Scent of a ....ram

Well the robins and red wing blackbirds are here, the geese are overhead and the sap is getting close to the end (8 litres of syrup and counting). It was time for the sheep to get naked. Our shearer was here on Monday and 2 huge bags later everyone is shorn. It is amazing what is hidden under those fleeces. Our mature ram was half the size I thought he was and our junior ram needs a few pounds.

The sheep will be heading back outside for another couple of weeks and then coming in for lambing. It is hard to imagine how quickly the time has passed. We bred 15 ewes last fall so I am hoping all of them caught. Most are very obviously pregnant but some of them that were bred at the end of the season are not so obviously pregnant.

A couple of days after shearing our mature ram came up lame in his back right foot. This is one case where I really had to dig deep for information. We do not and never have had foot rot on the farm... thank goodness. His hooves looked good, maybe a touch long so I trimmed him but it looked like the scent gland in between the cloves of his hoof was plugged. I scrubbed out his feet, trimmed them and cleaned out what appeared to be a blockage in the scent gland and 24 hours later he seems to be fine. NONE of the sheep vet manuals mention the scent gland. It was just a fluke that I found out that they exist and if they plug you will end up with and " unexplained" lameness. Fortunately I knew about the scent gland a couple of years ago and knew what to do.

We have a few lambing jugs to build. And so it begins.

TTFN

Laurie

The Sap is running

Ever since we have moved to Hawk Hill Farm ...getting to be 14 years now... I have wanted to make maple syrup. We have several large maples around the house so it seemed an obvious thing to try. This year we were in the hardware store and supplies were on sale. Bob suggested maybe next year but he turned his back and I bought enough to set up three buckets. Well that got us started and we now have a grand total of 6 collection buckets and are boiling down sap. After less than a week we have 2 and a bit litres of amber syrup made and the sap is running really well. We just want to make enough for ourselves so about 5 litres in all will be more than enough. Because we can collect the sap on the way back from the barn, it is a very painless way to make syrup. And we are doing a big " no no" in everyone's opinion. We are boiling it off on the woodstove in the house but in our defense it will be this year only.

We have a refractometer that we use for testing the brix (sugar) level of grasses for making hay. We are using this to test the brix level of both the sap and the syrup as it is being boiled off. Surprisingly the sap from one sugar maple is testing at about 6°Brix coming out of the tree compared to the normal 2°brix. That makes it a whole lot better for boiling off since we have about a 20 to 1 ratio of sap to syrup rather than the typical 40 to 1 ratio. The other two trees are testing at about 3° brix. We are partially freezing the sap to concentrate the sugars before we start boiling so the maximum ratio we are dealing with is 20 litres sap to 1 litre syrup. We remove the frozen (for the most part) water from the container and the remaining sap has a higher concentration of sugars than before freezing. It is the same principle that works for production of ice wine. It saves us a lot of time and fuel for boiling off the sap.

With the weather forecast for this week ie cold nights and bright sunny days we should be finished making our syrup for this year by the end of the week. Dream number 534 accomplished.

TTFN,
Laurie

Time for mid-winter update

We are in the midst of a mid-winter, heading out of winter snow storm - half rain, freezing rain and now heavy snow. A great big yuck. The horses are in the barn for the day as are the rams and after finally mucking out what was several tons of packed bedding out of the log barn, the ewes and guard dogs can go back in there for the day though they seem more interested in being at the round bale.

This time of year which is between breeding the ewes and lambing is mainly devoted to education. Both Bob and I end up enrolled in courses, attending workshops, viewing webinars etc on sheep and equine care, forages, soils and crops, farm management, and marketing. What has impressed us is how well these courses are attended by other farmers. It is my impression that farmers are very proactive with respect to professional development. It is really good to see.

In between we have managed to sneak in fun courses like cooking, wine tasting and tours. It all helps to keep the brain cells going and getting through the winter without a major case of cabin fever.

