River Oaks Farm & Studio

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T12:12:00.001-06:00

Damian in the aftermath of gift opening this morning...

The ewes heading out when they saw me coming this morning.

Finished up Alex's handspun handknit socks this morning. It was a good thing we got snowed in so I could finish them. I'll put a turkey in the oven this afternoon. We've got a puzzle to work on and of course the wet sticky snow would make a great snowman.... :-)

Here are the finished baby sweaters before I delivered them on Tuesday.

And I have to include these photos of Camille on Christmas Eve day. She's such a ham.

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas!

How can I say No?

2009-12-20T10:30:00.000-06:00

I just can't.

So Shachah still comes in for his daily nap. He just wants to be part of the family too. He looks deceptively small in this photo because Ozzie's on the top step. The good thing is Shachah can't stand to stay in the house very long.

He here is on duty this morning.

I put Greyson in with the other rams. Granite was chasing him so I tight penned the whole bunch of them overnight. Look at how little Greyson is compared to them! (The only panel I could find for the end of the catch pen was a cut away creep feeder panel.) I let them out this morning after taking this photo, but they are still confined in the lean-to which is 8 x 16 feet. I'm going to run out and check on them now. I sure wouldn't want anything to happen to Greyson, but I don't want to run three pens of sheep if I can avoid it.

Last week we lost a Barred Rock hen, of course it had to be one of the Barred Rocks, it couldn't have been one of the old girls I need to cull. I'm pretty sure a young fox got her. I found tracks and feathers in the snow. Usually a fox doesn't leave much of mess, just a few feathers. But there were about three small clumps of grey feathers in this case so I figured it was one of the young foxes that mother fox raised out by the pond last summer -- you may remember that I found the kits chasing my sheep in the pasture one hot summer day. The foxes bug Shachah at night too. He's penned with the ewes so he can't go chasing after them or protect the chicken pen, but he barks and they call back to him.

We had been gone and didn't get home until after dark. Stan fed the sheep for me and closed up the chicken pen not realizing that FIVE hens were not inside. I'm not sure what exactly happened, the chickens always come in before dusk. I found a Salmon Faverolle hen huddled in the snow the next morning and two Barred Rocks and a red sex-link hen in the rams hoop house. The red hen was missing her tail feathers, which I later found in the snow too. Now my remaining 13 hens and the Shetland geese are locked up in a covered pen 24/7.

The Shetland geese seem plenty big to me. Here they are this morning.

They very seldom go into the shelters I have provided for them - only once have I seen them come out of their dog house when it was about -10F. I bring them a fresh bucket of water every morning and evening. I have noticed the females will go inside the barn for the chickens heated water every once in a while, but the ganders stay out.

Sheep Pottery, etc.

2009-12-17T07:16:00.002-06:00

Here's a photo of some things I wanted to share with you. First is the beautiful sheep pottery. You may recall that I got the two sheep mugs in trade this past year and now I've been gifted with a matching pitcher! I will get better photos later. These were done by my friends Paul & Denise Morris.

Also notice the cute little felted baskets/bags given to me by my new friend, Bro. The one on the left has a wire handle. They have wonderful little leather labels inside and a hang tang complete with a photo of their makers. Very cute and a great idea for labeling. I've been pondering how to label my felt pieces for a while now.

I finished the diagonal lace alpaca scarf a couple weeks ago. It's really long. I don't know why I made it, I can't wear alpaca, it makes me cough. Same thing happens when I wear angora. I found that out way back in high school when I bought the cutest soft pink angora sweater. Anyway, I've had this alpaca yarn for about 4-5 years so at least I've finally used it up and this scarf can be a gift or put up for sale.

And you can see in the photo, I broke down and bought myself a cute little RED poinsettia. I always try to resist buying poinsettias at Christmas time because they never die! I've had a plum/mauve one for a couple years now. I put it outside in the summer and it gets big and bushy. It's blooming now too...but I wanted a real red one, so now I have yet another thing to take care of.

And last, but not least in the photo are two balls of combed top ready to be boxed and shipped out to my friend Di in New Jersey. I love that musket combed top!The white is Shetland Mule fiber (50/50 BFL and Shetland). The Shetland mule has luster thanks to the BFL genetics.

I made jams the other day. I always freeze my raspberries in the summer and fall since I have everbearing plants. My usual raspberry jam went perfectly according to plan/recipe. Raspberry jam is my favorite.
But I also had odd amounts of blueberries and wild blackberries in the freezer too, not enough for a whole batch of either one, so I mixed them together and made Black and Blueberry Jam.
It turned out very tasty despite all the mistakes I made. I couldn't believe how many things I did wrong on that batch! I used 2.5 cups of crushed blueberries and 2 cups of crushed blackberries. Instead of seven cups of sugar I put in NINE! So I decided to add water - what the heck. And then it boiled over (just took a quick glace at my email), oh my, what a mess! But it's jelled and tastes great, so all is well in the end.

Sorry this is so short and rambling, I've got to get out and feed the sheep before I head to work. Thankfully our temperatures have risen overnight. I don't mind the snow, in fact I love it, but the cold temps and blowing wind-- no thanks.

