Happy Christmas!

Wishing everyone a Happy and Merry Christmas.

I once heard that on Christmas eve, the animals are given their one chance to talk, so if you are very quiet in the barnyard, you may hear exactly what they are thinking. Just in case, they got an extra ration of food for the evening to celebrate!

Naughty rams!

Since being off-line for nearly a month due to our wireless internet service provider going AWOL, breeding season for my sheep has begun with lambs expected early April, 2011. On Nov. 16th, my new ram Two Bars was put in with the new and younger girls in the sheep barn (9 girls) while Choy is in his pen with Tommy (the wether) and my 3 original girls: Meg, Thelma & Annie because I really like the lambs I got from this match-up in the past...especially Annie giving me wildly spotted lambs. There is an empty field in between the 2 rams with visual barriers on both fences. 7 ewes are being kept in a non-breeding pen (5 ewes from this year and 2 yearlings) and so far I'm happy to report that the lessons learned from last year's breeding season are being implemented successfully. All was well until yesterday morning...

Clio & Emerson (my Bernese Mountain Dogs) have been having a blast with training and walks in the now abandoned front sheep pasture every morning when I do chores. They have been really good and I've been increasing their freedoms and trusting them. I gave them a bit too much freedom and they took off. After chasing them down 5-6 properties over, I was tired and my previously sore foot was worse for the experience. I finished off the morning chores and headed in.

About an hour later I glance out into the sheep fields and see Choy in Two Bar's field. I race out to see that they are fighting and bleeding badly from their heads from bashing each other over and over. They are in a face-off and they aren't paying any attention to me, so I grab Choy's horn and start to drag him back only to see that Two Bars is backing up to ram him again except now I'm in the middle. I let go to grab my shepherd's crook for help. This isn't going to be easy. I return to the 2 rams and grab Choy again and with the hook I grab Two Bars' horn. I'm backing up with one ram who's trying to move forward and the other being dragged forwards with the hook (he's trying to get away now). When I finally reach the first locked gate, I shove Choy to the other side and quickly try to lock the gate, but Two Bars rams it hard before I get to lock it leaving a big bloody spot on the barrier on the gate "Now get out and stay out" he says to Choy! I managed to separate them. I drag Choy back to his pen and see that I had forgotten replace the makeshift barriers to his gate. Just before breeding season, when all rams were together they busted the gate and the large fence post at ground level. Now, I use a bungee cord to keep the post and gate together, I have a little chicken house on the inside supporting that broken post, I have a large kiddie pool and an old tire placed in front of the gate so Choy can't ram it and get out and I have a cinder block on the other side to keep the gate closed...but that morning, I'd forgotten to put it all back after I'd fed them.

So, Choy had pushed his way through the bungee cord closed gate, raced across the empty pasture in the middle and busted a hole in the page wire fence and through the barrier to land himself in the fight of his life with Two Bars for capture of the fair maiden ewes in his pen. Luckily I saw them or I could have had a tragedy, because they would keep fighting until 1 gave up or died.

The hay is UP!

This is the happy look of accomplishment as we head home with our last trailer load of hay from my neighbour's farm. I got a hay ride home too, pulled by Hugh's tractor...I was very happy! We managed to put up 60 small square bales of hay in the sheep barn hay loft. That's my "cold winter's day" emergency stash. There's room for maybe 20 more, but I'll put some straw up there soon too, so that I have a stash of bedding as well. In general, I use large round hay bales throughout the majority of the year to feed my sheep because they are more economical, but they are more labour intensive and require peeling off flakes and transporting what I need to fill the hay racks. Small square bales are a more expensive option as compared to the large round bales, but they are easier to handle. Because I don't grow my own hay and my pastures are limited, it has been a major source of stress to me, as the farmer, to locate and source the right kind of hay. If I don't have hay come fall and winter, my animals don't have FOOD. So when I have a lot of hay around me, I'm happy. I have several wonderful sources of hay now and I feel RICH! Bring on Winter!...well almost...just a few more things to do yet...

My sheep's wool

Earlier this year, I sent in my raw wool from last year's shearing to a processing mill in Ontario (Wellington Fibres). I had it processed into Roving, which is wool that has been washed and carded, and is now ready for spinning into yarn. I recently received my shipment back and was absolutely thrilled with my fibre. There were 5 bags of different coloured rovings: white, light musket, dark musket, grey and black. Although it took a long time to get it back and with shipping it cost a fair bit, I'm very pleased with the quality. I have decided to sell it all to recover the cost of processing. About half is already sold, and the other half will be sold at the Ottawa Valley Weavers' & Spinners' Guild 30th Annual Exhibition & Sale coming the weekend of Nov. 5, 6, 7 at the Glebe Community Centre, 175 Third Ave. Ottawa.

Looking at all the fleeces from this year's shearing, I'll need to rethink my strategy. I have and plan to sell whichever raw fleeces I can and in the meantime will start to process my fibre myself. For my birthday and Christmas last year I received a very generous gift from my father and father-in-law...my long desired Patrick Green Deb's Delicate Deluxe Drum Carder with fur drum. I've been on a big kick lately to process the fibres I had already washed. The carder is working beautifully with my Shetland fibre. On top of that, its been getting colder here and there is no doubt that winter is on its way...and with all the woolly creatures I have grazing my little pastures, I have nothing I've made from their fibre. So its time to get busy making socks, mittens and my dream Shetland lamb sweater made from Annie, one of the original girls from my flock. She was the only lamb in the group and I sheared her wool myself with scissors and handshears. She represents my first fleece from my own sheep and incidently, she had my first lamb ever too, so she and her lamb Anakin are my farm tag logo.

