Well the weather guessers started predicting rain all day today last night. For the most part they were right too as it turns out. The forecast changed right after the sun went down last night. Before that they had been saying a small chance of rain in the late afternoon for today.
Thanks for the notice.
So there I was locking the flock up in the barn well after dark last night. Not really hard, just throw em out something they think is food and they come running. The hard part is then listening to them complain about being locked up when there is green grass to be munching. The really hard part is then feeding the stampeding flock grain when they are right there with you while you try and do so. Also negotiating the perpetually grain starved ewes so you can get to the isolated rams in the other stalls is an adventure unto itself as well.
I then had an audience (a loudly complaining audience I might add) while I partitioned off the area I keep the 8N in as a holding pen for the ewes and yearlings. I hope it is just the right size for the number. Guess we will see.
But by hook and crook (that's a reference to yesterday's post BTW) I am now ready for shearing day tomorrow morning. The only thing I have left to do is move the two garden mowers and the 861 diesel out of the front of the barn so my mother can have space to entertain and socialize while me and the professional shearer do all the work. I would have went ahead and moved them out in the rain but the batteries were dead on the mowers so I am letting them charge over night.
Otherwise I got everything else on my pre-shearing list done this week. The old rotting fence from Frazier the ram's paddock was torn down and a temporary fence put up on the South side along with the new fence I put up a week ago. After shearing is finished I am ready to start on the triple gate area and tie the new fences together. Then it will be on to the East pasture and the breezeway section to allow movement from the barn lot to the new pasture.
I hope to have this fencing project from hell completed by mid to late May this year. Just in time to turn the ewes out with their new lambs.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!
Shearing day coinciding with a late cold snap, thus completing your transformation from scritch/grain giving demigod, to Crook-wielding devil.
ReplyDeleteI'm almost starting to worry as I have nowhere to lamb my ewe's. I think it may have to be outside this year which could spell disaster.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you saw my last few posts about shooting a predator but you might enjoy a few choice comments.
Hope all goes well with the shearing, and the sheep will forgive you eventually!
ReplyDeletePP,
ReplyDeleteYou have your handy dandy tool, shears, and lambs all set. All should go well tomorrow when you shear.
They said to expect rain last night, nothing for us. Temperatures did get a lot colder though 29 degrees this morning.