Collecting Data

2009-12-09T12:28:00.000-06:00

Well, I've finally gotten a few things done around here! The BFL breeding groups have been broken up and the boys are back together. Granite was kicking up his heels with the snow and cold temps this morning. He's top dog in the ram pen.

The biggest project I got done is the 2009 NA BFL Breeders Survey . This is the second year that I have collected data from North American Bluefaced Leicester breeders in an effort to determine production characteristics. The idea sprung up on the BFL Friends list when several breeders were posting their lambing results in spring of 2008. A small committee of new BFL breeders (Jody McLean, Linda Wendelboe and myself) developed a short questionnaire which was sent out the members of the Bluefaced Leicester Union of North America along with the Flock Book. This year's survey was a little more involved than the first year because we included lambing data from crossing BFL sires on other breeds of ewes. I think the results this year are very interesting and informative. You can download results on my website, www.riveroakssheep.com or click on the link above.

The other thing I finally finished was a basket I started way back in August of 2008. It's been sitting around for over a year! I can truthfully say that basket weaving is NOT for me. I never wanted to do it, but our art group was making them one day and I thought I might as well see what it was like. But I had to leave early that day and didn't finish the top edge. It didn't take all that long to finish it up once I had it well soaked. But still, I'll leave the basket weaving to others.

We got some snow overnight which reminded me that it's time to start thinking about Christmas. I finally dragged out the little artificial tree last night. I'll have to decorate it and the house in the coming days.

Shachah comes in for daily naps now. However he's been taking longer and longer naps lately. Last night with the blowing snow and dropping temps I didn't wake him to go back outside when I went to bed. Well, when Shachah wakes up and wants out, he wants out! Stan woke up when he heard all kinds of rustling and panting by the patio door in the kitchen. As soon as Stan opened the door OUT went the BIG dog. Then Stan had to get his boots and coat on and open the gate so Shachah could join the ewe flock in the pole barn.
I know, I'm such a sucker! I need to be firm and not let him in (the dog, not Stan!). At the very least I need to make him go out before I go to bed . But with the upcoming below zero temps that will be hard, he's just so darn lovable. So far his arthritis doesn't appear to be acting up. And it's amazing how little he eats.

Home from the Shepherd's Holiday

2009-12-06T16:10:00.001-06:00

Whew! I spent Friday and Saturday at the Minnesota Lamb and Wool Producers annual Shepherd's Holiday. It was held in Alexandria, MN. This was the first time I've attended the MLWP's annual event and I was pleasantly surprised at what a fun weekend it was. Terri Drimel and I went together (we volunteered to serve on the MLWP Board and were on the ballot - and yes, we got voted in). Gail VonBargen rode up with a nice shepherd couple who live near her. It was fun to talk sheep with them and meet new friends.
The classes were very interesting. I learned new things about terminal sire selection, Scrapie transmission, Nor98, and wool characteristics/fiber production.

The food was great, especially the Greek Marinade Lamb Shanks served at the banquet -- absolutely delicious! The live auction was fun on Friday night and at the luncheon Saturday we got to see the Make it with Wool entries. That was amazing -- from the youngest little seamstress to the oldest -- lots of really nice wool garments!

Another pleasant surprise came when Greyson's fleece sample (taken at the last rib, mid-side) came in 3rd in the finest fleece contest. First place went to a merino who microned at 16.8, second place was 22.3 (not sure of the breed) and Greyson had an AFD of 22.7 (SD of 5.1, and CV of 22.6).. I just wanted to find out a ball park figure on his numbers since he's the only Shetland ram I'm using for breeding this fall.

The conference ended Saturday afternoon with a farm tour of a commercial operation who had 1,000 ewes. They lamb year round. Oh my gosh, they had a lot of sheep there! Seeing the facilities and hearing about the ewe and lamb rations, feeding systems, etc. was really interesting. In one barn they were ultrasounding and sorting ewes from three different breeding groups. All of us got to take a good look at the lambs in utero. That was really cool. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera and do the roving reporter thing, but Terri did and she has posted photos on her Roundabout Acres blog.

Next on my agenda is to break up my breeding groups. It will be nice to have only two pens of sheep again, I just hope reuniting the rams goes well. Poor little Greyson is definitely the underdog, being only about 1/3 of the size of the other rams.

Almost Done...

2009-12-03T20:09:00.001-06:00

I'm knitting TWO baby sweaters for this cute set of twin girls. They belong to a gal I work with. They are about four months old already, so I've had plenty of time to get this project done.
Actually,one IS done, and the second will be done soon -- I hope.

I decided to use an acrylic yarn that would be easy care for a mother of five with a full time job. I found a huge skein of Rainbow Boucle yarn at JoAnne Fabrics last summer and quickly knit up the first sweater.

That stuff wasn't the easiest to knit with, but it's so soft, it feels like a chenille bathrobe. It wasn't until just last week that I got up the gumption to start the second sweater.

