January Update

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Life on the farm has been busy, as usual. We faced a hay shortage and high prices for the hay that was available. This year we stayed away from the alfalfa and fortunately, we found decent hay as we needed it and adjusted the grain feeding in the barn to compensate for the reduced hay quality. I'm down to a dozen or so ewes and 2 rams. Neville went in with the ewes on November 1st. We had an excellent bunch of lambs last year, so I am looking forward to this years and keeping a few back as replacements. We had a wonderful Christmas. My parents made it down for a visit, which always makes it special, and more so this year because about 2 weeks ago my mom became very ill and was diagnosed with cancer- stage 4. It's something we would have never imagined, as our family had been cancer free, until now. So, we are taking things day by day and praying that she recovers.

As you can see, we did see a little snow this year. Not much, and it melted quickly. It has been a mild winter overall and nice for the sheep. The shed peeking out in the corner is one we found at Farm Fest and was on special. It was a treat to finally have a suitable shelter for the sheep in the pen with the sheep vs having to move the sheep to a barn. That never went well as anyone who's had to move sheep can imagine.

It's been a long, hot summer here. We saw many days where the heat index soared up to the 100's. There was a brief spell of cooler weather that lasted about 2 weeks. A relief for both humans and animals. The sheep had a rough time with the heat and humidity .
Some of the ewes are in the picture above. We are up to 21 adult ewes with a variety of colors and fleece types. It's about where I want to stay. So next year, there will be several for sale.
This is one of my favorites. Her fleece is extremely soft and has a nice feel.
The lambs were moved to their own pasture. I'm happy with the lambs this year. They are looking good. Nice conformation, soft, crimpy fleece.
The girls named her Cinderella. She is a sweetheart. As friendly as can be. Her mom is Lockfield Eloise.

Introducing the Lambs.....

It's been a busy start to summer here on the farm. Soccer is finished until fall, but there are many more things to take its place. Swim lessons started this week. The fair is coming up and it's time to be thinking and more importantly, getting some of those projects done. I am still working at getting the garden in. Most of it is planted. We've been renovating the pastures that the beef have been in. The grass was poor, thin and it needed some attention. The dairy pastures have been getting replanted, some are planted yearly. Right now the sudan is going in.
School is officially done, but we do some here and there yet. I've been working on the curriculum and ordering books. I've officially transitioned to a classical curriculum, which I have already been doing except for the addition of latin and the advance literature-of which mine are just getting old enough to start into those levels anyhow. Most will be an adjustment of how I teach and incorporating their participation in discussions.
To understand this method, to which I have always been drawn-but it seemed so foreign (words like trivium and quadrivium), I was fortunate enough to attend a conference up in Kansas City. Laura Berquist was the featured speaker. She taught her own children, several others and started Mother of Divine Grace School which gives children a classical education.
There were other speakers- I attended several on nature, literature and working with older children. It was a wonderful experience.

This past Wednesday, we finally sheared. It was much later than I would have preferred. At least it's done and I am certain that the ewes are appreciative. While they were up, I trimmed hooves. They were pretty overgrown this year. The only thing I can attribute to this may be the wet weather we've had.
The older lambs were pulled to be weaned. I had already pulled 4, several weeks ago. I went ahead and tagged, banded and gave CDT vaccinations. We've been bottle feeding our lambs for about 2 weeks, just to help with making them more friendly. This has been a great thing for the wethers. They love to come up and be scratched, pet and enjoy being around people. There are several photos of lambs here, there are many not pictured.
This is our favorite little ram lamb. He is wethered, so we can keep him for a pet. He is a pretty little boy.
We love the markings on his face.
This was another ewe out of Crescendo. She is interesting as I have not seen another like her.
She is pretty white, just a few brown hairs, more, perhaps over her top. But I didn't notice that many more.
Here, you can see into the fleece and how white-or cream, colored it is.
We were happy to see Kaya have this pretty little ewe lamb. Kaya is also mom to the ram lamb/wether we like so much.
Salem had this black ewe. Right now, her fleece is black. The only white I've seen is around her face.
She is a nice ewe with a great temperament.
This ram lamb was the only one retained for use in a breeding program. He was the most correct and is a nice little boy.
His tail is super, although the wind was blowing and you can't really see.
Another nice ewe lamb our of Allena's ram. Also, correct with a nice tail.
Our escapee hens have been busy. It's always fun to walk into the barn and hear the sound of new baby chicks, somewhere. Eventually mom brings them out. I've incubated and raised chicks, but it is much better for the hens to do the job. They do it better than I ever could. It's amazing to watch the chicks and how healthy they are.
One of our giant Blue Cochin roosters.
Those little Muscovy ducklings have grown quite alot over the last several weeks. They've made themselves at home in the chicken house and I am not sure that they don't think they are chickens. I've seen a duck, raised with several border collies, think it was a border collie and would work horses just as the dogs did.

