It is really working!

last year I wrote about how I was going to confining the sheep to small paddocks and move them every day or two. Before I moved them I would though out some grass and clover seed so they would trample it in seed they browsed off the leaves, weeds and what little there was for native grasses. The reasoning I had for doing this was to put the nutrients on the ground were the trampled in seed could use it. The sheep would also do a better job cleaning up the brush since they were under pressure from the other sheep to get what they could before someone else did, so they were less picky. Here are a couple pictures of how it is going.
This picture was taken 11-10-2009, it was just after the loggers left. here is the post I wrote about it in http://uponthehillfarm.blogspot.com/2010/02/foster-farm-finds-home.html

















This picture was taken last June. you can see the Timothy coming up, it looks promising! At this point the sheep had been over it 2 times and I had thrown out seed once in the spring. This is a spot that stays moist longer than most of the clear-cut so the grass is doing the best here compared to the entire clear-cut. below is the link to the post. http://uponthehillfarm.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html
















This was yesterday May 26th 2011. The Timothy and red clover are so thick I am concerned about letting the sheep have free choice of it since I worry they could bloat. As I said this is a wetter area so the grass is coming in best here but the rest of the clearing is definitely growing grass.




















I am moving the sheep almost every day now. Lambing is almost done and now we will be busy keeping good grass in front of the ewes and lambs. This year we weighed all the lambs when they were born so we will be able to track the pounds gained per day for each lamb which will help us choose which animals to keep for breeding and which go to market. I am not going to say anything that will jinx the situation but so far so good :-)

Some pictures

I am having some trouble with my camera. Emma has been taking some pictures around the farm, here is what Emma finds interesting.

I finally was able to get going on planting the pastures. It has been SO wet and dark I have not been able to get grass seed down.




















A couple pictures of the inside of the house. Paulette has been doing such a nice job painting. It really is looking nice inside. Always more to do but she keeps working on it and little by little it is getting done and the result is really beautiful.

A picture of "Flop" and her single. We don't really give the sheep names but this one is missing her ear tag and she has one ear that hangs low so when the lamb was put in the records I put "Flop" and it it stuck. Her lamb seems to have larger than average ears, maybe that is why Flop has an ear that flops.

Some twins playing on a pile of rock, these two must be less than a day old since they gain fat cover within a day or two after being born.


















This is the remains of an old hunters cabin that is out in the woods behind the farm.

Busy with Spring

I am just chiming in quickly to say I am still here :-). We have all been really busy trying to get the finishing touches on the house, getting the pastures planted and lambing has started. Everyone is doing great. I will get some picture of the house and lambs up soon.