On to Greener Pastures

April passed on to greener pastures sometime last night.  I thank her for that, as it was really obvious that her end was close.  She saved me from that awful decision that most animal owners have to make at some point or other.

She wasn't a pet sheep, but I guess was the next thing to it.  And then with all the personal attention she had been getting the last few months, it was harder to think of her as 'just a sheep'. She was one of a set of twins, the first bottle babies we ever had, and she was a character.

April and twins 2005

 April on her 14th birthday

April 1 1996 - November 14 2011

Happy grazing, April!

Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Luna : What the.....?

April : What are you looking at,dog?

April : I think I look simply dashing in my 'new', albeit a bit small, blue and black raincoat

Luna : THIS is what the raincoat is supposed to look like!

The other day I was putting April out in the hay field.  And the heavens burst and it pelted rain.  So to help keep her a bit dry, I borrowed Luna's coat.  The belly strap which is a bit too big on Luna was just barely hanging on by the last bit of velcro on each side on April.  And then it slipped forward in front of her bony hips.  She didn't care, but The Old Ewe who was out with her was giving her a wide berth, ready to make a run for it if that weird creature got too close. And of course the rain stopped shortly after.

Up Close and Personal

Quite often we bring April and The Old Ewe out of their field and let them have some other grazing.  The two younger fatter ones protest loudly, but they don't need any extra feed.

What's that stuck on the bottom of your sandal......sheep muck?

Standoff

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Have you any wool? 

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

The sheep shearer came today. Here he is shearing April.  I'm stood in the kitchen, stirring apricot jam with one hand, and trying to take brilliant photographs with the other.  

Not going to happen I'm afraid.

Eventually Pride wandered down.  He must have thought he was missing something.

This is sheep number 3, known as 'the young ewe'.  

You can see 'the fat ewe' over Pride's back.  Actually, 'the young ewe' could now be known as the 'the fat ewe', or maybe she should be called 'the young fat ewe'.  But who really cares:)

One of the 'three bags full'

April and 'the old ewe', and Luna of course.

Poor April.  At 15 1/2 years old she's like an old lady with dementia.  She still toddles around and eats, but isn't carrying any weight.  It was tough to shear her, so she looks a little rough.  The shearer moves and bends the sheep in various ways to round out the part he is shearing, to create a nice smooth surface to run the shears over.  It was hard to create any smooth surfaces on April, there is no fat, she is all points and angles.

I don't think she'll be around much longer, but so far she isn't suffering.  She's the closest thing to a pet sheep we have.

Buckets of blackberries picked - 4 

Total - 11

This Morning's Walk

When I'm heading out for my exercise walk in the morning, I don't have a whole lot of choice in where I can go, without getting in the car and driving.  We live on a block that is one mile square.  We're on the west side of the square, the house faces west.  Right across the road from us there is a sort of subdivision (5 acre pieces), and it is a mile  in total to walk around that.   So I head either up or down the road, and even when I get to the closest corner, I can only go one way.

There was a little excitement when we first got started.

See the rabbit?

Heading up the 1/4 mile to the first coner

At the corner looking north at Golden Ears mountain.  The road turns east here.

A cute mailbox.  There's another mailbox along that stretch, that has two surveillance cameras pointing out of the ivy on each side of the post.

After 1/2 mile of flat, and 3/4 mile of uphill, we reach the highest point.

I was trying to get the hazy hills in the background, and so ended up with the foreground kind of dark.

The road is running straight east.  We walked down past the end of the pavement you can see, and then around the corner for 1/4 mile.

A lovely view down this part. 

Mt. Baker to the southeast in Washington.

And now we are turned around and heading back up the hill.  Why does the hill never look as steep through the camera?

Mush, dogs, mush!

It was easier to walk up it than bike it though.

Looking north.

Holstein heifers, of the none mailbox variety

These are rows of hazelnuts.  They aren't really being grown for the nuts though, they are creating the ideal environment for truffles.  And not the chocolate ones either.

This farmer used to raise pigs.  

I wonder if he kept a pig or two to dig up his truffles?

A random poppy that has seeded itself along the ditch.

On the way back I did pass Larry walking with his sometimes walking partner and his wife.  Larry walked with me yesterday.  He said I walk twice as fast as them.  

I do like to walk by myself.  That way I can go when I want, and where I want and as fast as I want.

I don't think I'm really a team player

On the last 1/4 mile to home, I met a neighbour walking up the road.  He told me that one of our sheep was down and couldn't get up.  I figured it would be April.  So instead of a nice cool down on the last stretch, I figured I'd better run.  

