August 2012

This summer's been built around chemotherapy sessions for my husband-- whose surgery to remove the much-diminished cancer in his thigh occurs tomorrow-- the end, we hope, of a long, stressful ordeal.  Each month, Howard had two weeks of chemo. He lost his hair and sunburned easily, but it was nice that after the first round, he was able to take the chemo at home.
The ordinary life that occurred around that challenge was mostly vegetable gardening with my daughter, lamb and sheep-tending and selling, and a few trips to and from the airport.

In June, Em went to Hawaii-- the neatest program a country kid could win, if they truly have an interest in sciences related to agriculture. 
She plans to major in biology in college, and the (free) Ag Discovery program for high school students, put on by the USDA's APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) at universities around the country, was right up her alley.  She got accepted to the 3  programs she applied to-- and her mom convinced her to pick the Hawaii trip.  Why not?

When she returned, she had two school friends out to see the farm.  They live in a suburb 25 miles away, where Em attends school. 
I don't think they'd ever fed corn to sheep so that they could pet them, before this.

Emily insisted on vegetable gardening this summer, though I'd have skipped that work for a year.

Emily loves gardening-- weeding!  Because it's so satisfying, she says.

We sold sheep left and right this summer, easily.  Who knows why? The economy picked up and people felt freer to start new flocks on new family farms? 

Some were for hobby flocks, some were pets, some were fiber animals, and I was unable to fill a commercial breeder's order for 10-12 Finnsheep ewes. 

The buyers are always nice people, and I was happy to send some of my mature animals to good homes.  It was our fear that cancer might make us disperse the flock in a hurry, and that often works out badly for the animals. 

My favorite sweet Finn ram, Osmo, went to live with a spinner/shepherd who appreciated his potential. 
Barb took Paavo along with Osmo, and a little Minnesota hay to boot.   

We are delighted to have a much smaller flock now, knowing that two mature rams are happy in Iowa, and that my old best friend ewes, Candy and Maple, are clearing a forested homesite up near Canada. 

Everyone keep their fingers crossed for Howard's recovery, as we hope for an easier year to come at Little Red Oak Farm!

Mid June, lambs are growing, pastures flowing!

This post is part experiment:  my cousin Jean just notified me that the blog was missing.  Blogger agreed, and with a few button pushes, it was back up.  A mystery.

I haven't written much lately.  What's been happening?

I got all the outbuildings painted by an old friend who is, incidentally, a painter, and coincidentally, I  ran into in the vet's office mid-May.  So... one barn (lambing barn) was entirely re-painted, while 8-9 other small-to-huge, smokehouse-to-machine-shed barns got doors and windows and roof trim painted.  All fresh!

A friend, Trish, my daughter, Emily, and my mom all helped me to plant the vegetable garden and flowerpots around the house. 

The farmer who plants and harvests my tiny, tillable acreage remarked that he loved having another local guy mow his farmstead lawns, and I said, "give that guy my phone number".  For $55 I get 5 hours back each week of my precious time, not spent on a mower.  The guy with the zero-turn radius, 51" cutting deck machine does it all, well, in 90 minutes.

Love that.  The theme here is, "getting help" on this farm, since my husband was diagnosed in March with a scary form of cancer-- malignant fibrous histiocytoma-- I'll say its name.
Howard has to take chemo monthly for 4 months, then surgery, then radiation for 2 more months.  You can see how just running to doctors and clinics would take up all available extra time, hence, the need for extra help.

Most all is planted and mowed and taken care of right now, so I should get out and take some sheep photos before the lambs are all grown.  But we had a 6" rainfall overnight last night.  For the first time ever, the lambs' and ewes' current shelters were in water up to the sheepies' knees last night, and it was raining, lightning, thundering so constantly that they wouldn't follow us to a dry shelter. 
Water ran like a wide creek through their pasture, between trees in the pine windbreak, and into the rams' pasture. 
I found the (4) rams in their plastic port-a-hut, similarly up to their knees in water, and when I called, they popped out of it.
I could only hope that all sheepies found higher, dryer ground at the end of the pasture.

This morning, the sun was shining brightly, with lakes in fields and yards all around.

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!

Last of the Spring lambs, Finn and Shetland

Will caption these soon, but here's a start:  Finnsheep, black/grey ewe is Kimi.  Her three lambs rest here.  4th sibling, Tiny Girl, went to live with a family to be raised on a bottle.   All are strong, now. 
Next photo shows the three-- all black ewe lamb, HST (head socks tails) ewe, and ram.

Kimi, finnsheep mom had quads.  One bottle baby went to live with another family.



