Tag Archives: Sheep

A New Ewe

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Blackie, our new ewe!

Blackie, our new ewe!

Her arrival was uncerimonial to say the least, but we are very happy that she is here. Introducing Blackie, our new ewe.

Blackie arrived from Quebec on the evening of Friday February 1. She, and her people had had a long drive and were glad to finally stop. It was dark, cold, and she was quite content in her truck, but our place was her final destination. I picked her tiny frame (very tiny, she is just knee high) up off the truck, and placed her on the snow. She didn’t mind her halter, but wasn’t too sure about this cold white stuff under her feet again. Blackie felt VERY pregnant.

She hesitantly at first, but after the sheep treat was introduced, joyfully walked to her new stall. She will be in there until she lambs, which shouldn’t be too long now. Everyone was surprised to find her user so full, and imagine my surpass, when on Monday I felt her user again and she presented it to me. Lamb following soon!

 

An All Sorts Christmas

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Christmas is something I have always had a love/hate relationship with. On one hand I love the traditions from around the world, the gathering, the nostalgia, the food, and most of the time the family. The things I don’t like include the shopping, the commercialism, the pervasive annoying bad christmas music, and the feeling that I have never QUITE got enough done. Often I get very worried about the traditional turkey dinner, what the tree looks like (is it good enough?), did I do Christmas RIGHT?

This year is kind of different. Some of our traditions are going out the window! We are not…wait for it…having a turkey! We have ALWAYS had turkey at Christmas. This year, with so few people at the dinner table (3 or 4) we are going to dig into a wonderful home grown chicken instead. Not to mention some of our own potatoes, carrots, and kale too.

FINALLY, we are not buying presents…or too many presents anyway. All the grown-ups decided that we will give far fewer gifts. Tim’s family is really good at this, mine, not so much. We love to buy each other presents! We don’t try and out compete each other or anything, we genuinely enjoy the joy the other person gets when reviving a gift. BUT it is just too much, so we have cut WAAAY back.

Something else that is different this year is our decorating. Usually we pull out our tired old decorations, put the up the same way we have year after year, and leave it until twelfth night. This year we got new lights, cut conifer boughs and dogwood branches, and created some outdoor decorations as well. They are simple, but we think they look nice with their red bows and coloured balls.

Our caller tree sparkles in front of the window so the sheep can chickens can see it too. We like the thought of them being able to see the coloured lights at night.

Christmas day has become an animal day, as we are so grateful for them. We will sing Christmas carols to our animals during chores ( I wonder if there are chickens in the Christmas story?), then go to the animal shelter, clean litter boxes, and sing some more to the animals. Then, come home and take our dog for a walk. Can you think of a better Christmas morning then that!?!

SO, we have shaken things up and changed them around a bit just enough to breathe new life into our holidays. All sorts of strokes for all sorts of folks right:)

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sheep lawn mowing and drought

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This week The Weather Network came over to see how the drought impacted the sheepscaping business.

Like many other livestock owners the lack of rain is disconcerting.

Check out the clip! Natalie did a great job!

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/index.php?product=news&pagecontent=storm_watch_stories3&stormfile=Using_sheep_as_lawn_mowers_24_07_2012

Move over lawnmowers, sheep are coming to cut your grass in Guelph

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Thanks Chris for the great story! It was a pleasure to have you there.

Chris Seto, Mercury staff – Wed Jul 11 2012

GUELPH — Lawnmowers, eat your heart out.

Sheep are stealing your job as grass cutters and will soon make you obsolete. At least, that’s what Jennifer Osborn is hoping.

The Guelph farmer runs a permaculture micro-farm with her husband on Jones Baseline, north of Guelph. Under the farm’s name All Sorts Acre, the farmers are attempting to launch a grass cutting business in downtown Guelph that uses sheep instead of lawnmowers.

“Using animals to cut grass is used in other parts of the world. It’s not too common here yet,” Osborn said. The new business is still feeling around to see if there’s an appetite in the city for residents to choose sheep-mowers over lawnmowers.

Transporting them around in her Matrix hatchback, Osborn brought three Shetland sheep to a house on Dufferin Street on Tuesday morning and set up a makeshift pen in the backyard. She set out a ramp and led them into the yard full of long grass, and put them to work. This was the third time she’s brought the animals to the city to cut longs, and so far the sheep seem to be enjoying the urban vegetation.

