Skull and Horns, Tragic Tale of Two Brothers

~~~Poor Thistle, this is all I have of him, his skull, complete with his amazing four horns! He died a tragic death at the tender age of 16 months. Victim of his brothers violence!~~~

~"Look on it's broken arch, it's ruined wall, it's chambers desolate, it's portals foul; yes, this was once ambition's airy hall. The dome of thought, the palace of the soul-" Lord Byron~Here is Thistle(below), shortly before the dastardly deed was done. I WAS going to take Thistle to the Fair for exhibit. Thistle was my choice of ram for the honor of being admired and gawked at for 5 days. Alas, his brother way laid my plans. Mind you, I do not credit Goth with devious plans , just being guilty of being bigger, badder, and goring his brother to death!

~"Beneath this stone there lies a skull, Which when it breathed was monstrous dull, But nor tis' dead and doomed to rot, this skull's as wise, pray is it not ? " Shakespeare

~Here ( below ) is the big guy, the bully, the goring , ramming destroyer . ( you should see our fences ! ) Goth and Thistle were playing the way rams do, that is to say...they were head butting and ramming each other. Really, rams do this for FUN ! Goth runs full force into humongous trees just for fun. Well, poor Thistle got his beautiful horns stuck in a hay feeder and Goth pierced Thistle's lung with his horns. Poor Thistle, he died. ~The day of the foul deed was foul indeed. It was one of those rare summers that temperatures exceeded 90 degrees. My beautiful ram was dead. But there was no way I was going to bury those magnificent horns and skull. I wanted to keep them. My poor Hubby was outside in the heat, untangling Thistles horns from the feeder, while trying not to inhale the smell nature takes on when decomposing an animal, and then he saved the head for me....I love that man ! ~Thistle AND Goth went to the fair . Goth entertains the crowds, Thistle hangs on the wall behind him over a picture of himself in better times, as a grim reminder of the power of a ram, EVEN WHEN HE IS HAVING FUN !

~" Are you talking about me ? "~

~I thought I would end this post with a very interesting tale from the Bible. A tale that has bones and skeletons coming to life ! "Then he said to me, " Prophesy to these bones and say to them; 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones; I will make life enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded;And as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling sound,and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. .......Then He said to me, ' Prophesy to the breath, prophesy son of man, and say to it, " This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds oh breath; and breathe into these slain, that they may live." So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath entered them, they came to life and stood up on their feet- a vast army." Ezekiel 37:4-9

~You can read the rest for yourself!~ ~Be safe and thankful this season . Thankful for the bounty we have and the life you've been granted. Use wisely...and if you find yourself face to face with a ram....well....DON'T !~ This is a re-post of a true tale from Cedar Pond.

How To Shelter A Shelter From A Battering Ram

Goth, our big boy here, has destroyed many fences , gates, trees, and even another ram. We have tried to provide him with shelter to protect him from the rain but he has taken out solidly installed corner posts on buildings and the shelters over the years. He, his father and grandfathers killed the huge cottonwood trees in the ram pen by ramming them, for fun. See this post*Goth And The Spot of Ugliness. For a few years I have had this idea for a perfect shelter for rams, bulls and horses ( our sons' horses also contributed to taking out the corners of shelters) but not being any good at all in carpentry or building construction, and knowing my husband has many, many other more needful things to do in spite of my pleading, well, nagging~ my bright idea went undone. I have even spent many hours on-line looking for ready-made shelters of my simple design. I am sure there are many of you who read this ( or not) who will exclaim this is an old idea and YOU might have even incorporated it, but no one has ventured forth with this plan as of yet,( and I have asked many people on-line and in the sheep business around here)....so here is finally, the culmination of my idea and my husband and youngest son's handiwork. THANK-YOU! My husband and son have so many more important things to be doing, but our ram pen is right by the turn-around in our driveway. You see it right away and I don't like such destruction , ripped tarps, bashed in fences, demolished and dead trees to be the first thing so many people see.Hey, I don't like seeing it myself, but I do want to keep Goth. Above is the beginning of the structure. A structure supported by 3, THREE posts, all on the outside of the fence.See, if there are NO posts inside the fence, the ram cannot bash the post and cause the shelter to lean and eventually fall~ which has been the demise of all our previous sheep shelters. You can see on the other side of the fence, the huge wet hay and manure pile our youngest son cleaned out of the pen for me, with a bit of help from our oldest Grandson and my husband. This build-up is from Goth and the 4 ewes that spent the fall with him. I could not get into the pen to clean because I did not want Goth to be tempted to ram me. After our son helped my husband get off to a good start on the shelter my husband finished it, a bit at a time. He is a busy man and the weather has been bad. He had me be the watch-out just in case Goth took an interest in him and the bright green ladder.You can see part of Goth in the background of the picture above, and you can see the trunks of the very dead cottonwood trees killed by years of ramming.

My dear husband!

And here is my Valentine's present this year , the 3 post ram shelter that looks nice! I can also clean out the manure and wet hay stems with a 3 pronged forked hoe, from the outside of the fence~ yay! No risking life to have a clean ram pen. What is funny is that until my husband could get to finishing the roof, he had one strip of the corrugated metal roofing on the top and Goth would position himself perfectly under the strip to keep himself dry. He's not so dumb after all.

My husband presented me with a dozen red roses and card to melt my heart yesterday. Then he finished my ram shelter ~thank-you Jim, I love you!

Torque On The Table

This is my ram, Torque,shortly after a shearing when he was young and still behaving himself. Torque was thus named because of the shape and location of his two lower horns which fit the definition of the word 'Torque' perfectly :"natural ring or collar, as on the neck" Funk & Wagnall's Dictionary. Torque became downright dangerous ( click here* to read of his demise) and was dispatched shortly after shearing almost 2 years ago. I kept all Torque's wool separate so I could spin him up! This wool is a charcoal gray, which is Torque's white wool and black wool washed and then carded ( combed) together into wool batts, ready for me to spin.

Look at how much 2 ply hand~spun wool his fleece provided!

I began weaving a table~runner of Torque's wool as soon as I set the ply on the last skein of his yarn. I used some hand~spun wool of a different color and sheep for the accent stripes in my table~runner.

Look~ I finished the table-runner, finally! It is long enough to hang over the ends of our table even with the table extension put in. I could not help but thoroughly enjoy singing this little verse I made up while I spun and wove Torque's wool........

Torque on the table,

Torque on the wall,

Torque in the stew pot,

Torque enough for all! See, there are 4 skeins of 2-ply wool left over!

Spotted Lambs! O.K., Spotted Lamb....

~I was outside in my jammies around 2:00a.m. setting up my new mama and baby in their temporary pen. Fresh alfalfa, fresh water, clean bedding. Then I dipped the umbilical area of the new baby girl lamb ( ewe) with iodine and left her with her mom, Bide-a-Wee's Chicory.~

~Below is her brother, born late last spring, Cedar Pond's Vandal. He is a big boy, and he is only 9 months old. He is Goth's little brother, they have the same dad.~

~Here ( below ) is Goth, he is the father of this new little lamb.~

~"Keep the ewe and her lamb in a pen together until you have ear marked and docked the tail of the lamb. Three days is a good rule." Ingrid Painter JACOB SHEEP IN AMERICA Blessings: lambs, health enough to care for my sheep

Goth and the Spot of Ugliness, Part II

~Hubby is tying a wood pallet in front of our 100% lifetime guaranteed livestock gate.This is to prevent Goth from destroying the gate.~~We have mended the breaks in the fence, tied gates firmly, and replaced tarps to help prevent Goth from seeing the ewes ( girl sheep) on the other side. When he sees the ewes he tries to get to them, ramming and ramming, and ramming!The tarps do slow him down just a bit.The ram mask also helps by obstructing any straight-ahead vision he has and eliminating the full force straight on ramming. However, Goth still rams , or butts, or runs head on into anything he feels like ramming.He is , after all, a RAM! Rams don't do a lot of thinking, just what they are hardwired to do, RAM! Isn't this just a lovely photo? My oh my, tarps are just what every red neck family needs in their landscaping.

~Goth is checking out his repaired pen. Hmmm, tarps are secure. There is a board in place to lessen the force of a head-on ram, but still.....Goth knows there are ewes and ram lambs on the other side of this tarp. He is not THAT stupid to think they are gone, because his nose knows.

~Goth finds a place to peek at the ewes feeding close by. This is the gate Hubby just secured.~

~Goth is pretty restless. We have just pulled him out of the pen where he reigned supreme over the ewes. Now he is alone and he checks out every possible entry back into the ewe pen. ~Fortunately, we have a secret weapon! We have pastured one of our ewes, Delilah (half Jacob, half Romney ) at the home of Hubby's sister and her husband who live next door. Delilah was not helpful in our attempt to walk her next door to our home, and as she is a bit too heavy to drag over, Hubby and brother Thom hauled her in a wheel barrow. Look at Goth ! He is interested. He is waiting, and we release Delilah into Goth's pen. ~There you go. Goth is happy. Delilah is happy.There will be late spring lambs, and hopefully Delilah will keep Goth company long enough to spare our temporary fix on the fencing so we can do a really good job of it. Anyway, the secret weapon is working for now.

~The happy couple, Goth and Delilah( above ).~

~But be warned, he is still checking out his options and escape and destruction are only a head butt away! ~ Thank-you everyone for your comments and concerns regarding Goth. You are right, he is very dangerous. He is dangerous because he is a ram. Any and all rams are dangerous, tame or not, horned or not. Their sole purpose is to reproduce and get to the girl sheep any way possible. I do not, and never will, trust Goth. I do not enter into any pens containing Goth. We have worked out a system of feeding and penning Goth from the outside of his pen. He has not actively sought me out to ram, and I do not intend to give him a chance. However, if he does, or becomes too much more destructive he will be making the appointment at the taxidermist's, where his father is right now. Yup, Goth's father Torque became too aggressive and dangerous...Hubby dispatched him to the joy and relief of our grandchildren, and he should be coming home within the next few months, ready to be mounted on our wall. Blessings: keeping sheep, fences, lambs, good neighbors we're related to, the cat peacefully snoring next to me as I write this post

Danger , Ram !

