Breeding season is in full swing

Tuesday evening we turned the rams in with the ewes. I also tested out the one person operation of the chute. I sorted the ewes into three groups while Brian finished setting up the fence. It worked great! We put them in three groups because we want to keep the rams from breeding their own daughters. It is a bit more work to manage three groups, but it is an effective way to avoid too much inbreeding.

As expected, Thorne went right to work. By Wednesday evening he had already marked 9 ewes! Bruce had marked 3, and Suffy hadn't gotten any yet. But, by Thursday evening he had figured it out and marked his first ewe, a nice looking 2-year-old. As of today Thorne is still in the lead, but he's the most experienced, so that's not entirely unexpected. You would think Bruce would have this figured out by now, but some guys are slow learners...

Here's a shot of Suffy that shows his marking harness. When he mounts a ewe, the crayon rubs off on the wool on her rump. These are really neat inventions that let us keep track of when each ewe is marked and get a really good idea of each due date. We use a series of crayons, this year it will be red, green, purple. We change them every 17 days, which is the average cycle length in sheep, so that if a ewe doesn't settle on the first attempt it will be very obvious when she is marked during a later cycle because she will have a different colored mark.

I took some pictures of Bruce and Thorne too, but it was too late in the evening and they didn't turn out very well. I'll keep trying. That's one thing about breeding season, I get to spend a lot of time watching the sheep since we have to check for marks every day.

Tonight is the full moon, but the moon has been beautiful all week.

Last night was our first killing frost, with an overnight low of 27. We had experienced three nights that flirted with 32 degrees, but that wasn't enough to kill any of the flowers or the peppers. This frost is almost two weeks later than usual, and I have enjoyed the unexpected blessing. I figured we had to be due soon, so Thursday evening I brought in the remaining dahlia blooms, an end-of-season ritual I have come to enjoy. I enjoyed it even more than usual this year because I cut flowers in daylight and a tee-shirt instead of by headlamp wearing a coat and gloves! I added the cosmos to fill out the bouquet, and because I wasn't sure how the cold would affect them. Turns out they came through pretty well; a little peaked, but not dead. Now I have a bunch more work to do, lifting all of the dahlia and cana tubers and putting them in the basement for the winter.
A brief note on the eggs in the incubator. I candled them again this evening. I think they are progressing, but I don't really know what I'm looking at...all I saw was dark blobs that took up much of the egg. I will turn the automatic turner off and take it out late next week, and time will tell!