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It has been a long time since I wrote….again! This time because of a trip to the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival in Canby (on the West side of Oregon). It is always a long journey, and I took lots of sheep this time….some to show, some to sell, and some that were already sold. We had the perfect space for the sheep and lots of room for a display:

It was great seeing old friends, spending time with our Shetland clan, and meeting so many wonderful people (spinners, shepherds…and those soon-to-be one or both of these). My dear friend Melanie (new spinner and basket weaver) came along on the trip…she was an immense help to me!

A highlight of the trip was a visit the day before we went to OFFF with our friends, the Banks, in the far Western part of the state. Willow played the harp for us so beautifully, and then gave Melanie a lesson on it:

Brook stayed home with the sheep and horses, and actually did spend some time working on the guitars that he had begun weeks (?months) ago before summer farm chores took him out of the shop. And, I hope, relaxing after spending so much time helping me get ready for the trip….bless him.

The ELITA report: Already doing well when I left, she continues to improve…and now is back out in the pasture with the other sheep:

And when asked how she was doing, this is what she said:

Elita has continued to improve day by day, eating a few blades of our own grass hay in her pen, a little bit of the chopped timothy/alfalfa mix, and a tiny bit of grain. She hadn’t routinely eaten enough on her own to suit me, and so I continued to push it into the side of her mouth….shifting toward the front in a “pseudo-scientific” effort to retrain her lips and tongue. She seemed to like the process for quite a few days, but today she was DONE with all that!

Her opionated self returning, we were heading for a “sink or swim” situation. But Elita’s wisdom seems to be so much better than ours; when the other sheep went out to graze, she baaa-ed for them (the first time since her accident). This seemed a good sign, and so we let her out to eat hay with a few ewes in the pen:

She was very interested! She is in the middle in this photo:

We watched to see if she just nosed the hay as she often does…

Now nearly 2 weeks since she was injured….Elita is able to be a “sheep”, and pick up big mouthfuls of hay. At night-time we are returning her in the jug-pen; we want to be sure that she has access to as much water as she needs…and of course, give her the evening dose of probiotic, and her own hay. Tomorrow morning she can come out again.

Sunday before last (9 days ago) we went out to do evening chores, and found Elita caught in the electro-net fencing, just near the gate to the winter pen. She was standing, but having constant seizures, and holding her head up and back, gazing skyward, every muscle in spasm.

We quickly turned the fence off and got her out (she wasn’t really tangled, but had her head through the fence and one leg caught)…we think that it must have JUST happened moments before we arrived (or she wouldn’t have been alive); perhaps she was pushed into the fence by another sheep rushing by. We will never know….

We quickly gave her some dexamethasone, thiamine and B-vitamins, and put her in a little jug inside the barn. She was in terrible condition, completely unaware of her surroundings, and still having seizures. Over the next few hours, we called the vet, and managed to get her seizures stopped. She went to sleep with the sedation and we eventually felt that she was stable enough to leave her for the night.

The next morning, we didn’t know if we would fine her alive or dead…but there she was standing up. She was still having some seizures and seemed to be blind, but she was alive! All we could do was support her at this point, so more B-vitamins, thiamine, banamine and some CMPK, and probiotic. We would repeat the injections twice a day, waiting for signs of improvement.

Over the next few days, she did begin to drink water, and the seizures stopped. Her vision didn’t return for 3 days, but eventually she began to be aware of things in her immediate environment. Elita still couldn’t manage to eat; the front of her mouth just didn’t work. But if we put hay into the side of her mouth, she would chew it. So we did this 3 times a day, along with giving her the supportive meds.

In addition, we began to syringe feed her a rumen remedy that Linda Doane gave me years ago for sheep with bloat. Because it has sugar, protein, and fat, we have used it several times over the years, to get nutrition into an ill sheep (we add ground up oatmeal to make a gruel).

Elita hasn’t been too happy to see us arrive with these ministrations…she is one of our most feisty ewe, and gradually that personality reasserted itself. But we were so glad when she began to fight us…and fight she did!

