A Quiet Farewell

Posted on May 15, 2012 by

I usually find that writing an entry in the Ewe Turn is an easy matter. If the subject does not cause some inspiration, it gets filed away for possible future use. However, I am currently having a lot of difficulty composing this entry. Unfortunately, it cannot be set aside for a better time or atmosphere.

On Sunday, Mother’s Day, Nanoo Nanoo died.

She had not been well much of this year, but she seemed to be improving, at least until the last couple of weeks. Over the last few days she seem to retreat into her own private world. On Saturday, the retired ewes had their first day on pasture. When it was time to rush through the open barn door, Nanoo Nanoo stayed behind. It was a joyous day for the remainder of the flock. For us it was a day tempered by the condition of our old friend. The next morning she could no longer get up. Paul, one of our friendly vets, was kind enough to come out to the farm help put Nanoo Nanoo quietly to sleep.

When Nanoo Nanoo was born on March 15 in 2002 I was privileged enough to be there. For Mindy, her mother, this was her first lambing. It went so smoothly that all I needed to do was stand aside and watch. Within a half an hour Nanoo Nanoo had gotten up and nursed well and vigorously. When she was done with her drink, she walked over to me as if to say “Hi mister, it’s good to meet you.” Our friendship was sealed.

She had her own special personality and the ability to seemingly communicate with anyone. She was a peaceful creature who never seemed to quarrel with any other member of the flock. She was never the leader of the flock. Nor was she ever the overly friendly greeter when guests came to visit, but she would eventually show up for “conversation”, once the initial excitement settled down.

The void of silence that she leaves behind her in the barn and on pasture will take a long while to fill. May her spirit find a lush green pasture to safely graze upon. Farewell dear friend.

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Arrivals and Departures

Posted on May 5, 2012 by

We have reached the time of year when life seems to accelerate at a sometimes maddening speed. As if to emphasize that point, yesterday we began the second round of weighing the lambs. First that  means that the earliest lambs are now 60 days old. That also means that they will begin getting their CD&T shots (immunizations against tetanus and certain types of clostridial diseases). It is difficult to fathom that Buttons and Bunny are already that old!

We are hopeful that very soon the flock will begin their regular spring grazing schedule. In a normal year that event usually occurs about the beginning of the third week of May. This year has been so messed up seasonally, it was anyone’s guess where we would be at this point. The record breaking warmth of March got everything growing, well in advance of normal dates. April returned to more seasonal temperatures. (It was actually a colder month than March.) For April we repeatedly experienced overnight frosts; in the last week of the month it got into the 20°s (F). The cold overnight temperatures, coupled with virtually no rain, slowed any pasture growth to a near halt. It remains to be seen how much damage the cold did to fruit crops in the county. We are very thankful that we began May with more rain than the entire month of April. Finally, the pastures are responding. There soon should be enough growth that it will not be harmed by “eager eater” sheep.

Most of the wild flowers are blooming well ahead of schedule. It is strange to see Trout Lilies blooming in April. This one, next to the stone fence in the 4th pasture, was in full boom in April.

Adding fuel to the accelerating pace of spring was our annual announcement of fleeces being available for purchase. Most of the 129 or so fleeces were sold in a couple of days in mid-April. If you are in the market for beautiful Corriedale fleeces, we have a number of colored fleeces still for sale. They are listed and described on our Colored Wool page. The bulk of the fleeces that have been purchased have already been shipped to their new home. The first shipment looks very “un-fleece” like sitting on the front porch waiting to be picked up. The bulging boxes are telltale signs that the fleeces are trying to escape.

At least the boxes were gone before the B&B opened. We are now open and enjoying our first wave of guests for the season. In addition, this coming week Gretchen and friends will be dyeing our yarn in a large, intensive project.  Our hopes are that the new batch of naturally dyed yarn will be ready for sale when we open the Gallery on Friday, May 18th.

Not to be outdone by our efforts, the most recent wave of seasonal migrants in the bird world have arrived. This week has been marked by the arrival of the Cliff Swallows, the last of the swallows species that nest on the farm. The Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows are already busy with nest building. The White-crowned Sparrows arrived a couple of days ago, like this handsome guy on the steps to the barn.

