We have been having some beautiful above average temperatures again. This weather makes daily chores easier, and is the kind of weather that begs a person to enjoy it. 

The other day, I ventured down to some of the native prairie pasture we graze with three dogs in tow. We walked across the pasture, enjoying the sites and sounds of nature. 

There were some deer, which have obviously been frequenting this area, and some sharp-tailed grouse, but largely this land, in winter, is quiet. The creek running through is frozen, the songbirds that summer here are long gone for the winter and there is no hum of insects. It may seem barren to many, but this sleeping landscape will awaken in no time, and with it a variety of spring and summer work, leaving us wishing for the cool, simple days of winter.  

I attended our provincial sheep organization’s annual conference and AGM this past weekend. This is always an enjoyable time, it is a great opportunity to connect with fellow producers and learn some new information. This year, I was also presenting about abortion management. The information seemed to be well received, and there were positive comments about getting a producer’s prospective.

The conference is quite a change from my everyday routine. Normally, I spend a lot of the day alone and outside, but there I was indoors and surrounded by people. By the end of the weekend, when I reached my truck, I could tell I was tired and low on energy. As I drove away from the city and the traffic thinned, I started to feel myself rejuvenating. Watching the wildlife and landscape out my window, and seeing the open spaces with no people, I could feel the connection to nature return.

A connection with nature is overlooked so much in todays urban society. Being able to go where the only sounds are the wind, or the snow, or the call of a coyote, is a blessing that I appreciate more and more all the time. Spending time outdoors brings a balance to my life that I cannot imagine living without. 

The cold winter weather continues, discouraging any unnecessary work outdoors. Normally, I take a picture or two almost every day with the camera on my phone, but in this cold weather, my fingers prefer to stay inside warm mitts as much as possible. I did brave the chill on a couple of occasions however.  

This first picture was taken at the beginning of the week. The wind was blowing, making the temperatures feel somewhere in the -35 Celsius range. The cows are bale grazing now, but we opted to feed them in the lee of the portable wind breaks this day to give them a break

This picture was taken yesterday. I had just rolled out some hay for this group of sheep. If you look closely, you can see Thor looking on from the midst of the flock.

Winter weather seems to have arrived. Cold northwesterly winds are blowing and the temperature is dropping. Most of the animals found places out of the wind today, and the pigs are no exception. the sows are experts at piling up straw and burrowing into it when the weather is cool. 

 There are actually 4 pigs in this picture, although one is off to the right.

I loaded out most of the remainder of this years market lambs and the cull ewes today. We are left with a small group of lambs to butcher, a trailer load to sell direct to slaughter, and a few ewes that I kept to work the stock dogs with. These ewes are mostly border line culls, so if they end up bred it shouldn’t be a big issue. 

Waiting to get on the truck

These lambs were the smaller lambs, and unfortunately did not grow as much as I’d hoped since the other lambs were sold. They were out on pasture until this week, but obviously the quality wasn’t as good as I thought.  This fall has been busy and trying in many ways with the wet weather in October, extra cattle, and other jobs taking up more time than anticipated. So another job of feeding these lambs just didn’t fit in the day. At this point, all we can do is accept what we have, be glad they are healthy, and try to improve next year.

Ruza and Thor came to see what was happening to their sheep. Ruza took offence and barked at the truck for awhile, but alas, it didn’t give up the sheep.