Spring has sprung and the sheep are comin home!

My mother in law was always so happy when everyone was home at the ranch and I never understood why. Well, last fall I learned why and now I'm right beside her with a big grin this time of year.

Everyone and by everyone I mean all of the sheep, all of the dogs and all of the herders are home only two times a year - in April for shearing/lambing and in September for the 'loading of the trucks'!

The large herd of ewes, our two herders (one was away for the winter and the other was on the winter range with the big herd) and 5 dogs (Wito, Embre, Gringo, Sage and Chili) will be home from the winter range on Tuesday evening and I have goosebumps thinking about it. Their trip home will take about 5 days total and these mamas are going to be so tired. All of the ewes are pregnant and due in May so Pop and J make sure the trek home is spread out and as peaceful for them as possible.

When the sheep came home from the summer range it was a wonderful event! It’s a feeling of accomplishment - another season of success. It's also nice to know everyone is safe. A large part of this success is owed to our wonderful and hard working herders of course. Our herders stay with the sheep for months on end working from sun up to sun down and they always have a smile when we see them. I'll be blogging more about our herders soon.

I’ll be working at my office job 2 of the 5 days of their trek home but I'll be getting at least one good day of trailing in this weekend which I'll be sure to report on! I'm actually quite sad (believe it or not) that I can't help trail like I did in the fall when the sheep came home from the summer range. For those of you that missed my post about the summer trailing you can read about it here, but you have to promise not to laugh. 

This is from fall trailing last year.

So the next few days are busy ones for J and Pop. It's 7:40 pm on Tuesday right now and they are still out working on things. This is a huge event I tell you!

On top of everyone coming home J and I are participating in a Senior Field Studies program. This is a program that allows a Denver area high school senior come help out on the ranch.  Our student will be with us for a week and he will learn all there is to know about the operation. I emailed with him today and he's excited to be here during one of our busiest times of the year - shearing!

Needless to say I'm excited for everyone's arrival and I think I'll make a celebratory cake! Woo hoo!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *  * * 

Here are some questions about "trailing" I'll be answering in the next week...
If you have any questions please let me know via the Contact Me tab! 

Are the sheep actually on the road? 
Have you ever had a sheep get hit by a car?
Has a Ewe ever gone into labor while on the road?
How long is the trip?
How many miles do you trail in a day?

Coming Home.

The alarm buzzes and I think, It can’t be time already.

As I stumble through my morning routine I am ready within minutes for Rambling Ewe Ranch’s big day.

The moon fills the sky and sheds enough light so we can find our way to the truck.
Orange flag in hand, Camelbak packed, we load up water and lunches for the herders. J checks the trailer to ensure proper hitching and we hop up in the truck.

We pick up Alberto, he lives nearby on the ranch. Elias and Daniel are waiting for us at the mountain.

Our herders are used to this early work, it’s a daily occurrence for them. For me, it's a little tough and I find myself unable to hold back the yawning.

As we all make our way up to where the sheep, Elias and Daniel are waiting, the excitement begins to build.

The mamas and babies are coming home!

Make way B-town…Sheep on Road!

I am dropped off about a mile ahead of where the sheep will get on the road and  I find myself smiling with excitement. It’s just me, the horses in the field nearby out this time of day and the road is quiet. Soon enough cars will be making their appearance. I sure hope we have happy drivers today.

It’s important the cars see me as they are driving.  My sole purpose as flagger is to alert cars that sheep are ahead and to PLEASE slow down.

Most cars slow down and enjoy the drive through the sheep. Some smile and wave and roll down their windows. Some want to chat with you about the sheep and ask how many we have this year. Many times children poke their heads out of the car to get a better view of the sheep. Other cars take heed to our signs that are posted the week prior and avoid the street altogether. That's fine too.

Some forget the sheep are on the road and are either pleasantly surprised or grumble the whole way through.

I radio J on the walkie-talkie and ask them what his status is. He replies back, "They are on the road!"

