The lambs are Comin'

The first LittleRedOak Shetland lambs arrived on Thursday.  Highland Hollows Bluebell led off the season with twins, a musket (oatmeal/brown) ram and a white ewe lamb.  Timed nicely for late morning arrival.  Emily called it; saw Bluebell acting funny at 7 am, put her in a jug, let the other ewes out to pasture and went off to school.  Lambs arrived 3 hours later.

Twin Brooks Palisade delivered a brown ram and black ewe lamb at 4 am last night;  Not tonight, I hope,  I'd rather sleep!   Here, Bluebell's boy greets Pal's through the lambing jug panels. Healthy babies, all, and moms are doing fine. The dad to these four lambs is Kimberwood Leonardo, my smooth-polled (hornless) moorit ram.  No evidence of horns on these newborns, but it's too early to guess about that, yet.

Into Spring

Tax season is pulling in to a close, so of course, who's not got all their tax data compiled yet?   The seasonal tax preparer, of course.

Today.

So I won't write long.  These are new spring photos that DH took on Sunday. 

The ewes are expectant, shall we say, but no one appears ready to burst--

My Finns surprised me last year, though, by appearing lithe and un-ready and then suddenly lambing while I was away, so we'll see.

My elder friend that I watch out for, Paul, is now in a forever-home with nice nurse-aides about 13 miles from me.  I'll make fewer 45 mile drives to Minneapolis now.  That was the big deal of my winter-into-spring, and it's working it's way out now, as are the lambs, the taxes, the irises...

Rams with no- or tiny scur-horns.  LROak March, Finnsheep Osmo,
Kimberwood Leonardo, White Pine Parker.  Nice boys.

Shearing Day was Great!

Great weather, in the fifties, blue sky, lots of friends, good food, good help.
Here's a picture of several women skirting a fleece in the great outdoors:

One of me trimming hooves, while big Dave holds the ewe captive (look at the pregnant finn ewe belly!  3 weeks yet!)  Dave Little holds a sheep who's next for shearing;  Mike Anderson's bent over another ewe.

Candy T., with her back to the camera, bagged fleeces as they came off the sheep, labelling the bags with the sheep's name. 

My daughter, Emily, played vet tech this year, and gave the CD&T vaccines and ivermectin wormer.  I was fiercely proud of my girl, and very grateful for all the fine helpers.  Afterward, we ate pretty well in the house, and collapsed.

Fleeces off the sheep, half sold, and now some will go to Zeilinger's woolen mill this week.

Happy Spring!

Aaagghhh! A skunk lives in my chicken barn!

Or visits it daily.  He likes the cat's food, for which he must somehow get from floor to table about 2 feet off the floor.  Then he washes his food (Like a raccoon?) and leaves debris in the cat's water bowl.  We haven't been getting many duck eggs this week, either-- they lay their eggs in nest boxes on the floor, you know. . .
There's a live trap in front of the chicken barn-- we are hoping he'll wander in.  So far tonight only one or our cats got caught in it, and when I put her up to her cat entrance she did a quick reverse to come back outside. . . and that's when I Knew.  I went inside and saw Mr. Skunk up on the table, washing down a little cat food dinner with the cat's water.
I don't know yet how we'll get rid of this freeloader, but we will, and we will have one more great little farm tale to tell forever.

Shearing Day March 21, 2010

March 21st, Sunday, 10 am.  Mike Anderson from WI will be here for the third year to shear the little flock of little sheep.  "How many ya got?"  "Twenty-four."  "Okay, Sunday at 10 will be fine."

It'll be a two-hour flurry of hoof trimming, vax and wormer shots, fleeces gathered up, skirted and bagged, and we'll eat a little at lunchtime. 

If you can come and plan to eat, you might bring a little something so we have enough!
Just wanted to get the word out. . .

And oh, my friend Lori in New Prague had her first shetland lamb yesterday, March 2nd.  She bought two ewes from me and a ram--
but this baby came from the natural breeding that agreed prior to that on my neighbors' farm.  Remember I  bought some sheep back from a neighbor last Oct/Nov and sought homes?  Lori'd bought a bred ewe at a bargain!  CUTE baby, she said. 
Happy Spring

Clearing out a lifetime of stuff...

