Sheep sorting.

Sarah and I had to go out last week and sort all the sheep.  We needed to figure out which ewes we are keeping and who goes away.  Plus all the females over one year old or who are pregnant needed a scrapie tag applied to there ear.  Getting them into the barn is easy with Zeke.  Sorting them while they are in the barn is terrible.  It took us three hours to sort, catalog, tag babies and scrapie tags on 70+ sheep.  At one point early on, the leaping animals head butted Sarah in the mouth trying to escape through the gap in the feeders she was guarding.  It almost worked, but Sarah stayed upright and kept the opening secured. 

I also installed a switch for the front creek pump we are using to irrigate the orchard.  Now, you don't have to pull the extension cord in and out of the outlet to get the pump to turn off and on.  Just move the switch.  Plus the covers are both water resistant so hopefully the GFI will quit tripping all the time. 

I had to clean off the inlet cover to the front pump as the creek has dropped a couple of inches and the output had dropped.  I cleaned out the cover and redug out the creek near the pump.  It did not help so we switched out sprinkler nozzles for one that can handle a lower pressure.  I will probably have to install a dam soon to get the pump head back up to reasonable levels.  Our orchard looks good this year. 

Now that we have officially lost two lambs the coyote war is on.  I am going to have to take some evening strolls up the edge of the wheat field to check in on the predators.  They need to get thinned out a little.  I may even have to get a predator call to put on the back hillside occasionally.  I am going to have to start practicing with my .17 HMR. 


Irrigation pump switch.