Baymule’s Farm

[baymule]

Lambs this morning! Butterfly had twins, the black and white spotted is a ram, the white one is a ewe.

Dessa also had twins, both rams.

 

[baymule]

This morning Nora had triplets! 2 girls and a boy.

 

[baymule]

Tiny just had triplets! Tiny is a triplet sister to Nora who just had triplets this morning and to Nova

who is due now.

 

[Carol Dee]

How many are rams? How many are ewes? Babies everywhere! I have lost count.

 

[Rammy]

You trying to keep up with Mike's triplet run?

 

[Celtic_Rumor]

Been waiting to close on new farm since April. It’s July 11, still waiting. Grrrrrrr…..
But it feels like it’s getting closer. Maybe.

There are dead Post Oak trees ringing the house. They have to come down. Tree cutter is coming in the morning to take down 4 trees. 3 big oaks will have to be taken down a limb at a time from the top down. 2 are far enough from the house that Bennet can take them down.

Bennet was all about me hiring this guy to take down ALL the trees and have him clean up the mess—until I told him they oughta pay for half of it. LOL He put the brakes on so hard, he was kicking up dust. He put it in reverse and said he’d bring his tractor and clean up the mess, haul it all out in the pasture and this winter we can burn it. And he can take down those 2 that are further from the house. That would be his part. Hahaha!

I agreed. So the 3 trees will cost me $1700 to get them down. Clean up would have cost me double that, if not more. The 2 more trees would have kicked it on up in the stratosphere. I think I done good.

Hugemongous giant oak out far enough away, can fall in pasture.

Tree #1

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Tree #2, in front yard. Will have to come down in pieces.

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Tree #3, will also have to come down in pieces. It’s opposite the end of the house.

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Tree #4, it’s at back of house, will have to be dropped, piece by piece. It’s leaning towards the house.

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Tree #5, it’s far enough away, leaning towards woods, can pull up red pipe fence panels and Bennet can drop it. Look closely, dead standing pine on other side of fence, but poses a threat to the new fence I’ll put up. That landowner said we could cut it.

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Tree #6, the dead standing pine. It’s been dead awhile, it’s rotten and dangerous. Tree cutter will take this one down, fell it in the woods and leave it, with land owners permission.

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You have any idea what caused all then to die off?

 

[baymule]

You have any idea what caused all then to die off?

Yes, we had record breaking cold temperatures in February 2021. I was living north of here in the Tyler area and temperatures were -6F. It wasn’t much better here. Then that was followed by a drought. The trees were damaged by two weeks of hard freezing weather and the drought finished them off. They were Post Oaks and they only live about 100 years.

 

[baymule]

How many are rams? How many are ewes? Babies everywhere! I have lost count.

Good question! I had to count! 7 ewes and 7 rams. Might be more this morning!

You trying to keep up with Mike's triplet run?

I figured out why all the triplets. Had terrible heat and drought last summer. 100+ temperatures for weeks and weeks. I had to dry lot the sheep so they didn’t damage and kill the grass. They went through a round bale of hay a week for almost 3 months. Once we got rain, I still couldn’t let them out, had to give the grass time to grow. While they were dry lotted, I started giving them alfalfa hay in addition to the grass hay and feed. Alfalfa is costly here, they didn’t get a lot, but they got a little twice a day.

I put this group of ewes with the ram on October 31, 2023. The grass had sprouted back out, fresh green grass, new growth, full of nutrition. The winter grass started growing about the time frost killed back the summer grass in November . Again, fresh, new growth. Plus I was still giving alfalfa twice daily.

So even in the horrible heat and drought, my girls didn’t lose condition, they were well fed. I stretched tarps for extra shade and that gave them heat relief. They got fresh cold water 3 times a day.

My poor livestock guard dogs couldn’t find a cool place, so I brought them to the front yard where they could go under the front porch. Sheba and Buford took the front yard, Sentry came in the house to a dog crate because he hates Carson, my farm dog. So 2 in the yard, 2 in the house. If I had to go to town, I went early so I could be back by 11 AM to water sheep again and move dogs.

Mike on BYH (in Tennessee) got rain before I did and it was a tad bit cooler there. So his sheep also got that new grass growing after being dormant all summer. Mike said they did nothing different, so it has to be the new grass after the summer drought.

@Rammy your question made me really consider what was going on last fall. I believe it was a combination of the alfalfa giving the ewes a little extra boost of nutrition, me feeding them through the heat and drought, then the flush of new summer grasses trying to come back to life followed by the winter grasses coming in. I had already given the alfalfa credit for more nutrition but I really had to ponder on this.

I don’t want another drought where I have to dry lot the sheep for almost 3 months, in order to have new growth of grasses. Even if it does bring on the triplets!
Thank you for asking your question! I know you meant it as a joke, but it really made me think on conditions last fall. Now I gotta go tell Mike-and I bet he doesn’t want extreme drought again either!

 

[AMKuska]

That's super interesting! Hopefully it's nicer weather this year and you won't end up dry lotting again though.

 

[baymule]

Nova had triplets this morning. 1 ewe and 2 rams.
That makes 17 lambs out of 7 ewes. Have 7 more to lamb.

That’s Sentry watching from the middle field across the driveway. He is very protective over the babies. BUT he steals newborns, fights the mom off and the babies die. I lost a few before I caught on to what he was doing. Once the lambs are up and dried off, he would lay his life down for them.