Additions (or is it editions?) to the Flock

Lambing this year was very much abbreviated for us compared to previous years.  Last year we had 16 lambs, this year 5!  They are now all safely running around on the ground.  What we lack in numbers we make up with personality.  Each lamb is getting lots of attention so are very friendly.  The boys are still expected to be gentlemen, however!

A brief chronlogy of last week.  First came Katrina's lambs.  She is absolutely the best mother.  She birthed with no fanfare promptly on day 147.  Note day!  That would be the civilized hour of 11 am.  I was not yet predicting lambs and was at work.  But Tom handled things very professionally.  Katrina really did it all, small babies, right on time, and a girl and a boy.  And her ewe lamb even smiles!

Katrina and her girl Fiera

Next in line was Nell.  A first timer with her lovely yuglet spots.  Like Katrina, she was bred to our Apollo, with his dense, fine fleece.  I was hoping for spots and got them.  Not sure they will stick around but maybe if they are bred to the right sheep in the future we will get spots that stick.  Even if they do fade away the fleeces on her lambs should be quite dense and soft.  Yummy!  Oh, Nell had a boy and a girl.

Look at the Stance on Nell's boy!

Shebaa, the last to lamb.  Five whole days after Katrina.  A first timer with an electrifying fleece with all it's luster, had a nice little boy.   It took her some time just figuring out what was happening to her.  I would go out to check and could peek through the window to see she was pushing.  Then I would quietly enter the barn and she would quickly stand up and just stare at me with her big eyes.  "Lamb, what lamb?  Did you think I was having a lamb?  Oh no not me!"  So if she was ever going to push out the lamb I would have to leave and watch from far away.  But she finally succeeded and he was full of vigor;  no help needed for him to find the teat!  He's a looker too.

Mr Austin

So now back to normal.  Caught up on sleep and all is good (well except for the weather!).  Now the lamb races  begin!

For the Love of Fleece...

Sushi's fleece

That is it!  It is why I do this crazy thing of raising sheep!  I love fleece!  There is something special about being in the barn with all those warm little sheep bodies all sporting a different but yummy little coat.  So it stands to reason that my very favorite time of year is shearing, it maybe even surpasses lambing.  This year we were quite fortunate to have an old friend come out of hibernation a.k.a. retirement and shear 20 of our sheep (she shall remain nameless here for fear of being bombarded by shearing requests).  But anyway we can save our backs for another year.  So now the sheep are all sheared and with amazing networking thanks to McTavish Wheelworks and the wonderful spinners on Tom's wheel list, we are sold out of fleeces!  Ok I do have a few bits and pieces of fleeces in my own stash but a women needs to spin to stay sane, right?  But yes all our fleeces are sold for this year and we even have a few dibs on fleeces for next year!  I guess this spinning thing is really catching on.  Now on to selling sheep.

Julia not sure about this shearing thing

Tossing fleece

I waited a few weeks after shearing the main bunch to shear Rikki (ok she gets mentioned her AGAIN, her head is getting a bit big for her britches) and her sister Sushi.  I was hoping their fleeces would grow a bit as I did shear them in the Fall.  I do love the Shetland fleece, but I must say this Gotland fiber is quite grand!  Just amazing luster (see the picture above). I am looking forward to finally finishing the yarn for my brothers vest made with Rikki (didn't quite have enough).  Check out how wonderful she looks with her next to the skin haircut.  Spots and patterns with the crimp are amazing. 

Remember Rikki?  She's now a year old.

Fun bunch of spots on this girl.

More to come....lambing is soon!

Sheep Are Mean

We got a new sheep.  I know, we really didn't need another sheep but this turned out to be a nice trade for us.  This is how it happened.  I was helping at a friend's shearing;  I was doing the skirting of fleeces for her, my favorite job.  I complemented her on a particularly fleece I had just skirted; a very fine fleece with lovely tiny crimp toward the neck and shoulder and a beautiful dark, dark brown color. She reported that she hated this sheep and was thinking of doing her in.  This was too nice a fleece, I just could not see letting this poor critter go, no matter how "bad" the sheep was.  Apparently she had been for sale but nobody had acted on it.  So to prevent loosing this wonderfully fleeced girl we worked out a nice deal, a sheep trade, as she had met a sheep she liked on our farm.  What a deal, and really no net increase in sheep numbers for us;  totally justified.

Meet Lietzel

So this little gal is a yearling and her name is Lietzel (Valkyries Lietzel).  We brought her home yesterday and introduced her to little Hailey, a Shetland of the same age.   They were good together for a bit but then Hailey just couldn't help herself and had to do some head butts with her.  Lietzel held her own though.  So that after about an hour, I released her and Hailey so they could go out with all the rest to the pasture and graze in the sun.  Lietzel then proceeded to check out her new surroundings, the barn, the pasture, the grass, the fences, the other sheep.  She ran around checking out each sheep and then yelling.  It was as if she did not recognize anyone!  Where were all her old buddies?  They were all a bunch of strangers to her.  I felt a bit sorry for her so talked to her throughout the day.  By evening I spotted her introducing herself to the rooster.  She took a couple happy little "hoppers" , as I call them, toward the rooster and chased him away.  It wasn't all bad for her.

Lietzel wants her old friends back

 This morning though, the others would not let her eat.  Of course after getting pummeled in the side and rear a few times over the past 24 hours, she is a bit hesitant and is acting very timid.  That does not help in the sheep world.  Act like that and you are sure to get beat on.  They go after the weak, just like kids.  An opportunity to look good, I guess.  Sheep can be so mean.  Poor Leitzel, I am sure after a few days she will adjust.  Just the new kid on the block.

