Well--it's been awhile since I posted but a lot has happened during that time. Two more lambs were born and I bought 9 Angus cows with calves at their side. Besides that I have also looked at buying a new bull, fought unsuccessfully to save Uncle Bob's sick bull calf, experienced farming in extreme cold and wet conditions, tried to keep a determined escape artist of a dog within his pre-established boundaries, saved a lamb that got caught in the fence, bought a tractor among other things.

After a lot of thought and angst, I decided to sell all of my sheep. It was a hard decision to make because I loved having them. Unfortunately, they required too much time and money. Mostly it was my lack of time that did them in. I was often out there checking on them 4-5 times a week. The hour drive each way was killing me and taking away from time with my wife and kids. My life was just too complicated. Add to that trying to deal with sticky situations surrounding a family farm when you are frustrated didn't make things any better. I think I am going to start seriously looking for another farm to lease just to simplify things. I am tired of all the flak and folks working against me knowingly or unknowingly. Maybe it's a case of too many cooks in the kitchen and too many folks taking advantage of the situation--I don't know. I do know that I have seen and experienced enough to know that I don't want any part of it anymore. Suffice it to say that there is no advantage to being a member of the family.

I feel more a peace now since I have made this decision. I'll keep the cows, chickens and dog as long as I can. Hopefully, I'll find something closer to Nashville within the next few months.

Now that the lambs are here, I am posting like crazy. I banded the ram lamb today and turned mom and the twins in with the rest of the sheep. The little ewe stays closer to her mother than the ram. He is easily separated and always seems to not be paying attention to where she is. Other than that, I spent the rest of the day moving hay, feeding the animals and doing other things that needed to be done.

New Lambs and the Visiting Ram

The new lambs have arrived! They are a set of twins--a ram and an ewe lamb. The new ewe is slightly bigger and has light brown spots. The ram had a little trouble at first and almost became fixated on my dog Gauge. He followed him around for a while so I decided to pen the new family together for a couple of days.

The Murray Grey girls have arrived! They are my first foray into the cattle business. So far, I really like them. Real gentle and peaceful.

Here is the latest...

The lamb died...I checked on him the next day and saw his mother back with the other sheep. Maybe the rest will have better luck.

I moved the sheep to a new area on Thursday. While moving them, they decided to run past me toward the highway. The next thing I knew, they were all still standing in the middle of the road. Talk about scary, because I couldn't see around the curve at the top of the hill. Fortunately the cars slowed down enough to let me get their attention and lead them back to the new paddock. Whew!

The sheep and Gauge are doing well together. I think they think he is strange new member of the flock. Gauge seems to be adjusting and taking everything in. He has already learned that the donkey does not like him AT ALL. He also learned that the electric fence is HOT. I was pleased to see him still with the sheep last night since I couldn't check on them for a couple of days. Hopefully, I won't have any problems with him getting out.

My three Rhode Island Red hens are laying like gang-busters--almost three eggs every day. Wow--I thought we could eat enough eggs but now I am thinking of selling the extras. Raising chickens is pretty easy--I may add a few more down the road.

I am considering buying 2-3 Murray Grey cow-calf pairs in the next few weeks. Uncle Charles children offered me the chance to buy his cows now that he passed. Hopefully that will work well--we'll see.