Sheep

Friday 20 May 2011

Amber, Possum and I head out to check the sheep today. I know there is no way I can handle our recalcitrant ewe on my own. She’s in the yard, fit and healthy with the two lambs still alive. Well done ewe for keeping them alive on a cold night. Amber and I open the little gate and out she goes like a Bondi tram. She heads for the gate we had shut and runs into it three times, third time lucky over she goes. Disaster, I’m looking at rearing these lambs, night time feeds, torture, I’ve already done it with four kids, don’t need to do it with two lambs.

We run to the ute and chase the ewe around the paddock. Amber and I jump out and run her down, Amber sits on her while I drive the ute up beside her. We lift her onto the ute, she weighs a tonne, quite a struggle. We get her up and pause for breath, big mistake. She’s up on her feet, runs across the back of the ute and off the other side. Off across the paddock she goes, we ring Hubby to tell him the good news, but don’t worry we’ll sort it. Great! Amber and I head her off again, but she’s in the middle of the rocks, no way I can get the ute up beside her. Amber and I wonder what to do, Possum hops out of the ute and the ewe jumps up and runs straight past him. Back in the ute again, we follow her across the paddock, she heads towards the flock, so we cut her off and head her back towards the shed. Eventually she collapses. Amber sits on her again while I bring the ute up beside her. This time we consider hobbling her while she is on the ground, but then we realise we can’t lift her up with her legs tied together, its all we can do to lift her as it is. Still I have the hobbles in my pocket and the moment we get her on the back of the ute the hobbles go on, before we even put the side up.

We head back to the shed, we’ve been chasing her for over half an hour, we are hoping the lambs are still there. As we drive into the shed yard I spot one lamb still in the sheep yards, Amber spots the other near the water trough. I pull up as close as possible to the yard, as I’m reversing into place Amber panics “Stop mum!” I stop, the lamb has headed our way and is under the back of the ute. Close call. We gently lower the ewe over the side and force her back into the little yard. We put the lambs in with her, check her water and head back to the inlaws for a quick drink and to give the keys back.

Surprise, Hubby pulls in just after us. Apparently Father in Law had gone to check on us because we took so long, but couldn’t find us. Amazing, it is only 1000 acres, not the Simpson desert. Still we did it ourselves, justly proud. Hubby suggests we head back and check the ewe, she can’t be too bad she kept the lambs alive all night. At the yard we open the other gates and allow the ewe a long slow walk to the paddock, she goes a short way and waits for the littlest lamb. Hubby and I agree that I’ll come back after school to check on them. We head home, Hubby goes back to work, I stop off to find out the cost of lamb formula, jaw drop it costs $80 for enough for 2 lambs for six weeks. That ewe better get it right.

After school Lily, Possum and I head out to the farm to check on the ewe and her lamb. We can’t see here when we get there. We check the yards, no lambs, we follow the path she had to take to get the lambs into the paddock, no lambs. Thankfully no sign of ewe or lambs. I pack the oats and buckets back into the shed, hopefully we won’t have to do that again.

Sheep

Monday 16 May

I checked the sheep, they were all in the front paddock, about 20 lambs, maybe more, they are very hard to count, all hiding in the stubble.

Wednesday 18 May

The sheep are hiding in the back paddock, they move around a lot! One ewe looks a bit unwell, but the rest are healthy and happy, I counted about 23 lambs. FIL tells me about the disaster of his day, finding a ewe with the lamb dead inside, and trying to get it out, legs come but no lamb. I really don’t want that with my sheep.

Thursday 19 May

The sheep have moved again, they are fast on their feet. They are in the damn paddock. I check the back paddock just to be on the safe side, there are a couple of ewes with 3 lambs between them trailing the flock, still travelling to the damn paddock. I keep going, and there in the back paddock is a lump that wasn’t there the day before, my first problem ewe. I drive up and find a ewe on the ground, laying on her side, sheep don’t lay on their side unless something is going wrong. She has two lambs, one is healthy the other isn’t so good. It looks like the first one fed while the second was being born, and then the ewe lay down, for some reason they won’t feed while she is laying down, even though they can see the udder. I try to lift her up, but she weights a tonne. Have I mentioned that these ewes are in really good condition, 72 sheep on 1000 acres way too much food to go round. Eventually I ring Hubby to come and help, the in laws are in town shopping so its up to him. While I’m waiting I check the rest of the flock, I count 27 lambs including the two with the sick ewe. Hubby heads out to help me, and lifts the ewe who promptly races off to the other end of the paddock. We put the lambs in the ute and head off after her, racing around. Eventually we pick her up and put the three of them in the sheep yards with some water and oats. The lambs are feeding when we head off. Good going for the day.

Sheep

and the odd kangaroo

In August we replaced our car with a better one, we also bought a farm ute and we purchased 72 elderly ewes from my father in law. We chose the older ewes because they are descended from better rams, than the younger ones. We went halves in four reasonable quality rams, from a high quality stud. These 76 sheep were the seed of our sheep flock.

Over the next few months we checked our sheep a couple of times a week, and lost two ewes. We put the rams in with the ewes and took them out again a couple of months later. We continued checking them a couple of times a week and watched their wool grow longer and they tummies grow fatter. Things were going well.

Sunday 8 May 21

We visited the inlaws for our regular Sunday visit and check of the sheep, Father in Law commented that his lambs had started dropping and he’d been out to our farm the day before and noticed we had 3 lambs, one set twins. So we planned for checking the sheep daily during lambing. Father in Law agreed to check them on Saturday and Tuesday, as those days we are too busy to go to the farm. I would do Monday and Thursday, Hubby would do Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

This worked for a week, then Hubby changed his work team and they needed him at work ontime, no more visiting the farm before lunch and starting work at 12, he had to be there by 9, so I got to visit the farm every day except Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday.

Joy

Last night was Amber's School Ball.

It was such a delight to watch her playing up to the camera before going, wearing the dress that I sewed for her.

Absolute delight and joy to watch my girl who is growing up so wonderfully.

I was also rather proud of how my sewing turned out. It actually looked like it was meant to and fitted her. The fact that I only finished the dress at 10am the day of the ball was a bit of a worry, because there was no room for errors. I had planned to do the work over the school holidays, but with two trips to Perth and family visiting it just didn't happen. Then I had an essay due a week before the ball, so I'm very happy that it worked out and she looked so beautiful in it.