Not much gets done some days.

Monday was one of those days. We hustled hard first thing to get to the farm early, because it is Michaelmas and we wanted to get Iris back out on pasture.

Why on Michaelmas? Because it’s fun to say, and because it’s memorable. It’s a fixed feast at the end of September that I can remember next year when wondering when it was that we did that thing.

The sheep and pigs have been sitting still at the east end of the North pasture for the last 2-3 weeks. This is because with the dry season extending all the way to the end of September now, the pasture has not recovered like we hoped it would. The grass was stuck at 4-6″ of growth. This is not adequate for heavy grazing. We want to leave at least 4″ of bulk, because that is where most of the plant’s sugar reserves are stored for next year. If we graze below this the plant will have to slough off roots and use up root sugar stores to grow back in the spring. This will slow grass growth and give weeds a head start (trust me, they don’t need any more help).

The other reason is that we want the Ewes to be bred out in October or November, so lambing happens in Feb/March, rather than in January. We usually get a hard cold snap in January, which could be hard on small lambs. So the ram lambs have been separate from the ewes since July, but we need a date to remember to get them back together again.

So we combined them on Michaelmas. Let me tell you, the rams lost no time in getting to work. So hopefully we will have at least a few lambs next year.

The other movement was getting Iris back out on grass. We kept her in the barn since mid-August, partially to build up a manure pack for the garden, and partially to keep her off the dry, fragile late summer pastures.

She is not a big cow, but she is still far bigger than the sheep, and eats a lot more. In terms of pasture impact, she is probably the equivalent of all five sheep put together.

Seppi and Winnie and Daddy got her moved into a fresh paddock next door to the sheep.

We don’t want them in together just yet, give them a few days to get used to each other again. Iris is not a rough or aggressive cow, but she is a lot bigger, and may get impatient with them and push them around a bit.

So we got that done by 9:30, which is actually really good, for us. It is rare to get the kids breakfasted, and to the farm and started on school, and have the first task done before ten.

However, that was the end of the day’s productivity, because we had to focus exclusively on school. Some days the girls are pretty self-sufficient at school. Some days not so much, and then they require constant presence to keep them on task.

All except Winnie.

She takes care of herself.