Coming home

The sheep were ready to come back to the home pasture. I just opened the gate and they ran to the house, stopping along the way to eat a bite of grass. Jewell was not leading them as she is too old to venture far from her small pasture. But, she taught these girls well. I think she has passed the baton to Midnight. There is always a leader sheep and when the leader passes on usually one of her daughters becomes the new leader. Since her daughters are so young I think Midnight became the leader. With goats there is always a boss goat, she is usually mean and butts all the other does into submission. A lot of people that have goats want to get rid of the boss doe, got news for you, another doe will take her place. Maybe goats need a boss and sheep need a leader.
 

Cotton pickin time

Trying to stay ahead of the cotton pickers, cutting cotton branches, picking bolls and handpicking lint. They are running fast and a stalk mower is behind the pickers, so when it's picked it's mowed, it's gone.  The hand picked cotton is so much cleaner than the machine picked, machines pick leaves that crumble and cannot be removed. The handpicked cotton will be hand ginned, then handspun, then hand knitted. Sounds like a labor of love. But the end results are a world apart.
 

Thank ewe

A big thank ewe to all who came to SAFF and purchased wool and mohair from my flocks. SAFF sales buy our feed and hay that increase every year. There are fewer small fiber producers still trying to make it, breeding quality fiber animals. I hate to think of a world without it. And, a world without all the fiber lovers.

So, whoever your favorite fiber producer is, I hope you will support them with your purchases. 
 

Charm's First Lesson

Charm got her first tie out today, in the rain. She pulled back once then gave in and stood there, tied to a young tree while her mother was just a few feet away tied to another tree. We brushed and talked to her while she accepted the rope and the phobia of being held by something. It's been a week since I weaned the lambs, moved the ram lambs to another barn and kept the ewe lambs in the lambing barn, away from the ewes. The ewes are drying off nicely and got over their calling back and forth to the lambs after the first day. Time passes by quickly, seems like just a few days ago they were born. Evan helped me vaccinate the kid goats that will be weaned a few weeks later. More hoof trimming, shearing, vaccinating and worming to stay on top of. The garden will start bearing  soon, first squash, then the most loved of all, tomato.

It's another filly

It's another filly, the sweetest soul. Out of Aifric. I fund her outside the gate early one morning, she was still wet, but had gone through the fence. Mother was standing on the other side waiting for her return. It's been a year of females, only 2 buck kids and 4 ram lambs. But, I have 14 yearling bucks to market. Was surprised when I sheared them at how good the fleeces are, most will make good breeding bucks. Got them shorn and moved down to summer pasture. They await their new homes for fall breeding.

Yearling does for sale

I have a dozen yearling does for sale. All freshly shorn, feet trimmed, deloused, vaccinated and dewormed. These does will be ready for fall breeding. Prices start at $350 and I have a few unrelated bucks that can be bred to them if you want a breeding flock. The second clip fleeces on these does was much better than I thought they would be. Most of the time spring clip is not good for handspinning and the fleeces are usually stressed, especially with all the rain. First clip does not always tell the true story, but second clip will tell the tale of what type of fleece that goat will have.

Took a minute

Went out this afternoon to feed the two lambs that drink supplemental milk out of a bowl, while checking on the lambs I couldn't resist sitting down with them under their favorite ruminating spot for a few minutes. Sometimes I wish I was a sheep, they are in no hurrry and seem to enjoy life waiting on their shepherd to come out with the feed bucket a couple of times a day while keeping the hay feeders and water tanks full. The ewes feel pretty secure in the pasture and come in a small paddock connected to the barn at night. Today's weather was enough to make us all happy, hope more is on the way.

Snowbabies updated

It's amazing how fast a lamb can grow just on ewes milk. The snowbabies are three weeks old, not eating any grain or grazing, just on mom. They will be old enough to be weaned before you know it. These lambs are half Finn-Cormo and are showing a lot of lustre in their fleeces, should be soft and shiny, very interesting. Real sweet lambs just like their dad, I've never had a ram that loved to be petted and even wag his tail, but yet would not butt me.

What's new

Airielle had her foal without me, made my 1:00 am check and knew she was getting ready, passed out for a couple of hours and ran up the hill to find this. What a happy surprise, and it is a filly. Such a sweet and inquisitive creature, loves to get butt rubs, maybe rubbing that horsehoe print on her butt will bring us good luck. Worth a try. Such a good mom, never agressive toward me, has loads of milk, and beautiful. It makes all the hard work worth it just to have them to touch and just to look at them is magical. Think the last ewe lambed this morning, still a few more does to kid but spaced out more so I can get some sleep. Soon as the weather breaks lots of shearing to get done before it gets hot. The cycle begins again.

