On the surface, it looks good. But...

 

I really love this picture. All the green grass, sheep under the apple tree resting. Beautiful blue sky. Just looks so peaceful right?

Well, sometimes things can be deceiving.

I'll spare you the ugliness that's really here.

I was not able to have the sheep sheared before all the lambs came, like I had hoped to do. Because of my shearers dad not doing too well. And he has to work all the time. So it just hasn't happened yet.

But, as each ewe lambed, I had them in stalls and I would cut as much wool as I could around their rear ends and legs and around their udders. Thought I did a pretty good job.

But I started noticing Amarillo with a patch of wool that was pulled away from her left rear. And of course she is the crazy ewe, that did not get sheared back in September, so she was pretty wooly.  I tried to sneak up on her and spray wound spray on it.

Then yesterday, I was able to pull the wool a little more and almost freaked out at what I saw.

So I called my friend Ron to see if he could come and help me get her cleaned up and he brought LA 200 with him. I got the sheep back over across the driveway. Ron brought his daughter Bonnie and I had Kansas here. So I caught one of her lambs and gave him to Kansas to hold in the stall with the door, hoping she'd go in. But no, she was not going cooperate. So we finally got the other lamb. And I put a fence across so we could corral her in.

Anyway, after awhile, I was up by the gate and Amarillo came over to me, panting and scared. I petted her and put my arm around her neck, while holding Pippin. Ron came up and tied her back legs and we got her laid down.

Then I started cutting wool off. It was not as bad as I had thought. Got it all cleaned up and sprayed with wound spray, gave her a shot and some Ivermec too. Let her up and the lambs out.

Ron said it could have been where afterbirth had gotten stuck on the wool and she tried to pull it off. I thought maybe she had gotten caught on the wild rose bush we had cut down out in the field. I don't know.

I am so thankful for good friends. There are several people I can call when I need help and they come right over. I really don't know what I would do without them. My husband can only do so much. And Kansas is a great help. She held all the lambs while I banded their tails. And she will hold all the ram lambs so I can castrate them too. I told her this will be something she can tell the guys when they get too touchy or annoying!


This morning, there was some blood, so I sprayed her down some more. I'll give her another shot tomorrow.

I hope she'll be ok. And Matt the shearer, will be here next week to shear the sheep!!!!

Then I start the castrating of the ram lambs...

Galadriel...

On her momma Campbell.  So sweet!

Long day...

It started early for me. I had put the goat kids up the night before, so I could milk in the morning. Yes, I still have all 5 goat kids. UGH! My friend Kendra is coming Tuesday to get the buck, Thorin. Really unusual to sell the buck first, and still have all the doe kids. Still trying. So anyway, got the goats milked.

Then out to feed the sheep and move them over to the garden. It's only across the driveway. But I have to make this elaborate fence "tunnel" so they will go where I want them. The sheep are great at it. But now I have 14 lambs. And they are new to all this moving around business. Half of them don't pay attention and get left behind. Then mommas are calling them and running back to find them. Or they don't care about the babies and run out to eat!

So that leaves me to round them all up and get them over with the rest of them. Which is NOT my favorite thing to do. Chasing lambs...

And there was just one little guy who did not follow instructions yesterday. Just one. Little tiny teeny Pippin. I would much rather try to get 50 lambs to go somewhere than just ONE! So ALL over the pasture, this way and that way. Even got the husband to come help. I got some fence and tried to get him in the corner. Nope. Tried other things. Nothing worked.

He finally got tired and went into the barn. Geeze, how simple. Just went in and grabbed the little fella. Got him over to the rest. All was good.

Then I walked by the bee hives. And I heard bees up over my head. Looked up in the cedar behind the hives and sure enough, saw a swarm about  10' up. Great! Another swarm? Just what I needed right about then. Had 1 last Saturday too.

So grabbed a box and some blocks to put the hive on. Jumped in the car and went to the bee store in town to get some frames that I was out of. Thankfully, they had some put together!

Got the hive set up and got the lawn mower under it. Got the husband. He grabbed a branch and pulled it down so I could start trimming. And I messed up. Snapped a branch too fast and all the bees fell down, right on me!

So we tried to get them all off and leave them to settle down. Tried again in a few hours. Got them this time! I thought I missed the queen, but I know I got all the bees off the branch and into the box. They were just some stragglers.

Got them all settled down and saw some of the bees on the landing, fanning towards the inside. So I knew I got the queen!

Only got stung about 10 times. And not from the swarm. Before, I can't remember what I was doing, but got stung 3 times on left arm and belly. And foot too. I cannot wear shoes while working with bees. I can run faster bare foot!

Then later that day, my friend Allan came to check on the hives and it was windy. They were NOT happy bees. Not at all. They were quite pissed actually. But, I only got stung one time as I was running away, right over my left eye. Bees

They are all doing great so far this morning. Lots of bees, all over.

Then my daughter Abby brought the grand dogs to spend the weekend while they went out of town.  They are Boxers. I love them .City dogs come to the country! SO much to do. And chase! And bark at! Oh boy, what fun here on the farm!

Then I had visitors 2 times to come see the lambs. And also we have the 3 2 legged grand daughters on the weekends too.

I also took down some more fence in the garden area. Lambs seem to always get stuck behind fences and can't figure out how to get back around. So all gone! Did some mowing where there are a whole lotta thistle. Hate those prickly things, but the bees love them. But not good for sheep wool.

Anyway, during all this, I had put on a pot of pinto beans. Then the power went out for about 3 hours. It was very windy here. Finally came back on. Had sandwiches for dinner though. I was tired.

I hope you all had a great weekend!