Assisted Living

Getting old can be tough whether you're human or a four legged critter.  Your teeth can give you trouble (or jump ship altogether), arthritis makes it painful to get around, it's hard to keep your weight up, your eyesight may fail and even your toenails get thick and hard to cut!  Hopefully you live where someone cares and tries to help make old age less of a hardship.

We offer "assisted living" for the oldest flock members. (Thecrazysheeplady in KY has Del Boca Vista for her geriatric friends).  If you are getting to an age where the other sheep push you around or you just need more time and better hay in the feeder you get moved here.  We even divided it further into two smaller groups because Pickles is a bully who punches anyone she can is assertive.  She's in a pen with girls that are bigger and don't take any guff,

Pickles, Fiesta, Kahlua and Gilly

The adjacent pen houses Dollar, India, Bunny, Ruby......

"I have teefers, they just wobble some."

And Bug.

"I have teefers and a good appetite!"

With the passing of Drambui and Alexandria, Bug has recently picked up the unwanted title of 'most needy old ewe' by becoming quite arthritic in her front legs and having trouble getting around.  (Kind of like being the oldest man in the world -you don't really want the title but you don't want to give it up either!!!)    She's now on anti-inflammatories and we're hoping for a boost in her ability to get around without hobbling. 

And Kittin is still in kitty assisted living in the wool shop.  She's fat and happy and impaired to the point that it's not safe to let her try to handle the rigors of being an outside cat.  But with the help of Aunt Julie's newest catnip toy she's trying to manage.  ;-)

Weird Weather

We are having abnormally warm weather and while it's not normal and may show its downside later on, for now I'm just going to enjoy it.

The warmth also brought out insects - this beetle is really this shiny, even more than the picture captures,  hence the name 'Metallic Wood Boring Beetle'.  I love it when things are named sensibly.

Honey bees appeared in droves when Andy started up the sawmill and cut some blanks for grade stakes. We don't know where they came from.  The bees in our tree aren't stirring yet.  Apparently honey bees will take tree sap before pollen is available and these bees were putting sawdust in the pollen baskets on their legs.  There were hundreds on the actual sawdust pile behind the mill.

The sheep are too warm but shearing is delayed (a death in the shearer's family put him far behind) and won't commence for another week.  Things always happen as they are supposed to - if we had bred the flock we'd be freaking out about the ewes getting dangerously heavy to shear but the flock isn't bred and so the delay isn't critical.

The ewes are in full fleece and so far we're keeping most of them pretty darn clean.

There are a few that seem to attract hay chaff but the bulk are either coated or don't mind me fiddling around picking junk off them occasionally.  Of course, when it's hot and they melt it's going to cause some VM contamination.  :-/

We've had the fans on in the barn and they really enjoy standing in the air flow.  They kind of orient like seagulls on a beach facing into the wind but there's always one that likes to get the air up her skirt..

It's a pretty hefty fan and it ruffles the long locks on the Cotswolds.  Of course Fortune has to come see what I'm doing.


When not eating or standing in the fan the ewes sit in companionable groups, sharing gossip.

When we separated the ewes into smaller groups for better managment Flopsy and Snubby landed together.  Having been bottle babies together they are fast friends.

Flopsy's ears are still mounted wrong.

and Snubby would have qualified for braces if she was a two legged kid.

But their purpose is fiber and friendship (and comic relief some days) so it's OK.
Peanut is doing well and is still cute as a button.

"Being short is the pits!!"
Little old Ruby is in with the youngest ewes and looks like she wishes she wasn't at the kids' table.  No one roughs her up but I think she's tired of being the hall monitor.

"Pleeeeease, won't you put me in with the adults? I want to have a conversation with someone my own age!"
Pretty soon!  I think I saw a tinge of green on the south-facing ground behind the barn.