Shearing Day

Yesterday we had the shearing guy come over. Because my sheep are long wool sheep, they must be sheared two times a year.

 With spring weather almost everyday, the sheep were really needing to have their long coats of wool removed. While we have the sheep captured, I also use this as a time to trim their hooves. Everything went quite smoothly.

Even Mary, despite her leg injury, did quite well being sheared. Her wound is healing up nicely and is almost completely closed up now.
The sheep always look kind of funny after having so much wool sheared off. I plan to send some wool to a processor to be spun into lace weight yarn and some into worsted weight.

After a full day outside with sheep, we decided to have a little back yard fire and dinner. Devin surprised us by getting food at the store, and he splurged and bought the kids each a soda.

Despite the sad looking face, Duke even enjoyed himself. He just spent a good amount of time lounging in a cool dirt spot.

My new project now is to move my fiber studio. Devin has a workout room and we have decided to switch rooms. Today I spent some time clearing everything out of my studio room so he can get some heavy duty weight room flooring put down. Once we get his weights out of his current room and into his new space, I will paint the room and fix it up for my sewing and fiber.

I came across a few items that I made and never used as gifts, as I had intended. I think we do a couple of give aways next week and find these items a new home. Stayed tuned!

Happy Thursday Ya'll!!

Sheep Shearing Fun

Last Saturday we threw a big graduation celebration for Journee, but before the party we had to shear the sheep.
This event is something we do twice a year since I have long wool sheep, and we had postponed the shearing for a few weeks because it kept raining on weekends. Saturday was the only day my shearer could do it, so shear sheep we did.

I was fortunate to have some friends bring their strong 19 year old son to help. He is working towards being a shearer himself and is always loaning himself to help. I was glad to have the extra muscle.

My shearer is a petite woman from the Atlanta area. She's good...really good, but she requires a helper to hold the animals down.

These are not small sheep. My Cotswold sheep weigh in about 150 lbs for ewes and my ram is about 200 lbs.

 

 

I brought him down the night before and kept him locked up in the dog kennel. I always bribe him out with a little bucket of grain and then fasten a lead rope around him. He can be a mean boy sometimes so you cannot turn your back on him.

 

 



Flipping him down is when you really need some muscle.

It was a smooth day of shearing and I have a ton of fleece ready for processing. I am also positive my sheep feel much better with these upper 80 degree days.

I lead the sheep back out to a front paddock for grazing and will bring them back up close in the fall for shearing and breeding. I am also considering investing in another breed of sheep, something with a smaller micron count and can be spun into a softer yarn. There are a couple different breeds I am looking into for that and we will see what is actually available.  In the meantime I will keep spinning my Cotswold, it does dye beautifully and spin nicely.

Of course house lamb was outside observing all of the shearing. It was not her time yet, but she will be getting sheared this fall. Poor lamb, she really does think she is a dog and not one of those farm animals called sheep.

Special thanks to Willow for all of the great pictures! I was not able to take photos due to helping round up sheep so she volunteered and did a fabulous job!

                                                 ***Willow***

Now that sheep chores are done I am busy loading the cave up with cheeses. Yesterday I made 3 cheeses! Today I might spin some wool and chill out on the front porch.

Happy Wednesday Ya'll!

Naked Sheep, Busy Farm Days

The new sheep arrived Monday, already sheared and naked.

First, meet Mary. She is a about a year old and she has a super sweet personality.

Then there is Solo and her mama ewe Lila. This lamb is very dainty and very gentle. Lila is also a very sweet ewe. They are black Wenslydale sheep and we adore them.

Next was the business of getting my other four sheared. The original shearer I was going to hire (from NC) couldn't make it. Luckily I found a shearer who was in the area (from Augusta) and was willing to stop here.

We had to bring the ram, Whiskey Creek, across the property and lock him up in the paddock where we were going to shear. We decided he should be sheared first.

 When you have a huge ram, you are thankful for a strong shearer. Brett did an excellent job!

His assistant Chris had to help hold Whiskey just a little. Whiskey is now naked and feeling relief in our hot spring weather.

Now he looks a little skinnier too! I used this opportunity to worm him and then we led him back out to his regular paddock, using a lead and a halter.

