Our March Madness has finished before the end of March! Our lambing wound up early this morning at 1:20 am, when Mist gave birth to a beautiful black 3/4 Cormo girl. Prince is her father, and with Mist as her mother, we wanted to keep with the weather theme, so Lisa named her Princess Virga. […]
It is almost the end of lambing and unlike other years when I CAN’T WAIT for it to be over, this year I’m feeling a bit bittersweet about the end of lambing. We have been very fortunate this season, with really excellent ewe health, high fertility, but not too high, all the ewes pregnant, but
Best Lambing Season Ever Read More »
We have been lambing for a full month now (our first lambs were born February 16th) and most of that time we have been deluged with one atmospheric river after another, and really cold temperatures also. Finally we have a few days of warm sunshine, although another storm is due this weekend. And, with only
Sunshine, Moorits and Giant Lambs Read More »
Last July, we lost our much-loved and trusted senior livestock-protection dog, Orbit, in the prime of his life. It was so traumatic and sad that I haven’t written his obituary yet, but I will write him an obit, because he is so deserving of it. The loss of Orbit put pressure on our remaining two dogs,
Lambs began arriving right on schedule on Thursday. Smoke went into labor early in the morning and had a big black boy in the corrals, as we were vaccinating the rest of the ewes. He is Perry’s son, so a half-Cormo half-Corriedale and he should have a beautiful fleece and be a nice sire. Bringing
Lambs are arriving! Read More »
Back when we were running a sheep dairy, shearing day was something to be endured, for the health of the sheep. But now that we have a fiber-based business, shearing day is the most important day of the year. Last Thursday was one of two of our annual shearing days; we sheared our 46 bred
We lost our beloved ram, Mitt the Romney, today and everyone on the ranch took it pretty hard…
Visitors to our ranch often hear the story behind those concrete objects in our pastures. Yes, they are definitely favorite play-structures for our lambs, but their history goes back to the early days of the last century, in the early days of radio, when our ranch was owned by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, and
Making Radio History: Past and Present Read More »
Looks like we are headed for a lamb bonanza this year! We bred 46 ewes and expected about 35 to be pregnant, as our pregnancy rate has been about 75% every year since we started with the fiber sheep, whose fertility is not as high as the East Friesian dairy sheep. But the fertility gods
As the rainy season begins and the ranch comes alive with new growth, it is the time of year to sow seeds, apply compost and plant trees, all practices that sequester carbon and improve the health of our soil. Last year we applied compost and seed to about 35 acres of cattle pasture, and planted
A Beautiful Day to Plant Trees! Read More »