New Finn Sheep!

Yep, I decided I really wanted these new beauties. My spinner friend Angie said "I'd vote for that, they have yummy wool". I wanted sheep that would get a little bigger than Shetlands, while having a similar look, colors and patterns.
And I like it that they are polled, too.

I bought these registered Finn sheep from Gale Woods Farm, a Minneapolis-Metro area (Three Rivers Park District)farm demonstration park. The site manager has a flock of cluns, border leicesters, finn and icelandic sheep.

A light brown ram was available, I heard, and I picked a white ewe (we named Mari) and a spotted, light brown ewe we named Lassi. We're calling the ram Osmo, for Osmo Vanska, the conductor of a local Minnesota orchestra. It was one of the few Finn names we knew.



Other doings here include the usual summer vegetable gardening, some remodelling on the house, drain tile excavating being done. . . and we're selling the little horse we got last fall. We decided to spend the money his hay costs on lessons instead of feeding and watering the horse. More fun! So if anyone wants a little POA/Morgan cross who used to do barrel-racing, he's waiting for a job!



I've also been selling ewes and lambs (those who don't like me) to a young man from a nearby farm who is, apparently, smitten with the Shetlands. I'm giving him a very good deal, and I feel like I'M getting a great deal: these ewes can go on to lead productive lives at Andrew's farm while he learns about breeding our beautiful little sheep. So, I have no guilt, while keeping my flock size manageable.

I do have a number of little rams this year, and I hate to see the great modified genetics of FirthofFifth Don Telmo Bourbon go for naught. His beautiful mioget color will surely shine out of some of his descendants, if anyone needs a ram.

I had 14 ram lambs this year, and at least 5 were moorit/fawn/mioget (it's not apparent with many of the modifieds, for a while). These rams are out of Bourbon and Little Red Oak Amy, LRO April and LRO Mallow. Amy is fawn, April and Mallow are both friendly, great-looking moorit ewes. They are 3 very different lines. Their sons are all handsome boys I can barely tell apart. Here's one, hanging around while other lambs get lamb-lead class.



Also pictured is one of Minwawe Chicklet and Minwawe Equator's gray and white flecket sons, Mike or Ike; they are also available.

I hope everyone's having a great summer that included fireworks on the Fourth of July!

Learning new genes-- for Horns and Modified color

Hi everyone,
I am one lazy blogger -- or one busy shepherd, this spring. You'd think I didn't have sheep to sell, I've been so reluctant to post information! I DO, so if you need sheep or lambs, email me!
But right now, I'm puzzling on colors and horn types that cropped up in this years' lamb crop.


One handsome lad, the first born, who has a modified (fawn? mioget?)golden color --
He is a twin out of Justalitl Sarah, my fawn ewe-- but the dad was not my mioget ram, FirthofFifth don Telmo Bourbon-- he was my best fleece/tiny horn guy, Little Red Oak Mullein.
So what gives? I wonder. 'Splain to me these horn genetics and these modifieds. . . because it sure looks like he's got the tiniest little horns coming I ever saw in a 7-week old ram. I knew his dad had tiny horns-- and I still don't know if they are "scurs" or just "teacup" horns or "aberrant" horns-- they should teach a class. I know, I AM a member of the Yahoo group about Polled Genetics, and I'm doing my best to "get" it.


Soooo.... here's a picture of several rammies last April, woefully unclothed after shearing. This is AFTER they remembered each other without their fleeces, and were on speaking terms again. ;-) There's a lot of head-butting until then. You can see Mr. Mighty Horns, LRO Alex; a nice brown (moorit) boy with normal enough horns, and third, Mullein, the guy with the not-so-hot but maybe that's good- horns. His right (our left) horn broke the tip off when he was younger.


I throw in this post-shearing picture to show the difference between a mature moorit ewe, in the middle, Sheltering Pines Ferah, contrasted with the mature fawn ewe, Justalitl Sarah, on right. Really pale color at the skin. And some light hairs on her nose-tip, something I've seen on another modified ewe Kim Nikolai brought me, Bramble Bess.

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Finally, I just cave for these little white lambs I got this year. This is Little Red Oak Elwood, out of Bramble Elsie and LRO Mullein. He's handsome, don't you think?


See you next week, when I really , really need to talk about which sheep need new homes!

