On this page we will provide a brief look at what is happening on our farm each month.
May, 2008
We waited for most of the month for Spring to arrive but instead, we had at least some cold rain or snow almost every day. The snow was usually wet and would quickly melt away. We are feeding hay longer than usual this year and some neighbors are running out of hay. The mountain snow pack was building through out the month and our soil moisture is as high as we can remember. If the sun ever comes out again, our pastures should explode with new growth.
We usually try to do some fence building and repair in May and this year, between rain and snow storms, we have managed to rebuild a quarter mile of fence and replace a number of corner posts that have rotted and broken. A red tailed hawk has a nest in a cottonwood over the fence we were rebuilding. She would circle over us and call whenever we were in the area. Fence maintenance is a never ending task.
On May 13 the Alternative Energy Resources Organization, (AERO) held a public tour at Thirteen Mile Farm to look at the solar water heating system we use to heat water for washing wool. Dale and Courtney, engineers from Radiant Engineering, the firm that designed the system were on hand to explain the intricacies of solar energy in general and the details of our system in particular. The Tekmar electronic control on the system logs the differential temperature between the solar collectors and the storage tank in the barn and provides a value that, when multiplied by the flow rate, yields the number of BTUs collected by the system. We have been operating the system four years and have collected about 1 billion BTUs. Our alternative source of energy to heat water in propane gas. When we calculate the amount of propane not used over the last four years and use an average cost of $2.10 per gallon during the period (propane is currently $2.60 per gallon) the system has produced more than $25,700. in savings. This is a better rate of return than we had anticipated when we installed the solar system. We use between 250 and 500 gallons of water a day often heated to 180 degrees. The performance of this system suggests that any operation in a climate similar to ours using a significant amount of hot water would do well to consider using solar thermal power to heat the water.
| Early in May, MOSS, the Montana Outdoor Science School brought about 100 second graders out for a day on the farm. We had a rare for this year, warm sunny day, and the kids had a good time. | |
| The yearling cattle have been on one of our home pastures for most of the winter. The grass has been slow in coming this year but we were finally able to trailer the herd to a nearby leased pasture where the grass is a little ahead of ours. | |
| When the lambs are about a month old they will run the perimeter of their pasture almost every evening just before sunset. One or two lambs will begin the run and others will join in till they sometimes will have a crowd of forty or fifty racers. Sometimes one of the mothers will try to participate but will not be able to keep the pace. Lambs are fast. | |
| These are the solar panels we use to heat the water for washing wool. | |
April, 2008
Lambing continued into early April but slowed down rapidly and by the middle of the month we were done except for a handful of stragglers. The lambing season was one of our best in the last few years with a lambing ration of about 1.6 (an average of 1.6 lambs per ewe - we would like to see a ratio of 2.0) and three sets of triplets. In two of the triplet cases the mothers have been able to raise the lambs and are doing well. In the third case the mother had no milk and we had to bum all three lambs off to a neighbor who is bottle feeding them with the help of her grandchildren.
The blustery weather of March continued right through the month with very few warm sunny days and temperatures well below freezing at night. Several storms dropped significant moisture on us, often in the form of wet snow. In recent years we have gotten used to early springs and we usually can stop feeding hay by late April but this year it looks like we will be feeding through the middle of May. The grass is beginning to green up but until we get some warm sun, there won't be too much growth.
| By the end of the month some of the lambs were about 6 weeks old and getting pretty big. The grass is green but not very tall yet. We try to keep dry hay available for the sheep until the grass is mature enough to be nutritious and the sheep will eat some hay but they prefer the fresh green grass. |  |
March, 2008
March came in like a lion and went out like a lion. We had a few warm days but most of the month was blustery with a little snow almost every day. The snow would often melt off during the afternoon if the clouds let the sun through for a bit but it has not felt much like Spring yet. Lambing was scheduled to begin on March 20-21 (according to when the rams were put in with the ewes last Fall) and it started as usual a few days early. By the end of the month we had over 200 new lambs and more coming every day. So far it has been a pretty good season with few losses and it looks like most of the ewes will lamb within one cycle, 17 days, of March 20th. The rams did a good job.
