Farmy of one

One farmer is off elsewhere, so the one left behind tackles the maintenance and the development of the farm alone for this weekend.

Feeding the sheep is improved by two factors: getting regular delivery of hay from the farm store (a saving in time and convenience, if not money) and splitting the flocks which means that the hungrier ones can get extra attention.

This weekend the hungriest flock of all (the ewes in poor condition post lambing) were fed by felling an alder and a douglas fir in their paddock. They fell to, and rapidly reduced leafy branches to twigs.

The process of enclosing the garden to be a chicken run as well continues slowly but steadily. Hardware cloth is not as easy to work with as regular fencing, but is necessary for the tighter gaps desired. The chickens are growing well, and will certainly be capable of scratching up much of the garden with little effort.

The chickens have proven to be true to their omnivorous reputation, and will eat anything from poultry feed through meat scraps to marmalade. This makes feeding them and disposing of kitchen scraps much easier.

We have suffered four losses. Jojo, our oldest sheep, was weakening, and in her weakened state parasites started to proliferate beyond all management. The vet gave her opinion that if it were her sheep, she would be put down so with some regret but a sense of duty, Jojo was euthanised and buried near an apricot tree. There was hardly enough on her to make soup, so the tree will benefit more.

The three very late lambs also succumbed to a couple of cold nights and possibly also stress from the movement of flocks. In any case, they were very small and we left them for scavengers to discourage eagles.

Given our losses, we deemed it reasonable to take two otherwise desirable gimmers from the cull flock, and put them in with the recovering ewes. Two handsome gimmers with white spotted faces were selected, tagged, had their hooves trimmed, and were carried over to their new home. They did not enjoy the process and objected strenuously, but with any good fortune they will prosper and extend the white spotting genes in our flock. We want this because it makes sheep identification at a distance easier.

We have had no predation losses, but fresh coyote dung has been spotted. A farmer stands occasional watch with binoculars and a rifle to try to stave off predation.

The ducklings are now large enough to be at little risk from the cats so we are letting the barn cats roam free again, much to their delight. We have spotted cottontails, which with any luck will avoid the feline patrol to the benefit of our trees.