For my friend, Paul, whose duplex apartment has been the same since he was 2 years old.  However, it's on the second floor, and he won't be taking steps like he used to, since his stroke.
He's mending.  Not whole, but mending slowly.  I'll move him to a facility out near me so I can check in on him a lot.  He's never been a farm type-- more a cosmopolitan hipster who's appalled to be wearing knit running pants and seen in a wheelchair.
It's easy for me to say that we have to take what life throws at us.

At Little Red Oak Farm, the sun is shining high and warm, and I've been outside a few times today.  I think I'll prune the little oaks (really! some are Little Red Oaks!) and fruit trees.  It should be done while dormant, no flies about to spread disease. 

And find you some pictures of sheep.

The sheep are pretty shaggy!  That's Maple looking us over, while the rams are behind all the ewes and "next door";  it had just snowed before this picture.

Maple and Poppy, two musket colored favorite "pets".  Beaucoup wool, Bluebell's breeding.

There's a new MN shetland (and soon Finn?) shepherd who's been emailing me all winter, keeping my enthusiasm for the sheep high, to match his. He just started a blog, new in my blog list-- Fletcher three oaks? I think he calls it. In the blog list at right. Give it a visit.

There's another new shepherd up in Glenwood, near Jerry Fletcher, I think-- named Aaron, wife Nicole-- who just got their acreage to hold the shetlands they bought from me last November. Nice couple, also enthusiastic. Maybe you'll meet them all one day. They're calling their farm Able Acres, at last discussion.

Time for me to mail those sheep transfers in to NASSA for them, now that they have a new farm address.

The snowy view from the bedroom window after the last (we hope) blizzard!
I'm working on a shearing date, now.  I should have done this a month ago (but I was a little busy).

Happy Spring, soon!

I told you I was busy. . .

I look back at that last post from January 5th-- in it, I said that elders in my life were needing some help--
and a few days later, one of them had a stroke.
I have been juggling two or three or four lives ever since.  The elder, here, is not a family member, so it is not rip-your-heart-out sadness I feel for him, but he has long been a friend.  And he had recently asked me to be responsible for him "if anything ever happened"-- formally, in documents.  So I work through the regular-strength sadness to keep his affairs in order and talk to his medical team.

So---pshewww---that's what I am doing lately.  That and tax prep at my usual wintertime job.  Not too many hours yet, there. And uh-oh, someone has forced me to sign up at Facebook.  I've only peeked, really!

The pleasure of this week is that since DH had a minor knee surgery, I am also back to being chief animal feeder and tender, so I do get to scratch a few sheep chins and monitor mama hen's progress on a clutch of chicken eggs.  It's a soothing balm for the sore work I am doing for my old friend, Paul.

Too busy to post. . .

Hmm, it was holidays, snowstorms, elders who needed help. . . now tomorrow, I'll begin work in the '09-'10 tax season.  I don't know how many hours I'll work each week until April 15.  Then lambs will start to come.

Adventures since Christmas:
After blazing paths (with a shovel) to all the barns on this farm site-- which are all at least 75 ft. apart--
the sheep are all re-combined into one-gender groups after breaking up breeding groups.  20 ewes, 4 rams, total.  Two rams here, two there.  I'd put them together, too, but all the stars are not in alignment yet. . . electronet, port-a-huts, never mind--we are getting there. 
I decided to take Shawn the aberrant-horned ram in to the butcher-- he was sort of a bully with EVERYONE, ewes or rams (though, not people) and I just didn't want him to damage sheep, buildings, or gates with his thick horns.  A buyer who wanted him could not drive the two hours to get here, and I could not hold him 'till spring.  Let's hope he left me some beautifully-fleeced lambs.

He was the first ram that we pulled out of a breeding group.  It was beginning to blizzard, on Dec. 23rd, and we knew he wouldn't let his ewes get into the shelter (PIG!).  So we ambushed him in the portahut, stuffed him into a BIG dog crate, and lifted his 125-150 lb. crateload onto a sled-- on which we sailed him across the barnyard with the greatest of ease!  Great system--we'll use that again! 