These are Kimi's remaining lambs:  black ewe, black ewe with HST white markings, and black ram with white wisps on his crown. 

This is the sweetest little people-loving Finn ewe lamb ever.  She is out of Kora, our elder piebald ewe, and Osmo, our elder brown ram. I can't bear to sell her to a commercial flock-- she's too sweet! She has a twin ram brother, looks quite the same.

This is an amazing ram lamb out of my Stillmeadow badgerface ram (who is QR genotype for scrapie resistance) and my white ewe, Mari.  The crimpy wool outlines his body as though he's wearing a lycra suit.  Just amazing.  Nice big boy, may carry brown.

Mari's boy again, with his twin badgerface, HST sister.  This girl is spoken for.

Mari's ram lying down, Annie the Shetland's ewe lamb looks at us.  She is musket, likely, and is spoken for by a family.

Lassi the brown Finn fusses over her young rams.  She had quads;  lost a ewe lamb before I got there, and lost a ram lamb a few days later.  I regret that we missed noticing that the cute brown boy wasn't nursing well.



Lassi guarding her two brown ram lambs.  Both are big and sturdy, with lovely color.

 Nappylainen and the funniest little ram lamb (hers) ever.  He has HST spotting from his dad, and body spots from his mom, so there's a little white everywhere, but... the funniest is on his rear.  It's a big white circle, with a black dot in the middle.

Trillium, Shetland ewe, nurses her phaeomelanin-dusted boy.

Lambs, lambs, lambs

First, I love this-- it looks like Holstein cows grazing on our flat Minnesota pastures-- only it's two spotted Finnsheep.  Mom, Kora, is on the right and daughter Nappylainen is on the left.  Both produced lambs this past week.  Kora had mostly-black twins, a boy and girl, big and healthy-- and Nappy produced a big healthy ram lamb.  Hers has more spottedness-- but nothing like the moms' spots.   First year Finns often have singles, but after that, it's twins, triplets, quads, and sometimes, more.

Remember to double click on photos to show those lambs' amazing cuteness up close...

A few photos of Mari, the white Finnsheep, and her badgerfaced ewe lamb and black HST ram lamb:  The badgerface girl is going to Missouri, but the boy hasn't been promised anywhere, yet.  Both appear to have wonderful wool coming.  Both are big, healthy twins.  Last year Mari had triplets.  One each brown, black and white lambs.

Forrest's been lucky---here are some of his lambs.

Dear Husband (DH) Howard's first hospital day for chemo coincided with Forrest's butcher date, so Forrest got lucky and missed his butcher appointment.
Then, I got lambing updates from the two farms I leant Forrest to last fall.  Now I don't know:  if I really want a spotted, polled ram, is this what Forrest carries?  Or should I keep looking?  It seems that what Forrest throws are bersugget or headsplashed spotted lambs, but not the spottedness I am after, which is harder to get.  Here's a photo of what HALF of his 10 or so lambs looked like:
Friend Lori, holding one twin he produced out of her ewe, LittleRedOak Mallow, a moorit who has thrown HST lambs (white Head, Socks, Tail).  Forrest, remember is musket-- and had white tracery on his face as a lamb.

This bersugget patterned lamb is also from Mallow.

Next, triplets he fathered from LRO Catnip, a wildly spotted moorit ewe (Mallow's twin! The wool looks tightly crimped.

And finally, a black lamb with white splashes out of LRO SunBear, a black ewe whose mom had even more white head splashes. 

So, what do you all think of Forrest's potential?  Piebald spotting is hard to find;  polled rams are hard to find, and the two together are very few!  I need one!
.

Two new lambs, DH returns to work

Blogger changes still confound, but I'll get the hang of it, I am sure.

Yesterday the skies cleared, leaves progressed their slow-motion greening on ash and maple trees around the farm, and Mari the Finn ewe gave birth on the green grass of the barnyard . 
Howard had gone back to work after 2 weeks of chemo (1 in hospital) and chemo recovery (at home).
Em had gone back to school, and I had the farmstead all to myself. A welcome change on a beautiful, sunny day.

 I thought you might like to see some of the steps involved.  First, the bubble of placental stuff emerges.

I sat on a haywagon a respectful distance away, and took pictures as Mari bravely pushed those lambs out by herself.  Stupid, intrusive chickens hung around, though, waiting to peck at any interesting birthing matter... eeeuuuu.

Seems that most other ewes will vanish from the site when one decides to give birth.  I think they are respecting an intensely private moment between mom and babies, but they might think "get me the hell out of here, that looks painful!"