Even the Monarch Butterflies are back. We saw our first arrival on May 3rd, a good three weeks early! The pace does quicken!

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Tidying Up

Posted on April 16, 2012 by

It is difficult to believe that it has been two weeks since the last lamb was born. Relating to the passage of time is, at best, difficult around here. The weather does not help in that regard. It is seasonably cool again, but the plants and animals have been totally confused by the early warmth. Normally we would not be expecting to see the maples and birches budding out until next month. In the woods around the farm the Hepatica are in full bloom!

As much as we would like to see the sheep on pasture, it is still too early in terms of the pasture growth. The virtual lack of rain over the last couple of months has not helped in that regard. From the long term perspective, I have to keep reminding myself that the flock is normally not out on pasture until early May, at best. The flock is doing well, despite their being limited to wintertime rations. On occasion, a couple of ewes can be caught wistfully gazing out the door, but they seem content.

Tricia continues with her recovery, for which we are all very happy. A few days ago she was acting as if life would be better in the main pen with the rest of the ewes and their lambs. We were happy to oblige her. Her boys, Blimey and Boomer, have had more difficulty adapting to the move. Unlike the rest of the lambs, they did not get to acclimatize to a small group of ewes and lambs before joining the assembled group. They still seem a bit lost. They are also not getting the normal amount of milk that one would expect from Tricia. Her start was so slow that I suspect that she will never quite get up to where she normally would have been in terms of milk volume. We are just glad she is as well as she seems!

Lost in the frantic final days of lambing was Yoko’s transformation. It may be remembered that she was only allowing her lamb, Brewster, to nurse while she was also eating. As she moved into the larger group of ewes, we suddenly realized that we were seeing her allow Brewster to nurse normally when she herself was not eating. We theorize that she might have heard us grumbling about her questionable motherly performance and the possible unpleasant consequences of continuing as she had been. It is a pleasant sight to watch the two of them together.

On a different front, the double weave blanket was completed long ago. I just did not find time to write about it. It has already left for its permanent home.

It turned out well, especially considering the scope of the project and the fact that both of us, Lorrie, the spinner and myself, the weaver, had not tackled something so large, in terms of spinning, dyeing and weaving. At this point I would be remiss if I did not give credit to the other two major contributors, Quiche

and Uhlayla. Without the two of them we would have had nowhere to start and nowhere to go.

This week we will be offering our 2012 fleeces for sale. If you are interested in purchasing one or more of our Corriedale fleeces, visit our Fleece page. It will be updated on April 18th, Wednesday morning at 10:00 AM CDT. At that time it will show the new fleeces that are available and will direct you to the appropriate lists of fleeces. We will not be taking any orders prior to that time. Gretchen and I look forward to discussing fleeces with you Wednesday morning.

 

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Lambing Chronicles – Final Edition

Posted on April 8, 2012 by

Sunday, April 8th: As some of you have noted, it has been a bit of a longer break than “normal” since we last updated the status of lambing. With this posting I hope that we can close this chapter of life at Whitefish Bay Farm.

With the birth of Winkie’s Binky exactly a week ago, the barn was left without anymore pregnant ewes. The most immediate result for us was that I was no longer having to awake at 2 AM to check on the barn. Based upon the peaceful nature of the barn over the next few mornings, it was evident that the ewes and lambs were also glad to be enjoying more uninterrupted sleep. All of us, sheep, human and feline, have benefited from the extra rest. With the final birth out of the way we also needed to move to a post-lambing routine.