Without rams, the twenty ewes are happy in the big, shabby lean-to that they spend winter, pregnancy, and lambing days in.   It's about 15x20 feet.  Big enough for 20 ewes, I guess.  Now that the rams are out, I can visit with them more comfortably-- there are Christmas lights and a horse-sized heated water pail in there, with a nice straw floor. It's been below-zero cold for a week, but the youngest ewes have been leaping and hopping lately when  I visit, a very funny sight. 

There are a few frail elders in my life who have needed lots and lots of help, lately, so that's taken up my extra time--
but my own little family is doing fine and we had nice holidays together.  We saw the movie "Avatar" on Sunday, what fun that was!

Now, tomorrow it's back to an office--
while the ewes in the barn grow rounder until spring--
and I spend time spinning and knitting with ladies who love those activities.  It's a nice time of year.

Other People's Farm Blogs Amaze me

I could just sit and read all night.  I go to another Shetland breeders' blog, probably the most recent post that's popped up on my list to the right, here--
and they have, on their blog, a list of their favorite blogs, so I click on some of theirs--
and it goes on and on.  I am charmed, I am invigorated by other people's ideas and adventures.

Here's an extremely nice piece of writing on living on the rural side:
We're Not From Around Here

Hooray!  I figured out how to make hyperlinks.  It's a new world from now on.

Here's a nice Romney sheep blog:
Romney Ridge Farm

Oh, that's fun.  Happy Reading.

I'm inside this week, weaving, knitting, putting away Hanukkah decorations.  That family party is over.  Christmas with the other side of the family is next week, but I am not the host of that one.  Psheww. 
It's 0 degrees F and less, here in MN, and the sheep got double feed today.  They drink a lot of water from their electric, heated buckets.  I think it's like warm tea.  Wouldn't you?
The cats, hens and ducks now all have heated pet bowls, too.  Chickens', up high on a platform so the ducks can't mess it up and a bucket on the floor for the messy ducks.  What a great idea.  It took us 5 years to figure that one out.

Imagine it All White

I won't have to post a photo, then, as I haven't taken any for a while.  The snow of winter has begun, and next, the cold, so just imagine I took a photo, and it was all white.

We heard it was coming from the fearful meteorologists--so we took inventory-- milk, coffee, food in the freezer, we're okay-- hay, chicken feed, heated water pails all round, heat tape on the water hydrant-- tractor accessible to plow--we're ready.

Dear Daughter had a concert band performance on Tuesday night, projected to be the worst travel weather.  We were prepared to take a hotel room in the city in order to make the concert, but didn't have to.  The snow was blowing, by its end, but nothing extraordinary for Minnesota natives to cope with.

I tucked a flake or two of hay inside every sheep shelter-- there are 5 breeding groups of 4-7 sheep right now-- filled waters and salt boxes, got the fowl inside their barn, with cats adjacent, and waited it out.

Emily's school was cancelled today.  Yay, we made gingerbread boys, girls, sheep, dreidels and stars.  Tomorrow we'll decorate them.  Maybe I'll photo those!

Tonight we went out and put newly-purchased Rocky coats on two finnsheep girls-- they'd been shorn by the farm I bought them from, having been destined for the butcher.  They were spared that fate, but now they looked too vulnerable to me in their half-inch of wool covering, so we put coats on them.  As I recall, any layer will help keep a body warmer, even if it's just heavy nylon.  They are also in the most sheltering of my barns, so . . . it's as good as it gets on this little farm.  Oh, for the record, the 6 month finn ewes, who are as tall as any full grown Shetland, wore sizes D and E loosely, having no wool.  But the length along the spine, front to back, was good.   My big puffball Shetland, Bluebell, has on a G size, and it looks tight all over. 
I have an H as well;  I'm thinkin': Osmo the Finn ram;  maybe Bluebell in a few weeks.
These coats may be a nice thing, but it's true that the sheep had better be quiet and good-natured to put up with being grabbed and outfitted while enjoying a bit of hay.

Finally, arrangements were made today for Shawn the Shetland ram with aberrant horns, who has the most amazing fleece I have seen on a Shetland.  Oh, I have a picture of that!

He's also seen in the last post, looking through the fence.  Half-horn guy.  Because he is now the only guy with thick, substantial horns here, I was afraid of what he'd do to other hornless rams when rams are recombined in a few weeks, after breeding.  I had a butcher date ready for him.
I called a woman who had said, "before you butcher him, call me", so I did.  Shawn can go live with her, soon, and I am always happy when an animal with great traits gets to live on . . .
Happy Wednesday, everyone.

