Rainy Weather

It appears that the Pacific maritime influences have returned to dominate our weather. In other words - it's going to rain a lot. That's OK and is what we should expect and welcome. The natural grasses in our pastures sure seem to thrive with a bit of rain. And to tell the truth, this Winter has been a bit on the dry side. As opposed to last year, I have yet to plow any snow and the sheep have yet to restrict themselves to the barn. However, they sure seem to enjoy loafing under the lean-to and chew their cud while it rains. If they're hungry enough and there are enough goodies out in the pasture, they're quick to ignore the rain and will stand out in the worst downpour.

The other day, before the rains settled in, I did a thorough cleaning of the barn. I wanted to get this done to ensure the sheep had clean bedding from this point until we shear on February 6th. Clean bedding means clean fleece and clean fleece makes wool processing, that comes later, much easier. I spread all this nutrituous recylable onto the middle pasture and lightly disced it in. I've chosen not to disturb the soil too much and have yet to turn it over by plowing, preferring to preserve the natural microbial component, and working with what Nature provided me when we adopted this piece of land. It may be a bit slower process to get to the most productive forage for our sheep but I believe in the long run it will pay off. I figure the moles will do whatever deep turning of the soil that is needed. Any way, I felt pretty smart as I parked the disc and watched the new rain fall on the newly scratched soil and light spread of sheep manure.

- Jeff