The sheep barn in
the
Spring
and in the Summer.
How many yarn shops
greet you this way?
Farm Talk
About Our Sheep
We raise Registered Shetland Sheep, a breed raised
primarily for its soft, beautiful wool, which occurs in several
colors, from
white to black. We have healthy rams and ewes available for sale, and we
invite you to visit our farm if
you are interested in breeding stock. Call or email first so we can schedule a
convenient time for you to see them.
|
|
The sheep barn in
the |
|
 |
What a difference a day makes! The right-hand photo (the one also shown in the previous set of pictures) was taken on Friday, Dec 3. The left-hand photo was taken Saturday morning. Needless to say, nearly everyone is staying in the barn today. Fortunately, we moved seven hay feeders into the barn this week so we do not have to spread the hay on the ground each morning. The sheep can now eat in the comfort of home. |  |
| But some things never change. Here are two
of the ewes hanging out
with Zorro, one of the rams, regardless of the snow or the fence separating them. |
|
|
December 3:Rotating pastures is important! The left-hand photo shows what our main pasture looks
like in December after the severe drought we had in
the Summer. Not much grass left, but the sheep go out each day
to find what is still there. The green area in the foreground is part of our other large pasture. We are letting the grass there grow so in the Spring the sheep will have something to eat while we let the large pasture recover. Next Summer we will move the sheep every couple of weeks from one pasture to the other, to let them get the most grass possible. The right-hand photo shows some of the older girls in the "assisted living" pasture. They often huddle around the feeder trying to get the remnants of the hay we put out each morning. We cannot rotate them to another pasture, so we give them grain as well as hay. |
 |
November,
2010
The sheep seem to
have figured out that when they go down to the pasture early in the morning we
close the gate to keep them out of the barnyard while we spread their hay.
So now they wait for us to come to the barn. The only way we can get them
out while we spread the hay is to play "Pied Piper." One of us takes
a flake of hay down into the pasture so the sheep will follow, allowing someone
else to close the gate. This has worked for a few weeks. Who knows
when they will get tired of this charade?
October, 2010
October
15:
There was a lot of noise in the pasture last night. This morning when
we went to the barn, one of the guard dogs (Moose) looked as if he had
been in a bad fight. He had blood on his head and his nose was scratched. Clearly whatever
he got, put up a fight. We checked the pasture and did
not find a carcass, so whatever it was got over the fencing. We assume
it was a racoon, because we see them occasionally at night. Racoons are
not a threat to the sheep, but the guard dogs go after any "stranger"
they come across.
| October 14: We had rain yesterday. A
thunderstorm which dropped hail in some places, fortunately not
here. The rainfall was quite heavy for awhile but it was too
little too late for the pastures. So little rain fell this summer
that little to no growth has occurred since Spring. The sheep go out several times each day to graze on what little grass remains, but their main source of food is the hay we have been giving them for the last month - two months sooner than in past years. Each morning at dawn they go out into the pasture, which allows us to sneak into the barn and lock the gate to the pasture. Then we can drop hay bales down from the barn's loft and distribute it in the barnyard in flakes, without the sheep trying to snatch them out of our hands. As soon as they see us at the gate they come running up, but cannot get through the gate. We let them in once we finish spreading the hay and refilling the stock tanks with water. |
|
September, 2010
September 22: We had some rain today, the first time in about a month. Unfortunately, it did not last long enough to do much good. The forecast calls for more in a day or two. We shall see. There is so little grass in the pastures we have started feeding hay to the sheep, a couple of months earlier than usual.
August,
2010
August was a dry month here. We had
rain only one day in the month, and it did not last long. The grass around
the buildings is not green. On the really hot days the sheep
alternate between sitting in the shade in the barn and going out to the pasture
to feed. If it is really hot many of them stand around with their
heads down low. On days that are not too hot, they lie down in the shade
and chew their cuds.
July, 2010
July
22: The
geese came back -
for the day. This morning two familes flew in. One pair of adults has
two youngsters and the other pair has five. We assume that they are the
same ones that left in June, after a gosling was attacked by
a snapping turtle in the pond. At that time, there were six goslings in
that family; apparently the wounded one did not survive, or was picked off by a
predator later. The young ones have all of their coloring (compare with the photos
on June 2). They grow and mature quickly. The photos below show them
at the edge of our pond on this foggy morning. The two families still
hang out together. There seem to be no arguments between the adults.
 |  |
June, 2010
June
11: The saga of
the geese has a new chapter, probably the last one. Yesterday, around 5:30
PM we heard noises from the pond. One of the younger, smaller
goslings had been grabbed by a snapping turtle and was fighting to stay above
water. Its parents were going bezerk, flapping their wings and trying to
break the turtle's grip. We went out in a dory and managed to
retrieve the bird. On the way back to shore, the gosling jumped out of the
boat, swam to shore, and limped onto land and into some tall
grass. He limped badly and we could see some blood on his leg, but
we do not know if the leg was broken. While this was
happening, the adults of both families started to move the remaining
goslings to some other location. They were headed toward the state
road, which has a lot of traffic, so we herded them back to the pond,
where we think they linked up with the wounded one. They sat in the
grass for a couple of hours, and then seem to have gone on
"walkabout." This morning they were gone, probably for
good. We have no idea where they went, but hope they found
a safer pond. Now we have to think about trapping however many
turtles are in
the pond. We would rather have geese than turtles.
