Next

The cows spent the summer at our neighbors munching down his 8 acres of weeds.  We brought them home last weekend and so instead of giving 9 cattle 3 flakes a day, just so they know who their parents are, we went up to 1 bale of hay a day.  

The sheep had to get used to sharing space with the cattle and figure out how to get around the electric fence now that it's charged.  One of the steers is a real dummy I have decided to name  him Next!  He wandered under the fence the same place the sheep go under and then wandered the property mooing the other cattle would answer him and he wouldn't go to them he just kept mooing like he was lost and no one answered him.  Normally I just open the gate and the cattle that are out just walk right in.  Not Next, he charges the fence on both sides of the gate.  I end up letting out a cow to show Next how to walk through the gate.

Next isn't in this picture.

Next has decided he will not share hay with the sheep so he gets food protective and pushes the lambs away. 

Not here either.

 He isn't a fan of sharing with the other cattle either he wanders from flake of hay to flake of hay any time another cow joins him at his flake.  

Today we moved the cattle to another neighbor's flower field.  Stick Boy and I set up the temporary

electric fencing in the space the neighbor wants cleared.  We made a narrow ally for the cattle to walk from our property to the neighbor's field without eating of the flowers that are currently growing.  I was so confident that this would work I didn't even wait for Darling Husband or College Boy to come home.  Instead Stick Boy and I got the help of 4 neighbor boys 6-10 years old only 2 speak any English.  What can go wrong?  

I get some hay and convince the cattle to follow me from one end of our pasture to the other and part way to the gate to the neighbors.  About half way to the gate the older cows that have been on this trip the last 3 years saw where we wanted them to go and took off running.  The snapping of the electric fence and those brave boys kept the wonderful girls in the ally I exactly how I wanted them to go.  The bull wasn't as sure of this adventure so was a little slower.

The gate all the cattle needed to go through.

  Just as Mooney, the bull, starts to go through the gate Next freaks out and pushes Mooney so he goes to the left of the gate and around the corner.  Next careens along the fence line not even looking at the tree he almost crashes into.  Mooney runs frantically at the fence crashing into it then he joins Next.  They start running up and down the lower fence but never going as far as the gate.  I work my way around the foolish animals and convince them to go toward the gate.

 Just as Mooney starts to look at the gate and start waking that way calmly, Next decides to chase Luca, who until this point had been a good dog and watched the craziness without adding to it.  Now Luca starts barking at the completely confused cattle and they all run the whole length of the bottom of our fence two times before I convince Luca he isn't helping.  I get the boys to stand along one side of the gate and Teen Daughter comes to help me calmly walk Mooney and Next toward the gate. 

 The boys worked perfectly moving just enough to convince the steer and bull to look at the gate where the rest of their herd was happily eating. 

 

Mooney 

Rolo

Helping with Deer's Twins

Deer is a wide bodied girl.  I never know when she is pregnant because she always looks like she is about to give birth.    

When she didn't eat with the rest of the herd I hoped we would have a lamb.  She chose to stay under a tree at the top of the hill where she could watch the rest of the herd.

Every once in a while she would decide the rest of the sheep wandered too far away and would go round them up and yell at them.  Deer is not a sheep the rest follow but she was in such distress they listened to her.  

I don't normally watch out for the sheep to give birth but she was seeming to be in some stress and it was a beautiful day so I followed her around.

While I was watching her I kept hearing running water.  Hoping it was a neighbors hose I followed the noise.  It didn't take long for me to find the leak.

I got some help digging out the hole.   

While I was digging her labor must have taken a pause because she started eating so I took a break and went into the house and cleaned up.   

Finally she chose a place closer to where the rest of the herd wanted to be and she was protected.  

When she started to give birth the feet were pointed properly but the head was turned.  I might have waited longer to intervene but 2 years ago she gave birth to a stillborn twin, so I broke the amneiotic sac and turned the head so it was facing the right direction and in the next minute the first ram was born.  

She immediately started cleaning it.  He took his first wobbly steps and got to nurse.  15 minutes later his younger brother was born.

She got back to work cleaning the newest lamb.

Proper Livestock Guardian Dog behavior.  Being near the new lambs and watchful but not looking directly at them.  They even are looking in opposite directions so all areas that the lambs could be attacked from are covered (or Natasha is looking at her human).

Luca is so calm and protective of the babies that Deer relaxed when he was close.  That all changed when Champion the Pig wanted a look.  I didn't pause to take a picture just scooped up the babies and took Deer and her lambs into a safe pig proof place.

Here they are 18 hours old trying to keep up with the herd.

Deer will have her hands full with the black sheep.  He already is busy sticking his nose into everything and not following his mom.

Escapees!!!

