Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas All!

I keep waiting to post (waiting and waiting!) because I want to post with pictures. Weather and schedule have not been lining up, so here is a pictureless post....

All is well at Drowsy Waters with only three weeks to go until lambing begins! Yes!!!!!! Hopefully we get a nice warm dry spell. :-)

I have eight ewes due this year. Four due starting on January 10th, two due starting Feb 1st, and two due in March. (The gals due in March are my new dairy sheep which didn't get situated in time here to be bred with the other ewes. That's just fine because I won't have to milk yet during our annual church camp.)

My goats are due sometime after January 10th too....but I'm thinking its quit a way after...probably mid February at the earliest. I was seeing does going into heat later in the season. I have three Boer does and three dairy does this year. Can't wait until kids!

Ideally I would have a few goats kid before our sheep so I have surplus milk encase of bottle babies, but that is just the way it worked out this year.... Hopefully all goes well. I did put some milk away in the freezer.

Anyways....that's a quick update.

Hope you all have a very wonderful Christmas!

Bethany

Updated Website!

I finally was able to update the website. I am still waiting for some one to be available to help me take pictures..so it looks a little bare, but its progress! I will need new pictures of all the goats, especially the yearling does, the Hollands, the ewes, and I'll need to get those pictures of Johann at the fair for his page.

You can see it here.

Thanks for reading,

Bethany

KHSI Expo and Sheep Pics!

Just got back from the KHSI Expo in Corvallis! It was amazing and I learned so much. Thank you so much to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen.

I will be posting a much better update later, but am still waiting for pictures and my brain...

Here are farm pics I took last week.

Thanks for reading,

Bethany

Parsley and Rue

Yearling Triplets that both gave me twins this year.

KRK Mercy

July Ewe Lamb

Johann and his ewes coming in for grain!

Another pic of Johann with ewes

Hagar

One of Parsley's late April lambs

Hagar again...

Love her and she's a nice big ewe lamb for her age.

The ewe lambs coming in for grain! Love Dotty's look on the far right.

Westlock

Another July lamb from KRK

Westlock again...

The ewe lambs. Left to right- Ophelia, DWB Hagar, Juliet, DWB Tamar, and DWB Dotty.

Really like this batch of ewes I'm keeping along with the younger KRK ewe lamb, Mercy.

Dotty

One of Amelia's late January triplets.

Celia

We took the bars out of the creep feeder until lambing...and they all enjoy it.

Celia again...

Westlock and Mercy coming in for their bottles!

Aravis

One of my foundation ewes.

Oregon State Fair

The Oregon State Fair went wonderful! All my Katahdins placed well and I was thrilled with it all.
Johann (KRK 977) took Reserve Grand Champion Ram!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I currently don't have any of the pictures yet, except this one. I will be posting more pics when I can get them...sometime after we get home from our beach trip this weekend!

Johann looking so thrilled about placing so well.... What a cutie. Thank you KRK Katahdins for this very nice, and very sweet ram!

Katahdin Expo starts in one week! I'm so excited! Its amazing that it could be in Corvallis this year. I'm really looking forward to it.

We have three litters of Holland Lops due in about 10 days as well. I'm sure you'll hear more updates about them. :-)

All the goats are doing well. I think I finally have some kids on the way.

My last two unbred ewes were put out to pasture with our ram a couple of days ago, so breeding season is almost over for us this year. I'm looking forward to spring! Kids and lambs everywhere, Lord willing.

I'll be posting fair pictures.

Thanks for reading,

Bethany

Clackamas County Fair

The Clackamas County Fair went well. Johann behaved himself, surprisingly. :-) There was a very good representation of Katahdins for the size of the sheep show. It was good to ease into it with just Johann...hopefully I'll get my registrations before the State Fair this Thursday! I'm still waiting!

I hope to do the Clackamas Fair again next year with some more sheep.

Can't wait until this Thursday when, Lord willing, will be bring in five sheep. (I think that's all we can fit in our mini van...We need a pickup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I'll be sure to do a good post with plenty of pics after the fair.

Thanks for reading,

Bethany

Johann and Me...not exactly standing nicely, is he?

Clackamas County Jr Ram Lamb Line Up

My Own Rodeo

This morning I finally had to get down to it and figure out who goes where for breeding season! It might sound simple, but it wasn't...to find a good pasture with a good sized pen for the right group of animals and to keep the goats and sheep separate and everything..bleh...

Well I ended up taking all the ewe lambs, Aravis, and Parsley and putting them in with our two does that are still milking, Penny and Ella, and our market wether, Joash. I'll have to put Penny and Ella in small pens at night. Ella's such a boss that she rarely will let anyone eat. I have two mangers for these guys, but there isn't room for all the ewes at one well Ella hogs the other.

