This morning, Erin, Paige and I got up early to drive to Manassas VA to meet a stud.
His name is Aldo. Isn’t he cute?
We had planned to purchase a new ram for the farm this year, but a couple of unexpected expenses recently came up, so we decided to make due with renting one for now. Aldo is a great looking Cormo ram with good track record. He is also going to bring a new genetic line to our flock, which is very exciting. We were really lucky to find him.
Well be putting Aldo in with the ewes and yearlings tomorrw and we’ll keep him until January 10th or so, to give all the ewes time to cycle three times. That way we are pretty sure that all of the ladies will be bred and we’ll have plenty of lamberoos on the ground in the spring. Our window for lambing will be April 15, 2009 through June 9th, but will most likely focus around May.
We will be doing special Shepherding Camp long weekends during lambing season- more on this tomorrow, including a really cool giveaway.
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really hoping to bring the family down during that time. i think norah will love seeing the animals. i think she’ll “get it’ more this spring.
Wow, he is handsome. Swoon…
Don’t tease me Kate! You know I would LOVE to have you come down and stay.
Hi Aldo!
What a great looking ram.
Now I’m going to be hearing David Lee Roth in my head for the next few months….
You know I had to read this post with a title like that
And can’t wait to hear more about the Shepherding camp weekends in the Spring. Have a great week!
Manassas is my neck of the woods.
you drove right past my little town of Warrenton on your way to Manassas….welcome to the area..
no teasing….i have may 20-26 penciled in on the calendar….
Why do I hear the Toreador’s theme from “Carmen” playing in the background?
congratulations! He’s gorgeous. how exciting for all the ladies in the house!
Can’t help think about Linda, poor thing. missing out on the “fun”.
In an office,
with a nice view of a tree
but in an office nonetheless
Stories about sheep and rams and lambs
Keep me sane
At least what passes for sane around here!
hello to my favorite shepardesses!
looks like everyone has adjusted to the move! thanks for the photos ~ would love to see more of the actual farm ~ please zoom out more! xoxomelinda
Oh Aldo… You’re our own little Midnight Cowboy…
Hey, good looking, tsk tsk [tongue clicking sound]. Sassy dude, did that handsome fella arrive wearing gold chains I wonder? Here’s to happy lambs come spring.
This answers a burning question I had: “Where’s Aldo?”
Ooh Sheparding camp. Now I know what I want for my birthday!!!! Or even what I want to give myself for my birthday.
Hi Susan,
Aldo is a handsome lad! He looks like the Studly-Do-Right you have been needing. I’m sure the ewe ladies will like him a lot. You should be hearing a lot of ram-burbling over the next couple days as he serenades the ladies. Interestingly, I just put my rams out with the ladies this weekend as well–Calcifer with the black-wooled ewes and Miracle with the white-wooled ewes. But you are optimistic if you think that most of your lambs are waiting until May to appear. If your girls are cycling and just waiting for a real ram to show up, something like 2/3rds should settle in the first cycle, which is the first 17 days after the ram goes in (unless you are only exposing a few at a time). So you should get a lot of the lambs in late April and then tail off into May for those who didn’t settle the first time around. So plan to be busy in April. I used to schedule my lambing to coincide with Spring Break week–then I would be around and have plenty of time to concentrate on watching for impending birthing and helping the new lambs and getting them in the jugs. How many ewes are you breeding–we should have a “lambs on the ground” race next spring. Have you found a local vet for sheep yet? I was wondering if you had any updates on what was happening with Truman.
Hey Jan! Thanks so much for the comment. I always love hearing from you. I hopre you’re right about lambs coming early- last year we had the world’s latest- and longest- lambing season, but maybe this year will go more according to plan. Fingers crossed!
We did find a local vet, thanks to our shepherd neighbors that stopped by last week. They are nearby, pretty up on sheep and TWO WOMEN, which is always cool. Truman isn’t out of the woods yet. He finally started showing signs of worms- before he was neither anemic or edemic (is that a word? you know what I mean though). We hit him with a large dose of wormer and have followed up once since then. He seems to be getting better- up, alert and prancing around- and then starts to fail again.
He was in very bad shape when we picked him up and I am frankly amazed that he’s made it this long. He is a fighter and I am hopeful.
Hi Susan,
I hope the other readers don’t mind a bit of “talking shop.” I am delighted that you found vets you like–suprisingly something like 80% of new vet school graduates are women these days and I don’t mind saying that I love it. Now about Truman, predicated on the approval of your vets (take their advice over mine, they are there and that makes a difference), you might want to get a stool sample from him and have them do a fecal flotation test. This will tells you lots of information–what parasites he has, how many and if they are responding to the wormer you are using. Some are resistant to some wormers. My Mantra is “Test, Don’t Guess.” One possibility is that he is still infected. The other is that the worms can damage the lining of the digestive tract and cause scarring. Once scarred, it is hard to absorb food and so it can be a long and difficult recovery. You had *really* tough conditions this last summer because it was so wet (so don’t kick yourself–as I know you are wont to do). Younger animals don’t have the immunity to fight the buggers off. A very good resource is this organization at http://www.scsrpc.org
Also ask your vets to teach you the FAMACHA test. (This is unfortunately less useful for me because in my location I have less problems with the Barberpole worm, which causes anemia). Hang in there with Truman.
Now, if I could only understand building a web site as well as I do sheep worms! And for me Tweeting is still what birds do. New computer technology is *so* bewildering to me. Everyone has their gifts.
This past weekend I got to take a quick, introductory class on doing fecal exams with a microscope and a flotation technique. I’m excited to continue learning and hopefully do my own fecals before too long. It will save me a mint, and could potentially give me critical information about an animal quickly, and help me give the proper treatment immediately. The horse vet charges $20/each sample and the sheep vet is a 40 minute drive away. (And whose sheep get sick during office hours?) How empowering it will be to diagnose my own parasite issues. If I could get a FAMACHA class, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’ll keep looking around.
Prayers for Truman’s continued recovery.
Are the girls cozying up to Aldo yet? What a stud!
will there be live action for those of us near you mom’s? (live feed)