Sheep, bed enclosure, room

Last week I was looking on Craigslist for several items and came across an ad for dorper sheep. The pictures and the price were enough to attract my attention, so I printed out the information in order to share it with Mama. She was interested also, so we called the number listed and spoke to the young man who was in charge of selling the herd. He had over one hundred for sale and needed to sell off the entire lot. That call was made Thursday afternoon on our way up to Brittany’s. Mama told the seller we would be out of town and would call back Monday to see what he had left. By the time we called yesterday morning, he had sold most the herd, having only five ewes left. That is enough for us. So, he and Mama talked pricing for the last five. He sent pictures to Mama of the ones he has left and she sent the pictures to a friend who raises both sheep and goats. Mama’s friend thought four of the five were good to buy but did not have kind words about the fifth ewe. Mama and I will drive over after I get off work this evening and see for ourselves what he has to offer. We are fully prepared to buy four of the five, but we hate to leave him with one lone sheep to deal with. That may all change when we see the sheep up close. We may come home empty handed. We may take four of the five. We may take all five. We are told that all will kid next month. That would be nice. If not, I can always eat them.

In preparation for getting the sheep, I spent a couple hours last night building an enclosure in the bed of the pickup. I had plenty of lumber lying about the farm, so I decided to build wooden racks along the sides of the bed with a gate in the back. I wanted the gate – and the back of the enclosure - to fit inside the closed tailgate. That would help to make everything more secure. I debated how nice to make it. Whether or not I should make it in such a way that we could reuse it. We are starting to have a greater need for such a way to haul goats and now sheep, and a stock trailer (which we no longer have) is not always the best way. Whatever it was to turn out to be, I wanted it to at least be straight and square. Not haphazard and crooked. As I worked on it, Mama came out to inspect it and gave her approval. She said she was impressed, but I know she was just being generous.


It was well after dark before I was done, but I was pleased how things turned out. At least the enclosure will not be embarrassing to have in the bed of the truck as I park at work and drive around town at lunch. Hopefully, it will serve us well enough for the sheep tonight. And, while we have it in the truck, Mama is going to call Rick to see if we can either borrow a buck or haul our four doe goats to his farm to be bred. With that in mind, it may be in the back of the truck for longer than I originally anticipated. Even though I was bundled up, I am still suffering a little this morning after working in the cold. Well, sort of cold. The temperature was 36° and the wind was steady at 25 mph, gusting to 40 mph. But with this constant nagging cough, even that is hazardous for me right now.


I came in an hour early this morning so Mama and I could leave earlier than my regular time would have allowed. It is more than an hour to get to the farm where the ewes are being kept. The team of young men that owned the herd were planning on selling after the ewes kidded this year, but they did not want to renew the lease on the land where they had the herd, and the lease ends at the end of January; hence the need to sell off the herd. As for our farm, we are not quite ready, but we are close enough that we can rehome the sheep. For now, they will run with the goats while I get the second paddock ready for the sheep. Other than one dietary distinction between the sheep and the goats, they should do well together until we can permanently separate them. The paddock where we have the goats is more than large enough to accommodate both sets of animals. With their different grazing needs, the grass we have there should support them both well in the short run.


Mama and I will discover ways to sell off the lambs as the need arises, but for now. We are excited to see if we can start herding sheep as well as goats on our little farm.