Lambing Preparations: Part 1

Lambing has been on my mind a lot lately as we prepare for the next phase of our shepherding adventure. Keeping adolescent and adult sheep has, thus far, been easy and fun. Even locating, selecting, and bringing in a breeding ram has been a relatively straightforward experience. We anticipate that raising our own lambs from

Getting Our First Sire Feels Like Wham, Bam, Thank You, Ram

Blaze, our first ram, is a two year old Navajo-Churro ram that we purchased from Orion Rising Farm in South Royalton, VT. When we were first looking for eligible bachelors for our ewes, he caught our eye with his beautiful and well-balanced rack. After the sheep were shorn in October, we were able to get

Freshman Farm: A Year of Being Shepherds

Since our last post, we’ve gotten our little freshman farm business off the ground. In the spring we fenced a second pasture to give the sheep more room to graze. We sent our first batch of wool to Green Mountain Spinnery in August, and sold yarn at the Tunbridge World’s Fair and the Vermont Sheep

Winter Wonders As The Snow Settles In

In October, I closed the last journal entry by wondering how we—and the animals—would do once winter set in. Our summer and autumn experiences were great, but once there was snow on the ground, how were we all going to adapt our routines? I’m pleased to report that the state of the flock is excellent!

Sheep Switcheroo is Simple, See

As you might recall, when we first got our sheep we didn’t begin with our true starter flock. We had selected two ewes and four ewe lambs, but two of the lambs were not weaned yet, so we found ourselves in a temporary situation: Aretha and her two lambs (one ewe, one ram) would stay

Do Sheep Playing Dead? Of Course They Wouldn’t

As with any new undertaking, the addition of livestock to our lives has involved some adjustments and has given us some new experiences. Earlier this week, one of our sheep gave me an experience I was not prepared for. Our small barn is located at the bottom of the driveway, and as I do every

Sheep & Llamas Making Friends As Animals and Farmers Figure Each Other Out

A week ago, Don and Sue Mellen of Autumn Mountain Farm delivered our two gelding llamas, Guinness and Kuzco, to guard the sheep from predators. We unloaded them to the paddock and observed as they investigated their new home, then invited Don and Sue up to the house for lunch. They were very pleased with

Llamas to Protect Our Flock of Sheep from Predators

It’s a funny thing when Rick and I start brainstorming about the projects we want to take on. Our ideas have a way of growing and expanding. After our first winter living in Tunbridge, we decided that we really wanted to have a garage (so that we would not have to dig/chisel out our cars