·:[ high hopes gardens ]:·
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Today the last of the seasonal livestock left the farm today.

The last four lambs were loaded up into the back of the pickup truck (complete with topper to keep them from experiencing winter wind chill).  Over the years, loading livestock has become much easier.  When we began, it seemed like a long ordeal - we’d try to make all kinds of ramps to the back of the truck from the barn, try to slowly entice them into the truck with food.  Eventually, a few would get in the truck, then they’d bolt out, or jump off the ramp and back into the pasture.  Of course, we’d also neglect to tie up the dogs, and they’d enter the fray.   Eventually, after period of disgust, bad launguage, and time periods of all-too-long nothingness, we’ve found the best way for us is to lure them in the barn with some corn, get two adults, and grab the lambs by the front and back legs and lift them into the back of the truck.  Everyone seems more relaxed, and it is important that the animals, too, are relaxed as anybody who has read animal expert Temple Grandin knows. 

It is a bittersweet time of year for us.  We are very aware that the animals on our farm end up on someone’s table, often our own.  We have no doubts that our method of farming allows animals the fresh air, water, natural grass-based diet and space they are accustomed to as a species of animal on this earth.  Very few animals raised for food in the U.S. still have these rights.  We are grateful to the animals for what they provide to us and recognize the sacrifices made so we can eat.

one year ago…

There’s been entirely too much news about fires on the blog this month - the fire at the solvent factory, the neighbor’s old house, and we just received a letter from our tannery (Stern Tanning in Sheboygan Falls, WI)  that their workspace burned down and our hides were lost.  We had five hides in process.  It sounds like they might be back by the end of the year.  This got us looking for other places to tan our sheepskins and we really didn’t find too many.  The best link we found was this one that lists 4 tanneries a bit down the page.  So, we’ll try again - we really do like the finished wooly hides.

one year ago…

Today we picked up the first of the lambs. We have five and we hope more will be on the way as we have lots of grass this year!

The lambs went right to work on the grass. I’ll try to get some better pictures of them in the next week or so.

one year ago…

Our lambs are a bit behind most others in the area. They were born in June, so won’t be ready until late, late fall. They get a little bit of corn to help them keep warm and get used to coming when we call. That helps when we yell SHEEPY-SHEEPY-SHEEP to lock them up at night to prevent a coyote feast! Otherwise, they graze to their heart’s content all day.

Today was our day at the State Fair. I’ve got more than one day’s pictures, so I’ll spread them out over the next few days.

One of the most startling revelations was that sheep culture so closely mirrors human history. Bear with me, for this quick tour of “sheep through the ages.”

Practicing the orthodoxy of the Spanish Inquisition, these two crusaders scan the sheep barn for heresy.

The grand imperial wizard of the sheep barn, keeps an eye out for Suffolk sheep taking their place in the barn.

These laid-back California sheep have started their own sheep commune where the motto is “Ewe Don’t Give it up to the Man.”

Finally, we reach the modern era, where the pride wing of the sheep barn allows same-sex sheep to live in the same pen.

One of the bottle lambs we were given was blind from birth. He seems to be doing very well so far

He’s nice and fat. For a while, one of the other sheep acted as his “seeing eye” sheep, but now every once in awhile this one will start bawling when the others are out of his hearing range, but he comes running to the sound of our voice, so he’s easy to get back with the herd when that happens. He gets along quite well for the most part.

Any day this week the turkeys should arrive. Here are the luxurious accommodations, at least for the first week or two.

At high hopes we like to have multiple uses for whatever we can. This is a used stock tank we picked up at an auction for dirt cheap. It still holds water, so I put it on a small trailer and haul water with it from the tank that collects water from the barn to the raspberries or new trees. Now it is brooder to keep the turkeys separate from the chicken chicks. We also use it below the barge wagon so when we open the rear gate, any grain that spills falls into it instead of on the ground.

Today, our lamb supplier called to ask if we wanted a couple of bottle lambs. He is off to the World Cup in Germany and couldn’t care for them. It was an easy choice for us - we have the milk (from the goats), the time (plenty of kids) and the price was right (free).

Today was the day the dormer went in along with the re-roof on the southern side of the house. Some people have a reoccurring dream about falling or getting chased. Mine is having a house that leaks (badly) in the rain. I’ve had it about a half dozen times, including last night. I guess I was a bit anxious. So, when the hole is cut in the roof, it gets my attention.

Here the hole is cut and the rough framing is in. The big hole in the side will be all window.

Here’s the view after the shingles are ripped of, but before the old rafters are cut. It will be a nice green light through the window.

Note: Today’s post deals somewhat graphically with death and burial of animal remains. If that makes you uncomfortable, you may want to skip reading this post.

Today didn’t go as planned. I didn’t envision I’d be outside after dark on a chilly Halloween evening beside a shallow grave, watching the steam rise up from the intestines and assorted other organs of the sheep.

I knew I’d be burying sheep offal, just never thought it would be after the 10 o’clock news. I asked the locker to call call me after the sheep were slaughtered so I could retrieve the lambskins to start the first part of the tanning process. They promised they would. The renderer does not take sheep offal, so the farmer has to take the remains and dispose of them.

So I kept checking the phone every 15 minutes or so. I’m told if a hide isn’t quickly salted down, the hair will fall off later in the tanning process. Nine am passes, 10 am, 11 am, noon. One pm, finally I can’t stand it any longer and decide to drive in before I pick the girls up from school to either pick up the skins because they forgot to call me or see when they would be done.

The “Critter Ridder” does the slaughtering. His truck advertises he will get rid of problem bats, raccoons, skunks, moles, feral cats. etc. His side job is slaughtering the animals for the locker. I wonder if the guidance counselor in high school was disturbed when the results of his career interest survey came back.

Critter Ridder tells me he is way behind as there were a couple of emergency cows that came in and that the lambs should be ready around 6:00-6:30. I return then (missing trick-or-treating) to find nothing at the slaughter house. The lambs are not in the outside pen where I left them, nor are the lambskins and offal outside, nor is anybody there. I wait around for a half hour or so, hoping he had just run to get some smokes or a bite to eat.

I resign myself to thinking I’ve missed the boat on these skins. Around 9:30 he calls and says they are ready to pick up. I run to town to pick them up and when I return home, start rubbing the salt into the hides. There is something satisfying about this step. I don’t know if it is reminiscent of earlier times when hide tanning was an important skill for survival, whether I’m feeling good about using the a part of the animal most people throw away, but at any rate, rubbing the salt into the hides is satisfying.

After the hides are all salted down, it’s time to drag the offal into the pasture to the hole that Martin and I dug earlier in the day. As the darkness and chilly air surround me, I hear more than one strange sound as the offal falls into the shallow grave. In the darkness, I fill the hole with dirt, happy that this part of the day is finally over.

Today, we finally picked up our sheep. We got four from Goat Girls Farm near Runnells. Emma has promptly named all of them in the vacuum left by her sister’s absence. Without further ado, this year’s sheep crop!

They are still a bit shy, only on the ground in their new home a few minutes when this picture was taken.
Did you hear about the two shepherds leaning on their crooks at the end of a long day. The first one says to the second, “So, how’s it going?” The second one sighs and shakes his head, “Not good. I can’t pay my bills, my health isn’t good, and my oldest kid was thrown in jail last night.” The first shepherd replies, “Well, don’t lose any sheep over it.”
We’ll have these until the grass dies in the late fall.
The turkeys are growing fast. Here are what our Bronze-Breasted look like today.