~~~Rams are dangerous! Yes, football team included. Why do you think they are named the Rams ? I try to make sure we are near Goth's pen at all times because rams are dangerous and unpredictable. It is hard for people who don't know much about sheep to fully appreciate the hazard the AVERAGE ram poses. ~~~~~~This gentleman was here at the fair with his family. As they were commenting on Goth's horns and I had to ask someone near Goth's pen to please don't lean over Goth and pet him, this gentleman's family asked him to tell me about his grandfather. Thus, Mr. Philip Griego told me his great-grandfather from Weston, Colorado, had sheep and goats. His g-grandfather was separating the sheep and goats and turning his back to usher a sheep out a gate or door, the ram rammed the g-grandfather in the back. Just like that, a split second of turning his back on the ram, and he was rammed so hard it broke his back and killed him ! ~~~This is why I spend a lot of time very near Goth's pen. I spin Goth's wool . You can see the wool I dyed turquoise. I think it is spinning into a pretty yarn. Any way, I sit here, spinning, and answer questions about Jacob sheep, or as many people say "spotted goats", and tell people NOT to pet Goth, or put their babies over the rail for a good look, or let their kids dangle over the rail, or...you get the message. ~~~You'd better pay attention, because Goth is ready to go home and he is cranky...so come on and MAKE HIS DAY ! ~~~Having fun at the fair, and we haul home tomorrow. We will probably unload sheep and gear close to midnight and then...praise God, our son is on his way home and he is bringing his 4 daughters, our 4 granddaughters to live in Washington ! Thank-you Lord for a blessing that is priceless and long awaited ! See y'all at the fair .

