In Loving Memory

Yesterday, our sweet Nudgie passed away. We found her laying in the pasture, under an apple tree. She was one of our oldest on the farm. We are going to miss her dearly. Nudgie was mother to Gerty Pearl, Issabelle (Izzy), Valamon, Noel, Fergus, and Samson.

Shearing Update

Yesterday we sheared Louisa, it took us about 2 hours, luckily she was pretty patient with us. She looks a little gawky right now, but beautifully white and curly. Not sure how many pounds her fleece was yet. We were too tired to weigh it or get pictures of her lastnight. We are going to shear Eleanor tonight or tomorrow. The girls have to work today and tomorrow so it will depend on how tired they are. I will get pictures of them, with their new look, in the next couple of days.

First Attemps @ Spinning

This is Caitlin and my first skeins of yarn, that we have spun with our new wheel. We spun them from roving that was given to us, by our friend Kim, from White Barn Farm. This is where Cait bought the CVM lambs. You can see the roving in the basket, under the yarn. Roving is the sheared wool after it has been washed and carded. Carding can be done with hand carders, that look like big flat brushes with fine wire teeth or with a drum carder. The drum carder have the combs on a wheel. The drum carder can make the roving much faster than hand carding. We haven't had a chance to try ours out yet. So the next thing is getting some wool washed, so we can give it a go!

Shearing

Caitlin and I decided lastnight to try our hand at shearing. We started out with just doing their necks. It went pretty good! They were really well behaved for us. They actually seemed to enjoy it. We are planning on working on their bodies today.

Grain Feeder

Today Brad , Caitlin and I built this new feeder for grain. We were feeding the the grain to the sheep in indvidual buckets, which was usually kaos. Quite a few times we have had sheep running around with a bucket on it's head. It worked out really good tonight, though we did have to move it down after we realized it was too high for them. Poor Sully couldn't reach it at all.

Good To Go!

Yesterday, I was so excited to find this great deal on craigslist. I don't check it very often, but I just happened to, and someone had just posted this spinning wheel, skein-winder, spools and drum carder. I have searched the internet quite a few times for used spinning wheels with out any success. We looked at fiberfest and the few used they had were very expensive. I had came to the conclusion that we would have to buy new. The cheapest we could find was $320 and not really what we wanted. This wheel brand new would cost at least $500. We seen a used drum carder at fiberfest for $250 new would be atleast $350. We were able to get all of it for $350. Everything is in great condition and in working order. We already have the wheel up and running. It took a few trial runs to figure everything out, but I think we'll be old pros in no time. :-)

Drum Carder

New Duckens

Not the best picture, the morning sun was too bright. This is Ping, Pong, Pit, Paddle, Pat and Peep Puddleduck.

Ping the Puddleduck

This is Ping, the first duckling hatched out of six. We had a broody hen that wanted to sit on eggs, but didn't have any fertile chicken eggs. So, Caitlin decided to put six duck eggs under her, and all of them hatched. They are now 3 weeks old and starting to get their downy white feathers. We moved them out of the garage to the duck pen yesterday. They are living with the mallards for now.

Froggin

Norty spies a frog in the algae.

Now Millie joins in on the fun.

Millie has her heart set on frog legs for dinner, but he always gets away in the nic of time.

Gandy the Guard Dog

Gandy makes sure all is well in the barnyard.

Pumpkin Patch

New Feeders

Brad and I finally got a few hay feeders built, one outside and one inside. We need to build one for grain still.

Waiting for Breakfast

Our new barn kitty, Matilda, loves her sheep. As you can see they like her too and are very protective of her.

Curious

Sully liked the looks of my phone and wanted to get a closer look.

Opal Ann and Ruby

Opal Ann (left) is usually a little more shy than her twin Ruby. They were born in the middle of April. All three have the softest wool. It is supposed to be "next to the skin soft" so no itchies or pickies from their wool. As they age it's only supposed to get softer, which is usually the opposite with all other breeds of sheep.

Caitlin hang'n with her crew after a long day at work. The new breed of lambs we have are called CVM. They are considered a (critical) rare breed on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy list.

Sullivan

Sully is our little guy, he was born in the middle of May. We can get close enough to feed him hay, but still too shy to let us pet him. I have to go buy some new fabric for his coat. Caitlin doesn't think pink plaid will do.

Ruby

Ruby seems to be the leader of the three, and is the largest and loudest.

The New Crew

We picked-up the new lambs today. They were very well behaved on the ride home. Louisa and Eleanor don't mind the new roomates at all, we thought they would need to be separated for awhile. From left to right: Sullivan, Opal Ann, and Ruby.