Still Waters Farm

Ducky is seven days old in the morning. She and her sister were born last week to Shaggy. Back in January of this year, Shaggy had a stillborn lamb. We believe that experience confused her. When we found her and the new twins this past Saturday morning, she was not tending to them. We took them inside to try an nurse them along until we could get Shaggy to cooperate. Unfortunately, one of the twins only survived for 24 hours. The other is Ducky! We are not convinced she is out of the woods yet, but she is thriving so far!

This little guy is more like Wilbur every day! The name is still pending. What do you think? Should we name him “Wilbur II”?

If you want to see just how much trouble I’m in for with this little feller, go back and watch my “Wilbur” videos. ❤️🐑

What a wonderful start to lambing. We have 9 so far, all healthy, and we are barely 1/4 of the way through the ewes that should be giving us lambs this season. The much wanted and needed rains have come, but the sheep are not so happy about that. 😄 God’s blessings abound. 🙏🏻❤️🐑

Checking in on the new lambs and the ewes who are getting close.

Lambing season is off to a great start, the sheep are generally happy, and we reflect on year one and all the things we for which we are grateful.

This past week, Psycho gave us our first lamb of the new season! We used the spin chute again to check and trim some hooves, and we continue our modified pasture rotation plan after making adjustments for the drought. #sheep #lambs #grazing #pastureraised

Sending all the flock through the spin chute and foot bath challenges our relationship. Will they ever forgive me??

The system is setup and we run the whole flock through for the first time! Thanks to: @Lakeland Farm and Ranch Direct and @the Shepherdess

Our new sheep handling equipment arrives. The time has come for us to take the next step in our management strategy, and this will change everything.

We have a setback in our retraining of the sheep to the electric fence, but it is a temporary setback. More info on our drought plan. And, Freckles gives me a hard time going out to the paddock.

Updates on our process to retrain the sheep to our electric fence, drought changes our grazing plans, we start making new pasture in the woods, and we got a very big surprise!!!

We went back to square one on fencing and fence training. Will our new fence charger, at 125 times the strength, overcome there wills?

Sometimes, things just don’t go as planned. Our fencing strategy has failed—for now. This is how we learn. But first, checkout these gorgeous critters.

Join me on a quiet morning walk out with the sheep. And, we bale the front field with the square baler.

Our new lamb, Daisy, does a jig or two for you! I do a little fence maintenance and repair the hay baler.

Good mornings, the morning walk to the paddock, the midday check-in, an intimate moment with Daisy, and more beautiful footage of the sheep and farm. We’ve been very blessed with rain for several weeks now after a dry spell that threatened a possible drought.

August 3, 2022 Will the sheep cross the creek? Or will we have a crisis? Sheep don’t like moving water, especially if they cannot see the bottom. Our routine has also changed a bit and disrupted their comfort zone.

It’s been a couple of weeks since our last video post, and lots has been going on! We finished our second pasture rotation, been working on Kit’s foot some more, welcomed a new lamb from Dixie, and gave the flock a special paddock. This video has some beautiful footage of these amazing creatures.

Our pasture management plan is holding—for now. Things were looking dicey a couple of weeks ago, but the Lord blessed us with some good rain. That has helped the pasture to green up and get started with another growth cycle. On this video, we talk about that and we also have an update on Kit’s foot since her vet visit the week prior. And, I threw in some sweet footage of the sheep doing their thing. @Still Waters Farm

July 8, 2022 We hit 100 degrees today. The sheep are drinking more, as a result, so we’re hauling their water more often and in greater quantities. We also took Kit to the vet Friday to get her foot issues better addressed. And…y’all thought I was kidding about the fox. Watch all the way through for a candid moment with our pretty predator.

July 3, 2022 Two big parts of our pasture management plan involve regular relocation of the paddock fencing and clipping the uneaten , overly matured grass and weeds to restart the growth cycle.

June 24-27, 2022 We were blessed with a much needed rain last Friday. It wasn’t a super soaker, but we are grateful for what we did receive. Monday, we moved the sheep to a new paddock. I share some more details around our rotation strategy as it relates to parasite control and general grazing habits of the sheep. And it looks like Dixie will be lambing soon!

June 25, 2022 Just some intimate moments with the sheep and some grazing observations.