Farm Stand Revisited

It has been a little over a month that I opened my little roadside farmstand selling eggs and I'm very pleased with the outcome. In my inaugural month, I sold 16 dozen eggs as surplus to our uses, producing about 1 dozen every 2 days. Nearly half were sold out of the little red egg cooler by the side of the road, but more were sold to friends and neighbours and people driving by that saw our sign and came up to the house. Not only has it paid for my feed costs, it has allowed me an opportunity to meet people in the neighbourhood that I hadn't met before in the 5 years since we've been here. They have gotten to know me a bit and I've had a few conversations about my chickens and sheep and what I'm doing here on my little piece of land. Unfortunately, I've frequently been SOLD OUT and have had to turn people away or offer to deliver when the next dozen is ready. Because of this, I've decided to expand! On Saturday, I picked up another dozen young ready-to-lay hens. Since they are young, they will be laying little eggs until they get a little bigger. I already had 3 hens that lay little eggs (because they are a bantam/smaller size), so I've begun to sell Small sized eggs as well as my regular size of XL eggs. When the new hens are up to full production, their eggs will be full size giving me 24 hens that produce XL eggs.

New Girls

This past weekend, 2 new ewes were sprung from their 2 week quarantine in the barn, to join my ewe flock. On the right is Ewenique Diana showing off her newly shorn body. She is a small 2 year old musket ewe with a beautiful light coloured fleece. She's sweet and spunky and I like her a lot. I obtained her in a trade for last year's ram Twist from my friend Danielle. Her companion on the left is a mule cross ewe lamb (cross between a Shetland ewe and a Blue-Faced Leicester ram). I couldn't resist her fleece and as I told Hugh, she was to keep Diana company while in quarantine, so I had to get her. She's very interesting looking, because she has the big BFL ears and the longer tail. The 2 girls are good friends now and hang out together constantly as they face the many head butts they are getting from my other girls as the order gets re-established in the flock. They are making it challenging for the night-time shepherd, Aidan to get them in at night, because they are essentially afraid to go in the barn and not yet bonded with the flock. Soon, I'll be shaking things up again as I wean my remaining 4 ewe lambs from their moms to set up my breeding groups for November.

Monica's new friend

Brianna and I attended the Bird and Small Animal Buy/Sell/Trade event held in Renfrew. I'd heard about it in the spring, but we had never been to it. We headed out early, armed with cages and cardboard boxes in search of new hens for my now thriving egg business and maybe a duck or 2 to keep our Silver Appleyard duck, Monica company and Brianna was hoping to get either a mouse or dwarf hamster as a pet to go into the cage we already had at home. We saw a lot of interesting birds, ducks and chickens, and rabbits, many I'd heard or read about, but never actually seen in person. I didn't find my ready to lay hens, but I got a lead on maybe 4 or 5 that I may be able to pick-up later this week. I did find many potential friends for Monica, but settled on a Welsh Harlequin drake that we've named Harley. This little duck is about 3 months old having been born in June of this year. We brought him home and he got to meet Clio unexpectedly through his cage which really un-nerved him and started him hissing. I was going to put his cage next to Monica's pen so that they would get comfortable with each other before putting them in at night together, but he was so stressed out that I put his cage right in her pen and opened the door. Monica was on the other side of the pool looking at him, when he rushed out of the cage and ran right into the duck house. He never left. We checked later and Monica was still outside, possibly concerned about going inside her house, and Harley was still inside and not leaving. By the end of the day, we found both Monica and Harley together, inside the house. I gave them a treat of shredded lettuce in their dishpan full of water, which Monica just loves. She went for it immediately and encouraged him to help himself too. I took pictures of them while they wandered outside the house together, bobbing their necks and making their gentle happy duck noises. Monica seems very happy with her new friend. She's been alone for a long time.

I'm hoping he'll grow a little bigger since he's still quite young and his head feathers are still just now coming in. I had been interested in this breed before when I first looked into getting ducks. Welsh Harlequins are a light breed, while Silver Appleyards are a large breed. Both are listed as Critical on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, while only the Silver Appleyard is listed in Rare Breeds Canada as Endangered. They are dual purpose (eggs and meat), will usually hatch their own eggs and are calm and good foragers, making them ideal for our farm. They are both stunningly beautiful birds with distinct personalities. I hope to get a Welsh Harlequin female in the spring to make it a trio and hopefully get little ducklings born here, but for now and for the winter, Monica will have a friend since she is very social. That way, she won't have to try and befriend wild ducks in the spring.

Spa Day

I've been wanting to try making soap from scratch for a long time and so finally, this past weekend, I finally got organized and Brianna & I had a crafting "spa day". Brianna made 2 kinds of hand-milled soaps. She made small molded Lavender Fairy soap by grating a block of plain Goat's milk soap, melting it and adding lavender essential oil and a little bit of blue and red soap dyes. She also made 2 Citrus soap balls with the same block of grated Goat's milk soap with sweet orange and lime essential oils. They smell really nice. They are drying for about a week before we can try them out. She made Ocean blue bath salts which she has been enjoying adding to her bath water.


