The ram lambs left on the 12th of the month, so the flock is down to the girls all dining in the Donkey Pasture, and the boys, banished to mow the lawn and subsist on shrubs in the periphery of the fields. The guys were quite large when they left, and I’m looking forward to a goodly amount of Chorizo sausage in the near future. You should be, too – let me know if you’d like some!
We sheared Fred and the ewe lambs on the 21st. I am gradually getting better at shearing, though I’ve only done it assisted by some sheep-holder-downers. With Phoebe, Matt and my parents involved, we were still not actually overstaffed for the project. The first two sheep looked a little gnawed-on, but the second two looked great. Now that I feel comfortable with the blade, I’ll work my way up to doing it mostly on my own!
We had a good scare from little Fred. We FAMACHA’ed all of the lambs, and his lower eyelids were WHITE. I’m not sure if the recent rains gave him an extra large dose of worms or if he has lower innate resistance, but some giant doses of dewormer and some NutriDrench seem to have straightened him out. I was pretty worried for the first day or so until he really brightened up.
While I’m going to start flushing the ewes (feeding increased nutrition to help stimulate large lambing rates), I am also starting my preparation for the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. Because Michael is having knee surgery, it seems uncertain as to whether I’ll have raw wool or yarn to sell from the Cormos, but I’ll have some gorgeous, cuddle-able BFL on offer at the show in any case (unless it vanishes first- I sold a pound of it today!)
Even though having only three ram lambs for meat sales means that this year will be a wash financially, I’m still really thrilled to be poised for good lambing and a better showing next year.