End to another breeding season

 We've closed the barn door on another breeding season.

We bred a limited number of registered ewes to registered shetland rams this year.    Many were cross bred this year, which just broke my heart to do BUT we already have too many sheep right now and I know come spring when lambs are born....I will want to keep more of them.

So (generally) my rule is that "anything that is born as a "crossbred" is sold.  Doing this helps to pay for everything else that goes on pertaining to the sheep.

This year we used Diamond Fred .  Fred has already left to go to his new home so he can produce some superfine lambs in the future for another Shetland breeder.  Fred was put to about 10 ewes here at our farm so we hope to have some nice lambs from him in the spring.

Moogega was also used this year, he also had about 10 ewes.  Moogega is part of our 4 year long "let's create spots that stay" program.  It's been fun and we've finally gotten spots!

All the remaining ewes were crossbred and this was hard because so many of them have nice fleeces and I would have loved to see what we could have done breeding them pure, be like I've said, If I breed them pure then I'll want to keep them and I just can't!  

So many ewes were crossed with my Border Cheviot X Shetland ram.

As I mentioned, we Sold Diamond Fred and we also sold Shamus,  which allowed room to add two up and coming ram lambs.

Meet:

Stephanite Silver

This is a striking black katmoget ram lamb.  He is out of Moogega, who is a black and white flecket and Jasmine a very dark grey katmoget ewe.  As this ram has grown we have watched his coloring lighten up to what it is now and I think he has the flecket pattern around his neck/shoulder area.  He does have the spotting also, as you can see on his hind leg.  Needless to say, I think he is a very interesting ram.  He is scurred and his scrapie testing results, QR.

Meet: 

Sterling Silver

In my opinion this guy has alot going on.  He had my eye early on.

First off, being polled (no horns), Second, superfine, very dense and nice length to his fleece.

and Third, his scrapie results are RR.

His Sire is  Fergus and his Dam, Rosemond, both are white and I was hoping for a white lamb, but a light grey katmoget was are surprise.

This will likely be our last blog post for this year.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and we will see you in the New Year with anticipation for what is to come!

New combed top

 In May we sent out about 16 pounds of wool to be made into combed top by Zeilinger Wool Co.  I combined several fleeces that I had left over after our Fleece Open House.

I bagged up all my remaining grey fleeces and black fleeces to have them blended into a nice dark grey combed top.

We ended up getting back almost 9 pounds of beautiful wool!

I just love combed top! 

I couldn't wait, I had to spin up a bobbin early this morning.

Check out our Fleece and Roving page to see all of the combed top that we have available.

Two more ewe lambs available

 I've found a bit of time to add two more ewe lambs that are looking for new homes.

Links to these and more are listed on the NASSA Sales Site.

Ewe Lamb #276, grey Katmoget.

Very friendly ewe

She has a superfine fleece with nice length and density.

Ewe Lamb #301

This is a spotted katmoget, moorit and white.

Although the moorit is fading as the fleece grows out, but I believe the fleece color will be more of a natural color where the spots were.

Her stature will be of a small shetland with very fine bone.

   Her fleece type is more primitive, wavy.  Below pic. shows a side view.

Ram pecking order

 Over the last few days while observing our ram flock of eight, I have seen our youngest ram, Moogega (black and white flecket) who is just over 1 year old "testing the waters" to move up in the hierarchy.

Rams establish a social order among their group by head butting, pushing and shoving each other. Generally the one who runs away, surrenders or loses the battle (hopefully without injury) is then moved down a rank within their hierarchy.

It seems a little early in the year for this to begin but here goes....

After this bit of a scuffle we did have to move Diamond Fred (dark grey katmoget) into a pen in the barn to care for his cut above the eye.  

I'm hoping they are done determining their social order because we've got a long way to go before breeding season when this type of behavior really kicks up.

Shetlands looking for new homes

 All our lambs have been weaned for some time and doing quite well.

Many are needing new homes!

I will be listing those for sale on the FOR SALE tab.

I've just begun to add lambs and as time permits I will be adding more.

Check out these ram and ewe lambs on the "For Sale" tab with addition information

and pedigree links.

If you have any questions or interest, just send me an email.

June happenings

 We have had a flurry of activity these past thirty day.

Our social calendars have opened up, allowing us to freely interact with fellow spinners and fiber enthusiasts.

