Sheep today

With no sign of foot problems and drier weather we've released the sheep to the main pasture. It's been unused for two weeks, enough time to clear rot bacteria if that was the problem. Seems a lot longer than that. The sheep have become quite familiar with us and don't hesitate to put noses into pockets looking for treats. Gimpy even gives a nudge to get a neck and shoulder rub. They are fun to have around and Hattie is back to working with them. I'm working on slowing her down, walking up, keeping the sheep together and close to me so they calm down a bit. There is a world of difference between the dog broke sheep at Fido's Farm and my flighty boys but Hattie isn't intimidated by their stomping and bolting. She takes off with a wide outrun when they bolt and you'd think there is no way she could catch them, but she has amazing speed and is able to turn them back. Sometimes I'm afraid her heart will burst but she loves what she's doing.

Mocha with his shaggy blanket

Red tulips in the memorial garden

Peonies, iris and poppies off to a strong start

My purple trillium is back

Explosion of tulip color!

Flowers!

I love this season! With a little warmth and sunshine the flowers begin to open and I feast on the colors. By afternoon the rain returns and steam rises like fog from the heated blacktop driveway.

A second sheep began limping yesterday. Stomper had the same inflamed skin between the toes of his rear foot that Gimpy had on the front. I'm getting good at treating them, which is to say the sheep are getting used to going into the holding pen and being handled (and getting an animal cracker), and Stomper's limp was gone by evening. All were fine this morning. I think we're dealing with scald rather than rot, so as the grass dries and their feet dry out the problem will resolve itself. All the sheep are named but one, and he is the most reluctant to interact with us.

The Tag and Hoop Memorial Garden

Crow joins ducks in the dandelions

Unique rhodie

Tulips

A scarlet tulip

Multi colors

Beach strawberries

Unique with hellebores

Catch up time

Lots going on here lately. One of the sheep started limping. We caught it but I didn't see any obvious sign of rot or an abscess. The breeder thought it might have just been a hurt leg. But the limping continued so we caught the little guy again (he managed to give me a black eye in the process) and still not seeing anything out of the ordinary decided to contact a large animal vet who makes house calls for a diagnosis. It took a couple of weeks to get her here and by that time there was evidence of rot. Now have to catch him twice a day for treatment.

When we were building the barn I kept asking for a catch pen, but Mr Bob thought I was over doing things. After trying to catch Gimpy a few times Bob admit a catch pen might be a good idea after all.  The second picture shows what we put together. The larger gate in the back can be swung shut to create an area just large enough to squash in five sheep and two people. The first time we used it I was able to set a pan of chow down and the sheep just walked in, but next attempt was not so easy. They didn't want to get stuck in there and I had to bring in the big guns - Hattie - to apply enough pressure to move them. Once in the excess sheep can be pushed out the big gate or the man gate in back. I hope it will continue to work long enough to finish Gimpy's hoof treatment.

The top picture shows Tux in a sheep halter. We used her to learn how to put it on. The sheep hate them and really struggle to get free.

I took Hattie to Fido's Farm in  Olympia for a herding lesson with her breeder. It was fun and I learned a lot. The farm hosts a week long sheep camp every summer that I'd like to attend. 

We bought four hundred feet of portable electric fence to make a temporary pen on the front part of the property while the main pasture rests awhile. We bring them in to the shed at night. 

Here is our new electric vehicle, the Chevy Bolt. We brought it home yesterday. It's a fun little car!

We're getting the veggies started. The garlic bed is doing well and behind it is lettuce and other greens, under the cover. We put hardware cloth around the bed to keep the rats out. Last year they ate everything.

This year I'm growing tomatoes in the greenhouse in bags of soil. Last year's oregano overwintered and is growing nicely. It's the lush plant behind the bags on the right. I'll be planting more tomatoes and peppers on the left side.

Despite the cold, rainy weather things are growing. Beautiful bulbs! I enjoy the flowers, but weeding and mowing chores are a drag.

Hellebores galore

Despite the unusually cold winter and spring (it's still uncomfortably cold) our hellebores are blooming profusely. They grow so well in the sandy soil on the north side of the house that I moved the rhododendrons and planted more hellebores. The rhodies needed to be in a sunnier spot anyway. The variety I have happens to be susceptible to downy mildew and they were in bad shape growing in the shade last summer with our relatively humid climate, so I'm hoping their new location will save them.

Daffodils are blooming, too. I've given up trying to dig them out of the flower beds and am just going to enjoy them.

The giant duck egg turned out to be a double yolker...

Things are going well with the sheep. It seems they are quite pampered. When it rains or gets windy they head into the barn while the poor neighbor sheep have to endure the elements. I'm working them with Hattie a few minutes every day. She is training them to stay together and I'm reinforcing her downs and stays, aways and come-byes. Let's hope our upcoming lesson will help slow her down a bit. They don't need to move at break neck speed all the time.

