Riyescott Ranch

well it had only just started raining and look at all that water! this is the 12″ and we have compromised and got an 18″ hopefully will be installed on Sunday. My husband figured out that an 18″ was over double the size of a 12″. Now I find that hard to get my brain around but math was not my best subject.

On the baby feeding front the bucket just plain did not work. I put in 8 cups of milk. Carefully put the lid on and let them suck. They got the idea but nothing is coming out. Don’t know what I am doing wrong meantime we are back with the bottles again!

The weather looks as if we may have a dry week…….

We are preparing for the Brookings Christmas Bazaar held in the Brookings High School every year. I am now at the 11th hour frantically making stuff to sell. I was wondering where this “bazaar” word came from and looked it up. You can find out about anything on the internet! Here is what I found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazaar look at the three photos, do you think the Brookings Christmas Bazaar will look like this? No. Close? No. Watch for the post in November and we will see!

Here is so far my pitiful collection.

For those of you interested, babies are doing fine; in fact they about knock me over when I go into the barn with the bottles.

Culverts that were put in before the heavy rain will have to be dug up again as we have 24 inches of rain trying to go down a 12″ hole. Sigh. It was hilarious to see me and one of the guys at Del Cur trying to get the 12″ in my trailer. Another math problem…how to get a 20′ long 12″ tube in a 16′ horse trailer. Wish I had had my camera with me.

The animals don’t like this rain as they cram together under the shelter. Looks like a bit of a break today….

I was recently in England. My parents needed me to visit and I wanted to visit the lady, Mary Bell who sold me the Herdwick semen. The English Sunday paper would take you a week to read it! Massive. I read about River Cottage and heard it mentioned a few times. What is it? Well it is a way of life, a place,a TV Show and a web site. www.rivercottage.net

They talk about thinking about food and where it comes from and how good it is or how good is it?. They say River Cottage is a way of life. I really like the sound of it. If you have time read some of the pages and perhaps start to get to River Cottage too.

We have our own eggs from chickens that run free, they eat grass and bugs and turn that into the best eggs you can imagine. Still a bit squeamish about it but I must learn to kill and pluck a chicken. I only have a few turkeys this year and I am thinking about geese for next year. I am determined to have a producing garden next year. This year we had a bumper crop of Berries and the Tomatoes are still good.

I got 12 50pound bags of seed delivered today. I should go out and scatter them as a big storm is coming. I also picked up culverts today only to be told when I got home they were not big enough!

Babies are doing great and I am getting a bit more sleep.

Start the day bottle feed the babies end the day bottle feeding babies. Bil (yes that is correct) is making me a milk bar. This is a bucket with teats and (hopefully) you pour the milk in the top and they suck it out the teat! I am glad to be one on one with them at the moment as some are still not faring as well as the others. Our friend Mei came by last night with little shots of Bo-Se to boost their vitamins. Thanks Mei. The little boy still is not really bouncing yet.

I fixed lamb chops last night. Mei liked them but Dale has not quite warmed up to the idea of eating lamb. I think a lot of people either never had it or had a bad memory of it. If you have never tried it, you don’t know what you are missing. My sheep are on pasture and I do not use or give any chemicals. About as good as it gets.

Tomorrow I am going to make a Shepherds Pie. You take a couple Shepherds….No, ground lamb and brown in a pan with carrots and onions and add some gravy. Then make mashed potato. Put the lamb mixture in a casserole dish with the potatoes on top. Top with grated cheese and brown in the toaster oven! Serve with fresh vegetables.

I ordered some supplies from a vet catalog yesterday and read about recommending antibiotic treatments to help stop animals from aborting. This is a reason I don’t eat meat I don’t know. Ironic when people say how can you eat lamb if you knew it and loved and looked after it? I think we are privileged to eat meat we know.

But as promised here are some photos of the babies:

With that I will say goodnight

A vegetarian for about 10 years and almost vegan for about the last 3 years.

I think it was a variety of things that put me off meat. We drove by the slaughter ranch on the I5 often to get to Bakersfield when we lived in Southern California. The smell and site of those cows standing in manure with water spayed over them. It made me sick. Then reading about how animals are treated and reading about the hormones and chemicals in the chicken that you get at the super market. Well just put me off. And I have survived a long time without meat protein. One problem a few years ago I noticed I was gaining a lot of weight. I read somewhere about how bad soy is. Woops, I was eating it all the time….breakfast sausage, soy ice cream and soy milk. Soy imitation burgers. What was I thinking?

