Riyescott Ranch

Just look at the weather report! 80 mile an hour winds, it is still October and I am not ready for Winter. No good me complaining, I can’t do anything about the weather. Or my children smoking. Or how expensive things are. Or how old I feel. But we had two more babies this morning and all is well with that. And my four little munchkins are doing well. And it is my father’s 88 th today and he sounded great, better than he has recently. So life is good.

I also have reinvented the way to dye yarn. I can’t tell you how, trade secret but just look how good it looks .

I have to get some stuff together to sell at the bazaar in November, I am to say the least a little behind. Frantically making hats and bags…

Tune in for tomorrow’s episode I have to remove the sponges from my ewes and give them shots. 26 of them at 1am! Then on Friday morning at 9am we will be Ai’ing with martin Daly.

I am off to have my supper and watch a movie and perhaps knit a bit. Last night we, well I watched “Knocked Up” Funny but not a very responsible movie. Nobody under 21 or anyone without a job should see this movie!

I heard a song the other day it talked about once your hour glass of sand was empty do not have the option of turning it over again. So make the best of every day, but if you can do something about the weather I would really be grateful!

10pm

The final four are still with us and actually doing well. The two other ewes that are to give birth any minute and still waiting for their happy event. I managed to dye some yarn today. It was a really lovely day. The logger guy, Walt straitened out a field that needed the brush removed. It is looking good. I must call my Dad to wish him happy b-day in the morning. Oh, and I sold a spinning wheel on E-bay. So I have to go to the PO tomorrow. So good night and sleep tight!

Friday went by as I tried to save one of the lambs that became very weak. I wish I was more knowledgeable about animal husbandry. I just do my best. So looks like out of the 6 babies we have 4 strong ones left. Three boys and a girl.

This is my eye candy! I still will be feeding them but now it looks like I have a good chance.

This weekend I am getting a large order of hay delivered and 6 of the bay lambs are now this morning gone to be butchered. Looks like the rain will be here soon so I must get on with some outside jobs.

Still have two ewes to lamb. More tomorrow..

You might, if you knew about the proper cycle of farm life, wonder why am I having lambs when most people (those that breed animals that is) are just breeding? Well a long story is that we have been doing Artificial Insemination. With some of the deals this past year I was to get 4 more breedings. With Finn sheep they are year round breeders. So I thought i would take an opportunity and breed. I wish now I had not. If you saw yesterday’s post Pearl one of my best ewes had sextuplets. But she had no milk. Zero. We found some powdered cow colestrum and between the 6 lambs they drank the whole thing. It most likely saved some of them, but one died this morning and I think another is so week she will die too.

It is always hard to loose these bundles of fluff. My friend Lynette www.fernwoodwoolworks.com/blog/found fresh colostrum at the local dairy and drove it up here today. I have searched the internet and found that with cow colostrum you need more. So I think it was a bit too late. I am still trying and will do so until we are out of the woods.

Meantime Julia, another ewe had ONE! Now where is the justice in that.

One had six and one had one….stay tuned I have two more ewes to have their lambs.

What do you do when your ewe gives birth to 6 lambs? You don’t have time to write a blog!

All the way to Selma near Cave Junction we drove to meet a new stud. But River did not like him at all and ’bout bit his head off. Apparently Stead is her only true love and we had a wasted trip. She jumped back into the van and waited for me to bring her home.

I don’t know what to do. She makes good pups but I am afraid poor Stead just can’t, well get it up anymore!

On a different subject I spoke to Liza yesterday. Liza is my only daughter and the best daughter a mother could ever have. She had a high blood pressure reading while at the doctors a few months ago and he gave her blood pressure medication. A 28 year old healthy young woman on blood pressure meds! She went back to see him and what did he do? Gave her a perscription for 6 more months! I just think these doctors give medications without reason. I think the allergy meds she takes could be the cause. Anyway what can I do?

More later.

My Maremma livestock guardian dogs are wonderful. Everybody who meets them find them friendly and affectionate. Well Emma is a bit of an exception. She takes her job very seriously. Apparently if I am around she is fine but not if I am gone. Anyway we got River about 4 years ago. On her first heat she and Stead “tied”, but the result was one puppy. I think she turned on him and that caused him some injury. Anyway the next time he got an infection. The vet gave him some heavy antibiotics and that cleared up the infection. But the poor guy cannot tie with either girls. We have tried for pups for the past 3 years. even with the vet trying to collect the semen and then inseminate. Still no puppies.

My friend Carol just got a new pup. Well he is around 9 months old and not yet fixed. So today River and I will go to visit this boy and she if he can get the job done.

So be patient as I work out the kinks!

I do have a lot to say but two finger typing is slower than my brain…well most of the time. I thought this morning I would
tell you a little about some of my many projects.

Artificial Insemination of sheep. This will be the third time Martin Daley has done this for me. The first part of the procedure is not for the squeamish. Sponges infused with a hormone must be inserted into the ewe 15 or so days before the procedure. Now I am always trying to reinvent the wheel but it would make it easier to see if they are still in if the little strings were brightly coloured. Has no one ever thought of this? Well it is very difficult to see the little white strings (they look just like a tampon) bright hunting orange would be much easier. I will dye the ends next year! I just noticed one of my Gotlands has lost hers.

Next the sponges come out and a shot of yet another hormone will bring them into cycle. On the 12th of October we will be all day doing the surgery. I will have photos of that and all the details.

I am so excited about the Herdwicks. Look on my web page at some of the photos I took while in England.