It is interesting to watch the lambs and ewes at this time of year and study the different mothering techniques. Some of our ewes will keep their lambs with them at all times with the lambs never more than a few feet away with no apparent coaching. Other ewes will put their lambs in a particular spot and expect the lambs to stay there while the mother goes out grazing or exploring. And the lamb do stay put. Then there are the ewes who never seem to have a clue of where their lambs are. Periodically, they will look up and realize their lambs are gone and race frantically about the pasture calling loudly for the lambs and generally causing a sheep disturbance. It is hard not to compare these behavior patterns to people we have known.
It has been difficult to keep all the balls in the air during the lambing season but Turan Albini has kept up with the work flow in the wool mill this month and we have helped when we can.
| Our lambs are usually born in the pastures or in a shed the ewes have access to. We bring them into a barn and jug pen, a 5 by 5 foot pen, where the new mother and lambs spend about 12 hours getting used to each other. They will then move into a mixing pen with several ewes and lambs to get used to keeping track of each other in a crowd and then out into the pastures. |  |
| This was the first set of triplets born this year. They are small but strong and spunky. We usually don't like to see triplets because most of our ewes cannot produce enough milk to raise strong triplets but these are doing alright so far. |  |
| We are keeping these triplets around the lambing barn longer than usual to keep an eye on them and see that they are doing well. They have had the run of the barn for about a week and have taken over. |  |
| Becky is putting an ear tag in the lamb so that we can track it's development. |  |
| After a day or so in the jug and mixing pen, the lambs and ewes are out in the pastures. They have access to shelter and will use it in severe weather. We have had snow on the ground many days and it may melt away by late afternoon and fall again during the night. |  |
| We have had seeming continuous light snow through the lambing season but the lamb usually seem to find a warm place to lie down and sleep a good bit of each day. |  |
| The return of the sandhill cranes is something we look forward to each Spring. This year our neighbor reported hearing one on March 9. We didn't see or hear them until a week or so later but by the end of the month they were with us every day. This crane is making a low pass over a pasture and calling to his or her mate as they approached a landing. |  |
February, 2008
The cold and snowy weather of January eased up a lot in February. The snow continued to build up in the mountains making skiers happy and promising a good runoff for later in the spring but at our elevation of about 5000 feet, the snow began to melt. Because the spring seems to come a little earlier each year lately, we have moved up lambing a little each year and this means we also shear a little earlier. Of course our shearing schedule depends on when our shearers can fit us into their schedule. This year February 29 was the day. It was clear and warm with almost no wind - about perfect for shearing. We shear inside a shed but the sheep go out immediately after being sheared and it is good to have mild conditions for them.
As many of you may know, Katey our wool mill manager is a graduate civil engineer and a registered professional engineer in Montana. After two years with us Katey has decided to return to engineering practice with a local firm. We will miss her and we wish her the best in her new ventures.
| We had two excellent shearers this year. Johnny Harbor and the left and Brent Roeder are both experienced and very skillful. They arrived at about 7:30 am, were set up and ready to go by 8:00 and had sheared about 175 sheep by 2:00 PM. It went very smoothly this year. |  |
| As usual, we had a lot of help from neighbors and friends. The fleeces are being skirted (damaged and dirty wool removed) here and bagged. This year we kept most of the fleeces in separate bags rather than compressing the wool into bales. This will give us more flexibility in selecting wool for further processing and sale. |  |
| For the 6th year, Greg Smith was with us for the day moving sheep down the alley to the shearing floor. |  |
| Max spent much of the day with Greg. Max is very attached to his sheep and becomes concerned when we are doing anything with the sheep he doesn't fully understand. We are down to one guard dog now and he seems able to protect the entire flock. Although we often hear coyotes at night at this time of year, we have lost no sheep to them. |  |
| As soon as they are sheared the sheep are back outside to find some hay and warm sunshine. The sheep will have access to shelter at night from now on until lambing is over or until the really warm weather of Spring comes. |  |
| Shearing is an intense day for Tiaga. She needs to be every where at once and there is no time for naps. |  |
| Talk about a suspicious mother who doesn't like cameras! These two fully full-term, fat and happy lambs showed up on February 26, fully a month ahead of schedule. Our first thought was that, unknown to us, a ram must have gotten into the flock of ewes and lambing was about to begin. however, we did not see another lamb for almost three weeks. So somehow #81 managed to find a ram all by herself a month or so early and get back to her flock before we realized what was happening. |  |
January, 2008
After a few relatively mild days at the beginning of January, Montana began to remind us what winters were like 20 years ago when we moved to the state. Several days of light snows left about 6 inches with each storm and then a storm came in from the north with high winds, horizontal snow, and temperatures dropping to 26 degrees below zero. The wind blew for three days and when it was over snow was three feet deep in places and 3 inches in others. It was hard to tell how much snow fell. Although things warmed up somewhat, the cold, wind, and snow continued through the month. Roads were closed on several days and semi-trailer trucks were blown over on Interstate 90 east of Bozeman.
