Today was our sheep maintenance in anticipation of upcoming shearing. This involves trimming hooves, checking condition, looking at wool quality, assessing conjunctiva color, and giving copper. We started with our old ewe Amanda.
And we ended with a total of 16 sheep with our wether Bambam.
There were no surprises (which is good), but old dwindling flock is getting old. Our sheep now range from almost 7 to almost 16 years old.
In other news, Tom got his trailer finished, and the maiden voyage was him taking metal to be scrapped and made $70 from it.
After finishing the trailer, he had been working on the garage that houses my treasured CB550 motorcycle and the “truck of my dreams”. You can barely see him in the upper middle of the photo.
Marji is now in the alleyway. The cows are mooing to each other, wanting to be together, but they are not jumping fences, which is good. Marji is doing better in that she is not shivering and no diarrhea. But her left rear leg is still painful. We are still hoping it is just sprained from mating and not something more serious.
Today we noticed that one of our “peachicks” was fanning its tail feathers. Here is a poor quality quick photo of it.
And here it is fanning its feathers in response to Ryeleigh’s advances. So I think we may have a young peacock, which would be great.
I was able to plant peas, radishes and spinach in our garden. Plus I started seeds of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, carrots, chicory, and parsnips in our greenhouse. It was very spring-like today. I hope it holds up.
That was our day. Nice to have the sheep maintenance over for another 6 months. I feel like we got a lot done today.
That’s good to get the sheep maintenance done.
I’m really impressed at how Tom’s trailer turned out! And he painted it a nice green, too!!
It’ll be fun to find out if your peachick is a cock or hen. I’m looking forward to finding out!
I’m surprised that you planted peas, radishes and spinach already!
We have a beautiful sunny day today, but it’s a bit chilly. I’m waiting anxiously for spring!
It is good to have it done. That trailer is really nice. He did an amazing job, and it will be quite helpful for us. It already has been as he brought a load of wood back too. I am thinking it is a peacock but we shall see for sure if it gets colorful tail feathers. The calendar I follow says to plant them in March. I may have been fooled by the warm weather though. It is 33 degrees here this morning.
What kind of copper are you giving the sheep these days? Wondering if I should give boluses another try.
I have been giving either copper boluses made for goats sold by Jeffers or I make my own by dividing the 12.5 gram calf copper boluses that you can find at the feed store into 4 gelatin capsules. I am not sure if you have the same molybdenum problems in your soil like we do. If not you may need want to start with a lower dose.