Ellie

Ellie, the matriarch of my Shetland flock died yesterday. She was almost 14 years old. I found her this morning in a little hut next to the sheep shed towards the back surrounded by a few flakes of some very nice green hay. She must have died sometime yesterday, because she never made it back into the shed last night when Aidan brings them in with some grain. That was her favourite thing and she'd never miss her few mouthfuls of grain. She came from my friend Anna's farm along with the rest of my flock in September 2007. Among the flock was her single ewe lamb from that year, that I named Annie, and another daughter born a few years earlier named Meg. She was starting to show her age when she came to my farm. She developed pregnancy toxemia prior to lambing that first spring and I thought for sure she would lose her lambs and die, but I managed to nurse her back to health. Ever since then, she knew I was a friend and would let me approach her without running away.

She was in the shed with her daughter Annie when my very first lamb was born. She helped Annie clean off the lamb and showed what a wonderful mothering instinct she had, so much so, that I had to separate her away from Annie so that she wouldn't steal the lamb away from her. That year, she went on to have her own twin lambs, a ewe named Emma and a ram lamb that died within 18 hours.




Ellie & Annie cleaning Anakin (lamb)






I debated whether I would allow her to breed again that year, but my facilities didn't allow me to keep her separate, so she was bred again. I thought she must be carrying twins because she was extremely thin and somehow lopsided despite abundant food. Last April, I entered the sheep shed to see she had given birth to a tiny stillborn ewe lamb. My sadness quickly vanished when I realized she had another lamb to give birth to, but she seemed very weak. I helped her deliver a tiny healthy brown ram lamb named Ferris. This little guy was feisty, but I decided to supplement him since he seemed to be crying all the time. He would nurse very briefly on mom and then seem unsatisfied. Ellie continued to care for him and nurse him. After a while I realized that she must have a tumour somewhere in her abdomenal cavity. I decided to leave her be since she didn't seem to be in any pain and continued to eat and do all the regular things a sheep does.





Ellie & Ferris at 1 day






This year, I was able to separate the sheep better and put Ellie in the non-breeding group with my young ewe lambs. She seemed happy and content there. In the last few months, she limped along, her wool was sparse, and she'd occasionally get knocked down in a lamb stampede, but generally, she'd know when to get out of the way. When I went into the sheep pasture, she would follow me around, hoping to be the first to get the good stuff. Until the very last day, she would run up with the other girls to get her grain at the end of the day and follow the shepherd into the shed to be tucked away safely for the night. She was a sweet, feisty ewe, that had a long productive life and I vowed that she'd get to live out her days on my farm.








Ellie's daughter Meg and granddaughter's Natasha & Nadia











On the left: Ellie's daughter Annie and grandson Benjamin.
On the right: Ellie's daughter Emma with granddaughter Felicity











Ellie's granddaughter Morgan with great-granddaughter Nessa Rose

Quinn's new coat

Quinn, the ram lamb, is now sporting a lovely emerald green 100% wool sweater to keep him warm for the impending cold weather that's sure to come again soon. I managed to remove the rest of his fleece, but I let him keep his belly wool (which isn't prime wool anyway) to keep him warm underneath and his britch wool which doesn't seem inclined to roo. I'll keep an eye on it to see if it is trying to shed, then I can collect it later. The other lambs were quite curious about the new emerald green lamb and would come up to him and sniff and give him a shove. In case you are concerned about Quinn, he'll be fine. When I took off the initial wool a couple of days ago, he came out of his shelter and I thought what a silly ram he was, but then I saw him jump in the air and kick up his heels just like all the other healthy lambs do. Its something he hadn't done since before he was hurt by the other rams. He's a hardy, resilient little lamb that's typical of this breed of sheep....Shetland.

The "girls" on the other side getting to know the "new" guy!

Rooing

My morning chores out to the sheep shed turned up something different this morning. Quinn, the little ram lamb had some loose fleece on his shoulder, so after giving them their hay and water, I grabbed him for a closer look. Where the fleece was loose, I found a bare patch on his skin. I kept looking and realized that his fleece was coming off cleanly. He's rooing! Shetland sheep are known for this phenomena. They are a primitive breed of sheep originally from the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland and that is how the people of Shetland would get their fibre. It has happened to a lesser degree for me the first year I had Shetlands when their fleeces felted right on their backs over the winter and with a few of them I could just peel the whole thing off. Unfortunately because of the felting, I lost their fleeces. I know that several other shepherds have had this happen to their sheep but it isn't common. I'm not sure its at the right time either, because right now we are in the dead of winter...too cold to be losing your wool coat. I was planning to shear them late March to make sure I didn't get any natural rooing which would cause a break in the fleece.

Being a fibre person, I couldn't let Quinn go and hope for the best come shearing time. The way it was coming off, it would be ruined and matted in no time...and it is soo beautiful and white and crimpy fine with a stunning lustre that comes from his mom Peaches and his grandmom Pearl who is no longer here. I had no choice, but to "roo" it off. He wasn't happy because I was interrupting his breakfast. The blanket fleece came off easily, with the britch (back) and neck staying put for now. He looks horrible and I'll have to make him a blanket so he doesn't freeze for the next little while until he gets a bit of wool growing back.