The sheep do fine in this weather if they can get a little shelter from strong winds. They have a full years growth of wool and don't seem to mind the cold. We now have 20 calves on the place ranging from 450 to 600 lbs. Although the calves increase their consumption of hay quite a bit with the cold weather, with enough hay and shelter from the wind, they are doing fine. Machinery is much more difficult to keep running in cold weather than animals. Our tractors and pickups have electric block heaters installed but we quickly learn how good our batteries are and the block heaters do not heat hydraulic fluid in the tractors.
| Peterson, our 13 year old cat, who we sometimes do not see for weeks at a time in the summer, settled under the wood stove during the cold weather. |  |
| We spin out round bales of hay for the sheep and cattle every day at this time of year. During January we are feeding about 100 elk along with our livestock. The elk feed only at night but we see their tracks in the morning and the hay that the sheep have left is cleaned up. The elk got into one of our fenced hay yard one night but fortunately didn't do too much damage. However, elk are very hard on fences. |  |
| By the end of the month the days are noticeably longer and, although we have had many cloudy days, we often have lovely evening light with the sun dropping under the western clouds just before sunset. |  |
December, 2007
December went by in a rush at Thirteen Mile Farm. Many of our knitted and other wool products are popular Christmas gifts and we spend much of the month responding to special orders and packaging and delivering boxes to our local Fed Ex station. The cold winter weather which started in November continued into the first week in December and then a warm front came through and the daytime temperatures warmed up into the 50s. The snow which had dropped on unfrozen ground, quickly disappeared. After a few days temperatures became more seasonal and the ground did freeze but through the end of the month there was very little snow. However, the mountains received a good early winter snowfall and local ski areas enjoyed their best early season in years. Becky and Dave were both busy with Agricultural Development Council and Board of Livestock meetings but did manage to get away to visit friends on Whidbey Island in Washington for a few days after Christmas.
November, 2007
November has been a month of transitions here at the farm. The fall weather of October continued through the first three weeks of the month with warm sunny days and cool nights and then, the week of Thanksgiving, temperatures plummeted to 17 degrees below zero and a storm that was predicted to leave us with an inch of snow dropped over a foot. The cross country skiing around our pastures was excellent. The sheep were a little shocked although they have a good, thick coat of wool at this time and they don't mind the cold. It does take them a while for them to get used to plowing through a foot of snow but this first snow has been light and fluffy and they are coping. We haven't been able to get them on skis yet. There were still any number of jobs that we had hoped to get done before winter set in but now many of these will wait for spring.
Our daughter Karen and husband Bill and children Will and Julia were her for the week of Thanksgiving. We enjoyed a wonderful week with a house full of grandchildren, lots of cold snow outside to play in, and much good food inside.
Max and Leo, out two sheep guard dogs have continued their 100% record of preventing predation but they have developed a bad habit of pulling the wool off of some of the lambs. They seem to do this in play but needless to say, it is hard on the lambs. The dogs are just about a year old and this is apparently not an uncommon problem with young dogs. We have looked at internet forums on livestock guard dogs and talked with other ranchers and learned that many young dogs display this kind of behavior. At this point Max has been the main culprit and, to slow him down a bit and let young sheep escape, he has been chained to an old car tire for the past couple of weeks. It took him a day or so to get used to it but now he plows around like a sled dog and doesn't seem troubled at all and he is not pulling wool. He is going to be one strong dog. Leo initially wasn't doing any wool pulling and seemed less inclined to do this but when he finally did pull down a yearling lamb and pull wool off of her, we attached a short length of chain to his collar. Leo hates any kind of constraint and within one night managed to get the chain off his collar. We aren't sure how he did this and we haven't found the chain but he hasn't attacked a lamb again and we are hoping he has learned something. We'll keep you up to date on Max and Leo's progress. There are packs of coyotes around many nights and the dogs are doing their job. We are hopeful that we will solve the current problem.
