Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

Some days go more smoothly than others.  Our morning toast and coffee is a good time to coordinate the day and try to make our time the most useful that we can.  If we plan our tasks sensibly we can work together on some things and separately on others and not spend too much time waffling about what should be done next.

This morning started out cloudy and fifty-two degrees - nearly freezing by my standards.  It was supposed to clear off and be the start of about four days of dry sunny weather so making hay is the top priority.  Andy planned to mow the other half of a field he had started last week, but wanted the forage to dry off some from the night's rain.  To use up part of the morning we weighed and dewormed the big rams in the upper barn. 

Jared, foreground.  "This thing again?  I'm outta here."  (Mr. BB, in the background) "Good Lord, what is it?!"

 

"They put you in the box and work this latchy thing and you have to stand there."

"Yeah, well, I'm just going to sit here until it's my turn.  I have to conserve energy for breeding season, you know."

All right, that's over.  Back to the pasture.

When we had finished and taken down the equipment Andy put on his heavy coat and went to mow hay.

I had some phone calls and email to attend to, then went to town to run errands.  After lunch Andy finished the mowing and then turned around and tedded the field to hopefully help it dry a bit faster.  I pulled a Cotswold fleece off the shelf for someone who needs Santa material but once into it I realized the wool is too long for her purpose.  She needs locks four to five inches long and this is mostly seven.  I know someone else who could use this one so it's going back on the shelf while I look for a shorter one. 

When Andy had finished the field work we moved some yearling ewes down from the upper barn where they had been since lambing (had to make room in the main barn) and put them back in with the main flock.

They loaded easily thanks to Mr. Bill the wether, who is very adventuresome and thought climbing into the trailer was COOL! and so of course the yearlings followed.  They were really chatty when we unloaded them into the barn.  Of course they remembered being there and were commenting loudly about returning.  The flock was out to pasture so nobody really paid much attention to their arrival.

They ran around like big lambs jumping and bucking.  Of course they've been outside up there, but this was a different pasture so of course it's better.

A few of the group finally broke away and went into the large pasture.  The big girls were unimpressed and didn't even bother to get up to say hello.

 

 

This black yearling got over being silly and went right to grazing.

 

 

 

She knows her name even in a new setting.

 

Hey, Large Marge!!



 

Tomorrow we hope to weigh and deworm the ewe flock and pull the ram lambs out (weaning, finally!) and take them to the upper barn to live with the big guys. Let's hope that plan works as well as today's did.