Thanksgiving weekend means. . .

The rams get to go spend a few weeks of quality time with the ewes.  They've thought they were in Jail.

The ewes were getting a little antsy. . .

And sometimes, cruel.

"That coat is too small. It makes you look FAT, you know."

Warm November

I've been taking lousy photos lately;  maybe because I don't take the camera outside (or myself) until late afternoon, and the danged sun goes down at 5 or so. The light is bluish and gray by 4pm--

But the little new Finn ewe, "TRP Number 20" stood still nicely for me, and I got this one.  My daughter wants to call her Kimi, I believe.  A Finn boys' name, but she likes the sound of it.

I'm trying to make myself part with some more ewes.  I think lambing 20 in spring will drive me crazy, but I seem to have a rational reason for keeping them all.  Next summer I will have to hold a Clearance Sale.

Outside, now, to do pruning and digging/moving some small trees.  We know what weather will soon be here.

New Finn Ewes, Oh boy!

The Finns I can get locally are fine sheep, of Wee Croft lineage, bred at Gale Woods Farm by Tim Reese, the Farm manager.  Gale Woods is a teaching farm park in Minnetrista, MN.  Tim's flock is certified scrapie-free and tested for OPP.  I was thrilled to get 3 new Finn ewes from him.  This black girl with the big white splash on her forehead also has a white foot.  She was sheared last month-- while her "sister", who to my eye looks modified black, or emsket in Shetland terms-- was not.    I was stunned to really see her color today.

You see, I wasn't even going to buy this solid colored ewe, but she came up to me and laid her head on my thigh.  She's a love, and look at that wool!

Of course, it's the spotted cow of a sheep that first caught my eye.  What a splashy look!

They're a little spooky in their new yard.  This lineup was caused when the farm cat walked by!

The Homeless Sheep have Homes

Hooray!  I offered the re-homed sheep on Best Farm Buy Classifieds (have all of you found these?  It's national.) and a young man and his lovely bride decided shepherding was for them.  (P.S.-- if you can teach me how to make a hyperlink within the blog, I would just link to the Classifieds.  Thanks!)
It's fun mentoring someone who's just getting set up to raise sheep.

If you recall, 3 ewes had come back here from a neighbors';  one, who had some possible mastitis? problem  while she was with them, I decided I should keep, to keep an eye on next season.  One, LittleRedOak (LRO) Mallow, went to a farm in New Prague with her sister, LRO Catnip (boo hoo, we will miss her).
The new, young shepherd is taking Mallow's daughter, Mindy, along with Easter Lily, one of the spring orphan twins (I know, how could we do that!) and two more of our little brown ewes.
He will have a nice starter flock.  Also rescued by him was the little black ram who was GOING to go to the butcher-- the one whose photo was shown here a month ago, eating a pumpkin.

I'm feeling fortunate to have the time and money to arrange these pairings.  These sheep are all fortunate.  They will be well cared-for.

NOT Sheep-related. . . well, a little

Today my stepdaughter became a lawyer.  As her attorney-family member-sponsor, I made probably the only appearance and motion to the Minnesota Supreme Court that I ever will.  Here we are before the microphone, in front of the stage at Roy Wilkens Auditorium, St. Paul, where the Justices are seated.  I am the small, gray haired lady with long skirt and sensible shoes, saying, "May it please the court, my name is Gail ______ and I am a member of the Minnesota Bar.  I wish to present Shana_____, my stepdaughter.  I move that she be admitted to practice law in the state of Minnesota."

Or some such words as that.  To which Chief Justice Magnuson smiled down and said, "Counsel, your motion is granted."  It was a big day for Shana and admittedly, for me! 
I remember it was Justice Alan Page who said those words for me, in his deeply resonant voice, 9 years ago.   Slightly less than 800 new lawyers were sworn in today in Minnesota.
After a celebratory lunch with our little family, her grandparents and another lawyer-sister-in-law, we all went  back to our regular lives.

I came home, peeled off the suit jacket, skirt and nylons, put on farmer jeans, and said, "ahhhh".

