Finnie
Deeply Rooted
Good boy, Buford. You keep at it. Layne is trainable!
Baymule’s Farm
- Thread starter baymule
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Marie2020
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baymule
Garden Master
Had my appointment with the surgeon yesterday. Surgery is scheduled for March 18. He said I'll be down about a month.
I hurt myself February 2, two more weeks until surgery, then down another month. Worst of it, by the time I can get over all this and actually feel better, it is going to be hotter than 9 shades of HE// and all I'll want to do is hug my air conditioner.
Yesterday evening my son and I were inside taking a break, or rather he was, I just observe. Buford lit up, barking crazy, looking in the direction of the house. We went outside to see what had him so upset. I got there first, Carson was running around all excited and my first thought was Snake. I grabbed Carson and put him in the fenced front yard. I told my son to get the shovel, I thought it was a snake, and it was. A rat snake, but Buford only knew that it didn't belong and was sounding the alarm. It was in the night pen, under the feed trough. Buford ran away once we were in the pen, but kept running up to me with a big toothy grin, he was afraid. Layne killed the snake and tossed it over the fence to get it out of the pen. We assured Buford that it was gone but he remained suspicious. Later, he went all around the feed trough, sniffing where the snake had been.
I hurt myself February 2, two more weeks until surgery, then down another month. Worst of it, by the time I can get over all this and actually feel better, it is going to be hotter than 9 shades of HE// and all I'll want to do is hug my air conditioner.
Yesterday evening my son and I were inside taking a break, or rather he was, I just observe. Buford lit up, barking crazy, looking in the direction of the house. We went outside to see what had him so upset. I got there first, Carson was running around all excited and my first thought was Snake. I grabbed Carson and put him in the fenced front yard. I told my son to get the shovel, I thought it was a snake, and it was. A rat snake, but Buford only knew that it didn't belong and was sounding the alarm. It was in the night pen, under the feed trough. Buford ran away once we were in the pen, but kept running up to me with a big toothy grin, he was afraid. Layne killed the snake and tossed it over the fence to get it out of the pen. We assured Buford that it was gone but he remained suspicious. Later, he went all around the feed trough, sniffing where the snake had been.
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baymule
Garden Master
I'm tired y'all. Deep bone tired and exhausted. I've been reducing the flock numbers. On Saturday February 28th, I took 8 grown older ewes to auction in Emory, 3 hours away.
@Ridgetop and I had discussed me selling the Dorpers, the Texas Five now the Texas Four with the loss of Granny. I have two beautiful ewe lambs from Granny, Mabelline and Avon. I have a grown daughter from Cleopatra, Specks, who had twins, giving me a ewe lamb to keep and a ram lamb to sell. Cleopatra had twin daughters this lambing and I am keeping them both. B40 had a ewe lamb and I'm keeping her. So I have beautiful replacement lambs, first generation in the 3 generation breed up program, time for the Texas Four to go.
A man contacted @Ridgetop wanting ewes, she didn't have any available, so she sent him to me. He and his father came Sunday and got the ewes. Rip had twin babies and they went to their new home with their momma on Sunday, March 8.
I wanted to sort out the ram lambs plus 3 more ewes to take to auction. Emory auction is on Saturdays. Problem, a man that lives on my road had died and his memorial service is on Saturday. His only child, is a dear friend for the last 40 something years, both Layne and I wanted to go. Plus he is good friends with her daughter who is devastated at the loss of her Pawpaw. Conundrum. Layne suggested that we take them to Hamilton, the nearest big sale for sheep and goats in west Texas, 4 hours away, (in reality, it was 5 hours) their sale is on Mondays, followed by the cattle auction on Tuesdays. OK all we have to do is run the front field flock across the driveway, through the working chute and sort out the ram lambs. Sounds easy doesn't it?
The 16' gates open in opposite directions, forming a crossing from front field to middle field. Plus we attached a hog panel just inside the fence in the middle field to close it off so the sheep couldn't run back across, just pull the hog panel to the other side of the fence and close it off. Obviously we couldn't close one of the gates, that would result in sheep pouring out on the driveway or yard, neither of which is closed in.
First we had to sort out ewes and lambs in the night pen, leaving Little Ringo in the smaller pen. Can't run him across the driveway, that would put him next to Cooper and the fight would be on. So got Little Ringo sequestered and we walked the first group of lambs and ewes across and into the working chute. The second group was a little wiser and chose not to go. They ran circles around the hay cradle, but we finally got some across and in the chute. As we ran them through the chute, we wormed the ewes with prohibit, the ewe lambs with ivermectin with prazaquantel in it, for tapeworms and checked for scrapie tags. Lambs leaving for a luxurious trip to west Texas got nothing. We went ahead and sorted out the lambs that were raised in the middle field, turning the ewe lambs out on the field.
