The sheep are about half way through their pregnancys and are looking woolly enough to be nice and warm. They get hay every day. I should take a picture when they are being fed, if I get there at the right time with my camera. The cattle also get a big meal of hay every day. The deer move in and eat with the cattle and sheep, or clean up what they leave.
Sheep are seasonal breeders. The ewes start estrus cycles in the late summer and fall, and most have just a few cycles and then no more until late the next summer or early fall. The lambs are born starting at the end of February and through March. The ewes and lambs are fed very good quality hay to get the lambs off to a good start. If left to their own devices, the ewes would be having December or January lambs.
When the grass starts to grow fast in the spring, the lambs are about 6 weeks old and ready to eat it. We have a very short season here for growing grass. They are sold or butchered at about the time the grass is dying off for the summer, and by that time they weigh about 110 pounds. All of this is the reason for having most of them born in March. Sometimes the weather is bad, sometimes it is good.
Hay has more than doubled in price over last year. Yes, we are in a serious drought, last year was the dryest year in 75 years. There were no replacement lambs kept this year as there is not as much hay available to feed them through the winter.
Very interesting stuff. I have wondered about it ever since I read the first James Herriot book. They must lamb a lot easier than cows calve. I would think the weather must make it harder. Do you lose many lambs?
It seems the drought hit all over to some degree. I don't know if we caught up yet but it has been raining a lot lately. I am so thankful my horses are all at the new place and inside a big barn. The work hardly seems like work at all, now.
Good morning. It's the day after Christmas, and some of the evidence is still in the living room; new books on a table, a pile of other gifts next to the couch, and a pile of boxes, wrapping paper and bows that I will sort to see what can be salvaged and reused. I haven't bought any paper or bows in years, and when I did they were at bargain prices when the stores had marked everything down to half price. My family thinks I am a bit nuts in that department, but it does save money. Cheap? no, frugal, it's a matter of perspective!
One of my gifts was a cute little garden bench with the figures of a boy and a girl sitting side by side, barefooted and sharing a book. It is about 15 inches high and will look nice under a small tree or shrub. I haven't decided where it will go.
We will also have some forced hyacinth blooming in time for an early spring indoors. This came in a kit with a heavy clear vase, white stones, 3 large bulbs and directions for forcing them into bloom. I put it together and it is now on a shelf in my dark fruit storage room in the basement, out of sight where it can be growing roots at 50 degrees. Hyacinth blooms are very fragrant, and these will be purple/blue if the picture is accurate. Maybe I can find some paper white narcissis to go with them, at a bargain price of course!
Our son and daughter in law came out from town in the morning and spent the whole day. It was nice not to have to be hurrying, but we never did get the 1000 piece puzzle out of the box. They helped us with a photo taking session, outside, in 15 degree weather with a strong wind blowing. It is for next year's Christmas letter and involves a horse with decorations. It sounded simple enough but I hadn't counted on the wind blowing the decorations around and scaring the horse a bit. We made it quick and nothing got really out of control.
Dinner was turkey and all the trimmings again. I know, most people have ham or prime rib, but we like turkey and dressing so well that we don't mind having it again a month after Thanksgiving. Besides, we didn't have much leftover with 10 of us here on Thanksgiving and the weekend. I will freeze some of it, and boil the bones for soup with homemade noodles, probably for New Years. Maybe our son and daughter in law will come out again for that and we can work on that puzzle.
Meanwhile, hubby is back to work, and every day I get to trudge through the snow to feed the horses and chop the ice out of the spring in the big pasture, keep the bird feeders full, put wood on the fire, and spend too much time on the computer. But now I have new books to read, too. One of the new ones is a true story about a lady who was in a terrible accident, and how her horses became her therapy for getting well. It looks like a good one. I also have a Catherine Marshall book to read while I nibble away at leftover Christmas goodies and then have to take long walks to work off the calories.
Cajun, I neglected to answer your question about lamb losses. We don't usually loose very many. We get them into the barn as soon as we can after they are born, hopefully before they have time to get chilled. Once they get a warm meal in their tummy, they usually do fine. We keep them inside for 3 days, then they go out to a sheltered corral or pasture. We have to watch them carefully for pneumonia, especially in the first couple of weeks and if we have an extreme weather change, and a few of them need shots of antibiotics which usually cures the problem if administered soon enough.
One year we had a blast of really cold air at lambing time but didn't loose any more than the usual numbers because we were out there watching extra carefully, checking them sometimes hourly. Any ewe who looked like she was in labor was brought inside so that the lambs would be born in the barn. If the barn had been large enough to accomodate the entire flock, they would have all been brought inside. The temperature was down to about 0 with strong winds for several days and nights. Poor timing but how can we know that 5 months in advance when breeding season begins? Normal weather is much nicer.
Have you read my lambing journals? The pictures from the older ones have been lost due to a web provider thinking that something like 30 days was long enough to display them, and me being slow to learn how to post them on the new system, but this year I will be posting new ones as I write. Lambing starts about the end of February or first of March.
I will be looking forward to the new pics. I have read your exciting stories of lambings past and enjoyed them very much. I look forward to new installments as the little white woolies begin arriving next year. Get plenty of rest before they start knocking at the door. LOL
Sounds like you had a good Christmas. Nice you could be with your family.
We weren't able to make it home to the bayou this year but are planning to go next month. We moved 23 bales of hay today but have about 175 more to move. The weather is not helping but we will chip away at it until we get it done.
We had a good Christmas here in Ky. Knock got a new (to him) saddle. Red, white and blue. He loves it.
The sky is bright blue, the sun is reflecting off the snow, and the wind has finally stopped blowing. We had a snowstorm last night so today we have lots of pretty snowdrifts. I took some pictures but haven't downloaded them yet. Snow is a hard subject in some ways, it is hard to get depth preception to tell the size of drifts but today I think there were enough shadows.
We still have a stack of Christmas CD's that are being played. A while ago I was listening to the Vienna Children's Choir, and now it is the Salvation Army Brass. Yesterday it was Celtic style, lots of variety! These are mostly CD's that I bought at the Salvation Army thrift store for $3 or $4 each. They don't sell too well in the summer.
This morning I walked down into the big pasture to chop out the little spring for the horses, and had a bit of trouble finding it. The snow was covering it very nicely which also helped insulate it, so there wasn't much ice to chop out. The trip down there and back up the hill through the snow in my calf high winter boots takes a bit of energy. I can sure tell that my feet weigh about 4x as much with boots vs tennis shoes.
Today my hubby is working half a day and then we will be driving about 40 miles up over the mountain pass to another town to a wedding rehersal and dinner. Hubby will be performing the ceremony tomorrow. He does a few weddings every year, sometimes in parks, homes or in a social hall. Some people just don't feel comfortable in churches but still want a minister to marry them. He sees it as an opportunity to inject a bit of Christianity into the life of a couple who are just beginning their journey of life together.
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