This morning Albus rammed Pepe (the Border Collie) in the ribs.  Pepe was just standing there, minding his own business.  Albus slammed him into the fence, really really hard.  I was concerned Pepe might have broken ribs, but he seems remarkably okay.  Albus, on the other hand, has a puncture wound on his cheek from where Pepe grabbed onto it after being assailed.  It's very shallow, but I know for sure that it came from a tooth, so I'm calling it a puncture.  And tonight his face is blown up. 

Right after it happened, I scrubbed the outside of the wound with iodine scrub and flushed the inside with iodine solution.  I planned to just do that twice a day and monitor his temperature, but then tonight he had a fever of 104.4.  (The upper end of normal for sheep is 103.8, so while 104.4 is a fever, it's not a Time To Panic one.)  So I gave him some penicillin, scrubbed and flushed the wound, and slathered on some Ichthamol.  In the morning, I will be getting him some more penicillin and a tetanus anti-toxin shot, just in case.  He's due for his annual tetanus toxoid shot now, and I'm concerned that he may not have high enough levels of circulating antibodies from last year's vaccination.  He seems to feel okay.  He's bright and alert and eating normally.

These sorts of situations make me wish that there was a sheep equivalent of Pony Club.  I learned most of the things I know about horses through Pony Club.  It's a structured program that starts from the most basic of basics (parts of the horse, how to put on a halter, etc.) and goes up almost into vet school territory.  (In fact, a good many of the veterinarians I have known don't bandage legs as well as an average B level Pony Clubber.)  

Some things I know about horses apply to sheep, of course.  But it would just give me peace of mind to have gone through a structured program to learn about sheep specifically.  I suppose 4H could have been like that, although the 4H where I grew up was all about horses.  I belonged to it for a year or two.  But that, of course, brings up another point:  4H and Pony Club are both for kids.  And I'm not one of those anymore.  Alas.

Also, I think there's generally less information floating around about sheep than about horses.  Sheep are still fundamentally considered food animals, while horses are considered both pets and/or working animals.  So, for example, while lots of people will pay to have surgery or stem cell therapy performed on their horses, very few will go to those sorts of efforts for a sheep.  And consequently, I think there's less research done on sheep.  And fewer vets specialize in sheep. 

Of course, Albus' situation is not unusual.  Sheep get bitten by dogs all the time.  Any large animal vet could talk me through this, I'm sure.  And I'll be on the phone with my horse vet in the morning.  But I still wish that there was some sort of Sheep School I could go through that would prep me for common sheep problems the way Pony Club prepped me for common horse problems.

Hmm.  It's gotten late.  I should sleep now, so that I can shop for sheep drugs in the morning.  Reckon I'll crawl into bed and read myself to sleep with Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep.  Goodnight, Friends.

Well, it's been a long time coming, but the boys are finally sheared!  This year (and I hope every year from now on) the wonderful Rosemarie did the shearing.  She was quick, didn't nick anybody, got them done without second cuts, and skirted each fleece for me while I went to get the next sheep.  

And the fleeces look VERY good.  Surprisingly, Ernie's is actually the best this time around.  It's surprising both because in the last two years Berg has edged him out, and because Ernie has just gotten over aspiration pneumonia, which could have caused his fleece to be tender (easily breakable).  But it isn't.  It's fine and soft and crimpy and delightful.  As are all of the others.  But Ernie's is really primo this time around.  Rosemarie was impressed!  And I am a very proud sheep parent.  :)

Berg and Ernie were both very gentlemanly for their shearing, but Albus and Aberforth were hellions!  Particularly Albus.  We did him last, and he was literally doing airs above the ground as I led him to the shearing area.  Then, when I put him back in with his brothers, he felt the need to run everyone around the stall and butt them.  Albus is the littlest of the boys, but he makes up for it with personality.  His name, perhaps, should have been Napoleon.  

By contrast, Aberforth was only slightly naughty.  He just wriggled and kicked around a bit.  Of course, once it was all over and I had turned everyone back out, he walked around the pasture bah-ing for about 10 minutes.  Oh, to have had a Babel Fish in my ear!

