Flashback

As I was looking through Gretchen's cell phone pictures last night, I saw these adorable and green images.
I thought it would be a nice break to see verdant fields instead of brown grass.
This is Katie with Lambda, Q-Tip's little ewe lamb.

Lambs

Psalm 23:6 Sheep Family

Here are Shirley's newborn lambs, Goodness and Mercy.
Goodness is a healthy, strapping fellow with an adorable black spot on one hock.
Mercy is a weak little girl with a limp on her front right leg.
We were surprised by the new additions this evening. I like this kind of surprise!

Population Explosion

We started with a dog and two cows. This is what's happened...

Baa Ram Ewe

What are the foal and the ram talking about?

Cotton's Firstborn Lamb

While we were at church learning about patience, the long awaited birth of Cotton's child occurred. We thought she'd have at least two since she's part Finn sheep, but this is the entire bundle of joy. She's a ewe lamb, at least!

Shirley doesn't appear to be expecting at all.

She's muddy because Cotton delivered her on nice soft dirt. I'm so proud of momma Cotton, what a terrific job she did!

A Wooly Post

The girls and I have great hopes of mimicking the self sufficient pioneers and turning our sheep into yarn.
We'll need to purchase hand carders and either repair or replace our spinning wheel, which hasn't been in use since before I had Becky.

In descending order, here's the evolution of our yarn dream.
First, Shirley gets a partial shearing each day.
Next, the wool goes into a storage container.
Then, it gets gently washed with detergent to clean off dirt and some lanolin.

Wouldn't it be amazing (and unlikely) if I posted us dying, carding, and spinning this clean wool?

Shear Desperation

Cotton is expecting a baby! Or more likely babies.
And the weather has been in the upper 80s, suddenly. So instead of waiting till next week for the Amish boy to shear her, Becky and I did it. Well, we did 3/4 of it anyway.
We had wanted to save the wool (see the handy dandy wool storage unit on the wall of the barn?) for cleaning, carding, and spinning, but I'm not sure that will happen. I was going to buy hand carders today so we could get a start on our project, but they're $60. If I were confident that my shearing skills would improve enough to get consistently usable fleeces, I would make the investment, but most of the time I just cut wildly, trying to get finished as quickly as possible. I still have two sheep to go, so maybe practice will make perfect.
If I wash and card this wool, I'll post the little I know about fiber for you all to emulate.

Sheep and Goats in the Snow

A New Understanding of "Ram Tough"

Here's the new guy.
I've been promising Cotton and Shirley a husband for two years now, but just kept putting their needs on the back burner.
This morning, an Amish friend called with an offer of a ram in exchange for two lambs next year.
This young ram looks small and harmless, but I had one wild ride across the field holding onto his lead shank.

Whew! That Feels Better

This is just Shirley, but Cotton looks pretty similar.
In the top photo, you can see my neighbors' progress on their estate.

Sheep Haircut Day

Last year, we lead Cotton (the tame pet sheep) into the house, and wild and crazy Shirley followed her right in.
This year, we weren't so fortunate.
Shirley ran around the farm in a panic all morning, being herded by five human Border Collies.
We finally tricked her into the 10x10 and got her captured and put in the trunk of the mini van to go to the Amish boys for beautification.

Hopefully, we'll receive a phone call later saying that the sheep have military style haircuts and mani-pedis.
I'll try to post an "after" photo later today.
I left the camera out in the heavy rain the other day, so I'm expecting it to give up the ghost any time now. So far, so good though. Maybe I got more than I paid for when I spent $78 on this technological marvel of a camera.