Post Festivals

This is one of ours set ups from one of the festival/events that we have attended.  The scurrying begins the end of August and doesn't end until mid October.  It is enjoyable to meet and talk with everyone.  Now that it is over, we can take a deep breathe and assess all that needs done.
Like cleaning out the barn, setting up the breeding groups (see new pics.on ewe & ram pages), deciding who is for sale...since you can't keep everybody:)
Also as I look at what I have in inventory....Oh, I don't have any!  It's been a good year with sales of handmade hats and such that I need to get busy spinning so I can replenish my goods.

Ewes & Rams for sale

 I've taken some pics. this evening of some of the ewes and rams that I have for sale.
Above 2yr. old light grey ewe, Lilly Reg. # S40816

 Ewe lamb out of Amelia Reg.# S40815 & Luxor #S36643

 Three ewe lambs.....couldn't read their tags to know for certain who they are.

 Above, ewe lamb.

 Ewe lamb, she is of the smaller type dainty shetland out of Chloe reg#S35376 & Evaristo reg.#S40822

 LoLa, yrlg ewe out of Butter Cup #S36680 & Grand Luxe reg.#S34244

 LoLa above.

 This is GRAND LUXE.  This is an amazing ram Reg.#S34244 he has a wonderful dense fleece.  At 5yrs. old he still maintains a micron ave. of 24.9 and comfort factor of 92.4%.  This ram has over 30 registered lambs to his credit....not yet counting the 2015 lamb crop.  Oh, and he is scurred too.
***Additional note; Grand Luxe is owned by Wee Middlebranch Farm, flock #2003 but he resides at my location.  Grand Luxe's fleece was the Grand Champion Fleece at the 2014 Great Lakes Sheep and Wool Festival in Wooster, Ohio out of over 80 fleeces.

 Ewe lamb above.

 Mateo, yearling ram reg# S41850 son of Grand Luxe, scurred fawn color.  Lamb micron 20.3 comfort factor 98.9%.  He has a nice dense fleece.

 Barqs, 5yr old polled ram, gulmoget pattern Reg.# S30879 his last micron was at 2yrs old, micron ave. 26.0 comfort factor 80.3%  Still a nice ram with a wonderful disposition.

Axel yrlg ram Katmoget, musket color Reg# S41851 he is scurred.  His dam is Whistlestop 1113 & sire, Grand Luxe.  He has a very dense fleece,lamb micron ave. 20.4, comfort factor 98.6%


These are a few of the sheep that could get pictures of, some of them just won't cooperate and others want to mug you. 

Surprise!

This little ewe was my SURPRISE! last friday.  I walked into the barn with my son, he was helping me with some cattle panels.  I looked down and there stands this new little lamb. I was shocked! I didn't have ANYONE that I was expecting to deliver. 
Right away we knew who mom was, instantly I recalled that when we were lambing in March and April this particular ewe didn't deliver.  I figured that the particular ram I had her in with was just being lazy and didn't catch her.  -well that was the case with him....but this little lady is spotted and that is only coming from one ram......Grand Luxe.  

She certainly was not expected but she is such a cutie and I can tell that she is going to be fine fleeced with that short, crimpy consistant fleece across her body.

My time and the weather has not been a good match to get pics. up of ewes and rams that I have available for sale.  If interested in something particular, email me.  I will work to get details of available sheep.

Post...Great Lakes Fiber Show

I apologize for such a delay in posting since the Great Lakes Fiber Show.  This year was even better than last.  Moving the fleece judging to friday evening made a longer day for us, but Saturday morning allowed fiber enthusiasts the opportunity to make their purchases earlier.  It worked out great and it was so nice to meet and talk to everyone.
The picture above is a favorite ewe "Butter Cup"....who never lets me fill the water tanks by myself she insists on being right there with me and if I'm not paying consistent attention by rubbing or scratching her she will paw at me to remind me that she needs my attention.  Behind her are two lambs taking refuge in the shade of a calf hutch, the middle lamb is a ewe with a very consistent fleece from front to back and the little white lamb in the rear is a scurred ram that we will be retaining in the flock.

It is quite difficult to take natural pictures of the flock when all they do is follow you...
This photo shows most of the adult ewes in the flock.  At this time the older lambs were penned up and being weaned.  I find this much easier on the ewes going into warmer weather.  They can put the weight back on their bodies rather than into milk for their babies...when their babies are old enough to eat grain, hay and grass.

