Sunday, December 1, 2019

Santa's Helpers

 Today we tried on these lambs outfits that they will be wearing
at Red Star Vet Christmas open house on Friday, December 6, 2019 from 6-9pm.
These girls are such love bugs, they will enjoy all the extra attention 
that they will be getting.

If you are in the area be sure to stop in and enjoy the evening.
It's always a festive time and you'll get to meet all the staff.


Today was a nice day to rearrange my feeders since we have taken the rams
out of the mix.  I have lined up two of the feeders, end to end, 
down the center of the barn.  This will allow 32 sheep to eat
inside the barn at the same time (preparing for wet rainy days).
Two more feeders that are out of view give 24 additional spaces 
for this group of ewes..

It's hard to believe December is here already and that 
shearing is just over 3 months away and lambing should
begin the end of March.


Friday, November 15, 2019

Where has the time gone?

Sorry to be away for such a long time.
 Late August kicks off the fall festivals that I participate in and gets super busy, along
with working a day job full time.
Miss Sauerkraut above is the only picture that I took during all three festivals.
Isn't she cute!

The festivals went great and I've sold out of most of my products that I make.
I do still have some combed top available.  But, don't fret.  We'll be shearing in
March and will be full and abundant with all colors of wool. 

After these festivals I just needed a break and some down time.  Before
I begin getting back to work restocking.

So, I finally tried one of my likes in Pinterest.

Air drying clay
 My timing was great as there where still leaves on trees and falling, but they were
still flexible enough that I could get impressions from the leaves with out them crumbling.

 I started looking at all broad leaves to get impressions from, the below 
where leaves from weeds!
I shaped the clay while making them so they would be able
to hold  some small item(s).
In Pinterest they called them trinket dishes...I think they are cute!
Final products:
 A bowl made with several maple leaves overlapped.
I used Rust-oleum copper spray paint to seal them.
 
 Several different types of leaves and one small hosta leave.

 I had a lot of fun making these and used a whole tub of clay.
 Above, a weed! I love the deep veins that show in clay.  I did add
some fancy curving edges to the leave when I traced it with my knife.
 This is a large leaf.  I had an even bigger one that I wanted to try 
the next day, but I wasn't thinking when I left the leaves in the house
and by the next day they had started to dry out and curl.  If I had 
only put them outside in the cold wet weather they would have been fine.
There's always next year.
 Another weed above.  I gave this one some extra curves too.
If you look closely you can see the smooth line from the leave.
I should have sanded them better...oh well it's just for fun.
Maple leaves and a host leaf on the left.
Most of my hosta leaves had started to get dry and 
crumbly.  I think doing this in the summer when you have
access to larger hosta leaves and rhubarb leaves, ohh and 
pumpkin leaves would be great to!

This was fun, different and I've gotten so many ideas
I will definitely do this again...I've been 
looking on Pinterest and see some great ideas with large leaves and cement.
New project next year!

Back to the sheep!
This was the girls waiting for me to feed them this evening.
We were busy with the breeding groups from early October until the second 
week in November.  That was ALOT of extra work.  Glad to be back to two 
groups to feed.  The boys and the girls, much easier.
 *******************************

I went back into my pics. to find this lambs picture.
Although not a good pic. (my old camera).
I thought that I had a another nice little black ewe lamb.
Well this is her as an eight month old ewe.  She is geogeous!
 She is not black.  She has what some people call a moon spot in other breeds 
of animals, that is the lighter colored spot in her fleece.
I believe this is what is called shaela in the shetland sheep world.
A dark steely-grey.
 
We also temporarily inherited some new girls;
 The two ewes on the left, one moorit and white, the other black and white.
We have called it a cape flecket, although that is not correct
according to the shetland sheep registry.  There was an article to 
this pattern of sheep in the past year in the NASSA NEWS
another one of the new girls.  They are very sweet and we 
hope to bring this pattern out with the parings we made during 
this falls breeding.

So much I should have shared earlier.

That's all for now.

Saturday, August 3, 2019

a feel of late summer in the air

You just get a feeling for some summer weather...then 
August comes in and yes it's still summer, but you get that
feeling of fall in the air.

I noticed this past week as I went out to the barn at 6am that the sun is 
rising later and there has been a crispness of cool air in the morning.
 This has caused a disturbance with these seasonal breeders.
 The ewes have begun small skirmishes among themselves, pushing
shoving and headbutting.
I am really not ready for another breeding season yet, but they are
telling me otherwise.

So this morning I made a list and did get some pictures of some ewes and rams
that I would like to move on.

First, Two Rams;

Fergus:
 This is a very nice white ram, he is registered
you can view his registration papers here.
He has been tested for scrapie resistance, he is RR.
Fergus is available for $350
 Fergus is a polled ram.
 



