Christmas Letters

Isn't this the time for updates from friends and family?  Well it is not often you get a letter from an animal you sold down the road.  Well it happened.  An e-mail message from our beloved ram Apollo whom we sold to some very nice folks just after Black Sheep Gathering this past year.  I'm not sure how he got his hooves on a computer but seems he is doing just fine.  Here is a copy of the letter:

Hey Mom and Dad,
I just wanted to drop you this picture and a quick note to say that I still love it here. I took a visit over to see the girls awhile ago but now I'm back in my mancave. My babies should start arriving in February or March. Travis and Jessie give me lots of loves and yummy food. You would be proud of me because I have been such a good boy! I hope things are well back home...tell my friends hi for me.
Luv,
Apollo :)

One thing about having lambs is you eventually have to sell some sheep (well the other alternative is not so good either).  But being a control freak I find it hard to imagine that anyone could take as good a care of my sheep as I can.   I have found I have to rein in on that feeling and have a little trust.  In this case I have been rewarded, don't you think?   We find it monumentally reassuring to know the animals we sell are in good hands.  I also find it monumentally reassuring that the ram I sold is not breaking down someones barn.  That too is good.

Happy New Year!
Tracy

Breeding Time

Sushi and Tsunami sport their green butts

Since last post the rains have come along with some warmth and sun.  Enough to green up the pastures a bit and give the sheep something to forage.  We just completed our breeding (that must sound really weird to those not accustomed to "farm talk") and the ram and ewe groups are now settled into the long wait until lambs come.  That will be the last couple weeks of March. 

We bred 8 ewes, 6 Shetlands and the 2 Gotland girls.  The Gotties got to go on a little road trip down to Ronan Country Fibers near Grants Pass to meet a nice man.  I'm not sure they liked it all that much but they did come back with nice green bottoms!  (for those of you who wonder what that means....the ram is painted on the chest before breeding, when he mounts the ewe it leaves a nice mark so we know whether they have bred or not.  Ewes conveniently do not breed unless they are cycling). 

Strudel, Rachel and Rhapsodie

Jasper and Dover were the lucky Shetland boys this year.  Jasper takes his job very seriously and works his girls until they finally give in.  Here are his girls wondering why I put them in this pen with this strange guy with horns that keep sticking out his tongue at them.  "Would you please get us out of here, now!"

Jasper at work

Dover here chose to run his poor girls until they were completely out of breath.  After a couple hours they finally settled down and ate a nice meal together.  Dover is only a lamb but obviously didn't need any training to know what he was suppose to do.  We are hoping to getting some little gulmoget babies out of him with his soft, fine, lovely moorit color.





And now the wait begins!

Dry as a Bone

.....or so the saying goes.  Unfortunately here in the Willamette valley we are living it.  Beautiful clear blue skies day in and day out.  Record dry spell here for this time of year.  True Oregonians like myself are getting nervous.  I don't think I can ever remember a time I had to keep watering plants into October.  People I work with, those "townie" people, seem to love it and feel it is just fine if the sun keeps shining until Christmas.  I think (theory not tested) that those of us that are closer to the land can see this perpetual sunshine is a real problem.  We can't water our pastures like townies can  water their lawns.  Townies see green in town where there is "plenty" of water.   Us hic folk just see brown.  And it is continuing to wear on me......and the sheep.  Note the browns in the pictures below;  not one blade of green grass left in our pastures.  Time to do a serious rain dance!

All the sheeps marching in for dinner

Rachel the difficult one to photograph as she wants no distance between her and the camera.  She is on our breeding list for this year.

                                               Natasha wondering if anyone will follow her out to eat brown grass and dirt!  Natasha is another on our breeding list.














                                                                            Julia looking pretty from far away;  what Julia is good  at!

Ram Updates

We have succeeded finally in decreasing our ram flock and making life easy on ourselves.  Not that having 6 rams was a problem but it had potential to be one.  Seems to me the more rams you have the more potential problems you have.  Don't get me wrong, I love our boys.  We have been blessed with some sweet personalities and for the last few years they have all gotten along.  Except for a "break out" during breeding season about 4 years ago it has been peaceful over in the ram paddock.  But having 6 rams to breed 3-5 ewes seemed like overkill.  We were very fortunate to find great homes for the ones we wanted to sell; they deserved it.  So yes, now down to four.

I thought it was time to get some updated pictures of them so here is my attempt.  Attempt, I say as they did not cooperate.  Somehow the camera to them meant "come".  So you see I had challenges and you can see why I didn't get any great side shots.  Also you can see that I don't have a nice, green grassy backdrop.  We are still waiting for rain here in Oregon.  Dry as a bone.

McTavish Jasper

Jasper is the oldest of the bunch and he is in charge although he is a very mellow leader.  At six he is still soft as ever and a real gentleman.