Besides the usual morning and evening feedings, the new moms need more attention than they otherwise would get. We are now giving them extra hay in late morning and before bedtime. While they are in separate mixing pens, each group drinks from manually filled water buckets. These buckets need to be checked at the extra feedings to make sure they are sufficiently full and clean. Feeding time is also a good time to “check bags”. It is important to make sure that each ewe is being evenly milked out by the lambs. A lopsided udder may mean that either a lamb is not nursing or the ewe is not letting the lamb nurse or is not producing milk on that side. Any of these situations may mean that the ewe could have mastitis, or a teat injury, or that one of her lambs is not well. To date, all of the udders are looking good and the lambs seem to be nursing well. Some are growing better than others, but this is to be expected. We are disappointed in the growth of a couple of lambs to date, but as a group they are doing well. This photo shows that moms and lambs prefer to eat at separate feeders if afforded the opportunity. (I must admit that I would just as soon not eat at a table with children crawling on top!) It also shows why this is a good time to check bags.

Tricia is still with us. Her recovery has been slow but it seems to be progressing. (For the first few days we honestly were not too hopeful that she was going to make it.) She is now finished with her course of antibiotics. The sutures that kept her uterus from popping out have now been removed. The biggest challenge has been to get her to eat. To begin with she had virtually no appetite. We feared that all of the antibiotics were also destroying the good bacterial flora in her rumen. For a few days she received a dose of probiotic (a paste with live, naturally occurring microorganisms, i.e. a fancy yogurt). The combination of probiotic and suture removal finally seemed to make Tricia’s appetite improve. We also sought out a source of high quality second crop hay for her, since we had none of our own from last haying season. She now has her own private organic, lush green hay, compliments of Gary, the diary farmer I used to work for. Ever so slowly Tricia is eating more each day. She still does not have the appetite one would expect of a ewe in early lactation. Nonetheless we are hopeful for her.

Tricia is at least producing milk. It is not in the normal quantity but it is enough to kept her two boys, Blimey and Boomer going. We are trying to convince them to also drink from supplemental bottles until mom’s milk supply kicks in. So far we are having mixed results with the bottles.

Two days ago we combined the first two mixing pens. This morning we took down the third and last mixing pen. Now all the ewes with lambs (excluding Tricia) are together in a single large pen which takes up nearly half of the barn. It is such a joy for the lambs to have the extra space. There are anxious moments when the fences come down and the lambs and moms “loose” each other. Within a couple of hours everything is settled and happy. All the extra play also wears a lamb down. A nap in the sun is always nice!

The two of us are trying to turn our attention to other matters. We are close to being ready to offer our fleeces for sale. Last year’s customers will be hearing from us very soon. Notices will also go out to others who have expressed an interest in purchasing a fleece or two. Thank you all, in advance, for your patience.

We have also been “tweaking” our website and blog. There have been some changes in both appearance and content. Most significantly, we have added a Mercantile page. We are now offering our mill spun yarn and roving for sale online. We still have a few corrections to make to the website, but we are getting there.

Thanks for being with us during lambing!

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Lambing Chronicles – 11th Edition

Posted on April 2, 2012 by

Friday, March 30th: Today has been a real bummer! What was supposed to be our first reduced lambing schedule in many years has not resulted in less problems. We (as well as the sheep) will be very glad to be finished.

Overnight I planned to check on Tricia at 1 AM. Unexpectedly the old alarm clock failed to go off then. A little subconscious voice told me to wake up, but it was already 3 AM. In the barn, Tricia was looking very uncomfortable but did not appear in labor. I set the alarm for 6 AM; it failed again! I awoke at 7:30 AM and made a quick dash to the barn. Tricia was where I had left her earlier, but was doing some straining, without signs of anything coming out! We made a quick decision that Tricia’s problems were beyond our expertise and therefore called for veterinary help. Despite a very heavy, wet snow that decided to start this morning, Paul was able to get here quickly. He brought along a vet student, Allison, who was on spring break. It was fortuitous that she came, as it turned out we needed all the hands we had available.