Penny is waiting to be put with the buck until she puts some more fat on her and Ella is waiting so that my yearlings can eat all they want well they are in with Mr. Monkey. Aravis and Parsley are waiting until the first week of September to visit the ram so I at least have a chance of having some Jr. ewes for the fair next year. All the lambs will be waiting until 2010 sometime to be bred.

One of the annoying things about this pen is that it will be harder to catch ewe lambs in to try and get them halter ready for fair. Although both of my yearlings are pretty rescind, especially Parsley who walks very well by color, halter, or my hand around her head, I've only been able to work with one of the ewe lambs I'm taking and she is bucking bronco!

Louis, our seven year old Katahdin patriarch, and the ram lambs got banished from their lush pasture to a smaller paddock were I'm going to have to supplement them with hay and alfalfa. I won't be using Louis this year and I'm just waiting for the ram lambs to get big enough to butcher.

All the yearling does- Virginia, Gweny, Sophie, and Sally, are now with Rhudi (aka Mr. Monkey) in our biggest pen and pasture. Rhudi is seven months old now so hopefully he will get interested in the girls soon. So fare all they are interested in is quarreling over food! :-)

Johann, our new KRK, seven month old ram, is now with our other ewes- Amelia, Celia, Rosalind, and Rue. I also have our little Boer buckling in there that I'm trying to sell. They have the nicest pasture and two mangers...one in the creep feeder and one in the barn. Unfortunately Johann won't stand up to the ewes yet so he just sat in the paddock balling. He'll get over it. He's just a bit spoiled...

Thank you to the ewes ingenuity the creep feeder is not accessible to all parties. They've broken of three of the mettle bars! And then they took out the wood gate type thing and we found it in the pasture. They are so big and will do anything for more alfalfa!

All my homegrown ewes know the ropes, but Celia and Rosalind are quite the trouble makers. (This is were the rodeo part comes in.) It took quite a bit of shuffling and time to get the ewes and last lambs separated. I finally got all the little ones in an inside pen...now all I needed to do is put all the ewes back were they came from. First Celia took them all speeding up the gravel hill. After a lot of sneaking I was able to bring them back, but this time they headed the other direction on our road...towards the highway!!! For a moment I thought they really were going to go strait onto it, but they hesitated we finally got them back...only for them to get around the trailer and jump over the hitch between the trailer and the van!!! AND THEN go charging towards the highway again! We finally got them back and into their pen. They should be tired today. We really need to fence in our barn. :-P

I'll be posting some pictures on Wednesday...

Thanks for reading,

Bethany

Sheep Inventory

These are the two new, orphan lambs. Unfortunately the light was dying, so the picture isn't to wonderful. One lovely ewe and ram, Westlock and Mercy. Thank you Karen of KRK!

Some of our lambs. The two larger ones in front are our new lambs, Ophelia and Juliet. They are out of March triplets.

And this is dear Johann. :-) Our ram lamb from KRK.

And this is my sweet late April girl, Hagar. She really is gorgeous. Very long and deep and CUTE!

And these are two of the Boer girls...just had to stick some goats in the post.

This is Dotty, my only January lamb left on the farm. We will be keeping her for our breeding program. I wish she was a little longer, but she's a nice big girl and I love her markings! She'll be going to the state fair with us.

And this is two of my older girls. Celia, the one standing is our new 7 year old ewe and Aravis, my matriarch is the ewe sitting. They certainly have the spots! I'm still trying to get Celia to hold her weight better, but she's improving.

This is Parsley, an Aravis yearling. She had lovely little Hagar and Tamar in April.

This is my new 6 year old KRK ewe, Rosalind.

And these are some of the gals. Front to back- Juliet, Hagar, Tamar, and Ophelia, with a two year old in the background, Amelia.

Rue, another Aravis yearling, sniffs noses with papa.

My light was fading in these pictures, so I'll try to get some nice ones in the sunshine sometime soon, but that gives some pictures of my new gals!

Thanks for reading,

Bethany

Test Results

We sent in blood work several days ago on all the goats and sheep. Everyone came back OPP and CAE negative! Praise God! Also just received a fax from Gene Check on my two rams for their Scrapie Resistance tests. Both came out RR! Another wonderful report! I couldn't be more pleased with it all.

I'll be getting new pictures up soon of our new ewes. I have to lovely older girls (six and seven) from KRK. One was actually originally bred and owned by the breeder of our spotted ram Louis, who we purchased seven years ago. I thought that was kind of fun, because I didn't even know it when I purchased her. She's a very pretty girl, mostly white with dark brown spots. The other is a KRK ewe and is golden brown with very similar markings as my big ewe, Amelia. We are calling them Celia and Rosalind. They've settled in very nicely.

I also have to lovely March ewe lambs from Louise in Dufur Oregon. They are not registered, but very nice, big gals. I'm very pleased with them. They are both red, one very light and one dark and are full sisters from triplets. They have been named Juliet and Ophelia.

We have our fair entries in! We will only be taking Johann, our KRK ram lamb to the Clackamas county fair because of the pinch of getting our registrations back. For the state fair I will be showing five, Johann, two yearling ewes, Rue and Parsley, a Sr. ewe lamb, Dotty, and a ewe lamb, Hagar. I'm pretty excited!

Anyways...that's just a bit of the news. I'll be posting pictures soon. I hope you are all staying cool! We have had a long hot spell here!
Bethany

Flushing- Why, How, and When

Flushing is the term used when a special feeding program is used on your animals before breeding in hope that you will get more babies per mom when the time comes.

Some breeders purposely do not flush. (This is especially common in Katahdins since they are so productive already. We didn't flush last fall and we didn't get any singles.) Some mothers are capable of producing several more babies

then they are able to feed. So if you're against bottle feeding, think before you flush your ewes/does.

I am all for flushing and getting as many babies out of my girls once a year, since I don't really like breeding them less then 12 months apart. Since I raise dairy goats, I don't have to fork out money for milk replacer, which is a huge blessing. Most of my animals have been am

azing mothers, I really have nothing to worry about.

So, why flush is easy. More productivity. In addition you want your girls in good shape before going through pregnancy, anyways.

How is trickier. First you want to be sure your girls aren't over weight before you begin to flush. You pretty much want them on their lowest healthy weight, so they don't get fat through the process. :-) Flushing will also make a bigger difference this way. (I'm not saying to starve them, keep them healthy.)

From personal experience and word of mouth I have found that a good quality of alfalfa or alfalfa pellets is very satisfactory. I have used this any years I have flushed. Sometimes I feed a specific grain as well, but those tend to be higher in fat. (Through research done in cattle, it was concluded that high fat intake before breeding significantly increased the amount of bull calves born. So, I stay away from to much fat and go for proteins and fiber, which alfalfa is perfect for.)

Lush grass also plays a huge role in flushing. It is a wonderful idea to put a pasture aside until it is really green and yummy and then turn your ewes/does into it.

Your girl should also be up to date on hoof trimming, worming, and any other vaccinations you do. I always give their booster Convexin 8 when I start flushing along with Bo-se and a long lasting dewormer.

When to start flushing. It is best to have your girl on your flush feeding about 17 days before you plan on breeding. Do not take her off the day after she gets bred. Keep her on the same feeding and gradually move her back down. (A doe or ewe should be fed the same as she was when dry for at least the first two months of pregnancy, or your going to end up with a fatty girl or over sized babies.)

If any one else has ideas or comments about flushing, please pass them on. I'm still learning a lot here.

The Rabbits

Isabel and Omnibus' lovely litter of five is nearing weaning age. Yesterday we took them all out and did our big evaluation. :-)

Suzy wrote all her placements and then I wrote all mine and we compared. Unfortunately there was only one doe, who is still awaiting her name.

Out of the four bucks, little Bailey won. He's a very wide, typey guy and I'm looking forward to seeing how he turns out.

We currently have several Hollands available as well as a very nice pair of Siamese Smoke Pearl Netherland Dwarf bunnies, with 3 (on for RBIS) and 2 legs apiece.

We are hopefully going to pick up some new does from Brandi's Bunnies sometime pretty soon to add to our rabbitry, which is exciting!
Next project is updating the website!

Thanks for reading,
Bethany

DW's Lemon Grass

For Sale

Preparing for Next Year

Less then a month until our planned breeding season! Today we were able to get every one vaccinated, dewormed, moved to new pastures, and hoof trimmed. It feels wonderful.

I now only have 4 lambs to wean of their moms, follow up hoof trimming, and the second dose of Bo-Se to bucks before I begin to flush everyone. Meanwhile, I have a couple ewes and does that need to lose a few pounds first. :-) Also...it might be nice if I weaned my 6 month old ram lamb from the bottle before I start using him this year...

Thank goodness its cooled off! We have had two lovely overcast days now. Perfect for outside work and for pictures...

Bunnies are growing!

Sydney- Boer buckling.

Introducing Hermen, our new bottle baby calf.

The does out in pasture.

I love the colors.

The yearlings

Louis and Mr Venus wait to go to their new pasture

The ewe lambs we are keeping this year

Hagar and Tamar (April twins) and Dotty (January triplet

Big Toff, barn kitty

Our Rebel, watchdog

Aravis and Amelia- Two ewes wait to be put out to their new pasture

Drowsy Waters Farm

Pictures...

Drowsy Waters Mr. Venus

Sydney

Fresh Start Farm's Sydney

Our new Boer buckling

Drowsy Waters Rue

King Louis and Mr. Venus

KRK Johann

Our new ram

The garden

More of the garden

Drowsy Waters Ella

Ella, again

Our new meat chicks

Drowsy Waters Dotty

More chicks

New baby bunnies

One of Isabel's litter

Peeking

Drowsy Waters Bradey

Bradey and thistles

The blueberries

Dixie