Knitting the second went much faster than the first one. All I have left to do is knit the sleeves and add the crochet trim and figure out a closure for each sweater. I worry about using a button closure on a baby item, so maybe a snap would be better?

And I'm not sure about the sleeves. Do they look like they will work, or did I go too narrow? I adjusted the pattern to fit my gauge with the boucle yarn.

The sweater is worked in the round up to the armholes and then the back and fronts are worked separately. The shoulders are joined with a three needle bind off and the collar stitches are picked up and knit. The sleeve stitches are picked up and the sleeves are worked in the round. Because the boucle yarn is so soft I added a crochet trim to give it more structure.

I just hope these sweaters will fit them at some point, I haven't the foggiest notion of baby sizes any more.

Okay, now I've got to finish up the laundry and get packed for a trip to Alexandria tomorrow. I'm going to the Minnesota Lamb and Wool Producers Annual Conference. I'm looking forward to seeing several of my shepherd friends and attending the sessions on sheep production and fiber. I took a snippet of Greyson's fleece at the last rib this afternoon...I hope I got close enough to the skin, but it's hard with just a scissors.

I'm hoping to have it micron tested with the AFD2000 at the conference. His fleece feels very soft and I love the grey color.

Oh No! What have I done?

2009-11-25T21:46:00.001-06:00

One of these things doesn't belong here.

I think he was just lonesome. He came in for a nap and then decided it was time to go back out to the flock.

I hope all those who celebrate it have a nice Thanksgiving tomorrow. I baked my pumpkin pies while Shachah was napping, tomorrow morning I will make the green bean casserole and then it's over the river and through the woods to visit the relatives.

Here's a shot of Ozzie a few weeks ago. He doesn't get much attention on the blog anymore.

The Shetland breeding group went together on Monday afternoon. Greyson immediately covered half his girls, okay, so he only has four ewes.

Socks, our yearling Shetland Mule wether, is in with Greyson's group too. They are all getting along fine. The photo of Socks above is from September, he has a lot longer wool these days.

And here are a couple of his baby photos - he was so cute!

Deer Season, Breeding Season, and the new LGD -- arghhhh!

2009-11-21T12:04:00.000-06:00

Well it's time to get back to regular programming. The challenges of breeding season, deer season and a new dog are keeping me awake at night.

Shachah (the new LGD) has managed to get under the fence three times now. He's drawn to the gut piles the deer hunters leave in the woods. I worry that he could get himself shot. He was breaking out from our backyard after dark, but yesterday he got out from the pasture in the daylight - not good when hunters are also out in the daylight. We have a strand of barbed wire around the bottom of our perimeter fence, so I have to get out there today and figure out where he dug his way out. Probably the gate area. I knew Great Pyrenees are well known for their tendency to wander, at least he's sticking close to our house and the woods, but deer season is the worst time for him to explore!

Granite (2+ year old BFL ram) is going crazy with only two ewes in his breeding group. He can jump his fence at will, but so far has only done so once while I was bringing their hay. I need to move him farther away from the ewes who are not being bred this year or I could wind up with a lot of mule lambs next spring. When Granite was loose before he checked out Harwell's breeding group which got the LGD pretty upset. So I'm hopeful that the LGD, who is now in the unbred ewe pen, will help keep them from being molested.

Our five market lambs are to be done on Monday (postponed from last Wednesday). I hate this part of raising market lambs. If only I could afford to keep them all. I will be glad when it's over, until then I toss and turn.

On the brighter side of processing lamb, I got two hides back from Bucks County Furs this week. I sent them in around the end of September and I wasn't expecting them back until Christmas. They turned out to be among the best we've ever gotten back. One was from a yearling Shetland ram and the other was from a yearling Shetland Mule wether.

The Shetland above, and the BFL/Shetland below... both are dense and very soft. They will be for sale on my sales blog.

Best of Show!

2009-11-14T07:41:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm still in shock.
Last night at the regional judged art exhibit, my wet felted painting of Lena, a Shetland Mule ewe, won First Place in the "Other Art Forms" category AND Best of Show!

There were so many wonderful pieces in the show, I am just so grateful that the judges were able to appreciate felt as a medium.

I'm sorry that I still don't have a good photo of it, so this one will have to suffice...it really doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea anyway.

And oh my gosh, the prize money!! I'm trying to decide if I should use it to buy hay, pay bills, or book airline tickets out to Oregon next June... :-)

BFL Breeding Groups In at last! Birds & Dog

2009-11-11T19:53:00.001-06:00

Poor Granite has been so anxious to go in with the ewes.

And today he finally got his wish.

Harwell, being a ram lamb, didn't know what he was missing. He wandered about, trying to go back to his buddies in the ram pen. However, by this afternoon, his mind was on other things - including food. :-)

I will leave the groups together for only 25 days, so we can expect April lambs. If a ewe or two doesn't take, that will mean fewer lambs which is fine by me.

The Shetland ewes were very interested in Harwell. I will try and get them set up with Greyson by the weekend.