Snowbabies

Winter has been as cold, wet, windy and tough as summer was hot and dry. Most of the sheep and goats have stayed in the barns so that means carrying feed and water and hay indoors. Lot's of work for the shepherd, but this weather is hard on animals. Have lost a few of the older ones and was feeling down. Dotsy surprised me with these twins on the coldest day we've had. She is a first time mama and did a perfect lambing and mothering with her two sweet babies. Fortunately, I sheared her on the one warm day we had last week and she was smart enough, maybe cold enough, to seek shelter in the back corner of the lambing barn. Not all sheep are so smart. Some ewes and does get as far away from me and the other animals to drop their babies in the cold, wet, stormy and unprotected from predators place they can find. Dotsy spent hours drying the lambs down with her tongue then guided them to what saved their life, colostrum, without they cannot live. When she was through I moved her to a pen with warm water and hay for her and a dry bed and heat lamp for the lambs. Went back later to put sweaters on them and will leave them on a few days until they get full of milk and warm.

The old ones

Jewell had two ewe lambs last spring at eleven years old. They will be her last. She is very thin and has a hard time rising, but once up is fine. Why would you keep an old ewe that cost you to feed and care for her when she will not have any lambs to sell or wool good enough to spin? After weaning her two lambs she took them and Sunshine's two ewe lambs into her flock. She led them out to graze and back to the barn at night, brought them in to be wormed and fed, they slept close to her as her own, they never cried. Young lambs don't know the routine, Jewell made it easy. I moved them down to the far pasture this fall when the ram was in with the breeding ewes. Jewell followed me down the road about half a mile and walked through the gate to the new pasture, the lambs followed. I did not have to hook up to the trailer and drag them on and haul them down. They didn't try to run back to the upper pasture or cry, they followed Jewell. Today they returned to the pasture with the bred ewes. Jewell saw me come to the gate, she is always watching, she led the ewe lambs to the gate and she walked through without a hassle, they followed. They grazed all day on the pond pasture and just before dark I walked up the hill, Jewell saw me, and followed me to the gate in that pasture. She led them through the back yard and to the lambing barn. No leading with a halter, no feed bucket rattling, no yelling, no herding dog, no looking back. Now she has trained these young ewes to trust me. That makes my life easier.

Merry

Merry is making a good guard dog. She is going out to pasture with her herd of buck kids and staying with them while they are out. She returns to the barn with them in the afternoon. Not a lot of barking yet but that will come. Still testing the kids to see who is in charge. If she gets to aggressive she will go with some older does, but for now one of Sweetheart's kids, Filo, has inherited the dog training gene. Philo does not hesitate to butt her when she comes too close or wants to play. Sweetheart's mother was the best puppy trainer I ever had, even taking on grown dogs with her horns, I am glad to see she passed that quality on. Sweetheart has recovered and is back to her usual mean self.

Jonquils in January

Yesterday I noticed the Jonquils blooming and it was 70 degrees, today a tornado passed through the north end of the county. We had flooding rain and wind. Tree frogs have been calling the rain up for over a week, you can count on tree frogs to bring on the rain. Sounds crazy, but it's true. No damage here except mud and leaking barns, probably some ruined hay. Sheep and goats stood in the barns all day, waiting for hay to be put in the feeders, no one went out to graze today. The dogs were under foot, they can feel or maybe hear the storm coming. Kay is terrified of them, couldn't eat until the storm was gone. The weather is the hardest thing for a farmer to deal with. Can't do anything about it. When you see old farmers that can't stand straight, bent over from all the years of going against the wind, you know they made it by bending but never breaking.

Foal Watch

Went up the hill at midnight last night to check and pen Airielle. Her foaling date is near and the weather is going to be rough for a day or so. It was a beautiful night, very bright moon and soft billowy clouds moving fast, not too cold. I found them on the very top of the hill grazing. She followed me to her barn, freshly bedded down and surrounded by corral panels so she can go out or stay in. I gave her a few more flakes of hay and a bucket of warm water. Not much of a bag yet, but I think she is getting ready. Sweetheart called for me, I went to her pen and she wanted lots of neck scratching, realizing she is back home. When I picked her up at the hospital she heard my voice when I walked in the barn and looked toward me. A lot of stress in a strange place for her. When we went out to go home she saw the trailer and jumped on and ran to the front. My animals depend on me to take care of them and sometimes that means a little love to go along with the feeding.

Sweetheart

Sweetheart spent eight days in the hospital. I spent 8 days before that, trying to turn her around. It was much more serious that I thought. She came home today 17 pounds and 3 babies lighter. Not sure if the dead kids caused her to get so sick or if her sickness caused the kids to die. It could be her body could not support triplets. She got off the trailer and started grazing and hasn't stopped yelling I'm back to all the goats. I think she will recover. She is very lucky to have a doctor so interested in her well being. Sweetheart never gave in, never went down, never quit. It is not feasible to pay for vet help on a goat and sheep farm but if I have an animal willing to fight I am willing to help. Just hope she is able to have kids next year.