Busy days

Bob wanted to bring the sheep out to mow the yard so we blocked off an area between the garden and perimeter fence with pieces of this and that. Not a very secure set up at all. The first day everything went OK, but today the sheep broke out and started devouring everything but the grass. We thought Hattie might get them back into the pen but the situation quickly turned to chaos as the sheep split in five different directions and  Hattie out of control going after one then another. Boy did she get in trouble. I had to work her again right away under a more controlled situation to end on a positive note. Some lessons with a good instructor would do wonders for us so I'm making an appointment with Karen Childs at a farm near Olympia next month. Here are the sheep before they made their big break.

And here is Hattie before going berserk.

Spring yard chores are piling up. We finished thinning the old stems out of the raspberries. Back breaking work. Now I'm working on weeds and spreading mulch. Ugh.

The ducks have been complaining about losing the pasture to the sheep. They liked hunting for worms and bugs down there. A red tailed hawk attacked them this week. Lucky that I was working in the yard and chased it off. None of the ducks were injured except for Emerald running into a wooden peg and hurting her leg. She's been limping for a couple days. There's a pair of red tails that appear to be nesting nearby and it looks like they killed another red tail. We saw them feeding on it yesterday anyway. The duck eggs are stacking up now. One of the girls laid a huge one this morning.

Biggest and smallest

My walking days are nearing an end. I'm waiting on an appointment to find out about getting a new knee. The pain when I walk is intolerable. Kept me awake most of last night too so I'm fading fast now.

Herding

Hattie is herding the sheep into the barn at night. She is really good. I just send her out and she figures out the strategy. If one splits off from the group she brings him back in. She's smooth and confident. Just wonderful to watch. I don't have to do anything but block the sheep from overshooting the barn door. I wish we had twenty more acres to play with. Bob is talking about putting up more fencing to have more pasture areas now that we know Hattie can move the sheep about.

Mudballs

 The sheep are here! We headed out to Snohomish early yesterday morning taking the Edmonds-Kingston ferry and tackling the I-5. They've had a lot of rain in Snohomish this winter. A LOT. We drove in to the farm and saw a flock of mud caked sheep in a giant mud pit surrounding a muddy lake. We were told an irrigation ditch has been backed up causing the field to flood. Not to worry though, our sheep had been washed and were now in a huge barn living on a raised floor of hay bales.

I was speechless when I saw my boys. You arrive with an image in your mind of fluffy critters you'll be able to hug; the reality was quite different: they were Mudballs. Even after washing. Well, they are hair sheep and shedding so all this ugly hair will soon be gone, but we still had to help wrestle the stinky things into the back of the pickup. We'd been advised to bring rain gear for the operation and pulled off the loading easily enough with Michelle's help and went on our way after chatting awhile.

The sheep watched trees and cars and ocean race by for the next couple hours and did pretty well for their first ride. Getting them out of the truck was a bit tricky though. Bob had to climb in with all the piss-wet straw and poop to shove each one out into the pen.

The first one managed to squeeze out the gate under the truck but Hattie turned him around and herded him back into the pen from the other side of the truck. It was chaos for a while with terrified sheep and excited dogs and a couple of clueless people trying to gain control. I wanted to leave them alone to calm down and explore their new home but Bob thought they needed to be shown where water and hay were. He tried to get them into the shelter but they ended up wedged in a corner of the pen and protected by a couple large evergreen trees. They weren't moving. He wanted to try using Hattie to get them out but they were not cooperating. Hattie finally flushed one out but in frustration gripped the poor thing by the neck until it stopped in the shed. After that Hattie was put outside the pen. Bob climbed through the trees and pushed them out of their corner but they were still having nothing to do with him. We left them to figure things out themselves.

Within a few hours they were cautiously entering the barn, eating hay from the hay bags and drinking from the water bucket. This morning I opened the gate and let them into the pasture where they've been romping and eating all day. They are a delight to watch, even covered with mud.

Our muddy boys

Bob working on fence

The shed

Hattie wanting sheep, settling for frisbee

Tux, probably remembering the desert big horn sheep in AZ

It's warming up a little and I'm getting back into clay.

More Sheep Shed

It's mostly done at this point. We used stained cedar fencing for windbreak walls. The front will stay open, facing south, and the open part of the east wall where the pallets are will be blocked by hay bales so the sheep should stay cozy inside. Bob's going to build a few shelves for storage and as of now we're going to try hanging hay in string bags in the east corner. If the bags don't work it will be pretty simple to build a hay rack there. The sheep don't need grain but will need loose minerals and possibly baking soda. And of course a tank of water outside. Hopefully we'll get some good weather in the next couple weeks to make the drive out to Snohomish for the animals.

Tux has taken a liking to the pasture and pen

Neat little man gate to pasture at side of shed

View from pasture, Bob is pretty proud of the sliding door

Hay bales get stacked here

Silly ducks