June
7: The
older set of goslings (the two in the left-hand photo in the second row
below) have the coloring on their tail feathers but not on their heads
yet. But they are trying to fly. We see them scooting across the
pond flapping their wings. They go about 20 feet and stop. Later
they try again, with the same result. The interesting thing is that they do it together. Of course, they don't
do it when a camera is handy.
June
2: The geese
with the six goslings returned today. And with them is another pair of geese
with two goslings, which
seem to be a week or two older than the six. Now that
they are back on the pond, perhaps they will stay for the season.
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
May, 2010
May
19: We heard a lot of
noise outside today. A group of small birds was chasing a much larger
bird (a crow or raven). It flew into the branches of a tree for protection. The small birds - about a dozen - kept flying into the branches, and eventually, the crow/raven flew out and was chased away by the group. It must have gotten too close to the tree the small birds were nesting in. In numbers there is strength. But sometimes numbers are not needed. We've seen a single small bird chasing a hawk.
May 10: A pair of geese were on the pond this morning, and they had six goslings with them. But the family did not stay long. Mid-morning, they casually walked across the property heading toward the bushs at the property line. We have not seen them since.
April, 2010
 |
April 28: Two photos showing the newly reseeded big pasture. One of the guard dogs (Moose) is shown on the right side of the left photo, watching over the flock. In the right photo the neighbor's horses seem curious about the sheep. |  |
| April
1: Spring certainly is
here. A week ago the daffodils were just starting to bud. Look at them now!. They provide a nice introduction to the place as you drive along the driveway next to this flowerbed. Compare the color of the grass with that in the last photo. The colors are real; they have not been "photoshopped." |
|
March,
2010
March 19: The grass is growing again, to the point that the sheep are going out to the pastures in the afternoons. Soon we will fertilize and reseed the pastures, so they will have enough grass to last through the Summer and Fall. |
 |
The pair of
geese that has taken up residence in the pond seem to be territorial. At
least, the larger one of the pair (which we assume is the male) is.
When another pair lands on the pond, he makes it clear that he is not happy to
see them. He follows them, honking, and yesterday when one climbed up onto
the dam to get away from him, he followed it there too. Eventually the
others leave.
March 11: Well, the geese certainly are on their way back
North. We have had as many as five pair on the pond some days. At
present, only one pair seems to be hanging around. We know its is the same
pair because one is larger than the other and much noisier. It
stretches its neck out, nearly horizontally and honks at the other, which seems
to ignore the noise. But they stay together. They don't hang around
all day, but so far they have returned. Perhaps they will nest here
and we will have goslings on the property this summer.
| March 4: The geese are back!
Not just a lone goose, but each morning we see one pair and sometimes
two. When a single goose appears, it gets chased off by the pair
that happens to be there. The temperatures are just high enough that the pond is thawing, so a substantial amount of open water exists, which attracts the geese. Last year none of them nested here. We are hoping that this year at least one pair will stay and nest. |
 |
February, 2010
Only about three weeks until Spring!
February 18: We
have had more snow this month than usual. We have not received more than
about six inches of snow in any of these events,
but they seem to come
back-to-back. In the first three weeks of February we had had to have the
driveway and parking lot plowed four times.
 |
The field at the rear of the barn is filled with sheep.
Breakfast is over, so they hang around, waiting for the sun to break
through the clouds. The back pastures seem serene. The top of the snow-covered area in the woods is the edge of our property. |
 |
 |
February 6: About four inches of snow fell last night, but
that does not stop the rams on the right hand side of the fence from hanging around the fence separating them from some of the ewes. |
January, 2010
January 24: We received a shipment of hay
this morning, so we are set for the next couple of months. With 100 sheep
on 20 acres, there is plenty to worry about without wondering if we will run out
of hay in the winter.
| January 21: A dreary winter day. The temperature is a bit above freezing and a light rain is falling. The sheep have finished the hay in the feeders, but are remaining in the barn. The only reason they are not lying down is that someone came into the barn (with a camera) and they think more food is in store for them. |  |
 |
January 7: We are getting some snow in appreciable amounts, for the first time this winter. The forecast is 4 to 7 inches. The rams at the right spend a lot of time looking for the ewes, who are (in the left photo) up at the barn eating hay. The hay feeder for the rams is off to the right of the photo. The rams tend to pick at their hay slowly during the day, probably because they have other things on their minds. |  |
| The
photo on the right shows the "assisted living" pasture in the
foreground. We keep the oldest ewes here because they cannot compete
for hay with the rest of the flock. When we put hay in the feeders each morning, the sheep do not wait patiently until we finish, and the "older girls" get pushed aside (and sometimes, so do we). With their own feeder, in their own part of the barn, they can dine in a leisurely manner. |  |
To see "back issues" of Farm Talk, click on the appropriate links
