Notes From Zone 4

We had a sad start to the new year. Raven and Sue killed Panic overnight. We went out this morning to feed them, and he was dead in the pen. And now the two survivors seem to be getting along. (They’re still a mite prickly you understand, but no real fighting.)

We’d started a thread on Homesteading Today. We’d already gotten one message mentioning that the poster was worried about our little guy, and yesterday someone else picked up on the fact that Raven attacked a wether and said that she wouldn’t keep a ram like that.

(We’d also already pretty well figured out that the reason the previous owners got such a deal on Raven was his temperament. No matter how wonderful his lambs are, he’s trouble.)

We did receive a good bit of advice that would have worked had we been able to carry it out. Unfortunately it all involved more pens, and the appropriate flavors of sheep to put in them. Basically, we took on too many sheep, too fast. We don’t have pens, we don’t even have cleared land to put pens on.

We really need to stop and think. Make some plans with realistic budgets and schedules, and follow through. It’s one thing to compost some seed potatoes because we didn’t get them planted. But Panic was a cute (if neurotic) little critter, Panic was an expensive little critter, and Panic’s lambs would have been valuable additions to the flock. We really have to figure out what we’re doing here.