The wool mill is always very busy at this time of year as we try to get orders out in time for Christmas. The holiday rush is likely to continue well into January.
| These sheep are experiencing their first morning with snow. They haven't tramped down many paths yet and they say in their tracks for a few days. We spin out hay with a tractor that makes tracks in the snow for the sheep. |  |
October, 2007
The cool days of September continued into October with a few unseasonably warm afternoons but most nights in the 20s. We have had many heavy frosts but the ground is not frozen. Early in the month several snow storms which left a few inches on the ground at the farm and much more in the mountains, but the snow melted away and the ground is bare again at the first of November.
The sheep become much more active with the cool weather, especially the rams. We had to separate several of the rams early in the month. They were fighting so hard that we were afraid that one might get seriously injured. We sorted the ewes into breeding groups on the 22nd of the month and put the rams in with them. That put a stop to the fighting. The early spring temperatures have been mild during the last few years and we are gradually moving up our breeding and thus lambing season to take advantage of the changing climate. Lambing should start next year during the third week in March.
| By mid-October the dry, hot weather of late summer and fall had turned our pastures brown. Although we had saved grass for the sheep, it was not too palatable and we had to begin supplemented the grazing with hay. We don't like to begin feeding before November but we want the ewes to be in good shape during breeding so we have no choice. |  |
| The yearling steers and heifers which arrived in November of last year were close to maturity and were shipped out on October 29. These grass-fed, organic cattle were owned by the Montana Organic Meat COOP. We will receive another load of 35 animals in November to finish on grass and hay during 2008. |  |
| Although we don't have the brilliant red fall colors of the maple trees in New England, our Aspen and Cottonwoods are beautiful in late September and October. The evening light here doesn't look real but the yellows are very intense. This is one of our favorite seasons in Montana. |  |
| At the start of hunting season our local herd of elk moved into the field just north of our house. The non-resident owner of this field doesn't allow hunting and the elk know it. We have about a half dozen people a day stop and ask if they can "hunt" these elk. Talk about shooting a fish in a barrel. |  |
| No, we haven't found a lake on our farm. We got away for three weeks in September and early October and spent 6 days canoeing in Algonquin Park. Dave spent three summers many years ago guiding canoe trips through the park but had not been back for far too long. We experienced six days of near perfect weather and had a great time. |  |
| Max and Leo are now about 90 lbs each and are still growing. We have coyotes around during many nights at this time of year and the dogs have been completely effective at keeping the sheep safe. |  |
| We bolted their dinner bowls to a heavy board. Before this Max and Leo would eat and then the bowls would become toys and we often couldn't find them for the next meal. They eat lots of cooked beans, peas, rice, oatmeal, along with some cooked meat and a little commercial dog food. |  |
September, 2007
September is often one of the best months in Montana and this year was no exception with warm, sunny days and cool nights. Several good rains came through the valley during the second half of the month and, although it is really too late to stimulate much grass growth this year, it means we will go into the winter with pretty good soil moisture and we will see the influence of this next spring.
We spent out time working on fences and getting the farm ready for winter. During the last two weeks of the month we left on our annual vacation. This year we spent a week canoeing in Ontario, Canada and then visited family in Maine and Vermont.