Memorial Day weekend

Minnesota is officially in Spring, though it's in the 50s at night-- full green and sunny, tulips up, lilacs blooming, dandelions infuriating or delighting-- depending on your mood. We've been terrifically busy for two solid weeks --we hosted a big family event. The house, the grounds, even the barns got cleaned because all the friends and relatives came out last Sunday. . . and now we can relax on Memorial Day.
Our lambs are delighting us. They're plumper and fluffier at 2-5 weeks of age, and many are more adventurous, less timid around us. They crawl under gates to go to the lamb playground, a few wooden structures they like to climb on. Then they rejoin their moms in the pasture that's knee-high in alfalfa and grass.


This little white ram is out of Bramble Elsie-- LRO Mullein the father. His mom is a sweet ewe, we'll watch how he develops. I'm delighted to see white lambs this year. Minwawe Lopper's unnamed moorit daughter is snuggling the boy.


Finally, Chicklet's ram sons (gray and white flecket) got named Mike and Ike, for the candy we like so well. One is really friendly, though we turn him away. Very sweet. We're just getting to know the little lambs now, and evaluate them.

I've had a few inquiries about lambs-- we're still looking at them all. I know the two friendliest girls will stay-- maybe 3-- but there will be a few that need homes, and boy, do we have BOYS that need homes. One is a gorgeous mioget ram lamb out of Justalit'l Sarah and FirthofFifth don Telmo Bourbon. Solidly built, crimpy from head to toe, golden brown in color.
There also appears to be a LRO Mullein look-alike in the pack- cute gray nose on his black body, same little horn buds his dad had (and they are fine, now). We'll see but I bet he'll be another great fleece and conformation builder for a flock. A moorit flecket or HST-- his picture was shown weeks back-- Abbot.

More to come soon, glad to be back.

Last lambs of 08 before Shepherd's Harvest

I think we are done. Minwawe Lopper delivered two ewe lambs last Monday morning, Cinco de Mayo, a black one and a brown one, white tracery around the head-- No spots, darn! They are out of LROak Mullein, the new fleece king. So we will see how these little girls look later. These two ewes made it, I think, 14 rams to 8 ewe lambs out of 12 bred ewes. 5 ewes didn't take--! I was surprised that NONE of the girls I left with Mr. Big Horns and Great Spots, LRO Alex, got bred. I don't doubt his sperm count, but it showed me that those little rams can get no respect (or anything else) from the ewes. He was small-- as a lot of breeders like them-- and I saw this 2 winters ago, when Minwawe Silver could not get a girl to take him seriously, but they sure did the following winter, when he had more size to him.
I didn't mind having open ewes-- I don't need that many lambs-- but I did want to see Alex's offspring. So that will have to wait.
Happy to be done lambing, though.
I spent the day at the wonderful Shepherd's Harvest in Lake Elmo, hawking fleece and roving to a crowd who really wants it. That was very successful, so my storage space will free up, here. The company there was great, and the other exhibitors have truly beautiful yarns and other products.
I'm going back tomorrow. Happy Mother's Day to those who will be busy celebrating that!

And more babies. . .

So here is Minwawe Chicklet, a grey flecket ewe, and her two new fine sons, either black flecket or gray, like mom-- too early to tell yet. They may both be gray-- but we'll see.
Chicklet's the one who tried to mother up Elsie's newborns, until she inexplicably produced two of her own to take care of, and then felt all better. One of her rams had a "leg back" at the shoulder (for non-shepherds, that means NOT the normal birth position of chin and nose resting atop toes of two front feet; here, one leg is forward, one back along the body). This was the second time I experienced this type of birth, the first being only 10 days ago. The books say: push the baby back inside, bring the 2nd leg forward, pull the legs out front together. I say, you expect me to get my hand next to that baby in that tight passageway? I just pulled the one leg and head together, and baby boy slipped right out, leg back and all.
But maybe that only works well when the ewe's already enlarged by the first delivery.
Anyway, I think I'm learning.

Second picture: little katmoget baby May, out in the grass with the big sheep. Pretty darned cute. Her mama tells her to keep away from us, although her mama loves us.
I don't understand.

Baby bonanza in the barn

7am Sunday.
Bramble Elsie says, "My God, that was EXHAUSTING! They don't call it LABOR for nuttin'! I'm working on delivering my second baby and some crazy spotted ewe comes and starts claiming my firstborn like it was hers! An' I'm, like, incapacitated, lying there, trying to get No. 2 ram-baby into the world, and Other-ewe, Mom-zilla, is licking off my son, talking to him, telling him she's his mama! It's enough to drive a girl INSANE!"

