Baymule’s Farm

[baymule]

Sounds like she had an amazing birthday!

It was fun. It got dark and kids played hide n seek.

 

[digitS']

A girl after my own heart.

Pumpki kin.

I had pumpkin pie for a 2nd breakfast just yesterday!

 

[baymule]

I’ve been busy! I’ve been doing farm things, I loaded up and brought my round pen to the farm from my son’s house. It’s unloaded and propped up on a H brace in the back pasture. I bought 3 more hog panels. Going to make a flower bed and need to put up a fence to keep trucks out.

I got 5 new ewes, brought from California by my friend Ridgetop, on BYH. They bought 45 acres in Yantis, northeast Texas almost 2 years ago and are preparing to move there. There is a family wedding in Athens this week that they are going to, so they took the opportunity to bring some farm stuff to their farm. They put 5 ewes in the front of the trailer, then packed the rest of the trailer. I was to meet them there to pick up the ewes.

I pulled in the driveway Tuesday and they pulled in right behind me. Talk about perfect timing! We got their trailer unloaded, some stuff put in a small building, some put in the barn. Then we backed up trailer to trailer, end gates held open, and their son merely walked in their trailer and the ewes decided mine looked better and ran in it. He closed the middle gate and we pulled trucks forward and closed up the end gates.

Here are The Texas Five, as Ridgetop called them. Sounds like a pack of gunslingers.

Ridgetop bought us matching T-shirts, which we put on and asked her son to take our picture. She cautioned him not to cut our heads off, so of course he did.

Then he put our heads back on. Just not in the same picture.

Finally he got it right!

We had a very short visit, as I had to go home and they were leaving too. I didn’t get home until after 7PM, it was dark, so I just parked truck and trailer in the driveway.

There’s something about unloading wild sheep by the dubious light of a cloudy moon that sounded like a bad idea. I got a flashlight and fed and watered the horse, dogs, sheep, and The Texas Five. I got in the house around 8:30 and had a sumptuous dinner of a bowl of cornflakes.

 

[Branching Out]

What a great story Baymule, and such adorable ewes. I have already picked out my favourite; it's the one with it's head cocked to the side, looking especially charming.

 

[baymule]

Yesterday morning I dragged hog panels off the flatbed trailer that was dropped in the back pasture, up to the sheep pens. Then I drove the truck and trailer through that gate, using the back pasture to turn around. Then I pulled up to the pen gate, where I wanted to unload The Texas Five. That way, the trailer end hate swung out in the right direction and when I opened the 16’ gate into the pen, it paired up with the trailer gate. Got that?

I dragged a couple of hog panels over the pen gate.

I laid them out. Looks like that will work.

I robbed a half cow panel gate off another pen and closed the gap between the trailer and fence.

I picked up the hog panels and tied them in place with hay string. Now I had a chute from the trailer to the small pen where I wanted then to go.

I had the trailer end gate tied to the 16’ red pen gate. I opened the middle gate and went in the pen. The Texas Five jumped out of the trailer, glad for their hooves to finally contact Texas soil. They walked themselves into their pen and I closed the gate.

The Texas Five are home.

 

[baymule]

What a great story Baymule, and such adorable ewes. I have already picked out my favourite; it's the one with its head cocked to the side, looking especially charming.

That one is Cleopatra, named for black eye circles. They have mostly faded away, but she still sports some heavy black eyeliner!

 

[baymule]

The Texas Five found the alfalfa.

They found the water.

They found the Bahia hay. Not sure if it’s edible. A few chewed the wood on the pallet. This Texas hay sure is HARD stuff!

 

[baymule]

These ewes are registered White Dorpers. There are Black Head Dorpers and White Dorpers. The Black Head Dorpers are more than a little psycho and the rams are fairly muderous. I started out with 4 bred ewes, a mix of Katahdin and Black Head Dorpers. I got a Black Head Dorper ram. He was intent on breaking both my legs and I really had to keep an eye on him. NEVER turn your back on a ram! He was sneaky and hit me every chance he got. He was scared of plastic grocery bags, so I waved a bag at him and he’d run away. NO WAY I could let the granddaughters in the pen with him! I grew tired of his shenanigans, changed his name to Ramburger and he went to freezer camp.