| The Montana Outdoor Science School (MOSS) brought a group of kids out for a day. Here Heather is teaching the children about Wool. |  |
| After exploring what wool is, where it comes from and what can be done with it, the kids make a wool, felt, pack around a bar of soap. They can take these home and use them to wash their hands. |  |
| Katey spins with a group of women from the area who call themselves "The Twisted Sisters." One Saturday they all came out to the Thirteen Mile Wool Mill with their spinning wheels and spent the day spinning and talking. |  |
| This has been a great year for apples. Some years we don't get any apples and some years we get a few, but this year conditions were just right in the spring when the trees flowered and the fruit set and we are enjoying the best crop we have ever had. If we wait too long to pick these, the birds will enjoy the best crop they have ever had. |  |
August, 2007
August, usually our hottest month, was much cooler than July this year. There were still a few days in the high 90s but none over 100 and many days in the 80s with cool nights in the 40s. By the end of the month several nights were in the 30s and we began to think about an early frost. The extreme mid-summer heat coupled with the lack of rain, 0.6 inches since mid-June, has slowed or stopped growth in many of our pastures and by the end of August we were supplementing feed for our cattle with hay in round-bale feeders. The cattle can still graze and we are moving them through pastures with some grass but they can also choose to eat some hay when they want to.
On August 28, we took the first load of this years lambs to a processing plant in Columbus, Montana. These lambs weighed and average of 111 pounds and were the fastest growing of this years crop. The Columbus plant, Stillwater Packing, has been recently certified organic and is 115 mile from the ranch. In recent years we have taken our lambs to a plant that was 180 miles away so the reduced distance is welcome. When we have used Stillwater Packing in the past, we have been very pleased with the quality of their product and we look forward to working with them this year. For several years we have worked to keep from raising our lamb prices but this year, with our costs of everything from lamb processing to fuel to machine repairs to fencing materials rising significantly, we have been forced to raise our lamb prices.
The Western Region of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education organization, (SARE), met in Montana this month at Montana State University. The group toured several nearby farms and ranches including Thirteen Mile Farm. It was interesting to show what we are doing and to discuss the challenges of sustainable farming practices with a group of very knowledgeable people from all over the western states.
With haying completed for the year, we are back to rebuilding fences when time permits. Each year we plan to rebuild or repair a number of lines of fence and we still have several sections we hope to finish before the ground freezes or snow flies. There never seems to be time enough to finish all that we plan to do.
| For many days in August views from the farm looked like this. Many forest fires were burning in Montana and large fires in Idaho and Northern California were contributing smoke to our area. Visibility was often down to about a mile. By the end of the month fire crews had surrounded and controlled most of the fires but many will continue to burn until snow falls. |  |
| These international exchange students were spending several weeks in Bozeman, Montana taking a course in spoken english and the culture of America. On one afternoon they visited Thirteen Mile Farm. Katey is explaining the processing of raw wool to finished yarn. Here she is demonstrating how the wool is spun to yarn. |  |
| Although our llamas are no longer very effective as livestock guards, we still have two of them. Here Sam is getting sheared. We haven't done this for several years and, although Sam is not too socialized and has not been handled at all, he doesn't seem to object to a hair cut. |  |
July, 2007
HOT is the only way to describe July in Montana this year. It has been at or near 100 degrees every day for the entire month with only one shower which produced 0.15 inches of rain. On July 5 a temperature of 106 degrees was recorded at the county airport, an all time record for Gallatin County. We used to have a week or so of this kind of weather, usually in August, but now with the climate changing, this may be our new normal. We were optimistic with the moisture that came in April and May and in many parts on Montana it looked as if the drought had broken but this continued very hot weather has dried out the soil and we are again very dry. The hot dry weather has also produced numerous dry thunder storms and many fires. We have had two small fires nearby each burning less than 100 acres but by the end of the month four large fires were burning in Montana and the air was full of smoke.
We finished haying for the year with widely varying results. One field which is high and very well drained produced less than half of last years yield while several of our lower and better naturally sub-irrigated fields produced about the same or even slightly more than in previous years. Some years we get through haying with no mechanical problems but this year on two occasions low pressure hydraulic return lines on a tractor ruptured and shut us down for a day or so.
We have made felt in small pieces and in larger sheets for several years. The commercial felt machine we have used was capable of making high quality felt but was not efficient and required a great deal of labor to make a single sheet. We have thought about building a better machine for over a year and last month, with help from Vaughn Kraft a local rancher and machinist, we designed and built a new felt machine. The pictures below show the new machine and describe how it works.