She helped measure out my ingredients for making a big batch of moisturizing soap base (coconut oil, sunflower & olive oil and lye water). I was stirring it for hours and only poured it later that evening, because I wasn't sure when it was ready and "trace" had occurred. I realized later that it was likely ready within the hour. I poured half of the batch to make plain soap (to be milled later) and to the other half I added honey, oatmeal and vanilla essential oil to make a Honey & Oatmeal soap bar. A day and a half later, I unmolded them and cut them into bars to dry and cure for over a month. At that point I will check for optimal pH. Its a long process of waiting, but I'm hoping I will love the results. The Honey & Oatmeal bars don't smell good yet because they have to cure and the lye is strong and overpowering it at the moment, so I'm hoping it will have the scent I desire when its all cured. I have plans to make more varieties in the meantime and continue experimenting. I will also try making massage bars and homemade lip balm, which are ready for use much more quickly than the soaps.

One word of caution: Don't allow dogs access to the area where soap bars are curing...Clio got a hold of 4 of my Honey and Oatmeal bars and chewed off large bits. Amazingly, she hasn't suffered any ill effects...must be all that nice healthy oatmeal!!

Farm Stand Open

Recently, I realized another one of my farming plans...at least a start of it. I opened my roadside Farm Stand at the end of the driveway. I'm selling Farm Fresh Eggs and I have a sign I painted and close by, I have a cooler, which I will refill daily. The cooler will be brought out in the morning and sit on a little table and be brought back inside in the evening around 7pm. Inside will contain ice packs, egg cartons and a small heart shaped tin for the customer to put their money in as payment. Its also called an honour stand and it makes sense for me to do, because I have a surplus of eggs, but I don't have enough to justify sitting out there selling them, nor to maintain steady customers with regular egg deliveries. I call it my drive-thru, self-serve Farm Stand. We are a society that increasingly likes things to be easy and quick. We are fitting a lot into our days and having to stop by and drive up to the farmer's house to get your weekly eggs may be a deterrent to some. But...if the eggs are right there, you drop in your money, grab your eggs and go on home. Nice and quick...no chatting necessary, no concern that you are disturbing the farmer or that he isn't home or you waste your time because the eggs are sold out. That's the idea, so at least it will be interesting to see if it works.

Of course, if you do want to drive up the driveway and chat with the farmer and see the chickens and meet the sheep and talk about anything that may come up, she will be pleased to do that too!

Ram-proofing

The troubles I had last year at breeding time with my rams fighting across the fence and at the fence with each other in the presence of the females, led to broken fences and ram lambs with broken front and hind limbs and general frustration from the farmer. I "installed" makeshift tarps with bungee cords and ties and wooden panels late last fall. This worked temporarily but the tarps wore out and shifted over the winter/spring. Another shepherd told me of putting up landscape fabric, so come gardening season, I was on the hunt for something suitable. After searching several stores, I found a brown-ish landscape fabric at Loews in Orleans called Landscape Pro from DuPont that has a 25 year warranty...and no, I don't work for either of them, I'm just sharing what worked for me. The roll was 4 ft high (roughly the same height as my page wire fence) and 100 ft long for nearly $50. I attached it to the gate and as far as the roll would go along the fence so that it more than covered the common fence line. I used a hole punch, making 4 holes in the shape of a square straddling the areas on the fence where I planned to attach it using a soft garden string. I attached it to the ewe side of the fence, top, bottom and middle on posts and in between posts to spread out the wind pressure.

It took a morning to install and it has been working well and staying in place for about a week now amid rain and wind storms. The rams generally have no clue I'm on the other side of the fence and are pleasantly surprised when I'm calling them to the fence for their daily hay ration. I'm hoping that it will last at least all winter.

Pictured here are the rams in their pasture with the covered up fence in the background with a view of the Sheep Barn behind it where the Girls are hidden from view. Farming is an occupation involving continual trouble shooting and problem solving. It can be frustrating but can be rewarding beyond the financial. One of the rewards is the satisfaction of figuring out how to deal with an unexpected problem and discovering good-ole-fashioned "Farmer's Ingenuity".

New Additions to Shetland Flock

This past weekend I welcomed 2 new additions to my Shetland Flock: Windwater Caramel and UnderTheSon Two Bars.

Caramel is my first Registered Shetland ewe. She is a 3 year old mioget, which is a very light modified brown colour. She has a Krunet on her head and white legs (Sokket), but may be Gulmoget patterned (I haven't flipped her yet to see if her belly is white). I bought her from Tammy, a Shetland breeder from Southern Ontario, who was taking a trip out east. We met at another Shetland breeder, Heidi to make the exchange. If it weren't for both of these ladies, Caramel would not be at my farm right now. Thanks to both of you so much for helping me get her here! Caramel was the picture of a doll when I first saw her. She was in the back of Tammy's truck in a large dog crate lying down on a bed of hay, contentedly munching without a care in the world. She was fairly quiet on the ride home in my vehicle, only startling Brianna & I twice with a loud Baaaa!!! when we came to a stop sign. As we drove up the driveway at home, my other girls were in the front pasture. She started Baaing loudly and repeatedly. Brianna wanted me to open the windows, because she was trying to say hello to her new flock. She has settled in quickly after being put in her place by Meg, my flock boss.


