1/23/2006

Winter or Spring?

It’s been the craziest weather so far this month. We’ve had freezing and thawing at least twice. This has cause some terrible problems with drainage, ice daming, flooding and general confusion of what to do with all this water! We’ve never had to deal with a January thaw twice in one year. Today it’s snow, thank God. It sounds very strange from my lips to be thankful for snow and cold temperatures, but it is winter, and we do need the ground to stay frozen.

The most important reason to have the freezing temperatures is so we can get some logging done. The logs are for not only firewood, but actually mostly for milling projects for the sheep barn, new chicken coop and many wood related projects we have in mind around the farm. So, the soon we get back to real winter weather, the better. Once Spring and Summer come, Ernie is doing his masonry job full time and then some. We sure do need his help around here, couldn’t do it without him, that’s for sure! Thank you Ernie.

Becky asked about how you can tell if a ewe is pregnant. Well, there are scientific ways, one of which is ultrasound. This typically is performed on the ewes in the first two months. This technique explores whether or not there are fetus’ in the ewe’s womb. Myself, along with other eager shepherds, would like to have a urine test, but it’snot cheap enough for regular flockmasters, from what I understand. So, my way of detecting pregnancy is mainly observation of behavior and the physical signs of the ewe’s bellys growing larger. First they tend to get a deeper belly, then later on in the pregnancy the belly swells horizontally. There are also signs in the vagina/vulva area that clearly indicate pregnancy. And also there teats and udder develop the closer they come to lambing time.

If you’ve had the ewes in with the rams for at least two cycles, 34 days or so, it is most likely they have been bred. My sheep cycle between late September and December, so as long as the they are exposed to a ram during that time, I’m pretty sure they’ve been bred. Typically yearling ewes deliver single lambs, and older mature ewes deliver mulitiple lambs; twins or triplets. That’s been my experience.

Just a note, I’ve been very occupied with a new retail shop in Florence, MA. I joined Wool & Dye Works beginning of January and things are going well. I’m selling my woolwares there, roving, yarns, handwovens and Louet Spinning wheels. If anyone is in the area, I hope you can stop by for a visit. I’m usually in the shop on Saturdays and Mondays I have a Drop In Spin from noon to 2pm.

All for now, L