Successful shearing day and lambing has begun!

 We had a great day for shearing our sheep.

With many hands helping.....I appreciate all of you!!

We have many fleeces still available, all of these are quality fleeces for handspinners.

The sheep have been coated and the fleeces are very clean.

many colors available.. brown based colors, brown and white, black and white.

White and black and many grey.  All clean and ready to be spun!

The last few years I've made a list of all the sheep, along with their names and micron information if available.  I've also listed the sire and dam of each one.  I like to keep this in the barn as we shear

so we can at a glance see the micron date or genetic lines.

This has been helpful to us as well as our guests, handspinners, in making their selections.

There is much preparation that is done prior to our Shearing date.  So we were busy cleaning our area that is used for shearing the sheep because our round bales of hay would normally be in this spot.

I didn't get any photos while we were shearing this year, I just didn't think about it.

We did have our first lambs born on Monday, March 3rd.

#161 Troyana delivered Twins, black ram above and grey katmoget ewe below.  The sire is Two Tone.  We repeated this breeding.  I really liked the lambs she had for us last year.

This little ram lamb was born Friday, March 5th.  he is a dark brown (moorit).

His dam is #201, Lark, his Sire, is a black and white spotted ram, Hoyt.

#203 Ophelia delivered twin ewes on Saturday, March 6th, on our Shearing day.  The sire, Moogega, a spotted black and white ram.  

This ewe is #1547 Lilly, a flecket, I just love all the body spots!  She was bred to Moogega.  A ram that was born here last year and also has this same pattern.  I was really hoping to get this pattern by breeding them together  and success!

We got this cute little ewe lamb.  She looks like she has a big head....but she doesn't.  It's just the angle that I took the pic...it makes her look a little funny!

From what I understand this body marking isn't considered a pattern according to the breed association, it is just called flecket.

But, I tend to think that if a consistent "marking" can been repeated... that it is a pattern.

...just my thoughts on that one.

So the shearing is done and on to the lambing.  Many more lambs to come.

If you are looking for nice clean spinning fleeces shoot me an email to 

make arrangements and check out our fleeces.

Shearing Day ... UPDATE!

Our Shearing Day  is set for SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 2021 

There was a slight change in the schedule BUT we have been confirmed for SATURDAY MARCH 6th for Shearing!!

All the ewes have coats on so their wool is very clean and this makes it so nice for anyone (handspinner) who wants to process the wool themselves. 

We are having an "Open House" for wool sales on the day of shearing and will be available on Sunday, March 7th for anyone who might be looking for fleeces to purchase.

Contact me via email through this blog at dschrader001@yahoo.com

We have 72 Shetland Sheep that will be shorn and their fleeces will be available to purchase.

Many natural colors of wool to choose from.  From very fine wool, 19 micron, crimpy fleeces to a few that are closer to 30 micron, with a more wavy fleece type.  Mostly single coat fleeces, very few double coat.

If you are not able to come during our Open House, just contact us and we will 

make special arrangements for you to visit and check out our raw fleeces.

We will be expecting our first lambs to be born on March 1st, so by our Shearing date we may have several ewes that have delivered lambs. 

Stay tuned to see photos of lambs as they are born.  I like to post their pics. as a reference for myself and to share.

Stay Warm... Better weather is right around the corner!