Where I have been the last 3 months...

In and out of the hospital for 2 major surgeries.  And I'm still not done.  I'm on disability leave, mostly stuck in bed with ice packs on my surgery incisions.  Not fun.  I took the sheep back from the farm to enjoy here while I recover.  My husband Bob is combing the wool off Sasha, so later on I can spin it.
      Up in Ojai, the ewes had a bumper crop of lambs, mostly rams.  I have to sell the ram lambs off, and I hope to sell them to someone who wants to use them for clearing weeds and brush.  It would be a great business opportunity for someone with a truck around here (Ventura County or maybe Malibu area).
     Meanwhile the world is fighting over oil and nuclear power is poisoning the ocean.  How about something sustainable, wind, solar, biofuels?  I heard a long time ago about the potential of tidal energy, whatever happened to that?
      Even though I'm sick, I still plan to promote sheep as an alternative to conventional weed abatement and fire suppression in Southern California.  The USDA has an article on their website on this, its really been succesful elsewhere.  I've also seen articles on how sheep are best at controlling weeds around solar energy panel outlays.  Then there's the manure, which can be used for fertilizer or biofuel, replacing petrochemicals in both cases.
      If you are interesting and buying some sheep and starting an environmental weed and brush abatement business, post a comment with a way to contact you.

Black Sheep

Here's Mama Mia and one of her black lambs, cant tell which one.  Mia is a dynamite sheep with her lovely black wool and her ability to lamb every six months!! She is the mom to Sasha, our number 2 ram, and 4 others, including a set of twins, and she is only 4 years old.  When she gets to the lemon farm, she will be one of the ewe leaders out exploring the place.

Baby lamb time

This is our ewe Annie, and her newborn lamb in the "birthing jug".   There were 3 lambs born in the past three weeks. Newborn lambs and their mothers should be separated from the herd for a few days so the baby and mom can imprint on each other, and we can feed the mom some grain with molasses.  

Habitable building in one hour

Its freezing here!! Seriously, I found ice crystals out in the grass yesterday.  Its also been raining a lot still.  My husband Bob has been worried about the sheep not all having a place to get out of the rain, and he came up with this ingenious solution.
      First he took four pallet racks from work that he was going to get rid of anyway.  We brough them up to Ojai. Then he and my brother David put them together with these snap-on steel rods. Two racks for the sides, two racks for a gable roof. Side braces at the open ends.  A piece of plywood for the back, propped up with a post, a tarp over the top, tied on at the corners, and its finished in one hour.  All the sheep can get in there out of the rain and the wind.
     After we were done, we were having a good time admiring our work.  We got to thinking about emergency shelter that some refugees have around the world: just a tarp!!  Snapping together the pallet racks makes for a sturdy shelter that wont blow down in the wind. Later, actual walls can be built on and a door added.  This to be a temporary to permanent housing solution.  Since they are snapped together, they can also be snapped apart and moved.  One man or 2 women can carry a rack.
    Feel free to use this idea for shelter anywhere in the world.

Our winter home in Ojai

This is where the sheep hang out while they are waiting for us to finish the fence and move them to the Lemon Farm.  Its the place where my brother lives in Ojai.  This is the very back of the place, which is close to the Ventura River.  Right now the place is quite soggy as we have had over 6 inches of rain in the past week.  The herd had to shelter in a tiny shed where there wasn't room for all of them, so the rams stayed outside in the rain, until my brother could fix up a shelter for them.  Once the sheep move to the farm, the grass will grow really high in Ojai. I will send a few back to tackle the grass.  A friend of my brother's is thinking of starting a "sheep herding experience" program for city dwellers then!!
          

Happy Holidays from the Lemon Farm!!

Happy Holidays to all who  follow or who have read my blog this year!!  I am totally jazzed to have readers!! 
         Its really exciting for me to see readers from around the world reading the blog.  Everyone in the world deserves to have a safe, clean, environment, and we can all participate, even in a small way, to clean it up. To thank you all, I am going to visit my neighbors today and hand out some free organic lemons to each (and the url to this blog!!).
         Its Friday afternoon, Christmas Eve, and I'm off to pick horseweed  at the ranch, and collect pumpkins for the sheep, who will spend Christmas in their manger in Ojai. So it will be next year, hopefully January!! that the sheep move to the ranch.  The big obstacle is we are scared of what runs around out there at night, like coyotes.  We'll have to go out there every night to put them in the barn, or find someone else to do that.  Or maybe get a guardian animal like a good working dog, we'll see.
        Dave and I will get together soon and plot some goals for the place for next year.  we have a tractor that needs to get fixed, and paying for that will be a major goal.  In March the sheep will need shearing, and maybe I can sell some of the wool.   Their wool is unique, and I will write about that and show it to you soon.    Happy Holidays, Janice & co.
     
    

And later, that evening....

Its pig out time.  Currently the sheep are staying at my brother's in Ojai, while we got the deal straightened out and the fence put up.  The 2 sheep at the front of this picture are twin lambs born this summer, their mom is one of the black sheep in this picture.
       There's also some smashed up pumpkin in the foreground, I still collect pumpkins in the fall for them. While Horseweed is now the main food in their diet, I need to supplement with pumpkins, tumbleweed, squished lemons, kitchen scraps, and a few acorns.  Acorns are considered toxic to sheep, but I have found that in small quantities, like a handful a day,  they're ok.