Shearing 2014 begins

Today was in the 50's with snow melt running off the hill and covering the ground with water. The long range forecast looks clement, so, we started started shearing. 

Ishmael was our bell wether angora goat. Having been sheared in late July, his fleece was more than ready. It is so full of winter hay, I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to do with it. 

I trimmed up Tillie's tummy and checked Fantasia, who is due March 1. I'll let her fleece grow a bit more. 

Moving over to the Jacob sheep, we sheared Nessie, who is due March 1. She has a udder the size of a jersey cow. We also sheared Higgs, who is due to have her first lambs in March. 

Ishmael putting up with his hair cut. He was very happy to go scratch and soak up sunshine when we let him off the stand. 

Finally, shearing really begins

We planned to start shearing well over a month ago. But that weekend it snowed, and in spite of the all reasons, I just couldn't bear to give the girls haircuts when it was that cold. Weather and life kept getting in the way of shearing.

Demi doesn't mind being sheared. Shearing comes with back scratches!

Hocus Pocus in her new spring short coat.

But, as much as I hate the spring time change, this week it gave Lena and me the hour every evening to shear a sheep.
So, now Hocus Pocus is sheared, and Demi, and Cowslip and Greta and Basil. So far, these are all nice, big, full rug fleeces. Which is great, because I need to make rugs!
How do you shear your flock? One sheep at a time.

Shearing Days - or was it Lambing Days - Open House?

Our Shearing Day Open House yesterday could have been called Lambing Day - but it's easier to schedule shearing. When I checked the ewes right before daylight, I thought Demi was in labor, but it' not the first time I've thought that this month. At 7:00 when I went out to feed, I found these two little boys.

Demi's twin boys - Demi always does have to be different.
The little spotted one is "Hagrid" and we are keeping him for
at least his first fleece. You've never seen such curls. The
other one is really white.

Diane Smith and her new ram
"Rambo"

 Diane Smith and Sue Legg were the first to arrive at Shearing Days. We had been corresponding about possible new sheep for their starter flock of Jacob sheep. They fell in love with Dapper Dan X Basil's little boy. He has a gorgeous pair of horns and a superb fleece that I kept for myself.
They named him "Rambo" and he headed home to meet his new ewes.

Several people asked me for pictures of the shearing/milking stand we use. Obviously, it is home-made. In fact, my kids, Lena and Juna made this one for me. You can find lots of plans for goat milking stands and sheep shearing stands if you google them. Just adapt what you find to fit your flock. We have to work around some pretty good sized horn sets. We sheared Sultan in this stand yesterday and his horns are more that 4-foot across.

Another shot of the shearing stand.

It was a good day, we sheared Rambo, Gypsum, Nibbles and Sultan. We sold a few fleeces, a ram and Shawn got an order for a 7-foot triloom. We visited with lots of folks who read about our event in the Stone County Leader Weekender.

Basil had been trying to give birth to her little girl and boy
all day and about 2 p.m. I decided it was time to help her
out. The little ones were tangled up inside mama, trying
to come out about like they are here.  But with a little help,
They are out and fine and health. Basil is doing ok.

The biggest group of people arrived right after I decided that Basil had been pushing too long with nothing to show for her labor. Shawn did the tour, while Lena and I helped Basil sort out the tangle of lambs. Basil's little girl and boy are doing fine.

After almost everybody was done visiting, we turned the ewes and their lambs out on the rye grass in the middle pasture for the first time. It was noisy chaos for a bit, but then little babies went to sleep in the grass and mommas went to work mowing.

Our last visitors of the day were dear friends Troy and Linda Odom who took time away from getting Aunt Linda's Apothecary Shop set up to come see the newest babies. All in all, it was a wonderful day here on the farm.

In the afternoon, everybody got turned out to mow the
middle pasture.

Boomer's spring suit

It rained all night last night. Mostly a steady, plant feeding, green-feeling rain. There were occasional downpours and very few lulls. Still it is raining steady and I'm wondering if there will be a break for me to do chores this morning. I may just have to wear a rain coat and convince the goats they won't melt on the run to the milk barn.

