A flock of photos

Including, of course, more photos of the flock! (This blog was started primarily to promote my sheep, after all!)

Last week I was admiring and loving on Mr. Boomy, and decided to take more photos. He's growing so fast, and I want to be able to send current photos to interested parties. Since his last photo shoot, he's actually grown enough to wear a halter without jury-rigging (barely).

After admiring him (and thinking of how Boop trashed her fleece), I decided to coat him. Thanks to someone who got out of sheep and gave me their coats, I actually have a selection of the smallest sizes; at just six weeks old, Boomer needed the smallest.

Of course, whenever someone in the flock gets a 'new look,' everyone stares:

That's big Broadway, the last nekkid sheep. Gotta get a coat on that girl....

After the novelty wears off, there's always the shepherd's fingers to draw them in:

In other farm news, we now have a source for horse hay, sitting safe in a barn until we've fed up last year's – and it's reasonable, if a bit of a drive. We also have a lead in central Oregon for sheep hay, if our local guy can't supply us. In the meantime, I've started supplementing Spot with some alfalfa and rice bran pellets so he's in good condition for the upcoming breeding season. I'm looking forward to more stunning Spot babies!

We're still sweating through summer, but the days are getting noticeably shorter and colder weather's coming. So last Sunday and this we worked on moving the huge pile of split firewood into the woodshed. We're not done yet, but it's filling up.

While we've been moving wood under shelter, the mice seem to be moving into the barn. They're chewing up stuff in the tackroom and leaving their pellets everywhere. Poppy is frantic to catch them, but there are too many hidey-holes. I won't use poison because of Poppy and Chuckie and homemade non-toxic solutions (the water bucket trap, and using a mixture of cornbread mix and baking soda) are slow and cruel ways to die. Not even invasive mice deserve that. So I went shopping for regular ol' mousetraps, and found something 'better.' Since they are guaranteed, I splurged, and am pleased to report that they work well and are easy to empty. So far, five tackroom mice have met their demise.

I'll close with miscellaneous scenes of the season.

That's it for now from . . .