Ninki and Aurora checking out this new girl.

When a tree falls in the forest...

...does anybody hear?  Apparently not.  This huge old gal fell down last weekend; just pulled up from the roots.  It happened down in our lower pasture.  It was just over the fence in our neighbors back yard and it crashed down on our fence and laid down across our pasture.  None of the neighbors close by heard it fall.  Amazing.   I estimate it to be about 6 feet around and 100 feet tall, maybe 300 years old.  It is a black oak tree.  We are in contact with Urban Lumber Co and hope they can somehow cart it out when it dries out in the summer and then use the trunk for something special.  I would guess it is beautiful wood.  Meanwhile we have lots of work cutting up firewood and clearing the brush (not to mention fixing our fence).  Lots of warmth there.  Our neighbors' old handyman says wood warms you 3 times, once when you cut it up, once when you split it and a third time when you burn it. 

I don't think our chainsaw can get through this

lots of firewood here

you can see our smashed fence

         If we don't get it out I suppose it will be a great play structure for the sheep!

Feeding Time

This time of year, with all it's darkness, it's hard to find things to get excited about.  The cold fog, no snow for skiing, a bare vegetable garden....but then there is feeding time.  Our little furry friends get very excited about  these two times of day;  I guess they are a lot like us in many ways.  The sheep get a breakfast and a dinner, really they are the same food, just different times of day, but don't tell them.  As much of a "chore" it is to put on the clothes and scuffle out there, I do enjoy it once I am there.  Not only am I met with excited faces, but it is a great time to fondle the fleece!  Shearing time is getting closer!

  
      Here are a few shots from this mornings feeding.

Lots of room to eat but this feeder has the best hay!

Tom, the handy feeder builder, built these fine feeders.  The sheep find them very agreeable.

The banties happy with the same ol' scratch

Pele, the guard llama, gets his portion.

Strudel looking silly with breakfast on her head

Growing Up

Look,  it's little Rikki.  Isn't she getting big!  Don't know if you remember, but she is our Gotland X sheep and was out of quads this past spring and was our first bottle baby.  Hard to believe that less than a year ago she was bouncing around the house in diapers.  I don't think she remembers those days but she is still as friendly as ever and even went chasing after Clancy dog the other day.  Maybe she remembers sharing her bed with him.  She is quite a sweetie along with her two other siblings. Those Gottie sheep are pretty dam sweet.

Here is Rikki next to Sushi and Tsunami, her two sisters.  It is so amazing that we got those colors all out of one batch.  Rikki is turning grey under those spots, but Sushi is still white and Tsunami a dark brown.  It remains to be seen whether Tsunami and Sushi will remain that color or turn the typical Gotland grey like Rikki.  I am hopeful the colors will remain as they are.

Here is Rikki next to the yarn I spun from her first shearing.  I couldn't wait, her lamb fleece was so enticing I shore her early.  It was a bit short but I beat the yarn plenty so it would felt a bit and not fall apart.  It is a very soft, fuzzy yarn.  As you can see, Rikki didn't think too much of it.  Oh well, I like it. 

Fall Leaves and Scaling Back

Had one nice day for a hike in the woods

Had to go to Vermont to realize fall is upon us;  the weather here was too nice to notice.   We spent a lovely 5 nights in that beautiful state, much too short for a trip that far.  The weather was a bit wet but we did have one nice day for a little hike.  We stayed at a wonderful inn, the Huntington House, in the little town of Rochester.  Unfortunately the area was hit hard by hurricane Irene just weeks before and they were still in shock and still recovering.  While there we learned how the town, cut off from the outside world for 5 days and without electricity, pooled their resources and worked together to do what needed to be done.  Many of the towns folk we talked with told us a similar story of the whole village working together as a team.  It was heartening.  There were several families still living at the Inn as their homes had been destroyed.  We did view lots of destruction as little creeks had turned into raging torrents.

In the town of Rochester, Vt.

We were in Vermont, not only for a bit of a vacation, but to also attend the NASSA AGM which was held in conjunction with the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival.   The AGM was put on by Linda and Tut Doane, the first to import the Shetland sheep into the US.  I really wanted to go back there to get a better understanding of what the sheep were like, the sheep of the original importation.  Linda put on a great presentation (as well as a wonderful meal).  Many of her observations of the sheep over the years confirmed my understandings.  Her concerns for their future also match mine.   It was very Solidifying.  And we did get to see some pictures of the original sheep.  The big disappointment was that time did not allow us to visit their farm.  I guess we will have to return.

Miss Katrina getting dolled up for her "man"

On our return trip we began planning what we had been procrastinating on, breeding.  Not us, no the sheep!  As Tom has begun his new career and is a busy beaver in the wood shop and I feel I have stepped into the full time roll of cook, house cleaner, farmer, grounds keeper and Shepperd as well as holding down my other job outside the home, we have decided to simplify whatever we can to make things around the farm a bit easier.  So this year there will be a limited supply of McTavish Farm Shetland lambs.  If you might be interested, we are breeding just 3 of our best ewes and rams.  It is a big cut back from the 9 we bred last year.  I am looking forward to a very easy and enjoyable lambing season this spring! 

Oh and one other thing.  While we were in Vermont we were able to personally deliver two of Tom's spinning wheels.  It was a bit stressful, unpacking them, making sure they were in complete working order and getting them to their new owners at a "pouring down rain" sheep festival.  But it all came together and the new owners seemed very pleased.   Check out these blogs:  http://thewoolenrabbit.typepad.com/  and http://etherknitter.typepad.com/  to read about their excitement.   There are some very nice pictures and humorous accounts of the "delivery".   This may be another reason we head east in the future.