Well, Sandwich and Burger have been with us for about a week now and we’ve had no problems with eating or taking bottles! I used a weight tape to measure them tonight… Jersey calves are typically around 50 lbs at birth and their current weights are: Sandwich – 88 lbs; Burger – 97 lbs. It’s hard to believe that 9 days ago I carried Sandwich halfway to the barn because he was still unsteady on his feet. I could lift Burger out of the van, but even then, he was too heavy for me.
farm
A New Adventure
Monday morning, around 6:15am, the phone rang… the dairy farm we had contacted about Jersey bull calves had 2 waiting for us.
I had built a large wooden box for the back of our mini-van so that we can transport a couple animals without hitching up the trailer… actually Aunt Celie’s trailer. Anyway, we loaded the box in the mini-van and after dropping Noah off at school, Hannah and I went to Gap, PA to pick them up. I think the family we purchased the calves from might still be talking about us putting calves in the back of a mini-van! 
One of the calves was 1 day old (born on 2/13) and the other was 10 days old (born on 2/4). This week was a great time to get them because Dave is taking classes in Philly so I’m not working this week. The older calf needs to be bottle fed twice a day and the younger calf will get 3 bottles a day till he’s a week old. I wanted to call them Thing 1 and Thing 2, but Noah decided they should be named Burger and Sandwich.
Burger
Sandwich
We castrated them by banding them Tuesday night before giving them their bottles. It’s definitely more involved than banding tails to dock them. We don’t castrate ram lambs so I didn’t realize how tricky it is to get both testicles on the right side of the band! The calves didn’t even flinch when I got the band on and they’re doing fine today. 
Stay tuned for more calf stories!
Isaac Finds a Home
Noah and Hannah with Isaac
Our newest sheep arrived today. Isaac is a 2 – year old Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) ram and was owned by a friend in my spinning group. She and her husband are moving and had to find homes for their animals so we decided to take Isaac.
He’s had an interesting life so far. Apparently his birth wasn’t planned… his mother and father were siblings. Soon after he was born he developed an eye infection that had to be treated daily with ointment for about a month. He’s very gentle and has never produced any lambs even though he’s been housed with ewes his whole life. I wonder if that’s a result of the accidental inbreeding. Anyway, he will have a visit with our vet in September since we aren’t interested in breeding him (and he obviously isn’t interested in breeding either).
Surprise!!
Saturday was very busy here…lots of mowing, weeding and moving sheep. We bought a New Holland tractor a couple weeks ago for mowing the fields since the lawn tractor that we had been using caught on fire while I was mowing. (Moral of that story – everyone should have at least 1 fire extinguisher and know how to use it!)
Anyway, Dave went up to the top field (the riding arena) to let the goats and Karloff out so he could mow it. The next thing I knew he was back by the barn yelling “Kim, you have to see this.” That usually doesn’t refer to something good. Along with Karloff and the goats in the field were our 3-month old chicks in their chicken tractor, but when I got to the gate I saw chickens running all around and 2 really big chickens in the tractor.
The goats and Karloff like to rub on the chicken tractor and the wire on one side had given way. Of course the goats couldn’t resist a buffet of chicken feed. Karloff was the only good one and was sleeping in the sheep/goat shelter (it’s on the left in the background).
We lifted up the back of the chicken tractor to let Rudy and Buster out, fixed the wire and caught all the chickens. Then Dave could finally mow the field!
Colonial Day
Earlier this month I participated in the Robbinsville Elementary School’s Colonial Day and talked to the 3rd graders about spinning wool. I only had 2 weeks to prepare and it turned out a lot different than I imagined, but I still enjoyed it and I think the students did, too.
My Set-Up for the Demo
The wool spinning station was in the gym, which didn’t have good air conditioning….or didn’t have any. It was hard to tell. 🙂 There were about 45 students in each of 6 sessions, which were 30 minutes. I talked about the history of spinning and the tools used in spinning. Everyone then got some wool and a spindle to try spinning. After the first 2 groups, I took the cd’s off my homemade spindles and the rest of the students just used the hooked dowels. They were much easier to use!
2 students were allergic to wool, and I felt bad that I didn’t bring any other fibers “just in case”. I will definitely bring some next year.
I also have a list of other things I want to improve on for next year….at least I have a better idea of what I’m doing now!
Catching Up…
I have been neglecting my blog because of all the “stuff” that’s been keeping me busy. Here are some highlights for now:
*went to Ohio for the Great Lakes Sheep and Fiber Show, and organized the Tunis Wool Show.
*did a spinning demo for 3rd graders’ Colonial Day at a NJ school.
*plant, weed, water & mow garden. (….repeat)
*moved Hannah into a toddler bed.
*help stain deck / help keep kids out of stain.
*looking at new tractors because lawn tractor caught on fire and is now dead.
*still spreading around the 3 truckloads of woodchips that I got from a tree service (for free).
Stay tuned for pictures and stories!
Our newest lambs
Last Wednesday our shearer came out and sheared the sheep… Well, everyone except Beatrice and Bertha because they were due to lamb any day.
Bertha ended up going into labor a couple hours after our shearer left, and gave us a beautiful, 11-3/4 lb ewe lamb. I only helped when she looked like she was getting tired. It was her 1st lamb so the shoulders were difficult to pass.
