Oh my heck! This year has just whizzed past. We are two weeks away from starting the kids back to school and nowhere near ready! This year has brought some interesting changes and events, although I can't say that they have been all good!
May brought shearing and of course lambs...lots of lambs!

That's Rastus keeping an eye on the sheep from behind the tarp!

We purchased some cross bred sheep this year that have more suffolk than what we typically run. We like to keep the wool as white as possible, as it brings a better price. What we got out of the deal was bigger lambs, better mothers and some of the cutest lambs we have seen in a while!


I was lucky enough to be able to participate in the Little Snake River Museum's "Pioneer Days" event this year. I had great company, great groups of kids and great fun! What a wonderful place to be able to spend the day!


We had above average rainfall this Spring...which was a much needed break from the drought conditions we have been experiencing for years. The feed looks good, the fields look good and the crops (that haven't been damaged by grasshoppers) look good! We certainly hope to see more wet springs. Not to mention there was some fun to be had with all that water floating around.


This spring also brought changes for the kids. A kindergarten graduation and pre-school good-byes sent us head first into summer and onto 4-H projects.


Kelton was old enough to join 4-H this year. We started the year out with projects in .22 Shooting Sports, Market Lamb, Breeding Lamb, and Breeding Dairy Goat. Boy did that keep us busy twice a week he would travel to the range with Uncle Tom to sharpen his shooting skills. They had a ball! He also tamed, tracked feed for and learned to groom his animals. The State Livestock Expo was a great experience for him and his lamb, who he named "Pepper" because it goes great with lamb! Unfortunately two weeks before the County Fair, a couple of neighborhood dogs came into the yard in town and killed several of the kid's fair animals. Kelton was able to still show his goat, but both of his lambs and his sisters goats were killed by the dogs. They also got one of the rabbits and four geese. But, Kelton was able to proceed with his Producer's Choice portions of his project and was able to show "Dally" the goat. All in all it was a great experience for him and he did well this year. He placed 1st with his breeding goat, 3rd in showmanship for the goat. Won Producer's Choice for his presentation on sheep wagons in Colorado and took Grand Champion on his shooting sports project which is now at the State Fair!!!

Whew...just when you think it can't get any crazier...we add a kid! A GREAT Kid! We have participated in the Bear Creek High School Senior Field Studies program for five years. The seniors spend a week with us on the ranch learning more about our way of life, how their food gets to the table and more about agriculture in general. We have gotten the most wonderful students. They have all been willing to pitch in, do what needs done, and learn with OPEN minds! We have learned a thing or two from them too! This year was our first boy student and he was a blast! We even gained a new Easter Tradition from his family to ours (Thanks Romanos!). Like last year we had our senior guest blog for the ranch...here it is!

Hey, this is Nick Romano of Bear Creek high school in Lakewood Colorado. Obviously the fact that I’m posting here means that I have had some contact with the Villards out here in Craig. The truth is that through a program at my school called senior field studies I have been a guest living at their home for the past week so that I might simply experience a different life style than my own.  And what an experience it has been. I literally walk in the door and am simultaneously attacked by the Villard’s four children, Kelton, Chloe, Rylee and Tess, and their four puppies, Freckles, Bolt, Rooster, and Az. And my very first thoughts were “Holy crap, this is chaos. I think I’ve bit off more than I can chew.” Between the feeding of sheep and horses, the sheep herding, learning to drive tractors, the manual labor and of course the ever present children all begging for my attention I think with hind sight I can say that I was 100% correct. I had bit off more than I could chew and I loved every minute of it.

I immediately liked the Villards if not because of how adorable their kids were than because of their incredible hospitality and kindness toward me. After all I was something of a “volunteer” servant here to work, and work here meant taking care of sheep. I being a kid of the suburbs of a big city have had a surprising number of experiences with sheep. However all these experiences involved the sheep being cut up into little pieces sitting on a plate next to barbecue sauce or woven into warm and comfortable socks.  I had not up until this trip spent any time with living, breathing, bleating sheep. And the experience here has been incredible. Simply seeing the sheer amount of effort it takes to take care of these sheep astounds me. After all they have to be fed twice a day and every time a new lamb is born Albert and I would have to go and find the mother and make sure the lamb was feeding properly. And that was just for the few sheep located near his house. There are in upwards of 900 other sheep located a hour’s drive away that all need to be looked after, sheared and when the lambs are born in may the lambs will need to be castrated. Simply moving them from place to place is a pain. It took five hours or so to herd all these sheep three miles along the highway. Then on the way back I was able to see another rancher getting his sheep sheared. I heard that the most skilled sheep shearers could get the coat off of a sheep in one piece. Wow.

