Hell Week Day 3 - The Rams are Pissed

Yesterday afternoon I moved the ewes out of the Blue Faced Ram's paddock and into the main barn. The Blue Faced (named Lamar) is not aggressive towards people at all. Has never shown even the slightest care when I have to go into his area for repairs or what-not. In fact he had a big bulge on his side last Summer from in grown wool that had to be lanced and the vet lanced it and squeezed all the infection out while I held the rams head and the old boy barely flinched.

BUT. Lamar does not like it when it is time to take his ladies away. He will guard the gate and try and headbutt the ewes back so they won't get out. I was going to try and wrestle him away from the gate but a cup full of grain was all it took to get his mind off the ladies. I really don't know why he doesn't want em to leave. They are all obviously preggo, the damage is done and they eat his food and don't give him a moments rest. The ewes by this time are all too eager to get away from the big oaf all ya have to do is show em an exit and they are outta there.

Lamar is the easy part. The other ram, Frazier is a bit more complicated. Everyone says Frazier is mean. In his defense I don't think he is mean so much as playful with no idea just how much damage he can do. In a close in space he doesn't bother me at all but if he has room to run I will readily admit I never turn my back on him. One time he knocked me down and stood there over me stretching his neck out wanting me to rub it while his stump of a tail was going 100 miles an hour. To add to the complication he has gained about 100 pounds since last year when I wrestled him out of his paddock and into a stall. Then he charged the stall door and broke it off. You can see the missing door in the top picture. That door is 100+ year old Oak and so heavy I can barely lift it but he hit that door so hard it flew 5 foot into the middle of the barn. Frazier also hates change. He gets really upset when his world is messed with.

So I still had Frazier and his ewes to deal with and to top it all off they are forecasting rain today and tomorrow. If the sheep get wet we will have to reschedule the shearing so I had to get this done this morning. No waiting, no procrastinating it had to be done this morning.

I put the ladies out and closed off the barn and then opened the gate that leads into Frazier's stall that has an opening out into his paddock. I knew if he saw me he would come running because he always does hoping I will scratch his neck or give him a treat. Sure enough here he came and went right out the gate into the barn and walked right into the stall I had prepared for him with grain, water and hay. Easy as pie. I am still amazed it went that easy, last year I wrestled that ram for close to an hour. Of course he now has to stay in there for three days so we will see if he starts charging the stall door again.

Frazier's ewes came running up to me cheering. They were so sick of his BS.

Now each ram is in a stall on opposite sides of the barn. They can smell the ladies between them but so far they haven't been too upset although you can tell they are not happy about this whole thing either. The Blue Face is big enough he can stand on his back legs and look out the top screened door but so far he seems content with just looking.

The ewes really want back out but I can't let them because of the rain forecast.

Since Frazier's paddock is now empty I used the opportunity to move his South fence line back in preparation for the big overall fence project. Frazier's paddock is in sad shape. I mean sad shape. The fence posts have all rotted at ground level and I been holding that fence together with baling wire, bungy cords and prayers for over a year now.

This section above that had posts sunk into concrete hadn't seen any maintenance in decades. Frazier used it to scratch against and broke all the boards and posts off. Now that I got him moved and fenced off from this location I can clean it all out and put up a proper fence, so this is another big step in the overall fence project.

Here is my pile of corner and gate posts I been collecting. Some are Cedar but most are telephone poles cut to 9 foot lengths. There are a couple of small ones I am going to use for walk in gates. Overall I will need 22 corner, gate or support posts and I am not sure how many standard posts yet. So far I have 11 cut and at least six more laying down in various spots to go pick up.

With luck I will get started drilling out the holes and sinking the posts this Sunday. I still have to get through shearing day yet.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!