Winter Chores

Chores must happen sleet, snow or sunshine, which,  by the way, comes later in the morning and leaves earlier in the evening this time of year in Maine.  Though I am often up by 5:30 am I rarely do chores until after 8am as one thing leads to another and I suddenly realize it is light outside.

  We begin with the chickens, who have had a light bulb on since 3am...and find we are getting a dozen eggs now.  A couple of weeks ago they were molting and we were getting an egg a day from our 2 dozen hens.  They get grain and water too, and when their grain has been low they push hard to find a place at the feeder..

Next the lambs, now almost a year old.  We have 3 groups of them. Two groups of 4 for market lambs, separating the boys from the girls.  One group that is with Brother Augustus, supposedly a Finn ram lamb we traded for last summer.  Brother Augustus has horns now, so we suspect he is not really pure Finn. His 5 ewe lambs are the healthiest of last year's girls, and we hope they will have lambs in the spring. These girls have the shelter of the back of the barn, while the other lambs have the shelter on the north of the pole barn or a chiclen tractor covered with a tarp.  They all scramble for the grain and hay I give them. The water in their buckets has been frozen in the am lately, so I carry the frozen bucket inside where it is warm to thaw and put out fresh water. As I enter the doorway they push to get inside where the hay is stored.  You would think they had not eaten for a week.

Then to the adult ewes, of which many are expected to lamb in late March or early April.  Most, but not all,  had a fall shearing. They have access to the feeder in the pole barn where it is easy to drop hay down from the loft.  I walk through the feeder putting hand mixed grain in the trays on both sides as the ewes eagerly jockey for as much as they can get. Then I drop down 3 bales of hay, break open the bales and place the hay where they can enjoy it.  I watch to make sure everyone is getting a chance to eat, and hand feed the two that are not as aggressive for food.

Next we tend to Bubba, the draft horse accompanied by the two boys...Lester, our Border Leicester Ram, (who hopefully has done a good job), and Timmy, our Romney wether.  They all get grain and hay too.  Water for them and the adult ewes is in an automatic waterer that does not freeze.

Finally we tend to Hattie, who is isolated as she recovers from an abscess, now healing nicely.  She is really eager, standing with both feet on the fence that keeps her well away from the rest of the sheep. Hattie is a favorite, a big Romney with gorgeous huge colored fleeces twice a year.

Not done yet....now shoveling the poop.  Before the ground froze it was easier to pick up the large clumps with a manure fork. Each day it was easy to fill two wheel barrows full and dump it in the pile at the back of the pole barn.  The pile is already pretty big.  With freezing temperatures the poop is often frozen to the ground and an occasional fresh one. Here is a picture of the pile...impressive isn't it.When the sheep hear us coming they begin to baa eagerly, letting us know they are  hungry.


Believe it or not, this is the first year we have picked up the sheep manure daily and we anticipate a much cleaner barnyard come spring for the little time it takes every morning. Standing back I survey the barnyard, make sure the electric fence is back on, and think about getting those 4 coats on some sheep soon to protect their fleeces for the hay and chaff they seem to easily accumulate in their necks. Then off to the Tesseract to wash a couple of fleeces and spread them out to dry, best done on sunny days when the sun heats the water on the roof to 136 degrees.

I'll be back around 4pm to do it all over again. Twice a day, every day, except when we travel and our generous friends come to care for them.  Great friends indeed.