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!

Finished Yarns

This is a quick follow up to my previous post.  Here you can see all the yarns I've been working on the past couple of months.  These will all be listed on the sale page, both here and on our Facebook page.  PLEASE find and like us at Stay Fluffed Farm on Facebook

Some of these yarns are going to pair GREAT together if somebody wants to get companion skeins!

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

Playing catch up after way to long of ignoring my blog.  Upside, I've been busy here.  I'll explain below.

This is a lovely gathering basket that was just handed down to me by my stepfather.  It used to belong to his great-aunt.  It's great for holding my yarns and I'm going to use it for display purposes when I go to shows.

This is some alpaca that I kind of forgot I had dyed up at least a couple years ago.  I do remember that I dyed it at the Blue Party at Hillcreek Fiber Studio in Columbia, MO.  it was put into a cochineal red for a short time and then into a black walnut yellow to get this orangy color. 

This is where I started in on my Cotswold X, dyed at the 2016 Blue party.  I dyed it with saxon blue and then put it into a blk walnut yellow exhaust. An exhaust bath is one where MOST of the color has already been taken out into a previous batch of fiber.  This worked great for what I wanted, which was a touch of added color.

These 2 pictures are another bit of alpaca that I had forgotten about.  it was dipped, probably at the same forgotten blue party, into a quick saxon blue.  so it's got a much lighter color than normal. 

Here's some regular saxon blue dyed Cotswold X, done in 2016.  I have a total of 3 skeins worth of this.  1 for myself and 2 for sale.

This is a hat that I made with some icing dyed red Shetland.  The wool is from our current ram, Niles.  This bit of yarn was leftover from a custom made hat and scarf project.  It ended up being a Christmas gift for my daughter's teacher.

Dying to crochet!

This yarn that is!  This is about 550 yards of Niles' fleece that has taken way longer than I thought it would.  Mainly due to life interruptions, but isn't that how it always goes?  That's one of my best reasons to spin, it relaxes me and I can enjoy spinning while I'm watching a good movie or show.  For those of you who don't know me as well, I LOVE movies!  But I digress.

I finally finished this up and am now ready to dye it.  The plan for this is to end up a red hat & scarf set as a special order for somebody.

 Here's a dry photo of the yarn pile.

 Getting into a soak helps the dye to take up evenly while I get the dye pot to simmering level,

  Here we are with some color.  as you can see from the water there is dye left.  When all the dye has been taken up by the yarn, the water will be left clear.  At this point, it was still tooooo pink for me, so more red went into the water.

 Here's a shot of the yarn as it's draining & cooling in the sink.  I wasn't quite sure at this point that I was going to be happy with the coloring.  But I decided to let it dry and see where we were.

  So after drying overnight the color wasn't bad, but there were some discolored spots.  So, back into the dye pot she went!  I let it soak a bit and then decided to add a bit of burgundy dye to even out & deepen the color a bit.  Here's hoping it works, as it's dripping in my sink at the moment.  Then back in front of the wood stove blower for the night.

As an aside, I love to dye & wash in the winter when the stove is going.  The nice hot blower gets yarn or fiber good & dry just overnight.  Plus keeps us nice & cozy!  Stay tuned as I get it dried & then worked up.

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.

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.