Two Bars came the next day through another Shetland breeder, Donna, who lives very close to my farm and Heidi again. They drove to Prince Edward County together to pick up several sheep from yet another, well-known Shetland breeder, Bill. They graciously brought home Two Bars for me along with their girls. Two Bars has fit in rather quickly with my 3 other rams (2 of which are intact) after a bit of head bashing. He quickly learned his place, and I found him the next morning sleeping peacefully next to Tommy, my wethered ram. I'm very pleased with him. He is a solid light moorit ram. What I can see of his fleece is making me very excited for next year's lambs. It is soft and very crimpy. He's 2 years old and seems able to hold his own among my other rams.

Soon Twist will go to his new home and Choy will have to go, one way or another, so this year's breeding season should go smoother than last years, with only 1 ram breeding the girls this year. That's the plan anyway!!!

Horns and Quills

It was a beautiful, sunny but cool breeze blowing kind of day. Perfect for cleaning out the sheep barn....again. I'm getting a new ewe tomorrow, Windwater Caramel and I wanted to clean out the pen which has the remaining girls & ewe lambs. One section was done a few weeks ago when I separated the ram lambs from their moms. As I did the morning chores, I finally noticed the big rams. They are in an adjoining pasture and I typically throw them a couple of flakes over the fence as part of my routine. Twist was covered with white spikey things on his head. I quickly realized that he had rammed a porcupine. Panic set in...what to do! I remembered that my neighbour Pam had removed several quills from her dog herself, so I called her, but unfortunately she wasn't home. Plan B...the internet. Remembering that Pam had mentioned just pulling them out with pliers and NOT cutting the back end, and having that confirmed by what I was reading online, I headed out with 4 different pairs of pliers to try out.


I tied him outside of his pasture in the backyard and gave him his own flake of hay. I held his horns (I love that the rams have "handles"...it makes handling them much easier) and closed on one quill as close to the skin as I could and pulled. I was pretty nervous and shaking, but out it came and rather easily. I did 5 on his nose and near his eyes, before he started to squirm. As he tossed his head, I got pricked by one of the quills. Apparently the back end of the quills is just as sharp. I gave him a break while I went to get a bandaid and a camera. I did 5 more but the wind was taking away the discarded quills from on top of the nearby chicken house. I then went to get a baggie and a helper. Brianna came out to help in her PJs and held the bag of quills close by so I could remove them and just drop them in. When all was done, I counted 64 quills. Overall, he was a really good boy considering his predicament. I'd never heard of this happening to a sheep. I wonder if anyone else has had this happen to their livestock.

I carried on cleaning out the sheep barn. It took me over 3 hours of hard, physical work. I laid down some lime and fresh straw overtop and set up the middle lambing pen to put Caramel in tomorrow night, so she can get used to the new flock without getting bossed around. She'll have her own water and hay and hopefully recover from her long drive.

It was a busy, productive and educational day!

Saved by the....chick?

The other day, Brianna and I visited a farmer friend of mine. It was a short visit, but we got to see and hold his new meat chicks just a day old. He gave me great ideas by showing me his water setup for the chickens with watering fountains. We got to cuddle friendly barn kitchens and visit with his young calves. He even sent me home with some of his vegetable garden bounty (beets, lettuce and 2 different garlic cloves) all of which have been yummy and flavourful and baby lilac shoots of an unusual to me purple lilac that I can't wait to see grow up and flower in a year or 2. I even got to see his workshop and studio.

The main reason for our visit was to pick up a dozen of his 1 1/2 year old cull hens. He replaces his laying hens every year for peak egg production for his farmgate sales. I had been thinking of replacing the laying hens I originally got about 4 years ago, because egg production has been really down and unpredictable. I had added a few new chickens along the way: some Americaunas for blue eggs, silkies for brooding and hatching and those few chickens that have been hatched by the silkies. The "new" chickens required that I clean out the coop, old chickens and all. I should have had it all organized and done for the Friday when I picked up the hens, but of course it wasn't. They've been housed temporarily in the little shelter next to the sheep, with the lambs poking their curious noses through the mesh.

Today was clean-up day. I started with the roosters, which I have had too many of because the silkie hen mainly hatched roosters. I decided to keep one rooster (he's 1 year and he looks very nice). As I was looking around for the next victim, I heard a little peep. I've had an old hen get broody a while ago and rather than chase her off, I decided to let her try since I had been too busy with lambing and shearing the sheep to bother much about my unproductive layer flock. She's been sitting on several eggs and when I lifted her up, there was a little chick still wearing half a shell. It is yellow with black markings and looks like an Americauna...here's hoping its a hen.

The old hen still had 7 eggs under her. I love chicks and I especially love hens that raise their own chicks, so this old girl will be saved. I found my rabbit house and run I built a few years ago and decided that it would do great for a broody hen and her chicks. I set about cleaning it up and getting it ready. When I went to retrieve the hen, her chick and the eggs, I noticed there was another hen in there with her. She is 1 of 3 cream coloured hens I got as ready to lay, from a friend of Hugh's this past winter. 2 of them have decided about a month ago that they would be wild chickens and have literally flown the coop (5 foot fencing). They did it enough times, that I got tired of having to chase them down every night to return them. I've since seen them roost in the cedar trees in the ram's pasture and they come running to me in the morning for their feed. I have to hunt down their eggs, but they are generally down to 2 places. They actually look great, better than before when the 3 roosters would gang up on them. The 3rd girl, a very little hen, didn't have the same need to escape. Looking at the eggs under the old hen, they mainly belong to her, although its the old hen that's been taking care of them. Today, this little hen was trying to be part of the brood. She was cuddled up under the old hens wings, probably drawn there by the peeping chick. I've set up the old hen in the rabbit house by herself with the chicks and remaining eggs. Hopefully, I'll see another chick hatched by morning.

