The Drought Continues and Ponds are Low and another rain went around us

The pond has gotten desperately low now.  It seems to drop daily.  

One of our ram lambs.  He is a nice big boy and really carries many of Liam's traits...our BFL ram.

It's time to come in for the night, I say loudly as I walk to the South pasture.    I  just walk down to the pasture and they start coming in on their own.  Of course knowing that I feed a big bucket of feed every night never hurts.  They just hear the door slam when I come outside about 8pm and they are Johnny on the spot.  In fact if I am running late, they stand inside the lot and baa at me.  Sometimes the chorus gets so loud, I go out early and feed them and shut the gate.  Tonight we went out early and Danny is blading out the lot...getting rid of all the manure in the barn lot and I am in no hurry getting the flock in.  We fenced in the waterer differently since the coyotes have been coming in closer.  I try to keep the area small so that the big dogs can guard  the sheep  better.  We saw a small coyote pup crossing the road to the south.   We also worked on hay feeders.  I will start feeding hay this week and hopefully we will get some rain and the grass will grow back to help us feed. 

  Big Gerty and Bubbles, Lewy, and Huey, the last of the flock to come in. Blue Bubbles is leading the way.  She is a nice big girl.

Heading in for the night.  thought we might get rain but split and it went to our north and to our south and came together  to our East...It felt so close but still no rain.  Sometimes the radar is showing us covered by rain but all we are getting is cloud cover.  It seems like the rains gets to us and split and go by us and then reform.  

We didn't get any rain but we did get to see a beautiful rainbow in the East.

The grass is gone in most pastures in this part of the country.  The rains have been so spotty.  This is the first time in my life that we didn't get the winter snows and then didn't get the Spring rains and then the hot and dry summer.    This is the worse drought we have ever experienced in my life time.

The sheep put their heads down and graze very close to the ground now due to the drought.  I will have to be  very watchful for worms.  We are also watching the pond to be sure no cows have got marred down.  A friend was telling us about a farmer that lost 7 cows in his pond that got too low.  They got stuck and by the time he found them one or two were already dead and the others died after he got them pulled out.  So I check night and morning and next year, there will be a good fence around that pond.  We will not be renting out our pasture next year.  We want to concentrate on making improvements and not worrying about someone elses' livestock.  We plan to reseed and fertilize, build some lots and arrange to put water to each of the lots.  We are talking to some experts to help us plan it out.  We will be able to do pasture rotation and have more livestock if we choose.

We have been building lots and putting up new fences on the land that we have not rented out the past few years.

The sky got very dark to the east...a few sprinkles...very few were all we got.

One of our spring ram lambs...He is Bl/BFL cross.  He has grown very fast this summer.
He is for sale:  $150

This is one of Sammy's offspring.  She was the last lamb to be born in May and  has grown so much so fast.  Those Cheviot lambs are alert, heads are up and they are very quick to move away from what they fear.  They are almost like a shetland as far as being hardy.

Another BL/BFL cross.  

One of the BFL cross Ewe lambs.  She is so fine!

Macy Sue and Steiner are my back up dogs...they go with me so they can get some hunting done.  

My favorite fleece on the farm, Gerty's.  Her mother was a registered Oxford from Almond's farm and her sire is White Knight, BL.  She is a very large ewe and her wool is so silky to the touch.  I love to spin this fleece.

Licking her lips, Gerty is ready for supper.  It is getting very hard to tell Gerty from Birdie lately.

FOR SALE:  SAMMY, CHEVIOT RAM

I can not keep all my sheep...the drought is causing me to sell off some of the flock.  I got Sammy last fall and he bred about 6 ewes.  All twined except one young  ewe.  The lambs are healthy, quick growers, alert and very hardy.
$250 or will trade for a Border Leicester Ram 

Side view of Sammy.  He is an easy keeper, hardy, not a pet and has not offered to have bad manners.

Please continue to pray for rain.  God will never leave us or forsake us.  He will send the rain in his own time that is the perfect time.