It's time to incorporate our two new rams into the ram flock. Actually, they could have been integrated a week ago if they had cooperated by supplying a fecal sample, but they didn't, so they are still in the barn. You see, I need to verify that they are clean of internal parasites - or as clean as possible - before I turn them loose on our pastures. 

Sheep are almost never totally free of internal parasites.  When you buy a sheep, you are also buying the parasites that reside in the sheep. When you raise sheep on pasture, you are also raising sheep parasites in those pastures.  The idea is to do a great job raising sheep, and to do a poor job raising the parasites - giving the parasites little access to the things they need to multiply and grow.

So whenever we bring new animals onto the farm, they go into quarantine for three weeks so that they don't pass along any disease they may be carrying. They may be quarantined longer if we can't clean them of internal parasites. If we let them go into our flock prematurely, these rams will be dropping their parasites' eggs all over our pastures - parasites that we don't know a great deal about because they are foreign to us and our fields. Right now, we know which dewormers are effective against our home-grown parasites, and we still have several choices for products to use. Many farms are not so blessed, though, in that they have parasites resistant to most, and sometimes all, of the choices for deworming. That's when things get really tricky!

So, I would rather deal with our own parasites than someone else's, and we make sure that the incoming sheep test free of parasites before we turn them out into our own flock. The problem is that these two rams don't want to give us a sample to test. For the past week, I've gone out to their stall once or twice a day with a zip-loc bag for each, waiting for at least one of them to drop a fresh sample - but no luck!  With no sample, they are still in the stall, and we wait.

This is getting old, though.  Because they are in their own area, they must be fed separately each day.  We have to make sure that their water and salt are both available. It's just extra work for us, and I don't need more work!  So today is the day. I am going on out there and am going to wait for them to drop a sample for me....

{A couple of hours have passed since that last paragraph....}

Well, I got my samples and both of the new guys are clean of internal parasites! I ran the test myself, and then, to be sure, I took it to my vet - this is the first time I have run the samples myself, and I wanted to make sure I did it correctly. Both tests agreed that the samples were clean, so the new rams can be incorporated in with our own ram flock.

We can't just put them into an area together, though. Rams fight to establish hierarchy by ramming each other. If the size difference is great or if they get a good run at each other, the bashing can become lethal. To protect our guys, whenever we introduce new rams, we move the entire group into a small area - just big enough for them to eat, drink, and lie down or stand up one-next-to-the-other. With such tight quarters, there is little bashing to be done, and the conflict is resolved mostly in pushing and shoving - not particularly dangerous to any of them. We leave them in that area until they seem to have the new hierarchy worked out; then we move them back to the ram area on the ridgetop.

(Another break in time.....)

This afternoon, we moved all the rams into the stall in the barn to work out their issues.  My first impression is that they won't take too long to work things out - they seemed much more interested in the hay feeder than each other (see photo). If all goes well, tomorrow we'll be able to move them back up to their shelter on the ridge - otherwise, they will get another day in the stall to work things out. Once they become one integrated flock, we can stop worrying about feeding two separate ram groups. Hooray for less work! Now, if we can just get to that point....

Having strong European ties, we have always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve in our family. We begin with a day-long fast, and then eat a traditional meal with all the family at the appearance of the first star. By this time, chores are done for the day, and we can relax with family and enjoy the time together.

After our multi-course meal, we retire to the Christmas tree and the gifts, with the youngest family member handing out the packages under the tree. Unlike many families, we have traditionally opened the gifts one at a time, beginning with the youngest in the family. It takes a while to get through everyone, but in this way, we can all exclaim over each gift as the wrapping paper is torn away. By nine in the evening, all the gifts are opened and we sit and reminisce while, in most years, the children play with their new toys on their way to bed.

There is an old superstition that at midnight on Christmas Eve, animals can speak to each other using human language.  For years, this thought intrigued our then-young children.  I remember giving permission more than once for a quick trip up to the barn at midnight to hear the animals talk in the darkness of the night.  Wouldn't it be something if Harmony (Romney) could verbally greet me as I come to the paddock, or Gabby (Romeldale) could ask whether I had brought apples with me rather than just search through each of my pockets?  Although I am obviously no longer a child, the thought still fascinates me each Christmas.