Boomer's not to sure about the stand.

Yesterday, before it rained, we got a lot of shearing done. The old boys are so big, it takes two of us to get them on the stand. We wanted to shear Dapper Dan while Shawn was here to help move him through the flock. As good as he is, he's still a ram who loves his ladies - and many of them are very fond of him. I also wanted to see what Boomer's fleece was like.

Wow, it looks like a carnival!

Boomer was a gentleman on the stand. He still loves to be petted and scratched, so shearing was no problem for him. His fleece is nice, it would be good to spin, but I have several very fine soft spinning fleeces this year, so I would put it in the bedroom rug catagory - a rug that you would want to walk on with your bare feet. The colors are a wonderful true black and shiny white. A very nice fleece.

Dan-man, Mi-mou and Bones also had good fleeces this year, a bit coarser than some years, but far cleaner than any since we moved here to town. We are getting the cockleburr issue dealt with.

The ewes we bred to Boomer are due the end of May and they are starting to show a bit of belly. We have all of them except Finesse, sheared. Greta has a  very nice spinning fleece. Any of these fleeces that I haven't managed to use in the next two weeks will be for sale at our Shearing Days Open House on March 31.

Boomer's new clothes - very comfortable for summer.

We'll also have rugs from our sheep for sale, goat's milk soap and maybe some handspun yarn and Lena's knitting needles. I'll have goat cheese and some herb blends for tasting. Mint tea will be here to keep you from getting thirsty. And we'll be shearing sheep and angora goats throughout the day, weather permitting.

Over the next week, I'll list the lambs we currently have for sale and you are welcome to reserve yours at Shearing Days. You can also visit with the ewes still expecting and see if you might be interested in one of their lambs.

Boomer's first fleece. I'm thinking of putting it into the
green warp I have on the little loom tonight to weave
a Boomer rug.

We'll do drawings for some knitting books and audio books on cd and have lots of fun. If you have any questions about the Shearing Days Open House, email me or leave a comment here.

The rain seems a bit quieter - I'm heading out to do chores!

Mr. Bones ready to donate his mostly white fleece to the cause.

Dan-man says, "Just get it over with!"

Three bags full

Demi in full poof.

It was a beautiful March day to work sheep and shear the ones that are due next.

Demi, Basil and Cowslip are due right about March 15. They are waddling about, stretching their legs over udders that are starting to tighten and easing their big bellies up and down the hill.

Demi is half Icelandic and half Corriedale.  Her multi-layer, multi-color fleece makes the most fantastic rugs. She just keeps getting more silver-tipped as she ages.

Basil's fleece is usually one of my favorite spinning fleeces, but this year, I think it will make a great rug.

Cowslip's fleece, too, all poufy and fluffy as always, is a little coarser than usual this year. It will be a fantastic, big, soft rug.

Shearing Demi

Too much Demi wool for one pillow case.

Clean and cool and ready to scratch and have babies,
in that order!

Basil says to "get on with it!"

 These fleeces and many more will be available at our farm open house, Shearing Day, on March 31 from 10 to 4. We'll also have fiber wethers and angora goats, and Jacob sheep ewe lambs available to reserve.

Cowslip, born in '03, says she'll just nap through shearing.

Weekend highlights

 This weekend was a sunny warm end to January. I had Arkansas Craft Guild board meeting most of yesterday. We planned events for this 50th anniversary year and worked out details for the March 10th annual meeting.

Emma, half sheared

In the morning before the meeting, Lena and I sheared Emma-sheep. She had a huge girl lamb on Thursday and the lamb was having trouble nursing due to her mum's fleece. We named the lamb Hippo. I don't think I've ever seen a newborn jacob that big.

Lisa says the new mohair throw is divine.

Last night I finished a mohair throw out of Fantasia's fleece. Lisa has graded it "divine" and she is certain that it is hers. We'll see.

The new mohair fleeces are coming along well. The wethers Glitch and Gizmo are still steely gray. I had planned to sell them after this spring's shearing, but we'll wait and see how the fleeces look.

