What's Happening in the Heat?

Sunflower in the Garden

The end of the school year is always a big adjustment around here. With the kids sleeping in and me being able to stay up late, the timing gets all out of whack. Not to mention the blistering hot heat of summer in Tucson.

I've found some ways to get around the heat, if I be good and stay on a schedule. First off, the farm chores still need to be done. A lot of people see pictures of the farm critters and think how nice it must be to have them. Milk goats need to be milked twice a day without fail. The critters need to be fed and watered twice a day. There are not-so-fun maintenance tasks like hoof trims, castration, pen cleaning, egg collecting and composting, but my point is, you still have to do all those things even when it's 100 degrees outside.

At first we all stayed up to ungodly hours and then slept in to go do chores around 11am. If you live in Tucson, you know that's insane. It's just too hot. By the time chores were done we were heading out at high noon, covered with sweat and melting in the heat.

So I now get up at the old school time of 7am and often head out to the ranch alone. While it's easier to get all the chores done with everyone, the truth is, I don't handle the heat well. I turn red and get dizzy. Plus, I like to hang around and do extra chores that don't get done when the whole family comes and wants to get in and out fast.


Pumpkin, our wooly ram. He's not very orange anymore.
Check out the nice metal feeder!

Chores like sweeping the pens and moving the poo to planting areas. There's something satisfying about a nicely swept sheep pen. Plus, after learning to spin wool, I now understand why alpaca is better than sheep fiber. Sheep lay down to rest anywhere--even in their own poo! Ew!

That means wool is skanky nasty stinky messy poopy stuff out here in Tucson where pasture just won't happen without some good monsoon rains. (Please rain.) So I hurry through the morning chores and then try to squeeze in the extra stuff.

To help with keeping pens cleaned and also to cut down on hay waste (my sheep never waste hay--they will eat it even if it falls in poop--gag) I purchased two metal feeders with drop pans. Goats are not as frugal as the sheep and will not eat stuff once it falls on the ground and gets nasty, so they got one too.

Freshly swept sheep pen.

There is always something that needs to be done. On the list is fence repair and lots of it. The goats are hard on fences and much of theirs needs to be reattached to the t-posts and more t-posts need to be pounded in for reinforcement.

I'd like to do some minor rearranging in the goat pen for ease of cleaning and to have additional areas for seperating animals when need be.

I still need to build two more rooster pens. This requires the aid of the child who begged for their lives when it was rooster eating time. He's not as motivated to build them each houses as he was to save them from being dinner. Plus, keeping a rooster in with the hens is nice and all, but he's a very efficient rooster and his constant attentions are making the hens go bald. He needs to be moved out.



Darius playing dead.

The alpacas, who are fattening up nicely and like to play dead to scare the heck out of me, probably need a better shelter in case mosoon rains really do come. (Please rain?) And they probably will move further back into the property. They get stared at a lot. I don't mind so much, but it's kind of weird when strangers pull up, stop their car, get out and come to the fence and start snapping pictures.

As I have gotten older, I am valuing my private time more than before. I don't necessarily want strangers to stop and hang out at my farm--the one place I go to find some peace of mind and get back in touch with nature. Plus, maybe the alpacas don't want people staring at them when they have to go potty. Poor guys.

The other trick is to come out after the sun goes down to do the evening chores. This works very well as long as everyone has a flashlight to navigate with. Some extra chores can get done at night too, but unless there's a full moon, it's not as easy to see what's getting done.

My husband and I think maybe we should be vampire farmers. Sleeping all day, staying up all night? Yeah. I could make that work.

Last Two Boys

Bronson and Buckles, the large two white boys, arrived at the ranch on May 11. Mrs. Cokely delivered them and they made the trip in the back of her van! When we had gone to meet the alpacas on shearing day, I had gotten into that same van with her daughter only to turn around and see a couple of alpacas back there, resting and waiting for their driver to take them back home. People's ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.