(The shepherds found this whole affair rather difficult, as well. These two ram lambs are out of Elsie [NOT CHICKLET!-- who produced flecket ram lambs 2 hours later!] and Little Red Oak Mullein-- and are solid gray and white ram lambs.)

Darn! No offense to the male gender out there, but we just don't need so many guys in the flock! Chicklet's two made it 14 ram lambs vs. 6 ewe lambs. Oy.

See you tomorrow. Fingers crossed for ewe lambs!

Some lamb photos, finally!

Announcing, Alyssum and Catnip, out of Little Red Oak (LRO)Yarrow and Minwawe Equator!
The friendliest, suck on-your-pantsleg-climb-in-your-lap little ewe lambs ever!


And Little Red Oak Abby and Equator's son, hmmm. . . Abbot?-- may change that name. An extremely friendly boy (Dad Equator is-- Abby is NOT). Having encouraged him to like people, I now have to turn aside when I see him, so I don't have a ram who butts for attention!


And June, the tiniest, intense and friendly solid brown (moorit) ewe lamb, out of Little Red Oak April and FirthofFifth D.T. Bourbon. Her solid brown twin is July!

Not a very fine photo of our newest, little Katmoget LRO May, out of Minwawe November (a fawn katmoget) and Equator. She could've been spotted and Kat, but I think just Kat-- what do you think? All those color changes on one fleece!

Finally, what to do with all these new lambs? Sit and pet them, of course!

No babies for a week, now a Katmoget!

We had our first little katmoget ewe lamb, Little Red Oak May, out of Minwawe November. Just born today, mother and daughter are doing great. Photos of a DRY baby tomorrow!

Here, too, is a photo of Bluebell's babies born a week ago-- the ones who've given me a great scare twice so far--
I still don't know if they had a selenium deficiency or something like "navel ill"-- a systemic bacterial infection--
but I've been catching and giving .25 cc shots to these little ones all week. Selenium, twice, antibiotic, twice. I've been talking to vets by phone--
They seem quite a bit better.
Bluebell's ewe lamb is really exquisite-- her fleece has the velour look that her big brother, Mullein's did, and I was right about him-- it was great when sheared.
Her color is the modified, mioget or fawn of her dad, FirthofFifth Don Telmo Bourbon-- but she is Ag and will fade to musket. She also has spotting around her head, behind the ears, here and there. She'll throw some lovely lambs and produce a lovely fleece.
Jimson is Bluebell's white ram-- he was the sickest of these two. Right now he has loose white curls-- so what his fleece will be like when mature, I don't know, but will wait eagerly to see. I'm so happy to have a white lamb, it's my first!

Now today, November's katmoget girl. She's only thrown solid lambs before, and singles each time-- but she is small. Maybe Nature limits the number of lambs if the ewes are smaller.

The past two days were spent gardening, ahead of the storm that is now thrashing about outside. Yesterday, we moved about 40 strawberry plants that had been planted by birds in my perennial flower beds and made a little patch-- fenced the chickens out of it and congratulated ourselves on a fine job!

Today, we moved about 30 orange daylilies to a long line along our 40' pole shed. We also dug two small ash trees up and put them in one of the ewes' pastures, with guards around them against the sheep. We're hoping they'll "take" well at this time of year, and give shade, someday, to the animals.

Back at the Library

Hi again--library, same story. This was funny--Emily and I went home from the library on that sunny Wednesday afternoon, and from the driveway, could see Little Red Oak Malicious (oops, Mallow) bending over and licking a brown lamb clean. It was a lovely day, so we waited for her to finish up outside-- and she did, delivering a second ram a few minutes later.

Then we noticed her grandma, HH Bluebell, groaning on her side on the lawn nearby. We jugged Mallow and sons (both brown, one with white tufts behind the ears and cheeks) and gave Bluebell a few minutes. She can only produce Ag or Awt lambs, so. . . a brown (musket, then) ewe popped out first, a big girl, with white tracery around her head, identical to her older sister, Yarrow-- and then, a white ram lamb. My first white lamb! Same brown speckled legs and face and tail tip, like his mother. The fleece is what Bluebell's all about, and I just don't know, yet, about these two. The musket ewe is curlier than big sis, Yarrow, and the white ram has super-soft curls, but not tight.
So it will be exciting to see them both grow up and develop.
Library's closing, gotta go!

Lambs all around and I Can't Blog

Lambing, and I can't blog. . .
Grrr, how frustrating.
Something about cookies being disabled, blah blah-- I am so mad at my computer. I am at the library today, accessing my blog remotely.
But my photos are at home on that computer, so they will be added when I figure out Blogger's persnickety problem. (I DID! on Friday, 4/26!)

We've had some lovely lambs over the past 5 days. Things began on Friday night, 11pm. JustaLit'l Sarah produced twin boys. She has a (locally)favored fawn fleece, and one son is milk chocolate colored (fawn, I'd say) while one is dark chocolate (moorit). One has tight little curls in his fleece, I think the milk chocolate guy. One has a tiny white spot on his head (indicating spotted recessive gene? We can hope.) They're tall, good looking boys.


The next day, Little Red Oak April had another set of brown twins, but one is M and one is F. Adorable, friendly and approachable lambs from Day 1. Now bouncing around in the field.
Sunday was a day of rest, and then:
Monday,
1am, Little Red Oak Yarrow delivered two ewe lambs: one a moorit HST, the other a musket with white tracery all over her head. Yay! Looking just as Yarrow did 2 years ago. And their fleece looks curlier, too-- Yarrow's is only wavy, but very thick.


6am, Amy twinned, 2 more fawn/moorit rams, just like Amy's mother, Justalit'l Sarah.

6pm, just before the thunderstorm began, Ferah produced black twins, M&F.
More about that later.

Tuesday, little yearling Abby produced a little spotted ram.

Now, waiting for the next wave (and ready to fall asleep at this computer.
So I'll sign off and come back when I am not SOOO SLEEPY.
Happy Spring, all.

Still waiting for Spring, and lambs. . .

But we got the shearing done, last Sunday! Here's a photo of Little Red Oak Mullein's fleece.
He's the son of Highland Hollows Bluebell and Little Red Oak Frazier; I posted photos of him and spotty Alex together in a field, last November. Mullein is light gray and apparently inherited a significant part of Bluebell's wonderful, crimpy fleece. So I was happy to see the fleece at shearing day-- he is not one to let me sidle up to him for a look just anytime, you see. He keeps his distance.

I can't go further without saying a word about our old Jake-kitty, who passed away this week. On Thursday, my daughter and I sat weeping in the vet's office with our big, white, purring kitty in our lap, waiting while all the other cute little dogs and cats of Norwood got taken care of. I think we gave all the other folks pause, but it seemed as natural as rain to do what we did. We'd already seen the vet and knew we had a decision to make-- and after holding him quietly that long time, we let him go. . . and now there's one less white kitty at Little Red Oak Farm.

So here's a memorial photo of a fine kitty, with his favorite girl.


And now on with the weekend, and when the lambs start coming here next week, I'll write about every one.

March, still waiting for Spring

This is Copper, a little ewe born here in 2006 out of Twin Brooks Nugget and Bluff Country Bravo. She was afraid of me for a full year-- just her nature. Her mom always kept herself just beyond my fingertips, but wasn't really fearful-- Copper stayed well away-- until last summer. Well, when she was pregnant for the first time, last Spring, actually-- she let me pet her over the wire gate one night, a long, long time-- and that was it. A singular bout of affectionate contact. She had her little twins in April, and all three stayed away all of May and June. Then I promised to sell them all to new shepherds. I'd even sold Copper's mother. Is that what did it? Copper suddenly adopted me. I mean, yearned for me, ran over to the fence for petting. I couldn't sell her after that. I talked the buyer into accepting a little, perfect ewe lamb in Copper's place, at a bargain price.
Now I have a(nother) best friend who I like very much.

The ewes are getting grain at night, now-- not a lot, but it's a concentrated source of food in these last few weeks of their pregnancy, when there's not much room in the belly for food that is bulky-- the usual hay.
All the sheep are ROUND and WIDE with wool and babies inside.
We shear next Sunday morning, the 6th, and expect a few helpers to come out-- if you are free, you are invited!
I'll try to put some pictures in here. In another 3 weeks, the babies start to come!

Happy Spring, even if the snow still stands where you are!

Peepers in February!

January was peaceful, albeit brutally COLD at times;
I met nice spinner-women on many occasions and passed many lovely hours spinning, talking, always learning from them about the projects they're making, the equipment they use, the fibers they spin with. That has been the surprise reward of raising sheep, for me. I began with no desire to spin or felt, and could've finished out my life without weaving again. . . but here I am, surrounded by these gentle, creative (mostly) women, so I began. Their friendship and company is very warming in these wintery months.
When I came home from the Northern Lights Handspinners' retreat on January 20 (my birthday weekend. what a great present!) I learned that one of our hens was broody.
You non-fowl people: broody means the hen wants to "set" (incubate and hatch) some eggs. This is evidenced by said hen sitting stubbornly and exclusively in the nest box on whatever eggs are there, or none, if they've been taken out. We've been through this a half dozen times in our 5 years with chickens, and we almost always let the hens who want to, set eggs.

So see what Emily's favorite hen did? After 20 days of sub zero weather, she's kept a clutch of eggs warm enough to pop 4 little chicks into being! No. 5 is still out there wet and flopped in the straw. I'll see in the morning if he's alright. A few more may follow. (I should add: the hen house has a small propane heater and a wood stove; she didn't do it ALL herself!)

Yes, we've been through this over a half dozen times, but we still get so excited to see the babies, so Emily and I fussed and set up a perfect chick play area, and Howard went out to take baby pictures. This is the first!

My final story of the week: about the lady who called and said our wonderful country vet, Dr. Molnau, told her I might be able to give a home to her 3 shetland sheep who needed one. I told her I didn't really NEED any more sheep, but I am sympathetic to animals who NEED homes, so I asked about their color, age, etc.
It was soon apparent to me that this was a woman I had SOLD these sheep to last June, and she'd forgotten my name! These were pets to her, and now, she told me, her relationship was breaking up and he didn't want any animals left behind!
I really didn't want to bring these sheep back here, as it would mess up my scrapie certification date, upset my ram pen with a new addtion, and I was trying to keep the number of black sheep down. . .
To make a long story short, I went to see them-- and the pony she also needed to place. Partly I just wanted to see, again, the farm where the animals bunked in new, roomy horse stalls in a barn with a chandelier! And the sheep were lovely, soft with the cleanest long wool! I convinced Terri Drimel, another MN shepherd, that they were worthy animals and that I could restore their status to pedigreed-- and she took them home. End of story.
Lucky animals, and everyone is happy.
Have a nice Valentine's Day, everyone! And just remember that spring is right around the corner. ;-)

Ah, January!

Happy New Year!
I'd better post a snowy scene, quick, before it all melts next week! We have had the usual Minnesota -10 to +28 degree weather since the first snows came in early December, so it's stayed on the ground all month. Now they tell us we will have temps above freezing for 4-5 days, so this should be interesting.
Before it's gone, here's a snowy scene of my two old farm cats, Frances and Jake. They "came with" the farm when we bought it 4 years ago. This is the only season in which their natural camouflage coloring works, so I had to catch them sunning in front of their barn. Frances is in the wonderful black plastic sled made for hauling hay bales, and Jake poses modestly in front of the old runner sled now made obsolete by the plastic sled. (Shepherd's tip: the black sled also worked really well as a hay manger-- until it was needed to tackle the deep snow. Same manufacturer as those round plastic calf huts we all like as little sheep shelters.)

Now, secondly, someone once wanted to see a picture of Bourbon (Firth of Fifth Don Telmo Bourbon), a very pretty, mioget? fawn? caramel-colored ram that Garrett Ramsay so generously let me buy last summer. I did catch a nice picture of him with Minwawe Equator last November-- these two senior rams together, just before they were sent into breeding pens with the girls. So here is that photo. Bourbon's on the right. He's going to need a new home or, ahem, another situation soon. I can't wait to see his caramelly offspring in April, but I never want to put him near a building I value again. Of course, maybe some advance planning will take care of that.

Have a great New Year! I am happy to be through the holidays, fun as they were, and on into spinning & weaving season!

December snow

Boy, I'm not much of a blogger when the lambs are not growing anymore-- well, they are growing, but slowly now, and most of them went to live somewhere else. And I wonder. . . how they are doing. . . and how their new people are talking to them, enjoying them. . . as we are now in breeding season and there is a lot of activity out in the yard.
I have 5 different sheep "pens" set up-- meaning fields, usually, as small as 20x80', and as big as an acre and a half. Whatever I could do to provide shelter, separation from each other, and electricity for a heated water pail. Four breeding groups, meaning 4 rams got about 4 ewes apiece, and one pen of 3 little rams.
One is actually a wether-- does anyone need a fiber pet? He is coal black with a white star on his head, nice soft wool and very sweet. He's friendly, like a golden retriever, really! I don't know if I can justify keeping him forever, but he's made the cut so far.
Three of the breeding groups are getting along swimmingly, and one has in it Firth of Fifth Bourbon, who is BASHING woven wire fences and steel walls whenever the notion takes him! He is lucky he has this beautiful caramel colored fleece, or it would be off to Taylor Meats with him!
There are two weeks to go in breeding pens, and then I'll split them up. I won't use a cleanup ram this year, and if some ewes are open, c'est la vie! It hasn't happened to me yet.
Our household is the normal flurry of holiday preparations,and that reminds me, I should do some right now!
Ciao.

November pictures

Well hey, those sheep were so calm today when I went out to do chores, they just stood there for pictures! Jane Eager wanted to see a picture of her Highland Hollows Bluebell, so here she is, the grand dame. She is a BIG girl, with masses of crimpy, soft, white fleece I've always thought I should try to get more of in my flock. Her first daughter's is straight as a stick (though just as thick as Bluebells's).

The next year's offspring were twin boys-- both with nice, thick, crimpy gray fleece. One had a too long tail and is history; the other wins a little harem for this fall's breeding program.
Interesting, here are the two Little Red Oak rams being used this year: Bluebell's son, Mullein, and my Amy's son Alex. Mullein is all about fleece, Alex is all about horns and spots. Can you see the big difference in these guys' fleece?
I'm sure they will each have wonderful babies, just very different.(Remember, you can click on photos to see them up close).
Have a great Thursday.

November's here

I've been busy, not writing here, not taking photos. It's the annual ritual of buttoning up for winter that's been keeping my attention-- that and 3 after school children's drawing classes. Now that is a blast!
My ewes are butting heads in the pasture, presumably fighting over men-- I mean-- rams. Not that they get to be near any for 3 more weeks, I am seeing to that. But I think they are talking about it a lot-- making plans. One day I saw a gaggle of girls all facing north, looking through a gate-- I could only imagine-- to a gate on the north side of the windbreak, where two studly rams reside.
I think sometimes they get to talking about the fellas and some of them just get mad and fight.
This afternoon I got out the long extension cords and the electric buckets for all the sheepies' drinking water, because it's getting well below freezing tonight. I was so proud, I found them all! And added Christmas lights out by the ram pen, too. Those little white lights really brighten up the area when it's pitch dark and you have to haul water and hay to the animals.

I bought another rigid heddle loom from a Craigslist gal last night-- I wanted the floor stand she had with it, and the ball winder and warping board. Now I'm re-reading my weaving books and thinking of what I can do on a loom in these dark evenings since day light savings time is past. Whose wool to use? I have fallen in love with a plaid I saw out of the totally natural colors of our sheep, in white, gray, brown and black. Seems to me I have a lot of that wool around here.
I just don't have a lot to say. It's a quiet time of year. All I think about is getting the gardens tucked in, the lawn completely mowed for the last time, the leaves blown into the windbreak-- and might it still be possible to move some little trees out into the landscape from my vegetable garden?

Soon enough we'll be crazy with holiday preparations. It's a good life. Take care.

New Horse, Lucky Us!

We were so lucky! The family who wanted to trade horses rode little KC over on Thursday, and rode Bell back to their stable. So smoothly transacted-- and with unregistered horses, you don't even need to sign any papers. Now we are happy to have this little, friendly horse. He is half POA (Pony of America)and half Morgan. We tried riding him on Saturday, and we could cinch the saddle up enough, but Bell's bridle could not be made small enough! So we just led little KC around the farmyard with Em on his back, and fed him treats for being a nice boy.

Lovely October

Well, here is the best thing that's happened in awhile; We found a little horse whose owner wanted to trade us for our bigger, younger, too-spirited horse. So KC will be the ride of choice at Little Red Oak Farm soon. Is that neat. I found him on Craigslist, and the owners board the little guy a mile away from me, so they rode him over to check out our mare, Bell. The young lady owner even knew my child and our horse's name! What a surprise and coincidence!

Another great first today was washing a fleece at home, with a wash machine. I've been meaning to get around to it. . .
But here it is, in its fluffy white spotted glory. It's Minwawe Chicklet's fleece-- a mostly white ewe with black eye spots (yuglet eyes) and gray flecket spots all over. I set up a washing machine on my driveway, piped hot water out to the washer, used Tide and pumped the exhaust water onto the crushed rock driveway! Worked pretty well.
Still so much to do! See you later in the Fall colors!

Kids and chickens

This picture makes ME crow!
Farm girl Emily loves these 3 Buff Orpington chickens, while an americauna rooster looks on; Jake the cat will pounce on any seated human to seek snuggles.