We went back for more. Wiser now, it was wild sheep rodeo. Running circles at warp speed, 4 lambs jumped the hog panel that made up part of my "fence" and took off to the far corners of the front field. We stopped. We unrolled a partial roll of wire from gatepost to hay cradle, forming a "nowhere else to go" leading to the driveway crossing. We got the rest across, wormed the keepers and sorted out the Vacation Lambs.
We were pretty tired by this point, took an iced tea break and pondered on how to capture the wild jail breakers. Layne said that we should turn Little Ringo out on the front field, then close the gate so he couldn't come back in. Then give the runaway flying lambs time to time settle down, call Little Ringo back in with feed and the Escapee ram lambs would follow him back in the lot. Great idea. He dragged a cow panel against the hog panel, cutting off their escape, let Little Ringo out on the field and we went to Crockett. We filled up the truck and had Mexican food, came back. By this time it was almost feeding time anyway, so Layne opened the gate to the night pen, Little Ringo came in for feed, followed by booger hunting ram lambs. Layne eased the gate shut. He fed Little Ringo in a jug and closed him up. Now for the wild lambs. Layne flapped his shirt at them and they lost their minds. Bouncing off the wire, searching for a way out, there was only one escape from the 6 foot tall monster and they ran across the driveway. I quickly dragged the hog panel across and closed off their escape back to the front field unless they decided to go flying again. We let them calm down while we dismantled our redneck crossing and put everything back in it's right place. We worked those 4 and put out feed in the other pen, leaving the holding pen empty. Closed the half cow panel gate.
Layne could now back the truck and trailer into the holding pen, but we had to get the lambs and 3 ewes back in the chute. We opened the gate, attached a cow panel to it and to the opening to the chute. I shook feed, lured ewes and most of the lambs into the chute, the big monster flapping shirt moved the rest of them along. close THAT gate. Next was to make the end of the chute to the trailer escape proof....... cow panels to the rescue. Layne backed the trailer until the end gate reached one end of the holding pen and we closed the gap under the trailer end gate with a....... what else? Yup, a half of a cow panel! Cow panel went on the other side of the trailer, from end of chute to trailer. That left the gap from under the end of trailer to the ground. We closed it up with a bag of trash, a feed sack stuffed with other feed sacks and a big feed pan.
Time to load...... I put a feed pan in the front of the trailer, shook feed and dribbled some in the pan. Layne opened the end gate on the chute. Ewes up front, coming for the feed, after a little hesitation, they jumped in the trailer, Layne slow walked the lambs up, they crowded up at the end of the trailer, then jumped in to join the ewes and eat feed. Closed end gate on trailer!
It only took all day.
Untied cow panels and dragged them up against fence, I pulled truck and trailer out, ready to leave next morning. Layne set 2 buckets of water in the trailer and 2 pans of feed. Then we fed the rest of the animals.
We left out at 3:00 AM the next (Monday) morning. Long trip. They start accepting sheep and goats at 8AM, sale is at 10AM. We got there a little after 8, I expected to see a long line of people waiting to unload but the parking lot was practically empty.
WHERE IS EVERYBODY?
We got unloaded and parked truck and trailer. No cafe. No coffee. No breakfast. Cafe being remodeled. Crap. But there would be a food truck at 10. Oh joy, still wouldn't be any coffee. We took naps in the truck. I walked the catwalk and there were tons of pens full of sheep and goats. Mine were in a pen as a group, only got one yellow auction sticker on one sheep. Hmmmm.......... at Emory and other auctions I've been to, each animal gets a sticker. Learning new things here. We went and sat down right before the auction started. Still no crowds of people, only rows of buyers. It was like we waked into an exclusive country club that we didn't belong to. Lots of friendly banter between the buyers, Spanish flew, answered with more Spanish from the Gringo buyers. LOL We were probably the only sellers in the bunch. Hmmmm......... the upshot was, almost everybody brought their sheep and goats on SUNDAY, the day before and went home, send the check. Learned something new. Hamilton is one of the BIG SHEEP AND GOAT sales. Market report for Monday isn't posted yet, but on March 2, they had 2,157 head go through the auction. It's also the closest one to me.
In East Texas, they run sheep and goats through before the cattle sale. There are no only sheep and goat sales, those are all out in west Texas.
Here I thought we were being so smart, getting there early to get unloaded and were were practically dead last. I wanted to stay until they sold so I could take my check home in my hot little hand. Plus, never having been there, I wanted to watch the whole thing for the experience. Unfortunately being almost last, over half the buyers had filled their quotas and left. But I still got very good prices and was happy with what I got.
