This morning was a bit of a mess around the farm. We had a pretty severe storm pop-up directly over the farm (it was good fun to watch on radar). However, with the one and half inches of rain and hail, we got mud. A lot of mud. Ankle-deep, boot-sucking, stinking, manure-filled mud. I knew …
I feel like I need to catch up on a few odds and ends at this point. So, to start; Charlotte is still heavy with lamb. She is, however, starting to bag-up (her udders are getting large) significantly so I am hopeful that we won’t have to wait until May 31st for the arrival of …
Yesterday was a long day that actually started the night before. Well, if I’m being completely honest, it started last year at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. David Kier, a professional shearer, was there doing demos and my friend Kendra started talking to him. It is not an unusual thing for Kendra to start …
Yesterday I lost a ewe. It was Abigail, my lead ewe. It was unexpected and horrible to come home to. I hadn’t lost a sheep in over a year and to lose one so abruptly was a shock. Abigail wasn’t my finest ewe, but she was one of my favorites. She was always the first …
I sneak into the sheep pen every morning hoping to not disturb the flock. The time before everyone has gotten-up and started their day is when I can get the best overview of how everyone is doing. Ewes and lambs that are contentedly snoozing or chewing cud are a sign of all being well. Lambs …
Nearly done. I have one last lady, Charlotte, to lamb still and then lambing 2018 is in the books. On Monday, my smallest ewe Eva gave birth to a healthy little ram lamb. He was a little surprising, despite the tendency for rams to be white this year. As his mama is all black… Still, …
Over the weekend, four more lambs were born. First it was twins from Fanny with a ewe/ram pair that were both white! Yay! The little ram is spotted and the ewe is almost entirely white. I had been a little disappointed by the fact that all my girls had been, up to this point, born …
I had a meeting for the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival in Ames and I didn’t get home until after dark last night. So it was with a headlamp that I greeted this little guy. I’m sure that he now thinks that I am some sort of God. Or Iron Man. Or a bizarre cyclops. …
Currently I am feeling much like Captain Kirk in the famous Star Trek episode where the cute and cuddly tribbles overrun the Starship Enterprise. I have lots and lots of cute and cuddly, and they are everywhere. Lambs can easily fit between the bars of the cattle panels that I use for the sheep pen, …
Twenty. Twenty lambs out of twelve ewes. That’s a 166.7% lambing average. Which is phenomenal for me. Last night it was Hettie having a set of ewe/ram-dark/white twins. They are healthy and happy and as my dad likes to say, “Goers”. This morning it was Diana’s turn to have her first lamb, a very healthy …
Sarah Jane Humke 