Yesterday was breeding day and man were we busy. We did last-minute foot-trims on all four rams, the four pet wethers, the Romneys and all the ewe lambs. We sorted sheep like mad following my complicated list of who needed to end up where, and by the end of the day all the rams had their new harems. Pistol didn’t waste any time, and Starlet was bred before the sheep even left the corrals (note–who will be first to lamb…) Three of the East Friesian ewes–Blaze, Jane and Good Daughter–had all been down at the foot of the front pasture making eyes at Joe and Pistol across the driveway, and we worried that Mitt the Romney might not be to their taste, but by the end of the day he was cozied up with all three of them, getting ready to make our first Romnesians. At the last minute we decided not to breed Scout and Thelma Lou (the little white girl finally has a name–Lisa christened her Thelma Lou after Barney Fife’s girlfriend in Mayberry RFD…somebody is showing her age), because they are not 75 % of their expected adult weight. So we moved them to the pet flock where they cowered in the corner of the pasture, a bit scared of the old ladies. Just as we finished sorting and moving sheep, it started to rain. By evening it was raining pretty hard, and our last 13 lambs who were waiting to go to the slaughterhouse this morning had no shelter. So I called Lisa and she came back up to the ranch to tuck them away inside the barn for their last night. Just as I was heading to bed I got thinking about Scout and Thelma Lou in my back yard and wondered if the old ladies were letting them into the shelter. So at 10:00 I was out in the pet-shelter in my pajamas with a flashlight and a cup of corn, luring the little girls into the shelter and making introductions. At 5:30 this morning, after helping Lolo load the lambs and set out for the slaughterhouse, I headed back to the pet shelter in the dark and rain, and the little Romneys were curled up together in one corner of the shelter, not yet fully integrated, but at least tolerated by the Friesians. We got an inch of rain, very unusual for this early in the season. But by this afternoon the sun was out and everyone was settling into their new digs.
