Today is glorious here in central Kentucky! Fall is coming and that makes me so, so happy!
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| (The Rowdy boy - 2014 lambs depend on him!) |
Our
regular shearers, the Haudenschield's have not had the occasion to come
to the farm for summer shearing because we didn't have any lambs born
this year, but we bought a new breeding ram candidate from
Robin Nistock in upstate New York and I wanted
him shorn so he'd stay cooler and thus eat better and grow faster. He
needs to be a little bigger in order to get the job done this fall. I'm
just a tad bit worried about the situation because of
Mr. Bates failure
to produce, but since I've used ram lambs many, many times in the past,
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll have babies next spring. His breeding is Border Leicester/Cotswold and he has a gorgeous fleece that I'm hoping will cross nicely with my half Wensleydale girls. I'm
inclined to name the new boy Rowdy. He's quite full of himself at the
moment. He's being chaperoned by poor old
Buddy, who gets stuck with
the babysitting duties for anyone new to the farm. Strawberry and
Pippi are tolerating Rowdy and trying to teach him some manners. (He's been a little slow to figure out that they do not share their food!) Anyway, lucky
for me, Mark, our very-first-ever-summer-farm-help, is an experienced
shepherd and was able to shear him, so he's been cool and comfortable (if somewhat dirty!).
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| (Strawberry prefers to supervise from under a shade tree.) |
More than a month ago, I noticed that Aslan was getting a hot spot on his neck and once we got into cleaning it up, we decided to clip him down all over. I've heard lots of conflicting ideas about whether it is good or bad to clip Pyrenees in the summer, but decided that his comfort was more important than anything else ..... and, he's definitely more comfortable. He's been acting like a puppy and is so much more active and happy acting. His coat is growing back in nicely and because he always has shelter available, I think he'll be just fine.
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| (Aslan is not easy to get a picture of because if he sees me, he likes to come stand beside me and lean on me!) |
So I assume that you and your friend are not coming, then? Thanks for letting me know, so I can let other customers know I have ram lambs available.
ReplyDeleteActually, we are still hoping to come. We've had a difficult time arranging a time when we both could come. She's been away for an extended period of time and now I'm getting ready to leave for a week. Life seems more complicated than usual at the moment. I would certainly have let you know if we weren't coming at all.
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