First please let me introduce you to Duke, he was born when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were visiting Canada for the first time as a couple so hence the name. Duke is a large Suffolk ram that is pretty much king of the ram pen. He really isn't a mean sort; however he does like to get fed promptly and if you get between him and the feed trough he will move you!

To better facilitate growth and wellbeing in the sheep we did a ton of sorting this weekend. The recently weaned babies were sorted and bigger ones were put together, smaller “runts” were separated to better enable them to compete for feed.

The little ewe lamb pictured below is “Nicki 2” she is #317 the first new lamb that was my father’s day gift this year. She is named after a tiny black orphan lamb that my parents gave me as a birthday gift one year. She has strong Suffolk roots and hopefully has babies next year.

One of the hard things for me has been the “deaths” that happen frequently on the farm. There are numerous contributing factors. While this is part of it, is not an easy part, I felt for a poor ewe who didn’t survive the weaning process. Everything I tried to help her was too little too late.

Now that the last round of ewes has had their babies weaned it was time to “process” them and get them turned out to summer pasture; this included several immunizations, rounds of medicine and of course pedicures (some which hadn’t had them for a long time.) It was grueling, muscle numbing work. It also was an opportunity to separate a number of “culls” from the flock. These were loaded and taken to be shipped for meat. The following show the process right from the start of the sorting process to the final weighing of the culls at the feedlot where they will be shipped from.

Kelsey has been travelling most of the summer, time at Salmon Arm, Didsbury and then a week in Kelowna predated her recent trip to Manitoba to spend the next two weeks with my Mom and some of her relatives. She did however while passing through Calgary squeeze in a ride on Arizona and there is a picture of her jumping below.

The following are pictures of her arriving in Manitoba. I understand it was a good trip although the plane was tiny, full and the flight a little bumpy.

Finally in conclusion a little touch of cuteness to complete the post. There are several barn cats that help keep the mice at bay. A few of them had kittens this summer and due to the attention of Kelsey and the shepherds grandchildren some of them are very tame. The little fellow pictured below is my favorite and always comes to say hi as we are working on chores around the front of the barn.