A shot of the rams...who also follow along, making it difficult to take pictures.  We have eleven rams at this time.  Several are for sale, pictures will be posted along with descriptions of each.  We have been focusing on fine fleeces and moving toward polled.  If interested in some nice shetland rams, please send me an email we have them....remember, your rams is your most important investment to use on your ewes.  This will determine the direction you move toward with fleece quality....be it good or bad based on your focus.

Have a GREAT DAY!

Lily

Lily delivered this cute little gulmoget ram lamb late this morning.  This was her first lamb and she did wonderful all by herself.  This little guy is out of Wintertime Barqs.

We are finally done with our lambing season...whew!  It's been tiring.  I have three of the crossbred lambs that I am supplementing with a bottle, morning and evening.  Everyone else is doing well.  We ended up with 23 ewes that were bred giving us 41 lambs.  Fifteen of these are crossbred lambs which will be sent to market at 50lbs.  We were pretty even with 20 rams & 21 ewes.
We have 26 shetland lambs, 18 ewes and 8 rams.  Some of these ewe lambs will be available to those looking to purchase lambs.  As far as I can tell (since I've not been 'hands on' with all the lambs) two of the ram lambs look to be polled so those two may be staying since this is the direction that I am going with our rams. 

I will begin evaluating my ewe flock soon as I have quite a selection.  I need to remove a few of the older ewes from the breeding program, who were part of my original flock but will maintain permanent residency.
Other ewes will be available for sale after lambs are weaned.  Right now I am thinking that in the fall I will be putting all of my breeding ewes to my Cormo/Shetland Ram and market all those lambs.
Anyone interested in Lambs, Ewes or Rams send me an email......

Galaxy

Galaxy delivered these two cutie pies Monday morning, 4/20/15.  The darker lamb on the left is a ewe, I'm sure she will lighten up in color.  The white lamb on the right is a ram.  I repeated this breeding with Galaxy and Duroy, hoping for another white lamb.  Yeah! 
We have one more yet to deliver, she just keeps hanging on.......

Audrey delivered twins today

 When I went out this morning I knew Audrey would have something new for us, late last evening she was digging quite a hole in the barn.  This gorgeous little guy is who she claims.

She also delivered a nice little ewe, but she didn't want it and was quite brutal about it.  Earlier in the season a friend has called wanting to ask that if we had any bottle babies they would be interested in them.  They were hoping to have some small tame sheep that they could use when they have events and there would be lots of 'hands-on' by children.  At the time I didn't think I would have any because the shetlands are such good mothers and I've only ever had to supplement lambs born to older ewes.
Well, right now I am supplementing two of the crossbred lambs and didn't want to take on a full time brand new bottle baby.....so after a little thought.....I have over sixteen purebred shetland lambs.  I picked up the phone to call and say, Hey, I've got a lamb for you!  So I know she will have a good home and good life with an experience shepherd. 
...what caused the dislike for her lamb?  Here again I summarize that the little ewe was the first born, became separated and Mom delivered the second lamb in a different location.  After delivering the second she focused all her attention on him and wouldn't accept the little ewe as several hours had passed.  Here again, last night I should have jugged her and didn't.  But I am good with the outcome for everyone.

Lucy lambed April 8th

 While I was home from work feeling under the weather with a 24hr. bug Lucy delivered this beautiful little ewe.  She is cute!

Look at that uniform crimpy fleece.  This is what we have been working for the last couple of years and it is really showing up in our lambs.  This little ewes Sire is Luxor, who's micron information I do not have handy, but he is also a fine fleeced scurred ram.

 These are some of our lambs who figured out how to get out & MUST play on the round bales.
They all aspire to be like the brown crossbred lamb on top of the bale who is 1 month old.

Right now we have 36 lambs born(16 are crossbred) and four ewes to go.  Can't wait until it drys out a bit to get some outside pics.

Chloe delivers April 6th

 Chloe another favorite ewe has delivered these two beautiful little ewes.  Both have very consistent crimpy fleeces. Yeah!!

I expected Kamogets from her this year, as she is moget and the Sire; Evaristo is Katmoget.  But this little ewe looks like she will go musket in color.  We will have to wait and see it the katmoget pattern develops.
Evaristo is one of our own rams, last years micron results on him, micron ave 20.9 & CF 97.4

Bianca delivers April 2nd

Sorry for the late birth announcement.  It has been busy here...with the day job and all.
This beautiful dark brown ewe, Bianca delivered her first lamb on Thursday, past.  This is the last lamb that I was expecting from my now deceased Whistlestop ram #1107.  This is also a ram lamb and has the beautiful black fleece just like his Sire.  He has horn buds, so we can only hope that his horns are good.  His fleece looks wonderful. 
I haven't sent in the Dam's fleece samples yet for micron testing from this years fleece.  I did test her lamb fleece last year and was quite happy with her numbers, Micron ave 18.9 & CF 99.0
Will post Chloe's lamb pics. tomorrow.....