I was pleased to see that as the fleeces came off, all of the boys were in good flesh.  It's difficult to do body condition scoring on fully fleeced sheep, so although I do periodically feel around to get an idea of how their weights are doing, I never know for sure until the fleeces come off.  I'm pleased to say that they are all looking robust!

I have Ernie and Albus' fleeces soaking now.  I'm using the mesh laundry bag method for the first time this year.  Hopefully it will work well.  Already it has yielded the advantage of allowing me to wash two fleeces at once.  Hopefully I can get all the fleeces washed and dried in the next couple of days.  It can drag on, this process.  But hopefully being able to do two at a time will speed it along significantly.

Good news:  Here are some pictures of Ernie's neck fleece.

Okay, Aberforth really is the sweetest sheep in existence.  Today I lay down under a tree to watch Ernie (who has had the sniffles of late), and Aberforth came over to see what I was up to.  Then he lay down next to me, and we just hung out for a while.  I rubbed his face and his ears for a bit, and then he let me rest my head on him.  He has 4+ inches of fleece right now and makes a truly fabulous, fluffy wool pillow - huggable and soft and "teddy sheep"-like.  When I finally got up to see where Ernie had gone, Aberforth followed along.  He's my buddy.  A wonderful friend.

Until this morning, I was attributing Ernie's sniffles to allergies.  He's been eating normally, running in and out of the pen with his brothers, and not really acting sick.  Also, it seemed to be worse some days and better others.  I was expecting it to be better this morning, though, since we had a good rain last night, but it was really just about the same as yesterday.  So I went hunting for non-infectious sheep sniffles on the internet.  (He hasn't given anything to his brothers, with whom he shares both feed and water, so I don't think he's got a virus or bacterial infection.  Also, animals with infections tend to go off their feed and get mopey.) 

According to the internets, sheep can get a parasite in their nose (the nasal bot fly) that causes precisely Ernie's symptoms.  Luckily, the larvae are susceptible to good ol' Ivermectin, which I had on hand.  So, I've given him some, and hopefully he will be all better in a day or two.  Aberforth and Albus actually had some Ivermectin at the beginning of the spring because their eyelids were looking a little pale (a sign of intestinal parasites), but Berg 'n' Ernie didn't need any deworming at that time.  I went ahead and gave Berg some this morning when I was treating Ernie.  So hopefully we're all set for the season now.

In my internet querying, I also came across this interesting page, which discusses using garlic to control nasal bot flies.  I've used garlic to deter biting flies from horses before, with surprisingly great success.  So perhaps I'll put both the horses and the sheep on a garlic regimen this summer.  More research is needed.

Spring days are a feast for the senses.  Eighty degrees.  Dappled sunlight through puffy white clouds.  Gentle breeze.  Low humidity.  Birds singing.  The smell of awakening flowers.   Fresh green leaves sprouting from every tree.  Tiny plants poking through garden soil.   All the home grown radishes and salad greens a person could want.  Sleek, shiny horses emerging from underneath yakk-like winter cloaks.  It’s a fabulous time to live on a farm.

This morning I spent a good deal of time sitting on an overturned water trough and rubbing Aberforth’s ears and cheeks.   He stood with me for a good long while, then lay down at my feet and let me go on with his face massage for something like an hour.   The weather had been overcast all this time, but as the sun came out, I decided it was too hot for a sheep in full fleece to be lying in the sun.  I relocated to the shade of a freshly leafed maple tree.  Aberforth followed along, and we communed some more in the shade.  Albus joined us for a time, and I discovered that if I scratch his withers, he pedals his hind leg like a dog receiving a satisfying belly rub.

After a great deal of searching, I believe I have found a shearer for this year.  (And hopefully for all years in the foreseeable future!)  She lives in Georgia, is experienced in shearing for handspinners, and maintains her own flock of Gulf Coast Native sheep.  I’m still awaiting confirmation that she has officially placed us on her schedule.  I hope it will all be settled soon.  What a relief that will be!