We brought the cattle back home toward the end of the month. They were on a pasture a little over two miles away and rather than driving them down the road and risking an escape into a neighbors rich green field of alfalfa, we decided to bring them home in three trailer loads. We ran the cattle across a scale and were pleased to learn that they are gaining at about 2.5 lbs per day. Several of the steers are already over 1000 lbs at an age of 16 months, a good growth rate on grass.
| We brought the sheep back to our home place early in the month. They were in an area with trees and brush and it took about three tries to find them all and get them home. Johnny Harbor, our shearer, spent a day with us and tagged (trimmed off soiled wool) all of our sheep and lambs. |  |
| Max is nine months old and still growing and can still act like a puppy. He seems to really want to be close to the sheep and does not leave them. These dogs have helped us so much already this year. We have not lost a single sheep or lamb to predators since Max and Leo arrived. |  |
| Last night we heard coyotes howling, probably in a pasture adjacent to the sheep, but the dogs were right on it and we were confident the sheep were safe. A few days ago we found a deer kill in a pasture next to the sheep. It looked like a mountain lion kill but the sheep were not attacked. |  |
| This is the new 4 ft X 8 ft felt machine which we finished this month. To make felt, wool batts are placed on the lower table; in this case a two color combination of 4 ft X 4 ft batts. |  |
| Becky has soaked the wool with warm, soapy water and is working the water into the wool with her hands. |  |
| The heavy top layer is lowered onto the wet wool batts. Both the lower and upper tables are surfaced with a rough sheet of plastic material. |  |
| The drive mechanism drives the lower table which is supported on rollers back and forth while the upper table is held in a stationary position. The wool batts are compressed between the two tables and are felted. |  |
June, 2007
June has been hot and dry with weather we usually see in July and August. Usually we begin haying in early July and finish up in August but this year we began on June 18 and by the end of the month we were well along with the harvest.
The sheep and cattle are together on about 100 acres of pasture and scrub woods. This is leased land just north of our home place. We never would have been able to leave the sheep in such an area in previous years as there are so many places for coyotes and foxes to stalk and kill but the dogs, Max and Leo, have stayed with the flock and we have not lost a single sheep or lamb.
| We were visited by a group of people from Tajikistan. These people are in the United States to explore ways in which agriculture can coexist with wildlife, especially predators. We had an interesting conversation with them through a translator. The man in the blue shirt to the left operates a large sheep ranch in Tajikistan with 2000 sheep. |  |
| On June 21 we again hosted the Montana Conservation Voters local chapter annual Solstice Party. About 75 people came to enjoy a potluck dinner and here from our local legislators. Here Brady Wiseman, Mike Phillips, Frankie Wilmer and JP Pomnichowski address the group and answer questions about the just completed session of the state legislature. |  |
| Haying usually doesn't begin until July but the season is about two weeks ahead of normal this year and we started on June 18th. Hay yields have been quite variable so far. This field is high with gravelly soil and not much capacity to hold moisture. The field is planted to Sanfoin and grass and yielded only 42% of last years harvest. Other fields on lower ground with better subsoil moisture have been yielding the same or somewhat better than last year. |  |
| The Montana Outdoor Science School, MOSS, brought several day-camp groups to Thirteen Mile Farm this month. The children get a look at livestock farming, learned about weeds and some of the ways we control them on an organic farm, and they made some wool felt and finished off the day by making and eating ice cream. |  |
| Katey has been weaving some lovely wool scarves lately. |  |
May, 2007
We have had some really warm weather in May and, with longer days, it has felt like Summer. The frequent rain and snow of April stopped and our fields began to dry out a bit but we have still had several good rains and thing look very green. At this time of year we always struggle to keep the sheep and cows feeding on hay and off the pastures until the new green grass is mature enough to provide nutrition and not so short that grazing will damage the fields. But we quickly progress to grass that is taller than we would like, especially for the sheep. We moved the yearling steers and heifers onto pasture at about the middle of the month. Before these yearlings went onto pasture we weighed them and were pleased to see that the smaller calves which came to us at 440 lbs. in November had gained 1.2 lbs. per day through the winter while the heavier group which started out at an average weight of 680 lbs had gained 0.4 lbs. per day. After a couple of weeks on pasture, although we haven't weighed the cattle again, we can already see that they are on a good gain rate.
We have had lots of kids on the farm this month with another two kindergarten classes, another home school group, a small wool spinning class, and a group of about 100 kids from the Bozeman Schools participating in a Montana Outdoor Science School, MOSS, program.
