The Mobile Home Woman

Otis is a sweet little ram lamb that is going to be joining our flock in the summer, once he’s weaned and ready to leave his mum and sister.  He is a wonderful gift from our friend Rachel and her flock… she is the friend whom we bought Gideon from.  She had a bumper crop of little rams and wanted us to have one as a sort of replacement for Gideon…  it’s so sweet of her and we’ll take him, but I sure hope she understands that we sure do appreciate her kindness!   That is what is so great about buying livestock from actual breeders instead of just at auction and such.  You usually get great caring folk that love their animals and represent the finest of their favorite breeds!

What’s nice is that this boy is totally unrelated to our flock.  He carries some beautiful spotting and patterning from his lineage and he will help to create some lovely diversity in our flock in the coming years.  He is ewe raised and hopefully that will help to create a good ram for breeding.

I’m sad to report that Gideon has had to be put down.  He went on to my buddy Tom’s and was behaving for a few months…  I suppose it was because he didn’t quite have the lay of the land and he was leary of Tom, as a full grown man.  That was what we hoped for.  Tom treated him kindly, but no treats or extra attention.  We were hopeful that Gideon would behave.

Well, he did… for a wee bit, but then he knocked down Tom’s son when he had some food.  And then his daughter.  And then Tom.  And finally, he clobbered another when there was no food involved at all!  That was the last straw.  All the time, he rams and then stands there and wags his little tail like it’s a game.  But a 150 pound ram is not fun and games.  Especially with children and guests around.  Tom even built him a special paddock and a nice little shelter and gave him a friend, the big giant whether, and Gideon proceeded to destroy the shelter and bust out.

Tom called me to see if I wanted him back.  I thought about it for a day or two… trying to figure out how to contain him, what we might build, what strategies might work.  I talked with Rachel and another Shetland breeder friend and just really weighed it all.  And in the end, it was concluded, his time had come.  He had run his course, has more than 30 lambs on the ground, and he was just too dangerous.  His playful ramming was going to hurt someone badly.  He would have been 4 years old and that is pretty old for a ram.  Most rams get couple years, maybe three out of their careers and then it’s Freezer Camp.  There is a reason.  It’s a sad farm thing but males are just not as desirable for long term plans.  I called and talked with Tom and he agreed.  It was the responsible thing to do.  We briefly considered selling him at auction, but that just felt bad to both of us.  Folks do it all the time, pass off trouble critters.  But it’s just not good farm karma, if you ask me.

So, Tom opted to end his life, there, at his farm, rather than taking him to the local slaughter house.  I’m happy for that.  Gideon is now part of his large compost pile and it was swift and without much worry or stress that driving him off and the whole processing plant thing might cause.  Sure, he probably would have got $50 for him or something, but neither of us wanted that.  He was from champion bloodlines and had sired many a beautiful lamb.  He deserved a quick and simple end.

Lesson learned, I suppose.  Breeding rams need to be kept at an arm’s length.  And always watched.  Managed.  They can have fantastic lives, for sure…  just maybe not super lengthy.  We will have two young rams here… Harley, our first born Shetland with the lovely white muttonchops and now, Otis, our pretty spotted boy.  We are drawing up plans to build them a lovely paddock… off the main chore and pathway of the farm, with the entire weed patch as their personal pasture.  Our friend, Daniel, is cleaning up the weed patch for us with his new lawn and garden company he’s forming.  And once that is all done, we will be putting in strong fencing for our pair of boys.  If all goes well, they will be herd sires for a few years until it’s time for them to either move on to another farm, or well, join their ram brethren in the big compost pile in the sky.   At least they will have a pretty darn good job while they are around…  eat a bunch and fool around with the ladies!  All in the life of a stud!

On a happier note…  we are anxiously awaiting the official first due date of the last of Gideon’s lambs!  Our little Bridget is due on June 2nd through June 25th…  (That was the time that she was “exposed” to Gideon and his charms.)  She is definitely expecting.  Her little belly is drooping, and she’s getting a little milk bag and she positively waddles.  Tom’s ewes should be somewhere in this area as well…  perhaps a bit longer since they were with Gideon all winter long.  If any missed a cycle, then surely the second go around, they would have been bred.  Gideon was no slouch in that department…  We’re keeping an eye on her…  I am praying for an easy first time birth with a pair of spotted ewe lambs!!!  (gg)  Hey, positive thinking… let’s all concentrate on that, eh?  We have enough little boys at the moment, thanks!    We’ve sold two sheep so far…  Mom Holly and her daughter Pearl have gone on to form the nucleus of a brand new flock!  Our friends Terry and Bob wanted a small spinners (and mowing) flock and bought two sweet ewe lambs from another breeder and a ewe lamb and a mature ewe from us.  We thought it was best to include a mature ewe to help teach and ‘mother’ the three little ewe lambs.  It was a good decision, because the two little ewes were a bit bewildered on their own the first couple days.  But now that Holly is there, she’s a good foster mum and she’s a sweet addition.

I made the decision, after a good deal of thought, that I would sell, one or both of my solid black ewes… Holly and Noel.  The reason is that I really like the Shetlands and they are Black Welsh Mountain sheep.  And now I suddenly had 6 black sheep.  Black wool is lovely, but you can not do much with it, other than use it as black.  It’s hard to dye anything other than black.  You can blend it with other colors, surely and such, but when I have a mental picture of a flock limit that we can manage and handle nicely, having almost half your flock at black sort of limits your ability to do a lot with it.  So, it was so cool that we were able to make a great arrangement for Holly and Pearl to go and live with Bob and Terry.   And SaroJane has been spoken for.  That leaves us with Noel and her ram lamb Luther and Holly’s other ewe, Beulah.  I want to keep Beulah because she was the first lamb born on our farm.  Luther is available either as a ram or as a whether, if someone would like him.  And we also have Merle, a brown Shetland ram lamb still left from our 2013 crop.  I haven’t officially offered them on the various livestock lists yet, as they have another 2 weeks or so till weaning.  (Beulah is with her mom and sister for a few more weeks, at Bob and Terry’s.  We were going to wait, but it was clear that their other two little lambs needed more of a “flock”.  So Beulah will be coming back in a bit…  if I can get her clear of Terry!  haha… she might just fall in love with her as well as her other sweet babies!!!)

And of course, we still don’t know for sure what Bridget will gift us!  (two spotted ewes!  two spotted ewes…. say after me…. two spotted ewes!!!!)  It may seem like a lot of pondering and negotiations and good old fashioned horse, er, sheep trading but thats how it goes.  And it’s kind of fun. It fills up my daydreaming time…  trying to think what would be the best way to create my dream flock of beautiful colors and patterns of Shetland sheep…  I know that I can keep about 15 or 16 comfortably.  Right now we have 14…   but we have too many males, unfortunately.  I would like 4 or 5 males  (Harley and Otis as rams and Angus and Fergus… maybe Luther or Merle as whethers)  and 10 ewes.  My dream team of a flock.  Only time will tell!