 Fergus's fleece is very fine also.
He fleece is white but he does have some black skin spots on his ears.

If interested contact me directly through email.



Ram #199:
 This was a ram lamb that I kept back from last years lambing.
I kept him because he has a nice fleece and he is polled.
He is a moorit katmoget.  His has not been registered yet but
he can be registered.  His Sire is Fergus, who is listed above
and Autum
 This guy has a nice wooly poll.
 A nice typey tail.
 He is a brown based ram, so yes moorit, but his fleece is very
light in color.
 POLLED!!
 Nice clean fleecce!

Some of the ewes I have for sale;

 This is not a complete list of ewes, these are just some 
that I was able to snap a quick photo of.
Inquire if you are looking for sheep, rams or ewes.
 
 Above #167 a musket ewe with a longer fleece staple
more of a wavy fleece type.
 #168 Moorit ewe (in the front of this pic.)
Nice ewe, nice staple length on her fleece, crimpy.
 #51 Audrey, moorit (brown) based ewe.  She has
some spotting as shown on her face, legs and tail.
Nice staple length on fleece. Mid-micron on fleece.
 #107 black katmoget ewe. She has that very distinct
black and grey marking.  She have a very pretty silver face.
She is also a very friendly ewe and has a nice light grey fleece.
 #172:
A white ewe with the coat on has a very nice white fleece, 
longer staple length, mid-micron and is a very friendly ewe.
#173 - Moorit Katmoget ewe, has a very fine fleece.
These are both 2 year old ewes and can be registered.


Ewe lamb born this spring, very fine fleece.
Her Dam is above ewe # 173 -Moorit katmoget.

Email if interested or have any questions.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

sweltering days of summer

A break is to be coming tomorrow from this ridiculous heat and humidity that we 
have had for this past week.

Just trying to keep everyone as comfortable as possible.
 Turned to shetland ram lambs out into the lower pasture.  This 
gets them out of the barn and away from the ewes, which at this 
age they like to harass.
 We ended up with some nice rams this year. 
The grass in this pasture is holding up well for these boys.  I plan to keep them
in this pasture until we make decisions as to who we might keep, sell or send to market. 
 Several will have good horns for those who like horns,  many scurred
and a couple are polled.
 If anyone is looking for a Shetland ram email me directly.
I have these ram lambs and also have some adult Shetland rams available.
 A first egg (right) tonight from one of my new hens "Austra White".  In March I picked up three 
day old chicks, plus their "meal maker" deal  from Meyer Hatchery
Well, I ended up with three hens, two of white ones are "Austra Whites", the third white bird is a "White Matran"and one rooster (bummer!)
The other two hens a Barred rock and a golden laced Wyandotte 
 Above rooster, so far he has been good as a rooster can be. 
But I do not plan to keep him, as soon as he behaves badly we already
have a new home he will be going to...and not a stew pot.
Another new addition to our critters, a little black kitten. He showed up
about a month ago.  He was laying in the grass eyeballing the chickens, trying to figure out how he could make a meal for himself.  I have been working to make him friendly.
I still get a meow...then a hiss!  He wants to be friendly but hasn't
allowed me to pick him up yet.  Petting is ok and food is great! In his eyes.
He was so thin when he came here, a little Ivomec in some soft food
and a treatment for tick and fleas has done wonders for him. 
His coat is nice and shines now.  
On the other hand our old cat "Cat" is slowing warming up to this new nuisance,
not sure that he likes him yet, always following around and trying to make nice.
As soon as I've gained some trust with this new guy we will 
make an appointment to get him fixed.

That's all for now...hoping for a break in the weather this new week.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Weaning lambs

We are two weeks into weaning lambs.
Everyone is doing well...they have survived and so did we!
The ram lambs;
 We have 15 ram lambs in this pen, picture above and below.
A couple of them are crossbred.  There are some nice sheland
rams in here that we will have to wait and see how they develop.
 We will have wait and see which ones develop into what we
determine to be possible future rams.
 Pictures, above and below are of the ewe lambs that have been weaned.
I believe there are 12 in this pen, although from my pictures I see 11.
There are also a couple of crossbred lambs in this group too.
 Below; 9 crossbred lambs (border cheviot / shetland) that are larger than 
the rest, these will hopefully be going to market soon.
 Below,  our youngest lambs who are still with their ewes but know 
there way around the creep feed pen.
We had some ewes bred late, these just finished lambing recently.
It's like having two separate lambings.  The biggest factor is laying out 
your barn or shed so that you set up pens to meet your needs at a 
specific time.  As for us right now, weaning pens, creep feed pen and 
lambing jugs all at the same time.  

That's all for today, enjoy the new week ahead.