Nice job, Mari.  The little  badgerface ewe lamb is already spoken for.  Her mostly-black ram lamb is not, yet.

Lambs arriving

This is really a test to see if the new Blogger format works.  I'll be back to edit.  (Days later, still don't understand the changed format or how to access)

But it's true-- Shetland ewe lamb, Little Red Oak Trillium, had a white ram lamb on Tuesday.  Uneventful delivery, for us anyway.  We were gone.  She did it all by herself.
On Thursday, Finn ewe, Kora the spotty cow-sheep delivered just two lambs.  She had triplets last year, so, oh well.  And nearly solid black, no wild carnival-splashed up lambs.

Little Annie, the Shetland pet, had moorit twins by Friday a.m.-- boy and girl--

and now it's quiet in the lamb barn.

Last Chance for Forrest

Little Red Oak Forrest has a date with the butcher on Monday, unless you want him, and speak up quickly!

After Shearing Day on Saturday (a great, fun time, by the way, and just look at all of those shiny, cleaned- up sheep) he acted as rams do, and I decided I'd had it with him.  He's just a ram, not particularly aggressive, nor at all wild-- but when the sheep don't recognize each other after getting haircuts, they often butt heads to re-establish the pecking order, and Forrest wants to be No. 1! 

Besides, I have 3 rams for both breeds I own, Finns and Shetlands.  Forrest is so related to most of my ewes--he's a Highland Hollows Bluebell son.  I am pretty proud of everything about him-- his hornless little head, his nice square build.  His fleece is super-abundant, crimpy, and I had him micron'ed.  His AFD was 27 at 2 yrs old, probably "good 'nuff" for many folks.  I just want to keep moving on and keep my numbers down. I will look for an unrelated ram this summer.

Here are all 3 Shetland rams.  The little brown guy is only 9 months old-- a Forrest son-- he got about 4 ewes PG in a few days-- when I didn't think he could.  His fleece is baby-fine yet, at 20 AFD, so I will keep him to see how he works out.

My husband, Howard, holding the little ram, Apollo, waiting for shearing! 

There are so many big issues happening in my life right now it's hard to believe that a month ago I was relaxing, tying this quilt with Betty Ann-- the lady who was born in this farm house many years ago!

Now my, my, what lovely wool.  Just wish I could remember whose it was!  Emily will remember. 

Flock reduction after Shearing

We shear on Saturday!  and it will be fun, with all of the friends and helpers who come out.
There's a sad shadow over the farm this week, though, as my husband just heard he'll have a surgery and long treatment period  and ... this spring is going to suck for him.   All is very uncertain.

The little flock depends on labor he won't be able to provide, so...
A shepherd friend is taking home two bred Finn ewe lambs on Saturday afternoon.  That will cut my lambing down to only 10 ewes.  I'll still get 25-30 lambs, I bet...

I also need to sell more mature ewes, and have decided to sell my dear Maple, a modified musket Shetland,
and Elise, a white Shetland ewe out of Bramble Elsie. 
I didn't breed either one this winter, because I lacked a solid color ram and didn't want the offspring to have two light-color genes. 

Maple is an old pet of mine.  Well, not OLD, she is 4 or 5-- but my OLD friend.
She and Elise have given me lots of twins.  Elise's are always black or white, while Maple's have been musket or brown and last year, black gulmogets.  Elise has crimpy even-length fleece, while Maple has the super-abundant longer wool of her mom, Highland Hollows Bluebell. 

More ewes, rams, and lots of lambs will need to be sold soon, but I have to decide who.

I'll put some photos in here soon.

Thanks, Everyone, for the nice words and prayers you've been sending up for Howard.

Shearing Day March 31st!

Kitter on a cold tin roof-- of the sheep lean-to. 

Sat. March 31st, I think-- I'd better confirm with that shearer.  If you need specifics, email me or call.  Comment here if you don't have the contact info!

Helpers welcome, 10am. Potluck lunch, plenty to do until mid-afternoon.

Now, here's a great photo of Emily, showing off the handspun, handknitted gloves I asked a Spinning Guild friend, Elizabeth, to make for her.

 

They are finn wool-- so we posed Emily with our biggest Finn ewe, Kora-- wait, I joke.  We could not make a ewe do this, she was simply the one who went over to Emily, seated in the field.   Nevertheless, she's lovely, don't you think?  (both girls, really)

The gloves are fingerless, with a mitten-fingertip flap buttoned back, see?

