A Sheepy Year in Review

I love it when blogs do a year in review and a New Year's Goals post. So here is my year in review.
January:
Our first on farm lambings!

January was also the start of the demolition for the end bay of the garage.

February:
Lambing continued with our last sheep to lamb, Leda and ram 6.

Leda taught me a lot, and not about good things. She lambed with a very lopsided udder but raised one lamb just fine. She also had a problem with mites.

March:
Our first death and the pasture work began.  The death of ram 3 is still full of questions, but as I have learned more over the year my number one differential is Barberpole worm infestation. At one of the conferences/workshops or possibly in a reading I found a reference to constipation as a symptom of barberpole worm infestation, which is exactly the way ram 3 started. At the first vet visit he did get an injection of ivermectin but injections don't work very well on the barberpole worm. I should have given him an oral worming med. Now I know to add that to the list of things to try.
Maddy and I also attended a lambing clinic which was terrific.

We started with the ongoing job of clearing pasture too.

April:
Another course, this time on FAMACHA, at DelVal College.

More work on the garage.

More pasture and garden work.

And the orchard was planted too, along with some help from the sheep! I am getting tired just remembering.

May:
Our feral cat had kittens!

The sheep went out grazing and learned about electric rope.

We learned how to scythe.

And the bridge was completed.

And we had a barn addition put up.

June:
We finally got a glimpse of the kittens!

Mostly just gardening and grazing.

July:
 Brave kittens!

Flowers, flowers, and more flowers!

And harvesting in earnest.

August:
Our new Coopworth sheep, Hazel, Ruth and Elwood.

 A new sheep chair.

More garage work, this time inside.

Taking down the tower in prep for the outside garage wall demolition.

Learning more about electric fencing.

September:
All the outside cats were trapped and neutered.

Work on the garage end wall began and ended.

And I got water in the barn!

October:
More pasture work.

Breeding began.

And Maddy and I went to the Cornell Sheep and Goat Symposium.

November:
The end wall is just about done.

Mercer came to stay.

December:
I've been a slacking blogger and there hasn't been much to blog about. We have a freezer full of lamb and mutton and have been getting ready for the holidays. Here's to a better blogging year for 2016!