The Great Lakes Fiber Show took place the end of May and we had a great time.

There was much positive energy from all that attended and a great need to people to interact and make those special fleece purchases.  We sold out of all the fleeces that we took to the event and my shelves look a little bare here at home, aside from some lovely combed top that is still available.

Another sixteen pounds or so was sent out to Zeilingers for processing into combed top, we should have this back in a few months.

Below, our Guild's June Dye Day, anyone who wanted had the opportunity to try their hand at dyeing wool, using various techniques.

I must say I do enjoy skillet dying, three of the pieces of combed top were dyed in the skillets, nice variation of colors and no two are alike.

We've wean all our lambs and our little boys are ready to go to new homes.  This is just a pre-view of some of the young ram lambs that are available.  I hope to have time this weekend and start posting them on the NASSA site and here with more details.

                      Above and below, twin rams.  Above is polled with 

two spots of color on his body.  Below: polled white ram lamb.

Both are very nice.

Above scurred ram lamb, black and white fleece.

Below: moorit, with nice wide horns.

Above, scurred spotted ram lamb, black and white.

Below, some of the other ram lambs that will be available.

Hope to start getting more information out about these nice ram lambs.  Now is the time to start planning for your fall breeding.

Lastly, a photo of Buddy L.  He is doing great and has been upgraded.  He has been allowed in the house!  He cannot hear, but we understand each other and communicate very well.

Weaning lambs & a distraction

I've decided to wean the lambs today.  We are ahead of schedule from past years.  The youngest, a set of twins are a bit young, so I will pull them out of the weaning pen so they can nurse from their mom and we'll just have to watch and see how they do. But all the others are old enough to sustain themselves.

It's a bit noisy today, but most are doing well.  All of them are eating a lamb grain ration and hay.

We will have ewes, yearlings and lambs available to purchase soon.  Once all the lambs are weaned and have transitioned over to their grain/hay ration and the ewes have dried up from making milk they will be ready to go to new homes.

If interested, shoot me an email so we can help you find what you're looking for.

Some of these little porkers are doing quite well.  Above, one of the Shetland/Border Cheviot lambs getting her fill of hay.

So I sent the "girls" out to the pasture to enjoy some adult time...no babies!

On another note,

The very day that we lost our best friend Red this extremely thin old stray dog showed up.  As I was in the barn feeding the sheep that morning I had called our vet to make arrangements to take Red in to have him put down.  As I walked from the barn to the house this "old guy" was standing off to the side of the house.  He was so thin, I put some food out for him and left him alone.

We had so much to deal with yet in getting Red into the vet office that I figured if he ate he would be here later.  I just hate it when people dump off animals!

These photo's were taken late afternoon of the same day, he did come back and we fed him again.  I don't think that he would have survived much longer.  He didn't react or respond to anything.  He simple ate the food and started to wander off.  His sense of smell works and I got his attention with a piece of cheese (which was Red's favorite treat!).  We put a collar (not Red's) and leash on him.

He has been a good distraction for us, someone to care for.

These photos were taken 4/10/21.

We've taken him to the vet, he has a very bad ear infection and looks like it has never had any care or treatment.  He cannot hear a thing.  He was someone's pet at some point in time.  He knows to sit, down and to give a paw hand shake.

He has been given a Depo-Medrol injection (steroid), Cephalexin pill (antibiotic), Mozotic ear drops, given daily for 14 days, then an ear flush to follow after the ear drops.

The ear canals are pretty much swollen shut, it's been five days and I haven't seen much improvement yet.  He still can't hear a thing.

These photos taken 4/22/21. Twelve days later...

I hope to give him a bath today, although I believe he is house broken, I haven't brought him into the house yet, I am letting him stay in the garage if it's cold overnight and we have a doghouse outside for him.  Until the ear treatment has finished anyway due to him shaking his head and ear gunk that may be flung out ....yuck!

He has such a great personality and friendly.  I'm calling him Buddy, my husband calls him Buddy L.

Apparently Buddy L was a toy back in the 50's - 60's that my husband was reminiscent of his childhood (a bit before my time or at least I don't remember it!).

 

Our English Shepherd Red 03/10/2010 ~ 04/10/2021

 Such a loyal companion, always by my side no matter what I was doing.  

He is greatly missed and our hearts ache for him.