Goth, The Destoyer

This is Cedar Pond's Goth. He is a 4 horned Jacob sheep. A male sheep is called a ram. Great name ! There is a reason a very tough truck is called the Dodge Ram. There is a reason a football team is called the Rams. There is a reason a battering ram, used to bash down castle gates, is called a battering ram....just observe a ram for awhile and you will know...just own a ram and for sure you will know!

In my first post I mentioned we like to keep nice pens...presentable pens. Well, Goth has his own pen very close to our driveway. If you drive round our turn-around in the driveway you cannot help but see Goth in all his horned majesty , in his abode of destruction. Goth has destroyed every fence, shelter, feeder, and gate within reach of his battering and apparently almost brainless head. What he lacks in brains is more than made up for with horns and sheer ram force.

So far Goth has not shown aggression toward us, though we would never turn our backs on him while in his pen, and we would NEVER EVER trust our ram. We always enter his pen with caution and a wheelbarrow between us. Even docile, hornless rams are very dangerous. I have a friend who had a beautiful and very docile ram that never attacked her, or showed aggression toward her ewes ( girl sheep). However, her ram destroyed every single 100% guaranteed indestructible farm gate on the property. Hence, my friends farm name : Broken Gate Farm.

As you can see from the picture of the beautiful tarp draped fence, Goth is a busy fellow. He wants to see the other sheep, so he bashes and rips. He stands on his back legs and stretches to catch a glimpse of the girls. Sometimes I watch him peer through small holes he has made with his horns....kind of funny to see that big head and rack peering through a small hole. Now all sheep experts and books recommend a 'ram buddy'. Give the ram company, usually a wether ( castrated male) to keep him company. Goth was raised with his even more magnificent brother, Thistle. One day Goth punctured Thistles' lung while they jousted, and Thistle is no more.Goth killed his brother. ( Cain and Able story for another time )

Goth was not even being aggressive when he killed his brother. They were playing. Observe the picture of the tree above. That big ol' cottonwood tree was bashed and rammed til it died. The tree did nothing at all to deserve this abuse, it was just there.Goth bashes it for fun. Every day.Over and over. I did give him some big rubber balls, and he bashes them around and seems to enjoy it.So far the rubber ball are the only things to have endured continued ramming.

Come August,Goth will be able to enter the ewe pen for breeding season. He will be happy and we will evaluate his pen and seek for a way to make it ram proof AND attractive. After all, zoos contain animals far more destructive and dangerous.....there has to be a way. Any suggestions ?

Meanwhile, we are raising up another ram lamb who is showing signs of bigger horns than Goth. The new ram will again be raised with a buddy or maybe TWO buddies. I am seriously considering naming another ram Vandal or Crash !

"As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. " from God , The Shepherd in Ezekiel 34:12