Farm Club Shenanigans

We had an unscheduled Farm Day yesterday.First order of business was chores.

Stephanie greets the Farm Club. She seems to enjoy pestering Kathy. I think she must smell Kathy's goats. Everyone had a chance to milk a little.

We're only milking one side because the kid is nursing from the other. This is Tina milking.

Here is Shelby. I haven't been putting Stephanie on the stand because she is easy to milk and I'm only milking one side once per day.

We were going to start trimming feet, but got side-tracked when Rusty decided to roll in the leftovers from yesterday's butchering. The guys that butcher clean up well, but there is always something smelly left. I think he found the rumen contents.  I had just made Rusty an appointment at the vet to remove a foxtail that he'd picked up that morning. I didn't think that my husband or the vet would be too crazy about holding a really stinky dog. So dog-washing was in order.

We don't get too fancy with this. A hose and some soap.

Usually I wear my rubber boots or flip-flops. We were trying to keep our feet dry but get all the soap off of Rusty.

Tina and Kathy are trying to get the dogs to pose. Rusty is back from the vet already (foxtail in right ear) and Mobi (Jackie's dog) wants to play.

We moved on to trimming feet, putting my squeeze chute/flip table into service again.

To get more work done we also tied some of the sheep to trim feet. This is a lamb that needs to be halter broke anyway because she is one I've chosen to keep.

The dogs keep watch. Note the trimmed feet. I have trimmed his feet three times this year to avoid foxtails in the toes.

"Well, if you're not going to let me work, I'll just lie here."

We quit trimming about noon. I forgot to take photos of the chute being used for sheep with varying horn types. I think I need some modifications to use it more effectively. Shelby offered to be a sheep. I'm not sure these are the photos I need to work on the modifications, but laughter is always a good thing.

Somehow the Farm Club is starting to remind me of the YaYa Sisterhood. We're accepting more members!

New experience for Stephanie

When dairy cows or goats have their babies, the calves and kids are raised away from the mothers.

Stephanie gets a chance to raise her baby. Stephanie is one of Chris' original goats and I bred her to kid at the State Fair Nursery. I'm not in the goat business and  don't want to bottle-raise a kid,  so I'm letting Stephanie take care of her baby. Stephanie potentially will produce far more milk than her single kid can handle, so for her health and the health of the kid, I am monitoring her production. I didn't feed grain prior to the birth and she is not getting grain now because I don't want to encourage more milk production. So far it seems that the kid is nursing from just one side so I am milking the other side once/day.

This is Paulette who lambed at the fair with these nice twins.

How I have spent 22 Mother's Days

The Dixon May Fair is the longest-running fair in California. It is always Mother's Day weekend. My oldest son started showing dairy cattle in 1988 and I've had kids at the fair ever since.  The kids can show as FFA members for one year after they finish  high school so this was my youngest son's last show. He was at the fair from Tuesday through Sunday and left Sunday night for his job on a hotshot crew north of Redding.

Chris has shown dairy goats each year since he started in 4-H.  He sold some of his goats last summer when he left for the fire-fighting job, but had two two-year old milkers at the fair this year. Chris is showing Devan and a friend showed Denise.

This was a very small show, but Devan won Champion...

...and Best Doe in Show. Chris showed her dam at the CA State Fair two years ago and won Champion Toggenburg.

On Sunday Chris competed in Supreme Showmanship, in which the showmanship winners of each species compete.

Each participant shows sheep,

beef cattle, dairy cattle, meat goats, dairy goats, and swine. Chris won second place in this event. And then it was over. Chris rushed home to leave for the job. I went back to the fair to get the goats when they were released. That's it! Not as big an adjustment as last year when Chris left home for the job for the first time, but now my years of 4-H & FFA Mom is over.

But I'm still a mom. Here is the Mother's Day present that Chris gave me!!!!

Spring yet?

It was sunny this weekend and it felt like spring. The sheep have been cooped up in the barn and corral area for two months now. I let them into this small field today. There is a lot of grass to eat, but it is still wet and if I keep them there too long they'll turn it into mud.

The sheep went right to eating, but the goats continued to race back and forth.

The oldest goat, Stephanie, didn't participate in the silliness of the younger goats.

Too bad for the rams. They have to stay in their own area. This is Kenleigh's Savor in front and Meridian Tioga in back, both born last winter.

This is Lola, a lilac ewe.  That reminds me (because I sold her fleece) that we had Farm Day on Saturday. Three people were here to help with sheep chores. It was great to have the help. We vaccinated all the sheep, wormed the young ewes, and put in scrapie tags.

We even trimmed a few hooves. Shelby is trimming while Jackie keeps the sheep from moving around too much. I don't flip my sheep anymore to trim feet. I'd rather tie them to trim feet. It has the added advantage of sort of halter-breaking.

Everyone had a hand at trimming feet, but this is Shelby again while Tina holds the sheep.

Shearing Day

We sheared on Saturday. I used a new shearer this year and he did a fabulous job. He was fast (70 + Jacobs shorn before noon) and the fleeces and the sheep look great.

I am grateful for all the help I had. Linda gathered up and bagged wool all day. Other friends weighed wool, answered questions from visitors, etc.

My son, Chris, made sure that the shearer didn't run out of sheep.

We also sheared Colleen's CVM-cross sheep (while she took care of my shop) and...

Diane's goats. I have to admit they are stunning in full fleece.

These are Chris' goats and don't need to be shorn, but they never miss a chance to sneak some a meal.

I didn't skirt nearly as many fleeces as I thought I would. We just barely kept up with the fleeces that people wanted to purchase. I missed my friend, Joan, who usually spends all day at the skirting table.  I think it might be worth switching shearing back to Sunday so she can be here!

