Rikki has a Party!

Rikki and Sushi in the pen

 It's always hard for us to sell a sheep.  Not really difficult in the normal sense, finding a buyer, coming up with a price, collecting the money.....but when it comes to seeing them leave the farm;  that is the difficult part.  We get attached.  One thing that does make it is easier is knowing they are going to a good home.
Well Ms. Rikki will be doing just that (she's going to be a Hoosier!).  Her date of departure is coming soon.

On hearing this news my co-workers were quite upset. They had heard the stories of Rikki, the diapers, the bottle, her little bed next to ours. They couldn't believe I would let her go.  At least without a PARTY!

So we had a party, a sheep going away type party.  I set up a pen in the backyard and brought Rikki and her sis Sushi to occupy it.  People could pet them, and feed them and give them sips of beer (turns out Sushi is quite the lush!).  And of course there was cake!


 

Trying a little potato salad

 

Oh my Sushi does like beer! 

The cake was good!  Rikki did NOT get cake.

Other news from the farm.....

MY CHICKEN HATCHED OUT A DUCK....

How does that happen?  About a month ago I place two duck eggs under one of our broody banty hens and guess what!

Mom doesn't seem to notice her baby has webbed feet but she is a bit concerned about this obsession with water.

Changing Faces

This time of year I seem to notice a dramatic change in coloring of some of the sheep's faces around the farm.  Their faces change color throughout the year but seems more dramatic this time of year.   I snapped a few shots and then went to the archive to compare.  Here are a couple examples so you can see I am not loosing my mind!

This is Jasper, picture was taken in the fall, sort of a boring black face.

This is Jasper this spring, no it is not make-up or war paint.

Here is Strudel after lambing last year

This is Strudel today, makes her nose look a bit big, don't ya think?

So you can see how dramatic the coloring changes are, you might wonder how I keep everyone straight!

Just for fun I added this photo I recently took of a few of the boys.  You can see the changes in growth of horns as the rams age.  The youngest here is a yearling, the boy below is a two year old and on the top is Apollo at age 6.  This was taken a few weeks ago.

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