Keep warm folk,
TTFN
Laurie

Of Blogs and Bogs and Bears

Blogs really are an unusual phenomenon when you think about it. When I was a child it was very common that little girls would have a diary where you poured out your innermost secrets and then hid it away for no one to see. The biggest disaster in the world was if, heaven forbid, somebody found your diary and read it and, even worse, they shared it with someone else. Yet with the social media today the more people who read your blog the better. And in some cases, the more personal the information the better. OK it seems pretty weird that I am saying this on a blog but.... I don't get it. I write my blog because it keeps people up to date on what is happening at the farm which is as much a business as it is a home. It puts a face on the business and allows clients to feel connected to where their food is produced. But to share my innermost secrets in public. It ain't gonna happen.

On another note I just found out that I inadvertently have started wearing a trendy piece of clothing ie Bog rubber boots. No I do not have the fashionable paisley or plaid versions but rather the conservative black ones. Silly me! I just thought they were comfortable, waterproof and warm. Little did I know that I was making a fashion statement. Super models stand aside!

And now for the bears. We have had two men hunting on our property for several years. These are good hunters, conscientious, good shots and courteous to us as landowners. They were here at the beginning of the hunting season just after our first snow. They saw bear tracks in the snow at the back of the farm. We knew they were in the area but not necessarily on the farm. A new owner bought several hundred acres just behind our farm. This land which previously was wooded has now been clear cut and drained. All the wildlife that would have been in that woodlot have obviously moved onto our land. We are probably going to see a lot more animals on our property. While I have no problems with bears, I am glad we have the guardian dogs with the sheep. I just want to co-exist with wildlife ... except for beaver... but that is another blog.

TTFN
Laurie

How cute is this

This is a pair of our Tunis twins from this year. One is heading to a new flock in October. I don't know why they like sleeping in the feed dish but they all do.

TTFN,
Laurie

Lambs are Weaned

The lambs were weaned yesterday which means a lot of crying and baaaing on both fronts- the ewes and the lambs. However some of the ewes seem to be happy to be rid of their babies which are nearly the same size as their moms and lift the moms off the ground when they are nursing.

The lambs will be in the barn for at least a month while we condition them to being away from mom and get the replacement stock their first vaccines.

This year has been a bad year for parasites in sheep here in Ontario. We monitor our flock by fecal tests on a regular basis and deworm as necessary. We also rotate our pastures at least weekly. All that has been to no avail; whether it is parasites that are developing resistance to the products we are using or just conditions we just had to deworm the flock again before we had expected to. We are going to start selecting our breeding stock based on their resistance to parasites and it looks like we have one ewe line that will need to go. The harsh realities of farming.

Later
Laurie

Laminitis

Laminitis is one of the most dreaded words to a horse owner. Our 17 year old broodmare, Katee, developed laminitis within weeks of arriving to our farm a little over 10 years ago. It was a painful learning experience for both us and the horse. I knew very little about horses at that point but knew enough to recognize laminitis. Our vet support was poor at best - arrived 12 hours later, administered Banamine and left. No real direction. She developed secondary problems as a result and had chronic hoof problem for years.

Fast forward 10 years. Katee was having inflammation in her hocks making her very uncomfortable and difficult to exercise her to control her blood sugar. Now, we are fairly sure that Katee is insulin resistant and have since her initial attack always been careful with her on pasture. At the suggestion of the vet we had her hocks injected with cortisone. While it helped her hocks, it triggered another bout of laminitis.

Fortunately, 10 years into horse ownership, I know a lot more. Within minutes of realizing she was dead lame, I gave her asprin, put cold compresses around her feet, put frog supports on her feet and got her into deep bedding. With the aid of the vet we got her into thicker pads. She was stall bound for the first few days with constant icing (debatable as to whether that was appropriate). I kept her on Asprin and then Bute for a week, kept her in foot pads. By day 5 we were able to hand walk her comfortably for short stretches gradually increasing the time out.

This morning (day 7) she was out in the grassed round pen for a couple of hours with a grazing muzzle. Inside she is on controlled weight of hay fed in a hockey net bag to slow down her consumption. Plus she has had a couple of longish hand walks. She is wanting to trot and is striding right out.

I am cautiously optimistic about the prognosis but deeply guilty about causing her problems in the first place.

If you have a horse that is insulin resistant or has had a bout of laminitis in the past - Do not use cortisone at all, even joint injections. It really is not worth taking a chance. You might be helping one area but causing yourself and your horse even more grief.

TTFN,
Laurie