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Yesterday was the first harvest day of the season. Some lambs are 4 months old now. The BFL cross lambs are bigger than the 100% Jacob lambs and some are ready for customers who like lighter lambs. I have a customer who likes the black lambs. I asked if he wanted both of these because they are twins. If they were 50:50 crosses they would both be black, but these are 3/4 Jacob. There are two 50:50 ewes here and when bred back to a Jacob you never know what you’ll get. One is black with very short horns and one is white with some Jacob markings and large horns.
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While I was sorting and weighing sheep I heard Ginny barking at something at the other end of the barn. This is a fancy trap that I bought several years ago and sort of forgot about. It is a live trap where the animal drops in from the top. It was in the back of the barn on a woodpile. We caught a young opossum! The opossums aren’t a problem here. I took this one out to a brush pile and let it go out there.
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After sorting all the sheep I let the rest out to the pasture. This is a view of the property from the south.
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This yearling is KJ Royalty Cindy. KJ Royalty is the flock name of my granddaughter and her sheep are the progeny of the ewe lamb I gave her in 2019. Kirby will be here next month to work with the new lambs and show at State Fair. I’m glad that Cindy is getting more friendly.
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The person who harvests lambs is very fast and does a good job with the skins. I try to use all the parts of the sheep I can. I salted these hides and will ship them to a tannery when they are dry enough. The beautiful lambskins will be for sale when I get them back from the tannery–hopefully by early fall (but no guarantees). This page gives you an idea of what I will have for sale then, but these are all gone. I recently got back a dozen lambskins that were the first I sent off last year–a whole year ago. I haven’t had time to photograph and list them yet. Next week.
Harvest was over within two hours, but the rest of the day was busy with customers and computer stuff. Never ending computer deadlines. Late in the day we had a new kind of visitor.
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I am caring for these goats for a couple of weeks until their new property is ready for them. There are seven pet goats here and most of them originated from goats that my son Chris raised in his FFA project.
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The goats came with a donkey! This makes me want a donkey again, but my irrigated pasture is not a good fit for a donkey. I can hear her braying right now even from the house!