If At First You Don't Succeed...

Originally I was going to wait until the end of this month before putting Perry back in with the ewes. But I looked at the calendar again and realized that had they been pregnant they would have had to have had their babies by the end of December.

So I got the ram marker out, mixed it up, dabbed it on Perry's chest, and let him loose with the ewes. It seems that within ten minutes he had mounted both Jamie and Ewenice. By the end of the following day 3of4 had a big green spotch on her too.

I found the courtship process to be very interesting. It was so obvious that Jamie and Ewenice were high in heat and ready to rock and roll. Perry would pay close attention to one, sniffing and curling his lip. Then positioning himself just so towards the ewes' back end. Then he'd strike out with a stiff front leg. When the ewe didn't move he'd mount her. When he paid too much attention to one ewe, the other ewe would insinuate herself between the two, forcing Perry to turn his ministrations to her. At one point Jamie even mounted Perry. I've seen cows do that when they were ready to breed, but I didn't know sheep did it too.

When rabbits breed the male rapid fire hunches the female and suddenly stiffens when ejaculating, then kind of falls off to the side. (I always found that to be highly amusing.) When a stallion ejaculates he sort of slumps on the mare and the tell tale sign is his "flagging tail". I don't know if there is any specific sign for when the ram ejaculates. Maybe I didn't watch long enough. Perry would mount Jamie for a second and slide off, and Ewenice would start walking slowly along. I'll have to trust that he'll get the job done one way or the other.

In hindsight I think what happened last year was that I didn't wait long enough between weaning and rebreeding. With proper management Dorsets are well known to be able to have three lambings every year and a half. Obviously I didn't manage that too well.

I only had enough green marker for one application so I have more ordered. The color is supposed to be changed every 16 days. Last year I didn't let him stay with the ewes too long because #1: I thought they had been marked; and #2: Perry was "ramming" the ewes too hard. This time around I'm going to make a few changes.

Perry has again been showing his dominance a little too much for my liking towards Baby and Francine so I also ordered a "ram shield", a mask that will not allow him to see forwards, hence be unable to ram the ewes. I'll be able to leave him with the ewes longer, and I'll be more diligent about having changing the colors every 16 days.

Sadly that means no sheep milk cheese until the middle of summer, and even worse, no sheep milk yogurt, my favorite!

Taking Chester For A Walk

Carli came over Saturday to pick up the stroller and Chester. Her plans were to take the baby and the dog for a walk and Chester would sleep over for the night. He was very excited about the whole thing.

Gus was a little jealous, but being the gracious, caring soul that he is, he wanted to make sure Chester didn't forget his manners and wanted to remind him how to walk properly on a leash.

Come along, now, don't make me drag you!

Stop pulling! Now see what you've done!

Let's try again. Walkies!

Now you've got it. Good boy!

Storm

Yesterday we had a little storm. We usually have one or two good wind storms each year and I'm not sure if we should count yesterday's among them. It did blow pretty much most of the day, but we didn't get near the rain we were hoping for. I see on the news that the folks to the north of us and over by the coast got hit pretty good. But the weekend has just started and we may see some of that rain here yet.

Meanwhile, when it blows like that the wind usually blows from the south to the north. We have a big empty pond behind us and lots of tumbleweeds grow back there. So with the wind blowing as it does, that means our back fence gets covered with tumbleweeds.

It wasn't too bad this time, but check out the size of this tumbleweed.


We'll just release it from our fence and give it a chance to find another home!

Lemon Curd

Back in 1999 I was searching for a lemon curd recipe on the internet. I found a couple of recipes that looked promising and tried a few. The following is my absolute favorite. I can't find the original page I got it from (although I have a well used copy in my lemon recipe binder). Here's a link that is almost identical to the page I have copied. The recipe is from The Newbury House Bed and Breakfast in Rugby, TN.

The ingredients are: 9 eggs; 1 1/2 C lemon juice; 3 C sugar; 1 1/2 C melted butter.Whisk the eggs... ...until they are frothy.
Stir in the lemon juice (of course I use my Meyer lemon juice!),
the sugar,

and the melted butter (not too hot or it may cook the eggs!).
Make a double boiler with a large pot of water.
Heat it until it's boiling.
Then place a large bowl over the boiling water. A metal bowl will work quicker than a glass bowl.

Pour the mixture into the bowl and whisk constantly for at least 20 minutes or until it thickens.
Ladel carefully into clean jars.

And voila! Three pints of delicious Lemon Curd.

It can be used in a variety of ways, such as ice cream topping, lemon pie filling, etc.

LEMON CURD (from The Newbury House, Rugby, TN)

9 eggs

1 1/2 C lemon juice

3 C sugar

1 1/2 C melted butter

Beat eggs until frothy. Stir in lemon juice, sugar, and melted butter. Place over water. Cook, stirring constantly for approximately 20 minutes or until thick. Pour into glass dish or jars and refrigerate. (Click here for more.)