I'm not convinced that this is a "natural rooing" for Quinn. A fleece will create a break at a certain point throughout the fleece in cases of stress (moving, lambing, illness, inadequate feed). Quinn was hurt quit badly several times in late fall and early winter by tangling with the bigger rams during breeding season. Initially, he was caught in the middle of Twist and Bok Choy, my 2 breeding rams, during a battle. I found him against the fence on his back with a broken front leg. I moved him to safety in the pen with my little ewe lambs (that I didn't want to breed this year) and splinted his leg. He seemed to recover from that although my splint didn't make his leg heal straight. Then, when things were better, Twist, the breeding ram from the adjacent pen decided that the little ewes in Quinn's pen smelled nice, so he busted through the gate overnight twice. In the morning I found poor little Quinn beaten up against the wall. He stopped eating and didn't look well and I thought for sure he wouldn't make it. He looked broken. Inside the sheep shed, I boarded up the gate and eliminated any visual contact between the 2 interior pens. Quinn got better and seems recovered from his trauma and eats constantly now. It is more likely that the stress has caused a significant break to occur in his fleece, hence the rooing. Today is a warm winter day +2ºC. He sure picked his day to start "rooing". Now he has to deal with the stress of staying warm, but luckily, he has a nice warm shed to sleep in and he doesn't have to go outside if he doesn't want to. And he's a tough little guy.

Clio O'Gorman | A Dog Named Christmas

Clio O'Gorman | A Dog Named Christmas

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Zombie and Kitty Cat

This year, the kids made their own Hallowe'en costumes, for which I was very proud. We didn't have to buy a thing. Aidan saw the Zombieland movie with Uncy a few weeks ago, so he wanted to be a Zombie. I helped him choose old clothes that didn't fit him anymore which wasn't hard because he has stretched out and grown out of most of his things this past summer. He needed to rip them and make them dirty, so he used his clothes to play tug of war with Emerson (10 month Bernese Mountain dog puppy). To add the dirt, he also poured a glass of water on the ground where they were playing together. Instant Zombie clothes for school. Because he was worried about the dress code at school he didn't rip the pants, but when he got home from school, he also ripped the pants and added the fake blood to shirt. Brianna used the face paint kit to make his face look scary and streaky. With Aidan's incredible acting skills he pulled the whole thing off eerily. I noticed in the picture that his shirt had been buttoned up improperly and commended him on how that made it look even better...but he said he hadn't done that on purpose.

Brianna wanted to be a Cat this year. Last March, she was in a figure skating show called "Broadway on Ice" and she was in the Cats finale as one of the brightly coloured cats. I had made her a fluffy white tail, ears, arm and leg cuffs. She re-used those and put them on different clothes. She added her own expertly painted nose and whiskers and fancy eye make-up and she was done. Here she is striking a sassy kitty cat pose. Living in the country, especially where we do means that we sadly don't get any trick or treaters. Luckily they have good friends that invite them over to their neighbourhoods, so they enjoyed their Hallowe'en very much.

First Snow

Aidan and Brianna were thrilled to see the first snow fall of the year. It snowed in the morning, but didn't really stay on the ground, then it turned to rain, and then as the kids returned home from school and night began to fall, the rain turned back into snow...big fluffy flakes of snow. Brianna shrieked when she saw the snow staying on the ground, and went riffling through the bins of winter clothing to play outside. She grabbed Aidan and Emerson to join in the fun of snowball fights. They came in soaking wet, with rosy cheeks and had a hot chocolate to warm up. Clio was not interested at all in the snow.

Twist mystery solved!

Twist, my yearling ram, got out several times again in the following days. I'd get out in the morning and he'd come running at me from the driveway. Armed with hammer, fence staples and new wire, I set out to the back of their enclosure and started to put an extra wire along the top of the fence, about another foot higher to increase the fence height. I got a short side done before I moved to the back. I went and inspected the place that was loose in the fencing attached to a tree. I secured the fence as best I could with fence staples when I noticed white wool stuck to the fence near the bottom. A clue!? The rams were at the fence line watching what I was doing, getting pet through the fence. Then, right in front of my eyes, Twist crouched down on his knees and stuck his big horned head under the fence. It was tighter than it had been previously, so he had to pause there, while I in shock, grabbed his horns and shoved him back under the fence. With the fence loose near the tree and the lower ground in that area, Twist had discovered that he could crawl underneath the fence to get at the world outside. Since there wasn't anything else I could do to secure the fence, I found an old fallen spruce tree nearby and broke all the branches off with my foot which left spiky ends. I pulled the trunk to line up with the lower part of the fence and shoved it securely against the fence. If Twist tried again, he would have a barrier with sharp points to deter him...and for over a week, this has worked like a charm...Score 1 for the farmer!