On Friday last week, as I drove in the driveway after work I noticed two BIG birds fly up and land in a tree near our chicken pen. I thought they were turkey vultures at first, but when I got out of the car I saw they were Bald Eagles. I dashed in for the camera, hoping that my chickens, who have NO respect for fences, would be safe. One of the eagles took off and soared over the pond and then over our pasture, but I got these photos of the other one as it looked out over the pond. Fortunately, the chickens remained untouched.

Speaking of chickens, I got six new layers last week - three Barred Rock pullets and three Red Star hens. My favorite egg layers! I am SO happy to be getting lots of eggs again. And some of them are the really DARK brown eggs that only pullets lay. I LOVE those for acid-etching. So I will blow them out and use the insides for pumpkin pie.

Last night I cooked up the big pumpkin I bought for Halloween (I forgot that I had planted pumpkins on our 40 acres when I made the purchase - so those turned into sheep food). I got enough mashed pumpkin to make 12 pies this winter. Yummm! I also baked the pumpkin seeds and saved some for next year's plants.

This past weekend was the deer season opener, so Shachah got to wear his blaze orange deer season clothes...

As I went to put this on him last Friday night, he saw the garage door was open and, for the first time since we've had him, he went for a stroll all on his own. I was freaking out calling to him, trying to get him back inside the fence or at the very least, on a leash. Great Pyrenees are known for liking to wander and I sure didn't want him wandering around on the opening morning of deer season! First he checked out the neighbors to the northwest - the ones with the fancy little dog. She came out barking away at him and he stopped and looked at her. Then she took off back to her kennel and he came back to our yard. Then he headed over to the ewe barn and from there he decided to check out the neighbors to the south of us. I was really getting worried thinking what a pathetic sap I was chasing him with his dog food in one hand and leash in the other. But when the neighbor dogs barked at him from their kennel, he turned and headed for our pond. He seemed to know that was their territory.
Thankfully by then Stan was in the backyard and called to him as he headed for the pond. Just like a baby who gets really excited when dad comes home from work, Shachah gets so excited around Stan. He ran right back in the fenced yard. Whew! I'm sure he wouldn't hurt anyone -- he had the run of his old neighborhood and he's never bitten anyone -- but for him to take off at dusk before the deer season opener was a big scare for me. He's so big and so smart and has a mind of his own, that's for sure.

Help! I'm Dyeing (and picking and carding and sorting) my Wool

2009-11-04T16:00:00.001-06:00

These are the Bluefaced Leicester/Tencel blend batts I decided to dye yesterday. I love the tencel addition, it gives the BFL fiber even more luster.

For the past few days I've been going through my washed natural colored Bluefaced Leicester fleeces picking out the curliest, most lustrous locks for an order. They looked so good I decided to make up several 1 ounce bags for future sales.

As long as I was at it, I dyed some grey Bluefaced leicester in the microwave too...

I like that! I want to do more. So now I need more dye and time to pick and sort through my white BFL fleeces too. I'll package the locks and send the rest off to be processed into roving or batts.

These dyed BFL/Tencel batts will be used for cobweb scarves. I've found the blend spins up into a very lustrous, springy yarn.

In sheep-related news, the mules have left the premises! The photo above includes a BFL who wouldn't leave the catch pen, of course we didn't let her go with the mules. :-) The mules will have a wonderful home with a new shepherdess who lives only a few miles from me. They will be used for market lamb production, just as they should be. It feels SO good for me to find them a good home instead of sending them off the the auction and not knowing what their fate would be. They are such beautiful ewes - Peppy will join them next weekend for breeding.

And Shachah continues to be a wonderful addition to our place. The ewes are accepting him pretty well now. My husband is really liking him, too. As you can see in the photo above, he likes to lounge in the ewes' hoop house now. The other day I got to see him in action. The wind was blowing hard and the ewes were grazing the falling leaves to the north of the hoop house where Shachah was snoozing away. I was a little disappointed to see him sleeping and them off grazing, but as I watched, the wind blew down a small tree near the ewes. The noise and the falling tree sent the whole flock running back toward the barn. Before I knew it, Shachah was right there, sauntering about, sniffing the air, looking around. He was perfectly calm and seeing that no danger was present he simply laid down where the ewes had been grazing. Slowly they ventured back to the vicinity and started grazing again. :-)

He barks at night, sometimes a lot, sometimes just a little. The other night a fox was bugging him. And last night it was the coyotes way off by the river. Stan went out and called his name and he quieted right down.

I was told today that it's best for us to acknowledge his barking since he is an only dog. That will give him a feeling of having some back up so he won't have to bark as long. Those LGDs really are smart!

He never barks at the neighbors' little dog, he's great with our cats and our chickens. Who could ask for more?

River Oaks Greyson

2009-10-30T21:14:00.001-05:00

I finally got a photo of the button scurred ram lamb I plan to use on a few Shetlands this fall. I'm only going to breed a 3-4 Shetland ewes this year. I've still got quite a few sheep here and I'm hesitant to bring more lives into being than we have the resources to care for on our little bit of pasture.

