First lambs of 2017

But first some pretty yarn that I've been working on. . .

This is a before shot.  I bought 2 batts of this at the 2016 All Missouri Spin In.  I can't really remember the vendor and they didn't give a content list.  i'm not sure what the wool is in it, but I think the shiny white may be mohair or silk?  It was my first time spinning from a batt and I have to say I did enjoy it. 

  I'm honestly not sure what I'm going to make of this.  I'm calling it Lavender Glory and it ended up about 330 yards. 

  I also put some eggs in the incubator, we are now a week into the 21 day period. In a few more days, I'll check for development in the eggs.  About a dozen Buff Orpington eggs went in with some eggs leftover from my parent's incubator filling; a few silver laced Wyandotte and some bantum somethings. LOL.

ONTO WHAT YOU'RE WAITING FOR
!!!  BABIES!!!

Saturday, March 11 in the late morning Dusk delivered of twins.  The little black is a ewe and to reveal my 2017 naming theme is Daytona.  Yep, Nascar racetracks and it only seemed fitting for the first ewe to be named after the season's first race. 

The white is a little ram.  We're holding off on naming ram lambs this year until we have the ewes all delivered.  We will be keeping 1 ram lamb to be show stock for this year and next.  Extras will either be for sale or be butchered.  I already doubt this little guy will be butchered though, as I've already had some interest in purchasing him if he comes for sale.

It's hard work being born!

With 5 more ewes that all look bred, stay tuned for more lambs!

Remembering Maggie . . .

This post remembers Maggie.  She was one of our 1st ewes and lived to the ripe old age of 12, which is pretty good for a sheep.  She died in her sleep, curled up in her favorite spot.  I noticed her acting a bit slower than normal the past couple of weeks and I guess it finally caught up with her. 

The above picture is how I'll always remember Maggie, coming to the fence for chin scratches or grain, whichever was handy.  She will live on in her daughters and granddaughters.  Some pictures below.

 Loretta - 2015 daughter

 Lynn - 2015 daughter

 Dolly - 2015 Granddaughter

 Dawn - 2014 daughter, also showing at birth George and Tammy 2016 granddaughter and grandson being kept.  Dawn is also the mother of Dolly above.

Catching up

Once again, I have been a bad blogger!  Time sure can get away from you when you're having fun and being busy!

Breeding season started a bit earlier this year.  Niles went in with the girls in October & will stay there through December at least, maybe January.  This means that we could, hopefully have babies as early as March.  It was a tough decision for us.  I like the April babies that we've had before because the weather is so much nicer & reliable.  March here in Missouri can be very up & down & we've had late March snowstorms.  BUT, I chose Shetlands because they are very hearty & good mothers.  I also felt this would be better for the showing lambs, letting them have a little extra time to grow & such before going to the fairs in the summer.  Last year, being a learning experience, we weaned our lambs at 10 weeks, right about.  They only had 3 weeks before they went to their first fair & it would have been less if we had hit the first fairs in our area.  Now, they were well weaned, etc.  But I wondered if it would be better for them to have a bit more time to grow & get worked with away from mommas.  So, we're trying March lambs.  IF somebody didn't take the first time, well that's why we're leaving Niles in there longer.  If for whatever reason one of the ewes didn't stick until later, that's ok. Better to have a late baby than no baby.

The other exciting thing was our end of the year
county wide 4H recognition banquet.  We are so proud to say that Fluffy Girl was the county top 8 year old girl, as well as winning the quality of life award!  She had to write a short essay on her 4H projects & how they incorporated into our lives & making them better.  Naturally, our sheep helped. LOL.  The top 8 year old was chosen based on 4H involvement throughout the first year.  She received the beautiful doll with her award, name & year embroidered on it for the top 8 year girl and a lovely 4H cookbook with a clover cookie cutter for quality of living award.