Autum, Buttercup, Sofia & Eve

Sunday was a busy day.  I spent most of the day in the barn moving sheep around and dealing with a frozen water hose.  While in the barn Autum, ButterCup & Sofia were in labor all day.  Later in the afternoon I made a makeshift pen and put all three in so they were contained to have their lambs.  We had made arrangements to go out for dinner....but only planned to be gone a couple of hours.  Of course Autum waited to begin delivering her first lamb soon before we were to leave.  I convinced my husband that we needed to stay home a little while longer to make sure that she delivered ok because of all the 'talking' she was doing and she was so large I didn't want to have problems if a lamb was not positioned correctly.
I assisted her with her first lamb who was positioned correctly and I felt better about going knowing that the little black ewe lamb that she had just had was doing fine.  The other two ewes where just hang'n out.
We came home within two hours.  I went into the house to change and slipped out to the barn to check on everyone.  I walked in to see six little wet lambs all together with the three moms around them.
It was not obvious to me who belonged to whom and I don't think they knew either.  Everyone appeared to have nursed, but what confusion!  It just figures that they would all have to wait until I left to delivery and I honestly do not know who belongs to who!  These will all need to be DNA tested...I had to do this a couple of years ago with a ewe and two lambs.  I used three different rams and they are all really nice, as are the ewes and the lambs?  Well, five ewes and one ram. 
I put lamb tags in and recorded them, but we will rely on the DNA to tell the truth.  That ended up being quite and expensive dinner date!

 I know the little black ewe is Autum's, I assisted with her birth, the beautiful little grey Katmoget....?

These two are beauties also, can't wait to know who there out of.......isn't this something?  You wait five months to see what your going to get, then they all come at the same time and the MaMa's just take care of them and you still don't know who is who.

 

I took pics. after I fed everyone, so of course I was interfering in nap time.

This little girl was covered in hay.  I don't know if you can see it but she has the wooliest head....hmm, just like her daddy maybe? 

This is Eve, I put her in the mix Monday morning, March 30th she delivered her twins, Katmoget and Moorit ewes.  Tagged immediately and recorded...no mistakes on her.

...so it goes....

Oregon ewe delivers Thursday, March 26, 2015 & other lambs

 

I have have been slacking at picture taking lately.  But I have been getting lamb tags in immediately.

This is my ewe Oregon, who of course came from Oregon.  She is of the Whistlestop Farm flock and I am so glad that I put her in with my now deceased Whistlestop ram.  So these little ewes are still pure lines that I will keep in our flock.     

The little one on the right looks to have spotting showing through her fleece.

 

This year I haven't taken pictures of all the lambs being born here on the farm.  I have quite a few that I have crossbred to sell as market lambs, but I wanted to show some of these lamb pics.  Can you guess which one is the purebred shetland? Well, if you are not familiar with the breed it is the little one on the right.  There is an age span of three weeks on these lambs.    

 The large white lambs shown above & below is out of one of my crossbred ewes who is about 1/4th shetland.  The brown lamb is 3/4 Shetland and 1/4 Cormo and still a nice sized lamb.  These cross bred lambs will make nice market lambs.  I have eight ewes that put to my Shetland/Cormo ram and we have half of them yet to deliver.

This morning is hopefully our last of cold weather that is trying to hang on.  The calendar says it's SPRING!

But the weather is telling us winter is trying to hang on.  The last two nights the temperatures have dipped into the  teens!  I'm tired of this and all the sheep have been huddling together to stay warm in the barn.  Today brings us warmer temps. into the 40's to low 50's ......can't wait!

Sweet Pea & Lialac delivered March 24th

 

Above, Lialac delivered this single ram lamb this year.  She was bred to my now deceased Whistlestop ram.  This little guy looks like he will be grey, although his legs look to be a solid black quite a bit of grey is showing through and what a face....quite speckled.  Maybe he is blettet? Another pic. further down in this post.

 

This is Sweet Pea with two lovely little lambs, both Katmoget pattern.  The one in the front is grey (ram)and behind  brown based (ewe).  These are also lambs from the late Whistlestop ram.

