Beau Jackson

Well, birthing season (lambs, goat kids, kittens) is over (unless you count Allena!) and the ranch has expanded.

We ended up with 10 lambs this year out of 8 ewes – which is a pretty low birth rate for sheep. It was a strange year. We had a lot of ewes give birth to single gigantic ram lambs. One of them was nearly 10 pounds – the average size Shetland lamb is 6 pounds or so, just to put that in perspective.

We also ended up with 5 goat kids, which we have taken to calling “goatlings” so that we know we’re talking about baby goats and not our own children. One of them went back to the breeder that we purchased the goats from. We had one little buck and we gave him to the neighbors as a 4H project goat. They were glad to have him, and we were glad to be rid of him, so win-win on that.

Finally, we ended up with 5 kittens. These were born just a week ago or so. One of them was starting to open its eyes last night. We will likely keep a couple of these – we lost a couple of cats over the last several months. One died of old age, the other died of unknown causes – was just dead one morning. However, if you’re looking for a kitten…just let me know ;)

Yesterday, we brought home the newest additions to the ranch – four angora rabbits. These are a 4H project for Dominic and fiber critter for Allena. We traded a couple of sheep for four of these bunnies, and actually ended up with six. The last two are not at the ranch yet as they currently have kits that still need them, but when the rabbit breeder comes to pick up her sheep next month, she’ll be bringing those two with her. I’m looking forward to some very warm mittens next year. Angora is several times warmer (six times? eight times? can’t remember) than wool, and of course is very very soft.

As a side note, I built cages for these bunnies on Saturday out of 1/2 inch wire mesh. I used these little metallic fastener thingies called a “J-Klips” to put them together. For the record, J-Klips rock! :). Also for the record, it is a LOT easier to cut wire mesh using a grinder with a cutting disk than it is to use tin-snips or wire cutters. Just saying. I really need to start carrying a camera around with me. I should have taken pictures of the cage-building process. A lot of people find my site via Google when searching for how to build pig shelters and horse shelters and fun stuff like that. I have one more cage to build for the rabbits coming next month – MEMO TO ME: TAKE PICTURES!

So now we’re just waiting for June when the newest member of the (human population) of the ranch is due to arrive. Nine weeks and counting!