Lambs on the Way

Kaya is going to be our first to lamb. She is definitely in labor today,so hopefully we'll have a lamb before evening.

Our weather had been interesting. A 70 degree day and then this. Snow.
This past Saturday it snowed, and snowed. By the time it was through, we had over 9 inches on the ground.
It was really amazing.

As of today, it's pretty much all gone. Everything is green and it looks like spring.

Update

It's been a while since the last post. Our life seems to have been turned upside down and my normal, comforable level of chaos hasn't been for the last 3 weeks. Which, I can barely remember much of. We had a warm spell and I took full advantage of that. The garden was made ready for winter, pruned the raspberries, burned some brush and washed windows. Everyone seemed to have appointments for the dentist, eye doctor.......even the horse. Glory had gotten a really bad infection of some sort. I had her on antibiotics for over 2 months. She saw a special Equine vet last week and underwent ultrasounds of her uterus and urinary tract. We also pulled samples to send out and culture. All came back okay. Great news. Had a large load of alfalfa hay trucked in as we are about officially out of grass. That also means we are officially broke until Spring. Within a span of 3-4 days- I stepped on a nail, went in for the tetnus shot and then followed that up by stepping on a tack. Tacks are deceiving. You'd think they would come out easily, but this one had to be worked out. My children had never seen their mother cry until the tack, and it alarmed them. I don't usually cry-but they've left no stone unturned with regards to destruction, getting into things and trying to kill themselves. I've hung on to my sanity rather well - daily trips to the coffee shop for 20oz. Mocha. This happens to other people- not us. I don't know what is going on but I hope it stops soon. L.O.L. Of coarse there was still the house to care for, meals to cook, lessons to teach, records to keep, lessons to get to and chores to do. I did manage to find time to spin and ply all of the singles I had. I also have started a Fair Isle hat-I've never knitted Fair Isle before so it is a challange to myself. I've also started a lace stole made from the pattern "Twinnings" (I think) from Knit Spot. One of these days I'll have to post photos. We had a nice Thanksgiving. We've gone to friends the past few years and it has always been nice. Rushed, but nice. Dairy farming doesn't leave much social time- basically showing up to eat and by the time dessert is finished, heading out and your about 2 hours behind in chores then milking. This year we decided to stay home. I think we are just tired, not in the physical way- this is different. It's been a long, hard year and we needed some time to just spend time as a family and rest. I made the big dinner and we all chipped in to clean up the grand mess. Spent the afternoon watching movies- which we never do. It was nice. The sheep had gotten out one morning and managed to get into something and made themselves sick. They were depressed, wouldn't eat, drink, baaa...nothing. We hit them with everything we could and drenched them with baking soda and mineral oil. Did the soda drences for 2 days. Vitamin B shots, thiamin even an antibiotic just in case as one had a low fever. After about 5 days, they started feeling better and are back to normal. Yesterday was the first day they were out on grass and they were loving that. Below are some photos of the handspun I've managed lately. I'm always intrigued with process of watching those colors in the roving come together in the finished, plyed product.

Hello Yarn's Winter Storage
Hello Yarn's Patchwork

Hello Yarn's ??

Hello Yarn's or Spunky Club -I can't remember.

This Years Rams and More

Meet Three Ring Henry. Allena was too generous and loaned him to me this fall. He was a Spring 09 lamb, not very old but he's getting the job done. I like his size, fleece length, and overall looks. Is AFD was a low, 23.6. The only thing I'd fault him with it a high CV at 33.5.

Fletcher Crescendo has a gorgeous head. I really like this ram. He's double coated and his numbers are pretty good for that type of coat I.M.H.O. -AFD 26.4, CV 32.2. He was born in 06. He has 2 of the girls.

Lettie is a Crescendo daughter.

Glory (Parr T on the Bar) and Geno (Poco G Sassy Lady) were up waiting on us. Glory is the 2 year old filly(Buckskin) I bought this spring. She has a fantastic disposition and has thusfar been easy to work with. I've several rides on her now. We named her Glory after the kids kept saying her name was Party on the Bar, at church and everyone knows how some people can be. Geno came with her name. Named after a friend of the previous owner. She has been a wonderful horse. She had been used for everything-from shows to rodeo. She is definitely a cow horse as she is amazing to watch when she is let loose with the calves. She flies around penning and sorting a calf or two out. While she is chasing them off, she is watching the others to hold them in their "corner" of the pasture.

Several years ago a big gust of wind and blew a big Walnut tree, like the one pictured below, over. It was sudden and the wind was indredible. My husband thought a tornado was down, but it was just straight line winds. Anyhow, it crushed half of our garage. For the last few years there has just been a gaping hole there.

This is only half seen in this photo. The Black Walnut trees can be huge.

This afternoon I noticed a flock of Bluebirds in our yard. They are my favorite bird so it was a treat to see them.

