Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Animal Anarchy

It has been a bit nuts here to say the least. Kevin Ford sheared for three days last week finally finishing the last sheep Saturday morning. While shearing is going on, it is chaos. The sheep have to be penned up and kept dry without food and water before they are shorn. They aren’t happy and they are very noisy. After each one’s turn, Mark takes the sheep from Kevin and pushes it through the gate to let it loose to find its other friends. Our fencing system becomes discombobulated because we don’t have enough lengths of fence to hold every one in different spots. By Saturday afternoon, it was bedlum. The goats were loose and enjoying my vegetable and flower garden, the bottle lambs decided they should come back in the house to visit where they grew up and Jeremy the guard llama decided he should visit the neighbors. When John called to tell me Jeremy was in his wife Joann’s flower garden, I told him “I’ll be right there as soon as I get this lamb out of the house.” And I wasn’t lying. I dragged the now grown and shorn bottle lamb out the door (that's her in the photo), cleaned up the pee and the poo, and Julia and I ran up the street to lure Jeremy back home with a pail of sweet feed. When lured, a llama can run very fast. He’s a little scary looking.

By Sunday evening, the animals were back in order. I like to keep my doors open in the summer to catch the breeze. I don’t have screen doors yet – I guess I probably should put that on the wish list.

6 comments:

dawnbrocco said...

Without screens on the windows and doors, every bug in creation would take up residence inside our house! I don't mind cleaning dust bunnies, I DO mind cleaning up bugs. Only our front door doesn't have a screen door, as it's a non-conforming size, from c.1850 or so, so it stays closed all the time.

What breed of sheep do you have, Kristin? And do you have the wool spun up?

Anonymous said...

Sounds like alot of excitement on the ranch! It's funny reading about a lamb running thru the house but I guess at the time it probably wasn't. Cathy and I will be visiting in the Fall when ALL the livestock are gone from the house. ; )

Anonymous said...

kristin...finally came across a shop that sold your Julia yarn on a trip to michigan last weekend. picked up a mixture of colors. does it felt well? could it be a good sub yarn for the Fiesta Del Sol pattern? right now i'm just enjoying the "still life" in a basket!

Anonymous said...

What about your company -- how could you not write about your exciting company on Saturday night??

Anonymous said...

Kristin,, wish I could have ben tere for that one. Franny and I had a wonderful time at your farm with everyone,thanks for being my big sister,and a constant inspiration!!! loveya, lynn!!!

Anonymous said...

Sweet little Southdown lambie!

I keep a pair of Southdown ewes in with my fiber flock just because they are so sweet tempered and keep everyone else calm. I think I'm the only person in the world who bothers to try to spin Southdown fiber . . .

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