Our 4H club was chosen the outstanding club and Randolph county received special recognition as being the top county in Missouri during the state fair in sheep.  The county received a nice plaque & all the sheep kids were given a nice feed bag sack.  We had several other winners & mentions from our club.  Very proud of our kids & the families supporting them!



I had my black pochin decide to be broody last month so I let her sit thinking she would break with the cold weather approaching.  But to be on the safe side I put my last 5 silkie eggs under her from my black pen.  I lost my lovely splash silkie hen just before this. :(  I also bought 3 NICE young chicks from a good breeder just a few weeks ago.  They were still a bit young to be outside so up the brooder went again.  Good thing because just as the weather finally decided to get cold last weekend I had chicks start hatching!  I hated to do it, but with cold weather here I took them away from my hens & brought them in.  3 little silkies & 1 cochin & I think we're done.  We'll now have chicks in the house for the winter. LOL.
  Big happening on the nature front!  Fluffy Girl's first deer!!!  A nice button-buck taken with 1 shot at 100 yards!  Our family motto growing up was, "You kill it, you clean it."  However Camo Dad and I don't quite trust her with a knife yet.  So he did the cutting & she did the gutting!  I'm happy to report it didn't bother her a bit.  She was a little concerned about that before the hunt, as a boy at school got a deer & reported the gutting as "disgusting"  LOL.

Missouri State Fair results

We had a GREAT time at the fair!  We only did the 4H breeding sheep show, but are already planning on staying for the open show next year!  We hope we represented our breed well.  There were many people interested in our little guys.  My only regret was forgetting business cards for people!  Pictures & results below!  Our Shetlands were shown in All Other Wool Breeds against some very nice ramboullets!!!  The girls showing the ramboullets were amazing young ladies that were very helpful!  In fact we met so many helpful people there! 

 

 

Little Conway earned 2nd place in the Jr Ram Lamb class.

 

Wonderful Kenny!!!!  He took 2nd in his Yearling Ram class & earned Reserve Champion ram from there!!!!  We were floored as we really thought that the Jr Ramboullet that beat Conway was going to get the Reserve! 

Loretta was able to place 3rd in her Yearling Ewe class. 

Minnie Pearl placed 4th at the bottom of her class.  I will admit to a little disappointment at this, because I really thought she was a nicer lamb.  That Said!!!!!  It was an all other wool breeds class. This means they are looking for a finer wool.  My guys at this point are a medium handle.  Minnie Pearl may do better next year because of how fleeces can change over that first year or so.

 

The judge was great! I spoke with him after the show to see how we could improve the flock from a show standpoint.  He pointed out that the AOWB looks for a finer fleece, had it been a Shetland class in this instance it would have been judged a bit differently.  He was very helpful for us 1st timers to understand how it all works.  By the way, this same judge went onto a big Shetland show the next day!!!  So, I feel good that he said ours were competitive with 80% of the Shetlands out there and could hold their own in the AOWB. 

 

Overall a great showing and a great time was had!  We already can't wait until next year.  We know that Conway & Minnie Pearl will be showing and we may be adding Tammy next year.  We left her at home this year.  It'll be spring before we know what lambing will bring us for the youngstock.

 

Also, anybody reading that is looking for a nice ram, Kenny is for sale.  $300.  Please send me an email if you would like to talk about him!

County Fair Results

So our county fair was last week.  Randolph County fair, you may have seen us! This was our first year showing our animals & we had a great time! 

 Our silkie rooster placed 3rd in a class of 8 in roosters 1 year & older. 

Our hen placed 3rd in a class of 9 in hens 1 year & older.  The judge was very detailed & helpful.  He gave us some good tips on what to improve in our stock. 

 Fluffy Girl made 3 projects for achievement night.  A poster of colors & markings for her Horseless Horse, which received blue.  A nice travel chicken cage for Chickens, also a blue. Then pictured is the recycled jeans hay bag for Sheep, which not only received blue but also best of show & was chosen to be displayed at the Missouri State Fair!

