Buh-bye Go-goats

Well, it was a difficult decision to make, but all the goats went to the sale. Only Annie and the sheep remain. I had to cut down on the workload and the feed bill.

So now, it’s just my little band of sheep, EmmaLouMoo and Sushi, the Maremmas and my two saddle horses...and temporarily two steers who are destined for the freezer as Christmas gifts...and of course the chickens. Yeah, that should make life much easier. Hmmm.

I’ve taken to making some of my own clothes as I hate going to town and shopping is not a pastime I enjoy and I am grateful we only go to town every 3 months. Not a lot is needed here on the ranch, thankfully, which gives me flexibility and a little time to hone my skills. Making things for my 2 grandbabies has been good practice and kinda fun. Once again, I am grateful for the internet with its wealth of tutorials and suggestions, not to mention online purchases of fabric, notions and patterns. Abby liked her twirly dress, and I hope Kinley likes her romper.

 It’s been weaning week here on the ranch and a couple thousand calves are separated from their mothers so the cows are able to rest between calvings. The smaller, younger and/or calves that aren’t thriving, are pushed over by our house and put in the back pasture where my critters spent the summer. This way they will get supplemental feed and be doctored as they may require, until they are large enough and strong enough to be moved to a larger pasture somewhere else. This has made for some pretty noisy nights, as about 200 of them are on the other side of our rock wall transitioning and the moo-ing and bawling is pretty constant through the night. Considering I can still remember the nightmare of traffic and sirens while trying to sleep in the city, cattle-lowing is music to my ears. I have always preferred animal noises to humans anyway. They are much more soothing.

We haven’t yet gotten the winter shelters up, but it snowed last night anyway. EmmaLouMoo and Sushi took cover in the lambing shed while the sheep and Annie cuddled with the Maremmas under the fruit trees.








 Mister is out in his new digs. If it gets really ugly he can access the old kill-shed hidden behind the willows and wild roses.

One of my leppies got pretty sick before they put the weaners out back. *Note They are not wieners which are hotdogs, they are weaners, as in weaned off of milk.* 
 He didn’t show up for his grain one night, or the next morning. The Maremmas had been locked in with the sheep instead of going out on patrol because we have lots of traffic on the ranch right now. I  didn’t see any buzzards flying so I assumed the calf was not dead. With the pups locked in with the sheep, the coyotes could have easily come after the body and the Maremmas would have been barking like mad, not to mention the coyotes yipping, but it had been quiet for a couple nights aside from the weaner calves. I figured either the leppie was stuck somewhere, or had escaped. I was prepared to saddle up Mister and go look for him but a few hours later, I found him, staggering through the thistle. He had pneumonia and was really weak, so we brought him in with a couple of his buddies and made a little spot in the old scale for them and started him on some anti biotic shots. It's nice to have them all off the bottle as feeding 13 bottle calves twice a day really took its toll on me this year.

Cletus and Bruno, who always make me feel wanted, greeted me by the ‘alley’ where their feeder is. They have taught the sheep to stay out of it, so they have free access to their own food while the sheep graze and get hay, although I have seen both taste the hay and grain from time to time. They may have a wee bit of an identity crisis, living amongst the flock. They wiggled and nose touched and kissed until one of them spotted something out of place in another pasture and they charged off to work.

Randyman helped me feed, fill waters, gather eggs and we headed back inside as darkness fell. The snow on the Steens was a chilly blue backdrop to the barn, making our little rock house seem more cozy than usual. I grabbed some thyme, rosemary and parsley out of the garden on the way in, to use with our lamb chops for dinner. I'll have to grab a bunch more to dry for using this winter.

So goes another day.