I wait to see the first sheep around the bend and start walking!  "Okie dokie! Here we go!"

Soon enough we are rocking and rolling.

J will trail the back of the herd in the truck. He slows traffic behind him as he pulls our horse trailer full of our dogs that were working on the mountain. There is an orange, bright sign on the back of the truck that says, Sheep on Road. We don't let the dogs trail on the road, we've had a car hit one of our dogs once before and want to ensure that doesn't happen again.

They want to be where the sheep are. They aren't happy campers when they aren't.

Last year the sheep wanted to run home (all 12 miles) and this year was a bit better. They weren't in such a rush.

Jigs did come along for the ride, but slept most of the time in the car. She gets by on her looks, not her hard work. ;)

Along the way, I enjoy the view of the foothills of the San Juans. It’s a lovely sight and there is something about leading hundreds of sheep to a place they love, that makes your heart happy.




And so, I am reporting back with news of a good and successful day. Today is a milestone for J and I. We made it through our first full year of sheep ranching! It's a wonderful feeling and I want to say thank you to everyone that has offered us their support, prayers and words of encouragement over the past few months.

Tonight our herders are proud of their work (as they should be) and our sheep are happy. 

"Trailing 2011"

An Update on the Sheep

I haven't had any sheep related posts the last few weeks so I thought I would give ya'll an update.

The sheep are currently up in the high country and will be there until early October.
You know...when I help trail them down aka my unintentional half marathon last year!

I was able to take my family up there a few weeks ago. It just so happened J needed to move camp while mi familia were in town and I jumped at the opportunity. We also took an unplanned trip up there the next week to pick up one of our herders. More on that in a sec.

The sheep look good. Really good. They are grazing away, loving their lives.

It's beautiful up there.

 Here comes Gringo to say hello!

Let me give you an idea of what it is like for our herders up on the mountain. They have no running water and the water they use is freezing cold. They sleep in tents in the middle of the forest and are  frequented by bear and coyotes (thank goodness for our awesome guard dogs!).

Now while they do have cell phones, the service is spotty and their battery has to last until the next "move". This is when J will bring their cell phone home and charge it. He takes it back to them the next move.

Their job up in the high country is to keep the sheep in a certain area (we'll go over this in a bit) and tend to them as needed.

Our Forest Service permits allow us to be at certain places on the mountain for a certain amount of time.

When our time is up (or there isn't enough feed) we move camp to the next location. "Camp" consists of our herder's supplies and sleeping quarters (tents). J goes up every week, takes our herders supplies and moves everything to the next spot. It's really a tedious process.

For instance, today J moved camp. He left at 7:00 this morning and spends hours on the 4 wheeler taking in supplies (since obviously we can't drive right to the "campsite"). It was a long day for him.

It's 11pm and he literally just walked in the door.

Some trips he'll trade out dogs. Today he took Nell to the mountain and brought Sage home. Duke and Nell, our newest pups are spending their first summer up on the mountain. Hopefully they learn the ropes!

J also brings me an update on how things are going. He is sure to tell me how all the dogs are doing - Wito, Embre and Gringo are the guard dogs currently up there. They are doing a good job keeping the bear and coyote away. Daniel says we've had bear and coyote almost every night. Yikes!

I am proud to say that I've gotten him in the habit of putting some treats in his pocket for the dogs on "Camp Moving" days.

If only I can get him in the habit of packing a lunch and a Nalgeen. He came home super dehydrated and starving.

Summer is here!

The arrival of summer means a few things for us at the ranch.

One of which is that the sheep will be brought home from the windmill on Friday and start their very long trek to the high country on Saturday.
The sheep spend their summers in the mountains and will graze thousands of acres of green grass over the course of about 4 months.

This picture was taken last year during my visit to the high country.

I can't wait to take a trip up there this year, the vista is absolutely beautiful. Here is a blog post about a visit I made to the high country last year to give you an idea. I have learned my lesson since that post...I will be taking a whistle with me on my next trip!

One of our herders stays up in the high country all summer however, this year two of our herders will be there since one is in "training". Our newest herder will learn all the camps we will move to over the course of the summer and learn more about sheep.

J will take supplies to them weekly and will move camp every few days. When they move camp the supplies like food, water, the tent, dog food and clothing will be packed up and moved via ATV to the next "camp".

We have several permits on the high country. Each permit has different restrictions as to how long we can be in one area and what area we are allotted. It's important our herder(s) keeps track of this because there are other sheep permits in the high country and we don't want to mix or get in any trouble for grazing an area we don't have the rights to.

So, we are getting ready for the big move. I'm excited to get the sheep up to such great pasture where they can roam freely. At the same time I'm nervous because well, it's nerve-racking seeing hundreds of sheep on the busiest (and only) highway in town!

My mother-in-law, Gell told me she gets nervous every time we trail sheep on the road, even after all these years. She said seeing those babies on the road is just terrifying and after this move a few weeks ago, I completely agree.

When she starts to feel nervous while trailing sheep she reminds herself of a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, "You must do the things you think you cannot do." That, my friends, is what I will be saying to myself Saturday morning at 5am.


Please send your positive thoughts and prayers our way! We want every one of our furry friends to make it safely to their destination.

Almost there...

You haven't lived until you've trailed sheep. For reals.

The anticipation absolutely sucks, but the reward when the sheep get to their destination is like no other. The camaraderie is amazing because it takes every.single.person to get it done successfully. 

Last Sunday was the last leg of the big trip and it started early. We were up and at 'em at 5:30 am and met where the sheep were taken the night before. After a quick, "Good Morning," I continued on to my destination which was the intersection on the main highway. It was a chilly morning and I found myself doing jumping jacks to stay warm.

I waited there for about 20 minutes in the middle of the street with my flag. When I heard the baa-ing I knew it was "go" time. The sheep came around the corner, I started waving my flag and stopped the first car. Thankfully, the car wasn't in a rush to get anywhere and wasn't pissed that she was stuck behind sheep. You see, some people will get super angry and annoyed and others will say things like, "Oh, neat!" or "Wow, that is a lot of sheep. How fun!"

The sheep were only on the highway for about 30 minutes until they got on the county road.

Once they got on the county road it was a piece of cake from there.

We trailed about 2 hours and hit our first rest stop. Pop and J arrange our stops beforehand since some people may not be up for a visit from the sheep.

The people that owned this lot didn't mind one bit and they want us back next year!

2.5 hours later we hit our lunch spot.

We wanted to take advantage of the feed there and give the sheep, our herders, J, Pop, Gell and myself a break so we stayed here for about 4 hours.

After that long break, we were on our way again!

See Pop's truck and sheep camp up front? He was front flagging in the car and I was trailing behind the sheep. I've learned it's best to front flag because in the back you see everything! Every time a sheep or lamb would go off trail my heart would start pounding. On top of that, any stragglers get put in the back car (my car) to be taken back to the ranch.

From now on, I want to front flag (walking) like I have in the past.

It's so fun to see all the families that make an event out of it. We had families with their lawn chairs, in their robes and some that came out to shake hands with our herders. These kids were pretty excited. 

These llamas were pretty excited too!
It never fails that animals along the way walk up to their fences to see what is going on.

People tend to try and help along the way. This guy was "helping" on his 4-wheeler keeping sheep on the trail using a rag.

The view along the way is always so beautiful. This house is just gorgeous, don't you think?

Once the sheep got to where they would stay for three nights I was able to breath again. All of the sheep (except the one mama and three babies we had to take back to the ranch) made it safely.

Thank goodness!

Here they are at their last stop for the next three days!

We took two guard dogs, Embre and Gringo up to the high country later that evening since there are bear and coyotes up in the high country. The dogs will help ward off predators.

"Take me to my sheep!"

There you have it, the sheep are up in the high country and they are happy, safe and have GREAT feed.

