I have a drop in the bucket to take care of compared to you and most of the others here, but at this stage in my life I like it that way...lolIt could be worse - we could still be in California!
Yesterday was Duplicate Bridge day in Minneola. DH and I were partners which we enjoy since we know the same conventions and bids, having gone to lessons together. We came in first with several bold bids that paid off. DH was very happy. We only play together as partners on the first Tuesday Duplicate days. Next Friday we will be playing with other partners. Lots of fun.
On the way home we went up to Sulphur Springs to pick up our prescriptions and swung by the new feed store to see if our 20% sheep feed was in yet. They had just gotten it and offered to deliver it free since they live near us. Joe and his father were sitting in the store playing dominoes and of course, they knew the MacDonalds. We invited Joe and his wife to come in for coffee when they delivered the feed. His wife had spent the day at a premium livestock show and was exhausted but Joe came in and had coffee with DH. DH has been invited to come to the store and play dominoes with Joe and Joe Sr.
Today DS1 and I went out and put the sheep in the breeding pen through the chute. He adjusted the ram's harness and changed the crayon for a "cold weather" crayon. We identified the sheep that needed new ear tags, and retagged them. Most of them showed light red marks from the red crayon on the ram. We remarked them with spray on orange paint. (Instead of the expensive livestock marking paint, we use the marking spray paint used for marking lot lines, etc. It is water soluble and much much cheaper. LOL) There were about 5 ewes that had lost one or another of their tags. Thank goodness for tagging with flock tags and scrapie tags in each ear. But we still had too many ewes on the breeding list and not enough on the lambing list to match the total numbers of ewes.
(@farmerjan - you have my sympathy about missing tags and checking IDs on your cows!)
We had BL12 on our list in the breeding pen with a scrapie tag of 10148. She was definitely there because we both checked her tags. The scrapie number was correct because another list showed her as CART148, BUT I told DS1 I had just seen her in the due-to-lamb pen. DS1 and I went back over to the barn with the ewes due to lamb and a much larger BL12 was there with a BL12 original printed tag. The ewe in the breeding pen had a hand written BL12 tag and was much younger. The ewe in the lambing pen had an ADSBA inspection tag showing she had been inspected so I checked those records and found the error. The younger ewe in with the ram was actually BL32 with a scrapie number of 10148. The older BL12 ewe had originally had a scrapie tag of 10048. With that cleared up we made notes to retag the younger ewe as BL32. That removed one BL12 from one list (which had too many ewes since it also showed BL32) on that list and added her to the other list which had too few ewes. We didn't have BL32 marked off the list as being checked since she was mistakenly tagged as BL12 so that took care of the missing BL32. Next we had only the ewe with the completely missing scrapie tag and flock tag to identify. Unfortunately we had two missing ewes on the list. She could be either one.
DS1 said that the remainder of the scrapie tag was one of the old white ones. Those tags ended with 10100. The new scrapie tags we ordered were yellow and started with 10101. We only had one ewe on the list that had a tag old enough to have an old scrapie tag. GR27 had scrapie tag CART10099. The other ewe was GR39 and her scrapie tag would have been one of the new yellow ones. Success! With the ewe in the chute identified we tagged her and made a note about the incorrectly tagged BL12. When I came in I rechecked my lists and found where I had marked GR39 off. She was nie of the ewes that died over the summer. Everything is straight now.
DS1 told me I have to keep better records.I told DS1 that when we tag he has to go slower when I am writing down the tag numbers since I am also trying to hand him 2 types of ear tags, the bander, the wormer gun, and vaccinate the lambs and ewes all at once.
Joe from 903 feed showed up with the feed. DS1 unloaded the feed and put 14 bags in the freezer (the old 6' freezer that stopped working last summer). Then he emptied the rest into metal trash cans. They each hold 150 lbs. The 20% is a larger pellet - the 15% is small like rabbit pellets which the 20% is about 3/8" diameter. I worried about that but it worked well because the larger size makes the ewes eat slower.
After we fed the ewes in jugs we had to water them with the hose attached to the house. The well is not working until Monday. The well people are trying to getting it to pump clean water. We have done everything they told us to do - letting it run for 24 hours then 48 hours but it continues to cloud up. Then last week the water would suddenly gush out muddy and the color of coffee! Folmars have been here for the past several days trying to get the water to run clear. It runs clear for a while then gets cloudy and dirty again. Mr. Todd Folmar came out originally to check the water. It ran clear then suddenly spewed out mud and coffee colored water while he was here. He kept coming out to check it and it continued to spew muddy water for a couple days. Finally Mr. Todd Folmar came out and put a timed cotraption on the well head that cycles n and off every 15 minutes to try to clear the water. It hasnt worked yet, but will be on until Monday. This morning he put some sort of chemical down the well that is supposed to break up the clay and clear the water. This afternoon his son came and told DH if they couldn't get the water to run clear they would drill us another well. This s a family operation that has been in business for 4 generations locally. They will stand by their operation. They chose the spot to put this well, having drilled several of the wells on the property starting with the great-grandfather, the grandfather, Mr. Todd(father), and now his son. They have drilled 5 wells on this property and drilled 2 on the property next door since the 40's. We sit on the acquifer so we know there is good water here. Anyway, DS1 hooked up all our hoses so we could water the sheep from the house water. The horses can drink from the pond.Hopefully they can get it clear and working properly soon.
Once we finished running the sheep through the chute, DS1 brought the portable panels over to the barn and put up 2 more jugs. Several more of the ewes are showing large udders so we need to be ready for them. Our total lambs are now 3 ewe lambs and 5 ram lambs. A couple of the ram lambs may be candidates as stud rams. At least 2 of the ewe lambs look really promising too. Tomorrow we will put up the creep pen and transfer some of the lambs and ewes, DS1 want to vaccunate wrm, and tag tomrrow too. I will remove the leftover wool "thatch" from any ewes that need it. I found my good hand shears and we can hook up the electric clippers if necessary. I dont want to slick shear though with winter coming on.
DS also wants to start on the pallet sheep shelter in the breeding pen. It will be 12' x 16'. We will use two corral cover frames and just put a tarp over them for a roof for this winter. He also has plans to make a couple of shelters on wheels that can be moved from pasture to pasture.
Next week we need to get out the Christmas decorations. DS1 wanted to put up the Christmas lights last week but with the rain he wasn't able to do it. It is supposed to be dry and sunny next week - with temps in the 50's! Maybe the ewes will take advantage of the nice weather to lamb.
What am I saying? They are sheep - they deliberately wait for nasty wet and freezing temps to deliver their puny lambs into puddles of muddy water. Preferably with you on your knees behind them cursing as the muck an birth fluids splash in your face. And I chose this life!