Bronson has a small wound on his face that was discovered at shearing, so I have to catch him and keep it clean. I also put on fly ointment so the nasty buggers will leave it alone. It seems to be healing up nicely. Buckles has a vision problem in his left eye. He holds his head to the side (which really makes look inquisitive) and he eats and gets along just fine otherwise. When hand feeding, we help him out by holding his treats right up to his mouth because he has trouble seeing exactly where they are.

The alpacas seem less intimidated by small children, less so by me when I'm seated rather than standing. Pictured above is Farmer G handing out goodies. They like their goat pellets, and are becoming assertive about making sure they get their fair share.

They're always dissapointed when the treats run out for the day. The boys have been letting us touch them, mainly enjoying neck pets. They're still a bit skittish, so we give them plenty of room if they want to move away.

Alpacas

When Doc Mary came out to vaccinate Karma and Cookie, we visited awhile and I mentioned that I was learning to spin wool from Muffy. We chatted about what kinds of animals we enjoyed or might want to take on and I had mentioned I'd like an alpaca--especially to be able to spin the fleece into yarn.

She remembered that.

Our new residents.

A week ago on the last day of fair, I received a call from Doc Mary that there was a lady who needed to rehome some of her alpacas. Knowing literally nothing about the care of this animal, I was leery and had to consult with my husband and do some research. We talked it over and called the lady to ask her more questions. At first I felt comfortable only taking on two. My husband suggested six. I thought, well maybe four...

An alpaca being sheared at Cienega Creek Farm in Benson.

The alpacas were moved from Wilcox to Cienega Creek Farm in Benson to be sheared, vaccinated and have their teeth and toenails done. We arrived there in the morning after the shearing had begun to "help". Of course, we felt quite useless for some time as we watched a very efficient team of people shear and handle these interesting animals. Eventually we figured out places where we could jump in and do menial tasks. It was nearly an all day affair.

Mr. and Mrs. Cokely of Cienega Creek were extremely informative and helpful. They offered all kinds of advice and told us to handle the alpacas daily, talk gently to them, and lead them around on walks as often as possible. They started us off with some very nice timothy hay and instructions on feeding.

Three of the fleeces came home with us that day. Mrs. Cokely offered that I come back and learn to skirt the fleeces which sounds fascinating to me.

Darius's fleece.

We came home to the ranch with our first four boys: Darius, Piper, Dreamcatcher, and Kingsman. The other two will join us later as the Cokelys did not want to place all six animals in our trailer. Tired from a stressful day of being manhandled and sheared, the boys were unloaded into their new pen which features a huge, shady mesquite tree. They have been placed in one of the three pasture areas that were constructed originally for the sheep.

Muffy's is the cream color and Darius's is the brown.

I am already spinning Darius's fleece into yarn!

Making Plans...

Farming has been a test of what works and what doesn't for us. We have decided our Blackbelly Sheep will be phased out. They are a fairly wild breed. Blackbellies are a hair sheep and bred for meat. They do not produce wool. The skittish ones can jump six feet in the air right over my head, and for the record, they have done so. An adjustment to the sheep pen by way of a catchment area has helped tremendously when we need to move or handle them, but they are still quite "crazy" for us. They are extremely graceful and beautiful animals and very low maintenance. After some consideration though, we have decided that all the crazy ones are on the freezer list.

If you feel up to the challenge to start your own herd, we will be selling our ram, Lucky, and two females: Braveheart and Baby Sheep #2, as they are the tamest. Braveheart is a sweetie and will come right up to you for pets and snacks. I feel these three Blackbelly Sheep deserve a chance to move on to another ranch where they can produce and raise more babies for another, more adventurous farmer.

