by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
Lisa Chaput-Takken believes her faith continues to show her that raising sheep is what she and her family should be doing right now.
Five years ago, the family — Pat and Lisa, children Nicolas, Nicole and Renie — moved from Cobden, where they had been living for 23 years, to the country, purchasing a 164-acre farm. They purchased a donkey and named it Oscar.
When daughter Renie turned 10 years old, she received Phoebe, a lamb, as a birthday gift. Three years later, the family’s sheep flock has grown to just over 100 ewes, rams and lambs.
When the family purchased an old greenhouse last year and dismantled it to bring home to be used as a sheep barn, Ms. Chaput-Takken prayed it would be filled.
With the recent birth of five healthy lambs to Alexandria, a three-year-old Rideau-Dorset ewe, she knows her prayer has been answered. Along with those five lambs, one ewe had four lambs, five had had triplets, three have had twins and there’s still more to come.
“We’re not yet done lambing,” Ms. Chaput-Takken said.
A woman with a strong faith, she further noted when they were dismantling the greenhouse, another sign from her prayer was answered was each bracket that was holding the greenhouse boards together was in the shape of a cross.
Growing up in Quebec, and her husband near Lake Huron, Ms. Chaput-Takken said they always wanted to purchase a farm. They met, married and moved to Cobden where they raised three children – Nicolas, who is now 20 years old and a contractor; Nicole, 18, who is studying child psychology at Wester University in London; and Renie, 13, who is still at home and a Grade 7 student at Cobden District Public School.
When they were deciding to name their farm, they noticed they were on a ridge and wanted to farm, so named it Shepherd’s Ridge. They are now shepherd’s on a ridge.
Renie recalled when the five lambs were born.
“She was big,” she said. “Dad was scared for her. Her stomach was really low to the ground.”
There was, and still remains, a concern she may have a hernia, however, until she is shaved, they won’t know for sure, Ms. Chaput-Takken said.
“We’ve experienced that before,” she said. “If they get a hernia, they cannot be bred again.”
Saturday night, April 2, they found Alexandria had three lambs so she was moved into the lambing pen, which provides a better opportunity for her to bond with her lambs.
When they went out to check on the ewes and lambs, there were two more.
“They were all perfect,” Renie said. “They’re huge. They’re the size of twins.”
Usually if there’s triplets they’re small, Ms. Chaput-Takken said.
She noted that Alexandria is feeding them herself, but they’ll keep a close eye on the family of six for a few days to make sure the lambs are getting enough nourishment.
“This is awesome,” Renie said, her mom adding, “It’s not something you see often.”
Ms. Chaput-Takken is hopeful of talking to the farmer who sold them Alexandria, but so far has been unsuccessful.
“We met Fred at a farm show and talk about his sheep,” she said. “We try to keep a closed flock. That means when they come on the property and then leave, they don’t come back.”
Alexandria was brought to the farm and quarantined, as all new animals are to the farm, so there is little chance disease will spread, Ms. Chaput-Takken said.
Renie recalled when she received her first lamb. Jim Ness gave it to her for her birthday and since they weren’t prepared for it, the little one, named Phoebe, lived in a crate in the basement and was bottle-fed, she said.
It was her 4-H lamb and it’s all escalated from there, Ms. Chaput-Takken said. Phoebe, who developed a hernia after delivering triplets, cannot be bred, so is the farm mascot, she added.
She had a ram and two ewe lambs, the two ewes are now pregnant.
“Our goal was 100 ewes and with them multiplying quickly we’ll get there,” she said.
Ms. Chaput-Takken noted their sheep are raised for meat or to sell as breeding stock. They also sell the wool.
“Our biggest goal is to sell meat locally,” she said. “Our animals have a really good place to live. We take pride in our meat. They are raised to be butchered.”
The sheep are well-fed, are pastured, and have ample land to graze on, she added.
“They are well looked after,” Ms. Chaput-Takken said.
Even today, when necessary, a lamb is brought into the basement to be bottle-fed. Holding onto a little one, Ms. Chaput-Takken believes this little one somehow got separated from his mom, they didn’t bond, and the mom rejected him.
And, while they are raised for meat, she said it’s hard not to get attached to some of them, especially when they get a name.
Heading to the barn where the sheep are, Chester leads the way. A small beagle, Ms. Chaput-Takken said he’s like a mom to the lambs in the house. He licks it and takes care of it, she said. When Phoebe arrived, Chester and she became good friends, always running around in the yard, she added.
