Lone Roan Ranch

We owe a big thank you to Jay at Terry Farms for being so unbelievably kind, helpful and supportive. He taught us how to castrate our boars, gave advice and encouraged us in so many ways.

This is how the farming community ought to be. He sets the bar high and we sure appreciate him taking the time to come lend a hand and share knowledge.

The piglets are growing so much already!!

Apple gave us a beautiful litter of American spot x GOS! The barn is filled with so much cuteness… so, unfortunately, our productivity has decreased exponentially. We stand over the stall staring at spotty babies more than getting anything done. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Sadly, the outcome was one of those tough ones for our Maple girl. With full transparency, as to show the brutal realities of farm life and how things are sometimes out of our control— despite our best efforts and interventions, under our vet’s guidance, we lost her. She had one little girl piglet and could not get anymore past her pelvis. We struggled to pull two more, and she went downhill fast. She simply could not get them out. It was a huge, unexpected loss and we’re still reeling from it. It isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, and this was one of those things that was a conformational error leading to a tragic outcome.

The silver lining is Apple did, in fact, take Maple’s little girl and has been a very mindful, careful momma. She’s nursing well and snuggles right in there with the rest of the crew. Very thankful for that!

I love the just barely fuzzy stage of fleece growth. 😆

You can still see that luster coming through as the sun sets and makes them glow!

We’ve been busting tail in this heat to get two more stalls built in the barn so we could get our spot gilts pulled up a week before farrowing! They have fans for the heat this week and we’ve got our Premier 1 safe heat lamps ready to roll for the piglet’s corner (will put boards up for that in the next day or two).

Mission accomplished. They are in! 🙌🏻

Please ignore our fancy temporary pallet doors. 😆

Eventually these stalls will be finished out on the top half to accommodate our horses, as well. But the bones are there! There is only one stall left to be built and the 6 stall barn will officially be a 6 stall barn! 🥳

Shearing day for the fall is done, conquered and checked off the list! ✅

Lots of prep and set up goes into a shearing day, but boy, did it move right along today. The whole process was smooth, quick and stress free. We’ve finally nailed down a system to work the ewes that we are quite happy with and it made all the difference!

Huge thanks to Christy at Sharp Shear’n She was fantastic! So gentle, consistent and efficient. We were done with 62 head by just after noon!

We all enjoyed a pulled pork lunch off the smoker and got to wrap up just in time for the worst of the heat this afternoon!

Another shoutout to one of my best friends Brook and her crew, and to our Franklin family for the extra hands making today such a success! We love a shearing day full of family & friends, kiddos running and playing, good food, a huge pile of pretty wool bagged up, and happy, healthy sheep! 🤎

All the ewes got their toes did last night. 💅🏻

I wish they all hit the snooze button like Pearl does when she gets her pedicure. 🫣

Me: *tries to get good photos of the available spring ewe lambs*

The spring ewe lambs giving me the middle finger: