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.
