Seperating the Boys

Today we are seperating the intact boys from the flock. It's long overdue. I would have done it myself but many of the boys are 250 plus pounds and they don't come quietly. Matt has been putting me off and using the Russian Roulette principle of sheep keeping...the fact that ram sperm is killed by high temperatures. We have had temps spike to over 90F. many times over the last few weeks, and technically that should render the boys sterile for around six weeks. The first cool night triggers an instinct to breed and the boys have been mounting the girls like drunken sailors in port for 24 hours before going back to sea to be torpedoed by Nazi submarines. We are banking on them shooting blanks. Come January 15 when it is 20 below zero and I hear the baby monitor making noise, I am going to plant my foot firmly in the middle of Matt's back and give a good push. This has always been my job, since this whole sheep thing was my idea and I take full responsibility, BUT I wanted this year to be different. Granted, we can have snow here in upstate New York through May, but I would be less likely to face that initial blast of frigid cold and ice, like I did stumbling out of that little trailer every few hours a night last winter. I am living in the barn now and won't have far to travel to get to the sheep, but cold is cold, and getting a new mom situated with the babe or babies takes some time. I may be worrying for nothing. Maybe they are shooting blanks. We'll know around January 15.