Because I'm having hernia surgery next week, I also had to wean and take the ram lambs instead of taking an extra month to feed them for more weight gain. I'm under a time crunch, having to trim the flock NOW so it will be easier on someone else to take care of the flock while I'm down for a month to recuperate.
And I'm selling Little Ringo. His work here is done, he's related to way too many of my ewes, time for him to move on. Couldn't load him in the trailer with 21 lambs and 3 ewes, he would have tried to breed them all. Plus he would have sold by the pound and he's too good for that. I have an 8:00 appointment at the hospital Friday to preregister, then I'm coming home, we are going to load him up and I'm taking him to Emory, along with his registration papers. I'll unload, send me the check and I'll come back home.
All of this, so we can go to the memorial service on Saturday. We're gonna make it. Before I have surgery, we are going to sort and wean the ewe lambs. I have 2 ewes with new babies, they will get sorted out with the lambs so they and their babies don't have to fight for something to eat.
I'm tired y'all.
@Ridgetop and I had discussed me selling the Dorpers, the Texas Five now the Texas Four with the loss of Granny. I have two beautiful ewe lambs from Granny, Mabelline and Avon. I have a grown daughter from Cleopatra, Specks, who had twins, giving me a ewe lamb to keep and a ram lamb to sell. Cleopatra had twin daughters this lambing and I am keeping them both. B40 had a ewe lamb and I'm keeping her. So I have beautiful replacement lambs, first generation in the 3 generation breed up program, time for the Texas Four to go.
A man contacted @Ridgetop wanting ewes, she didn't have any available, so she sent him to me. He and his father came Sunday and got the ewes. Rip had twin babies and they went to their new home with their momma on Sunday, March 8.
I wanted to sort out the ram lambs plus 3 more ewes to take to auction. Emory auction is on Saturdays. Problem, a man that lives on my road had died and his memorial service is on Saturday. His only child, is a dear friend for the last 40 something years, both Layne and I wanted to go. Plus he is good friends with her daughter who is devastated at the loss of her Pawpaw. Conundrum. Layne suggested that we take them to Hamilton, the nearest big sale for sheep and goats in west Texas, 4 hours away, (in reality, it was 5 hours) their sale is on Mondays, followed by the cattle auction on Tuesdays. OK all we have to do is run the front field flock across the driveway, through the working chute and sort out the ram lambs. Sounds easy doesn't it?
The 16' gates open in opposite directions, forming a crossing from front field to middle field. Plus we attached a hog panel just inside the fence in the middle field to close it off so the sheep couldn't run back across, just pull the hog panel to the other side of the fence and close it off. Obviously we couldn't close one of the gates, that would result in sheep pouring out on the driveway or yard, neither of which is closed in.
First we had to sort out ewes and lambs in the night pen, leaving Little Ringo in the smaller pen. Can't run him across the driveway, that would put him next to Cooper and the fight would be on. So got Little Ringo sequestered and we walked the first group of lambs and ewes across and into the working chute. The second group was a little wiser and chose not to go. They ran circles around the hay cradle, but we finally got some across and in the chute. As we ran them through the chute, we wormed the ewes with prohibit, the ewe lambs with ivermectin with prazaquantel in it, for tapeworms and checked for scrapie tags. Lambs leaving for a luxurious trip to west Texas got nothing. We went ahead and sorted out the lambs that were raised in the middle field, turning the ewe lambs out on the field.
We went back for more. Wiser now, it was wild sheep rodeo. Running circles at warp speed, 4 lambs jumped the hog panel that made up part of my "fence" and took off to the far corners of the front field. We stopped. We unrolled a partial roll of wire from gatepost to hay cradle, forming a "nowhere else to go" leading to the driveway crossing. We got the rest across, wormed the keepers and sorted out the Vacation Lambs.
We were pretty tired by this point, took an iced tea break and pondered on how to capture the wild jail breakers. Layne said that we should turn Little Ringo out on the front field, then close the gate so he couldn't come back in. Then give the runaway flying lambs time to time settle down, call Little Ringo back in with feed and the Escapee ram lambs would follow him back in the lot. Great idea. He dragged a cow panel against the hog panel, cutting off their escape, let Little Ringo out on the field and we went to Crockett. We filled up the truck and had Mexican food, came back. By this time it was almost feeding time anyway, so Layne opened the gate to the night pen, Little Ringo came in for feed, followed by booger hunting ram lambs. Layne eased the gate shut. He fed Little Ringo in a jug and closed him up. Now for the wild lambs. Layne flapped his shirt at them and they lost their minds. Bouncing off the wire, searching for a way out, there was only one escape from the 6 foot tall monster and they ran across the driveway. I quickly dragged the hog panel across and closed off their escape back to the front field unless they decided to go flying again. We let them calm down while we dismantled our redneck crossing and put everything back in it's right place. We worked those 4 and put out feed in the other pen, leaving the holding pen empty. Closed the half cow panel gate.
