Got the sheep sheared two weeks ago.  They stayed white for about as long as they ever have, because of the moisture and the lack of blowing dust.  One year the sheep were black in about two days due to blowing dust.  Marshall came out and helped for a few days.  Put some skylights in the barn roof that had blown out.

Then we cleaned the inside of the barn.  Since the roof inside is low we use a blade on the back of the little tractor.  It takes awhile but we get it done.

It is on old pole barn so there are lots of poles to work around.  Some hand work in the end. It helps to have a little weight on the blade.  The roof is low so if you would lamb in the winter or in colder weather there would be less space to heat with the bodies of the sheep.  Most lambing barns had a  low roof.  The new trend in lambing barns is insulated and heated with a heater.

Once the shed is cleaned out it looks good.  We let the ground dry for a while.

Then it is time to get the tractor and bale processor and a couple of bales of straw and blow some straw into the barn.

Then we let the dust settle and hope it blew a long way in.  Our straw bales were three years old so they were really dry and blew really well.  Since we don't as a rule raise any straw we get straw when we can and as much as we can.

 

A straw bale blown in to the shed.  Actually one bale blown in each door.  Then when the dust settles some we take our pitch forks and spread out the straw to bed the barn.

A fresh bedded barn ready for sheep.  They will love there newly bedded barn.

Ryan is about done calving at the ridge. My cows here just started a week ago.  Counting the cows that we purchased out of Wyoming that have been calving we are over half done here.  Brandings have started.  Ryan went to one Saturday and one Sunday.  Tammy and I went to one today.  Ryan is going to get ready to brand at his place this week if all goes well.  We should get our first lamb any day now and it looks like the ewes will really lamb fast and furious.  Hopefully our help will last.

Since I am about out of cow hay I will have turn my cows and calves out and finish calving in the big pasture.  I will put them in the south pasture.  the only pasture with much water in it.  Not much green grass yet.  We are thankful for the moisture but have measured less than an inch in the month of April.  I took a sample of the water to measure quality in the south pasture.  It measured 3490 TDS (total dissolvable solids) Pretty high for this time of year.  Remember 5000 is the dangerous level.  I will be busy lambing so won't have much time to monitor a tank.

I was out driving around this evening and noticed our salt seeps.  It looked particularly big and really white.