This morning we sheared Frannie and Amyrillis. I think in that flock Elizabeth will lamb first. She's already sheared and then the other two, but it was just better to get the shearing done while the weather is good. I think Nilly will be the next ewe to lamb, and Geo-goat is not too far out, maybe another month. Spring is certainly on the way, but we haven't had winter yet. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

Shawn's out in the shop making me a pretty pecan size P crochet hook so that I can finish my next 52-things-to-do-with-an-old-shirt project. I'm shopping online for a used front load washer to finish felting my rugs. So many projects to finish and things to do. Life is good here.

Glitch does his pelican pose. 

Sheep talk and ticks

"Family is very important to sheep."

Some people laugh at me when I say that, others accuse me of being anthropomorphic, most just nod their heads.

But it is true! And I'm not the only one who has noticed. I think most any shepherd will tell you the same thing. This phenomenon is noted enough that researchers have studied "visual recognition in sheep." They could have just asked a shepherd or gone and spent a year living with a flock of sheep.

I spend lots of time with my sheep and I watch how they behave and interact. the picture at the left is Marjoram, comforting her yearling daughter who just went through her first shearing. Button seemed very confused by being naked, she acted like she was just going to huddle under the tree and die of embarrassment - but with her mother's gentle coaxing, she was up grazing with the flock in about an hour. (Sometimes I even think I'm being anthropomorphic!)

I first noticed the strong family bonds when we began separating the first time ewes from the older ewes for lambing. This way we could keep a closer eye on the first timers and give them feed that they didn't have to fight for. After everybody had their lambs and all the sheep were doing well, we put the two flocks back together.
I watched Licorice greet her yearling daughter Ogre and the two of them sniffed and burbled over each other's new lambs. Marj's twin yearling daughters ran right to her and she let her new twins sniff their older sisters and as all 4 new lambs toddled around.

In the move to Foxbriar, several families of sheep moved together. Because we could not take the whole flock, several of the ewes moved to Arkansas without their mother's or daughter's. The sheep that moved here with their family seemed to settle in better, quiet down quicker and loose less weight.

But, as much as I have been worrying about the sheep's health, shearing them was enlightening. They are very healthy, the fleeces are strong, their parasite loads are way low, and they are fat (oops). They are due to start lambing this Tuesday - so I would rather have them on the little too heavy side than too thin.

The most interesting thing though, is, the sheep don't have ticks!

The ticks are terrible this year. The locals say they haven't ever seen them this bad. Some of the people who've moved here are wondering if they will let a little bug chase them off the mountain. We routinely pick between 6 and 20 off of each human every night, and that's not counting the ones we burn during the day. The goats are covered with them, I pulled more than a dozen out of one of Erie's armpits and 3 off of Beth's eyelids (YUCK). The dogs and the horses get their biweekly dose of One Spot and seem to do ok.

But the sheep - the sheep who have been on the farm for 6 weeks now, without any one checking them over for ticks - have about 20 dead ticks (and one live one on Coriander's ear) throughout the whole flock! I find more than that on one goat's udder at each milking!

Is it the wool? I'll check them over the next few days now that they are naked and see if they start picking up the little buggers. Until then, since even I can't imagine wearing wool in the summer in Arkansas, I am going to scatter the "trash wool", dung tags, ruffs, belly wool and some leg wool on the ground all around our camper, Midas.

Is it the lanolin? Maybe. The ticks that I did find on the sheep were dried, shriveled, mummified and covered in lanolin. If that's it, maybe I could make a lanolin tick repellent?

Is it the sheep smell? Sheep do have a distinct odor and they tend to sweat a lot, especially when they are nervous. Maybe ticks just don't find that appetizing?

Is it because we cleared the briar out of their pen and they don't wander the woods like the goats? Maybe, but I can get 6 ticks up my pants leg just walking from the camper to the barn and that is bare dirt anymore.

I'll let you know what I find with the ticks and sheep. Perhaps we can figure out a way to keep the bugs from winning!