Okay, I guess I will close on a sheepie note:  I believe that the unnamed ewe lamb in my last post, and a few more  ewes have found a new home;  we'll meet the prospective new shepherds tomorrow.  And-- Emily liked Mindy for the little ewe's name.  All's well that ends well.

Mallow's ewe lamb needs a name

I was a little anxious about settling the sheep back in that we had sold last year to my neighbors-- but it's going well.  While Abby and Mallow were away, Mallow had this little ewe lamb-- pretty girl, but she doesn't trust us yet.  We did not help matters when we descended on the quarantined girls with hypodermics (annual CDT shots) and icky white Valbazen for worming.  PLUS we sat them on their behinds to check for hoof trimming-- and found dozens of burrs matted into their long wool.  We cut out quite a few.  They hated this, of course, so we limited the trimming to biggish felted mats and burrs on the belly that the ewes would lay on if they weren't cut away. 

We hoped they appreciated that.  We also saw that Abby's udder looks/feels fine!  So the question of her having mastitis in May remains a mystery. 

As I said, the ram went to the freezer--his hide is drying in the pole shed.  I trimmed and salted it;  I plan to send it to Stern's in Milwaukee to make another sheepskin rug if his fleece  is useable.  I think Stern's can make his wool a "shearling" pelt,  trimming his burrs out.

This little girl. . . has no name.  A wildflower, like her mother, Mallow?  We'll have to think about this.

She is available to go to a new home. 

Mallow's going to live with Lori & Norm in New Prague, with her full sister, Little Red Oak Catnip.  Catnip is my brown and white spotted ewe who's seen on these blog pages a LOT.  Lori has Polypays who are NOT friendly and she decided she needed some sheep who love their shepherds.   We love Catnip, too, but trust that she will do well with Lori.  And we have so many ewes from Catnip's line, now.

It's raining again in Minnesota.  I'm getting quite sick of this-- maybe I DON'T want to retire in Washington, where it rains so much!

I had a load of gravel and sand hauled in yesterday and spread in the old lean-to so the sheep have a dry floor.  Good thing-- today it's rained all day long.  You know my rusty, trusty shed (see Feb. 16, 2009 blog entry for a photo).  The bobcat / excavation guy who did the spreading said that he's usually asked "how much?" to knock down a shed like that.   I was not insulted.  I hung Christmas lights in and around it after he left, spread straw inside and invited the sheep back in.

Someone Else's chickens, free to a good home! Cheap Sheep, EDITS incl.

Buff Orpington Roosters, two.  Beautiful, shiny feathered big boys, hatched last spring under the neighbor's granary.  Seems their rooster dad does not know or care that they are kin and won't let them into the henhouse at night.  Free to a good home, says my neighbor-- but I, personally,  don't want to offend my resident rooster.  I told them I would post here looking for a home.
We are near Norwood Young America, look that up.  And Google Buff Orpington for a chicken picture, I didn't take one.  (Though my golden hen, the mama of Baby Duck girl, in past posts, is a Buff Orp). 

On another note, I called a different neighbor, the one who bought a little flock from me last year, to tell him I had homes for his little flock if he didn't want them anymore.  I knew he'd lost his full time job and thought he probably didn't have much time for them, working two part-time jobs to make up for the job loss.
He said yes, and I am thrilled to have my sheepies back again. Though not the ram, who has big nice horns-- LRO Anders is out of  LRO Amy and FirthofFifth don Telmo Bourbon.  He threw spots all over his harem last year, though he is moorit.  You know my position on  horns, and I have my breeding groups made up already 
EDIT HERE:  Anders went to Taylor Meats this morning.  I learned on Saturday that he was a basher, and I didn't think there was a lot of hope for him since he was so inclined.

 EDIT here:  I DO have a good home for at least one of the sweet, moorit girls.
There is another 2009 moorit girl, pretty, crimpier than her mom, wavy long fleece-- Anders and LittleRedOak Mallow's.  Her twin was spotted.

This spotty is LRO Abby, b. 2007.  I'm afraid her interim shepherd left a case of mastitis untreated, so I worry about her udder.  I'll check it when I can-- she has only thrown singles in two seasons, now, so at least that bodes well, if she's bred again.