In 4h, they use a slightly different ribbon system.  A blue ribbon means that the member has done a job & learned to the best of their ability.  It rewards the honest effort of doing their best! They also award the animal shows this way.    A red ribbon is when a judge feels the member has not put their best efforts into their animal or project.  A white is the lowest & pretty well explains itself at this point. 

  Here's our Kenny, the Randolph County in-county reserve champion ram! He earned a nice blanket for this honor.  

Here's a picture of the shetland ewe championship class. The left is Minnie Pearl, our jr ewe lamb as reserve champion shetland ewe.  The right is Loretta, our yearling & champion shetland ewe. 

 This is a nice picture of Loretta & Fluffy Girl during their lead line class.  I made her skirt from sheep to shawl from Loretta's fleece this spring.  She will be added to the breeding group this fall. 

 All loaded & ready to go home! We had a great time at the fair!  They were very supportive of our different little sheep!  We brought home some nice prizes.  We tried to be good breed ambassadors & educate all the people interested in our guys!

Next up Missouri State Fair on August 13 for 4 of our sheep!  If you're there please find us & say hi! 

Lots to catch up with!

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post! It's been busy around the farm.  I'll try to catch you up. 

First off, our breeding program has hit a bit of a snag. Upon closer inspection, more of the yearlings & weanlings than the 1 I thought have bad tails.  For a shetland this is very important! I've tried to include a couple pictures to show what I'm talking about.  In the picture below are some of the weanlings. The white ram lamb on the right is the 1 I knew had a bad tail.  First off, you can actually see it.  LOL. It's long and bushy or wooly! Notice how on the black & morrit (brown) lambs you can't really see their tails. This is good! 

 This picture is a close up of the morrit lamb.  Notice how his tail is pretty short, shaped like a club, and doesn't have wool on the end like the rest of his body.  This is how it should look.  I'm not saying this is a perfect tail, but correct.

Not all is lost! The bad tails will still make good fiber animals or the ewes will make fit a crossbred program. We're going to get through 4h shows over the next 2 months and then make solid decisions for their future! I've thought about starting a crossbred fiber flock. 

If you followed us on Instagram, you'll have seen our baby bunnies. Which the doe ate the next day.  :(  Now, she could have easily stayed on as a fiber animal.  However we have 2 other angoras the same color.  I had a friend who recently had a litter of French angora babies. She wanted one of my color & i wanted one of hers.  So we traded.  Win-win situation! Below is Josephine, which is a mouthful for such a little bunny.  Her nickname is Jo-Jo. Her name comes from the Empress Josephine & the character in Little Women. She's only 9 weeks old! 

We went to a natural dying party last Saturday at a local favorite! It was a girls day & an annual event for 2 friends & myself. It's called the Blue Party, featuring indigo, woad, & Saxon blue. They also have cochineal red & yellow made from the inner bark of the black walnut.

 Here's a bag of my fleece drying a bit, done in saxon blue. 

 Here are the shorts that i dyed using indigo for Fluffy Girl! They used to be white & that just wasn't going to work! LOL. 

All of the natural dying processes could fill numerous posts, but I'm not good enough with it to tell you.  LOL. If you are local and  interested, please check out Hillcreek Fiber Studeo! She is amazing! 

On to the fiber results! 

Saxon blue 

Cochineal red, which came out salmon pink! This is a great example of how different fibers take color differently. 

This is saxon blue followed by a yellow soak! This picture doesn't do this justice! It has such a variety of color in it from the deep saxon blue to almost a seagreen at the tips and the mix in between! It looks like a Caribbean explosion!

This is cochineal red followed by a dip into saxon blue.  It's a nice mix of mauve to purple to blue & i think it'll spin up nicely! 

Below is a picture of them drying. These will all be for sale as spun yarns.