One day last week, our USDA vet arrived to do the annual VSFCP inspection. She was immensely helpful and encouraging…and we launched into an in-depth discussion of rumen function. The pearl that we got from this was that all our support had to be directed at keeping the rumen alive and well. She said that our sheep would have a chance to recover if we could do that…

And that the half-life for rumen bacteria (if unsupported by nutrition) is only 30 minutes!!!

So we redoubled our efforts (Elita then got probiotic 4 times a day)…and was fed hay and gruel at the same time. Still on Banamine and multi-B vitamins with extra thiamine. We put fresh hay into her pen whenever we were there, and but she had been looking at it, not eating. So I added some chopped timothy/alflafa to her diet, again pushed into the side of her mouth. I left it in a little feeder, and it seemed that the volume decreased between feedings. She is now almost happy to see me when I come into the pen.

Then joy of joys…this is what greeted us today! One little leaf of hay in her mouth that told us she was beginning to eat on her own:

This evening we saw her walk to her flake of hay, nose it and take some in her mouth…and chew it! All so simple and so ordinary in a sheep’s life. And so vital to it. We are celebrating!

It is hard to find time to write now…September is proving to be a busy month. Not only are we getting ready to go to the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival on the 21,22, and 23, but we have been processing vegetables from the garden. A couple of weeks ago, the initial planting of corn was scraped off the cobs, and frozen for the first of our year’s supply of “corn pudding”. We are eating corn on the cob from the second planting and loving it…too much corn is an oxymoron!

Soon the older corn from that crop which has “gone by” according to most folks’ reckoning will also go into the freezer. This special corn pudding is a family tradition…we wonder if we could survive without it!

Two batches of tomatoes have been put by,

and right now a yummy salsa is in the canner boiling away. We brought in peppers, onions, cilantro and oregano from our garden, and we used the wonderful garlic that our friends and neighbors, the Maders, produce in their Horsepower Organics garden.

It will be a while we need to do anything with the carrots and beets, and a long time before the dry beans need to be shelled and stored. Soon we have onions to braid and bring in, and of course, there are way too many zucchini…as always! Some will go into the freezer for winter soups and zucchini baking, but HOW MUCH do we really need???

In the next couple of days, we will dig potatoes and perhaps put up the last lot of tomatoes. Last night it got down to 40º…we never know when the frosts will begin. Hopefully not for a few weeks…we want to enjoy these exquisite autumn days.

Yesterday was a big day for Moonstruck, Plein Jeu and Viole Conique….

After Constantine joined the ram group, it was time integrate the three beautiful girls (who arrived from Sheltering Pines with him) into the main group of ewes. But for a while after we moved Constantine out, we put the three girls in a separate paddock, so that I could spoil them a bit. Since Moonstruck had just weaned her lambs as she came here in July, I wanted to give her some extra groceries. And hadn’t wanted to give them grain or treats when Constantine was there; he was sure to want his share!

Plein Jeu already was a sweet friendly girl, and Conique soon learned to trust me. During the 2 weeks that they lived just beside the house, Moonstruck (self-possessed and cautious) decided that I was worth knowing, and took grain, and apple and carrot treats from my hand…and in close quarters, would let me pet her. We touched noses and became friends.

But I worried about Moonstruck being introduced to the rest of the ewe flock…that being an older ewe, she would be stressed by the hazing that they were all going to get.

I needn’t have worried!

It was like putting a new queen bee into the hive…Moonstruck marched over to the two horned ewes in the group and said (but without any physical indication), “I’ll be in charge here now”. Marla and a number of other ewes questioned her:

She only pushed away those who pushed on her…but oh, so effectively!

Then one of our katmogets, Maia (one ewe too many, the last straw, really) questioned Moonstruck’s presence there…Moonstruck chased her! Maia got the message.

Jeu and Conique kept low profiles during all this, and when one of the senior ewes threatened Moonstruck, they came running to me for solace….followed by an interested Bess.

Soon Moonstruck had established her territory

and the two younger ewes joined her grazing.

All is peaceful in the ewe-flock and Moonstruck is in charge….she is happy about that!