Ewe Turn

To paraphrase from the famous line, yesterday was the best of times and the worst of times. We have gradually and finally emerged from the snow and cold. It has been warm enough to get the pastures growing, albeit slowly. The sheep seemingly can sense that it is time for them to be out on pasture and grazing. It has taken a while for me to get the pastures ready in terms of the fencing and watering systems. A couple of days ago I thought that the water lines were all set. I pressurized the entire line which runs, in total, at least a half a mile. Then I checked each connection for leaks and loose fittings from front to back pastures. Along the way I bled the air out of the lines and flushed any accumulated gunk. Pleased with the seeming lack of problems, I returned to the prime connection in the barn, only to find, to my chagrin, that the main line had sprung a leak and was trying to flood the barn. The leak was due to freezing of a section which did not get properly drained last winter. It took another day to replace the guilty section of pipe. The next day I got the electric fence tested, at least without the problems akin to the waterline. Yesterday was thus set for grazing.

After making sure that the flock all had a good breakfast of solid dry hay, we were set. (One has to be careful switching from a dry hay diet to a lush green wet one. The major danger can be bloating and changing the balance of good bacteria in the rumen.) For the first day, only the ewes with lambs and their lambs got to go out. It is always difficult to get the lambs to venture out the barn door for the first time. The moms are willing and eager. Unfortunately they cannot take their children and calmly lead them by the hand where they have never been before. For the most part that duty falls upon the two of us. The vast majority of the lambs on the first day have to be caught and carried over the threshold. Once outside everything is “just fine” except for an extra bit of baahing needed to reconnect with mom. After a few hours on pasture, which included lessons on the forces behind electric fences, the lambs were seasoned pros. By late afternoon they were grazing green grass just like the adult ewes. We will repeat the routing the next day, with (hopefully) less shepherding and more voluntary lamb exits from the barn. The following day the “retired” ewes will get to rejoin them; the next day the same will apply to the yearling ewes. Then all of the ewes will be back together for the first time since January. It will be a happy time for all…almost.

Wendolyn with her lambs, Ashley & Ainsley

In the midst of the preparations for grazing we were faced with a sick ram lamb, Abdul. He is Serena’s single lamb who had become quiet friendly very early on. He was growing extremely well. A week ago he acted depressed and began to swell up in an unusual fashion. Our vets were called in and were as puzzled by his condition as we were. We tried a couple of treatments and after a few days he seemed to improve. The swelling went down but he then stopped eating. He died quietly overnight, before everyone was to go onto pasture. Serena was lying with him the next morning. The bond between a ewe and her lamb can be very strong. Such was the case with Serena and Abdul. Serena was upset that morning, but she exited the barn with the rest of the ewes and lambs. Once on pasture she continued to look and call for Abdul.

As I usually do, once we have all the lambs out for the first time, I sit down in the grass in the middle of the pasture just to watch the ewes and lambs. Usually the friendlier ewes will stop by for a brief visit, as will the curious lambs befuddled by a crazy shepherd sitting on his butt in the middle of the pasture. Finally, Serena came over to me and stopped calling for Abdul. We spent a long time together, sharing quiet hugs. I have felt it before, but I still am amazed by the compassion and love these creatures can feel for each other. I am even more moved how in times such as these they can share their grief with us. My heart is with you Serena on this sunny, green day which should have been so happy for you.

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This coming weekend (May 21st and 22nd) is the Door County Shepherds’ Market. We hope that lots of folks take advantage of the experience, especially if they are interested in things that are fiber related. There will be lots to purchase from a number of Door County fiber producers: everything from raw fibers to yarn to finished products. Gretchen spent the better part of two weeks with a couple of friends dying lots of our yarn with natural dyes, all in preparation for the Market. As time allows I will spend time with another blog detailing the project. But just to tempt you, here are a series of images of some of the yarn just after it came out of the dye bath.

