Ma Natures Kindly Reminder

Mother Nature kindly reminded us this morning that winter is not over yet. We woke up to a solid blanket of white this morning. About 2 inches on the valley floor with around 8-10 inches up high. And early in the week it was really nice. On Monday it got up to around the mid 60's. Then this cold front moved through last night. But spring is knocking on the door. As you see in the first photo the grass is really greening up. Makes the livestock happy! And today was beautiful, crystal clear not a cloud in the sky, and most importantly CALM. We've had a bit of wind the past week and today was dead calm which was nice. We've just been moving some mobs of sheep around getting ready for shearing. That starts Monday morning. September will be a busy month for sure.

There's the Hares

Did a bit of hunting this weekend. Left the house about an hour before daylight yesterday. Upon coming to the first creek I looked out onto the wide gravel bed and in the predawn darkness saw two animals. It took my brain about 4-5 seconds to realize what I was looking at. Pigs!! Two wild boar. At that point I was scrambling to get my pack off and the gun loaded. By that time they had crossed the creek and disappeared. No shots fired. Hiking further up the creek I seen 4 Red Deer. Could have shot two of them but they were a spike and a hind (female). A bit farther up I spotted a nice Chamois laying across the canyon. They're a type of goat-antelope native to the European Alps. Could only get about 3-400 yards from it as I ran out of cover. Fired a couple of shots but missed. Continuing farther up at the headwaters of the creek I spotted 3 spike Red Deer. Again had good shot opportunity but passed. All in all I hiked up the creek about 5 miles. So a easy 10 mile day. And I was gone right at 13 hours. But a great day. Seen 8 Red Deer, 1 Chamois, and 2 Wild Boar. Just great to see so many critters.

After missing the Chamois yesterday I figured it would be good to shoot the gun. So I took Oscar and we did a bit of target shooting first. Then went and shot some Hares. As I suspected the gun (.270) was off quite a bit. Got that dialed in to avoid any more misses. Then Oscar shot the .17 cal. After confirming that is was shooting on target we got down to business shooting Hares. I shot 7 and he shot 1. His first hare and he drilled it from 93 yards. Not sure who was more excited, him or me! A really fun afternoon.

112%

The percentage rate of bred ewes that we scanned today. Considering that some are bearing twins, and some no lamb, when you average it together its around 112%. I hope that makes sense. Today was a beautiful day. Was real foggy first thing in the morning as you can see from the first photo. That's the sun rising through the fog. The little tent is where the guy running the scanner sits. We run the sheep in there, he scans them, then lets them out two different ways according to whether they have twins, single, or are dry. We did about 1400 today and it took around 3 hours. So they go through pretty fast. If you're wondering what I'm holding in my hand? It's a short section of plastic pipe with a plastic shopping bag tied on the end. You wave/shake it at sheep to get them to move. One more mob to scan tomorrow, then shearing starts September 2nd.

Dog Tuckers

Dog Tucker you're wondering? What's that? Tucker is a common Kiwi slang term for food. So you have plenty of tucker in the fridge, and its also what dogs eat. So Dog Tuckers on a high country sheep station are old, sick, lame sheep that you butcher for the dogs to eat. Last week Angel and I killed 8 one morning. So the dogs will be fed well. We cut it up and freeze the meat. They get fed it raw, along with normal dry dog food. The past week has just been a lot of feeding, with some fencing and other odd jobs thrown in.
I did manage to go for a hike Saturday after getting the feeding done. Up the Cameron Creek to a Station hut called the Highland Home. Cameron Creek forms a boundary for the station and the hut is perhaps 5-6 miles from headquarters. It was built in the 30's I think and has been refurbished on the inside. The outside however they have left original. So it doesn't look like much but is very nice inside.
We're getting ready to start scanning the ewes this weekend. The vet will scan them and we'll separate them according to whether they are "open" no lamb, single bearing, or twin bearing. The twin bearing ewes will start getting priority feed. Scanning is a sign of the looming spring. Next step after that is shearing which will start the first of September. The days are getting noticeably longer, some birds that summer in the mountains here are returning, and I think everyone is looking forward to the end of winter!!

Horseless

Oh how I'm missing my horse. Especially after last week. We brought a bunch of the mixed age cows and heifers in to the yards. We "drafted" (sorted) them then vaccinated, did pour on lice treatment and selenium shots. And some got a copper bolus as well. It felt really good to be around cattle again just weird not being astride my buddy Shrider. To bad I can't bring him here. I'm sure he'd love it. But the cattle respond really well to you on foot and I'm enjoying the exercise. In the second to last photo you see them going over the bridge. I can tell you there is a sign on that bridge stating a 4 ton weight limit. It must hold at least 15 ton as there were at least 30 cows on it at once. No problem getting them to cross it though. They just walked right across. And lastly, anybody dare to guess how many sheep are in that photo?