OK, got a new (to me) computer. Price was right... nice laptop for free! :)
Weather is drizzly on Our Farm. New partner is sick. He wasn't dressing for the weather. I took him to the free store & got him a coat & warm clothes, but I can't dress him. :) He's from Lake Arrowhead (ski resort town near Los Angeles) & I guess he thought he knew all about cold. The weather in Lake Arrowhead is a dry cold. MO is a wet cold! He's feeling better now. If he can last thru this (being sick & still having to care for the livestock) he'll be OK..... I think.
The sheep have started dropping lambs. We didn't want lambs this time of year, but Tonia put the ram out w/ the ewes when she left. I do, so much, prefer to have my animals in family groupings... I think they're happier living in a natural situation. But, unfortunatly... it just doesn't work if we're going to control breeding. Tonia wanted to attend all births, so she wanted to know the breeding date. I don't care about the breeding date, but I don't want to put th estress on the moms of having too many babies. I don't want them having litters (some goats are having 5 babies these days?????) I'd love just one baby, twice a year; but, these animals are designed for multiples. If they have a single, it's often so big that they go into dystosia issues. So, we'll go for just one set of babies a year. That gives us over 60 lambs a year, w/ the herd we have now. A good portion of those will be female.
This pix was taken last Fall, w/ all the sheep & goats. it's so funny, goats are on the left, sheep on the right. The few does we have left will also start popping soon. (When my former partner decided she was going to leave, she quit taking care of the livestock. I lost over half my does! Add to that the fact that she sold off all the doelings from this yrs baby crop & I'm nearly wiped out. But, we didn't loose any of the cattle & only one ewe. That's it.... positive thinking. grrrrr) Two of the three does we have were on the cull list. I'm presuming that's why they are still here. They are all good mamas, but one is the escape artist & she makes a point of teaching everyone how to escape. The other doesn't have real strong babies, but... she can't help it, she's a Boer. They were so great before reckless breeding took it's toll. We had hoped to breed a better Boer & that adding the Kiko would help. We started out w/ Boers & they're nearly all gone w/ only Kikos left. I'm actually pretty much over goats. The sheep are just so much easier!
OK, that's enough for now more later.
I'll be back to the farm asap. For now, I'm stuck in Los Angeles.
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This pix was taken last Fall, w/ all the sheep & goats. it's so funny, goats are on the left, sheep on the right. The few does we have left will also start popping soon. (When my former partner decided she was going to leave, she quit taking care of the livestock. I lost over half my does! Add to that the fact that she sold off all the doelings from this yrs baby crop & I'm nearly wiped out. But, we didn't loose any of the cattle & only one ewe. That's it.... positive thinking. grrrrr) Two of the three does we have were on the cull list. I'm presuming that's why they are still here. They are all good mamas, but one is the escape artist & she makes a point of teaching everyone how to escape. The other doesn't have real strong babies, but... she can't help it, she's a Boer. They were so great before reckless breeding took it's toll. We had hoped to breed a better Boer & that adding the Kiko would help. We started out w/ Boers & they're nearly all gone w/ only Kikos left. I'm actually pretty much over goats. The sheep are just so much easier!