Oh yeah, Clean Sheep

On one nice day last week in our otherwise wet and cold Midwestern fall weather, I strolled about looking for model sheep.  In the week or two of rain-- hardy sheep steadfastly waiting it out outdoors-- the sheep's fleeces got so nice and clean!  It was a pleasure to see.  A visit to the big boys-- only 3 remain for this fall's breeding:
In front, Kimberwood Leonardo, a polled Shetland ram.
Behind him, LittleRedOak Shawn, a scurred mioget Shetland with crimpy fleece that I've only seen on BFLs (Bluefaced Leicesters) and my own Finnsheep,
and behind him, Osmo the finn ram, from Tim Reese's flock at Gale Woods Farm.  Osmo is 1-1/2 times the size of my Shetlands, and hornless-- a pacifist, a sweetheart.

The other rams who will winter here are White Pines Parker, a scurred musket Shetland I got from Sabrina at Boston Lake a few rainy cold weeks ago.  Behind Parker is LittleRedOak March, a son of Kimberwood Leonardo and Minwawe November.  He has button scurs, and we are trying for polled rams all around.  Hmm, I just realized, all the rams are brown in one form or another. . .  Oh well, we have different colored girls.

This is little LittleRedOak Elise, whose mom (Bramble Elsie) moved away this summer.  Her fleece sample was the finest of all the lambs I tested.

And my old friend Twin Brooks Palisade, whose fleece is still jet black after 5 years or so.  If ONLY she'd give me a ewe lamb-- Always rams!  With big horns! I would let her retire or move to another farm and I'd keep her lamb.  I don't really want the super nice horns she throws on rams, but I want that black, glossy fleece.

Maple certainly cleaned up nicely.  Note the sheen on the wool-- reflecting sunlight-- on the wool on top of her back:

And her baby, Linden:

And finally, what you get when you tell your young ones to go out and take sheep pictures for you:

Ducky and Mama break free; Clean sheep & Barn

After the rain, but before the snow-- we let the chickens and ducks free range again. All summer they must stay in a biiiiiiggg electronet-fenced circle around their chicken house, so the fox doesn't get them (again) and then they also leave my garden alone.

Well, the garden is history.  Mama Hen and her adopted daughter, duck hen, went out scratching the garden frostbit leftovers with all the other fowl.  Ms. Duck still follows her mom, but is on friendly terms with the strange ducks she's getting to know.  She's behind Mama Hen, here:

Poppy the bottle dog sheep lamb wondered about these funny creatures, chickens:

My neighbor, Jeremy, did a few hours' labor for us in exchange for many big round bales of grass hay we've let him take for years, now.  He's a mighty bobcat operator, and the old sheep leanto hadn't been cleaned out for these 4-5 years.  He made quite a  compost mountain for us. 

Farm-wife wanna-bes, I do think he's still single. ;-)  (He'd kill me for this, I think.)

Okay, I think I reached my photo limit, again.  Coming up next, you guessed it, more sheep pictures!

October?

It snowed today, and stayed on the ground all day.  'S'okay with me, I have a LOT of apples, squash, peppers, you get the idea. . . that all need attention, Indoors.
We knew it was going to freeze last Thursday, so we cut all the squash from the vines and brought them in:

So does anyone know the name of this type?  I think that green polka dots turning tan was its final stage;

I can't find its type online anywhere.  We had bought a lonely potted seedling at a nursery labeled "Winter Squash". 

If you recall the giant pumpkins in the lambing barn-yard, here's "the morning after".  Three are in my laundry room now, waiting out this week of freezing weather. 

All the rest went to the sheep.  This guy got a haircut in advance of going "on the truck" to the restaurants.  His fresh black pelt is SO black. 

One of the 5 boys kept here kept his fleece; he's going to have a new job adding color to some Polypay girls in a flock-- they've produced 2 black ewes already.
 

In the freezing weather, fiber-friend Angie and I set up a sale booth at a Harvest and Fiber Fair event at Gale Woods Farm Park, a beautiful teaching farm near here.  We got to set up free if we were teaching, so we spun all day and talked to children, mostly, about it. 

It's a good thing we did that, as sales were about nonexistant.  The food and company were great, however. 
I'm afraid I went to look at their Finnsheep and ended up ordering two more ewes.  I had to!  Beautiful ewe lambs going to the butcher!  Pictures in a week or more--

I'd better cut this short, I think I'm limited on how many photos I can put on one post.  To be continued!