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.

2015 Lambing Season begins

Sparkling started us off this lambing season with these two little guys.  They were born Sunday afternoon,  dark brown cormo-shetland cross lambs.  I did put my cross bred group together early this year, so I need to look a little closer at these girls as it is difficult to tell with all that wool on them.  I like to have them sheared before lambing begins, as it is easier to see what is going on.  We are scheduled for shearing next Monday, March 16th  I just hope we can get them all sheared without stressing any of the ewes who may be  really close to delivering on that day.

I had to get a pic. with our English Shepherd "Red"  he just loves the lambs.  He whines and wants to lick their faces, but Mama isn't too keen on him.

Artic Freeze hanging on...

This is the view from my front room.  It is always nice to see

all the wildlife everyday.

BUT I AM SICK OF THIS WEATHER!

 

These pics. were taken a couple days ago when we had 

sub zero conditions.

 These last few days the deer and turkeys have stayed on this 

hill side, out of the winds.

I believe we have another week of cold temperatures

then hopefully we will be blessed with more spring-like

weather.

 Before this weather hit us I brought the little guys into the barn and set them up in a pen.

They had a shelter to get out of the elements, but it was so darn cold I couldn't leave them 

out there.  So I've had a chance to get a little closer to them recently and they are all nice.

These rams are for sale if anyone is interested.  The front (right) Katmoget scurred ram is grey.

To his left, a scurred fawn ram, his body type is longer.  To his left is a nice full horned ram that is spotted, brown and white spots, he has a smaller body type.  The furthest is a nice Katmoget scurred ram very dense fleece and nice body size.  Off to the right in the back is an emsket ram, he has full horns, but I think he is scurred as the horns do not feel solid.

I've held these guys back because I felt that they were the nicest of all the ram lambs that we had born in 2014. They all have nice fleeces and I will have their fleeces micron tested to have the scientific information to base what I call a nice fleece.  These rams are for sale if anyone is interested. 

Most of the girls have coats.  I hope to have some pretty clean fleeces this year.

We will be shearing March 16th & 17th this is a Monday and Tuesday.

If anyone is interested in a FARM FRESH fleece let me know.  We will sell raw fleeces the day of shearing

also have some roving available, natural colors and dyed.

If you would like to stop by and observe let me know, this is an experience that I 

think every spinner ought to experience.  It give you a better understanding of the whole process that goes into your final product.

Computer is working again, so hopefully I won't have such a span of time without posting.

That's all for today!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a bountiful Holiday.  Sharing time with Good Friends and Family.

May you find time this Holiday Season to settle in with a new book,
Knitting or Spinning project that you've treated yourself to.

From Our Flock to Yours,
Merry Christmas