In the barn, Renie and her mom check out the many ewes and their lambs. While there are a few ewes and lambs in one pen, there are smaller pens each with a ewe and two, three, four or five lambs.
Ms. Chaput-Takken said the Rideau’s are really good moms. Most have at least twins and once born, they stay right near them, she added.
Living on a farm, Ms. Chaput-Takken said it’s rare they lose a lamb, but it does happen. Usually it’s due to mother nature, although there have been coyotes close to the sheep. She noted the sheep are in the barn, or the greenhouse-turned-barn, throughout the night.
In the greenhouse-turned-barn, there’s a cacophony of lamb and ewe calls, as this is where most of them are kept once they are bonded and the family feels they are healthy enough to go into the larger space.
Lambing began March 31, with the exception of two early births, Ms. Chaput-Takken said. It will continue for at least another month. Throughout lambing season, the ewes are checked about every four to five hours, even throughout the night.
She said when a ewe begins nesting, it’s a sign she could be close to giving birth, but, she added, that’s not always the case. A gestation period is five months, she said.
“By the end of this year, I don’t know if we’re going to have enough room in this greenhouse,” Ms. Chaput-Takken said. “That’s how much they’ve multiplied.”
When the ewes and lambs are first put together in the larger barn, she admitted it’s difficult, as they try and get comfortable, usually bunting each other for a bit.
“Once they find their babies, they’re good,” she said.
Ms. Chaput-Takken said the lambs are tagged usually within a few days of being born.
To ensure there is no inbreeding, she said a small area on each of the ewes’ backs are painted a certain colour signifying which ram sired which lambs.
Pointing to two of the larger lambs born named Tony and Charlotte, Renie said they’ve been chosen as her 4-H projects for this year. While only one can be used for 4-H, the other will be used for open showing, so they both have to be treated like a 4-H project, she explained.
Ms. Chaput-Takken said for many of the lambs in the pens, some will be kept back, but the majority will be sold for meat, which they sell at the Cobden Farmers Market or at their own farm.
The lambs are usually butchered at four months, hopefully weighing between 80 to 100 pounds, she said.
“They’re supposed to be 100-day weight, which means in 100 days they weigh 100 pounds,” Ms. Chaput-Takken said. “That doesn’t always happen.”
The older sheep that go for meat, such as a ewe that can no longer be bred, is called mutton, she said. Lamb is less than 18 months, while mutton is anything older.
“Normally we wouldn’t sell mutton,” she said.
While they’ve been selling lamb for more than a year, Ms. Chaput-Takken said they just starting to eat lamb.
“I’d never eaten lamb before, I don’t think any of us has eaten lamb before, so we’re starting to,” she said.
She said their meat sells so quickly, that many times they haven’t had opportunity to try it. Last year, they had 13 lambs that went for meat and the meat sold quickly, she added.
At the Shepherd’s Ridge booth at the Cobden Farmers Market, Ms. Chaput-Takken said customers can purchase lamb chops, pepperettes, sausage, roasts. They are all butchered, cut and wrapped at Reiche’s Meats near Pembroke. If someone wants to purchase packaged meat from her farm, she said call her at 613-602-3522 or send her an email, [email protected].
Walking back to the house, Ms. Chaput-Takken spoke about her music, which she began writing when son Nicolas was diagnosed with cancer when he was five years old. The community gathered and held fundraisers to help with the expenses, she said.
She wrote several songs about what her family went through during Nicolas’ battle with cancer.
“The fist song I wrote was at the benefit dance, as a tribute to the Cobden Community, which was called Friends,” Ms. Chaput-Takken said.
She had a CD produced, which she also sells at the Cobden Farmers Mark. Today, Nicolas is healthy and she’s hopeful of beginning to work on a second CD.
Ms. Chaput-Takken performs at various functions and her church, Whitewater Wesleyan Community Church in Cobden.
Leaning against her kitchen counter, she smiles, recalling when they first saw the farm and not thinking they would be able to afford it.
“We always wanted to farm, it just wasn’t feasible,” she said. “We prayed about this property. We drove by and I said to Pat, we can’t do it, we can’t afford this property.
“The people who owned the house are people who go to our church.
“We got talking to them…we sold our house.. and within two days, everything went through.”
But, Ms. Chaput-Takken admits it’s not what she thought they would purchase, believing it would be an old-style farmhouse.
However, everything else was perfect and their prayers were answered, and continue to be answered as they move forward, she said.
Nothing is more peaceful than sitting out on the back deck and watching the sheep as they graze, hearing the bleating of the lambs, and knowing God’s blessing continues to rain down on the, Ms. Chaput-Takken said.