A story to be told

A beautiful crisp, sunny morning and just perfect day. A day to enjoy and get caught up on some chores and make new friends. Five doe kids went to a wonderful new home where they are going to get excellent care and lots of love. It's exciting to help new breeders get started especially when they will become spinners, knitters, and weavers. You have to hope they will pass on what they learn and we never forget where our fiber comes from and how fabric is made. That it doesn't magically appear at the mall or store. When you buy animals and fiber from a farmer, there is a story behind every animal, every fleece, every yarn, every scarf, every piece of fabric. A story that needs to be told before it is forgotten.

As good as it got

It was a blury week of rain and cold wind, not even the sheep would go out of the barn. That meant I had to set up hay racks and haul water in the barns, in all of them. No respectable goat is going to walk through standing water to get a drink. I mean it did not let up for 5 days. The bucks in outside pens were flooded. I have major mud problems and have to wait for the ground to firm up before I can get across it. We were all glad to see the sparkling sun come out today and the air felt so clean, it should be clean, well over 4" of constant rain.

Herbal treatment

Sweetheart is my boss doe, very greedy, she can block an 8 foot feeder full of grain, and she did. Now she has acidosis, not bad, just doesn't want to eat and is not chewing her cud, that is bad. Have been cutting browse and bringing it to her and she is picking through some of it. Decided to ride her down to the woods and let her pick her own medicine. She ate a few things, mostly roamed through the woods. But, the ride made her nervous and she pooped big pellets, so all is normal there. Her mother was the boss doe until she got old, then Sweetheart took over the job , looks like she will stay in her own personal pen and there will be a new boss doe.

Twins

Twin's have a special bond. Rosebud's twin does are always together, calling for each other if one is not in the other's sight. Not only do they sleep together, they curl up with their head laying on each other. If there are twins with a doe and buck they are separated for life, but if the buck is wethered and allowed to live together that bond is reunited. Cookie Doe and Tootsie are always together even as adults, they have their kids within a day of each other, their heat cycles are in sinc. Cookie Doe left Tootsie to go to SAFF one year, upon returning home they greeted each other and slept together that night. Goats always know their family members after being separated, even after years of separation, they will reunite.

Cold mornings

The ducks are not happy with the cold mornings. Takes awhile to get all the water tanks warmed and buckets deiced. With the short daylight hours there is not enough time to get a lot of work done other than caring for the stock. Got to keep them happy. Happy sheep and goats make good fiber, good fiber makes spinners happy, happy spinners buy fiber, shepherd buys feed and hay, the local economy keeps going, people have a job, (people that want a job). Too cold to work with wool outside so decided to wash fleeces inside, small amounts of fiber soaking in buckets. It works good for Cormo fleeces which is easier to get the grease out of the tips in small batches. Takes longer but the results are good. Have dye pots of tea dyed wool and pomegranite going on the wood stove. Not many days in the year I can stoke the stove up hot enough to set the dye, but the warmth and aroma felt good today.

Mud

Wanted to go to the handspinner's distaff day, was packed and ready to go, but listened to the weather report that called for more rain. Have been scaping boot sucking mud for the last few weeks and knew I needed to try again before it got muddier. It has been too muddy to get in there without getting the tractor stuck. So spent most of the day scraping and pushing mud, great fertilizer for the garden. Everyday brings us a little more daylight time. Today hope to get the sheep bottom pasture cross fenced and new gates hung, plan to move doe kids and some does that are not bred out of the lambing-kidding barn to the bottom. Lambs and kids will be dropping the first of March so the shepherdess needs to clean the barn and set up the nursery,get ewes shorn, vaccinate ewes and does, get lambing supplies ordered, the list goes on. It all takes a lot of time.

The battle

Time to take down all the felted ornies and decorations. Sprayed the woolies with an organic bug spray and left them to dry by the wood stove. After they are dry I will pack them in plastic bags and then in a plastic container. It's also time to wash all the handspun yarns and scarves that have been to festivals and fairs collecting dust and salts from all the handling. Yarns can go in a dishpan of warm soapy water soak and rinse, then dried by the stove and packed away. Wool is organic and moths love it as much as I do. In the unwashed grease state it is usually not bothered by moths, but once washed and spun, knitted, woven or felted it has to be protected. Washing and storing is the safest way to keep moths out of wool. As long as there are no moth eggs laid on the wool to hatch out and feed on the fiber it will last forever.