McTavish Schroeder

 Schroeder is the ham of the group.  I could not get a good picture of him because he wanted to be right next to me, wanting pets, wagging his tail.  He is a 2 year old and I think his fleece is finally developed into what it will be.  He seems to get his fine, dual coat type fleece from his dad McMeadow Rowan   (micron count of 23 with the undercoat peaking at about 18!) and his lovely steel grey color for his mom (McTavish Shawn who inherited a super silky fleece from Mtn Niche Aberdeen, her dad). 

McTavish Schroeder

McTavish Stetson

Next one in line is Stetson.  He is a well behaved yearling with great structure, also a real sweetie.  He has a more primitive type fleece but the outer coat seems very soft so I think the coat is over all more even in fiber diameter.  He is black down deep but, as his mom is a moorit, he should produce some brown babes as well.  Oh and his sister, Miso, won Reserve Champion at the Black Sheep Gathering this year.   Stetson might have done better if he didn't have such a poor hair stylist (ok we had a few problems : )  )

McMeadow Dover

Dover

Meet Dover the youngster of the bunch.  Just a lamb but a beauty.  His fleece is fine, hence the vegi matter that sticks to it! He is a gulmoget out of a line of them from Sheep Ridge.  We hope to breed him this year and have just the gal.  Hope for some little gullies this year at McTavish Farm. 

Apples Not Oranges

 
Seems like every summer season there are lots of something and not so much of other things.  This year is no different.  Haven't had but a handful of tomatoes and peppers seem scarce.  Not even very many beans.  But there are lots and lots of apples.  All our old and young trees alike are loaded with them.  I did my best to thin, but seems I didn't do enough (it is so hard kill those little baby apples!). And I hate to see them go to waste.   So far I have canned about 24 quarts of applesauce and have dried up several containers of them as well.  Not sure what I will do with it all but at least I feel good about not wasting all those apples. 

The sheep are very happy about all the apples.  Apples are like candy to sheep.  They all have special ways of eating them too.  Some find it preferable to smash them first with their heads, I guess so they are easier to eat ( makes for a nice, sticky hairdo too). Others run around and take one bite off of each one I throw out, that way no one else will want them (who want sheep germs!) and they get to have them all (my little piggy sheep).  Yes the sheep will be sad when the apples are all gone.

Grapes are ripening, great for juice!

Hops are drying up and ready for harvest

morning sunrise with rare clouds

Summer Time and the Living is Easy.........

 ....well maybe if you are a sheep!  We here semi farm people don't necessarily feel summer is all that easy.  So much to do.  All one needs to do is step outside and realize there is a wealth of things to do around here.  For one, we still have lots and lots of wood to move and split.  Remember our winter post with all the trees we had come down?  News is.... we are still working on them!   From the pictures you can see we have made progress but still plenty more to go.  


We have made some significant progress on the big tree at the lower end of our pasture.  See for yourself.  To finish it though, we will need someone with a very big chain saw to do the finally cutting on the trunk of that baby.  We'll also need some ladders to get up to cut the side branches.  And again, more firewood to haul!

      If one is bored with doing wood there are weeds to pull, a house to paint, fences to fix, a garden shed to finish and then there are the gourmet meals to be made from all the fresh vegetables from the garden.  Never a dull moment.  One definitely longs for cold rainy winter days where you are stuck inside with only spinning and knitting to do.  Oh don't I wish!

Bored sheep escaping the summer sun

a dead llama embracing it!

Black Sheep Gathering 2012

 Another Black Sheep Gathering has come and gone.  This time it went by way too fast.  It was very busy for us showing sheep, talking about spinnning wheels, talking about sheep interspersed with a bit of spinning.  All the things I love!  This year was nice and cool; I think I wore a wool sweater the entire time.  This is odd as it has been 100 degrees a few years back.  Our small string of 9 sheep did well in their respective classes.  No big ribbons but lots of 3-6 place ribbons.   The yearling ram category was the only class we did not ribbon in.  That was probably due to the fact that  "Stetson", our ONE yearling ram, began shedding a about a month ago and I finally got around to rooing him the day before the show.  He looked like one big black fuzzball!  Hardly the fleece the judge was looking for.  His sister "Miso" (who now lives with Susie Sizemore of Newberg) got reserve champion so he has it in his blood!  Oh well.  Our biggest accomplishment was Rikki's sister, Tsunami, a Gotland, placing 3rd in the yearling ewe class against other big breeds beautiful sheep.

 Here I am saying goodbye to our beloved Rikki.  She left early on Sunday to begin the long journey to her new home in Indiana.  I admit, I was crying but it helps me to know she is now in a very good, loving home who appreciates her very quirky personality and lovely fleece.  Bye bye Rikki!






 Chicken Duck.....

 .....The latest on the Chicken duckling (or is that the Duck chickling?  Tom calls it the "chuckling").  Mama chicken and baby duckling are still quite bonded despite the disparity in size....and looks.

Baby still needs warming occasionally but it's very hard to cover all the parts!   We may have to consult an animal psychologist on this one to sort out this bad case of species confusion.