Hello November

I can hardly believe November is well underway.  October was a blur and, after all my talk about slowing down and simplifying my life, I can only say that I failed spectacularly.  But, starting now - it's going to happen, right? 

I had lots of fun during October.  There were farm parties, fiber festivals and more fiber festivals and plenty of knitting time in the car, so I can't complain too much.  Right now though, I'm ready to settle in by the fireplace, do a little sewing, maybe work on some Christmas knitting and watch some more episodes of "Foyle's War".  (I can highly recommend the "Foyle's War" series.  We watch it via Netflix and are about halfway through watching the series from the beginning, which first began on Masterpiece Mystery back in 2002.  It's excellent watching.)

The sheep have been out grazing contentedly.  We still have a fair amount of grass and I'm hopeful that it will last until Thanksgiving.  Most of the flock is still residing in the field we call the Triangle Field (so called because when we bought the farm and for several years thereafter, it was actually triangle shaped.  We long ago reconfigured the fencing and it's more of a rectangle now, but no matter....the name is stuck.)  There's a small, select group of girls being courted by a visiting boy.  My friend, Lindy,  recently acquired a lovely Wensleydale ram and he's spending just a little time here with us.  I'm really hoping to recreate a few more Wensleydale crossbred lambs with those fabulous fleeces that I've come to love. Our ram lamb, Rowdy, will serve as backup boy, so either way, there will be some nice babies arriving in 5 months or so.

The mental debate about whether to breed or not has gone on inside my head nearly all summer.  I'm just not sure how many more years I can do the work it requires.  There's a part of me who thinks that continuing to do the heavy work it takes to shepherd my flock will help me stay younger and more fit.  There's another part of me who worries that I'm causing myself to break down even faster!!  At any rate, I'm committed to at least one more year of having sweet baby lambs around when spring time arrives.  I'm for sure planning on bringing the "lamb-cam" back for one more season, so stay tuned for that!

The Mister

 That's what I'm calling him.  He's our rent-a-ram and he came with no name.  I've got to have something to call him,  so .....  "The Mister" is it.  If he were here to stay,  I'd work a little harder at naming him,  but he'll be leaving in a few months ( or less,  if he gets the job done quickly! ).  The Mister is a Wensleydale ram lamb ( born this past spring ) and he's got the most gorgeous fleece.  If you look closely,  you can see that he has no britch and his fleece is beautifully consistent,  front to back with plenty of luster.  I can't wait to see what kind of lambs he gives me.

The Mister has not been handled at all,  so it's been a little challenging to settle him in here.  He's been penned where he could see other sheep and that has kept him fairly content,  but this morning the last of our hay was delivered and he did not like the noise from the hay elevator.  He was starting to get anxious and was trying to jump over the sides of his pen,  so we gave him a girl to keep him company.

As you can tell by her expression,  she is not that pleased or impressed.  This is Gabby  (sister to the famous Graham ).   She's 3/4 Bluefaced Leicester and 1/4 Romney and has a beautiful fleece herself.  I'm hoping these two make some beautiful babies !
 

( Kinda looks like a wide load - not her best angle,  but look at that fleece ! )

 Tomorrow we plan to put the marking harness on The Mister and introduce him to the rest of the ewe flock.  Crayon number one will be orange and,  if you don't know what that means,  stay tuned and I'll explain it all next week.

Happy weekending !