Since the little cream coloured hen is still laying, I'll keep her as well. She'll join another keeper hen, a gorgeous black girl born here about 2 years ago, because she's been laying beautiful blue eggs lately. I'll clean out the coop tomorrow and move the "new" laying hen flock in with the black hen, the 1 saved rooster and the 3 small cream coloured wild hens. Hopefully everything will go well and everyone will be healthy.

Below: Clio was very interested in the little chick as we checked up on her, and then too interested as she tried to reach in to get a good sniff. Mama hen just ruffled her feathers as we quickly closed her up safely.

New Pasture

Finally, Hugh and I buckled down and finished off fencing the front yard to create a sheep pasture. We've only done the perimeter and the run coming from the back where the back pastures and sheep shed are located. It took over 1000 feet of page wire fencing, 110 cedar posts of varying sizes and about 25 lbs. of fencing staples on the hottest couple of days since the summer began. Our alarm rang at sun-up and we'd get up shortly after that to try and beat the midday heat and we'd go back out in the evening after supper. We made several mistakes, but have learned from them and in the end, the fence will still work and do its job. We still have to make the interior fences to separate it into 4 paddocks so I can accomplish proper pasture rotation. The perimeter fencing requires a lot of finishing work yet: splicing joins and securing wire ends, making gates, and anchoring corner posts (which should have been done before attaching the page wire), but it is functional for now.

The sheep have been allowed to move in for about an hour last night and they were funny to watch. They took a while at the entrance eating some longer grass that didn't manage to get cut earlier this week. Then they continued walking as a herd along the fence line, even sticking their heads through the fence...the nerve! I guess the grass really is greener on the other side!!! Then they'd take off, back down the run to the shed in the back. They did this in smaller herds repeatedly...almost as if they wanted to make sure they knew the way back or that they could still get back. I'm being careful to ease them into a nice grassy pasture, because if they overdose on the grass, they could bloat and die. I'm feeding them their normal hay and will be allowing them increasing amounts of time in the front pasture to get their stomachs used to it all.

I found the sheep looked so small in that huge large field. I joked to Hugh that I need more sheep to fill in the space. Brianna said that we needed a horse or 2. I'd like a jersey cow!!! I was a bit worried about how to get them all back into the sheep shed at night, but I got Shepherd Aidan to enter the run with the pans of grain and move to the top of the field calling them and shaking the pans. They all ran right back and followed him "home". It was wonderful to watch. I was looking at all the work that's been done recently and in past years and our house and gardens in the glow of the evening sun and I felt very happy and content. Things are looking good. The farm is shaping up. We are setting down some pretty big roots on this farm and I'm feeling hopeful about my dreams and wishes for this place.

Handshearing

This year, rather than hiring a shearer to do all my sheep at once, I decided to shear them myself by hand using handshears. Even though I think my shearer is a lovely person, I would be heartbroken to have second cuts in my precious fibre, especially my shorter lamb's fleeces. By shearing myself, I would have no one else to blame but myself for the 2nd cuts. Also, I could sort the fleece as I was shearing, removing undersirable bits and second cuts along the way. I'm hoping that this will speed up my skirting process later, but I haven't started that yet and have my fleeces piling up in bags in the chicken coop. The process of shearing them is taking a long time, because I can only do 1 or 2 a day as it takes me an average of 1.5 hours to accomplish each one. I have 3 1/2 sheep left to go and I've already done 15 1/2 sheep. Bok Choy is my 1/2 done; half not done. I sheared him when the weather was very hope and he seemed to be suffering for overheating. I ran out of steam shearing him, but I managed to get the wool from his topline off and around the neck so that he'd be more comfortable and that did the trick.

To the left is Nessa Rose, Black Katmoget ewe with Gray fleece. She is the first ewe I sheared. She is rather ratty looking...such a bad haircut. Below is Morgan, my last shearing.

The sheep in the picture above is Morgan, a Black Iset, Blettet ewe. She is the most recently shorn girl and I'm so proud of her stunning haircut. Not just that, but I had a wonderful time shearing her fleece. It was very easy and the shears cut through her fleece easily, which I think is just a timing thing. Thelma, the ewe shorn the day before her was also very easy, but she fought me the whole time, head butting me constantly. Morgan on the other hand kept wagging her tail. I kept hearing her tail knocking against the back of the shearing stand. I thought she was swatting flies, but then I'd let go of her and then scratch her newly shorn neck or body and there would go her tail again. She was born here on my farm and her mother Meg is stand-off-ish, but Morgan would stand still so I could pick her up as a lamb. She'd almost cuddle with me. I called her my little "doll". I was talking to my friend Judy last week and she asked whether my shearing process was less stressful on my sheep (being upright on a shearing stand for 1 1/2 hours) versus 15 min on their butts with a shearer (using noisy electric shears). I told her that likely it was just as stressful, but a different kind of stress. My sheep know me very well and know that I won't hurt them. After shearing Morgan, I can say for certainty, that my method of shearing, for her specifically, was not stressful. I also remember that when she was shorn by the shearer for the first time, she kept struggling and he clipped her leg, so I think she was a happy camper that day.

