http://www.valhallahills.com Adventures with Sheep and Greener Pastures Wed, 13 May 2009 19:42:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Once you start raising sheep, you'll discover that you need to become a part-time vet.  When there's a medical emergency, there just isn't time to call the veterinarian.  And at least where I live, it's even harder to find a vet who will even see sheep.  I tricked one once ... http://www.valhallahills.com/20-items-for-your-emergency-kit/ Reposted from RaisingCreativeChildren.com with permission by the author, Lorelei Sieja. Today is Earth Day, so I thought it appropriate to post a short article on the cleansers I use, which are affordable, efficient, and non-toxic to the planet. Nearly everything around the house can be cleaned with one of three basic cleansers.  ... http://www.valhallahills.com/earth-friendly-cleaning-products/ My mom is responsible for getting me into this sheepy mess. She tried to encourage me to discover my interests as I was growing up. She's say things like, "Maybe you'd like to be a veterinarian?" I loved animals, had practically memorized the Animal Planet, and was ... http://www.valhallahills.com/fsa-loans/ Just in case you haven't been motivated enough to find a source for food grade diatomaceous earth in your area, I thought I'd share a few more uses for this naturally occuring product. DE is the fossilized remains of tiny hard-shelled algae. It puts the scratch in scouring ... http://www.valhallahills.com/more-uses-for-de/ Some sheep breeds, like my Icelandics, are available in two styles: with or without horns. Actually, the correct term is "polled" (no horns), or horned. Polled sheep are born that way. It is not normal practice to disbud sheep, the process of burning off little horn stubs ... http://www.valhallahills.com/getting-a-handle-on-horns/ Our pastures were really old. They hadn't been grazed in thirty years, as the land had been in a government set-aside program. In fact, there was hardly any grass at all. There were shoulder-high blackberry brambles, goldenrod just as tall, some birch and alder saplings, dozens of ... http://www.valhallahills.com/spring-burn/ It is very hard to raise sheep organically, because of their susceptibility to internal parasites. If you have a closed flock (never take your sheep off your property, never show sheep, never bring in new sheep, and never have tourists on your farm) and you religiously practice managed intensive ... http://www.valhallahills.com/de-for-deworming/ Today's topic is a short one. I mentioned frost seeding yesterday, and thought I might need to explain that. Frost seeding is, basically, just what it sounds like. You spread seed across a semi-frozen pasture just as the frost is leaving the ground. But there is ... http://www.valhallahills.com/frost-seeding/ When we first got into sheep, everywhere we went we were being drilled on managed intensive grazing. It seemed pretty basic to me. I remember in grade school learning about how important it was to rotate crops, to let the ground recover and improve soil health. Rotating ... http://www.valhallahills.com/pasture-rotation/ Before bringing your sheep home, you'll want to plan out your strategy for protecting them from predation. Coyotes and stray dogs alike will want to chase your sheep, nip at them, eat them if they're hungry. Stray dogs are actually more of a nuissance, since even if they ... http://www.valhallahills.com/protection-from-predators/