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.

Saying Goodbye

I know!  I've been a bad blogger!  My only excuse is a change in life's schedule & we've been settling in! I'll do better I promise!

I titled this post "Saying Goodbye" because we've said goodbye to wonderful Kenny! He's gone to a great new home not to far from here! Exciting and sad at the same time.  Kenny now has his own flock & I couldn't be happier for him! I've been promised updates on him & his future lambs! One of his new girls is a border Leicester so that should be an exciting cross.   There were a few tears but we're happy to see him placed well! Please enjoy the pictures below from Kenny's life with us. 

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! 

Busy time

Whew! We've been busy getting ready for our county fair. It seems like we've done so much, but I don't have many pictures to show for it.  LOL.  Achievement night is tomorrow night and we're all ready with our projects.  Fluffy Girl made a travel chicken pen, a hay bag from old jeans, and a poster showing horse colors & some markings.  I'll post pictures with our results in a few days. The important thing is she had very little help & did her best.

We washed our 2 white silkies yesterday so they would be clean & fluffy for the show Tuesday morning.

On a note about chickens, my lovely little cochin hatched 3 blue silkie chicks! 

We worked on more halter training with the lambs. 

We also did a bit of blackberry picking.  We got a nice gallon with easy picking, but haven't had a chance to go again yet.  

That's it for now.  I'll have a post of Fluffy Girl's leadline outfit.  I spun & crocheted her skirt from Loretta's fleece. But I'm going to wait until I can get a picture of her & Loretta together at the show. 

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.

Weaning Day

Here's the nice before picture.  Everybody is happy & enjoying their hay. While they were eating, I made sure the yearling ewe pen was little-proofed. We didn't want any small holes for them to get out of. Then with some gate help from Fluffy Girl, I caught them & Camo Dad transferred them to their new home. 

It's hard to tell but they are NOT happy! The open mouths are crying babies. It's hard to imagine it from the video but within an hour they had settled down.  I moved them into the yearling ewe pen so they would have older company & it seems to have worked well. 

Here's a video so you can hear how mad they were! 

Then Fluffy Girl worked with Kenny practicing for the show ring.  He's been great to work with.  He's friendly yet respectful of your space. He will be for sale this year after the Missouri State Fair in August. Fluffy Girl wanted me to share a video of them working. 

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.