A friend on BYC had a registered Katahdin ram that was calm, gentle and a real sweetheart. We struck a deal and BJ and I drove to Tennessee to get him. That was Ringo. Ringo sold me on Katahdins. I just had to put my old Ringo down a few weeks ago.

I’m moving into registered Katahdin sheep. I love the breed. So why add registered White Dorpers to the flock? Because Dorpers have a meatier carcass than Katahdins. I can integrate them into my flock on the Katahdin breed up program. The third generation is eligible for registration. They must be inspected for certain criteria, such as a good hair coat and shedding their winter coat out clean and slick.

Katahdin sheep are known for their parasite resistance. Not all are parasite resistant, I cull hard for that trait. Sheep can get such an overload of intestinal worms that they drop dead. East Texas is prime country for worms. So parasite resistance is pretty important.

Dorpers are not as parasite resistant. I will be closely monitoring The Texas Five for parasites. Bred to a parasite resistant Katahdin ram (Cooper) they will more than likely have parasite resistant lambs. I will cull lambs based on worm count. I take fecal samples and examine them under a microscope, so I know who is wormy and who is not. Those lambs, bred back to another parasite resistant ram, will produce a greater likelihood of parasite resistant lambs.

My ultimate goal is to have a parasite resistant, meatier carcass, flock. My immediate goal is 30 breeding ewes.

My most immediate goal is fencing! And cleaning fence rows, taking up old fence, driving in new T-posts, new sheep and goat wire and a whole lot of sweaty dirty work. It’s gonna take me awhile…..

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

These ewes are registered White Dorpers. There are Black Head Dorpers and White Dorpers. The Black Head Dorpers are more than a little psycho and the rams are fairly muderous. I started out with 4 bred ewes, a mix of Katahdin and Black Head Dorpers. I got a Black Head Dorper ram. He was intent on breaking both my legs and I really had to keep an eye on him. NEVER turn your back on a ram! He was sneaky and hit me every chance he got. He was scared of plastic grocery bags, so I waved a bag at him and he’d run away. NO WAY I could let the granddaughters in the pen with him! I grew tired of his shenanigans, changed his name to Ramburger and he went to freezer camp.

A friend on BYC had a registered Katahdin ram that was calm, gentle and a real sweetheart. We struck a deal and BJ and I drove to Tennessee to get him. That was Ringo. Ringo sold me on Katahdins. I just had to put my old Ringo down a few weeks ago.

I’m moving into registered Katahdin sheep. I love the breed. So why add registered White Dorpers to the flock? Because Dorpers have a meatier carcass than Katahdins. I can integrate them into my flock on the Katahdin breed up program. The third generation is eligible for registration. They must be inspected for certain criteria, such as a good hair coat and shedding their winter coat out clean and slick.

Katahdin sheep are known for their parasite resistance. Not all are parasite resistant, I cull hard for that trait. Sheep can get such an overload of intestinal worms that they drop dead. East Texas is prime country for worms. So parasite resistance is pretty important.

Dorpers are not as parasite resistant. I will be closely monitoring The Texas Five for parasites. Bred to a parasite resistant Katahdin ram (Cooper) they will more than likely have parasite resistant lambs. I will cull lambs based on worm count. I take fecal samples and examine them under a microscope, so I know who is wormy and who is not. Those lambs, bred back to another parasite resistant ram, will produce a greater likelihood of parasite resistant lambs.

My ultimate goal is to have a parasite resistant, meatier carcass, flock. My immediate goal is 30 breeding ewes.

My most immediate goal is fencing! And cleaning fence rows, taking up old fence, driving in new T-posts, new sheep and goat wire and a whole lot of sweaty dirty work. It’s gonna take me awhile…..

They are adorable! All I know is that they will have a great life on your farm!

 

[digitS']

Awhile sounds like a good schedule, Bay'.

Now if one of these California Five was a ram ... well, it sounds like that you wouldn't be so happy with that and maybe call him Ramburger.

But, you could call him Rory, after Rory Calhoun, the Californian star of The Texan. That was the TV show from my youth about a "gunslinger."

digitS'