Sunday, May 31, 2020

A Tragic Week On The Homestead

Earlier this week I was feeding hay to the animals. The last cut has had me a bit concerned. It didn't seem to be curing out very well. The last few bales have been dusty. We started checking bales and discovered the moisture content is still way too high. This cut will be a total loss. 300 bales. We have never had this happen. Heartbreaking to say the least. 2020 is going to go down as one of the strangest years in my life.
The second heartbreaking blow came late yesterday afternoon. Last week we had 2 more sets of lambs born for a total of 6. Normally it takes the mom's a day or two to bring them down but I check everyday on them. So, yesterday afternoon hubby headed to the range and I was getting ready to catch up the blog with daily happenings here on the homestead. Just as I started to write I saw the sheep coming in. However, each ewe only had 1 lamb. I immediately put on my boots and went to check. I kept trying to convince myself that the others were napping somewhere. After walking every square inch of the pasture I found no signs of the lambs at all. At that point I knew in my heart we had lost them to a fox. I was (still am) beyond devastated. I spent the next hour securing all the animals in the barn. When Hubby got home I was still crying. Needless to say it was a long night and I didn't sleep at all. In 24 years of raising sheep I have only lost 2 lambs to outside predators and those were years apart. 3 lambs in one night ...
This morning we walked the fence line and found where it had dug under the fence. I got it repaired. The sheep will continue to stay in the barn at night until the lambs are big enough to not be attacked. Sometimes life is very hard on the homestead.

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