We have subscribed to "The Shepherd" magazine for years, and place an ad in the Breeders Listing every year. I enjoy the magazine and learn something new from each issue. Wish they had a website, though! This issue had an article called "You Know you're a Shepherd if" with some great anecdotes. Here's a few of them that stand true on our farm:
You Know You're A Shepherd If....
Your backyard privacy fence is electronet.
Your wife shakes a bucket to call the family to dinner.
Dinner leftovers and sheep meds intermingle freely in your refrigerator.
You own every flashlight invented in the last 20 years, but none with a live battery.
When you enter any large open building, your first thought is, how much hay will it hold?
Your baby monitor is hooked up in the barn.
You like the smell of wet wool.
Your favorite sandwich is a Greek gyro, your veggies come on a kabob and you love real Roquefort cheese.
Your favorite Bible verse is the 23rd Psalm and you drift off to sleep peacefully each night in green pastures beside still waters.
It's still hotter than Hades here. Poor Delilah rests her head on a tree and wonders just how much more she can endure....
Finn stretches out on his side to keep cool. It reminds me of the 60's when my mom put those hard curlers in my hair and expected me to be able to sleep. How uncomfortable! How can a ram with wide horns rest on his side? Looking forward to cooler weather next week! 
The flock had one last peaceful weekend of grazing before we separated the rams from the ewes.
We had a few cooler days. With Fall in the air, the rams were getting rambunctious! I think it was mostly Fable. He decided to pick a fight with Finn. I could hear them from my bedroom window, the sound of horns crashing. 
Maybe Fable knows that he won't get any ewes this fall. Although he's a beautiful ram, we just have too many ewes that are related to him. I can't bear to send him to the butcher for that reason alone. I would really love to put him to work this fall, selling him to another flock. He is very reasonably priced, and I would consider trades. He's a triplet mouflon ram. I don't have him registered yet, but his pedigree would be the same as his sisters (click). He is very easy to work with, parasite resistant, gorgeous horns. 
It's funny how our new ram Thunder decided to step in and be the referee. He didn't do much fighting, but did get his ear smashed trying to settle the other rams down. 
This morning we decided it was time to work the sheep, and try out our new working system that I got on Craigslist called Billy Goat Gruff Complete Worker System. 
After using it just one time, I would highly recommend it. I don't feel nearly as beaten, battered and bruised as I usually do, working with these feisty Icelandics! Loading them into the chute was the hardest part. Things would have gone quicker if we had 3 people working instead of two. Maybe the sheep will get used to it, and go right in themselves eventually (yeah, right)....
Above, I am tattooing, my least favorite job.
The system is nice. Once you have the sheep in the headgate, the sides both swing open so it's "easy" to trim hooves. Trimming sheep hooves is never an easy job though. Most of them kick and fight and would rather strangle themselves than have their hooves trimmed.
Here's Fancy, in the torture chamber.
And my dear Charlotte, getting her hooves trimmed. We did all of the ewes this morning and sent them on their way. It was over 90 degrees by the time we were finished. I think my back is fried. We'll do the rams tomorrow.
Other ewes escape into the weedy fields in search of verdant pastures. Bad girls! I spent 3 solid days combing out fleeces, trimming hooves, deworming and giving shots. Stay away from those weeds going to seeds, girls!
Thunder, SRX 917T, our new boy is settling in just fine.
Our apples are getting ripe, so they sheep are enjoying an evening treat of windfalls every night. The weather is cooling off and fall is in the air!
We add a new ram to our flock almost every year. This year we are getting two! My husband picked up our first new ram over the weekend. 
He is very calm and easy to work with. Horns are clearing his face at 3 years old. Nice long frame. His fleece isn't as soft as Finn's, which doesn't surprise me. The white sheep tend to have softer fleeces. I can't give him a complete evaluation until he's shorn. Those long fleece can hide many faults, though I don't expect to find any with this handsome ram! He will be a wonderful asset to our flock.
