No Shear Sheep

I am often asked if we sell the wool from our Icelandic Sheep.

The short answer is no, because there is no real market for wool.  If you're gonna try to sell it, you're probably going to be working at less than minimum wage.  If you have a passion for wool, that is one thing, but I don't have a passion for wool.

Among the benefits of Icelandic Sheep is that, unlike more domesticated strains of sheep, Icelandics will rub off their own wool, leaving it on the ground.

The birds returning from their migration and building nests are thankful.

Holy Rapture Batman!  

Now most years I do end up doing some shearing, not every sheep will do so complete a job but we've got one ewe whose already prepared for warmer temperatures.

Feeding hay

In ten years of keeping livestock this is the latest we've gone into the fall before feeding hay.  The weather gets a lot of the credit but so does the fact that we had fewer lambs than normal this summer and the pasture is at full health.

The problem with small bales is getting them and, since we do not have a large barn, storing them.

The problem with large bales is moving them and the amount of hay the animals waste.

Good relations with the neighbors can help get the bales in place.  Over the years I have learned to place them uphill from where the sheep will be fed.  The bride and I can roll them down hill has needed.

Every year I have tried something a little different to try to reduce the amount of waste.  Getting hay off the ground helps.  Using cattle panels with sheep sized cut outs helps a little more.  Accepting that some amount of waste is inescapable doesn't help with the problem, but it does help one's mental health.  Still every year I try something a little different based upon what I have learned in the past.  This year I am using some scrap lumber to build a large rectangular feeder.

I am thankful for some quality hay this year.  Best hay I have ever fed.  If you're local and in the market, drop me a line.  I have a source to recommend.

Ram and Steer are Friends

Old Tom went to the processor.  Young Tom made friends with our alpha ram.  He's been following the old ram around ever since.

I was watching him for any signs of distress.  I don't want to get another calf until next spring, when the grass is fresh and free but I was considering it if he appeared upset or distraught at being alone.

Luckily, that does not seem to be the case.

The Taste of Defeat

For what it's worth, getting the shit kicked out of you? Not to say you get used to it, but you do kinda get used to it.

-Jesse Pinkman Breaking Bad "Open House" 

It is easy to dismiss Sly Stallone.  I know I have and, if I am honest, will again in the future.

The thing is, I don't think he cares, and there in is his virtue.

As I type, the taste of defeat is thick in my mouth: sick sheep, failed tracks with the dog, middle-age malaise, too much debt, and too many bills, loosing weight is getting harder, staying in shape as 40 turns into 50, will be harder, insert every other common middle-aged white guy complaint here.

Blah, blah, blah.  I even bore myself, but defeat still hurts.

Yes, I've been blessed but that doesn't lessen the taste of defeat.  Defeat, when it comes, tastes like manure and not even the well aged stuff on your garden.  Defeat tastes like runny manure straight out of the steer's anus.

Still, if you actually try to accomplish something, if you're really out there pushing yourself, pushing the system, pushing against ignorance and the ignorant, you're going to taste defeat.  In the parlance of Sly Stallone, life is going to punch you hard.


Think of Sylvester Stallone.  He really has earned what he's got.  He hit bottom trying to sell the Rocky film.  He's still an action star past the age of 65.  Is he using steroids? I don't see how he isn't.  Is he making great contributions to Western Civilization?  Not really.

Is he living his life without a concern about what some middle-aged, over-educated sheep-herding, dog-training, overpaid babysitter in Minneapolis thinks about how he talks or the quality of his movies?

Yep, and that is his virtue.  That is what he has contributed to those willing to learn from his example.

Sure, maybe Epictetus put it more eloquently but when it feels like your teeth have been kicked in, eloquence is not always the most healing balm.  Sometimes you need to remember the Italian Stallion.

If you wish to make progress, you must be content in external matters to seem a fool and a simpleton; do not wish men to think you know anything, and if any should think you to be somebody, distrust yourself. For know that it is not easy to keep your will in accord with nature and at the same time keep outward things; if you attend to one you must needs neglect the other.  

-The Manuel of Epictetus 13

Improv as Virtue

I had planned on taking the kids to the movies.

It was humid, hot and getting hotter and the Shaun the Sheep movie had been out a week.  I'd talked the oldest into avoiding the Fantastic Four movie in favor of Ant Man.  The air conditioning would be nice.

The kids had worked well the week before and there was just one chore left to do before showering and lunch.

When it is time to move sheep from one paddock to another, the oldest, the sheep, and I have developed a rhythm.  Even managing two new ewes, the job was little more than a hassle, but one ram lamb, "Hurricane," refused to dance to the tune we were calling.  From where I stood, I could see he had a nasty limp.

Otto penned him up while we closed gates and counted heads but the bad news was waiting for me when I got there: his right rear foot was flopping as he hobbled.

The break was fresh.  The lamb voiced no distress and there was no infection yet but it was obvious and severe.  He had to be in pain.  Infection would be coming.  There would be no recovery.

He had been destined for the butcher's block in another two months anyway, but we had plans; but I had not mentally prepared myself to do *that* job on this day.

We were, in the end fortunate.  I did not have to lecture the children about the virtue of improv: my mother was up visiting and was happy to take them to the movies.  They all got some ice cream to boot.

Me, I had a beer for lunch and went to work.