Layne could now back the truck and trailer into the holding pen, but we had to get the lambs and 3 ewes back in the chute. We opened the gate, attached a cow panel to it and to the opening to the chute. I shook feed, lured ewes and most of the lambs into the chute, the big monster flapping shirt moved the rest of them along. close THAT gate. Next was to make the end of the chute to the trailer escape proof....... cow panels to the rescue. Layne backed the trailer until the end gate reached one end of the holding pen and we closed the gap under the trailer end gate with a....... what else? Yup, a half of a cow panel! Cow panel went on the other side of the trailer, from end of chute to trailer. That left the gap from under the end of trailer to the ground. We closed it up with a bag of trash, a feed sack stuffed with other feed sacks and a big feed pan.
Time to load...... I put a feed pan in the front of the trailer, shook feed and dribbled some in the pan. Layne opened the end gate on the chute. Ewes up front, coming for the feed, after a little hesitation, they jumped in the trailer, Layne slow walked the lambs up, they crowded up at the end of the trailer, then jumped in to join the ewes and eat feed. Closed end gate on trailer!
It only took all day.
Untied cow panels and dragged them up against fence, I pulled truck and trailer out, ready to leave next morning. Layne set 2 buckets of water in the trailer and 2 pans of feed. Then we fed the rest of the animals.
We left out at 3:00 AM the next (Monday) morning. Long trip. They start accepting sheep and goats at 8AM, sale is at 10AM. We got there a little after 8, I expected to see a long line of people waiting to unload but the parking lot was practically empty.
WHERE IS EVERYBODY?
We got unloaded and parked truck and trailer. No cafe. No coffee. No breakfast. Cafe being remodeled. Crap. But there would be a food truck at 10. Oh joy, still wouldn't be any coffee. We took naps in the truck. I walked the catwalk and there were tons of pens full of sheep and goats. Mine were in a pen as a group, only got one yellow auction sticker on one sheep. Hmmmm.......... at Emory and other auctions I've been to, each animal gets a sticker. Learning new things here. We went and sat down right before the auction started. Still no crowds of people, only rows of buyers. It was like we waked into an exclusive country club that we didn't belong to. Lots of friendly banter between the buyers, Spanish flew, answered with more Spanish from the Gringo buyers. LOL We were probably the only sellers in the bunch. Hmmmm......... the upshot was, almost everybody brought their sheep and goats on SUNDAY, the day before and went home, send the check. Learned something new. Hamilton is one of the BIG SHEEP AND GOAT sales. Market report for Monday isn't posted yet, but on March 2, they had 2,157 head go through the auction. It's also the closest one to me.
In East Texas, they run sheep and goats through before the cattle sale. There are no only sheep and goat sales, those are all out in west Texas.
Here I thought we were being so smart, getting there early to get unloaded and were were practically dead last. I wanted to stay until they sold so I could take my check home in my hot little hand. Plus, never having been there, I wanted to watch the whole thing for the experience. Unfortunately being almost last, over half the buyers had filled their quotas and left. But I still got very good prices and was happy with what I got.
Because I'm having hernia surgery next week, I also had to wean and take the ram lambs instead of taking an extra month to feed them for more weight gain. I'm under a time crunch, having to trim the flock NOW so it will be easier on someone else to take care of the flock while I'm down for a month to recuperate.
And I'm selling Little Ringo. His work here is done, he's related to way too many of my ewes, time for him to move on. Couldn't load him in the trailer with 21 lambs and 3 ewes, he would have tried to breed them all. Plus he would have sold by the pound and he's too good for that. I have an 8:00 appointment at the hospital Friday to preregister, then I'm coming home, we are going to load him up and I'm taking him to Emory, along with his registration papers. I'll unload, send me the check and I'll come back home.
All of this, so we can go to the memorial service on Saturday. We're gonna make it. Before I have surgery, we are going to sort and wean the ewe lambs. I have 2 ewes with new babies, they will get sorted out with the lambs so they and their babies don't have to fight for something to eat.
I'm tired y'all.
flowerbug
Garden Master
haha! i read all of that and enjoyed it but now that i'm done i feel like a nap would be good.
take care of yourself. i guess your back has recovered ok?
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