These are reds, using Cochineal on both white and gray yarns. Next up are, among other colors, oranges and blues, using indigo and Cochineal as an overdye.

Pussa, had to inspect each separate batch of yarn as it was hung out to dry. Here she is passing approval on a batch of greens, the result of overdying indigo on onion skins, tesu and chamomile

The sheep could care less about dying. Toodles is just pleased to be outside and grazing. We will leave her editorial comment up to reader speculation.

It is now the week prior to Thanksgiving. Compared to this time last year everything has been going well. There has been at least one snafu during the last few weeks, but it was manageable and now has been resolved. (More about the snafu in a little while.)

A year ago Ulmer (the ram) managed to severely sprain my right ankle. The rehabilitation set up a backlog of many tasks for us, some of which we still have yet to completely resolve. Nevertheless, the ankle is almost healed. Whatever remains of the damage could, potentially, be repaired surgically. The extended downtime resulting from such surgery would be as long and as disruptive as the initial rehabilitation. With it would come no guarantee of success. So this old shepherd has opted to live with the slight residual discomfort. At least this year, Ulmer was a proper gentleman during breeding. The two of us got along just fine!

Mid October to mid November is the month in which our ewes are (hopefully) bred. This year we had 58 ewes with five separate rams. This number of ewes is slightly smaller than last year’s. We now have quite a contingent of ewes who have retired from breeding and who can concentrate solely upon producing wool and providing friendship.

We got through breeding with few problems. A new brand of marking crayon insisted upon falling out of the harnesses worn by a couple of the rams. This left us with a short period for each ram when we could not verify his performance.

One morning found Ukiah’s group split up between three pastures. Most of the ewes were where we had left them the previous night in Pasture #1. Ukiah, and three of his girls were in the next door Orchard Pasture, luckily across the temporary fence from Ulmer and his group. And one ewe, Whosits, had somehow ended up in Pasture #2, in with Stud Muffin, and his harem. No one seemed the worse for wear. We got Ukiah and all of his girls, minus Whosits, back together in #1. Whosits spent the remainder of breeding in with Stud Muffin. We can only speculate on the overnight cause of panic. Ukiah’s group was in the area of #1 which includes the apple trees. While there were few apples left, the deer still insist on visiting, in the hope of one more apple. One or more deer  jumping multiple fences into Ukiah’s pasture in the dark of night was the probable cause of the chaos.

All of us managed to survive a three day period of intensely strong winds. The storm was likened to the storm which sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald. Luckily for us no trees blew down in the pastures and no sheep blew away in a strong gust. (The storm was a few days prior to the scattering of Ukiah’s group, so we cannot blame it for the re-shuffling of sheep.) Our few hours without power were manageable and were not nearly as long as some outages in northeast Wisconsin.

All in all, breeding went well. Toward the end, the weather calmed a bit. For many days, when the skies permitted, we have been treated to spectacular sunsets. This image is of Ulmer’s group on one of their last nights out. (By the way, the green eye reflection indicates the lack of Moorit genetics. That is Ulmer, with the white nose spot, looking straight on.)

Each day from November 6th onward, we brought a breeding group back into the barn. Once there, the marking harness was taken off the ram. He had his hooves trimmed and was perhaps fitted with a larger jacket. The ram was then reunited with his buddies. (A week or so of semi-violent re-acquainting followed.) The incoming ewes also had their hooves trimmed and jackets replaced where necessary. By noon on November 10th everyone was back in the barn.

Part of the time when the rams were out with the ewes, Gretchen was off attending SOAR (the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat). She came home re-energized with all sorts of spinning ideas. She was especially inspired by her class on natural dyeing with Demetrio Bautista Lazo. One of the things the class inspired her to do was to assemble and standardize all of her samples from her natural dyeing projects from the last few years. Below is a photo of the collection. The image does not do justice to the colors, yet it is exciting to see the assembled colors (most of which were derived from plants, either wild or cultivated from Whitefish Bay Farm). Job well done, Gretchen!