Boy-watching

Camera in hand, I crept out through the horse's pasture and looked through the fence for the pack of ramlings who live the furthest away from the house. They came running! I studied tails and horns and looked for straight backs and legs; they're all still developing, getting big, and breeding season isn't too far away, now!
The twins of Bluebell's, Mullein and Cohosh, two shades of gray ram, two types of horn, were acting far less timid than they'd been as youngsters.
Everyone's grown a lot; two who have damaged horns are growing new bits, though one is for naught, he's a cull animal due to a fuzzy tail. The other is Mullein, one of the Bluebell twins; his broken horn tip has made the horn curl in a way that looks dangerous to him in future months. That will be a wait-and-see situation; I still wonder if his horns are "aberrant", as the polled shetland breeders call it; light and weak horns--these sure break easily,
However, I want one of these gray twins for breeding, and he's winning, because his tail is better than brother's.
His gray is so much lighter than his twin's that he has a a faint (sunbleached) brown glow on his superthick wool.
The other guy of the hour is Alex, with his Court Jester horns-- man, are they HUGE. And he seems to be a little guy compared to the others. I had to wonder just how many calories went into producing those mastodon-tusk horns! He's a musket spottie, pretty good tail, and he may be all I have left in the flock of Minwawe Silver's blood (his dad), so he gets some girls this year.
Peeps says the ewes like big horns, so they should go for this guy!

I got my first two tanned sheepskins back from Bucks Co. Fur Products this week. That was a pretty expensive endeavor (about $55 each including shipping both ways), so it remains to be seen whether it's worth doing to future hides. They are very pretty, though--- I left 'em with my sister to hawk at her crafters' retreat this weekend, so I can't post any photos. One is moorit, the other is black iset, noticeably coarser-- but so many people just ooh and ahh over that silvering on the black, my daughter thinks people will favor that one anyway!

Also this week, I sold 15 young chickens, which is great, since that is exactly how many new chicks my broody hens surprised me with this summer. The people buying them were hobby farmers -- two different farmers-- who were just so nice it made the work of selling/meeting/rounding up critters fun.

Now I need to sell my horse. I decided I have to find a quieter, more experienced horse, since her rider is not. And I thought I'd be happy to skip feeding one all winter, and will wait till next spring to shop for one. That could change, though, if someone came along with the right beginner's horse at a good price (A SHORT horse, please!) We've liked Bell and she is gorgeous, but she needs a better rider than my 12-year-old, and what the heck! I'd like a quieter ride myself.

Fall is here officially on Sunday. The passing of summer usually makes me very sad, but I must say that since I started fooling around with fiber arts in the cold months, I look forward to that kind of recreation ALMOST as much as the outdoor activiities of summer.
Let the spinning begin!

September, I'm Sorry to Say

But we just got back from the Jefferson, Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, a good feature of September! I rode in a van with 4 sheep and spinning ladies from MN across the WI landscape just to spend 2 days talking, looking at and listening about all things sheep and wool. Great fun! Of course I forgot to get a picture of all of us.
Later on. . .
Here's a picture of Peeps in the ring, showing a ram. It's hard to shoot in that darker arena with backlighting, but there it is. It was great to see her, as well as Jane Eager of Highland Hollows and other breeders who live far from me. Kate Goebel is also showing, and I'm afraid I don't know the young girls on the left. We didn't stay too long to watch the judging, but I really enjoyed the judge's remarks. He also judged the fleeces, a learning experience for me to watch.


Also seen were some adorable lambs, with long tails still on 'em, sleeping by their mom.




Further appreciated, this dad and son combo in one of the many sale booths I browsed. Aren't they so cute?

I loved talking to the vendors the most, today. I bought a crook from Nancy Barnard, greeted Letty Klein and Ann Brown,The Shepherd's Rug authors, Julie G. of Bramble Wool Shetlands, and finally, talked Finnsheep with the Wee Croft shepherd. Angie, our spinner friend, says they're verrry nice to spin.

Finally, three Monarchs hatched out of their cocoons and took flight this week.

Tending Monarchs

Hey all,
this is weather for the ducks! We got 200 bales of hay off the wagon, into the barn, Friday night right before the big rains hit on Saturday. Now I hear the hay is going for $3.75/bale at auction; that's 150% over last year's price-- and makes our effort on Friday worth a good deal.
We are getting a little old to be humping that many bales into place in a short hurry.
We relaxed all the wet weekend after that.
Here I am, tending Monarch caterpillars in jars. You can see the milkweed leaves in each jar. A little diversion turned into a big production this year. DD (dear daughter) and I were taught to spot monarch eggs on milkweed leaves; a milkweed established itself in my perennial garden; now we can't leave the little fellas out there to be parasitized by wasps! (we've seen the sad results)
I told Emily she could sell Monarch cocoons at the Farmers' Market next week, for $5 each, and she's all over that idea. So let's see, 15 cocoons at $5 each. . .

