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By Pam, on February 21st, 2009  teenage rams, HT Jenks & HT Reece I haven’t spent any time talking about the rams. It’s not because we don’t pay any attention to them. They’re really very funny and sweet. At this time of year, Jim spends more time with them than I do because of the division of chores. I deal with the hens on a daily basis and he takes care of the rams. But I do visit them to say “hello” and give chin scratches. I’ve often thought it’d be fun to have a flock of rams…just love their personalities but we’ve only ever had Coopworths so I have nothing to compare them to. They’ll almost always accept scratches and stand still while you check under their coats…and oh! what beautiful fleeces they have!! You know, the ram is 50% of all the lambs he produces so it stands to reason that you want him to be a very spiffy guy! Our boys live in their own little group and even have the best accomodations — a very nice greenhouse. Ram temperament is really important to us and we believe its genetic, at least to some degree. But we also feel strongly that rams are much better behaved when they’re in a group and have playmates. It’s true that for just a small flock of ewes, you really only need one ram but if you keep him alone, he will undoubtedly become a pain…your pain!
 ram lamb, Hatchtown Onyx Sadly, lone rams often end up at the auction because they appear to be mean when in fact, they were just needing companionship. All sheep are flocking animals ie they need to be in a group…this includes the males. Keeping a wether (castrated male sheep) with your ram is an economical way to keep him happy. Choose a wether with a beautiful fleece and selling it will pay for his feed (almost)…and maybe he’ll save you from the emergency room. Another approach is to keep 2 (or 3) unrelated rams (intact). This will initially cost more but if you do, you may still avoid the emergency room, still get big, beautiful fleeces to sell and with good record keeping, you may not have to bring any new animals onto your farm for a number of years. This is a big plus because new animals need to be thoroughly checked for disease and/or parasites, quarantined, etc. and that means more work for the shepherd. In addition, when we disrupt the pecking order by bringing in a new ram, it has to be re-established.
 ram lamb, Hatchtown Beck This usually means a stint in “the rubber room” — that’s a small stall in the barn with wall-to-wall tires on the floor. The rams have to think about where they’re putting their feet and because the stall is small, they can’t really get far enough apart to do any serious ramming. Usually after a few days, they’ve figured it all out and they’re good to go. But…the less often we have to do this, the happier we are…and I’m sure the rams feel the same way.
By Pam, on February 17th, 2009  here's Jim hacking away at Mount Hatchtown...again! Finally, we seem to be moving ahead with repairs to the car. It took a while for the insurance company to take a look at it because of yet another snow “event.” Living with one vehicle has been OK so far but the truck is so darn big in the parking lots in town. They’ve been shrinking because of the big piles of snow that occupy every nook and cranny. We’re not seeing any sign of warming and the current weather trend includes snow events on a pretty regular basis so…the piles grow. They’re growing around the farm, too, but Jim keeps chopping away at them in attempt to keep the lanes open enough to get the hay trailer in. We have a house guest for a couple of weeks.
 our Grandog "Sitka" is a sweetie Our grandog, Sitka, is here while older son and his girlfriend are in CA. Sitka is a most excellent guest except that he does like to play with (chase) the kitties sometimes. But he’s very well mannered around the hens and sheep. In true Aussie style, he does bark at the sheep, trying to get them to pay attention to him.
In this photo he’s sitting in the truck waiting for Jim to go somewhere.
By Pam, on February 5th, 2009 We’ve been picking shrimp and freezing them. Maine shrimp are small but very sweet and tender. One of son’s friends gave us 8 pounds of already cleaned shrimp in trade for eggs. What a nice thing to have in our freezer and he’s loving the eggs. These yummy little guys make lovely scampi and chowder.
By Pam, on November 10th, 2008 Woohoo! The chicks that I started months ago have finally got down to business…an egg! Usually, once one hen starts to lay, the others follow right along. This isn’t the best time of year for hens to start laying because it’s cold and the daylight hours are short. They really need 14 hours of daylight to lay regularly. We’ve been soooo looking forward to having our own eggs! Lark is still not able to get up on her own…another coarse of vitamins, etc. Appetite is great, tho, and all systems are working well.
By Pam, on October 28th, 2008 This hasn’t been fun at all. I’m feeling a little better but I’m trying not to overdo it. Everyone keeps telling me it’ll come back if I don’t behave. But sheep need to be fed and chickens, too. At least I can swallow and my nose isn’t running continuously anymore. I’ve had to resort to drugs and NyQuil is my nightcap of choice. That stuff really knocks me out so at least I’m getting a little rest. But I think it’s heading for my chest…ugh! While I’ve had this “downtime” we’ve been tossing around the idea of starting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). We’ve been members of a veggie CSA for a bunch of years and have been so happy with it that it seemed like a great idea. Originally, we’d talked about doing a lamb & pork CSA. But now that we’re not going to have any lambs to market this year, I’m wondering whether this model might be applied to fiber instead. I know that ours wouldn’t be the first fiber CSA (and it probably wouldn’t be the last either) but I think that any producer who does this will put his own slant on it. I seriously doubt that anyone in the fiber community will have a problem with another fiber CSA cropping up. I mean…is there ever enough fiber or places to find it?! There are so many different fiber animals producing different types of fiber…more yummy fiber is a good thing! I’m excited about this…but what to do first?!
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