Flock decisions

One of the things on your mind when you're raising animals is "where do I want my flock to go?" In other words what goals do I have when I'm breeding.  This plays a part in selecting your animals for base stock as well as future decisions. My personal goals are a flock that conforms to standard & has good fleece.  I'm considering eventually heading towards a fine fleeced registered flock. There is a separate registry for qualifying shetland.

 Sometimes other factors play in as well.  For me, availability was another issue as well as pricing.  In an area with several purchase options you can easily find an animal that fits your price range with some looking. By that standard, you can get as good a quality as you can afford. In this area commercial market sheep are king.  There are 2 larger registered Shetland flocks in my area & the gentleman I purchased my ewes from bought his flock from them.  So lots of related stock around. You need to watch carefully for inbreeding.

I was blessed to find with my families help a ram from south Missouri that was unrelated. So I have a good thing in this area. My plan is to use Niles for the next couple breeding seasons to build up our flock.  Then he will most likely be sold for somebody else's breeding program. We will be looking for a nice unrelated, well built ram that carries a fine fleece and is horned. We may have to do some driving.  LOL.

At that point,  we'll be striving to continue improving our ewe stock. I think Niles is a good flock building ram choice for me.  He has good conformation, a good & respectful attitude, & a nice fleece. Time will tell with his first lambs on the ground this spring.

One of the other ways to help us make decisions involves showing in 4H.  Sheep shows help us promote & evaluate our stock. We've decided to promote our yearling ram Kenny before he'll need for sale this fall. It's often helpful to have an outside source evaluate for you.  While we're unlikely to compete with other Shetlands until the State Fair,  they will be judged against breed standard and how well they conform versus how well the other wool breeds conform to their standard.

Sometimes the only way to make decisions is to see what happens. Breeding theory can only take you so far & then the Good Lord takes over; often giving you surprises.

Productive Weekend

It was such a beautiful day on Saturday. There were the usual plentiful household chores that needed done so I decided to work outside.  LOL. I did actually get some laundry done.  Including the comforters & hung them on the line to fresh dry! My favorite! I also finished up some yarn that was spun & let it dry outside as well.  The left is the polwarth that i bought as a dyed roving. The right is some very special shetland for a personal project. The fleece is the only shearing I was able to get from a ewe named Beauty. I bought her as a bred ewe & she didn't stick.  Before i could breed her back last summer she fell sick from a bad infection. I nursed her for 3 days before she passed. She was my friendliest ewe with a great personality.  So with no lambs & only 1 fleece.  There's a part of it.

Then i did a little scissor shearing on Lynn who decided to act like a terror who had never been touched.  LOL. 

 Before, well barely started anyway. 

 after with a Dolly photo bomb. 

All three of these girls also needed a hoof trim.

 these are my trimmers. Thanks Mom for the great present!

 Here's Dolly sitting for her pedicure.

 Here's a good picture of Dolly's foot with 1 side trimmed & the other not. Sheep & goats need their feet trimmed on s regular basis similar to horses & people. Done properly this doesn't hurt them at all.  Generally speaking trimmings are done around 4 months. However many people keep a rock pile for their sheep or goats to walk on keeping their hooves worn down naturally.  As I don't have the fencing finished, I trim. 

 This is my thanks from Loretta for keeping her feet healthy.  She kicked just as I went to cut. I stabbed my own thumb. It bled way more than I thought it should & I ended up having to pause my trimming to clean & bandage it. 

Sunday brought another beautiful day.  I helped a friend with dog trimming they needed done. I came home and worked on Dolly's fleece shearing. 

 Here's a partial done picture. 

 I also worked on as cotswold cross fleece that was sheared in 2014. I've done a bit with this fleece & it gives a nice spin with some of the signature shine that cotswold has.  I've got it all skirted & seperated into locks. Now I will work on getting it all washed. I plan on offering some dyed & spun for sale. But I'm going to do 1 skein for myself to take to the Blue Party at Hillcreek Fiber Studeo in June & dye with a natural Saxon blue.