Some days are good

Some days are good, and some days are less so.

A farmer went to feed the sheep today, and looked over to the paddock where the pregnant ewes are being kept.  There was a dog; a dog from next door, in fact.

In the interests of brevity, we shall gloss over a farmer finding the dead, and the hopelessly mauled dying, and delivering euthanasia.  The heads were too many for careful removal for the USDA, so a simple axe was used against a log as chopping block.

With sunset, the count was nine corpses on the ground, out of twenty-nine ewes.  More were stumbling or prostrated from fatigue and shock - we expect aborted lambs and deaths from shock.  One particularly hard hit one lies on our porch, with hot water bottles and rich feed to try to counteract the shock.  The flock at large have received lavish quantities of alfalfa - rich in both proteins and calcium - to help them recover.

In a few days we shall know more.

Spring is here

It seems early, and yet here it is.  The first ducklings of the season are waddling across the short grass, which is showing the first signs of growth.  Mama duck had cunningly hidden her nest, so cunningly that while we could tell from her behaviour that she must be nesting (as are a couple of others) we could not be sure exactly where the nest might be.  No matter, she hatched a fine clutch of ten fuzzy ducklings, and she shows every sign of being an attentive, careful parent.

We are not the only ones to have noticed the weather. On surrounding properties tractors are firing up and work is commencing.  There is no guarantee, of course, that we shall not get more snow, and we still have frosty mornings, but in general the air is clearing and the weather warming to the point that rather than huddle for shelter, the sheep roam and sun themselves where they will.

Soon it will be time to plant seeds, and to chase new lambs around the paddocks, but for the time being the ewes continue to walk around as if smuggling watermelons beneath woolly coats. We should also obtain another bantam cock to entertain the bantam hens we have, since the first one died sadly in Winter. Since the bantams show every signs of becoming broody at the drop of a hat, this should be a good source of chicken meat. They are a very good way of converting kitchen scraps into new food.

The close of Winter

Winter is starting to draw to a close.  The days are noticeably longer, and instead of snow we get clear skies, or drizzle sifting down for hour after hour.  With any luck we may even look forward to an early start to the growing season, which would be welcome.  That will let us judge which trees are alive or dead, which pastures are in greater need of relief, and otherwise improve our position.

Our loss rate on the sheep has reduced.  Both our improved skills in caring for the weak and the improved weather have meant that we still have nearly four dozen sheep, most of which are pregnant ewes, going strong.

The timber bamboo we have planted has weathered the season beautifully, and at this rate we should have culms of ten feet or more this coming year.

Of all our creatures, the waterfowl have been the happiest throughout Winter.  Their feathers laugh off the snow, their down laughs off the cold, and they are merely annoyed by the pond freezing over.  As soon as it thawed, they were merrily washing themselves and cavorting in it.  If they would graze as well as the sheep, we might stick with geese, but they will not take down the brush the way our sheep will.

When we do have to take the head off a sheep for the USDA, we have found that the chickens, particularly the bantams, are very interested in nibbling at the corpse or the dripped blood.  These are definitely omnivores, and not in the least ashamed of the fact.

Of all the brakes on our work, the paperwork is perhaps the most confounding.  While we understand the reasons for the agricultural census, the taxation paperwork, the certification of each formula and label, the animal record keeping and sampling, it adds up.  By our reckoning, we lose a month or more of every year merely satisfying the requirements of the government, a quantity of work which surprises even the deer which pass through the farm.