Good Food is Everybody's Business
Lambing time, and things were hectic as usual, but going well. “Big Mumbo” delivered quints one more time! One lamb was born dead, but four survived… three ewes and one ram. One of the ewe lambs was an extraordinarily fine specimen, and outshone her two sisters.
The sheep flock kept growing and demanded a lot of my time. The lambing went well, and we had an absolute deluge of ewe lambs. This proved to be fortunate, as it turned out the demand for breeding stock was very high that year. “Big Mumbo” again had quintuplets, and all survived, but three were added to the bottle lamb pen.
Not a perfect year, but it could have been much worse. And I learned, the hard way, to “never trust what a feed salesman may tell you!”
Dave Christensen has spent 40 years rescuing this corn from extinction and breeding it to find or create the hardiest, most nutritious varieties. Someday, he hopes, it could feed millions. He grows multicolored heirloom corn on 12 different plots scattered across Montana. Mainly dried and ground, the kernels are highly nutritious and chock-full of antioxidants.
A grassroots campaign has been launched in Washington State for the adoption of a labeling law for genetically engineered foods (a.k.a. GMO or transgenic foods). The grassroots initiative seeks support for I-522, which would mandate labeling of transgenic crops or foods containing GMOs. You can read the full text of the proposed initiative below this commentary. The I-522 movement is led by a diverse group of consumer advocates, organic farmers, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and has recruited a wide variety of endorsements from NGOs, municipalities, faith-based groups, farmers and farmer associations, seed savers and exchange groups, plant breeders, and well-known and respected elected officials.
Lambing was going very well, and by March 20, Bluebird produced twins, and as usual they were both ewe lambs! A few days later, her daughter, #146, who had quints the previous year, delivered a set of quadruplets: 3 ewes, and 1 ram. Another thrill! Two days later her twin, #145, delivered twin ewe lambs. No wonder our ewe flock was growing by leaps and bounds!
We had begun calling these two ewes “Big Mumbo,” (#146), and “Big Jumbo,” (#145), they were both good sized ewes, capable of carrying a lot of lambs! I made sure I gave “Big Mumbo” extra rations, and she raised all four lambs herself and did a good job of it!
We came through the lambing with no lambs lost, the second time for that joyful event,
I started off the year by answering the many congratulatory cards and letters I received after my “Silver Bell” speech at South East Minnesota Sheep Producer’s Association (SEMSPA) Annual Meeting in December, 1982. Most said my talk was “highly entertaining” and/or “informative,” and there were also lots of questions to answer.
It was breeding season once again. With the addition of the 18 ewe lambs retained the previous year, we now had 79 mature ewes. The coming year was looking to be a busy one, for sure! But I was already looking forward to it!