Here is one fleece spread out.  People asked about how to tell a good fleece, which is better than another, etc. I honestly answered that I don't have any sheep whose fleece I don't like.

The sunny day certainly helped make shearing day pleasant and I'm sure the sheep appreciated the warm sun.

Take a look at this shorn lamb. There was some discussion earlier this year about tri-colored Jacob sheep (if such a thing exists). I didn't know this lamb had those gray spots until she was shorn! I've never had another like this.

Here is another pretty lamb.

This is Violet, loading into her van. That's a cooperative sheep! Violet lived here until about a month ago. She is a wonderful friendly ewe and I'm so glad that she has a great home now with two other Meridian sheep at Aimee's place.

Rusty's brother, Jake, came to visit at the end of the day. The dogs were not too happy about posing for a brotherly photo.

But they were going to make sure these lambs stayed put.

There are more shearing photos that can be accessed on Picassa by going to my website and clicking on the photo in the shearing article.

Who's in the barn?

The lambs in the last post are 10 days old now and yesterday I let them into the pasture with all the other sheep. Last night I found the little ram lamb limping and I diagnosed a broken leg, but wasn't sure where.  I took him to see my vet today and she came up with this splint to immobilize the leg. The break is at the top of the tibia and this splint holds the joints on either side immobile.  We'll leave it on about 3 weeks and see how he is.

While I had my camera in the barn I took other photos.

Amaryllis, the donkey.

Jasmine, one of my son's does. He has gone to his summer job and I'm milking the goats that are left.

Ewes and ewe lambs on the pasture.

These ram lambs were so happy to get out onto the pasture after being in a dry lot getting hay for weeks. I have to keep them separate from the ewes now so my options are more limited. This pasture now has plenty of feed.

This is trefoil, one of my favorite flowers, and good sheep feed. There is a lot of it in that ram pasture.

My husband came back from the hardware store and told me he bought something for me. The other day when I was irrigating I broke the only shovel that I could find --one with the handle taped. So this is MY shovel.

Dixon May Fair

What do we do Mother's Day weekend? For the last 20+ years it's been spent at the Dixon May Fair because my kids have been showing livestock. My youngest is a senior and this is his last year (or maybe next to last) showing his dairy goats. This is Trista, who was State Fair Champion last year.

Chris had help showing his kids--they would have had the Cute Award if there was one.

Chris has won Dairy Goat Showmanship every year that he has showed. That means that he enters Supreme Showmanship in which the winners in all the other species compete. They show beef cattle, dairy cattle, meat goats, dairy goats, swine, and sheep. Here is Chris showing a dairy cow. Chris has won Supreme Showmanship in the past but was 2nd behind one of his Dixon FFA friends this year.

Now Chris says that he'll need to come back and show next year so that he can win Supreme Showmanship. He is eligible to show in FFA for one year after high school. The trick is to figure out who will be maintaining the goat herd if he is off at a job, school, etc. Hmmm, that would be me.

Poppies & goats

When I was sorting wool the other day it such a beautiful day I was distracted by just about everything. How could you not be distracted by this?

And this...

These are the Toggenburg kids and this is how we feed them--a bucket with 9 nipples. It's sure faster than individual bottles. We're feeding them 3 times/day right now.

Moving On

Lambing season is over (except for one sheep that I bought and is due much later). For people who like numbers the stats are on my website in the Farm Talk column--things like how many ewe lambs and number of twin births, etc. It's actually interesting to me to see the tallies. Here is one of the last ewes to lamb. This is a yearling, Eliza, with a pretty ewe lamb.

The weather was gorgeous this weekend and I got serious about sorting wool. Here is a sample from a particularly nice fleece.  This is a yearling out of Meridian Diamond and bide a wee Yuri--the crimp in this fleece looks like Yuri's did. Maybe you have to be a spinner to appreciate this.

I have a lot of wool to sort and I find myself getting distracted. I sat in the barn and took photos. This is Stephanie below.

And Amaryllis.

This banty hen sets on a nest of eggs all summer even though there has been no rooster since I've lived here.

Once she settles on a nesting place I transfer her to this rubber feeder so that I can move it if necessary to get to a bale of hay. I started marking the eggs so that I could take the freshest, but then I lost track. Now I just let her have all she wants.

I got distracted by poppies too, but that will be another post.

Loose ends

I'm trying to finish up all kinds of things that have been put off or just didn't get started. Part of this is in anticipation of Meet the Sheep, our Open House that is this weekend. So there is clean up to do, class prep, etc. Also, I think I can start getting back to weaving soon and I'd better get caught up on some other stuff too. So here's some of what I did yesterday: 1. I spent a lot of time on Jacob Sheep registrations. I am behind there because of my one-handed typing. I just started typing 2-handed again--I consider it therapy because the left hand doesn't really bend the way I need it to.

2. Dealt with the ram that was butchered last week. Good thing it isn't summer or I couldn't have waited this long.

3. Lolita finally lambed. Two weeks ago I treated her for hypocalcemia and other metabolic problems. She recovered and I've been waiting for these lambs--2 girls and a boy.

By the way this ewe lambed at State Fair last year (August). That's 6 lambs in a year. No wonder she had some problems. She seems fine now. I'm keeping plenty of food in front of her.

4. Taking photos of new lambs and here is who is in the way.

5. Speaking of goats we are feeding 9 kids. It seems never ending although its better now that they're on 3 x's/day instead of 4. I do a lot of the kid feeding but Chris has been milking. He'll be gone this weekend though and I told him that he has to get the milking machine cleaned up.

6. I picked up butchered lambs and had no room left in the freezers. I had to take a turkey out to make room for the lamb, so I cooked a turkey last night. Can't cook a turkey without the stuffing and mashed potatoes! At least we'll have leftovers for quite awhile.