September Farm Update

Howdy dear readers!  I wanted to give you a farm update, since I haven’t kept up with all the going’s on here.

First and foremost, I hit 202 readers!  Thank you all and a very warm welcome to the new folks.  I appreciate that you are here and reading my substack.  I hope that you will continue to enjoy what I write.

I got the tractor running.  Not me personally, but it’s going again thanks to several other people who came to help me.  One friend volunteered a relative who is a car mechanic, and he came out to the farm and rebuilt the carburetor for me.  One of my readers suggested Youtube videos, and I did watch a few and decided that this was above my ability to rebuild correctly. 

It still needed to be adjusted to run better and another friend volunteered their son in law to adjust that for me.  The SIL got their tractor running and adjusted so he had the experience to do that. 

A great big thank you to everyone who helped me. I am so grateful.

I was able to put air in the tires LMAO!!

My second load of hay is due to come in sometime in the next 2 weeks.  Hopefully this will hold us thru the winter.  Right now, the sheep are grazing my side pasture.  I let it grow up, so they have about a month-ish of additional graze before we must go totally to hay.  I try not to feed hay before October if I can.  My main pasture is pretty well eaten down now. 

Lucy is doing great!  Her body condition is really good for her considering her age going into winter.  Upping her mash has helped her put weight back on.  She is a sassy pants and runs to me to get her daily “treat” which is either peanuts in the shell, an apple, or graham crackers.  She will also happily munch oreo cookies!

Brandy horse survived her gluttony with the grain with no problems.  Colic watch is over, and I am no longer pawing thru her poop.  I am thankful we dodged the bullet on this one.  Rob would be so mad at me for letting anything happen to his horse.  We both made a pact with each other that we would take care of the other’s furbabies in the event of something happening.  So, it’s my responsibility to take care of her for him.

My ewe with the belly ache is back to her normal self again.  Another problem solved!  Pepto, pain meds, dry hay and baking soda to the rescue!  She seems to be staying away from anything that is green at the moment.  Good plan on her part!

I do have one of my rams in the barn hospital at the moment.  My sweet Taliesin aka Tally was having some issues with the other rams.  They were kicking him off the food and we saw he was losing weight, along with having another abscess on his mouth.  Plus they were taking advantage of his being smaller, and with the lack of food, weaker, and were beating on him pretty hard.  Tally is my sweet boy who is more of a big dog than a ram.  He will walk with you with his head against your leg and just be happy doing it.  We can do anything to him without any kind of a fight.  He is a one of a kind ram.

He's been on antibiotics again for the abscess, its been drained, and has gone away at this time.  He was not too good about the eating part, even with no competition for the food.  He was not interested in the mash like we make for Lucy.  So I put him back on dry food, which consisted of alfalfa cubes broken up with sweet feed.  He was still not very interested. 

I touched base with my vet who did suggest we do a week of Penicillin in case he had some other underlying bug in his system.  My vet knows I’m not in a position to afford a bunch of blood work and vet visits. 

After 4 days of the penicillin, he started to be more interested in the food but was still not tearing into it like he should be.  So I drenched him a day ago with a half a bottle of flat Guinness dark beer.  The yeasts and other delicious bugs in it can perk up their rumen and get their appetite back, and it did indeed work.  He will get the other half of the bottle tonight.  It’s good to go out and see that he cleaned up the food in his dish and is eating the hay he has.  Plus he is drinking more water.  All good!!

Once he has recovered sufficiently and the fly’s go off more, I’ll be taking him down to the vet and have him surgically castrated so that he can be in with the girls without problems.  I will be sad to not have him as a breeding ram anymore.  He makes beautiful babies with small heads.  We use him on first time ewes so they have an easier delivery. But I don’t want to lose him as a sheep so this is pretty much the best option for him now. 

Douglas will take over with first time ewes.  His babies don’t have ginormous heads.  Angus is the ram who has the big headed babies.  He’s tough on new moms.

The weather has finally cooled off.  We are staying in the low 80’s to high 70’s and down into the 50’s at night.  Good sleeping weather!  Had some rain this past weekend, which I am grateful for.  Should have some more of that tonight I hope.  I might get a bit of growth out of what remains in the main pasture.  It has not totally turned brown yet! 

The folks who loaned me their son in law for tractor fixing are also new to sheep. Michael and I went over last Saturday to pay back the favor by teaching them how to trim their sheep feet. It was really easy, their feet were in good shape and only needed a bit of toe tip taken off and the sides trimmed down. Michael got to hold one of their turkeys who was following him around their place. (Yes I looked at their sheep poop)

The coyotes are moving around more again.  I hear them both morning and night out yipping at each other.  I’m sure the pack of 8 last winter has grown this year.  It sounds like there are more voices out there than before.  The outside guard dogs have been blowing up at night more and I suspect they are moving thru my yard. By the time I get outside, they have morphed into the trees and I don’t see them.  I have not caught them on a game camera yet though.  Like every other animal, they are looking for that last minute bulk up before the cold weather hits and food gets scarce.  I don’t blame them for following their instincts, but they better stay away from my flock. 

I still have a few hats left from the great hat sale!  If you are looking for an exceptionally warm, soft, and handmade hat for winter, get it now before they are all gone!! The Great Hat Sale

I did start a new lace shawl from my hand spun lace weight yarn. Stay tuned for a post on that one as I go along with it. Right now, I’m stumbling over the charts, I really dislike knitting from charts! I’m going to have to write it out.

I think that covers everything going on here.  If I’ve missed something you want an update on, please let me know in the comments and I’ll get you an answer. 

Thanks for reading!

Blessed Be!