ALL sweet!