Valentine Gifts
My nine-year old ewe, Mara, delivered beautiful twin lambs today. We haven't determined their sex yet, but I'm hoping for at least one female. I'll call them Cupid and Sweetheart if they're both females--in honor of their arrival in time for Valentine's Day. If there is one male, I'll call him Isaac to give tribute to his being born to an old mother. If there are two males, I'll have to dream up one more name. I'd like to keep a ewe lamb this year in case Mara doesn't continue to produce offspring next year.
Mara is a Katahdin (hair) sheep. So is Major, her mate. My sheep have been wonderfully trouble-free. I'm sure that anyone who raises sheep "right" would consider me negligent. I have never vaccinated any of my sheep, but I do sometimes give their grain a topping of diatomaceous earth as a wormer. Since they shed their winter coat naturally, I don't have the expense of shearing them. Their tails are not docked since they are not long and woolly and therefore do not accumulate waste like a wool-producing sheep's tail will. They are naturally polled, so I don't have to contend with horned animals. Can you tell why I like Katahdins?
Mara is a good mother and has never needed assistance at lambing. Her lambs have grown fat on her milk. She has had twins most of time, although the last two were single births. I thought she must be getting too old to be as productive as she was earlier. So her twins this time surprised me.
Our sheep are very gentle. I have been able to lead them right up into a trailer or into a new pen many times. The adults happily eat out of my hands. Hiromi is their big hero though, of late, because he's mostly taken on the feeding duties. He sometimes delays going after the paper in the morning till he's ready to feed them first because he can't stand to ignore their begging. He knows very well that they'll talk to him the minute he steps outside the house.
Strictly for convenience, we feed them alfalfa pellets rather than alfalfa hay. This makes their winter feed a bit more expensive, but we can haul their feed without a pickup or tractor this way. They also get a very small amount of grain every day. This is mostly a matter of convenience for us too. It helps us train them to come whenever we call. Year round, they have access to pasture, which is actually mostly weedy areas around the edges of fields.
My sheep are part of a research project I embarked on a number of years ago. At different times I methodically acquired rabbits, chickens, calves, goats, and sheep and learned the basics of caring for each of them. The boys had pigs. I also tried keeping catfish and carp in a tank during the summer. All of the carp launched themselves out of the tank eventually, but the catfish survived well into the winter. I didn't know it was still there till I saw it frozen in the ice during a very cold spell.
I did all this because I wanted to see how self-sufficient it was possible to be on a small acreage. Also, I had the firm conviction that we owed it to our boys to teach them the life skills that can be acquired by caring for animals. We never had the perfectly integrated farm I used to dream of--where one food production component can comfortably occupy a niche that no other animal maxes out, or better yet, one animal thrives on the production of another (pigs on whey or skim milk, for example). But life has been a lot more interesting for having made the effort. I'm drawing on this experience for the food production class I'm teaching right now.
Today was a sunny day, with temperatures in the 40's, but another cold front is scheduled to roar in tonight. I'm so glad that the babies are safe and dry inside their well-strawed fiberglass hutch. Mara is there with them, and Major is respectfully keeping his distance.
Earlier this evening Grant did a "Major" impersonation. My impression is that he is ogle-eyed and sharply observant, but a little mystified by the day's developments. I think Mara can be trusted to keep him from intruding where he's not wanted--inside the calf hutch, for example.
I'll give the weather a few days to moderate, and the babies a few days to gather strength and steadiness, then I'll watch them frisking in their pen just beyond the garden fence. Prospects for spring are brighter already.
Mara is a Katahdin (hair) sheep. So is Major, her mate. My sheep have been wonderfully trouble-free. I'm sure that anyone who raises sheep "right" would consider me negligent. I have never vaccinated any of my sheep, but I do sometimes give their grain a topping of diatomaceous earth as a wormer. Since they shed their winter coat naturally, I don't have the expense of shearing them. Their tails are not docked since they are not long and woolly and therefore do not accumulate waste like a wool-producing sheep's tail will. They are naturally polled, so I don't have to contend with horned animals. Can you tell why I like Katahdins?
Mara is a good mother and has never needed assistance at lambing. Her lambs have grown fat on her milk. She has had twins most of time, although the last two were single births. I thought she must be getting too old to be as productive as she was earlier. So her twins this time surprised me.
Our sheep are very gentle. I have been able to lead them right up into a trailer or into a new pen many times. The adults happily eat out of my hands. Hiromi is their big hero though, of late, because he's mostly taken on the feeding duties. He sometimes delays going after the paper in the morning till he's ready to feed them first because he can't stand to ignore their begging. He knows very well that they'll talk to him the minute he steps outside the house.
Strictly for convenience, we feed them alfalfa pellets rather than alfalfa hay. This makes their winter feed a bit more expensive, but we can haul their feed without a pickup or tractor this way. They also get a very small amount of grain every day. This is mostly a matter of convenience for us too. It helps us train them to come whenever we call. Year round, they have access to pasture, which is actually mostly weedy areas around the edges of fields.
My sheep are part of a research project I embarked on a number of years ago. At different times I methodically acquired rabbits, chickens, calves, goats, and sheep and learned the basics of caring for each of them. The boys had pigs. I also tried keeping catfish and carp in a tank during the summer. All of the carp launched themselves out of the tank eventually, but the catfish survived well into the winter. I didn't know it was still there till I saw it frozen in the ice during a very cold spell.
I did all this because I wanted to see how self-sufficient it was possible to be on a small acreage. Also, I had the firm conviction that we owed it to our boys to teach them the life skills that can be acquired by caring for animals. We never had the perfectly integrated farm I used to dream of--where one food production component can comfortably occupy a niche that no other animal maxes out, or better yet, one animal thrives on the production of another (pigs on whey or skim milk, for example). But life has been a lot more interesting for having made the effort. I'm drawing on this experience for the food production class I'm teaching right now.
Today was a sunny day, with temperatures in the 40's, but another cold front is scheduled to roar in tonight. I'm so glad that the babies are safe and dry inside their well-strawed fiberglass hutch. Mara is there with them, and Major is respectfully keeping his distance.
Earlier this evening Grant did a "Major" impersonation. My impression is that he is ogle-eyed and sharply observant, but a little mystified by the day's developments. I think Mara can be trusted to keep him from intruding where he's not wanted--inside the calf hutch, for example.
I'll give the weather a few days to moderate, and the babies a few days to gather strength and steadiness, then I'll watch them frisking in their pen just beyond the garden fence. Prospects for spring are brighter already.
posted by Mrs. I at
5:04 PM
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