Perhaps that is the point to keep in mind at this time of year: that regardless of our ages, at Christmastime we lose our sense of the impossible and become like children, seeing what could be or might be, rather than what can never be.  On this Christmas Day, my no-longer-talking sheep and I wish all of you, young and old, near and far, a very merry Christmas, and a child-like anticipation of possibilities.  To quote Dickens' Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!"

It's beautiful and white outside today.  We got another two inches of snow yesterday, covering everything with a clean, white blanket of fluff.  It was already snowing when I awoke, and I noticed the ewes still lying in the paddock behind the house were all covered in white, while the ones already up had shaken clean and were working on the hay in the lean-to.  Although the common sounds from birds and sheep could be heard, everything was rather hushed by the new coating of frozen white.

Yes, it was Sunday, but work on a farm cannot skip a day. Animals still need to be fed.  Eggs still need to be collected. Although we make time in our day for worship at church on Sundays, I often wonder whether the worship in the routine of our days doesn't mean more....  Seldom do I feed the sheep and not marvel at the goodness of our lives with them as they contentedly chew their hay. 

It seems that, daily, I find myself giving thanks for the small hidden blessings that are mine to find as I go about my chores feeding and watering: the new batch of kittens born in the loft (but yet unfound), eyes still closed, and mewing for their mother's milk; the ewe who comes from the rest of the flock to nuzzle my hand, looking for a piece of apple or carrot; the chicken who nervously allows me to reach under her in the nest box for her egg, without pecking my hand away; the swallow's nest built inside one of the barn stalls that still holds broken eggshells from the last hatchlings, long gone.

These are the routine happenings on a farm that, for me, are far from routine.  I could go through my daily chores so focused on what there is to do that I miss these treasures - but that would be such a loss! These small daily miracles are the reasons that I choose to work as I do rather than in an office in town.  As a degreed engineer, there are many options open to me, but this is my choice.  I head to my "job" today, up the hill behind the house; I pause and listen to the quiet of the blanket of snow, and the crunch of my boots and the sheep's hooves on the ice below and wonder at the many little miracles that await me.   

Yes, we do. People in the city are complaining because the plows had to push much of the snow into windrows in the middle of the streets, planning to dig it up and haul it off in the middle of the night when there is less traffic.  Now, we don't have that problem here in the country outside Marion - we have different snow problems.  Like, for one, we can't find Zoe's group's waterer.... anywhere! I know it's up there near the upper gate, but it's totally under this snow, and we're still trying to find it to uncover it for the girls. I have been told that sheep will eat snow if they have no reliable source of water - at least we have lots of that to keep them hydrated until we can find that #$%&* waterer!

We also have three border collies who are pretty much confined indoors right now - never a good thing! The problem is that we usually walk them around the acreage playing fetch at least twice daily to wear them down a bit. I don't work them much this time of year - there is nowhere to move the sheep and since the sheep are bred, there is no point in introducing a dog if it isn't necessary. That means that we need to exercise those dogs.... The field that we usually walk in has drifts at least four feet talll, so I am not really happy about walking there right now. All I could think to do is throw the frisbee from the garage and let them run through the drifts trying to bring it back. Even the truck bottomed out on the way out of the garage yesterday (see photo of the dogs laying in the garage door opening)! Running the dogs from the garage works OK for a while, but they won't play that way long. That means that now our house is full of energetic dogs who don't know how to use their "indoor voices"....

We also have other snow issues. We must, of course, plow ourselves out. The county takes care of plowing out the roads, but getting to that road is up to us. So, Rick got on the tractor yesterday and plowed out the driveway as far as the road.  It took him two hours and he was half-frozen, so he gave up plowing at that point.  Today, I am hoping that he will be able to snow-blow the walkways and plow out the sheep, but he may only get one of the two done.