His name WAS going to be Sebastian, but for some reason I kept calling his half brother that name and it was starting to stick. Then one day I heard about Florida Senator Alan Grayson on the news and I thought, Greyson would be a great name for a grey ram out of Kimberwood Harrison and Bramble Cordelia. So I registered him as River Oaks Greyson and then I found out that Juliann has a ram named Greyson too. Oops!

Anyway, there he is above at age 6 months...

And this is his back view from August... You can see that he's Ag, but so far his fleece is holding that beautiful grey color. I hope it keeps on holding!

Below is a fleece photo taken the other day with a flash...

And below is his fleece in natural lighting, you can see the blue-grey color in this one, but it's too blurry to see the crimp... Both photos are rump area fleece.

I love that his fleece is soft and crimpy, but has some length to it also. His twin sister is an Ag Gulmoget. Her fleece is much lighter and much longer.

My plan is to put him in with River Oaks Lana, a black gulmoget who may carry moorit. I also plan to put in River Oaks Hannah and Leonie, both brown factored ewes. I'm still debating on whether to put River Oaks Hattie in there too. She's got a turned ankle and I always feel bad for her when she's very pregnant, but she always produces such nice lambs!

Well, it's off to bed for me, I'm heading out in the morning for a mini-fiber-retreat-weekend with other Shetland ladies. We plan to make felted slippers, spin, knit, eat, and drink wine. It should be lots of fun!

Flock Changes & 2009 Breeding Plans

2009-10-19T19:51:00.003-05:00

Well things have changed a lot in the past 10 days or so!

As I went through my paperwork prior to my annual SFCP inspection last week, I came across photos and information on LOTS of sheep that have come and gone over the years. There were so many special sheep that I had to let go. That got me started thinking I should concentrate more on fiber and a less on lamb production. So I decided to get out of the third tier market lamb portion of my flock and just stick with the purebred Shetlands and BFLs. Fortunately I found a new home for my Shetland Mules and Ile de France/Dorset ram. They will be close by and I will be able to keep tabs on their production and answer any questions from their new owner.

The mules will be leaving soon and the Ile de France/Dorset left yesterday to breed a few Mules at another farm. You can see he was all ready for that assignment! When he returns in mid-November, he'll go straight to his new owner where the girls will be all settled in and ready for him.

I almost traded away my 2 year old natural colored BFL ram, Beechtree Granite, but at the last minute decided to hang on to him and trade our natural colored ram lamb, Devlyn instead.

I didn't want to let Granite go, his fleece is looking so good this time of year (I think you can click to biggify his fleece photo), and he's so easy to handle-- at least he WAS until today - he got loose twice today in his quest for the ewes.

Devlyn will get two ewes at his new home, I'm sure he can handle that. And he may even get to serve as clean up ram too. Lucky Devlyn!
Our new LGD, Shachah, is now in with the ewes. He has full run of the paddocks and is doing great. I'm loving having a BIG dog here so far.

Shachah started barking last night about 3:30 a.m. So do I have to get up and check out what's going on when ever he barks at night? Of course I did get up, but as soon as I turned on the outside light, he quit barking. Not sure if that was a good thing or not.

So my 2009 breeding plans for the BFLs have changed a bit. Granite will get Lanora and Rhyn again this year. He was used on them in 2007 and gave us two nice ewe lambs, we'll hope for that again. :-)

Ward Harwell will get Granite's two yearling daughters. Leora at left and Rhaya below.
I'll post more about my Shetland breeding group when I have some better photos of Greyson, the button scurred ram lamb I'll be using.

Getting to know you

2009-10-14T20:29:00.000-05:00

We've been getting to know Shachah, inlcuding how to spell his name correctly. :-)
He seems to like me, he wags his tail and wants me to pet him. I figured out yesterday that he needs to be let out of the chain link kennel to relieve himself, doesn't want to soil his kennel. So now he gets the run of the backyard a few times a day. This way he's getting to know the smell of our kitties and Ozzie.
He's getting more used to Ozzie too. No more barking or growling there. I haven't let them meet without a fence in between them yet, but I think it might be time to try pretty soon.
Last night I suddenly thought about our neighbor's super cute little King Cavilier cross, Kia. She comes over fairly often. She doesn't bother anything so we don't mind her visiting. Well she came over this afternoon just after I let Shachah out of his kennel. I got to her first and petted her to show Shachah that she was okay. He didn't even bark, he just sniffed her. Now that he knows her, I'm pretty sure he won't hurt her. But she does have a tendency to be bossy. She'd better watch her step with the big guy.

He hasn't shown any interest in the chickens so far. But I've kept all our pets on the outside of the fence he's in until I get more comfortable with him.

I am anxious to let him in with the sheep. Maybe I'll walk him through their paddock and see how they react to him. He walks very well on a leash.

We got ourselves a Guard Dog!

2009-10-12T18:14:00.000-05:00

We picked up Shacaw this afternoon. He's a 5 year old Great Pyr/Akbash guard dog who needed a new home because his owners are moving out of state at the end of month. He's so big and seems so calm, just having him laying near the sheep pen gives me a sense of security.

As soon as we let him out of the dog crate, he focused right in on the sheep and they focused in on him...

