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2007 PHOTOS (Click to view 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 photos) |
Photo
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This
is the perfect winter pasture. It's close
enough to the farmhouse (in the background) that I
can keep on eye on the sheep with binoculars
between daily feedings, but far enough away to
deposit their manure exactly where I want it to end
up. The pasture includes 5 or 6 acres of fairly
open, hilly ground for lots of exercise as they
walk to the water tank, plus about 5 acres of dense
trees that provide wonderful shelter from the
winter weather. All
the critters - sheep, horse, donkey and Great
Pyrenees guard dogs - stay here from late fall
until Shearing Day in early February. After that
(sans their warm winter coats) the sheep move to
the smaller barn pastures near the house for
lambing season, where they have free access to the
warm barn and it's easier for me to watch for
babies. This
year I finally purchased a farm tractor.
Finally...after years of feeding many small 60 lb.
bales by hand every winter day, I'm now delivering
one large 850 lb round bale of hay by machine every
few days. Wheeeee! Here,
I've rolled out about half the bale on clean fresh
snow and then encircled the rest of the bale with a
hog panel. I'd heard much ado about how difficult
it was to feed round bales to sheep without getting
hay (VM) in their fleeces, but this system is
working just great for me. The sheep reach through
the openings and also stand on the ribs to reach
over the top to the hay. Once the bale is nearly
gone I remove the hog panel and they finish off the
small pile of hay within a day. Fleeces
are staying as wonderfully clean as ever and the
shepherdess has a new lease on life. Whee
again! Romney
ewe Peggy Sue modeling her always-sweet,
always-VM-free fleece. The
Great Pyrenees guard dogs are enjoying the new
feeding system too. Here, two of them lounge among
their charges on the soft, warm river of
hay. Lily
is a 14-month-old Great Pyrenees female that I
purchased as a pup from another breeder.
This girl is extremely intelligent and already
a fabulous guardian dog for one so young. Lily will
soon join Daisy as the #2 female in the SkyLines
livestock guardian dog (LGD) breeding program. No
doubt Angus will be pleased... Great
Pyrenees Angus (left) and his daughter Stella
return from a jaunt to check out the woods. All
appears to be well...
June 28,
2007 A visit
to the sheep in summer pasture . .
. Today's going
to be a hot one. By 10am when I arrived at the
pasture, most of the sheep had already headed into
the woods to spend the hottest part of the day
lounging in the shade. These three ewes are among
the last to go in to shade, taking their lambs with
them. Well it looks
like everybody's getting enough to eat this
year, especially the portly ewe showing off
here! Another
well-fed girl . . . Margaret and
her single ewe lamb. Singles usually grow at a
tremendous rate compared to their twin
counterparts, since they don't have to share their
mom's bounty with a brother or sister. This pretty
black girl is growing out quite well! More lambs
enjoying the shade. Settled in
comfortably among her sheep, Great Pyrenees dog
Vera keeps her eye on me. Vera is a terrific
worker and one of the six Great Pyrenees livestock
guardian dogs currently watching over the SkyLines
flock. As I headed
back toward the house, past the water trough,
four more of the Great Pyrenees dogs were there
having a cool drink. These exceptional guard dogs
very rarely leave their sheep unattended. This
morning Vera and Daisy have stayed in the pasture
with the main flock while Angus, the pups, and
several ewes and lambs traveled down the runway to
water. Good dogs! Romney
Polly and her colorful ewe lamb. This pretty girl
may grow up to have a really interesting variegated
fleece!
Aaah,
life is good. Ewes and lambs lounge on a warm
afternoon.
Louise's
lambs both inherited their mom's yummy
fleece. The first
annual SkyLines Hands-On Lambing School
Workshop was held in the middle of lambing
season, so participants could actually get
hands-on, real-life experience managing a lambing
season. Here, one of the attendees get first-hand
instruction from me in treating a newborn lamb's
navel with iodine. Mom looks on while her other
newborn lamb figures out where the feeding spigot
is. Feeding the
bottle lambs was another task for attendees in
this year's Hands-On Lambing School. Looks like it
was a big hit with Ariel!
Romney
Peggy Sue and her perky boy-girl
twins.
Annabelle
& friend . . .
March 3,
2007 The
first ewe to lamb this year was Sabrina. Here
she tenderly cleans her #1 twin girl, still wet and
only about 10 minutes old. January
26, 2007 So
far, it's been another quiet winter - colder
than usual but not much snow. Angus and Daisy's
Great Pyrenees pups are growing fast and learning
fast. They're spending the winter with their mom
and about 25 of the ewes and wethers, bonding with
the sheep and learning basic LGD behavior.
Here,
the 14-week-old pups (l to r: Stella-Maggie-Ben),
ever alert, keep a close eye on the house dogs who
accompanied me out to the pasture. They're cute and
cuddly and enjoy affection, but these dogs already
know they have a job to do!
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