Sheep in Minnesota winter

 

 Finally, a normal, snowy Minnesota winter--  we begin to worry about the effects of global warming when Minnesota has little snow and 40 degrees all winter, as it did last year.

The Finn and Shetland sheep don't mind the snow and cold, they are built for it.  These Finn girls are mom and daughter: Lassi (right) and Sukka.  It appears they opted to sleep outside and get snow-covered , rather than go into their lean-to for shelter.

 

  I asked my husband to go outside and take hoarfrost photos on Sunday, and to please photograph the silly ewes walking in a line.  The snow is less than a foot deep, but they will rarely deviate from the path they've trodden from feeder to shelter to fenceline where they hang out with the neighboring rams.  The result was stunning.

 DH and I also discussed selling all the sheep this summer-- which we've considered for some time.  I need a shoulder surgery, and 3 months' rest .  I am quite sure that means no hay bale or water bucket carrying.  I also want to travel in winter.  So... unless something else changes -- always possible-- we will sell off the remaining dozen Finn and Shetlands we have here, as well as the 2 dozen lambs expected to arrive in April.

Keep a watch on this blog if you want more info, and message me to inquire.  This will take a while to get done, but I know some people will have favorites-- as we always have.

 

 

Grace and Beauty

The Grace is in so much that I see, but mostly in learning that my husband's sarcoma seems, for now at least, to be conquered!  And it may be, forever!  After 5 months under siege of that nasty disease, we are all beginning to breathe freely again.  Howard had surgery to remove the (chemo-killed) tumor in his leg on August 9th.  A month later, he's limping around with a cane, which he should be rid of in future months.  Hooray.

Howard's hair is growing back nicely-- it's longer now.

Friends have blessed us all summer with visits to the farm-- sometimes just to cheer Howard in his recovery, often to do farm chores that he couldn't.  Two or three old friends got to get on a tractor to mow our pastures for us-- thrilling, they say! Tom came early in the summer, while Paul took a turn this month.


Friend Paul hadn't been on a tractor for a long time.

Howard's brother, Mark, cut thistles one 90 degree afternoon, with their childhood friend, Mike B.  Friend, Trisha,  helped plant our vegetable garden, which is now filling my kitchen with  tomatoes, peppers, onions.  Betti, Trisha, Paul and Ann helped prune and clear small trees and vines out of our windbreak in a few work sessions.  Nicole came out and cleaned a barn or two with me, bless her for asking for the worst farm chores and then doing them!  Howard's son helped unload hay last weekend, bringing along his wife and darling baby boy.

My sister, Iris,  and my sister-in-law, Stacey, accompanied my daughter to Hawaii in June, when she attended Ag Discovery, a USDA-sponsored educational "camp" for teens.  My gosh, that's going the extra mile --or 3000!  (Now I know, it was probably more fun to do that than if the camp was in, say, North Dakota).   In August, Iris picked Em up from band camp in Duluth, days after Howard's surgery.

If I forgot to mention anyone here, please let me know-- I am spinning out memories here, as they come-- I want to thank you all.

The Beauty is in all of nature around me-- fall is really coming, now. The maples outside my window are beginning to turn colors, and the fields of corn and soybeans, all around, have gone yellow. We have two apple trees-- Honeycrisp and Freedom-- that produced bumper crops of apples this year. Before the birds could get them all, we picked and brought the apples inside.
Daily, I put apple slices in the dehydrator (did you know that one teen can eat 5 dried apples in a half hour while reading a book?).


Apple butter, apple sauce-- mmm-- these apples don't keep well, or bake well-- the Freedoms turn to mush when baked, or soften while stored. So-- many quarts of applesauce we'll have. I also have the BEST apple butter recipe around.



LOVE my apple peeler/slicer.
 

Some unemployed ram lambs, next to Little Red Oak Apollo, a polled Shetland Ram.  All are for sale.

Sheep sold really well here, this summer. Good thing, as I never updated my blog sale page. I do have ram lambs left-- a brown Finn ram and black and brown Shetland. But there's always a place for ram lambs.


A Quad brown ram lamb, still available.

I also have about 8 raw fleeces -- Finn and Shetland-- and a fair amount of blended roving for spinning or felting. I will market that now that I have time. 
 


 

Mari and Lassi, the sweet Finnsheep ewes.

And I will have time, again.

Things are looking better every day.

Finn and Shetland lambs-- take one, or two!

I think the Finn ewe lambs have homes-- I still need to match up two that are left.  I'll post them here, so their buyers can see them:

Sukka is the brown yearling ewe who had these two black HST lambs.  I will keep the boy, on the right.  His sister, left-- not a terribly flattering pose, we've called Flower, for the skunk in Bambi-- if you see the resemblance.  She's bigger and sturdier now.  Sukka's been an excellent mom.

Maple is a lovely musket Shetland ewe who is a dear pet of mine.  Her mom was a largish, white ewe with superabundant fleece, Highland Hollows Bluebell;   her dad was a beautiful mioget ram named FirthofFifth don Telmo Bourbon.  She got his reddish brown color, which faded to cream.  Maple has a modified brown ram lamb this year.  Oh, Emily has Mikie the cat in her lap, as well as Maple.

Next, Emily wins the heart-- for the first time! Of a little black Finn ewe lamb.  Her mom, Kimi, is the gray/black ewe in the middle, while Maple still hopes to hold onto her position with Emily...

This other little Finn ewe lamb will go with a badgerface lamb (seen in the last post) to live in Missouri, with Jennifer.  I just had to show you how danged sweet she is.  Emily is petting her brown Shetland favorite, Annie, and the little ewe.

... but apparently, not enough!