Docked, rams quarters and more spring clean up

Yesterday Bub and I tried to head out to look at tractors and ATVs. He was paged 7 times. Yard work was the order of the day. There is always more work then can be done.

We have 20 acres, all on a slope ending with several beaver ponds. 60 years ago the land was pasture and now is covered with Poplars, Red Maples, Tameracks, Beech and Birch. There are some Spruce, Cherry and some white pine with a deer yard down at the bottom of the land by the ponds. We have harvested some of the wood for trim and flooring in the house. This past winter we burned about 6 cords of wood. There is also some lumber rough cut framing. I dream of a barn.

But in the mean time, the rams need a small shade shed across the road at our neighbor’s pasture. We need to separate out Moses and Jason from Cory and Tiny. Both rams are from Cory. Tiny needs more time to heal from this past winter. I am going to put Joseph up with them as well.

It feels really good to be working on the land as partners. There are times when Bub’s projects are not as important to me and vise versa. Generally the Sheep have been my project, but he has warmed up to them and has been more interested in what is happening on the farm.

So after being paged it was clear we were not going anywhere far, so then the question was which part of the outside work should we start on. We ended up cleaning up a section of the pasture where there is an old road through the middle of the property. Going across all parts of the pasture it was clear that an ATV will be more useful then a tractor. Because the land is sloped, and the barn area is tight, a tractor might not be as useful as we would like.

Going through the pasture was also helpful in deciding where the ram’s winter pen is going to be, where the wood shed is going to be and where we need to harvest wood next season. Today was action day on the ram’s shade hut. We got the framing done then had some time left over to do some sheep chores.

This is the kicker. Generally I do the chores, including the vetting stuff by myself. Today, Bub helped me as I trimmed toe nails, docked tails and trimmed up the sheep around the back area to prevent fly strike. We do not cut off the tails or trim excess skin away from the back area, a practice called mulesing. To dock tails we place a strong rubber ring around the tail, near the back end. The circulation is cut off to the tail and the tissue dies and the tail falls off after about 2 week. The placing of the band can sometimes bother the lamb for a minute or so.

Bub does not like helping with the vetting. But it is far safer to have one person hold the lambs, while the other docks the tails.

It was also nice to have his company. I am not supposed to blog about my husband, Conrad. However, his alias “Bub” is free game. I had a good time with Bub this weekend.