FALL!

YAY! Fall is FINALLY here. I was beginning to think that summer was NEVER going to end!! This summer was a particularly nasty one here in Black River Falls. Lots of heat, humidity and BUGS! Flies, mosquitos, wasps, gnats...you name an annoying flying pest and we had it - in droves!!

The rain was especially good for my garden (not to mention all of the sheep manure I'd dumped on them last fall). My flowers were especially prolific this year, but silly me didn't think to take a picture of them at their peak of beauty! I'm not much of a gardener, so the weeds sometimes were as big as my flowers. Definitely not a garden worthy of a magazine photo shoot!

However, all of the rain was NOT good for my poor sheep. Their coats aren't a beautiful white anymore...and at times they were almost as brown as little Maggie (my only "black" sheep). Fortunately, Babydoll Southdowns are not prone to foot rot. With all of the mud we had this year, I think most breeds of sheep would have succumbed to that nasty infliction. That said, we did have a particularly bad year for worms. I try not to worm my sheep too often (for fear of drug resistance), but I definitely wormed my sheep this summer because of all of the rain. Evidently one time wasn't enough, because my ram lamb - Keegan - started losing condition and "blowing" (losing) his wool. A fecal test showed a high worm count, as well as coccidia. Time for another worming (with Valbazen this time) and sulfa to treat the coccidiosis. Yippee! The last time I was rounding the sheep up for worming my husband was watching. After a few minutes he said "I don't know whether to go get the camera or put on my overalls and help!"

I'll try to post photos soon - even of poor Keegan...who looks like a poodle with a bad haircut!!