Overall I have truly enjoyed my time here and have loved helping out and look forward coming back and visiting sometime. But until then I bid farewell to Craig, goodbye.

Thanks again Nick and Mark at Bear Creek High School! We can't wait to see what next year brings! And Nick..."Keep Moving Forward"!

Lola!

I am FINALLY getting this caught up! We have moved down from the mountain and I'll be filling this in chronologically. Just don't miss "Frustration" it will explain where all of this got so far behind. Enjoy the new info and watch for more!

Thanks
Me & Lola

With lambing season creeping up quickly we took advantage of one last night on the town for a while. The Colorado Taxidermy Association held it's championships in Craig this year. We were lucky enough to be able to participate as sponsors and see the wonderful work on display. As the sponsors for the best predator mount, we were invited to a private viewing to make our selection of the award winner. The work that went into all of the mounts was amazing. We have some really talented artists in the state. Although bobcats are not our most damaging predator by far, the mount we chose for the award was the most amazing in the category for us.

 

Lola was sure glad to see so many of them stuffed!

The Week for Getting Good! April 19, 2008

 

            As I mentioned before.Albert is the new English speaking herder and I am now the straw boss in training.  Slowly.I am getting the hang of getting the big square hay bales picked up with the tractor, and placed just right so that feeding the flakes (yeah, I'm not good enough yet to do it all with the tractor) is easier. Ok, I'm so not a professional! Driving the tractor for me has always been sort of more fun than work. Even when I am the one plowing snow from the driveway it's more for fun! I can and have grappled large bales and placed them in feeders for the horses. Usually with Albert in the cab telling me what would be the BEST way to do it.

            Well.Albert is 90 miles away being my sheep herder! I'm on my own! I know how much to feed which of the little bunches of sheep that are here on the place by the house. I know how to get the big bale out of the hay shed and up to the pens. Taking off a quarter of the bale to feed to the bucks with the tractor.this is where I laugh out loud!!! For the first week that Albert was gone all the feeding was done with my trusty pitch fork. I often got "baaa-ed" for not moving quickly enough. I also dropped 10 lbs the first week. Imagine that.diet and exercise!

            By the end of the first weekend I was no longer manually forking hay. I can now deliver, scatter and feed the bale all with the tractor. The sheep seem to appreciate the increase in speed. Trainable.me.Nahh!

            Just when things start getting a little more routine.NEXT! The kids, the mom-in-law and I loaded up and headed for camp to tend to my herder! The drive was nice and the wind seems to have died down a bit.  Most of the herd had been successfully gathered into one bunch again by Albert. Today was the day.to count.over 1000 sheep! This is one of those times when I really miss having Albert's Dad around. I have only started counting in the last four years or so. Usually I just fill in and try to keep up. The final numbers are attributed to Albert and his Dad. Uncle Bert used to say that counting the sheep wasn't that hard. "Count the feet and divide by four" he would say. I always felt better when he added "If that is too hard, count the ears. Then you only have to divide by two". So, the count begins. Bonnie stayed at camp with the kids. Counting sheep is NOT a multi-tasking kind of thing for me.no kids, no dogs, only sheep! Albert's job is to count the lambs and I count the ewes. Once we got the herd started they seemed to go really well. Our only real hang up came when the new pup kept getting in front of the counters and turning the sheep back on us. The good news for the day is my count, which I was fairly certain was right, was very close to what should have been there. The first good news since the stinking herder left us for the life of an illegal alien.

Every spring the roving shearing crews roll through the country leaving flocks of naked sheep in their path!  We got the call that our time was rolling around too. We know it's coming, but every year it seems like we are caught scrambling to get everything ready in time. This year was no different. Unless you count the fact that the sheep were loaded on trucks and brought back to pastures closer to our lambing grounds the day BEFORE the call came in.  So on top of gathering paint, brands, applicators, food coloring, wool bags, tags, coveralls and all the other things that need to be packed to the site...we needed to move the sheep.

Keep in mind that shearing typically takes place only a couple of weeks before we start lambing. Trailing a herd of sheep from one location to another takes longer when they are pregnant and they tire easier. Plus we were still fighting deeper than normal snow drifts. We just spent all that money to truck the sheep to the right place at the wrong time! If only that call was made the day before. We could have re-routed them right to the corrals that we needed them in to be able to shear them. Luckily the shearing crew was able to work with us and pick up another client while we took the three days to trail the sheep to the right place.

We finally got the herd into the shearing corrals and the crews got started right away.  The sheep are run though a series of narrowing alleys that line them up to be pushed into a chute. The chute can be used for loading trucks or, in this case, loading the shearing trailer.  The crews bring an enclosed trailer with everything they need to shear a lot of sheep in a short amount of time. They show up with several camp trailers for the crew to sleep in and usually one bus or trailer to be used as a kitchen. Along with the campers is one, maybe two, shearing set-ups. Once the trailer is opened up the sheep are loaded into a raised deck to wait their turn for a haircut. Under the deck is an opening for the shearers to push the pelt out. Across from the deck there is a line-up of shearers with ceiling mounted electric clippers on swing arms. The front of the trailer holds the generators to power it all up. Each shearing stall has a door at floor level to let the sheared sheep back out into the pens. The opposite side has a door on pulleys that can be lowered for the shearer to grab a fresh sheep. They drop the door, roll the sheep onto her bottom and proceed to strip the long-johns right off.  The belly wool is removed first and scooted out under the deck to handlers that sort and pack the wool.  Then the rest of the pelt is removed in one large piece. All of this is done in just about ONE minute. The pelt is scooted out to be sorted and packed as well. Along with the shearing crew is a man or two that runs the packer. They start by sorting the pelts by course and fine fibers. The two are packed together separately from one another. The wool packer is a hydraulic press that packs the wool tightly into nylon packs. The wool packs, or bales, are then branded and loaded onto the trailer to be delivered to the warehouse to be sold.

Amazingly enough the whole process is done with our herd in one day...weather permitting.

Remember I said they call when they are headed our way? We typically don't get a lot of advanced notice. Weather is a huge factor for their schedule. Sometimes they call (only a couple days ahead) and are then held up by weather and don't get to us for a week. Sometimes they show up, get started and have to hold off due to rain or snow. This year they were able to wait for us to move the sheep. They came in on the morning of April 30^th, set-up and set to work. Towards the end of the day, with only 90 head of ewes left, it started to snow...lightly at first, and we were able to finish shearing. We finished packing up the last bale and cleaned up. The weather report called for 1-2" of snow that evening so we turned the sheep out of the corral and instructed the herder to let them find their own shelter. Animals have better instincts than we could ever hope to have. They will find the best shelter and usually be just fine. Sadly, our 1-2" turned into 16 inches of wet heavy snow on top of freshly shorn and handled animals. We prayed through the night that the herd would all be ok. The next morning we thought that everything had turned out ok despite the weather. It wasn't  until three days later that the snow finally melted and settled enough for us to see the damage. Approximately 50 head of sheep did not make it through the night's terrible storm. That's an estimated 100 lambs that never hit the ground either.

The shearing crew was also stranded on the place for another six days, due to weather, before they were able to pack up and head to the next herd. I sure hope next year is much more forgiving.

 

Look for more catch-up posts soon!

I'll be baa-ck!

Lola Wooly

Jr Paleontologists April 26, 2008

 

            Lucky for us.we got the sheep loaded from the winter range and headed back up country. Also luck that we are very close to Dinosaur National Monument! After we got the trucks loaded the kids and I headed for the headquarters at the park. National Junior Ranger Day just happened to be the same day as us shipping. What I didn't realize when I planned the side trip was that the Junior Paleontologist program going on that day was in it's unveiling. I thought that it was something that the park did every year. I knew that the kids would enjoy it and it was worth driving the extra little bit to get there. The three older kids were the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th ever Junior Paleontologists in the history of the program!!! We were all pretty tickled with that! When we finished at the park we went on into Vernal Utah and visited the dinosaur museums there before heading home. It was a long day for mom and the kids but well worth the time to check it out since we were in the neighborhood.

Coming Home April 26, 2008

 

The time has come to load em' up and haul em' out! The semi-trucks are lined up and a small crew has been gathered to get the sheep loaded and shipped back up to our spring feeding ground and to get the sheep headed for the lambing grounds. That is the pasture land that we use during the time that the herd is delivering the babies. It's also time to get Dad/Hubby back a little closer to home. There are four little guys around here who have not taken well to having dad gone this early. We all know that he will move out and live on the lambing grounds for a month until the majority of the herd has lambed. That is a tough time for us. But we know its coming. Extending it by three weeks and moving out on very short notice is something we were not ready for. We were all excited to get headed north!