Of course they're in separate pens for now. After Shacaw accepts us and Ozzie, we'll see how he does with the sheep. So far he's very laid back. Mostly just laying around sniffing the breeze.

And since it's been snowing all day, it's nice that he's decided to use the small calf hut we put in there for him.

Getting ready for the S-Word

2009-10-11T08:01:00.001-05:00

I got so much done Friday! The forecast of SNOW for Saturday morning was enough to get me off my butt and outside getting things done for fall.

First thing was to move the Shetland geese out of the backyard. I just love how they still consider me their leader and they follow me closely wherever I go. I love the sound of their feet paddling along behind me. After they explored the hostas for a while, I took them out of the gate and down the steep hill to introduce them to the pond...

We haven't gone down to the pond much this year and the path was a bit treacherous, but they seemed very eager to get down there. Once there, they looked and looked, and nibbled some grasses, but they didn't dare leave my side to go in the water. So back up we went.

I got them inside the chain link fence with the adult rams. One of ganders immediately grabbed a hold of Peppy our Ile de France ram, but it didn't phase Peppy a bit. He just wanted a sniff, as did Granite and Socks. The poor geese were pretty scared . But they have to learn to live with other animals, so I left them to work things out on their own.

Next I cleaned out my garden which was hopelessly lost in the freeze the night before. The ewes were happy to get the last of the cucumbers and zucchini. I picked the low hanging apples, they are nice and red and bigger than usual this year. I will be canning applesauce this week.

As I was feeding the ewes later, I heard the low nickering sound of a romantic ram. Oh my gosh, my ram lambs were still sharing a fenceline with the ewes! I just hope there hasn't been any "activity" going on between them already. That would me some early lambs next winter. So my next big job was to move their fence about 50 yards away.

This is Ward Harwell on the left and our sweet little Doulan on the right. Harwell will all four of our BFL ewes. Notice our high class fencing. LOL. Twine connections make rearranging fencelines an easy thing for me to do. I took the hog panels from around the now defunct garden and tied them up to finish off the ram lamb's new fence. After all these years of raising sheep, we've figured out lots of ways to create pens and shelters. It's been a creative endeavor.

Finally after supper I got to knit some more on my Brioche stitch watch cap. I love knitting up that hat from the directions in Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Knitting Without Tears". It doesn't take long at all.

You can see a grey watch cap in the back right of this photo. It was knitted from Sheepy Hollow Rachel's wool. The musket cable hat was done with Sheepy Hollow Beau's wool. I love the natural Shetland colors!

The white one I was working on in the photo is some thick springy yarn, I must remember to ALWAYS label my yarns! I'm not sure if this is Babydoll Southdown, Ile de France, or a BFL/cormo cross whose fleece I traded for some Shetland. I only had 3 ounce spun up, you can see the little ball on the left, but it was so lightweight and super springy that it was plenty to finish the hat with a 2" brim. If you haven't tried the Brioche stitch (AKA the Prime Rib stitch), it's very easy and a super stretchy rib. For this hat you want to use a thick yarn and big needles, it's only 36 stitches and one of the few EZ patterns knit flat and then sewn.

In the center of the photo is some luscious white yarn I spun from my Shetland Mule combed top. I think that will make a great scarf.

Saturday morning we woke to a covering of snow and there is another 6 inches forecast for tonight and tomorrow.

Shetland Mules for Sale or TRADE

2009-10-09T13:49:00.001-05:00

I still need to cut back on my sheep numbers here. I'd like to breed for solid-sided polled gulmoget Shetlands, so I will retain all twelve of my Shetlands. And I can't keep up with the demand for white BFL fleece, so the BFLs will be staying too.
Unfortunately, I just don't have pasture here to keep 30 sheep year round.
That means the Shetland mules will be the ones to go. As much as I hate to let them go, I certainly don't want to send them the sales barn as culls.

They are priced at $100 each, after breeding season exposure to an Ile de France/Dorest cross ram, they will be priced at $125 each. There are three two-year-olds and three one-year-olds.

All are white and all are friendly with fabulously crimpy fleece.

Beautiful girls with good lambing histories. Two of the yearlings have not lambed.

I am willing to be creative and would consider giving them to a good home in return for 50% of their 2010 lamb crop (ram lambs only) and 50% of their 2010 fleeces.

Our flock is healthy, and these girls are up to date on hoof trimming, and vaccinations (CDT). They can be wormed prior to leaving the farm. Let me know if you're interested.

Also, we have a natural colored BFL ram lamb for sale ($200) and three crossbred BFL/Shetland beautiful friendly ewe lambs ($100).

Guard Dog Possibility - photos added

2009-10-06T09:14:00.001-05:00

Okay, am I crazy or too much of a worry wart? There is a 1/2 Great Pyrenees, 1/2 Akbash guard dog available near me.

He's 5 years old, has been raised with sheep. He's good with sheep, children, cats, other farm animals. He's excellent with newborn lambs, and never was aggressive to sheep.

I went to meet him the other day and he's very mellow...

and very BIG.