The dogs were running around and barking.  

Coming to the house and barking at the door then running off barking.

So I looked outside:

This is not the pig pen!

They did a lot of exploring.

Then they tried playing with the lambs.  

The adult sheep tried to keep the lambs away from the piggies.  

Finally they decided to follow me into the pig pen.

And Lilly ran right into the muddiest spot and plopped down wiggling her way into the mud.

Crazy Senseless Loss

I have been avoiding my blog.  I know I have to write about this but it hurts my heart.  With farming and animals, crazy things happen and it just doesn't make any sense.  The new lambs were strange little guys it took a couple days before they would walk uneven ground without stopping to study it.  Looking back I should have kept the penned in an area with rocks but I am not sure that would have helped.

Here the Painted Desert Sheep are with the rest of our sheep but most of the time they would keep to themselves.  

We went to dinner with at my kids grandparents and with the freedom of having HelpXer's here we were not worried about it getting dark while we enjoyed our family.  During dinner we got a call all animal lovers fear.  When the HelpXers came home they saw Oakley with something in the pond.  They thought she was attacking a duck but instead she was trying to pull the lamb out of the pond but the bank was too steep and she kept falling back in.  The HelpXers pulled the lamb out of the pond and warmed her by the fire.

Then when the sheep were being put away another lamb ran up over the dam and right splash into the pond the lamb swam over to where the bank was super steep but thankfully our HelpXer was able to pull the lamb out quickly.  

The drive home was me making calls to vets and other animal friends looking for advice and medicine.  The first vet I spoke with was unwilling to advise on sheep, the second would see us but not until the next day and didn't advise treating the lamb he wanted $250 just to see her.  

  

Our first couple hours at home were spent warming up the lambs.  I spent that night keeping the lambs happy and fire roaring.  The white ram lamb made it clear pretty quickly he was there because it was nice by the fire but it was freezing outside and the other lamb rested easier with him beside her.

In the morning we took both lambs out for a walk to see how they would respond to being out in the cold and in their natural environment.  The ram lamb made it clear right away he was DONE with being cooped up and wanted freedom.  The ewe was still weak.  

I spent the next 3 nights keeping the fire going and walking/carrying her around while I did my chores.  She was eating, drinking, and pooping well so we believed she was recovering.

The fourth day she was ready to be out running around so we let her loose with the sheep.  A few hours later I could not find her.  While I walked the property looking for her the dogs would not come to  me finally I decided to get smart and look were the dogs were.  

The dogs would not leave her even after she died.  

A few days later the black and white ram fell into the pond and drowned.  

I would find the Livestock Guardian Dogs putting the white ram into pens or corners and just laying down so he couldn't get away from them.  Now he is running happily with the rest of the sheep. 

Introducing Oakley

We had been looking for a new dog.  I was hoping to find a Livestock Guardian Dog that was needing to be rehomed.  I still am not a puppy person and we have had luck adopting rescue dogs.  There are several wonderful rescue organizations that deal with Livestock Guardian Dogs.  I contacted them but unfortunately our situation is complicated (cats, poultry, other dogs, lots of company, kids) and the only dogs that fit our situation were a pair of adolescent male boys and I was afraid they would overwhelm Luca. 

Luca was being overworked on his own all night long.  I was tired of getting up with a high powered flashlight to help Luca convince the coyotes and stray dogs to stay further away from the fence.  I needed to get Luca help!  And just as I came to this realization I found a breeder of Anatolian Sheppard’s with puppies that were 4 months old. 

Yay!

Tiffany at blackbeautyfarmandkennels.com and I chose the new dog for us.  One Sunday afternoon Oakley arrived a sweet happy puppy! Oakley had spent 10 days in a truck transport and arrived with problems with her front legs.  

I called Tiffany and we spent hours contacting other breeders and looking up information on what had happened and the best way to treat her.  We decided to give it a few days then take her to our vet and see how things were healing if we needed to do anything else.  It took about 2 weeks for her legs to return to normal.  

Missing Tessa

Tessa was a wonderful dog.  

She was Luca’s leader, the two dogs worked together with her seeming to tell Luca what to do. 

Tessa had the energy to play with Dakota long enough to get him good and tired every morning and afternoon. 

She was the sheep’s alarm, if Tessa barked the sheep paid attention often moving closer to her for protection.  The cat’s enjoyed teasing her to the point that I warned the kids if one of our cats ended up dead I wouldn’t be mad at Tessa. 

 Tessa rarely let a human hand rest without her putting her head under it for a scratch.  She was the perfect loving watchful protective dog.  After Tessa died Stick Boy came to me in tears, “Now the only one I have to tell my secrets to is God”.  Tessa will always be missed.