I am writing this post again as it was lost, disappeared into post lala land! I can’t even remember what I said.
Marcie called this morning to tell us that Moo Cow had her lamb this morning. A very large black ram with some white spots. We go to the vet tomorrow to have the others checked over, and with it starting to snow and the clouds and sky looking angry I am a bit worried. We have the trailer already hooked up, backed down and ready to go. We will just feed them hay in there in the morning and run them in. That should make it easier to deal with in the morning if there is snow and we have to leave early.
Once these are all sorted out and given a clean bill of health, we only have 2 ewes who have not lambed yet for sale. We have a swap on the 15th that is more or less local and if I have not sold them by than, we are going to load them up, take them along with the black guard llama and about 4-5 cats and go to the swap. Looking to sell the ewes and any lambs if they lamb before than, sell the llama inexpensively to the right person and give the cats away.
The llama is an excellent proven guard but a bit obsolete with four livestock guardian dogs. He also hates our herd dogs and since we are using them more and more, it will just be easier to not have him on the ranch any longer. We have one other female llama, who is younger and I have had her since she was about 6 months old. She is easier for me to work with for shearing and such, and she is also guarding. She is a favourite of my friends, so she goes to her house in the summer with the goats to guard in her pasture where they don’t have the extreme predators that we have up on the ranch. The LGD would be a bit of an overkill down in town.
Our bread baking experience yesterday was a total hit, that was our second batch of bread dough and it was miles better than the first one. So we have now cracked how to do this. But at this rate, we are eating a loaf of bread a day. ahha wonder how long the novelty of fresh baked bread each day will take to wear off?? We don’t really need to buy bread anymore, but I do think I might get an electric bread knife.
off now to sort out more merino and mohair fleece and box them up for the mill tomorrow…..
After 2.5 years, on August 6, 2011, I found the original post that got lost in post land. here it is:
There is more snow coming, the clouds and sky is dark and it is starting to snow! Drat and double drat as we cancelled the appointment with the vet to take the animals down for a check on Monday becuase it was supposed to be really bad snow, but than it fizzled out during the night. we did not have the entire herd checked over though so we decided to reschedule. So the vet visit has been rescheduled for tomorrow morning and we have the trailer hooked up and back down perfectly to just run them in with their morning hay tomorrow and off the road we go. Course if it really snows, that will just suck!
Marcie called this morning to tell me that Moo Cow had her baby this morning. She had one extremely large ram that is mostly black with some white spots. So once we have the check done on #209, she can take her and her black ewe lamb and we will have most of the stock moved. We have a swap on the 15th that is relatively local. If we don’t sell the last two ewes and lambs before than, I will take both ewes and my black gelding llama and about 4-5 cats down to the swap. The cats are free, the llama will be inexpensive but has to be to the right people as he is a good llama and an excellent proven guard. He is a bit obsolete here though as we have numerous Livestock guardian dogs and the dogs and the llamas have a somewhat civil relationship but they are not the best of friends. Since we are starting to use our herd dogs more and more, we really need to remove the llama as they hate the herd dogs and try to kill them. Typical guard behavior.
I have one other llama, but she is also starting to guard. She is a favorite of my girlfriend, and we will put her in the pasture with the goats that go down in the summer to graze at her house. They do not have extreme predators there like we do up on the ranch. So the dogs are needed on the ranch, but would be a bit over the top in town on her pasture.
I have 9 cats, which in my opinion is at least 5 too many. so I am going to box up those 5 and take them to the swap and give them away. than we will be down to 3 boys and one girl that has never to this date of being almost 2 years old, had any kittens. I might just fix her and that would sort it out. The problem that we have found with having a cat fixed is that they seem to be eaten by coyotes or hawks shortly after that. I wonder if having them fixed kills their killer instinct? we have lost a few cats that way, or they were too tamed and went for a walk and never came back. The mean nasty one that I have now that was not born here but just showed up, I can’t get rid of. 🙁 He hates me!
We are off to skirt more fleece, box it up and take it to town tomorrow to mail off to the mill. More lovely merino, and mohair. just so excited when I get my yarns back and I hope to start weaving here shortly maybe this weekend again. Thursday is Charlies appointment with immigrations for his biometrics. He calls it the finger prints and mug shots of the suspect! haha what a sense of humor. We have to drive all the way to Aurora for that, north of Denver. Than we wait for the next appointment.
The bread making experience yesterday with a new batch of dough was a total smash hit! We were both stunned and amazed at how wonderful that loaf looked when it came out of the oven and since we ate almost the entire loaf in the next hour, I think it was a success in the mouth as well. Today we did another loaf from that second batch of dough and it is almost gone again as well. tomorrow we will have just enough to back maybe one more loaf and that is it and we have to make a new batch. Each batch makes 4 1 pound loaves and it only takes about 5 minutes a day to make it. Really fast and relatively easy. I really like it. NO point now in buying bread.
off to sort out more fleece and send to the mill…..