I hope you are all well, and I look forward to hearing stories from the Fiber Fest in MI over the wet weekend. Then, up to Garrett's next Saturday!

See you all soon.
Gail

Boys night in the ram pen

It was a ram night, tonight. Well, I watched a few rams over the gate-- we were actually managing wethers next door to the ram lambs. I separated out a few little wethers today-- to be considered by a buyer tomorrow-- and then I saw that one wether didn't seem to be his perky self, and further, that he had a messy rear end.

Some cocci meds this afternoon, and then wool cleanup tonight, revealed . . . Fly Strike! A classic case, just like they tell you about in the books! Started in clumps of manure tags in the wool-- and I really don't know if it got beyond that, but we'll check him again tomorrow. It's a friendly little guy named Milkweed who got wethered really young for a variety of reasons-- longish tail, TOO FRIENDLY! (Pet me, pet me, butt-butt-butt-MEEE!) He's a nicer PET now.

His picture was in an early post, a lovely white headed yuglet spotted musket. This fellow (below) is his uncle, though they are just weeks apart in age. His name is Little Red Oak Mullein.
Jane Eager's asked to see pictures of her beautiful Highland Hollows Bluebell and her young sons. . . and I'm afraid I don't have good recent pics of the big girl. She's so friendly that if I approach her with a camera, she walks right up to me and I can't get a shot! But here is one of Mullein hiding at her side. He's very shy. Cohosh is Bluebell's other twin son. The poor, flystrike-afflicted Milkweed is Bluebell's grandson! Maybe that F (friendliness) gene came through him. Not in her rams, though. Their dad was not a friendly guy.

And here we have Bluebell's sons' (and her own) posterior view!

These things are important to breeders, so if the lambs avoid me, I shoot their backsides! Look how square this family is! And tonight, as we looked at 3 ram lambs in the next pasture, I said to DH, "look at the fleece difference on those two"--- one was Mullein, who looked like a plush toy next to the other guy, whose nice fleece was nonetheless. . . different. It separated into locks, while Mullein's was velour.

I can't wait to feel those guys' fleece again. One of Bluebell's rams will be a flock sire this year, depending on who is softer. She is a beautiful ewe whose beautiful babies have the famous Bluebell doublethick pelt. I think it's worth breeding for.
Thanks, Jane!

More Sheep Leaving Home

Hey, you old timers--
some of you whom I bought my sheep from! How did you do it? Sell those sweet girls and boys away?
A beginning shepherd is buying some of my sheep this week, so I find myself out in the pasture, taking "last" pictures of a sweet ewe, Twin Brooks Nugget, and cute ones of some lambs about to go.
Nugget is a great old girl, I simply have too much musket in my flock. So she goes to enrich a spinner's fleece basket.

Jellybean, Juicyfruit (I mean Serendipity)'s twin, is going with Nugget, as well as 2 other lambs and a lucky wether or two. Those boys are so soft, they deserve to go to a spinner's flock.


Here, Jellybean is carefully watching THE CAT! That cat knows enough to stay on the other side of the gate or be chased all over by curious sheep.

I'm finding sheep, gardens and child management to be a full time job.

This week, my daughter entered about 10 items in the Carver County Fair. She has worked half the summer on these projects.
She knows she got 5 blue ribbons in 4H, but what of the general exhibits? (Drum roll...)
We'll go on Friday to find out! (And Saturday to staff the 4H building, and Sunday to pick up exhibits. Pshew!)

We entered no livestock at all, not even chickens-- which is a first for us since we moved to Carver County 4 years ago.

Emily did some halter training on a wether (it had to be a lamb she wouldn't miss if it got sick at the fair) but let it go weeks ago. . .

I am still not wild to show sheep, though I knew I would love talking up the breed to folks, just visiting with sheep people in general. My sheep are all so darned healthy this year, I'm treasuring the ease of care. I didn't want to lose any I loved, either.
Maybe I'd show next year.

Enjoy August, as the garden's fruits and vegetables ripen up! Today we gave summer squash to the town librarian, the McDonald's window clerk who cashiers, and the one who gives you your order!