The only things holding me back from snapping him up are:
1.) his history of arthritis in a back leg (he can't jump fences anymore)
2.) my lack of previous experience with any kind of guard dog.
and
3.) my husband doesn't think we need a guard dog since we've never had any losses in the 8 years we've had sheep here.

#1 makes me nervous about possible vet bills in the future. The previous owners have given him glucosamine pills in the past, but now just an aspirin when he's stiff and sore. They say it's been a long time since he's needed any aspirin. They say having a shelter for him in the coldest months of the year keeps in better shape. They say he can run, but when I saw him he was very laid back. I saw him walk and he wasn't limping at all.

#2 is most compelling, I'm not really a dog person. I'm not as stern as I need to be to keep a dog submissive. I've read that these breeds are very smart and need someone who can keep them in line as they can have a mind of their own.

I say #3 is pure luck in combination with the Australian Shepherd marking the area. We had a coyote within 50 feet of our barn right before lambing in 2008 and a cougar was spotted just north of us (about 3/4 mile) right before lambing this past spring. There are bears in the woods adjacent to our paddocks. And our neighbors have a penchant for taking in and caring for other people's dogs for months on end.

What you guys think? I need to make up my mind or let someone else take him.

Yes, I know....

2009-09-30T20:32:00.001-05:00

I've been neglecting the blog lately. It's just that my card reader hasn't worked for weeks and I can't upload photos to my hard drive. I ordered a replacement 9-in-1 card reader card almost TWO weeks ago. It was supposed to be here in 3-4 days - but now I found out it won't even get shipped out until Oct. 3rd. Grrrrrr!
I've already replaced that card reader once before, I'm not happy about doing it again.

Things have been really busy here with the census work, the Sticks & Stones Art event this past weekend, and trying to keep up with the garden - there are TOMATOES everywhere. We had frost warnings last night, so I picked all the green peppers and tomatoes and brought in the flowering plants that I will winter over.

I love the Brandywine tomatoes because they are so big, my mom says they're like boxing gloves, and they keep producing right up to the frost. It will take weeks for all the little green tomoatoes to ripen indoors, so we'll have plenty for BLT's and salads well into November.

I canned tomato juice and spaghetti sauce this year. My food processor broke, so I couldn't make my annual batch of zucchini relish. I'm still picking raspberries every day -- gotta love those ever-bearing plants! I just freeze them so I can make my jam closer to Christmas time.

This morning I subbed for pre-school, then ran over to the local auction and got a tray-type sheep feeder. This one doesn't have a hay rack. I didn't go high enough to get the one with a hay rack. Darn!

I've created a sales blog, www.riveroakssales.blogspot.com If you get a chance and need some sheep with friendly personalities and wonderful fleece, be sure to check it out. I'm especially hoping to find homes for Opal and Lavender, both are beautiful BFL cross ewe lambs.

Woo-hoo!

2009-09-11T07:14:00.002-05:00

I got called back to work on the U.S. Census again! It will be so nice to make some decent money this fall. Last spring was pretty hectic trying to work full time on the census while lambing and dealing with physical problems, but this fall should be a piece of cake. This assignment is only supposed to last about 8 weeks, so the weather shouldn't be an issue.

The first thing I'm going to do is send in my 2009 fleeces for processing. That will clear out a big section of my wool room. And now I'm thinking I can afford to book a flight out to the Black Sheep Gathering for June 2010. I'm hoping to make it a family trip after seeing the beautiful photos of the Oregon coastline on Tammy's blog. A trip out to Oregon and then down to San Francisco would be a great way to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary.

Other good news is that I got another one of those wooden sheep feeders from the auction. Actually a friend bought it for me for only $10 this time! I'll bet that person doesn't bring any more to sell at that price. Anyway, now Stan only has to make me two more. :-)

1954 Sheep Movie

2009-09-08T23:02:00.002-05:00

Someone posted this link on the Sheep Producer's Forum today. It's to a classic 1954 sheep video on you-tube. I thought those of you raising sheep might be interested in checking out the way Suffolks, Southdowns, and Hamps looked 55 years ago. Now I don't feel so bad about the plump ones in my flock. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRxRoLs8hdg

Auction Sheep Feeder/Fleece shots

2009-09-06T11:50:00.008-05:00

The card reader went out on my computer so I can't download my photos easily until I replace it.I had my photos put on a CD the other day so now I can share them. I'll start off with a foggy morning shot of the Shetland geese welcoming the day. I swear one of these days, with a good wind, they will be able to take off! Notice the 2' fence that contains them for now. :-)
And here's the new sheep feeder I got at the local auction almost 2 weeks ago. It was brand new and only cost me $24.50 (with the sales tax). I want Stan to make me three more!It can easily feed 8 sheep at once and it really saves on wasted hay. Also, it lessens the amount of hay on the sheep's backs. But the downside is their neck wool gets dirtier than when feeding in the buckets on the ground.