Now, here am I, sitting nearby, approached by... Kora, again!  The biggest Finn ewe here, on right, the youngest, tiny Shetland ewe lamb in front, Artemis-- and her mom, Annie, off on the left.

Another nice day in this very warm winter in Minnesota.

If you want Elizabeth to make you gloves, I'll pass the word on, just ask!

Dr. Seuss wisdom

A New Year

I didn't write much all year.  It was a hard, sweet year saying goodbye to two elders in my life, and quite consuming.  In March, to my papa, who helped me so much on this little farm.  83 is a good, long life, so we can't say we were cheated out of time with him--but I miss him terribly.  My dad really liked driving out the 40 miles from his Minneapolis home to work around the farm, building chicken feeders and nest boxes, indoor pens and outdoor chicken yard;  later, sheep feeders and salt boxes-- then rebuilding the old sheep lean-to.  He grew up on a farm, and after raising us in the city, liked experiencing the animals and farm decisions all over again.  From his ancient vocabulary came words like "Clucks"-- the name for a broody hen, and "the dead furrow"-- the furrow at the edge of a field where rain water pools, having nothing planted in it.  He enthusiastically showed us how to butcher chickens and ducks-- and how to use his shotgun for unwelcome animals. 

A picture from Dad's last visit to the farm.  My mom, their  slightly younger friend, and my dad  on the right, talking to Howard, obscured, next to him.

From my garden, I made him pickled beets; liver pate and whole roasting birds from our chicken flock; and he was delighted when we brought orphan lambs to his house, one Easter Sunday.

He wired the chicken house, the pig barn and the granary for me, being a retired electrician.  He taught me how to use power tools when he was in his 60s and I in my 40s-- and how to tie bundles of brush when you cut a tree down.  He left me his miter saw, which we used to cut up cords of small firewood together.

I couldn't use tools all of 2011 because it made me too sad.  Finally, in December, firewood needed cutting and I got out the miter saw... and it was fun to remember him while working.

The other elder I lost was my old friend, Paul, who left his life in my hands when he had a stroke 2 years ago.  He was my "job" (as his guardian) all of 2010, a sweet obligation.  In May, 2011 he died suddenly,  a blessing, considered so by his many friends.  By then, I was getting pretty good at arranging end-of-life care, and we honored him well.

All of this overshadowed the farm life-- which was full and rich on its own.  We had 36 lambs born-- the most ever.  Our four, mature finnsheep ewes  had their first triplets (3 sets) and quads (one set).  My little family worked so well together, all year.

Emily insisted we have another big vegetable garden, and we all took care of sheep, meeting the buyers, transporting sheep to new homes-- until our little flock was down to 22 again.

Now the sheep are calmly waiting until the excitement of lambs in springtime.  The gardens are all trimmed up, though curiously lacking the snow cover of a normal, January, Minnesota winter!  It's been above freezing many, many days this winter, and snow exists only in shady patches.

I'll put some photos in here soon.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Nearing Turkey time

 The sheepies are getting winter coats on; they still like to sleep outdoors here and there around the barnyard.

This is Candy, a stunner who didn't like us until midwinter her first year. 

Emily fed her and a few other ewe lamb companions their hay in a small barn-- then sat in the middle of the hay until gradually, she touched each one, then stroked, and then mesmerized them. 



Now Candy is our pal.

 

Here are a few of this year's ewe crop that we are keeping:  the spotty one, far back, is a finnsheep, Nappylainen.  Love those spots and all else about her. 

Bluebell's white, phaeo-spotted daughter, Trillium is next.  Looks just like Bluebell as a lamb.

I love her.

In front is Nina, a sweet little ewe lamb out of Boston Lake Niav and Kimberwood Harrison.

It was hard to let Trillium and Nina's mothers move on to other Minnesota flocks, but we did.

The consolation prize is having girls who look just like their moms, and are just as friendly.

Halloween!  Emily was a "mage"-- she tells me, an enchantress. 

But she had a minute to plink out some piano tunes before her night out.

 

And another  moment to hug her mama, who wrapped up in the lovely cloak Auntie Iris made.

We have had a very dry autumn in Minnesota.  I got so mad at crows drinking from my ewes' water pail, until I saw bluebirds doing the same, one day.  A flock must've been migrating, as there were about 30 bluebirds all in one group, taking turns at the "fountain".  I sneaked outside with a camera and hid behind the pumphouse to capture this:

I have been extra busy taking care of my elder mom, post-op from a big surgery-- but she's mending now--
and at this late date, I've been selling ewes and rams left and right!  How strange, so late in the season-- but how nice to have my flock the size I want it to be!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!