We also sheared the lambs since their fleece has grown quite thick and it will be a hot summer here. It also gets them used to being sheared and handled.

The little guys did great and only tried to escape a few dozen times!

I took four sheets outside and wrapped each sheeps' fleece in a sheet. I then started to sort and separate good fleece from really yucky fleece. The good fleece will get washed and set out to dry.

It's a daunting task! I didn't realize how much fleece these sheep can grow! What's more, I never realized how much lanolin was tucked into the fleece! I have spent the last few evenings working first Sarah's fleece.

This is Sarah's fleece washed and dried so far. I still have a little more to go and then I will work on Whiskey Creek's.

Needless to say, by the time the day had ended I was exhausted.

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The farm in general has been hopping busy this week!
The pasture chicks are still in brooders but they are growing and will be outside in another week or so. I have to make sure we have dry weather in the forecast as rain can be fatal for baby birds.

Speaking of rain, we had 28 inches for the month of April! The ground here is saturated and starting to flood a bit.

This flooded area is actually where I usually keep the cows and sheep. Well, until it all dries up I decided to keep the sheep in the wooden fenced area and I used electric fence to move Lucy and Belle into the back yard.

Temporary electric fencing is wonderful to have with cows. It's easy to move and it's inexpensive. I just move the fence a little each day so that they are forced to graze their given area well.
I also opened the chicken coop door so the hens could easily get out to scratch and clean up cow patties. The cows are dry and happy and the yard needs less machine mowing.  The muscadine vines took a bit of a beating (Belle loves them) but I don't mind much.
I am happy to have a plan, especially since we are expected to get 4-6 inches of rain this weekend!
Maybe we should just build an ark!

We also started working the garden this week. Normally we plant in mid-April, but the weather here just can't decide if it wants to be warm or cold. Yesterday seemed like a great day to get the beds and planters filled with flowers and the garden sowed with a few seeds. Here's hoping the weekend rain doesn't drown everything.

The tomatoes and peppers are finally hardened off and will be ready for planting next week. I will be having an on farm sale day to offer some of these heirloom treasures for sale.
The younger girls helped me with all of these plants and they are planning to do this on a larger scale next year. I, of course, support the idea because I love that they are learning how to garden!

Finally, the honey supers are all in place on top of the strongest hives. I am not sure what this crazy weather will mean for a honey crop, but I supered the hives and will wait and see.
There is quite a bit of clover blooming here, both red and white, and the tulip poplars are starting to open up as well.

It has been a week of long days and late nights, but we are seeing the fruits of our labors and that makes it worthwhile.

Here's hoping for a weekend of rest! Stay dry my friends!!!!

Meet the Sheep

It turned out to be a very exciting weekend! I found sheep for sale from a very good breeder and so we hopped in the van and drove to Asheville to pick them up.

I wasn't expecting to get them so soon, but the ewe is due to lamb this month and we wanted her settled in before the date got too near.

Meet Whiskey Creek and Sarah.

The ewe has some impressive dread locks, no?
These are registered Costwold Sheep and I must admit they are pretty cool. They are long wool sheep and will need to be sheared twice a year. There is a guy in NC who travels in the spring from farm to farm shearing sheep. I am hoping to make contact with him soon.

So far the sheep are staying with my goats and chickens in our rather large fenced lot. I am using a small coop as a stall and the sheep like to sleep in there on fresh hay.
Once we have a lamb I will need to move the ram out of there, although I am not positive where I will put him.
They are well behaved for sheep and will follow anyone who is carrying a feed bucket so that is good.

Now, one of the goats has taken to head butting and challenging the ram, but so far neither has gotten injured. I assume they will work it out soon. I am amazed at the goat's bravery since she is a fat, short pygmy goat. The ram ignores her, unless he is challenged.

Then there is Lucy. In the evening I bring her in through this area for the night. She is very curious about our two new additions.

Ahhh, two new animals. It's starting to feel like spring and I am very happy for that! I pruned all of the fruit trees yesterday and in a couple of weeks we will have baby chicks. If that doesn't make spring official, nothing does. (Except maybe blooming dandelions and warm temps:-)

Welcome to the farm Whiskey and Sarah!

Hoping your week is full new beginnings~!