Soy is not meant to be eaten like that. Not to mention the chemical process it goes through to make beans into well anything. I think I read somewhere they used it to make the gear shift in the Model “T” Ford. http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/soybean.htm Who knew? I just don’t want to eat it anymore. Do you read the labels on the food you buy? Soy is in everything. Why is it in Tuna? I want to know. And I don’t think I will go into Canola oil here but avoid this too at all costs!

Anyway I gave that up. And I gave up dairy about the same time. Lost a lot of weight. I eat a lot of eggs and veggies and bread….

BUT now I raise sheep. And I just had to try my own grass fed lamb if I am to sell it. I have never had lamb so good in all my life. You might not know me personally so in that case you would not know that I am English. A Brit. And growing up for Sunday lunch we would have a leg of lamb. I liked it, but this meat I am raising here is WONDERFUL!

And even people who say that they don’t like lamb are being converted to this meat.

Will I ever get used to the killing though? It is not as bad as I thought. I think when someone said that animals have no knowledge, therefore no fear of death and that my butcher is fast and they really never know about it. Like anything I guess you get used to it. Sheep raising and lamb eating is ancient. Early settlers domesticated sheep for milk,meat wool and pelts. It is as old as BC.

I have tried raising Turkey’s but without much luck. If the Geese will stay in the field, then watch out Christmas 2008 and we might have a Christmas goose on the table. I wonder how I would cook it? I plan to put an AGA in the kitchen http://www.universal-akb.com/585agafoovco.html and I don’t think one would fit!

I know I promised photos of the babies but it will have to be tomorrow. They all seem to be doing ok now. Keep a good thought.

Got up early, who needs sleep anyway? All the lambs still alive! I think the electrolyte supplement really helped. One of the little girls is still not drinking as well as I would like and the little boy although better not quite right yet.

It is very foggy this morning and next week there is rain every day in the forecast. I am planning on burning some of the small brush piles and cleaning up.

I had an idea last night that I need to use the Knitters loom to make articles for the bazaar. If I had a bit of help around here I would have more free time. Every day I get just a bit more done…

Photos later..

A couple of the babies seem to have respiratory problems. I have been trying to get them to eat for hours. I have given some electrolytes and kept them under the light. Temps on some are around 104. over 103 is not good. If no better tomorrow I will get something to give them from the vet. The AI guy used all my penicillin. I just must be more prepared for problems.

It was a beautiful sunny day today and the logger, Walt, put in a much needed culvert. We hope this will cure the water run off we have experienced in the past few years. I do believe it is Sunday although all my days run together. Must go to bed and get some sleep. Babies are all settled for the night.

14 ewes were bred by Laparoscopic Insemination to produce the first Herdwick sheep in the USA. Very exciting stuff
This is Martin breeding a ewe. We will know in 140 days the outcome of today’s events.

Meanwhile I know you want to know how the babies are. They are racing around the barn and all, even the bent up little girl are doing fantastic. I will be banding, fixing the white boys in the next few days and they will be for sale as pet lambs. The three white girls and the one black girl will be kept for the breeding program next year. The black ram lamb, well he will be for sale as an intact male most likely next year. I think I will use him as my Finn ram next year. He has a really nice fleece.

How is this for eye candy Friday

And what about this to help those of you who want to quit smoking

And still my Mother smokes. In England they put different messages on the packages of cigarettes or FAGS as they are called. But people still smoke.

Check in over the weekend for more photos….

who said sheep are stupid? This is not her mother, and not the first time I have seen her on this nice soft spot. Michael was over helping today and whipped out his cell phone.

I have a lot to say but need to feed the babies and get ready for the Ai tomorrow. Wendy, Sierra, Mei and perhaps Linnea are coming to help. Must get someone to take photos.

Well yesterday was exhausting. The final ewe had her lambs right in the middle of me pulling out sponges and giving shots to the ewes that will be bred on Friday. I thought she looked like perhaps she had a single or at best twins. No, triplets. One she must have had in one corner and then had another, forgot about the first then another. But the last little girl is all crooked. She could not stand. So I unfroze some of the cow colostrum. It is not easy to get cubes of colostrum out of an ice cube tray. Anyway I can’t believe the strength in this little girl. She sucked on the bottle and I got her standing She is all well just odd. But she wants to live and even at not even one day old has been bouncing around with the others. So now I have 6 bottle babies!

And I don’t know how I got through giving the shots. Bil made me a head lock to hold the ewes while I did each one. I had to write down the order and do it in groups. The ewes did not want any part of it, but some how I found the strength, perhaps the same strength that the little girl has to get through it. I finally got to bed at 4.30am. Got up at 8am and I just don’t know how I do it!

Oh, and the storm finally hit last night. Got a break now for a few days….
If you go to Lynett’s blog she has the photo’s from the children coming up to see the lambs yesterday too.

All for now.