Meanwhile, out in the pasture

Did anyone see what happened to the month of July?   The lambs are bigger, the pasture is browner, but I sure don't remember the days going by...

I think part of it was the smoke.  About mid month, there were fires burning up north in BC.  The smoke, however, doesn't respect borders and soon our skies were filled with dirty brown haze.

Not only making it hard to see, but hard to breath as well. Happily it rained last weekend and the skies cleared. 

The Shepherd has been working on socializing his crew of lambs.  They are coming along quite nicely.  Next is halter training.  That is always fun to watch - (not for The Shepherd, however)  Most of the time they will do the "flop" until they get used to having that weird thing around their nose.  He is taking them to Fiber Fusion in the fall and needs to have them halter ready to show. 

Here's Mr. Jefferson, looking Oh so Regal, and proud.  His fleece won blue ribbons at the NW Washington Fair in Lynden this past week.   

    
It is hard to believe that he is not even a year and a half old.  He's probably one of the nicest rams we've had, temperament wise - his mom Jennie did a good job when he was a baby. 

This is "Number One Son"  (what can I say, that's what he calls him)  He's looking for a new home where he can have his own flock of girls, since his dad has the job here all sewed up...

Some of the older girls, looking as brown as their pasture.  You can see the haze in the air - these pictures were taken during the time of the BC fires. 

Sorry for the long absence.  I have been more active on Instagram - you can find me there as "menolly44" - hope to see you soon.

Ease on down, ease on down the road -

Elliott & Frosty have been barn mates since we brought Elliott back from Eugene last June.  They've gotten along pretty darn well - but, Elliott was getting bored, and decided to take out his energies on his "Ramada" - do you see how the little roof over the door is "slightly" listing?  - That's because the blockhead punched the other 4"post out from under the back corner of it. Then he proceeded to work on the roof - Run, run, run, JUMP, bang, hit the roof.  Dot it again, do it again, do it again. 

It doesn't take much for a ram to get bored. 

After all, he "did his duty" in November and December and then The Shepherd took all his girlfriends away. 

It doesn't take much for a bored ram to get into trouble...See the big divot in the middle of his nose.  Big dummy -

Elliott photo bombing my picture of Frosty

It doesn't take much for The Shepherd to lose his patience with a destructive ram.  Oh, Elliott was always very respectful of The Shepherd, and never charged him, but Run, Run, Jump, Bam - he loved banging on that Ramada. 

So, now we come to the part of farming that I hate.  When The Shepherd takes somebody to The Auction.  :-(    -  It leaves me unsettled and with a longing for the way things were,  for days - sometimes weeks afterwards. 

Even the excitement of the new lambs doesn't dull the ache - Oh, I know, they've had good lives and were well treated here, and maybe, just maybe, someone will buy them to live on another farm, instead of going to "freezer camp" (ad my friend calls it)

But,  that's life on a farm - (and that's why all my chickens all died of old age, rather than for the stew pot...)

And like Dorothy said to the scarecrow in the Wiz - They've got to ease on down the road...

Come See the Babies!

Lots of changes on the farm in the past week. We've added Krissie to the list of lambs - she was in the little pen with her mom for just a day or so - she really wanted to get out and play with the "big" boys.











Speaking of "big boys" - here is Bode's "Whatcha doin?" face













And Wicket gets cuter every day.









Kind of reminds me of that scene from "West Side Story" -

"When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way..."







Common Krissie - you stay away from those bad boys...














Speaking of "bad boys" - look at what The Shepherd found in the hen house yesterday morning!






Just after he found these two in the barn. This is Dusty. Actually he was born second - The Shepherd helped clean him up and get him going after Luna dropped him out on his noggin.










Now this is where the cat blogger term "Sheep Furs" really comes from - doesn't he have the prettiest wool?

OK all you Shetland Shepherds out there - what do you call these markings?







And here is Robin - She is a pretty brown with krunet markings on her head and ears.











We had an "Open Barn" this morning for some friends who wanted to see babies - Luna had about had enough and really wanted out of the jug. (ie, lambing pen)








Out to meet the new neighbors....














Then a few dashes up and back in the pasture - but as you can see here (click on the picture to biggafy it) poor little Dusty got his new found legs tangled up in the long grass and, as my dad used to say, went "ass over teakettle"










Oh, Dusty, you'll be OK. Just look where you are going the next time.







We think that Violet will be next - what do YOU think? ? ?