It has been a couple of weeks and the sheep have grazed down the home pasture. 
The solar battery is finally back from the factory, and back in action. I had jerry-rigged a plug in fencer and run a series of extension cords from my neighbor Dave’s house. Not safe at all. I zapped myself something good when I first checked it.
Bub got his wood splitter for Father’s day and wanted to be able to work in the lower pasture without having to worry about driving in and out with his truck.
In the very back of the ancient road, Bub stands with his pile of logs. The pasture grass has been munched right down and looks lovely. The poop load hasn’t gotten too bad, so I am hopeful that we will have an easy year with the parasites.
The sheep take about 2 weeks to work through the upper pasture. It is much smaller then the lower pasture. This time they have been down here for 3 weeks, giving lots of time for growth and parasite die off. Here is a great link on parasites and sheep. http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/sheep/articles/grazeparasite.html
Everybody was excited to move up and knew the routine. Moses is my best buddy and stuck right by me the whole time. 
I have accepted a deposit on 6 of the sheep. 5 ewe lambs and one ram, Moses. He is unrelated and perfect for a starter flock. With the increase in the cost of grain and hay, we decided reduce the flock back to 6 or 9 for the winter. The final numbers are not set. The new owners are going to get a well trained and calm flock. Moses is such a lovely ram and I will enjoy spending time with him while he is still here. The sheep will leave in September. Another lamb, a little white ram lamb will be going at the end of this month. That will leave me with two ram lambs and one ewe lamb left in this years crop.
Pasture is a consideration in all of this. We are maxed out on viable pasture this year with 15. Making pasture takes time and if you over graze then you will never get ahead. Even with the clearing this past winter, it takes a couple of years to get pasture going.
Bub and I will be working on the wood pile and working on getting the pasture ready for the rest of the summer. We will put up around 6 cords of wood and will heat the house this winter from our own stash.
