Yearly rewards

Several weeks back, the shearers were here and all of those lovely fleeces the girls and I have spent the last year working on were harvested.  Those fleeces are one of my rewards for all the work I put into shepherding. Well, okay, the girls did most of the work, but, I did put some effort into helping them stay as clean as possible ..... you know, given that they live in a barn and all that.  Overall, I was very pleased with how healthy they looked, but the best part was seeing what my just now yearling girls produced.  Oh, my!  I love their fleeces!  You may remember that last year the famous Henry (half Wensleydale/half Cotswold ram) was the father of all but one of the ewe lambs I kept to put back into the brood ewe flock.  Henry did a fabulous job of putting beautiful fleeces on the girls.  I can hardly wait to spin them.  I need to select some competition fleeces and then start washing others in preparation for the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, so I'm not allowing myself to do more than wash a few samples right now.  The locks pictured below are from Birdie and I can hardly keep from carrying it around with me all the time, just so I can admire it.  It is so lustrous and so soft, it reminds me a lot of kid mohair.  I know it's going to take dye beautifully and spin into some pretty, pretty yarn.  My hope is that 'The Mister' (our rent-a-ram), who was Wensleydale, has given me fleeces similar to this on the lambs born this year.

One of the reasons I still love raising sheep (after lo these many years) is the fun of breeding for improvement.  Way back, when I was raising purebreds and showing in competitions, there was a different kind of thought process because that was not necessarily breeding for what I liked best, but more what a show judge would be looking for.  Believe me, as in most competitive endeavors,  show standards can be totally different from 'living in the real world' standards.  Now that I'm breeding strictly for healthy animals and beautiful fleeces, every year brings surprises.  Last year when I selected Birdie to become a bottle baby and be a companion to Luna, I had no idea she would turn out to be such a sweetie and produce a gorgeous fleece.  If I'm completely honest, she was a little difficult in the beginning and I wasn't sure I was even going to like her personality.  She's turned out to be a charmer and, even now,  would follow me around all day if she could.  And, as much as I love Luna, she does have a strong sense of entitlement (and I can't imagine how she came by it) that allows her to think she can do certain things that are un-sheep-like on occasion.  (Such as helping herself to Aslan's dog food!)

Well, it's on into the weekend.  The grass is growing, growing, growing and there are plants in the greenhouse that need to be put in the ground right now.  It's that time of year when I feel perpetually behind on every aspect of my life.  I hope all of you find a little bit of time to enjoy your weekend and I hope to see you back here next week, with lots of gratuitous lamb pictures!

It was fine

Shearing day for the alpacas and llamas went as near perfect as possible.  The weather was great and everyone behaved admirably.  I penned all my alpaca boys the night before and put Strawberry and Pippi in the big pen with the Easter mom and lambs.  It's always amazing to me how gentle and curious the llamas are with the tiny lambs.  They move slowly and carefully, sniff around some and seem to enjoy watching the lamb antics.  I've mentioned here before that Strawberry has even served as part of the exercise equipment by allowing the babies to climb up on her back (when she's lying down) and jump off.  Pippi is not quite ready for that.  She stands up if the lambs begin climbing on her.

Anyway, as I was saying,  I had no problems.  I loaded Strawberry, Pippi and one of the alpaca boys into the trailer first and the rest loaded themselves.  All I had to do was get in and remove their lead ropes and away we went.  At Lindy's, I was able to back right up to the barn door, put them in a stall and let them be worked through the gates until it was their turn.  The shearers were a study in speed and efficiency, all the while treating the animals with care.  They have a tag-team system where they shear two animals at once, on mats across from each other.  Each shearer has a specific task; one shearing the 'blanket' (that's the prime part of the fleece), others doing head, neck, tail and legs.  They also trimmed feet and I was able to give each animal a shot of Ivomec (de-wormer), all while they were safely restrained.  After seeing how the professionals get the job done, I cannot imagine what it would be like to try shearing an alpaca or llama while they were standing up.



When I went through my camera, I was amazed to see that all I had taken were two short movie clips.  I could have sworn I took more.

Guess what's next on my to-do list?  Have a great weekend everyone!

All lambs, all the time

(Easter babies - how they sleep)

That's pretty much the story of my day to day life right now.  Twenty seven lambs, out of twelve ewes is a paltry sum when I consider that my friend, Kathy, has had 150 lambs born in the last two weeks.  Oh,  but mine do seem to fill my days.  Right now I'm bottle feeding 5 lambs, 3 of them 4 times a day and 2 of them 5 times a day.  Yes, that's right .... twenty two bottles.  I'm well on my way to dishpan hands!  The ewe that lambed on Easter has been struggling to gain her strength and her lambs were just not getting enough milk, so they are getting bottles.  Two other triplets from separate ewes are also getting bottles.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  I love raising bottle babies because they are so much fun and so easy to manage as they mature.  (Remember Luna and Birdie from last year?  They are still lovely and sweet girls.)  They've become ambassadors for the farm because they are perfectly comfortable being social with humans.  (Oh yeah, they are the two that were so good, they got to visit with Santa Claus!)

The good news is that help is on the way with bottle duty.  A lovely young woman, Hannah, is coming to get three of the bottle babies this week.  She has purchased lambs from me before and is building her own fiber flock, so these babies will be going to a wonderful home.  I do become attached to these little ones that I visit with so many times a day.  Five bottle babies are too many to have out and following me around, but two ..... well, that is much more likely.

The ewe flock spends nearly all their time eating.  They are especially ravenous now,  partly because they're providing milk for growing lambs (and partly because everything around here loves to eat).  If you are still watching the lamb-cam, you can see how the lambs are getting bigger and bolder in their play when they come in for the night.  The straw bales are like jungle-gyms (are those things even still called that?),  providing endless hours of jumping and climbing pleasure! And when they're worn out from all that play, the bales make a handy napping spot.

Tomorrow is shearing day for the alpacas.  It's a little stressful for me because I'm always afraid something will go wrong.  It never has, but still I worry.  I'll be loading my seven alpaca fiber boys and two llama girls into the trailer for the ride to Seldom Scene farm.  My friend, Lindy, has scheduled a team of professional shearers, who travel all over the United States in the springtime, to shear all of her alpacas and is gracious enough to allow me to bring my small herd.  Hopefully, I'll have a chance to take a few pictures and post a little about our day.  Wish me luck!

Friday on the farm

There are a lot of moms and babies out enjoying the warm air and green grass today.  Lambs are like all babies;  they love to play and explore,  then suddenly it's naptime.

 
We only have one more girl left to lamb and then we'll be through for Spring 2012.  Hopefully, she'll be delivering this weekend.  I'm thinking she may be carrying our final set of triplets! 

Keep an eye on the lamb-cam ..... you just never know when something will happen.  (At the very least, you'll see lots of lambs jumping on and off the straw bales!)