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Lambing Days

02 Apr

Hampshire ewes and lambs

 

It’s that time of year again. We shed lamb our purebred Hampshire and Rambouillet ewes in March (mostly) at Powder Flat. This year we are blessed with good weather and a great crew. Our crew includes three Peruvian employees who have each worked for us for more than 20 years. The sheep are all in good hands!

pregnant ewes waiting

“Ayuda” ewe (“Help” in Spanish). She looks green due to the translucent green panels in the ceiling.

guardian dog and pups on the job

new mom with twins

LGD puppies with pregnant ewes

Anthony and Meghan

Rambouillet ewes with their lambs

Anthony, Oscar Tiarnan and Modesto

wild horses on Racetrack at Lookout Rim

Jeep after looking for sheepcamp on Lookout Rim

Tiarnan with a new lamb

 

 
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Posted by on April 2, 2024 in Animals, Dogs, Family, Folks, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

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Pat’s last visits to the sheep camps

09 Mar

On February 9th and 10th, Pat made his last visits to the sheep camps. On February 9th, Pat and I attended the junior high basketball games to watch our grandson McCoy play ball. McCoy’s other grandparents,Jeff and Georgia Stocklin, came down from Ten Sleep to enjoy the games. Since it was a while between the morning game and the afternoon game, we four grandparents decided to run out to Powder Flat, about 45 minutes away, to see how the preparations for lambing were going. We raise our own rams, and our Hampshire and purebred Rambouillet ewes lamb in March at Powder Flat. We have a winter crew who tend the one band of ewes who winter in the Powder Wash country. Things were in good order and the boys won their basketball game.

The next morning, Pat, Seamus and I headed for the Red Desert to visit with the sheepherders there and to bring home a trailer full of rams. They have completed their task of breeding the ewes so that we’ll have lambs in May and June. We were happy to see that, in utter contrast to last winter, conditions are great, with lots of dry feed which grew up last summer, and just the right amount of snow. It’s a “Goldilocks Winter”–not too much and not too little. We had a great day.

It is with a heavy heart that I report that these were Pat’s last visits to the sheep and the sheep camps. One February 13th, he had a severe stroke, and he died on February 25th. I will post more on this later. Here’s some photos from those visits.

Georgia, Pat and Jeff at Powder Flat

blackface ewes at Powder Flat

Anthony readying the corrals

ewes on the Red Desert

Happy ewes

Pat, Oscar and Jose on Cyclone Rim

Sharon and guardian dog

trailer, ready to load

Seamus bringing in the bucks

rams in their working clothes

Pat and Pepe
January 30, 2021

 

 
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Posted by on March 9, 2024 in Animals, Events, Family, Folks, Horses, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

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Ace-in-the-Hole

10 Jan

Anthony with his horse

It’s not yet Valentine’s Day, but this time of year is important for romance among the sheep. I’m not sure if sweet nothings are involved, but we do end up with lambs in the spring. Some of the ewes, and accompanying rams, are in the Powder Wash country, between Baggs and Rock Springs. An area known as “Ace-in-the-Hole” offers great feed and salt sage. This winter has been mild (unlike last winter, when the sheep couldn’t graze) with enough snow but not too much. Anthony herds this bunch, which includes the older ewes and the two-year-olds. He is assisted by several Border collies and Livestock Guardian dogs. Anthony’s father, Edgar, comes every day to bring corn to supplement the sheep. The weatherman is predicting a cold spell.

Anthony’s sheepwagon

 

sheep at Ace-in-the-Hole

ewes in the headlights

 

 
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Posted by on January 10, 2024 in Animals, Folks, Horses, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

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North to the Red Desert

01 Dec

sheepcamp at sunrise

It is time for our annual trek north with the sheep. Most of our ewes spend the winter on the Red Desert, on the Cyclone Rim and Chain Lakes grazing allotments. This didn’t work out so well last winter when we had record snow fall, cold and terrible wind.We had to evacuate the sheep at the end of January. This year, so far, has been on the dry side–hard to believe when I look at the photos from this time last year. My Dad used to say that more sheep have starved to death in a snowbank than on dry ground. Still, we need snow for the sheep to water on, and for next year’s grass. We are hoping for a Goldilocks winter–not too snowy, not too dry.

Here’s some pics from the sheep crossing from the Badwater pasture north to Creston Junction, where we cross under Interstate 80 and head north to the Red Desert.

the herd approaching the Rodewald gate

passing the fireworks store

 

heading for the underpass

trailing under the schoolbus

Jose

under I80

on to winter pasture

Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on December 1, 2023 in Animals, Dogs, Folks, Horses, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

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Checking the bucks again

15 Nov

bucks waiting in the corral, Edgar, Jose

Our intrepid friend, Geri Parsons of Optimal Livestock Services, is once again making her rounds to make sure the bucks are ready for their annual duty of impregnating the ewes. They have one job and  most winters they are with the ewes from mid-December to mid-February to make sure the ewes are exposed through two heat cycles. Usually, we take them out after a couple of months. The winter of 2022-2023 was so severe that we didn’t take the bucks out until shearing in early May–not because that is a new normal for management. It was just so cold and snowy for so long we didn’t want to further stress the sheep by working them, and we didn’t really have a better place to care for the bucks separately, since every critter was on full feed anyway. Our weather prognosticator friend assures us, using very complicated explanations, that he expects the winter weather in our neck of the woods to be fairly normal whatever that is. El Nino will strike elsewhere, according to him. No matter what, we want the rams to be in tip-top shape. Any buck with less than optimal testicles or sperm has gone to the “train station (see Yellowstone TV show). Sorry guys, but that’s the way it is in the ovine world.