Paul was eventually able to assist the delivery of a large ram lamb. The lamb was a breach presentation (tail first, no back legs present), which is why Tricia had not progressed. That is also one of the most difficult and dangerous assisted deliveries to perform; it is definitely beyond our skills. Having successfully gotten the lamb started, Paul went back in for a normal presentation delivery of a second ram lamb. Paul also was concerned that all was not right inside Tricia. So after getting number two started Paul again went back in for an exploratory exam. He found that Tricia’s uterus was torn and that intestines were trying to enter the cavity. The only way to try to repair the tear is to prolapse the uterus outside the ewe, stitch up the tear and then re-insert the uterus, suturing up the opening so that the ewe cannot push anything and everything back out. None of the above is an easy proposition for a vet. Paul was hopeful that he had succeeded when he was through. Tricia was still not safe. Even if the surgical corrections hold up, the risk of infection is large. The amount of stress that she had been under also is extreme. After giving Tricia a battery of medications Paul was done. By 9:45 Tricia had her head up and was licking the lambs (albeit weakly!).

We thawed the last of our supply of frozen sheep colostrum and tube fed both lambs. It was the energy drink they desperately needed. By 11:30 Tricia was able to get up long enough to get a good drink of water. During the next half hour she got up twice, but was too weak to stay up very long. By 2 PM we decided that we had to move Tricia and the lambs from the birthing area (which we had fenced off from the rest of the flock). It was in a cool area; it was damp from all the surgery and treatment, and not a quiet place for the three. We were able to get Tricia up again and then gingerly walked her to a clean jug, with her leaning more on me than anything else. We at least made it. Once there she stayed up long enough for both lambs to try and nurse. The rest of the afternoon she was down. Close to 4 PM she began shivering, probably a sign of shock. We called Paul, who returned and got Tricia set up with an IV of dextrose and electrolytes. The two of us then sat with her for the next 45 minutes as the IV bag slowly drained into her. The fluid seemed to help. By the end of evening chores (which ran late, past 7 PM) she briefly got up on her own. At the 10 PM barn check she again got up on her own, ate some minerals, and a bit of hay. She had already drunk some water and eaten some hay before 10 PM. Even with the lambs getting in some nursing, we figured that it was not the normal amount, so we again tube fed them before bedtime.

Tricia is by no means “out of the woods”. It is going to be a difficult recovery. For us it was a totally draining day, both physically and emotionally.

Saturday, March 31st: We honestly did not expect to find Tricia alive this morning, but there she was at 6 AM! She got her morning medications while she was still lying down, but then got up as we were feeding everyone else. She ate a bit of grain, then some hay, had a drink and then returned to the hay. None of these activities were vigorous, but still a hopeful sign.

I neglected to relate that yesterday was also a miserable day, weather wise. While we were all treating Tricia, we experienced a heavy wet snow outside. By noon it was all but over and slowly starting to melt. The overnight lows were not as extreme as originally predicted. Hopefully it did not get cold enough to seriously damage lots of the bulbs on the trees and alfalfa. The previous evening we cut the daffodils which were in full bloom next to the house. The early tulips would have to fend for themselves. Apparently the cold and snow did not do them harm. It is hard to believe looking, at this picture, that on Friday they were buried in wet snow.

Winkie is still playing the waiting game with us. I suspect she smiles at us every time we appear in the barn to check on her. At evening chores and later at bedtime barn check Tricia was up and eating.

Sunday, April 1st: Tricia is not quite as perky this morning, but she ends up eating and drinking a bit. Her lambs get to nurse. We do not know how much milk they get from Tricia but we suspect that her milk production is not where it normally would be. We continue to supplement the lambs for her. We were “socializing” with Hope this evening. It caused us to think that we have not had a medical problem as severe as Tricia’s since Hope was born 16 years ago. In that situation Hope’s mother, Candice, did not have the same problem, but she and Hope’s two brothers did not survive. I guess that we can be thankful that problems this severe have not been an annual event.

The other jug occupants are steadily moving into the last mixing pen. This morning it was Wobyn’s turn. Before the move she and her lambs, Batman and Bobbin, obliged us with the “cute picture of the day”.

Late, breaking news! (Why does this remind me of the Muppet show’s “This is a Muppet news flash!”? Probably fatigue)…. As we began weighing lambs this afternoon, Winkie went into labor. She had a nice, normal delivery. Binkie has arrived, and with him the lambing schedule is completed.Both are doing just fine.

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