I am, for the first time, taking a share of wool for myself this year.  I will probably end up with Aberforth’s wool, although that will ultimately depend on the relative quality of each of the four fleeces.  If, for some reason, there is one fleece that is significantly less desirable than the others, that one will become mine.  I expect them to all be good, though.  And I’m hoping to make a blanket.  Since my prior knitting experience is limited to scarves, I may do it by making a large number of scarves and then sewing them all together.  I find those U shaped knitting needles that are generally used for blankets to be very intimidating.

Albus and Aberforth both went unsponsored this year, which means that their wool is mine.  I think if I have the money, I will send it off to a mill and have it made into yarn.  If I have lots of money, I might just send it off and have it made into blankets, given that I've never knitted anyhing but a scarf.  A blanket seems a rather daunting undertaking.

I've just discovered a charity that takes donated hair/fur/wool and uses it to soak up oil spills.  Here's the link.

I'm going to send Albus' fleece and three horse manes.  If you have any extra wool/hair/fur lying around, I encourage you to send it, too.  I'm going to do this every year from now on.  It kind of makes me want to have more sheep.  A flock dedicated to cleaning up oil spills.  That would be awesome.  And I'll send the horse manes every year, too.  And Cindi gets body clipped every spring (Cushings disease), so I'll send that, too.  Plus, my own hair needs to be trimmed...

Well, I'm finished with school again.  Barring anything weird and unexpected happening, I'll have a Masters degree by noon on Saturday.  So, no more "I've been busy with school" excuses for not posting here.  :) 

HOWEVER...  My life as a freelancer is off to a busy start.  I just finished two weeks of horse show videography and will spend the month of May working on an internal training video for a corporation that makes fishing equipment.  Also, tomorrow I will start giving my mom's friend computer lessons, and a week from Saturday I'm shooting a wedding video, which I will then - of course - spend a week or two editing.  In June, I'm working on a social issue documentary with an art education professor.  And then there's that pesky supernova movie that I put on the back burner in order to finish my thesis.  I feel terrible about the supernova movie.  I hate hate hate being late.  So I've got to work on that.  And, oh, my thesis.  It's good.  But it's not as good as I want it to be.  So there's still work to be done on it before it starts going out to festivals.  Aaaand before all these other commitments started cropping up, I had planned to spend the month of May writing two spec scripts (one for Chuck and the other for Big Bang Theory) in order to apply for the ABC Disney TV Writing Fellowship, NBC Writers on the Verge, and the WB Writers Workshop.  But now it looks like I will be lucky to get one done.  One is all I need, theoretically.  But I was hoping to have two.  Oh, yeah, and at some point I've got to spend some time cold calling agencies and production companies in Hollywood about Finding George.  So, yeah, May is a busy month.

I am immensely grateful for all the freelance work I've been getting, though.  I need the money.  I was going to be in a very painful limbo while I waited to hear back about all the full time gigs I have applied for.  Now I've got a little breathing room.  That is, so long as one of the full time gigs actually does hire me.  Say a lil prayer for me, if you would.

But anyway, enough about me.  This is the sheep blog, for cryin' out loud.  :)

The sheep are doing great.  They are chubby and adorable and loud.  (Albus is particularly rotund and loquacious.)  Their wool is still in bags, waiting to be washed, but I promise that I will do it pronto and get it sent out.  We're going to have some nice hot weather this week, so I can wash it and then put it out in the sun to dry.  The shearer clued me in to the fact that one can boil the second cuts and make lanolin soap.  I think I will try that.  Pictures to come.  Ah, yes, pictures.  Here are some.



Pictured above:  Berg
When I look at this picture, I can still hear the water dribbling from his chin.






Pictured above:  Ernie
Ernie is the official greeter of all visitors to the flock.







Albus munches on a thistle.







Aberforth takes his job very seriously, paying close attention to detail.










Pictured above (L to R):  Aberforth, Albus








Pictured above (front to back):  Ernie, Albus, Aberforth

Pictured above (front to back):  Berg, Albus, Ernie







There are sheep in there, I promise.







When the sheep first arrived, they were very quiet.  But they got over it.

Berg and Ernie Van Buren








Albus VanBuren







Aberforth VanBuren







Four little sheeps, all in a row.