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Someone said "I think you don't need any more mouflon rams", and maybe they are right. Our first mouflon ram was Indico, and he died as a result of Ivomec-resistant barberpole worm about 10 days after we brought him home. It was summer, and hot, which didn't help matters.

January 28th we brought home Indico's sire, Falkur (see earlier posts). Now, it's January, and then February comes and we have weather which stays below freezing for 3 straight weeks. Worms supposedly go dormant in winter, as if they somehow sense that life outside the sheep isn't all that hospitable. However, Falkur's worms were apparently different. So there he was, losing blood slowly, and we had no idea. Yes, you are supposed to worm new animals when you bring them in, but as it was the middle of winter, it didn't occur to us that it might be necessary. First lesson.

So last Sunday we decided to bring the rams into the barn, because we had noticed him losing weight and thought it was probably the crappy hay we had. However, we'd just gotten a load of nice green good hay and thought if we brought them in, we could fatten them both up a bit. We hadn't up to this point checked his eyelids because again, we didn't think worms would be an issue. Second lesson - check eyelids anytime you get a chance.

He followed us readily into the barn with the aid of some grain in a bucket, but after we got them both inside, he suddenly seemed to lose interest in anything. He was standing there head hanging, not moving. Definitely not normal. On a whim, I checked his eyelids. Pale. Really really pale. Oh NO, not AGAIN! Got the wormer out and drenched him, found a fleece dog coat that would fit to keep him warm so he wouldn't be using what little energy he had left for that, and started wondering if he would survive the night.

Long story short, he survived and is on the road to recovery, but he's very thin and it will take some time to get his weight up back to normal. However, he's eating and pushing Flint around so he definitely feels better, as long as we can keep him from getting pneumonia or something else while he's building up his reserves.

Main lesson - don't assume worms aren't a problem just because it's winter. We both feel like dolts, but at least he survived our ignorance.

Last weekend we made a trip over to eastern NY to pick up a bred ewe from Dancing Lamb Farm. She is a nice blocky ewe, great conformation, and nice horns too. She was bred to Brendan, the only Aboti son in the States. I saw Brendan while we were there and he is impressive. The ewe was number DL-11P so we had to come up with a name, and we decided to call her Penny.

This is another photo of her from the side:

Aboti received a very high score for his fleece, probably the highest score that SouthRam gives, so we hope that gets passed on through Brendan to the lambs that Penny should be carrying. We also hope her conformation (and Brendan's) gets passed on as well.

Here are a few more pictures taken at the same time as the above.

The big "winter event" came through our region starting yesterday afternoon and continuing through today. I thought for sure that my workplace would be shut down, especially as they had sent out an email with the phone number to call to check on the plant status (open or closed). But no such luck. Everyone called the number this morning but the recording said "today is December 5th, and the plant is OPEN", so apparently they didn't even bother to update it. Most of the schools in the area were closed, of course. The ride to work this morning was sloooow, and visibility was poor. We saw more than one vehicle in a ditch.

Where we live the snow was heavier than in the Buffalo area and suburbs. We are close to Lake Ontario which has not frozen over, so there was some lake effect added to the main system. We came home to a snowbank at the end of the driveway and slightly less than a foot of new snow. In total, we must have gotten over a foot in the last day, but the wind pushed it around a lot, so it's not easy to tell exactly how much.

Still, at least we don't live in Oswego Co, where they've had 11 feet or more of snow in the past 10 days to 2 weeks.

The sheep are fine of course. They just want their hay and grain and water and they don't mind the weather at all.

We were out doing chores this morning when I heard Ken say to Lydia, our barn cat, "what have you got?" It was a small bird and Ken said "no birds!" and distracted Lydia and the bird flew away. However, it only made it as far as our white pine tree, and it fluttered from branch to branch until it was just over my head. It didn't look too steady, as it appeared to be bleeding and couldn't seem to sit up very well. I tried to pull the branch down and catch it but it fluttered to another branch lower down and then the cat jumped again and the bird ended up on the ground under Lydia's paw. I grabbed the bird and took it inside and put it into a small animal carrier with some wood shavings - one of those clear plastic boxes with the snap-on lid.

I put it in the bathroom where it was warmest and left it alone. It was bleeding from it's head somewhere, and I figured it would either be dead by the time we got home from work, or better.

It was better.

We opened the bathroom door and the previously catatonic bird started jumping up and down and running around the cage in panic so I covered it with a hand towel so it would stop freaking out. We put some seed and water in so hopefully it will take advantage of those, and tomorrow morning we can let it go if it seems normal. It only lost a very small amount of blood, even for a bird with very little blood to begin with so we hope it will be OK.

And Lydia got booted into the barn this morning and was told to go find rats and leave the birds alone!

Stefania Dignum lived in Ontario Canada, but was originally from Iceland. In 1985 she imported the first flock of Icelandic sheep into North America. She was responsible for introducing this breed here, and without her, it may have never happened at all. I'm sure she didn't know this back then, but so many things we do have far-reaching effects that we cannot imagine. I'm sure Stefania never realized at the time how many people would be affected by that importation of 12 sheep.

Stefania passed away on Feb 4th, 2007 after a battle with cancer. Our condolences go out to her family and friends. She will be missed.