Superman is our white Silkie rooster.

And finally, our Peacock was roaming around. He's almost 2 and has a few eye feathers on his back. I've heard that it takes 3 years for their adult feathers to come in.

Amber Myst Reaches New Heights

It's been a busy week here on the farm. We are running 20-degrees below normal from what I've heard and it's been wet. There were showers last night and will see more tonight. I've been trying to figure out what to do about breeding this fall. What I had planned, I am reconsidering even at this late date. Why? SD and CV values along with the AFD. The SD and CV values on my girls, especially the lambs, are so high that I don't want to waste a breeding season perpetuating more of the same numbers. I enjoy my sheep, but I also want to see them reach their fullest potential. That's not to say that I would get rid of all of my girls, I won't and can't as I only have a few and they are "pets". But, I do want to breed them to the best rams with the best numbers to improve the offspring and move me closer to my goals. I want fine fleeces and conformation. Having a small flock, I am limited on what I can do in some ways. So I need to take advantage of every breeding season and make it count.

On another note, the girls manage to climb up a little higher on our bales. They did jump from there to make their escape from the "paddock" they were in. We just stood in disbelief watching. They were fine though.
I have lots of full bobbins and lots of plying to do. I'm working on the Shetland/Alpaca that I washed, carded and blended.

I'm really happy with how it is looking and it's super soft.

Isn't she a cutie. Gotta be the cutest kitten I've seen.

Tomorrow I am taking the day off from home :-) and heading down to War Eagle Mill in Arkansas for the big Craft Festival they have. I believe they have something like 300 + vendors there and on the way I remember circus tent sized tents along the roads in fields with more crafters. If I remember right, Rogers, Bentonville even have craft things going on in town at convention centers. It's a biggie anyhow and will surely be alot of fun. Planning on hitting road at 4:30-5 am!

The girls have a horse show this Saturday. Friday we'll be busy getting ready for that. They'll have their horses over at where we have lessons, practicing, clipping and braiding. They'll have to be up early Saturday and do the last minute things before we head out. A busy weekend for sure!

Knitting Under The Influence

This week has been catch up on grading and work on lesson plans week. So when I had the opportunity to be sitting in our Suburban for a lengthy drive, I was looking forward to working a little more on my sock. I've been struggling with car sickness for just over a week now and get gagging, can't stand the movement, please stop and let me walk home....sick. I hang my head out the window, chew gum, lay down....to no avail. After my 4 year old was watching me struggle to hang onto my stomach contents and eventually close my eyes, she sighed and said,"well, I guess mommy's is dead". My 10 year old said, "no, she's sleeping" and the 4 year old replied, "nope, she's dead". At that point I burst out laughing. I've had to resort to Dramamine. Wow! When they say "marked drowsiness" on the label, they aren't fooling. I tried some last Sunday, to get me to Church and home. I barely made it through without keeling over. Sure enough, I had to take it today and what you see in the above photo is why you shouldn't knit while extremely drowsy. I lost a stitch somewhere. I'm still feeling the effects and it's been 4.5 hour since the symptoms hit. I'll be glad when the allergy season is passed.
We had opened up the fence to let the sheep have shelter from the rain. One of them figured out how to climb up higher and was sunning herself this morning.

First Breeding Group Established

Fletcher Crescendo
Locksfield Kaya Papper, MS Concetta and MS Sara

Sheep Work Day ~ Lambs Come Home

This afternoon I corraled all of the girls and wormed everyone and tagged the ones who needed their tags. I also collected a 2 inch sample of wool from their midsides to send in for micron testing.

I figured it was time. I'm curious as to what the tests will show. Not concerned though. This is a starting point and I am looking forward to whatever the results may be and being able to use that information in selection future rams. Lately I've taken some time to evaluate my long term goals for my flock. There are alot of options out there- spots, modified........I can get a bit overwhelming, especially when one has a small flock. I have come to the descision that I am going to aim for excellent conformation and excellant fleece. The rest will come in time.
This weekend we drove out to Seymore, Missouri and I picked out a couple of my lambs that I had sold in the spring. One of these was an ewe out of Locksfield Braeton and Locksfield Joaquin. This is she. A super little ewe. Her fleece is matted from burr on the surface but underneath she has a soft fleece that has good crimp and alot of luster. She'll have an intermediate fleece. Her conformation is great.

Here she is from the backside.

This little ewe lambs is from Locksfield Rosebriar and Minwawe Tornado. She is also a terrific little ewe lamb. Great conformation and a very nice fleece, also a mess from the burrs.

She also has a super little tail.

Here is Locksfield Braeton. Dam to one of the above lambs.

And Locksfield Kaya Pepper. She is going to be our stinker. The only ewe that wouldn't come into the corral area, even for feed. Isabelle said that she was scared. I told her that she wasn't scared, she was smart. I offered $5 to the person who caught her.