I started handshearing this year by shearing last year's 3 ram lambs just before going to the butcher in early May ("haircuts" pictured at left). From that first shearing experience, I determined that I'd need a shearing stand. I modeled my stand on the Wooden Stanchion found on pg. 145 of the book "How to Build Animal Housing" by Carol Ekarius using some pieces of wood I had around. I'll take measurements, materials list and post comments in a later entry on my stand for those wanting to build one for themselves. It is pictured at the top. It is a neccessity for me because my back can't take the strain of being bent over.

Good byes

Lambs socializing around the water cooler prior to leaving: Winola (centre), black Giselle (back left), and Piper (front, right) prior to going to their new home. The other lambs rounding out the picture are Whitlock (white, centre left), Graydon (behind Giselle) and next to him Penelope (centre back), with Orion my big white ram lamb on the other side of the fence.

Last Friday I said good bye to 4 of my moms and their lambs: Dot and her 2 lambs Fiona & Faolan; Elphaba and her lamb Giselle; Natasha and her lamb Piper and Una and her lamb Winola. They have gone to a very good home where I'm sure they will be loved and well cared for. Thanks Deanna, enjoy them!

It was the first time I've really sold any of my babies and although it was tough, it was necessary and it feels better already. I now have 12 moms and 13 lambs. More will be sold throughout the summer and into the fall so that I can get closer to 9-10 ewes and no lambs.

Ursula...

I was out all day today giving a Fibre Preparation Workshop downtown at the Ottawa Valley Weavers and Spinners Guild. It was a fun workshop and I made some new converts to wool combing. By the end of the day, I felt I was needed at home rather than go out again to watch Brianna play her first soccer games. I had had a funny feeling that morning, that Ursula was close...I've been way wrong most of the time this year. Sure enough, as soon as I drove up, I looked for my 2 last girls still waiting to lamb. Thelma was out in the field eating what little grass she could find, but Ursula was nowhere to be seen. As I was about to walk into the door, I heard the telltale noise...someone in labour, and it didn't sound good. Its the same sound that I got from the ewes with badly presenting lambs. I started to panic and got in my farm clothes and rushed to the sheep barn. Ursula was already in the lambing pen (clever girl) and her water had broken, so definitely in labour. I put up the gate quickly and gave her some water. She wasn't pleased by anything. I kept looking to see if her lamb was coming out well, nothing yet. I couldn't stand waiting and watching, so I went into the house to refill the other water buckets. When I got back to the barn, I could see 2 feet...good!!! But Ursula was still in distress. I remember her mother Thelma was a real moaner too when she had her first few lambs. I tried not to panic again...I started trying to visual my sheep book's pictures of mispresenting lambs, and wondered if it could be 2 back feet...not good! Eventually I looked in again and thank you, I could see the nose. OK, she's not happy, but it will be over soon...looks like a big lamb. The head cleared, but she was lying down, so I helped guide that lamb all the way out. She changed her tone quickly after that and started cooing at her lamb. Her lamb is a white ram lamb with interesting facial markings. She is already proving to be a great mom, because he was up and I saw her nursing her lamb within an hour. She's also quite calm. I'll weigh him tomorrow and find a name for him (Whitlock). I can't wait to see him when he dries up some more. His fleece looks very nice and even.



Ursula and her ram lamb Whitlock, which is English for "white lock of hair"...this just fits. He came in at a nice big size of 2.84kg for a 1st time lambing.

One more girl yet...and I saw her pawing the ground and behaving bizarrely tonight...maybe I'll wake up to 2 more lambs and an end to this big lambing season.

Ebony

Late last night, as Hugh and I were putting the sheep and lambs in for the night, I noticed that Ebony was in labour. I quickly hustled her into a free lambing pen and went to work capturing errant lambs. About 15 minutes later, I was all done and mentioned to Hugh that I would look in on Ebony to see how she is progressing... Hugh says, "Well, there's a lamb!" Sure enough, a dark little Katmoget ram lamb that I've named Graydon which is English for Gray, as that is the colour of his fleece. That just shows you how quick and easy these sheep are. This little guy was born late in the evening and coupled with the fact that the temperature was dropping drastically to zero, with winds, we closed up all the doors. I put a little sweater on him to keep him warm as he was shivering and I didn't really want to hover over him all night, as Ebony seemed to have everything under control.

That leaves only Thelma (due to have twins) and her daughter from last year Ursula (with only 1 lamb expected). The lamb count is now 17 (7 rams; 10 ewes).

Dot's Two Little Lambs

After supper the night before, as I had hoped and predicted, 2 little lambs were in the pen with Dot. A white ewe lamb named Fiona (which means fair, white) and a black Katmoget ram lamb named Faolan (which means little wolf). They looked very wobbly, especially the ewe lamb and even later on, the little ewe lamb is still a bit wobbly, but Dot is a great mom and the lambs are being well taken care of. I weighed them this morning and the ram lamb weighs 3.0 kg and the ewe lamb weighs 2.7 kg. I decided to keep her in the lambing pen all day to make sure her wobbly lamb doesn't have to chase her all over the field. Its a good deal too, being in the lambing pen. You can eat without competition and you know your lambs are close by and safe. But, Dot had other ideas and I found her out in the field after supper with her 2 lambs close by her. The ewe lamb is quite cute...she doesn't seem white, but a definite cream colour, although it may change later on.