Funny story...

Once we got to the location above a man drove by and told us there was a bear wandering in a nearby field. I decided to try and find the bear, in my car, of course.
Smart, I know.

I snapped this picture thinking I found it!

Turns out that was a tree stump. :(

Huge FAIL on my part.

As timing would have it, just when I get this post published it's time to move again! J did a move yesterday and there is another move on Sunday. Now it's just a matter of getting them up in the mountains. We spread these moves out and stop along the way when the feed is good and if the people along the way are up for a visit from the sheep. This year is a good year for feed and the landowners up the way don't mind the sheep, so we are taking advantage of that. :)

Happy trails and wooly white tails!

Baa-ing Before Breakfast {and a Bloglovin request}

The past two weekends (at a time that is way too early to even mention) Jesse and I, our herders and two of our most awesome friends oh, and 2100 sheep headed up to the high country aka summer range.

In years past I've always walked and front flagged the trails heading to and from our summer range. When front flagging you can't see the chaos of the herd; you don't see everyone working their butt off trying to keep the sheep on the road.

When front flagging you enjoy the beauty around you, the birds chirping, the deer roaming - you get the picture. In case you don't...

If you can imagine the very opposite of such a peaceful state, that is what herding the back of the herd along the road feels like. Complete and utter stress and chaos.

Imagine herding 100 cats. Impossible, right? Exactly.

This year I had the great pleasure of pushing the back. Jesse pushes the front group, two people the middle group and about three people push in the back aka run like crazy chickens trying to get these ewes and lambs back on the road. No offense to chickens.

Even with all the bodies there are challenges. Challenges that include rolling ankles or having to channel your inner mountain goat and climb up the sides of hills to get sheep back on track. Or getting heat exhaustion (which happened to one of our helpers this trail). Or getting sheep dung flung onto your face. Um, that happened too. Or, my favorite is being the lucky herder that gets to chase that one lamb through an open field with nothing but hope he/she will go where you want it to, all the while having everyone watch, wait and hope as well. It's a little humiliating to have your sheep herding skills on display like that. After all, we have a "leave no sheep behind" policy.

Or...getting peed on by this little guy. Don't worry, it dried pretty quickly.

The first of these two trails is a hard one because not only is it 13 miles while gaining elevation it's the first long trail for the lambs. This means they are tired and haven't learned to stick by mama and follow the herd.

This picture below was a great portion of the trail because there was fencing along this stretch and the sheep were a bit easier to keep on track. Keep reading and you'll see what happens when there isn't good fencing.

This was right about when things went completely haywire! I mean...clothes even came off!

Lambs are mischievous little suckers. They frolic into every field, up every hill, every garden. It's no joke. This picture below is a great example of lambs misbehaving. The horses in this field actually charged at the lambs and helped us out a bit. The quality of this photo is horrible, but it was the best I could do while running. ;)

The sheep cheering squad was nice....this was around mile 5 of 13 on the first trail. First time in 20+ years we've had signs! I love my community. Two weekends later the sheep are now on our first permit of the summer, but this doesn't mean the work is done. Just this week J got a call from his friend that saw a small group of sheep running up the road. Again, mischievous little suckers. Needless to say there have been several trips up and will be many more to search for the group on the loose (click here to read about our ewe that walked herself all the way home!). Oh, and did I mention it's haying season as well? My husband works too damn hard. He deserves a vacation!

Happy First Day of Summer and please keep our beautiful state in your thoughts as we have many fires burning and a lot of firefighters risking their lives to save ours. 

And another important announcement in case you didn't know - Google Reader is going away July 1st, y'all.
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Mutton Mondays - Predators and Guardians

Sheep are pretty defenseless. Sad to say, but it's true.

Their only means of defense is staying together in a large herd and even then that's pretty pathetic. In a situation like that you are just hoping the predator goes for the sheep next to you. They probably don't make eye contact, try to suck it in to look unappetizing. You get the picture...

