Horns and Gaps in Fencing

Photo taken August 2011

These are a few of our 2011 Cascade Farmstead ram lambs. Legend, at the far left, and Laredo, at the far right, both have very very wide horns. Louie Louie, center, has horns that are just right. Lionheart, who is 2nd from right, has horns that are iffy and will remain to be seen how they turn out.

Luke, 2nd from left, has narrow horns and will be culled. Narrow horns will eventually grow into the face or eye, causing suffering to the animal. Culling the animal is the best thing for the breed and for your own flock.

Behind these young boys is a neat fencing trick that we discovered by accident and necessity. Directly behind Luke, from the cedar post and to the left, you can kinda see where the old driveway used to meet the road. From there the driveway travels from left to right behind this group of weaned ram lambs. The thistles are growing robustly due to all the compost dumped there.

Twelve years ago we dumped dirt from all the post holes we had dug, and barn compost to fill the two- to three-foot gap between the tightly stretched fencing and the surface of the old driveway. We tramped down each load we added, and when the dirt and compost finally accumulated enough to meet the fence, I pounded into the dirt/compost a number of 1x2 wooden stakes every 2 to 4 inches and catching the bottom 2 strands of the fence. This stabilized the dirt and compost that we dumped there. Each year we added more until we had filled in the entire area that used to be a driveway.

Over the years the new soil firmed up, and the wooden stakes decomposed, giving a level surface under our fencing. It's a technique we now use to fill in any hole that occurs under our fencing. The wooden stakes will slow down a predator, or an escape artist.

Castle and Beckett Growing Up

Sweet! Castle and Beckett snoozing when I got up. It turns out that Beckett is a boy, but we are keeping the name anyway. He's ferocious and determined to be the Number One cat; he's clever and is biding his time with the older cats.




I guess somebody (Beckett?) is doing some shrew hunting. I just wish they would not bring their work home with them.