Earlier in the day I sprung Meg and her 2 lambs and allowed them to explore the field and make friends. By mid afternoon I spied Meg going head to head with Thelma, who is still waiting for her lambs. Thelma seemed the aggressor and Megs lambs were being "taught" manners by the other moms...its a tough world in the sheep herd.

Brianna and her friend Olivia helped me put the sheep and lambs safely to bed tonight and it sure was a scramble. There was 1 lamb on either side of the pasture that caused us much grief. I put Meg and her lambs back in a lambing pen for safety, since there is a vacancy and of course Dot stayed in her pen.

Finally for Meg

I've had quite the break in lambing, but finally this morning, Meg was found with 2 little lambs up and nursing already. It's been over a month and I've thought that Meg would be the first one to lamb and that possibly she'd have triplets because her udder was very big and she was the first to develop it, but I was wrong. And to my utter joy, another white lamb...please, please let it be a ewe lamb....Yes it is!!! I finally get a white ewe lamb. I think I'll name her Orianna, and she weighs 2.5 kg but has a large, light reddish brown patch above her back leg, a smaller one right at the top and the very tip of her tail is tipped with very light brown. She also has some spots on her left front leg, but I don't think anywhere else. The other one is a ram lamb that I am naming Osrick, weighing 3.0 kg displaying the Katmoget pattern with very light or white body fleece and spots. Meg is a mioget ewe out of Veliraf Nicholas Nickleby and Ellie, who was a moorit ewe.












On the left is Orianna and Meg, and in the picture on the right is Osrick, Meg's ram lamb.

Later on in the day, I noticed that Annie's little ram lamb Caspar was limping, so I put him and his sister Cassia with their mom Annie in the lambing pen, so that Caspar could rest his little leg and not chase after mom. He's not too good at following mom around. On the other hand, cutie Cassia follows mom like a shadow. I frequently find him away from mom and have to grab him and push him up to mom. Annie is blind in one eye from an eye injury when she was a lamb, so I wonder if sometimes she loses track that she's got 2 now, this being her first set of twins. She's a good mom though, because I frequently see her two lambs tucked up safely sleeping side by side, while Annie gets a bit to eat. Its almost like she urges them to sit there like good little lambs, and they are very obedient.

Annie wasn't in the lambing pen long, because I checked on everybody when Brianna got home from school and showed her Meg's two lambs. One minute the "girls in waiting" where fine, the next minute, Dot is starting in labour. I sent Annie out with her twins and put Dot in the lambing pen next to Meg. That means there are only 3 girls left to lamb after Dot. So I shuffled the barn again. This time, my young moms with single lambs that I am selling are now occupying a 1/3 of the barn and the girls I'm keeping for now and the girls that haven't lambed yet are in the other 2/3 of the barn which includes the 2 lambing pens. Should be a riot tonight trying to round up the 2 sets of lambs.

Now I'm off to check on Dot to see if she had her lambs...more to come.

Beautiful Sight

I tossed and turned all night. Every 2 hours or so, I'd get up to listen by my bathroom window...not a peep. As soon as morning broke and everyone's alarms went off, I got up and went to check in the barn. I had put Annie in a lambing pen the night before and I was sure she was in labour when I checked on her in the evening, but it seemed slow. All night I listened for her, because I had a bad feeling, which translated into lambing nightmares. Boy I'm being dramatic...

As I had hoped, there they were, 2 healthy looking little lambs in the lambing pen with Annie. This is Annie's 3rd lambing and she finally twinned, a ewe and a ram. I did a bit of a double take on the ram lamb, because he is very white, but with several black/gray spots...what is going on...oh, he's Katmoget...but its different looking from my other Katmoget lambs. Bill, if you are reading this, I'm going to need help on this one. He has the characteristic dark legs, but his belly is white with black-ish spots. We think he will be named Caspar, which is English for wealthy man (pronounced like Casper, the Friendly Ghost). He weighs 2.55kg. The ewe lamb weighs 1.9kg and is definitely Katmoget, but I've noticed that her chin is light coloured, similar to pictures I've seen as Light Badger Face. She has a lot of reddish pigment around her face and eyes, which I'm seeing in some of Twist's lambs. She an absolute cutey and is very calm and cuddly. We have decided to call her Cassia, which is Greek for cinnamon. Her fleece will likely end up being a light grey/musket like her mother. The reason I heard nothing last night is because everything was just fine. The 2 lambs were already dry by morning and obviously contentedly fed...like good Shetlands that they all are.

Some cute pictures

Today was quiet on the homefront with no new lambs, but I managed to snap a few very cute pictures.

Here is Elphaba with her ewe lamb Giselle. Remember when I said that Giselle had the long legs of a ballet dancer. She doesn't look disproportionate, but her is a picture where I caught her lying down to nurse on mom. She'd start standing up, bumb in the air and then she'd lie right down, still nursing. She did that 2 times. Too funny!

Here I caught Bok Choy checking out the lambs at the fence line. Orion got to meet Grandpa!

These 2 ewe lambs are some of the first lambs born this year and they are regular buddies. On the left is Gypsy (Emma's daughter) and on the right is Rawnie (Peaches daughter). They look like I just caught them about to get into trouble. These are very nice Katmoget ewe lambs out of Twist, my white ram.