Those of you who purchase items on this web site know that for years we have had a somewhat awkward order form which you filled out. We started work on a "shopping cart" for the site in January. This proved to be a larger task than we anticipated but, with the help of a consultant, we completed the job this month and you can now purchase items in the more automated way that we have become accustomed to doing an the internet. We welcome any comments or suggestions you may have on the revised site.
Lots of meetings this month. Becky is now a member of the State Livestock Board and has attended several board meetings in Helena as well as meeting of sheep and cattle producers associations around the state. Dave has been in Helena at Montana Conservation Voters board meetings and in Sidney for several days of Agricultural Development Council meetings. We also took a few days off and traveled to Massachusetts and Vermont to visit daughters and families and grandchildren over the Memorial Day weekend.
| On a Saturday morning several children came to the farm for a lesson in drop spindle wool spinning. Katey is helping this girl to get a spin going. The spindles they are using are made from a piece of 3/8 inch dowel and a computer compact disk. Another use for all those AOL CDs we get in the mail. |  |
After a couple of particularly warm days one of our bee colonies swarmed. This happened here a couple of years ago and apparently happens when more than one queen bee is produced in a hive. These bees spent a couple of days swarming around the house and then settled over night on this apple tree. Finally the next morning they left the tree and formed a whirling swarm about 30-40 feet in diameter and slowly moved off to the northeast, presumably to a new home. When Gretchen examined the hive a few weeks after this swarm, it looked like one hive was without a queen. Apparently this swarm took the only queen. We hope that the hive can produce another queen. |
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| By the end of the month the sheep were on good green pasture and enjoying it. |  |
| Some of these lambs may be almost two months old and they are growing fast. |  |
| These yearlings have been on grass now for several weeks and are gaining well. We have moved them off the home place to leased pasture nearby and soon they will move to a pasture still farther away where we have had trouble with both coyotes and mountain lions and can no longer graze the sheep. |  |
| Max and Leo are now are now 7 months old and pretty good size. We still don't spend any time with them but they are very friendly when we meet them in the field. Taiga (in the background here) still ignores them when she can. As far as we know, we have not lost a single lamb or ewe to predators since these dogs arrived. |  |
April, 2007
We have had all kinds of weather in April from wet Spring snow to rain to sunny days with temperatures in the high 70s. We have had lots of moisture on the ranch and the grass is greening up nicely. The bad news is that the mountain snow pack had diminished significantly this month (now at 64% of normal in our local mountains) and the rivers and streams will not be running full this Summer.
Lambing went well this year and by the end of the month we were about through with just a few stragglers holding out. The mild weather has been very helpful and they were only a few days when the ewes and new lambs need shelter even at night.
April is a month when we usually spend time repairing and rebuilding fences. The year was no exception. We took out and replaced about 1000 feet of fence and have several other fencing projects on the schedule for the next month.
We have had two kindergarten classes, one home school group, and a group of Bozeman business leaders visit the farm this month along with several smaller family groups. April is a nice time for kids to visit and see the new lambs. Although we decided a couple of years ago not to keep and bottle feed any bum lambs, we are feeding three this year and the kids always enjoy meeting, holding and petting the bums.
| By about the third week in the month the grass was greening up and the sheep were grazing. We still made hay available to them until the end of the month but they really didn't eat much of it. We wish they would stay with the hay a little longer because the first flush of grass is pretty watery and not very nutritious. |  |
| Max looks and acts more like a guard dog every day. Leo does too but he never seemed to show up when we had the camera out this month. The dogs are still developing very well. They seem to have lost their desire to roam very far afield and have not left the sheep at all lately. They have settled in to a pattern of sleeping most of the morning, playing with each other in the afternoon if it isn't too hot, and becoming really active at night. Max is finally learning that if he chases small lambs or plays too roughly with them, their mother will attack him and he doesn't like that. Leo seemed to know this without being taught. Although we know there are coyotes and probably foxes around, we don't think we have lost a single lamb this Spring to predators. |  |
| THIRTEEN MILE LAMB & WOOL COMPANY 13000 Springhill Road Belgrade, Montana 59714 Tel. (406) 388-4945 Fax (406) 388-1956 becky@lambandwool.com |
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