Busy Days

I last wrote in April, after taking in my three grandchildren and attending our early sheep show in Duncan, Oklahoma. Life with three children ages 1 year, 2 years and 3 years is busy. When they first arrived on the farm, all three were wearing diapers. My days were spent preparing food, changing diapers, washing dishes and laundry as well as teaching and caring for these three new family members. The sheep were fed and watered, but not much individual attention was given to them from me. My husband did most of the feeding and watering as my hours were filled with the care of small children.

May arrived with Mr. A, the oldest learning to use the bathroom and getting rid of the diapers. Mr. A also started learning words to speak and share his new adventures, mostly involving bugs. He carried sow bugs or rolly pollies as I call them around after they had rolled up into neat little balls. One morning he followed a dung beetle rolling its ball of dung along the ground. With new words of birds, insects and animals he was excited to use his voice and tell of his discoveries and ask a lot of questions. There were insects I did not know the name of.

Mr. M became my main helper when it was time to grain the animals. Due to the little rain from last winter, and sparse rain this spring, we are in a drought situation on the farm. I supplement the sheep with grain and hay as in May there was no grass or weeds growing in my pasture. Not wanting to over graze and damage the hot, thirsty soil of the pasture, I have kept the sheep off the pasture and have them in dry lots. Dragging the youngest, Ms. L in a wagon, and with the help of Mr. M ( as Mr. A was busy exploring ), we would get each pen of sheep fed in the mornings. Doing chores took much longer since little legs take more steps, but much shorted steps to keep up with Granny. After feeding, time to cool our body down with popsicles and cold drinks, before changing diapers and preparing lunch.

In June, my grandson, Mr. J, joined us. Mr. J visits every summer for a few weeks and has done so since he was two years old. This year he was going to stay with me until the middle of July. The other three grandchildren staying with me are Mr. J’s half siblings. With Mr. J’s experience in feeding the sheep, and being able to feed two pens during the time required for me and my little helpers to feed one pen, chores did get completed a little quicker.

The 100 plus degree Fahrenheit temperatures in June required some cooling activities for the grandchildren and myself. After doing research on different types of above ground swimming pools, I purchased a 10 foot across stock tank to work as a swimming pool. Mr. J had a 6 foot across stock tank when he was two years and up until he out grew the stock tank. The stock tank was way less in cost, higher durability, meaning that it would not get a leak, and I could use as a water trough later on. The stock tank purchased ten years ago for Mr. J is still being used to water my riding horses.

The sun and heat on the water in the new “swimming pool” would get the water too hot to swim in. A problem we have had with Mr. J’s “swimming pool”. The solution, drain the water out of the tank each night, and refill in the morning. After the lunch, the pool would be filled with enough water to play and start teaching the little grandchildren to swim, and be a cooling relief from the hot temperatures. The water draining each night would give the parched ground some moisture to grow grass for the weaned lambs to nibble on at night.

To provide some green grazing for the weaned lambs, I would water the grass around the barns, sheep pens and yard during the night. While it was not enough grass to be the weaned lambs total forage intake, it does help them grow better.

July arrived and half way through it was time for Mr. J to return home. I am always sad when he returns home. We did have fun, and as always he is a big help on the sheep farm. This year, he learned how to operate a bucket loader on the tractor, as his legs finally grew long enough to reach the pedals. He also learned how to use the herding dogs in moving the sheep and keeping them away when putting out grain and hay. He was a big help during deworming and vaccination of the weaned lambs and ewes. This year he was able to do the drenching and vaccinating of the sheep. Mr. J enjoys working with and learning about the sheep.

August arrived and the high temperatures stayed, with very little to no rain. During the second week, my son and daughter-in-law decided they were ready to have the children return home. My daughter-in-law had faithfully been seeing her therapist and working on those things that had caused her problems. Still on the path to learning how to deal with the demands, challenges and stress of being a mother, her skills could not continue forward until she had her children to start apply the new skills in her life, and to continue to learn new ones. The second weekend of August the little grandchildren who had birthdays while at Granny’s, left.

I shed tears for the first week after they were gone. Removing the toys and play yard from the living room, and putting the little children things away until they visit again. The door is always open for visits, and for my daughter-in-law to bring the children back if things build up and become too much for her and she needs time to recompose and rebuild. They will be returning as a family for Christmas this year.

August also brought the sale of four ewes and a surprise sale of a full blood ram lamb. This spring, a person who purchased some ewe lambs and an unregistered commercial ram from me, informed me they wanted to purchase some additional ewes. From the weaned ewe lambs, he selected four ewes lambs and started discussing the need to change rams. They also mentioned they were wanting to get into registered fullblood stock. I showed them my three best ram lambs, and they purchased one. I will be delivering these sheep at the end of the month.

Each year in December and January I write a business plan for the sheep farm. I set goals of things I want to accomplish, and improvements I want to make during the year. Looking at my business plan, I am way behind. After the children returned to their home, I started trying to catch up on the items in my business plan. The extreme heat makes my progress slow. One benefit to my spring and summer adventures is after working in the extreme heat it is nice to cool off and relax in our new “swimming pool”.

Granny