Bertha and ewe lamb
Beatrice lambed the next night and also gave us a ewe lamb. She was a petite 11 lbs!
Beatrice and ewe lamb
Beatrice’s lamb scared Dave Friday morning when he checked on the girls. She had slipped through the slats in the lambing stall and was in with Bertha and her lamb! Beatrice was very happy to get her baby back. Bertha has proved to be a very attentive and protective mother…she tried to hide her lamb from us when they were in the barn by standing in front of her!
Now we have 4 ewe lambs and 2 ram lambs with 2 more girls due next month!
Update on Rosy
Rosy is back to her usual curious, getting into trouble self! She stayed in the barn with her twins during the week she was sick and we let her out every day to graze. She never wandered away from the barn. Tuesday we could tell she was feeling more like herself, though. She and the 2 pregnant ewes found their way to the driveway and were headed for a walk after I went to work. Needless to say, yesterday I let them graze in the main pasture!
Here are a few pictures of Rosy during treatment (warning – they are a little gross)…
This is Rosy last Thursday (the day after we started treatment). Notice how discolored and swollen her udder is. She didn’t lay down at until the swelling went down.
Some of Rosy’s medicine. The yellow liquid is Aminoplex and the clear one is calcium gluconate. All this was give subcutaneously (SQ) twice a day. She also got 3cc Banamine once a day. By Friday we started to give the Aminoplex orally. She ate and drank on her own so we didn’t have to tube her like we did last year.
This photo is of Rosy’s udder yesterday (Wednesday) when she was being shorn. The right side was most affected and is turning gangrene. We’ll keep an eye on it to watch for fly strike since it’s raw.
Rosy went back in the field with the girls after shearing. Her lambs stayed by her side during this whole ordeal. I think it helped that she wasn’t stressed that her lambs were gone, too. I think she has weaned them… every time I see them try to nurse she walks away.
Poor Rosy
It’s been a while since I posted. Things have been a little crazy lately…sometimes I think another crisis is right around the corner!
Last Wednesday I noticed Rosy, our ewe who had triplets, just wasn’t herself…she wasn’t walking around much and her ears were droopy. When I took grain into the girls she didn’t come for food. That confirmed my suspicions – she’s always the 1st to come for food. She didn’t appear to have a fever but her udder was discolored in spots like it was bruised. I called Dale (our vet) and he didn’t like was I described to him. He’d be to our place in about 2 hours to check her out.
Getting Rosy from the front field to the barn wasn’t too easy…she did not want to walk and I didn’t want to push her too much because it was obvious she was in pain. Dale examined her and, just like he thought, she had mastitis. He gave her some fluids and medicine for the pain and shock, as well as a long-acting antibiotic. This type of mastitis is called “blue bag” because the infection affects the blood supply to the udder, resulting in discoloration. The affected tissue may become gangrene and eventually slough off.
Dale gave me instructions and left medication. 2 – 60 cc syringes of electrolyte/amino acid and 1 – 60 cc syringe of calcium gluconate (SQ) twice a day for 4 days. Banamine once a day for 4 days and another shot of antibiotic to administer in 1 week. He also left his stomach tube and pump in case I needed it. Dale told me if Rosy was around for the 2nd antibiotic shot, she’d make it. He also suggested that I leave her lambs with her, as long as they don’t beat her up trying to nurse.
Thursday morning I gave her all those injections and she didn’t even flinch. Of course she has to be my favorite ewe, right?! I had some hope because she was eating and drinking on her own, but I didn’t want to hope too much. Every time the lambs tried to nurse Rosy would just walk away….well, more like hobble away. I wasn’t too concerned about them – they were 3 weeks old and would be okay if they were weaned now.
Rosy’s udder was so swollen it was difficult for her to walk and she wouldn’t lie down at all. From Wednesday afternoon until Saturday I didn’t see her lie down once. Each day I let her out of the barn to graze with her babies and I’d see her lean against the barn occasionally to sleep.
By Saturday her udder wasn’t as swollen and she started lying down again. We also started giving her the electrolytes orally instead of subcutaneously. Some of the skin on her udder is rubbing off, like Dale said it would; and parts of her fleece are falling out – a condition called wool break caused by sever stress.
Yesterday Rosy trotted to me for food… I think she’s going to be okay. No more babies for her, though.
Dreary, Rainy Monday
What a sad day Monday was. Dave stayed home because we both had doctor appointment…our colds were just not going away. When I got back from dropping Noah at pre-school, Dave met me with bad news. He’d found Abigail’s single lamb strangled in a rope hay feeder. He was a week old. We both felt so guilty. It was my brilliant idea to make the feeder and re-use baling twine; and we had turned off the baby monitor in the barn since we weren’t expecting any more ewes to go into labor.
Later, at the doctor’s, we learned we both have sinus infections and I have bronchitus. At least we’re now on antibiotics and getting better. 🙂
I worked that night. Dave called me around 8pm because Noah got sick. He continued to get sick every hour until 4:30am. Poor kid! Every time he got up again I had just fallen asleep.
What a dreary, depressing Monday. I’m glad Tuesday brought a sunny day.
Red Rope Farm 