And here's a better photo of Devlyn our natural colored BFL ram lamb who is for sale.
I was checking fleeces on my two Shetland ram lambs the other morning and was delighted to find that the one I thought was black, out of River Oaks Leonie and Kimberwood Harrison, is actually shaela. Sorry these photos are so blurry, but at least you can see the color change.
And my button scurred Ag grey ram lamb, Sebastian (out of Bramble Cordelia and Kimberwood Harrison) is a very beautiful blue grey color under his dark tips. I hope he stays that color as an adult. Some Ag greys do stay grey (rather than lighten to almost white) and that's what I've been striving for in my flock. I plan to use Sebastian on 2-3 ewes this fall. Sheepy Hollow Rachel, now owned by Sabrina, is an Ag grey with lovely grey fleece in adulthood.
Side fleece above, and rump shot below.And this is his twin sister, Camille's fleece. She's an Ag grey gulmoget.
I love it! And I love her - everyone who comes over wants to take her home.She's very petite and so soft and so friendly. I can never get a good shot of her because she's always right next to me. This photo doesn't do her justice.I have to work tonight, it will be a long one, but I hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day tomorrow!

Sheep for Sale- more photos added

2009-08-27T08:59:00.009-05:00

Okay, I'm going to bite the bullet and make some downsizing decisions here!
The following sheep are for sale:
River Oaks Hannah, dark Moorit, F2 Holly, 3 years old. Nice little tail, good back end as shown with her daughter below. Single coated, crimpy fleece, carries spots and modified genes. $250
Twin ewe lambs, out of River Oaks Hattie (Hannah's twin sister) and Kimberwood Harrison (polled black gulmoget). These girls are petite, they should carry polled genetics, heavy Holly and Roban Dillon lines, not registered yet, buyer can choose names, I've been calling them Freya and Freida.One twin (Freya) is a solid sided black gulmoget (sale pending) and Freida, pictured above as a lamb in May, is black ($200). They may carry modified genes. Single coated, fine, crimpy fleece on both.River Oaks Bo, F3 Minder, moorit yearling ram out of Windswept Boggart and River Oaks Cora. Nice wide horns, great tail and nice fleece. Carries modified and spotting genetics. The photo above is from March, and the one below was taken in May, his horns have grown quite a bit since then. Priced at $200 or BO.
Twin yearling Shetland Mule ewes, white $125 each.
Two year old Shetland Mule, white, $125.
Registered Bluefaced Leicester ram lamb, natural colored, very fine fleece, excellent conformation. $200 pictured below as a lamb in May.To good home, River Oaks Hattie. Hattie has a bad ankle, not hereditary. She's the black twin sister of Hannah, F2 Holly, three years old.

We also have crossbred lambs for sale, some 3/4 BFL's and one 3/4 Shetland ewe lamb. Priced at $75 - 100 each. Ewe lambs and intact ram lambs available.

Some Cool things to share

2009-08-25T08:06:00.006-05:00

This post is a compilation of links you might be interested in, but I had to include these beautiful poppies that my friend Sue grew in composted sheep manure that she and her husband got from us this spring. At three years old, the compost is really nice, like a lightweight potting soil. They put one of those boxed flower seed carpets on it and viola! I'm going to try that myself next year.
The first ever worldwide Felt United Day is October 3rd, 2009. You can check out the new website and think about you might want to do in your area: http://www.feltunited.com/
I'm thinking about doing something with the local school kids. It should be fun.

There is a nice pair of Lives tock Guardian dogs available near me. I can't buy them myself, but maybe some one out there is in need of a good pair of guard dogs?

Third, a friend of mine has this beautiful Schacht Matchless spinning wheel for sale. It's a single treadle wheel with scotch tension, double drive, or bobbin lead options. I had set it up for double drive in these photos. It's in great condition, spins like a dream, very quiet and smooth. It comes with three extra bobbins (for a total of four bobbins) and a lazy kate, $450. Email Deb (woolyewe @ youbetnet dot com) if you're interested.
Fourth, Lisa has been dyeing up some beautiful skeins of her BFL yarn recently and it reminded me of these cool socks by Tein Chui. I made some a few years ago and they were lots of fun.

Hummingbird Rescue

2009-08-12T07:39:00.005-05:00

A picture's worth a thousand words! In the background you can see the Shetland geese and my little garden. In my hand is the hummingbird I found exhausted on the floor of my barn the other day.
It's so cool to hold a hummingbird in your hand! They are so tiny. My son took photos of this one next to a ruler, but they were too blurry to share.

This isn't the first time I've rescued a hummingbird. I've found them in our garage in the same condition. The poor things fly into buildings through the open doors and then can't find their way out. It doesn't take long for them to use up all their energy trying to exit through a closed window.
When I find them I mix up some corn syrup and water to administer with an eye dropper. No eye dropper on hand these days, so I used an old plastic straw. This one didn't really drink much, but in about an hour, she was able to fly away.

Here she is almost ready to take off. I knew she was starting to feel better when her feet starting gripping my hand again and her eyes stayed open longer. But she spent another 10-15 minutes recuperating after this photo was taken. Then I put her onto the plant and turned to grab the camera for one last photo. When I looked back she was gone. I hope she's doing okay.