I should be asleep, but tonight when I put the sheep in for the night, Annie seemed like something was up. I'm expecting her to have her first set of twins this year. Her udder is big enough. I decided to put her in one of the lambing pens. I've already gone to check on her, but nothing yet, although she is definitely in labour. It may be a long night...I'll likely go to bed but keep an ear out for any abnormal noises...otherwise, I should wake up to newborn lambs in the morning. I'm nervous...this year I haven't noticed any girls about to start labour...they've all just been there with their lambs...Annie is the first one I've noticed.

Another day, another lamb

Natasha & her lamb Piper

What a beautiful sight greeted me this morning. Right by the feeder was Natasha lying down with her newborn lamb tucked safely in the corner, contentedly sleeping. The lamb is another ewe...I'm so lucky to get so many ewe lambs. I'm halfway done lambing with a count of 10 (7 ewes and 3 rams). I have 6 girls to go yet and they will hopefully provide me with 10 more lambs.

Since Nadia was putting up such a fuss in her lambing pen, I let her out with the other moms and lambs. She happily marched out of there with her little ram lamb following (now named Paz, which is Spanish for peace). The shed is a lot more peaceful now that Nadia is not "isolated" in the lambing pen. She's a very social girl...didn't realize she could be so vocal about it. I got her twin Natasha to occupy the lambing pen in her place. Natasha was not easily convinced to follow as I carried her lamb into the pen. She kept going back to where her lamb had been lying down. Eventually she settled down. I realize that Natasha was a fantastic mom and must have had quite the night protecting her lamb from my older girls who are yet to have their twins. Shetlands have very strong mothering instincts and stealing of lambs is a very real issue.

Natasha's lamb is a dark moorit Blettet ewe lamb weighing 2.0 kg, again, definitely a Quinn breeding. We've named her Piper. She also has some small white spots, a couple on either side of her body. She is very sweet. I'll let them out with the others tomorrow, as they seem to have bonded well.

I decided to keep Elphaba in with her lamb Giselle a little longer this morning, because last night I noticed that she hadn't quite passed all her placenta....(stop reading if this word makes you uncomfortable)...likely due to her difficult labour. I looked up in my sheep books that a retained placenta can cause infection, etc, and that if truly it didn't pass within 24 hours, a vet should be consulted. To my absolute relief, she looked good this morning, everything was gone. Just to make sure, I took her temperature which was normal. By mid day, Brianna & I released her and her lamb. She promptly took off leaving Piper wondering where her mama went. It was rather comical to watch as she heard her lamb crying and would rush around sniffing all the other lambs close by that sort of looked like her lamb. Silly girl! We grabbed her lamb and pushed her up to her mother. Instant relief for both mother and lamb and the two stayed happily together for the rest of the day.

I love looking out into the pasture and watching the lambs. They are so much fun to watch as evening starts to settle. I call it the Lamb races. 1 will start, then a few more join in, and the next thing you know, they are all racing about in a herd going around in big circles. Then some get a freak on and they bounce into the air and kick up their heals. They make me laugh!!!

But then its time to round them up to go inside. We bring the girls grain and they rush into the shed to get their treat before bed. But because the lambs aren't eating grain yet, they think its fun to race away from us and panic their mother's with their little cries, and frustrate the 2-3 shepherds it takes to gather them all up. We have to come up with some inventive trickery to keep the mom's inside while still allowing the lambs to get in. Tonight didn't go so well. The noise must be annoying the neighbours because it was total utter chaos. Some moms got out, everyone is screaming, we are grabbing any lamb we can get our hands and dumping them over the gate. Anyway, tonight they all made it in...its getting more difficult everyday and the time will soon come when we won't be able to...until they get a taste for grain.

Midnight problems...that I solved ;-)

Yesterday brought no new lambs. As I was about to go to bed, I could hear the ewes in the sheep barn making quite a lot of noise, which is unusual. I kept listening by my bathroom window, trying to make out the noises. Believe it or not, I can pick a few voices out amid the flock. I was debating, because it would stop and then start up again. They are so good at lambing unassisted. It was a panicky/strained sound that decided it for me. I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway, wondering.

I raced out to the barn just around midnight. I could see Nadia, my sweetest cuddly lamb from last year with a newborn lamb up and nursing already. I moved Nadia and her Katmoget ram lamb into a lambing pen easily enough. Elphaba was in the process of lambing and even in the darkness it didn't seem right and she was the one in a panic. She was lying down in a dark area and I couldn't see exactly what was wrong. Eventually, I managed to move her into the lambing area that has better light. Her lamb was presenting head first with no front feet. Her lamb was stuck. I'm not sure if I did right, but I doused my hands in iodine and reached in. I managed to find a little leg bent back at the first joint and pulled that one out. The other one was no where to be found and Elphaba was in distress. Last year Morgan had her first lamb presenting with one front leg back and I jiggled that big lamb out successfully. I had the same scenario now and a bit more experience behind me, so I did the same without hesitation. The lamb finally came out, looking exactly like her mother, a black Blettet ewe lamb, another definite Quinn breeding. She has the strongest sucking desire I've seen all year. She appears all legs. She weighed 2.85 kg and I've named her Giselle, which is English for oath, hostage. I'm certain I uttered many an oath only the sheep can repeat last night, she was definitely a hostage, and she has the legs of a ballerina. I really had to yank on that lamb, but she seems OK so far, perhaps a bit askew? Her mom I'm hoping will recover. She seemed great after that lamb came out, a good and doting mother and heartily ate the hay and treats I gave her for such a good job.

Giselle, Elphaba's lamb