“We’ve learned a lot in these three times,” she said. “For urban areas, for small plots of land, these guys are perfect.”

Although they are still testing the waters with this new business, Osborn said there’s more to it than just providing an alternative method of lawn maintenance. She said it’s half about the lawn care and half about collecting research.

 

MORE…

OUCH! That hurt.

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thomas02.jpg

Those horns are REALLY hard!

[pe2-gallery class="alignleft" ] [/pe2-gallery]We have had our last lamb of the season Ewenice, our Babydoll southdown/Horned Dorset cross had a lamb last Friday. It was touch and go for a day, but he is just fine now.

But that isn’t what this is about. I have to give a bit of background first.

This time of year we separate the boys from the girls. This is so the lambs will not encounter constant bullying from the boys. Sheep can be very territorial when new animals are introduced to the flock. S, this is for the lambs safety. The poor little critters have to deal with the other ewes bugging them and pushing them out of the way. A large set of horns doing the job is not really a healthy option for a growing baby.

So, Thomas, and Harry both migrated to their boy-house. They were NOT happy about this. Harry still bellows as often as possible to go back to his girlfriends. Thomas is far more reserved. But, after a few days they have calmed down, and accepted their own little barn filled with straw, hay, and even their own light.

Of course this little barn is not a real barn. It is more of a very sturdy shelter. Made from salvaged and scavenged pallets, metal, and wooden boxes. Inside is a hayrack, and even a wall so the two boys don’t have to “share” the space. the only downfall is that it is a very confined space. Great for sheep, not so great for people. Really bad for people and sheep together. Terrible for people and rams with horns that really want the food the people is holding.

In a nut shell I was incredibly stupid. I put myself in a position of danger. this is not normal for me. I am normally very careful about where I am in relation to a large, unpredictable animal that can knock me flat in a heartbeat. But, on Monday I was about to leave for a talk about Nature Connection I was involved with. It had been months getting this together with a group of people so to see it actually happen was great. I was excited.

Our sheep love grain. They REALLY love it. They will do ANYTHING for it. All brains go out the window at grain time. So I hurried through chores. I stepped inside the boy-house and put down grain. I put the first lot down. Harry came into the house. I was just about to leave and thought “Oh shit. I Shouldn’t be in here”. No sooner than I thought that then

WHAM. I heard a crunch and felt a bolt of pain go through me face, travel up to me forehead, and around to the back of my head. The back of my head went numb. Harry and I had just gotten in the way of Thomas and his food. And Thomas wanted Harry out of the way. I got in the way of the the two of them.

I backed out of the boy-house and shook my hand off. It was covered in blood and tissue. Oh great.  I had to steady myself so I didn’t fall over. The back of my head was still numb. Wow. I couldn’t believe what had just happened.

Of course the sheep were all bellowing for their grain. Mmmm. I proceeded to fill up the second grain bins for Harry then went back to the paddock. The girls and babies all got their grain as well.  I put the tarp back up on the gate (a shelter when the boys wanted to be close to the girls and it was raining) and made my way up to the house. The one thing I didn’t do was finish collecting the eggs. Tim could do that when he got home.

My head was pounding, I was getting shivers all over my body, and I was still bleeding like mad. into the house I went. I had to call and let the others know I wouldn’t be there. I needed a cup of tea. I needed to call Tim to tell him to come home a bit early. I needed to sleep.  Ouch. Boy was I stupid.

So to make a long story short, I did all those things. Tim and I went to emerge and got a clear for any major damage. My family doctor agreed, with a likely hood that I had fractured my nasal bone, and possibly my hand. I know my hand got hit somehow, but I don’t know how).

The moral of this tale is one simple thing. DON’T RUSH. Being hurried caused me to disregard basic safety precautions. I knew better than this. I was an IDIOT! Animals are unpredictable and must always be monitored, even the nice ones. Thomas is a great ram, calm, gentle, and respects people most of the time. It wasn’t his fault.I feel really lucky to be alive. If I had of fallen in that confined space with a jealous set of horns and a bucket of grain…I hate to think what could have happened.