All great gatherings start with good food.........especially if you want help! October 24th we had a gathering, a "flushing" gathering or should I say, a "Pre-Flushing" gathering.
Flushing is the practice of placing the ewes on an increasing plane of nutrition, that is, in a slight weight-gain situation, to prepare for breeding. Flushing is accomplished by supplementing the diet with grain. This system gets the ewes in better physical condition for breeding, it also helps to synchronize them by bringing them into heat at about the same time, which prevents long, strung-out lambing sessions. Flushing is also a factor in twinning, because with better nourishment the ewes are more likely to drop two or more ova. 
On this day we also like to trim hooves (which means catching, trimming and releasing), crutch(short trimming of the dock area for cleaner breeding), vaccinate, and check lower eyelids, gums and teeth. This gives me an overall idea of how the sheep are doing healthwise, along with basic "tidying" up for the breeding season.
Rockin' A Ranch was truly blessed this year with a heck of a turn-out of people. We had friends, family, grandkids, dogs and goats, all inclusive.
We trimmed hooves, crutched ewes, gave shots, all in about two hours. Not bad considering how "flighty" my sheep are around anybody but us. Thus we had to have Jim B. from up the road at Lovelake Ranch(a nine section cattle ranch..........HUGE!) do some roping on a few sheep.
I must say, all the sheep looked healthy, some a lil' fatter than should be (my philosophy is to feed them well, not keep them lean), I'm slowly learning that my philosophy isn't necessarily the healthiest for the sheep. Large fat deposits mean ovarian fat, less ova development, you get the idea. But, to date our lambing season's are getting better and better with more and more lambs being dropped annually. 
We had two "novices" at work this year learning to trim hooves............Jared (our son) and Toby(our son-in-law).
I have to admit, our son-in-law did much better in the trimming department than our son(I'm thinkin' if something happened to the two of us, the boys would figure it out!). Toby has also been trained in law enforcement to draw blood for testing purposes.........so shots............"piece of cake for him." Now, if we can get Toby trained to not choke the sheep when he catches, and Jared to lighten up on the hoof trimmin', we'll be good to go. Handling takes time to learn, the less stress on the sheep, the happier and more cooperative they'll be the next time around.
Teaching someone to learn to respect the dignity of the animal, ease in handling, and the "zen" of guietness/slowness in ones gait, movements and speech is not an easy feat. However, you must teach because we can all use the help, especially as our flocks increase.
While a few of us were in dealing with sheep, Jared taught Coursey how to sit atop a goat, Jim B. taught Brady how to rope a dog, others stood by just to see how it's done. When the job was complete, my two grandsons and myself went in search of a cold one. We helped Mama get her goodies out of the car and started heating food. I cooked prior to this gathering for two days. I slow-smoked 17# of beef chuck over hickory, "The Man" got to pull the beef, we had scrumptious BBQ sauce, onion bunns, Jessica's mouth watering mustardy potato salad, Mama's marinated veggie salad, garlic bread, cowboy beans, Nopalito(Cactus Paddle salad), pickled goodies from my cellar/garden, jello salad, pies and cakes. Iced coolers of beer, water, tea, wine............oh yes, my hot spiced wine also, I think some of the younger crowd got a bit "silly" on this stuff.
Jared and Cai (our god daughters mama) hadn't seen one another in awhile, it was a nice reunion for them. Coursey (our youngest grandson) showed Mama his new cowboy boots..........
When most of the crowd left, my girlfriend Barbie and myself walked out to the barn near dusk, talked the talk all shepherdess's love to talk, hugged and called it an evening. I want to "Thank you" all for your help, your huge cunsumption of food, wit, ablility to get along with complete strangers and laugh, talk, enjoy! It was wonderful and it was FUN!