Yep, there was April, on a side slope, on her side, her back facing down hill, and her legs stuck out at a 45 degree angle.  I heaved her upright, she toddled up the hill, peed, shook herself, and a few minutes later had started to eat.

When Larry got back he said she had been up and eating when he left, so I figured she'd probably been stuck no more than 10 minutes.  No harm done.

April, now 15 1/4, is actually moving around better than she was a month ago.  She not quite ready to kick the bucket yet.

And for the dogs and I , another 4 miles done.

Update:  Calli is doing quite a bit better.  I have made a chiropractor's appointment for all the dogs though. It will be interesting to see if she finds anything 'different' in Calli's back.

April Fools Day

I think the weatherman played an April Fool's joke on us today.  All week it had been predicted that today would be a half decent day, with some sunshine.  It has rained all day, and is raining still now at nearly 11pm. Miserable:(

Anyway, I did want to just point out that today is April's 15th birthday.  That's a darn good age for a sheep.  She and her brother Fool were our first bottle lambs

Here's April March 15, 2005 with a set of twins.  That little cutie on the left went on to be the only sheep we've ever lost to coyotes, although she was up to about 60 lbs when that happened.  

Sorry if you found that kind of depressing:(

I'm also noticing how much farther along the grass was that year.  I'd say we're at least three weeks behind this year.

Here's me feeding April some grain tonight.  I had brought the wrong bucket so I wasn't able to put the handle over her head.  I just fed her in the barn where the other ewes were, so I had to stay and protect her from being bashed out of the bucket.

She's a doddering old lady now, and her days are definitely limited.

Unfortunately we didn't get any of these today, but these were taken on April 1, 2005.

I'm off to a farmers market on Saturday morning. 

Here's hoping for lots of loaded customers.

A Pedicure for April

April, our old Dorset X ewe, got a pedicure the other day.  Our sheep might only get their hooves trimmed once a year, when the shearer comes.  In fact that's all most of them get, and their feet are fine.  They do lots of walking around and seem to keep their feet in relatively decent shape.  April is the exception.

She has the same kind of feet as her mother, and for some unknown reason the outer claw on the front feet  grows much faster than the inner claw.  I knew she needed her feet doing, and was just waiting for a good day and time, which would be a day that was dry, with dry ground.  This particular day she was laid by herself in the old horse stall that is an add-on to the front of the barn.  We have a few bales of hay stored in there, and since the door is falling apart and falling off it's hinges, we've just allowed the sheep to help themselves to the hay, since the hayfield has been eaten down.  The other three ewes had wandered out to the field, and April was laid there by herself.  Since she is a former bottle lamb, and I've been feeding her grain in the morning, she is fairly tame.  Also, she is a couple of weeks short of turning 15, so she doesn't move too fast anymore.

Since three of her four feet were visible while she was laid there, I was going to try and trim her hooves without getting her up and flipping her onto her backside.

Here's my rather ancient looking hoof trimmers.  A good oiling would probably help them out. Like I said, I don't use them much.  There are much nicer, easier to use trimmers around now, but this was the standard variety about 30 years ago.

And yes, gulp, that is blood on the end of them.  I cut a little close, trying to cut the messy part away.

Here's one front hoof before I started

And here it is after I've finished.  The two claws never look the same, as the longer one is also much wider, but at least now they are relatively the same length.

There's usually some infection in the bottom of the big claw, so I pour a bit of Kopertox on it.  It's like a foot bath in a bottle.

I wish I could say she was as good as new when I was done.  Not really.  She's quite arthritic in her hip joints.  I'm pretty sure she won't be around for another winter.  She still gets around though, and seems happy enough.  Look at the first picture and you can see that she is still bright eyed and alert.

The other day though, I was feeding her the grain.  She got some stuck in her throat I guess.  She stopped eating and her head was hung down.  Saliva was bubbling.  She flung her head around and strings of saliva and wet grain were thrown every where. She sneezed and snorted.  I left her alone while we took the dogs through the bush, as usually the sheep manage to sort this out themselves.  When we came back she was with the other ewes, but wasn't grazing, was still stood with her head hanging.  I went inside, got my sheep book out, and mixed up some baking soda and warm water that I use for bloat.  April's cute, but she has had her issues over the years, including bloating four or five times.  I figured that if I got some of that down her throat, I might help flush the blockage out, or help it go down. Just as I got it mixed, I looked out and she had her head down and was grazing.

April lives another day. 

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