The Must Haves

Ok, Ok, back to the must haves to get this adventure going.
Well I know what you're thinking the first thing is sheep.

No it's not, unless you thought I could keep them in my bathroom.

We needed land. Not just any land either, it had to support the amount of sheep we decided we needed......ah, how many sheep do we need? It seemed like every time we found an answer to one question another would arise.

 We're back to the sheep again.

I'm going to save you the headaches we went through trying to figure all this out and let you know what we came up with.

grass lots of grass

Sheep Camp is a beautiful location near the city limits. It has a lush grazing pasture, that is big enough to not only feed the sheep but allow us to get several cuttings of grass hay off it during the growing season. It has a smaller pasture with several old growth trees and fresh water. The lady next door is allowing us to use her barn for lambing season (my favorite and busiest time of the year).

FYI: Lambing season will be around the middle of February at the Sheep Camp.

Now we're back to the sheep again.

We have 6 polled Dorset ewes ( polled for you who do not know, means without horns.) breed to a Hampshire ram. We also have 6 horned Dorset ewes  breed to a horned Dorset ram (those are the rams with the big curly horns). I think these are my favorite out of the bunch.

The ewe on the right is polled,
the two next to her on the left is horned

This is our Spring Ram

We also have purchased 2 North Country Cheviot rams for our next breeding session. These boys are a hardy Scottish breed built just right for our damp coastal climate. They also have booty ;) this means more muscle on the back side. More muscle more meat.

This is our Fall Ram

If you saw the movie "Babe", these are the same kind used in it. NO, you will not see me out herding the sheep with a pig....I hope.

BaaRamEwe! BaaRamEwe!... no it doesn't work I still can't talk with the sheep. I talk to them but I'm sure that's a post for a psychology blog somewhere.      

Wish List and Must Haves

When Owner asked me to tell him what I had to have to start up the Sheep Camp, it was easy....at first.

Like a kid in a candy shop or one looking through a Christmas catalog it did not take long for my list of must have turned into a wish list. Things I really did not need but, boy! I would really like to have.

Wish List
Sheepherder's wagon used for hundreds of years.
Still used today.
Modern wagons come ready to be polled by truck or horse, in field or freeway.

Wagons come with antique wood or electric cook stoves.

Wish List
My own Aussies!

Isn't that how most of us get into trouble with our credit cards? or Life itself? So I tore up the wish list and went back to the must haves.

Must Have
Sheep tilt table, tips sheep on their side so you can trim hooves, doctor, or vaccinate.
This saves your back and undue stress to the animal.

After all who are we really doing this for...the kids, the community, or ourselves?

Keeping the operation cost down keeps the price down. I think someone needs to remind America's heads of industry and finances of this the next time they want to take a corporate vacation to Maui after receiving a bailout. 

Beginning an Adventure

My name is Cyndie (I'm the Shepherdess) and a while back a local businessman and friend approached me about going on an adventure. See he has a dog, a Boarder Collie by the name of Duke, whom he had been training to trial. Trial for those of you who may not know is herding a flock of something, in Duke's case sheep for  competition

This is me on a good day

BUT, my friend (we'll refer to him as the Owner from now on) did not have a flock of sheep to practice with nor did he know much about sheep. That is where I came in to the picture. See I am a local livestock 4-H leader and have been raising and handling market sheep for quite a few years on a very small scale. That is about to change.

The start of our flock

See Owner has a vision, not only to bring a flock of sheep into our county which does not have many flocks or known for being sheep country,





but to provide lambs for local 4-H and FFA members to purchase for their projects for the county fair (one of the best county fairs in the Pacific Northwest).

The vision goes on. He would like the whole adventure to be a learning opportunity for our local kids.

The vision does not stop there. He also hopes to be able to provide local grass fed lambs to our community.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any bigger it does! He also hopes that someday that dog trials could be held in our area bring another much needed business opportunity to our small rural community.


I keep saying he but it is both our dream. So how does this work?  Add one Owner + one Shepherdess + two understanding families + a lot of hard work + a lot of trial and error = 

Adventure at the Sheep Camp!!