this is an exciting day here on the homestead i am getting two
that's four i am getting two katahdin feeder lambs from everyone's favorite shepherd as tess
the ram limbs i've been getting aren't just any old ram lambs their mother is connie who was my
alpha breeding you on the grass-fed homestead in the fall of 2018 connie returned to tessa's
ranch when i was downsizing due to going through the divorce it's special for me to be getting
the two ram lambs from connie when we got the sheep last year i didn't really get to spend
a lot of time with them we didn't move them with the fencing the way we did the pigs so i
don't know how i feel about sheep this year before getting the ram lambs i needed to procure some hay
though there are some areas of lush grass here on the homestead there are definitely
some areas that still need improvement and when the lambs are going to be grazing in those areas
i'll definitely need to supplement with hay i got one ton of organic hay it's an alfalfa grass mix
i got it loaded on my trailer which i brought home and backed into my lean to for storage
with the hay situation taken care of it's now time to get the truck
ready to haul sheep which means i need to get this cage in the bed of the truck
dan told me a lot of stories about how he bonded with the sheep and their different personalities
and how much he always enjoyed having the lambs and last year our the two little boys that we had
were absolutely terrified of us the whole time we didn't spend a lot of time with them
so it'll be nice to spend some time with them this year hopefully i'll get to work with them
a little bit more and get to experience what always fascinated dan about them because i
didn't have that experience last time i picked up a little buddy from school and also picked up
dance partner on the way and then made the drive over to baba blacktail farm hello tess connie was
at the front gate as soon as we arrived she had two lambs with her that i assumed were her ram
guy lamps those are her babies you like the spots
he's a really cutie he is so cute yeah they're nice they have nice long body and of course i was
looking at his undercarriage you know he's got something to prove out of there it's very loud
right now because a lot of babies are crying for mothers and mothers baby crying for babies
and it's just been sort of one of those sad days when everybody goes to their new homes this year
i proudly let the boys do what the boys do well and i have 69 babies to show of it you know
so that was that turned out really well i wanted to tell you about connie and about how
how you can really be proud of her because she's definitely the a team kind of girl
first of all you know they i divide them up into a b and c team and so a teams are the ones that are
just the really really top producers the ideal body and temperament and good mothers and so on
so i put mr livingston who is my new sort of high dollar katahdin ram he came from yellowstone area
and i put him with all my really top girls and look what he did with connie they together made
a 13 and a half pound boy and an 11 and a half pound boy so you're getting sort of the cream of
the crop you know the the best used and the best livingston boy not to not to say anything bad
against rambo man who you knew from the past you know rambo was the ram that i used for breeding
when i had breeding stock when i had him he was a rental ram and it was his first time breeding
but we got excellent results so tess promoted him to her a-team that's pretty exemplary for
um what it means to be an a-team girl as connie is so she's she's got she's got the goods
while visiting with tess and because you guys asked for one i thought it'd be great to get
an update on big sister if you remember big sister from a video i did earlier this year
she was the you who became paralyzed right before giving birth to quadruplet lambs tess
with the help of an engineer friend got pretty creative with providing care for big sister
and rehabilitating her so this is a big sister enjoying herself in the sun you know just kind
of enjoying and and this is one of her babies what was her recovery like after our last video on her
um i wasn't sure how she was going to recover um but she has a residual weakness in the right hand
but she walks all about let me get her up for you oh yeah come on there she is
see she's got a little residual there with this lid but she walks
after visiting with tess for a while it was time to get the lambs loaded and be on our way
all right connie are you ready to load up get your
truck all ready and we'll grab these and put them in there walk on walk
we got the lambs loaded without any issues at all but
connie as you might expect was upset that i was taking her boys and she wanted to come
along with for the ride after seeing connie being upset tess offered for me to take connie
back to the homestead here so she can continue to nurse her boys and continue mothering them
this was a seriously tempting offer connie is a great breeding you she was a great sheep to
have here on the property i would absolutely love to have connie back here then i got to thinking
about my grazing plan for the year using the mobile sheet pen and really how that's designed
for only two smaller sheep i thought about the hay situation having to get more hay to supplement for
her feeding and then having to separate the boys from her when they start going through
puberty after thinking about all that i decided i just wasn't really ready to take all that on
in that very moment so connie remains with tess bye boys bye boys enjoy the lambs did absolutely
fine in the truck bed on the ride home in fact they were comparatively rather clean
would you look at that that is the cleanest my truck bed has ever been after transporting sheep
he just urinated and there's barely any droppings it's probably like three piles two three deposits
making friends hey look chickens in my last video i put a lot of energy into capturing my chicken
so i can get them in the chicken tractor that involved me getting a chainsaw and limbing a tree
those stinkers escaped the tractor the day after i put them in there we are gonna load
the sheep into this receiving corral there is a lot of nice grass in here for them eve heaven
she's so mad
having sheep again makes the homestead feel complete it's just not the same without them
these sheep are way cuter than the sheep last year which is going to make it a lot harder to
not get attached to them my favorite is the boy with the really like dark speckles on his face
so what do you think of the sheep they're cute and
um fun i saw this little um sad brown one and i at least scratched behind his ears
so while we were there um tess knew she was giving us these two but she was
trying really hard to get us to bring home this little brown one it was a little brown you so her
mom was sold and she was left behind and she was so sad like she just laid down and was giving up
and so i went over and i got to pet her and i gave her little hugs and i wanted to bring her back
here really bad like it was really hard not to beg dan to like come on let's just take it oh my gosh
what happened what you guys like exploded into giant birds yeah hi guys look at that little runt
he's never grown i'm gonna have to keep him as a pet yeah no it is definitely getting close to
time to getting the chickens out in chicken tractors on the pasture what's wrong dude
you don't seem like you're hurt but you won't stand up okay ready go on
for now the lambs are going to stay in the corral but my plan is to get them in the mobile sheet pan
out on pasture doing a paddock shift system again for pasture revitalization though my mobile sheet
pen i used last year was too heavy and i couldn't move it by myself i still got great results with
paddock shifting the lambs in fact take a look at what the pasture looks like right now that dark
green path is where the mobile sheet pen went through last year if i can just get a mobile
sheet pen that's light enough to where i can move it on my own then i can move it daily and we're
going to make some serious progress in the pasture this year next week i have a grass-fed homestead
first for you guys pecking duck is it pecking or peeking whichever i'm getting ducklings be sure to
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