Pat & Sharon O'Toole

When you mostly see photos on this blog, it means that we are really really busy--which is pretty much a description of May and June on our outfit. Our schedule is pretty intense from mid-April, when the sheep leave their winter pastures on the Red Desert to head south, until early July, when the sheep and cattle are settled on the Medicine Bow and Routt National Forest grazing permits.

This year is particularly intense, as we gladly took time off to see our son Eamon wed to Megan Stocklin in Ten Sleep, Wyoming on Mid-summer's Eve. Pat called it a peaceful takeover of Ten Sleep. A good time was had by all, and photos will follow.

Before the wedding, we spent long days getting all our lambs docked (we already had almost all of the calves branded). We knew it would be time to leave on the trail immediately after the wedding, and we got a late start due to wet weather. Luckily, the days were mostly cool and we were able to proceed in good order.

"Docking" means cutting off the tails of the lambs, castrating the males, earmarking, vaccinating and paint branding. It usually involves the employment of our young neighbors, whose help we find invaluable.

Here are some photos from our 2008 dockings. We had about a dozen dockings, so these are taken in several locations on the lambing grounds. We dock the "tail-enders" as they are counted onto the Forest through the Government corrals on the Savery Stock Driveway.

Meghan and Sharon
bringing in the lambs
Cottonwood pasture
photo by Pat O'Toole

Lamb on the road
Cottonwood pasture
photo by Pat O'Toole

Bringing up the ewes and lambs
photo by Pat O'Toole

To see more photos, go to "Continue Reading".