About an hour after I put the ad on CL I got a call from a guy from Dalton. He and his wife came up in their little 4 door hatchback about 12:45. We went ahead and got Oden loaded up in the back of the car. Then he saw the sheep and asked if I had any for sale. I told him I'd been thinking about selling Adele and her daughter Cassidy for awhile. Their wool is not really that good because Adele is half hair sheep. He said ok, let's get them caught and load 'em up. So just like that, he had 2 full grown wooly sheep and a big buck loaded in the back of his little car. With his wife in there too.
But it took about 30 minutes to catch those 2 crazy sheep. Adele has never let me touch her. Like ever. Cassidy is friendly. She's the one who always got in trouble. So I got all the sheep over in the North side and got most of them in the stall with the door. But not Adele. She went the other way. Then Cassidy did too. We got them around the back of the little barn and he caught Adele as she was flying over his head. Good catch! Got her loaded in the car. Then went back for Cassidy. She went in the stall and he caught her as she flew past him into the wire at the top of the wall. Another good catch! That poor guy was covered in mud.
Sheep are crazy when they are scared. But all was good. And they drove off down the driveway. And all is well in the kingdom again.
Or will be tomorrow when my friends come to get that darn rooster.
Monday, February 22, 2016
Oden, the buck.
Oh this buck. He's back. And he's a jumper. He's already jumped out of the back yard. Then I had the does in the back stall again for the night and this morning, he had to jump over that gate and got in with them. And he's a pig. He didn't like his bowl of feed, he wanted theirs. He's a mess, this buck.
He's been gone for about a month, visiting other does. He went straight from one farm to another one last Sunday. But they brought him back yesterday. I have been trying to call the butcher, to see if they had a spot open for me to bring him in tomorrow. But the phone's been busy all morning. So I put ads on Craig'd list and on FB.
Just had a call from a guy from Dalton. He's heading over right now to get him! I hope. Sometimes CL is not all it's cracked up to be. I hope he shows up. Because I have all the goats in the back stall, so I can catch the little bugger. I just do not need a buck around right now. The does are due in a month and I really don't want him around then. And he's just annoying.
This is the 1st skein of yarn from Buttercup. Isn't it beautiful? I so need to learn to dye now. I will. I have most everything to dye with. Just need that little push to actually do it. Then I think I will be hooked. I have another skein and am working on getting the rest spun and plyed. Then on to another fleece! I have SO many!
This is a fleece a friend gave me a few months ago. It's been in the milk room since. I had no idea what it was. The paper on the bag just said 'nice and soft" Patches 5-8 lbs. And the date from 2014. I laid it out on the skirting table to look at it closer. From what I can tell, and seeing pictures, I think it's Jacob. It's really pretty. So many variations in color too. I decided to wash half of it after skirting it.
And when I was done and ready to put it back on the screen to dry, I saw all these little dots of things. Like dandruff. I thought it could have been the Borax powder, but only used it on the 1st wash. So I threw it all out. It scared me. So it's out of the studio. Going to the dump now.
My brother is here visiting from Colorado. He's staying with mom, then he's going other places for work. So will be spending time with him this week before he has to leave.
And we are due for more rain this week. And BOTH my boots decide to get holes in them, at the same time! Right on the tops of each boot. The way I knew is that I had a boot full of mud after a few steps. UGH! So now, I have to put my feet in plastic bags. Isn't that so cool? And rednecky farmer? Til I can get some more, this is the way I shall have to wear those boots.
He's been gone for about a month, visiting other does. He went straight from one farm to another one last Sunday. But they brought him back yesterday. I have been trying to call the butcher, to see if they had a spot open for me to bring him in tomorrow. But the phone's been busy all morning. So I put ads on Craig'd list and on FB.
Just had a call from a guy from Dalton. He's heading over right now to get him! I hope. Sometimes CL is not all it's cracked up to be. I hope he shows up. Because I have all the goats in the back stall, so I can catch the little bugger. I just do not need a buck around right now. The does are due in a month and I really don't want him around then. And he's just annoying.
This is the 1st skein of yarn from Buttercup. Isn't it beautiful? I so need to learn to dye now. I will. I have most everything to dye with. Just need that little push to actually do it. Then I think I will be hooked. I have another skein and am working on getting the rest spun and plyed. Then on to another fleece! I have SO many!
This is a fleece a friend gave me a few months ago. It's been in the milk room since. I had no idea what it was. The paper on the bag just said 'nice and soft" Patches 5-8 lbs. And the date from 2014. I laid it out on the skirting table to look at it closer. From what I can tell, and seeing pictures, I think it's Jacob. It's really pretty. So many variations in color too. I decided to wash half of it after skirting it.
And when I was done and ready to put it back on the screen to dry, I saw all these little dots of things. Like dandruff. I thought it could have been the Borax powder, but only used it on the 1st wash. So I threw it all out. It scared me. So it's out of the studio. Going to the dump now.
My brother is here visiting from Colorado. He's staying with mom, then he's going other places for work. So will be spending time with him this week before he has to leave.
And we are due for more rain this week. And BOTH my boots decide to get holes in them, at the same time! Right on the tops of each boot. The way I knew is that I had a boot full of mud after a few steps. UGH! So now, I have to put my feet in plastic bags. Isn't that so cool? And rednecky farmer? Til I can get some more, this is the way I shall have to wear those boots.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
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.
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.
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