Now that we had a trailer, it was time to put it to use.  On Saturday, we booked a babysitter to watch Alston and Will and I headed over to the shepherd’s farm to pick up five Border Cheviot ewe lambs.  She was kind enough to have picked them out for us (as we really don’t know what we’re looking for beyond “still breathing”) and all had been de-wormed.  While we haven’t done any de-worming with our own sheep, we were glad these gals had been treated, so as not to carry pathogens from one farm to the next. 

 We loaded the sheep into the trailer the manual way – Will picked them up out of the chute and carried them one by one, while I held open the door/blocked the other sheep from escaping.  It went shockingly smooth.  We also picked up two roosters, but that was a bit more of an adventure.  What I can say is that we’ve learned from experience that while a chicken may have you beat in terms of speed, you can outlast them so just keep chasing regardless of how silly you look, and you will look silly.

Back at the farm, we let the newbies out in the pasture.

Lucky served as the welcoming committee and in no time at all, all eleven sheep were happily grazing as if they’d always been part of the same flock.  (you can tell the newbies as they have a blue dot spray painted on the backsides – that’s how you know who you’ve de-wormed and who you haven’t when working a large flock)

Right now, the plan is to take Lucky, Grace and the ewe that had birthing trouble, along with two of the newbies, to the processing facility sometime in the fall (late October or early November – whenever the grass dries up and we have to start supplementing with hay and grain).  The rest will meet the rent-a-ram, Zeus, sometime in mid November so we have lambs come March.  But for now, I’m enjoying watching our nearly doubled flock graze away at the late summar grass.