Our very best sheep was our dearly departed Muffy. We believe she was a Tunis or some sort of crossbreed thereof. Although we did not eat her, she was a meaty sheep and her offspring were always meaty as well. At this time we have not decided if we want to keep breeding sheep. But over the next five months we will be downsizing to only woolies. I like to spin wool as a hobby, and am looking forward to working with the fleeces from Sugar, Pumpkin, Marshmallow and Ginger. DoeDoe will stay on as our herd matron. We believe she is a St. Croix or some derivation, but she is a hair sheep. She can retire here at the ranch.

Since wool is so much fun, and spinning a peacable hobby I can do in my spare time when I watch TV with my family, we are considering taking on some alpacas from a lady who needs to rehome some of hers. After doing some research, we found out that there is an alpaca ranch five minutes from us. We drove by and checked them out to see how they keep their animals. It looked simple enough, so we hope to bring home our own small flock sometime this week if all goes well.

Pima County Fair and 4H

This past week has been hectic for us. The Pima County Fair was on and two of the kids were showing their bantam chickens. Much preparation at their 4H leader's house went into this big moment for the boys. We had never been to the barn section of the fair before, so it was a new and exciting as well as educational experience.

The 4H and FFA children were showing poultry (chickens, pigeons, ducks, peacocks, turkeys), beef steers, dairy cattle, goats, sheep, and hogs. Each group puts up a display poster about their project which is informative. Many of those that we enjoyed reading were the diseases pigs can carry and transmit to humans (ew!), the cost of raising a hog, the cuts of meat on a chicken and facts about steers.

Beef Steers kept cool with a fan

The children have barn duty, which means they hang out in the barn near their project and are available to answer general questions. These kids did a great job and it was obvious they'd studied up. The barn and animals are maintained by the children and everything was tidy.

Poultry Showmanship

Our boys only did the showmanship show as we are so new to all of this and it's overwhelming at first. Other parents recommended that we take the kids out of school the whole week of fair. Some even bring campers and rent a site on the fairgrounds. Now we understand why!

Goat Showmanship

If our kids were taking part in more than one show or project we would have needed to be out there much more. As it was, we were there each day to feed and water their chickens and help out with our group's birds.

Outside one of the rides

Next year we will know what to expect and be better prepared. The boys both earned blue ribbons for showmanship. They have plans for the next time around and seem to be enjoying 4H more than ever now.

Saying Goodbye

Muffy, the day she came to live at the ranch.

Yesterday our big, wooly, old friend, Muffy, passed away from what appeared to be a sudden heart attack. She had an eating disorder which I believe resulted in not having enough to eat where she was prior to her coming to live at the ranch. She LOVED to eat. And she overate whenever she could. She was overweight, though after looking at pictures of other Tunis sheep, maybe she wasn't that much over as they look like hefty creatures compared to our thin, graceful Blackbellies. I always figured she'd die from a heart attack, so I wasn't that surprised that she did.

At least we were there when it happened. I held her head up and comforted her until the end. It's about all I could do. I examined her teeth to try to figure out how old she might have been. She had all eight bottom teeth, and judging from one of my sheep raising books and the how long and very loose the teeth were, she was a bit of a geriatric sheep. Sheep life expectancy varies depending on the breed. I could not find a listing for Tunis. The average is 10-12 years though some breeds go much longer. We had Muffy about three years and I believe the man who owned her prior had her for about five. I don't know how old she was when he got her but he had mentioned she was pregnant then. She had some issues with her legs and my guess it was a bit of arthritis. A while back she had caught her hoof in a pallet and sprained it, but had been recovering nicely and her limp was hardly noticable of late.

The whole family helped to bury her. She was laid to rest next to Gucci and Princess.

New Cereal Baby

Cocoa Puff was the last bred goat doe we were waiting on to kid. She had a sweet little baby girl the other day and we named her Cocoa Roo. Little Roo is the daughter of Mini Gabe. She prefers to hide out in the Dogloo so the bigger goats can't bump her around. Her mother is great at feeding and very attentive.

Roo is 50% Nigerian Dwarf, 25% Alpine, and 25% Nubian/Boer