Here at Liberty Farm, we've made the transition from summer to autumn. That means something that our family looks forward to every year - vacation. We spent the first week of October on Hatteras Island, North Carolina. The fishing was lousy but all in all it was a very nice relaxing week spent with my parents and sister, brother-in-law and their three kids.
As we move into autumn we have two major undertakings on the farm and they are the things I least look forward to during the year - shearing and dividing the flock into two breeding groups and one group of ewe lambs that will not be bred this year. So, every year about this time I entertain thoughts about what our life would be like if we didn't have this farm, livestock and everything else that goes along with it. I probably shouldn't admit that here but it's true and I know this melancholy outlook will pass soon enough.
Shearing the ewes is tentatively scheduled for October 27th. I will try to get the rams done one evening (or morning, depending on my work schedule) before then. The rams are going to be difficult because we don't have a good way of getting them into the barn and closing them in. The ewes are easy in this regard because their habit is to spend some time loafing in their barn each day so we just have to close the gate when they are all inside.
Dividing the flock for breeding purposes has always been one of the most difficult thins we do each year simply because we don't have adequate handling facilities. The corral I built last spring should be a big help with that. I plan to buy enough wire panels that we can construct a lane connecting the two barns. Then it will be a (simple?!?) matter of separating out the sheep we want to move and driving them down the lane. The white (ewe) barn will house one ram and his group and the red (ram) barn will house the other ram with his ewes. Additionally, we will have 3 or 4 ewe lambs in a stall in the red barn that will not be bred this year. I'm not sure of the number yet because we may breed the biggest of the ewe lambs. I'll know for sure after she is shorn and I can judge her body size and condition without all that wool getting in the way.