Meghan, Chandler and Geri checking the rams in the chute.

Chandler working the chute

Meghan marking the rams

rams at Powder Flat, with our new yard ornaments, the Pacificorps Power lines

 

 
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Posted by on November 15, 2023 in Animals, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Sheep

 

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Pregnant, late or open

08 Nov

cows coming in

It’s that time of year again. The cows have spent the summer on the forest, raising their calves. The calves have been weaned and now it time to decide which cows will stay and which will go. A key factor in this decision is pregnancy. The cows have also been keeping company with bulls all summer. If all went well, they are pregnant. If not, they will find a new home. Our friend and long-time veterinarian Warner McFarland came with his ultrasound machine to check each cow and call out, “pregnant,” “late,” or the dreaded “open.” Luckily, not many cows were open (i.e. not pregnant). Since all of our summer crew has departed for warmer climes, we depend on family and Chandler to get things done.

Meghan, waiting for the cows to cross the bridge and head up th the corrals

heading into the corral

Megan looking at the eartag

Eamon operating the chute

Megan checking a cow

Warner preg checking

Megan entering data

through the rails

 

 
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Posted by on November 8, 2023 in Events

 

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Autumn work

04 Nov

horses in Big Meadow

 

It’s that time of year when we are crazy busy. The cows and calves, and the ewes and lambs, have trailed down from the grazing allotments on the Routt and Medicine Bow National Forests (which are geographically one forest). Once they have trailed back to pastures around the Home Ranch, we look at each and every animal. We sort off the calves and the lambs. Both are sold to buyers. The calves go on to be fed and eventually become tasty steaks and burgers. Some of the heifer calves go on to become cows. The wether lambs and the smut-faced lambs go on to become tasty lamb chops and holiday legs of lamb. The white-faced ewe lambs stay home to become ewes. We look at every cow and every ewe. The cows are pregnancy tested by our trusty vet, who calls out “pregnant” or “late” or “open”. The opens (not pregnant) are sold and the pregnants stay home to produce next spring’s calves. The ewes are checked, one by one. Most of them stay with the ranch. They will go to winter pastures, hang out with the rams, and have lambs in the spring. Some ewes are older, or lack teeth, but can go to gentler climes in the Midwest and remain productive. Some are not sound, and go on to become food in Mexico. It is a time of decision-making as we select the animals that can continue to sustain us. After the terrible losses of the 2022-2023 harsh winter, we cast a special eye. “Is she strong enough?” “can she survive a hard winter?” “will it even be a hard winter?” We are all still shell-shocked from last winter, and this adds extra perspective to these decisions which we make every fall.

In the meantime, we have to appreciate the blessings of fine weather and the joy of working with livestock.

horses in the corral, contemplating the day’s work

old ewes on the Mesa

Alejandro’s bellwether Solano, and friend

ewes by the chute

cows after sorting

cows, fall work

 

 

 

 
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Posted by on November 4, 2023 in Animals, Cattle, Horses

 

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Checking the bucks

01 Oct

Edgar and Robyn testing bucks

Each fall, Geri Parsons from Optimal Livestock Services LLC comes to test our rams for health and fertility. This year she was assisted by our intrepid crew of ranchhands. The rams give up a semen sample into a test tube.. This is passed to Geri in her mobile lab where she checks the semen for viability. In addition to the ram-handling crew, this year she was assisted by our grandson Seamus, who helped with the techinical parts of the testing. The whole process involves flesh and blood bucks, and microscopes and computers. When we get the results, we cull any bucks who are not promising as future fathers, and keep the others fat and happy until it is time to go in with the ewes in December. A lucky few go in now with the purebred ewes, Hampshire and Rambouillet, so they may lamb in March. We raise future replacement rams and ewes from these purebreds, completing the circle.

our crew hard at work

Geri checking the microscope

Seamus reading results, with the help of Good Dog Tony

Seamus and Geri after a long day of good work

At day’s end, the buck testing groupies showed up to encourage the crew

 
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Posted by on October 1, 2023 in Dogs, Folks, Folks who help us out, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

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Loading steers

02 Sep

loading the steers

 

 

Campbell on the job

After a summer of cell grazing, it is time for yearling steers to leave the high country. Here we are loading them on trucks, fat and happy.

in the chute, waiting to load

 

 

working the steers

sorting

Supermoon rising

 
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Posted by on September 2, 2023 in Animals, Cattle, Folks, Folks who help us out

 

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Sandman Mountain

02 Sep

Sandman with his pal, Mr. Easter Island Moai

 

 

Timeless climb, steadfast,
hefting pack of sleeptime sand
up Sandman Mountain

 

 

 

 

Sandman Mountain

 
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Posted by on September 2, 2023 in Nature and Wildlife, Poetry

 

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