Coyotes, bear and mountain lion are our biggest problem. Many nights you hear the coyotes howling out in the field. A few seconds later you can hear the dogs barking and then their barks fade off into the distance. That is when I say a little prayer and ask God to watch over our hard working dogs.

Bear are a problem for us when we are up in the summer range. It would be nice if bear only stuck to nuts and berries, but they do not.

They eat our lamb and often several of them in one night. In the video that J made below at 3:33 our herder is stitching up a ewe that was attacked by a bear the night prior. I believe we lost one or two sheep that night. Doesn't sound like much, but that night we were lucky.

The dogs do the best they can with the bear and mountain lions but there are only so many fights our dogs will win.

Recently our state representative tried to pass a bill that would repeal the limits that a 1992 initiative placed and give the Wildlife Commission and Colorado Division of Wildlife the authority to change black bear hunting restrictions based on wildlife biology and game management practices, not legislative mandates. Unfortunately, this bill died. As a sheep rancher's wife we are hoping this bill has better luck the next time around.

I can't take any of the credit for keeping our sheep safe from predators. 

The credit belongs to our hard working herders and our fearless guard dogs; Tank, Scout, Joe, Wito, Embre and Gringo.

Just this past week we've lost four lambs to coyotes. Unfortunately, there is no real solution to our predator problems, the guard dogs are our best hope.

Mutton Mondays - In the Spirit of Shearing.

Since it's shearing week on the ranch I'm going to share with you all you need to know about shearing.

So, what is shearing?
Shearing is a haircut for the sheep except they don't get to choose their style - they all get a buzz cut.

Why do you do it?
Sheep grow wool year round and with warm weather just around the corner shearing helps the sheep stay cool in the summer months. Each sheep produces on average 2 - 30lbs of wool a year and at the time of shearing their fleece weighs on average 7.5lbs. That's a lot of wool to carry around on a hot day! 

There are also reasons why we choose to shear our sheep right before lambing season begins. Lambs have an easier time nursing when sheep are shorn. Some sheep ranchers shear before lambing because shorn sheep take up less room in the barn.

What do you do with the wool?
We sell it. We get paychecks two times a year - a few months after shearing from the wool and in September when the lambs are sold.

Does it hurt the sheep? 
Absolutely not. I'd imagine they are a little frightened but the team we bring in to shear does a great job. There is an occasional nick, but it's nothing traumatic or too stressful for our sheep. 

How many times a year do you shear?
We shear only one time a year. There are some sheep ranchers that shear twice a year.

Who shears?
While anyone could try to shear sheep not everyone does a good job and that is why we pay the professionals. ;) Pop has used the same man every year and J and I don't plan on changing that. Our guy knows what he is doing and he has a good crew that we can trust to do a good job. 

What do they shear with? 
Shick razors. Totally kidding.
Our guys use electric razors and these have three parts to them - the handpiece, the comb and the cutters.
Electric shears look a little something like this:

Scary looking, right? Again, this is why we leave it to the professionals.


How do you package the wool?
First the wool must be "skirted". I've just learned what this is so bear with me.
Basically the "good" wool must be separated from the "bad" wool. Bad wool tends to include belly wool, off-color, burry and seedy wool and stained or dead wool. We get paid differently on the bad and the good wool.

Where do you send the wool?
After the wool is separated it's compressed into 400lb bales (like the picture below) and sent off to Roswell Wool.

So that is all you need to know about shearing, but don't go trying this at home!

Today I helped trail the sheep closer to home.
I'll be posting about this soon, but for now here is a picture from the day.
I have lots of things to share this week so stay tuned!

This is one of our VERY hard working herders.

SOURCE: http://www.sheep101.info/wool.html

Worse Shape Than Sheep! Part Deuce

I promised pictures from my Sheep Trailing adventure.

Here are a few for your enjoyment!



These are our three herders. Hardest workers you will ever meet.



They'll be coming down the mountain when they come!






home home home!



It's beautiful here.

Original post here.