Ophelia

This is an old photo.  See that brown (moorit) ewe with the white face toward the right?  That's Ophelia.   I was looking for a picture from when she was born, but couldn't put my hands on it.   We put her down this past weekend.  She was 12 1/2 years old and very stiff.   I was worried about her getting sick during the winter.

She was part of what remains of a small flock I had several years ago in another location.  In the picture, the sheep are out front helping to mow the lawn.  From the left, that's Cordelia, then Sparrow in back.  Alice is the brown one in front.  Then comes Chloe, the black ewe in front of a white wether named Pete.  Ophelia is in front, then a big black wether named Sal.  Aurthur is a wether with horns in back of Sal, and I can't see the face of the one in back, but it is probably Lilly.   I still have Sparrow, Alice, Arthur and Sal, and they are all very old.

Ophelia was my best ewe for fleece, from my best ewe for fleece (Cordelia) from my best ram for fleece (Moses).  I'm saying "for fleece", because other sheep were best for other things.  It never all comes in one package.

My husband and I have been taking a cut up apple out to Ophelia each morning since spring.

Late August

Whew, got that second window.   Probably have enough hay in the barn for the winter.  Well maybe.  Ok, we'd like to get a bit more in still.

We're having gorgeous late August Maine weather - cool nights for sleeping and sunny days soft on the skin.  All the wood is in for the winter already, so we'll be snug.

Best part is having family visiting -- family who don't mind hearing the same stories over again, who tell you what they want, and who appreciate the noisy crickets at night.  Only hard part is starting to miss them before they are gone.

Went to the Bangor music festival last night - great chance to dance, be silly, run into friends, and eat too much.  If you haven't been, you really should go.

Still waiting for that second window...

That first haying window in early June has also been the only one.   Some of the hay we cut got rained on a bit.   I think we'll feed it to own animals this winter, because anything we cut now will have less nutritional value.  I tried some of it on the sheep and they gave it a thumbs up.   Sheep are pretty discriminating about hay.  I now have more confidence in it.

We know one buyer who may still want some late-cut hay, and we still plan to cut more.

My husband bush hogged the remaining buckwheat, which is a green manure, in the garden beds this afternoon, then took the cultivator around and turned the beds under.  We'll turn them under once more this evening, and if things look ok, plant winter rye.   It is supposed to rain off and on the next few days, so that should give the rye a good start.  Ordinarily we'd wait a couple of days and let the green stuff break down a bit before planting, but with all the rain in the forecast, we're afraid we'll just grow weeds and undue the good work of the buckwheat, which smothered a lot of the weeds for us.

Open weather window - hay

Wow, we finally got our few days clear weather to hay, but it wasn't until the first week of July.  We've been ready to go since May.  Folks down on the Maine coast got going in May, and Kennebec County hayed in June.  We're in Penobscot County, and have been waiting to go.

This was only our second year haying using our own equipment, and we learned a lot.  Next year we'll know more.   There are so many more variables than appear on the surface.  I cut 2 days and then got rained on.  IOnly twenty percent chance of rain had sounded so good, after no break in the weather during May and June.   The hay I cut just before the rain looked pretty good, so we'll feed it here, if we run out of the later cut hay.   When things finally cleared, we raked and baled one load faster than we've ever done it - gorgeous drying weather - sunny, breezy, and low humidity.   Then, I thought some of the hay was too green, and was scared to keep it in the sheep barn, so we dragged it all outside.  Still not sure if we did the right thing or not.  Oh well.  In between we got in some hay that looks pretty good, if maybe on the dry side. 

Later edit:  Put a "free hay pile" list on Craig's List, and someone took the "too green" hay to feed some local beef, so it didn't go to waste.

I found a dead cat in the field.  I don't think haying machinery killed it - looked mostly eaten, with a head and attached entrails, and two paws left.   Maybe  it was a fox, or fisher, or coyote.  That was sad.   The cat probably belonged to a neighbor.  I walked over and told him, and he said "I try not to get too attached to the cats."  Barn cats have to be able to go outside to do their job, and it is a dangerous world.    I baled a snake, which was the end of the snake.   We managed to avoid the bobolink nest in the front field, which felt good.  Left plenty of room around it too.

Week of Memorial Day Weekend

Been a busy week/weekend, mostly with chores, but the weather makes it pleasant.   Light wind, few biting insects (except at dusk), sun, and mostly only raining at night!   Lovely light.   We saw some eastern blue birds along the driveway.   A friend said that folks along the coast have been haying the last two weeks with beautiful, clear, drying weather.   We've had just enough rain to put off haying here, for the most part.  That's ok.   We'll have a bit more growth when we do cut.

We did a lot of mowing toward the end of last week, so the place looks tidy.   Went over part of the sheep pasture twice, to mulch in the fairly long grass.  Had to cut it because of the large number of buttercups.   They contain a caustic chemical, and animals can't graze them.   Only good news is that once buttercups are cut, the chemical partly breaks down, so buttercups in hay are safe.  

Got two of the handful of old sheep sheared.   This is a long process because my back won't let me do it the "proper" way, and there aren't enough sheep to make it sensible to try to get a shearer.   I put a sheep on a blocking stand and use hand shears, going slowly.   My husband says it takes me about an hour per sheep, but I've never wanted to time it.   I'm not keeping the fleece from the old sheep.  The object is to just get it off, for the health of the animal.  Within a month the rough coats will grow out enough so that my sloppy shearing won't show.   The sheep are helping to improve the pasture.  They've already been wormed this spring, but I'm behind on hoof trimming and shearing.   One or two more next weekends, then will be done.  After than, next thing is to clean out the barn.

Planted one garden bed with buckwheat, and have been watering alot.   Next time we'll try to do it just before a rain.  The new cultivator works great!

Tractor and haying equipment are ready to go, in terms of maintenance.

Preparations

Spring has come so early, that it makes me feel perpetually behind! But, we're getting the preparations done. My husband and I have have gotten the disc mower out of the back shed (I still have to clean it up). This was an iffy proposition, because it had half fallen over, and is extremely heavy - way too heavy for two people to lift. But, we got lucky and it came out easily. Sheep have been wormed. We've started greasing the baler. My husband sharpened the blades on the bush hog this morning.

The new tiller is coming in a few days, and we're excited to see how it works on a couple of old, overgrown garden beds. There is a major weed problem, so we're planning to plant buckwheat first. We'll mow it before it goes to seed, and then till it under. Next, we'll plant winter rye (might have it wrong, but that is what I remember at the moment). Then, that gets tilled under. With luck, that process will choke out the weeds, and we'll have a couple of nice new garden beds next year.

The barn swallows arrived back last night. I'm sorry to say I went out and knocked down their nests from last year this morning. I like a few around, but last year there were so many in the sheep barn that it was very hard to keep the water buckets clean. Would like it if a few stayed around - they do a great job on flying insects, and are just generally very cheerful. But, I need the sheep to have fresh water too.