The header picture for my blog is... you guessed it...me, age about 3-1/2 helping mom and dad do the chores. Since mom got the Kodac out to the record the event suggests it was early in my bottle feeding career which lasted I'm told, 2 springs. There were lots and lots of lambs to feed (and no doubt I had help) and I remember doing this as if it were yesterday. No matter how many there were I named them all and would sit for hours letting them climb all over me, push me over and chew on my hair. We didn't actually own any mature sheep; these lambs were "bummers" (orphaned, abandoned, undersized or lambs born too late to go with the flock to summer pasture) brought to us by the local shepherds to raise in exchange for as much lamb as we could eat. In the fall the ewe lambs were returned to the main flock when it came back to the valley and the winter pastures. I didn't know where all the ram lambs disappeared to but over night their numbers would drop. Anyhow, I was hooked and 6 decades later I'm still occasionally bottle feeding babies and everyday feeding, watering and caring for over 100 ewes and year round 30 or so lambs.
Another early sheep memory forever stored in my brain was sitting with my dad in our old truck eating cheese, crackers, sardines and drinking beer ("don't tell mom") while an endless sea of sheep flowed around us. He had no choice but to stop in the middle of the highway while they passed. Sometimes one of the shepherds would rein his horse over by the truck to talk to my dad and say hi to me. You knew when the flock was almost passed when the horse drawn supply, water, and cook wagons came into view. Once all were safely passed, off we'd go on our way to town or back home.
The makeup of the flock depended on the time of the year and the direction they were headed. In the spring when the flocks were headed southeast the lambs would be tagging closely beside their mothers and the ewes were "big" (my explanation for a sheep in "full fleece"). I didn't know it then but their first stop would be at one of the many shearing sheds where they were shorn of their at that time valuable winter coats. On the return trip in the fall they were "smaller" and most of the lambs were gone (shipped off to packing plants in the Midwest mostly by rail car) with only the replacement ewe lambs making the return trip with the ewes. I can't be sure I would have realized the ewe lambs were still part of the flock back then as they would no longer look like lambs but be close in size to the mature sheep and no longer tagging along with their mothers.
The makeup of the flock depended on the time of the year and the direction they were headed. In the spring when the flocks were headed southeast the lambs would be tagging closely beside their mothers and the ewes were "big" (my explanation for a sheep in "full fleece"). I didn't know it then but their first stop would be at one of the many shearing sheds where they were shorn of their at that time valuable winter coats. On the return trip in the fall they were "smaller" and most of the lambs were gone (shipped off to packing plants in the Midwest mostly by rail car) with only the replacement ewe lambs making the return trip with the ewes. I can't be sure I would have realized the ewe lambs were still part of the flock back then as they would no longer look like lambs but be close in size to the mature sheep and no longer tagging along with their mothers.
Was this a dream and if not where were we in some European country side? No it was around 1950 in south eastern Washington State (but it could just as easily have been in any of several of the western states or provinces). All that remains of the many flocks numbering in the 10's of thousands in the western US is the Pendleton Woolen Mill on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. In southern BC, which was once also home to many large flocks, what remains is an ageing building in Kamloops once home to the BC Sheep and Wool Commission.
There are still some big flocks in Canada but right now the average Canadian flock is 72 ewes and in BC it's 17. What happened to all the sheep? Well it's complicated.....next post I will try and share some of what happened to them with you.
If you have any sheep tales from the past to tell or would like to comment on this post please do so.
There are still some big flocks in Canada but right now the average Canadian flock is 72 ewes and in BC it's 17. What happened to all the sheep? Well it's complicated.....next post I will try and share some of what happened to them with you.
If you have any sheep tales from the past to tell or would like to comment on this post please do so.
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