I habe a 'safe pen' for Ira andd Ernie--(Ram.wether) Built out of necessity due to the fence being knowed both down and out! This is basically a very quickly [put together 4 x 8 pen, solid plywood on three sides, wioth a lattice panel yop. it is slightly taller than the pallet that acts as a door to the pen. Of course, to get the boys in it at night, I have to shine a flashlight into it, so they can see properly-- they know it is a 'safe' place-- but they like to make sure-- This is where they have to be right now, when no one is around to supervise at night-- I have been moving a chain link dog run around for them to weed whack around trees-- they defineitely prefer weeds to grasses. It has been so wet here lately-- in fact, talking to a neighbor who raises cows, donkewys, and ponies--she stated, as has anyone else in the area, this is the craziest summer they have seen in an extrememly long time. The first cuttings of hay are just getting in-- With all this rain and mucky soil, I now am worried about foot rot. I ams tartong a small paying job tomorrow, and I am thinking of nuying a footbath trough for the boys to walk through at least once a day. The pnly way right now to endure dry feet is to keep them locked up-- and lets face it-- they need exercise!they wont browse graze in areas where they are standing in water, and the higher areas are slick with clay mud. Within the next week, Iwill have run out of tree areas that are high enough to consider putting them near--and the other areas are either all grass-- which they won't touch until they have knocked it into the mud or are under 6 inches of water. So, how do I prevent Foot rot with ALL this water mess? I gotta let them boys out sometime-- I did not want to be feeding hay when there is plenty of food outside!!
I am desperately trying to figure a way to send you guys some of our rain..and I am looking for a way to raise the barn floor a bit-- my brother has decided he will make the horse stall the first part of the barn to complete, so that threre will be plewnty of room in the fall for addtional critters-- I caught him talking to the boys a few days ago-- he wont admit it, but hey--- and a few of his buddies are asking when the boys will be turned into gyros!!! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ This message is from the blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