 

Little better view of these guys.

 

Lialac again, if you look closely you can see the tips of his ears are brown. Interesting!

I was surprised Lialac had a single this year.  The past three years she has had tripletts!

So, in the last four years she has had 10 lambs!  What a Sheep!  One of my favorites!

 

Amelia delivers twins

 

 When I went out to feed and check everyone after work I found Amelia tending to your new lambs.  They had been born earlier in the day as they were all dry and already nursing.  She is being an excellent mom.  This is one of the wonderful traits of the shetland breed.  This is Amelia's first time giving birth, she is 2yrs old.  and I really don't expect more than singles from the new moms, but she has surprised us and is doing wonderful.

A better pic. of these two little ewes, Kamoget pattern, both appear to be brown based color.
Amelia is a daughter from my now deceased Whislestop ram.  The sire of these lambs is Luxor, who is out of an unrelated Whistlestop ewe and Sheltering Pine Grand Luxe ram.  So we are getting the WS line on both sides of the family tree.  One of these ewes will be available to a new home after weaning.

Roll with the punches

We take many pictures of our flock, never knowing when you get "just the right one" to post.  I had to go back into camera to find this photo to share.  This picture is one that I took probably a month ago of all of the adult rams that we have here.  I wanted to share the last photo I have of my treasured WhistleStop Ram.
On our Shearing day I lost this wonderful guy (the black full horned, not coated ram). He would have been 4 years old this spring and I had sparingly used him until this past fall.
We always shear the rams first, as we halter them all, walking them to the shearing area then take them back to their pen.  When we've secured them back into their pen we move on to the rest of the flock.
Well this year they decided that they didn't recognize each other and commenced to beating on each other (the horned rams that is).  The other two full horned rams in the photo are his sons.
I didn't see this happen, I just know that is what had to happen.
At the end of the shearing day when I began to feed the sheep he was lying down not alert has he would normally be at the sound of grain being handled.  At first I thought that he might be in shock from the days events even though everything went smoothly.  Reaching through the gate I rubbed and patted his rump to try and get a response from him.  After a short time he did get up and then laid back down.  Thinking he was in shock, I mixed up some molasses and water to drench him, hoping to give him a little pick-me-up.
While administering the drench he was listless and beginning to feel cold.  I couldn't believe this was happening.  I called my Vet to let her know of my situation, she told me I was doing everything right.  She had me check his eyelids and they were pale.  I made a dash to the house for a heating pad, blanket, thermometer and a warm drench. Once back with him, I tried warming him and rubbing him to stimulate him and giving him a warm drench to try and warm him up.  Not knowing the full extent of his injuries.  While holding him he stretched out and I knew he was gone. Checking his eyelids again he had no color.  I called my Vet to let her know he passed.  This happened so fast it was like it wasn't real.
I can't say that their is really a bright spot in any of this, but I did put him to seven ewes that will be delivering soon and all of his lambs will be prized for their genetics.

Shearing Day

Our shearing day was moved up to Saturday, March 14th.  We began at 9:30 in the morning and finished up about 2:30 in the afternoon shearing a total of 61 head.  Of which only 44 were mine.  We included a few friends and neighbors sheep to take advantage of our expert shearers skills.
Soooo...I have many quality, gorgeous fleeces to choose from if you are looking for a spinning fleece.  I will be taking at least 10 raw fleeces to the Great Lakes Fiber Show, May 23rd & 24th and by then I will have washed fleeces that I will give to some Fiber Mills to process into roving and batts.  If you want a raw fleece contact me soon before I start washing them.

Above pic. shows two yearling rams that gave us beautiful fleeces, L to R, Katmoget  light fawn scurred ram, Katmoget grey full horned ram.  Both have had wool samples sent out for micron testing.
These guys are available as flock sires.

These two rams also are available for sale. L to R, Katmoget fawn scurred ram, Spotted Brown & White full horned ram.  These have also had wool samples taken for micron testing.
These 4 rams above are all out of Sire:  ShelteringPines Grand Luxe S34244.  Each ram is from a different ewe so their genetics are not related on the Dam's side.

 Forty-four does look like so many....does it?  With those fleeces off they look so much smaller...I'm sure after lambs we will find some place to tuck a few more into the flock. 
This past fall I put sheep coats on many of the ewes and am so happy with the cleanliness of their fleeces.
Many of the fleeces will be available, contact me via email if you are interested.
I will try posting some pics. of the fleeces when I can as we have also began lambing.