Saturday, November 08, 2008

Enjoying fall, but not "Musical Sheep"

(As always, click on any image to biggify.)
This morning the sun broke through the clouds and cast bright beams across the fallen maple leaves. They are a golden carpet along the south side of our property - that will have to be blown off the gravel before they turn brown and slimy.

Fungi push up through the leaf litter (they probably don't mind "brown and slimy").

Colorful debris contrasts nicely with grey-green thyme.

The cherry leaves still on the trees in the orchards on our hill are reflected in "puddles" of leaves on the ground.

White clouds "pop" against their grey companions to the east.

As for "Musical Sheep," it is a not a fun party icebreaker. It is an effort to prevent Franjean from further straining whatever is hurting in his right hind leg. My vet-with-benefits thought that doing so was essential, so this evening I made an enclosure for him to reside in where he would not be tempted to mount anyone or stand on his hind legs to nuzzle anyone.Can you tell it did a lot of good?

In the meantime, Braveheart was back in his corner "fold within the fold" and all the other sheep were together, simplifying the set-up - right? NO. For reasons beyond this simple shepherd, Brava was in challenge-mode, and Braveheart was doing his best to meet that challenge. Between the two of them, I am afraid there will be no barrier left standing between Braveheart and the ewes by morning. Depending on whether next spring's lambs are gulmogets and when they pop out, I could have a paternity nightmare on my hands. Since you must test the dam, potential sire AND lamb (at $40/sample) to determine paternity, that's a prohibitive $120/lamb to be able to register any questionable ones. Hmmm, I think I'd better head back down to the fold to rearrange things yet again, just to make sure....

But before I do that, I have to share the latest news from the henhouse. While Franjean hobbled about, Welsie was enduring some suffering of her own; look at the SIZE of the egg she laid today! Below is a photo of the normal-sized egg she laid yesterday with the behemoth she laid today; wanna bet it's a double-yoker?
Off to play "Musical Sheep" again at . . .

5 comments:

MiniKat said...

So do you have music while you play "Musical Sheep?" Seriously though, I hope the overly ambitious boys all setle down, behave, and mend well.

I love the gorgeous colors in your latest photographs!

Deborah Niemann said...

Yep, that egg looks like a double-yolker! I don't think we've had one of those all year. Interesting, since they're pretty common with pullets.

I've complained about our horse barn for several years now, but it would certainly be the thing for your ram, since they have all wooden walls. If he was really ambitious though, he'd still stand on his hind legs with his front feet on the walls.

Sharrie said...

Hoping you have better luck with your "musical sheep" and a mended leg added on top of that.

~TigereyeSal~ said...

These are beautiful pictures, Michelle. I hope your boys settle down for you soon.

JoanK said...

Good afternoon Michelle - first (but not last) visit to your blog. The colours are beautiful, thank you for the photos and I think your Butter is definitely a beauty.

I look forward to seeing her fleece and the many processes.

From cold, the snow came and we have ice all over, Winnipeg, Canada