I know - you are probably wondering about "plow out the sheep." Let me explain.... When it snows heavily or we have drifting snow, the sheep tend to congregate near the barn or the building where they are fed hay. As the snow falls or drifts, they mill around that area, tramping down the snow in that small enclosed space. As more snow falls and drifts, they continue to keep the immediate vicinity relatively free of snow. That means that right at the edge of this area is - eventually - a wall or mound of snow that is much deeper than what they can walk over, so they end up penned into a small area about as big as a small paddock. They've been this way since late Wednesday when the winds backed down a bit - trapped by their own creation, actually.

Having said that, I must admit that they have ventured out a bit today, trying to find low spots through which they can escape their incarceration, but they haven't made much progress. What they really need is for Rick to warm up the tractor and plow an opening through the drifts so that they can move around - maybe get out and go for a bit of a walk! Whatever they decide to do with their freedom, they can't do it until we release them from their own imprisonment, and hopefully, that will be this afternoon. As far as they are concerned, at this point they either need more hay (to make staying near the barn more entertaining) or a cleared path so  they can get out. When we feed in another hour or so, I hope they will get both!

My biggest goal right now regarding snow is to punch a walkway through all the drifts between the house and all the places I routinely go: the chicken coop (the chickens are also under house arrest in their coop until we shovel them a way out - hopefully also today), the barn, the front door, etc. Usually, I just walk through the drifts and eventually I create a path with my feet. This year, though, I have a bad knee, and am constantly being reminded by well-meaning friends that I have to avoid doing all the things that inhibit the knee's recovery.  Like feeding the sheep.  Or like bodily plowing through drifts.  I keep telling them that they are taking all the fun out of what I do, but they are probably right - that's why I still have no path to those places....

So, for all the people complaining about the latest snow, I hear you, and I agree.  We have too much snow, and it's creating issues for man and beast.  Hopefully, by the time you read this, we'll have at least found that waterer.... 

It is not unusual, this time of year in eastern Iowa, to get a dusting of snow for a day or two.  Typically, it comes and very soon melts with little effort on our part.  As we drove home from Ohio on Monday, we encountered this kind of on-and-off snow, and arrived to find a bit of white between the grass blades - very much the norm for December in Iowa.

What we have gotten since yesterday is definitely not the norm!  I noticed it beginning on Tuesday morning, when I awoke to find everything covered by a coating of white, fluffy snow.  When I say everything, I really do mean everything - sheep included!  You see, this time of year, most of our sheep (definitely all the breeding ewes) are in full fleece, meaning that many are carrying around twenty to twenty-five pounds of wool, with the fibers being anywhere from three to nine inches long!

I'm sure you can imagine that if you were covered in a nine-inch-thick wool coat, with hat, gloves and boots to match, that you might not mind a bit of cold and snow....  It would probably be a welcome respite from the typical overheating that you feel at the milder winter temperatures!  At this time of year, with that much wool, most of our sheep are actually feeling hot - you can often see them panting like a dog to release the heat, and they almost never decide to sleep inside the lean-to (even though there is usually only a couple of degrees difference between the lean-to and outside!).



More typically, our ewes will find themselves a nice comfy place outside the lean-to, surrounded by their friends (the other ewes), and spend the night there.  That was what they did on Monday night.  When I awoke on Tuesday morning, there were mounds of snow in the paddock, under which were my sheep.  They would simply get up, shake off, and walk away!  If you look closely at the attached photo taken Tuesday morning, you can see one of the bare spots where one of the girls spent the night.  Just behind and to the left of the oval spot is Harmony, who - again, if you look closely - has not yet gotten up for the day, and is still covered with what is left of the night's snow even though it had been melting for hours already!

We are due to have up to a foot of snow by the time this storm leaves us about the middle of today, with up to fifty mile an hour winds.  I am not a huge fan of snow, but I do like a bit of white cover for Christmas. As long as I don't end up with an eight-foot drift between the house and the barn like we had most of last winter, I guess I won't complain too much. When I took a photo out the front door (to the south) this morning, the whole world looked dark and covered in white - I couldn't take a picture to the north because I could not keep the camera lens clear of snow! 

With just over two weeks before Christmas, I suppose a little snow helps set the mood - the problem is that we now have way more than just a little for mood! I guess you could say that it's beginning to look a LOT like Christmas!