THIS, Eric Miller.

THIS is why I have sheep.

The last time I had lambs here was a few years ago. I had 12 ewes. 5 were my wool sheep and 7 were hair sheep. I think all but 2 had lambs. They had 22 lambs. 2 died and I had to bottle feed 3 ewe lambs. 1 set of quads, lots of twins and some singles. It was a really cold wet winter too. They started lambing in late Jan. through April.

The hair sheep did pretty good. But the wool sheep got sick a day after lambing. Plus I had several goats that had kids around the same time and some of the does were not doing too good either. I was doing everything I knew to do for them. But they weren't much better. So I called the vet to come out.

The sheep were up front and so were the chickens. First thing the vet said was it wasn't good to have chickens around goats and sheep. After checking the sheep and giving shots, he asked me why I had sheep. I came back with generic answers. But it always stuck with me. Why did I have sheep? During all this, I was ready to sell them all. It was very overwhelming for me. With ewes being sick and so many lambs and goats sick too. I was thankful to have the goat milk though.

I did keep the sheep. But knew I would have to sell some of them because 32 sheep was just way too many for the small amount of pasture I had. So I debated over and over about which sheep to keep. I liked the hair sheep because they were so much hardier than the wool sheep. They never got sick. And never had the worms like the wool sheep did.

But in the end, I decided to sell the hair sheep. I just kept my 5 Finn sheep and their lambs.

And I am so happy I kept these girls. I love them. I never would have thought even 10 years ago that I would have wool sheep. Or be spinning wool from my sheep into yarn. But I think it was in my blood.

So today I took my spinning wheel out to the pasture with my sheep. It was a beautiful day. Even warm. I actually got sunburned! I sat out there and spun wool from Buttercup, one of my younger ewes who I cannot ever pet. She's very skittish. Always has been. But I love her. And her wool is amazingly soft and easy to work with. I just enjoyed being out in the pasture with them on the first really nice day of the year. It was so peaceful, listening to them munch on grass. Then lay in the sun. Just nice.

And when these 3 girls came to me to watch me spin, it made it all worth it. These are my 3 bottle babies.

And this view is amazing too. Here they are, 5 up and 5 down. I thought that was pretty cool.

                                     This is the end result, 197 yards of 2 ply hand spun wool.

So yeah, this is why I have sheep, Eric Miller. Just so you know.

Some goat maintenance. And some silly sheep escapades.

I got the milk room semi cleaned this morning so I could get the goats in there. I gave them both CDT shots and trimmed their hooves. It had been awhile since I'd done that. And they haven't been in the milk room in several months. If I'm not milking, they don't go in there. And it was a bit of a mess. I get lazy during the winter when it comes to that milk room. But I will get in there and get it all ready for milking in the next few weeks.

Sometimes when I look at these guys, I don't think they're pregnant at all.  But I see Freya's udder is getting bigger.

And if you look really close, you can actually see teats on Olga!! And a little udder. But she has some good teats so far. She really needs a good hair cut. But I'll wait til a little closer to kidding. And hopefully, it will be a little warmer. But she's a hairy girl for sure. Don't want any of it in the milk.

I am excited to be having some cute little kids running around again here. It's been a few years.

And there's always something crazy happening around this farm. Especially when it comes to sheep. I had my 2 water buckets outside the studio. I heard the awfullest racket awhile ago. It sounded like one of the sheep had a bucket on their head and was running around the house. It was Cassidy. But the bucket wasn't on her head. It was being dragged behind here on the hay string that was wrapped around her middle. Misha, the alpaca, was chasing her all around the house. The other sheep were running the other way. So I had to go get some more feed and try to get that string off of her. I thought it was wrapped really tight but I was able to pull it off her.

Cassidy seems to be the one who gets in the most trouble. The sheep were out in the garden last month. I had put the electric netting fence around my kale garden so they wouldn't eat it. But Cassidy didn't care that there was a fence around the kale. She had her head through that fence anyway. Then she couldn't get her head out. Then she panicked and got it all wrapped around her. I finally got it off. But the fence is a mess. And she was just fine. A little embarrassed. She's a mess, that girl.

It is a beautiful day today! Blue sky and sunshine! I am taking my wheel outside on the porch and will spin out there. Yay! I have Willie Nelson on Pandora. Greta list of music going. So I am good.

A rainy Tuesday in the studio.

 I have been so cold all day. It started out beautiful, with bright blue sky ans sunshine. But as the day went on, it got cloudy and then started raining. A cold rain. So I have had heaters on over here in my studio all day. And I'm still cold. Ugh, I am So over this cold already. And wet mucky mud. SO over it!

But I have all this warm beautiful wool with play with! So much wool. I've been working on Buttercup's wool. Lots of combing. And more combing. For days, I've been combing her wool. And that was just 1 tote full. I still have one more to go of hers!

And I've been spinning her wool, for days. It takes a few days to get just 1 bobbin full. I just now finished the 2nd bobbin. I weighed each one and they are 10.60 and 10.70. Pretty good, I think. Now to ply them. But I don't think I can sit and do any more tonight. It really hurts my back.

I thought I was all done washing wool. But I found a little tote under some others a few days ago. So got it washed and it's so pretty. Can't even remember where it came from. Or what it is. I love the colors.

I've also been combing some of that gorgeous Romney fleece. I love this and can't wait to spin it soon.

And I have got to get this blanket finished. It just needs a little bit more around the border. That's all. So I brought it over here to do. I just keep piling more and more on me to do. One day, it might all be done. Then what will I do?