It All Started With a Phone Call

The sheared ones are Navajo-Churro.

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a friend. She called asking if I had a dog kennel she could borrow. I didn't, but she had me curious as she mentioned it wasn't for a dog. She explained about some sheep that were available and she needed it for transporting them in the back of her vehicle.

Thus began a conversation that will soon mean the arrival of a small flock of Navajo-Churro sheep to our homestead on Saturday. 

The lady who is selling them needs a knee replacement. Since she cares for all of her animals alone, she needed to reduce the amount of animals she has on her farm. I was able to buy the sheep for what it would have cost her to send them to a butcher - about 1/4 of their usual cost.

We have been talking about adding sheep or goats or even pigs to the farm here in order to help clear some land. We have a lot of forest on the 100 acres we live on and we are trying to reclaim some of it to use for gardening. In all of our discussions we had settled on looking to add meat goats next year. However, my friend called and changed everything. 

In the research I have been doing on the Navajo-Churro breed I have discovered that this particular breed is more like goats than sheep. They are foragers and even classified as excellent foragers which means if they are given enough room to forage, they need little to no supplementation in hay. The ewes are very protective of their lambs and will even stand up to a dog - not a typical sheep behavior. They have a coarse wool which grows in two layers - an inner fleece and an outer protective coat. They are also an endangered breed. The history behind this breed is very interesting. 

The Navajo-Churro breed is a desert sheep - bred for the use by the Navajo Native Americans. They were cross-bred with sheep imported from Europe. At the beginning of the 1900s the government went in and began killing off the flocks in order to try to control the Navajo. This is one main reason they are still an endangered breed. 

My plans at this point is to learn as much as I possibly can about sheep. I've been reading books, websites, and talking to more people than I can keep track of. I carry around a notebook to jot down information. This isn't just my project though. My boys are in 4H so next summer my plan is for each of them to have their own lamb to show at the fairs. 

My flock is small - for now - and I plan to keep it that way. I'll be getting one ram (and yes, I snapped a couple pics but he was in the barn and the lighting was horrid and my camera had a hard time "finding" him. He is black and was in a dark stall) and five ewes. While the ewes could become pregnant any time my goal is not to breed them until late December/January (this year at least). That way my lambs will be born on pasture in the spring since we don't have a barn for them to live in. They will have a small shelter but I'm not sure how that will work for warmth at this point. While this is my plan we'll see if the sheep will agree to it. Although, it does appear that one of the ewes may be expecting sooner than we thought!

The lady I am purchasing them from has been wonderful. She's talked to me many times on the phone and today the boys & I headed to her house to meet the sheep. They are all very shy and skittish so as we came in to the pasture they started steadily walking away - thus the quality of the photos. We'll be working hard over the next few months to make them a bit more socialized to us. 

I plan to continue blogging about our new adventure. My hubby has been awesome about financing - yet again - one of my whims. When I first called to ask him about doing this he immediately and adamantly said no way! However, I convinced him to let me ask his father if he would be willing to build me anything I needed as long as we paid for it. His father just retired in August so has a bit more time than my hubby. My FIL agreed and the rest, as they like to say, is history.

Our Herd

We have a deer herd that likes to hang out around the house. They are a lot of fun to watch. On this particular day the boys called me to the living room window to see this:

Yup - they were just outside eating some crab apples off the ground. It's a momma with her twins. The green "no red eye" flash on my camera kept catching their attention. I had my regular flash turned off (which is why they are a bit dark).

Oops, caught in the act...

Life at the Lake

The two older boys are taking swimming lessons this week & next. So far so good although B is not really thrilled about the whole thing. He doesn't enjoy water & doesn't like putting his face in so he's a bit stymied right now but I'm praying he has a break through soon & realizes that it's all okay and safe and no one is "out to get him." That sort of thing. ;-)

This year they opened up classes to more area towns. They have a lot more instructors as well, but this time slot seems to have way more instructors & aides than there are kids! I know that the beginner class, where my two boys are, has at least one instructor & four aides & there are only five kids in the class. I love those numbers.

There was a flock of ducks hanging around the beach today. They swam off quickly once the kids arrived. I was a bit surprised though as my boys have the third lesson slot of the day so there were lots of kids here before. Two of the ducks did hang around & were eating off the bottom close to shore, coming up on shore, & staying rather close around the area - hoping for a hand out I think.

You can see how close the ducks were to the kids in the classes in this photo. My two older boys are the ones in the swim caps in the distance. They don't like water in the ears & it's a great way to quickly & easily pick them out of the crowd.

Unfortunately for me & J, they don't start lessons at the lake until they are six years old. I was sort of hoping to sneak him in under the radar this year, but they upped the age. Last year they started at age five. I think he will do well. I did talk with one of the instructors who does the beginners & she seemed to think next year would be okay for him to start so I'm going to try it & see how he does.

For now he comes with me with his trusty orange scoop & has a ball building "castles" (click here to see a photo of one) & playing in the water close to shore. After all, there is lots of mud there!

Animals All Around

It's always a given that one will see some animals while up at camp. It's just a matter of where and when. Last year we saw two beavers swim by & come to shore just below our camp. We also saw a mommy loon with her babies.

This year was no different.

We saw two loons VERY close to shore - as in about 50 feet from our dock. This photo was taken with my zoom half way out. We watched them for quite some time - dive - come up - shake - stretch. It was fun.

We motored in to the next town on July 4th to gas up the boat & to have dinner "out" as a treat. There was a small flock of ducks hanging out close to the dock waiting for hand outs. It was amazing how close they would get! You can even see the little feet just under the water.

As we were heading home on the 4th after dinner, we could see all these birds up in the trees. They are cormorants. Very cool. They were in two trees & I snapped a bunch of pictures of them.

While this was not a "wild" animal native to the region, she probably could have been without much trouble! Annie LOVES it when we take her to camp. Three years ago we took Keeysha - which was her last trip before she died. Last year when we went we had Annie. She loves the water. She also loves chasing butterflies - a new past time for her.

My hubby shared a story about Annie from this trip. On our last night the lake was dead calm at dusk & the fish were jumping. He decided to go see if he would have any luck doing a bit of fly fishing. The boys & I were up to the camp as I was getting them all ready for bed. Annie didn't see or hear my hubby on the dock. She went down to the little point & out to the rocks there which are mostly submerged. She sat down & just pointed her nose in to the wind. She sat there for the longest time until the bugs finally forced my hubby to move. She jumped so we know she hadn't seen him. She does love camp.

And we saw this cow grazing on the side of the road. I took the photo through the windshield which is why it's a bit misty. I wanted my hubby to stop beside it so I could snap a quick pic through his window but we had someone behind us so we couldn't stop.