Sparkling White

...and gray and brown and ......

Tuesday gave us two inches of rain.  Thankfully, it was a warm rain that came and went throughout the day with no dramatic wind, hail or lightning.  Andy has been on a barn cleaning marathon and with the weird cool spring we've had, the flock can be locked out all day and not need to come in for shade.   Keeping the barn well bedded doesn't stop wool from getting dusty and grimy so I love having the sheep cleaned off by the rain.

And of course, especially with the Cotswolds, if you are standing on food you might as well keep eating it.  Being "hungry" doesn't really enter into the equation which is why we slowly acclimate the flock after a winter of dry hay.

Peanut, standing with her feet up on the curb of the feeder in the bunk which exaggerates her full gut, but still.....  Geez, Peanut.

Stewart and Luellen came to say hi..... and beg for beet pulp pellets even though they are clearly stuffed.

 Ophelia's dark spot shows right up when the rest of her is clean and white.

And everybody has to poke around in the fresh bedding to see if there's anything good to eat even though they have just been eating. all. day.

The boys also were shut out all day and came in sparkling clean and rolling with fat good health.  In order of appearance they are Brick, Neville, Castillo, Nigel, B.B., Titan, Wee Little and old Isador who has to grab one more mouthful coming through the gate.



Neville must be carrying a bushel basket of grass in that rumen.  It's called having a lot of capacity and it's a good thing - a body built to carry a lot of feed or a lot of lamb is a plus if you're a sheep.

Both Neville and Nigel are Cotswolds and their curls are starting to show up already.

Nigel has coarser curls but they carry well down into his lower hind leg which is a hard place to get nice wool to grow.

Brick says,

"I'm not curly but I'm so clean I squeak.  I think some of my gray washed off!"
After the day's heavy rain I took Holly for a late walk and enjoyed some dramatic skies.

And the frogs in the wet spot in the lower field (which we not-so-cheerfully refer to as 'Lake Wheeler') were really happy.  It's loud but peaceful at the same time.  

All in all, everybody had a good day.

The "Un"-Breeding Season

For the first time since.... let's see.... about 1987 we aren't going to breed any ewes this year.  We certainly aren't giving up sheep (we have coughcoughmorethanevercough) but we decided to declare a moratorium on creating any more, at least for a year.  There are several reasons, none dire, but we both need a break to catch up on things.  I need to make a dent in this mountain of accumulated wool.  Andy needs to put a new roof on a chunk of the house, make repairs (or just finish started projects) in house and barn, we still have 2 standing silos that we'd like taken down (they have to be cleaned out first) and breeding season, lambing season and growing the youngsters eats up a lot of time and mental energy.  Further, I always seem to keep back several more lambs than I intend because they're friendly or just what I want fiber-wise or bottle babies or been nursed back to health or good quality for breeding stock or whatever. Add to that the fact that it's getting harder emotionally each year to send loads of lambs to slaughter.  Andy pointed out that if lambs from this spring stay in the flock and live their usual double-digit lifespans he'll be into his 70s by the time they go to greener pastures and I think he'd like to not be putting up hay and handling big animals by that time.  We aren't selling any of the rams so we can always rethink things by next year when we've hopefully gotten caught up on at least the big jobs.

The rams are acting rammy with each other but not making a big fuss.  There's a little more pushing and shoving and growling at each other but very little head butting.  They already have a pecking order and there are no ewes anywhere near them to get thoughts stirred up.  This morning they were all standing in the sun (sun! yay!) waiting for us to let them into the larger pasture.

Nigel is one of our home bred Cotswolds.  He carries color and can throw colored lambs when mated to colored ewes.

I still haven't replaced that dratted ear tag but he's not going anywhere.......

Neville is our other home bred Cotswold but he has all white genetics in his background.  His fleece also has smaller curls.  He's super sweet tempered, politely standing next to you until you rub his back and tell him he's a good sheep.

One of my half-British boys from our AI venture several years ago.  I like his square back and rump.  His fleece is very lustrous but lacking in curl, having loose waves instead.  I've been working to get both that shine plus improved curls.  That's one of the most intriguing things about having your own flock (or herd of anything) - trying each year to get the right blend of his traits plus her traits to produce offspring better than either parent.

Here is Titan, left, and BB (aka Mr. B) on the right.  Titan is a colored Cotswold from Break Loose Farm.  He's not as friendly as my homegrown boys but he's certainly not aggressive.  (Middle guy is another half-Brit of ours. Small locks and quite white but not so much luster.)

Wee Little Guy, who was a very sad orphaned lamb who is now a big love bug.

Castillo, also sweet and with really cool hair.  ;-)

The ewes seem rather put out that there are no manly men around.  Mickey, a wether about 3 years old, will talk dirty to them but there isn't much action involved.  The good part of our 'un'-breeding season is that the whole flock can still go out to pasture.  Granted, there isn't much grass left but at least they can get out of the barn and sit in the fields and get some fresh air.  We fill the hay feeders every night and by morning most of it is gone so they're getting plenty either way.

It was so warm (to them) that they all came in off pasture at midday to have a drink and stand in the shade. They saw me in the barn and came storming in, probably thinking I was going to open a side gate and let them into another pasture.  Three days in a tired pasture creates boredom apparently.

"Hey, what's everybody looking at??"

Soon we'll have to really bring them off pasture for good.  Coats will go on and hay will be the only item on the menu.  I love seeing them right now before they get hay trash on their faces and covered up by the coats.

Lots of Cotswold curls.

And not Cotswold.

And lots of sheep with character.

Bunny

Flopsy

Daisy (chewing)

Ashes and Tuxedo

 Angelica

Nugget

Bacardi

Tiffany

Minnie

Matilda

Salsa

Fortune

Lovey

Madeline

Fuzz

Kim

Yup, everyone has a name.  Maybe with more time next spring I'll be able to post everyone's baa-ography.

Here and There, This and That

We've had a very busy few days.  Friday morning I hit the road with Julie for a quick overnight trip to Maryland to deliver some Cotswolds.  Four rode in the back of the pickup in our fitted sheep container.  These two girls - a yealing and a lamb - are staying in Maryland.  We also took along two rams lambs - one will be going to Virginia and one to Pennsylvania.  The boys were too shy lazy to come to the open tailgate for snacks and pictures.  It was a pretty hot trip.

Once unloaded at the first farm into overnight accomodations they all perked up and dove into some nice hay.  The gray ram lamb near the back and the white ram lamb in front both were picked up the next morning by their new owners.

Besides talking sheep we got to pet this little charmer - a two month old cria from the resident herd.  Love his blue eye!

 

Part of the reason for the trip was to retrieve the yearling ram that I was getting in trade for the yearling ewe.  He's  a colored Cotswold and I'm looking forward to putting him with my colored ewes.  His registered name is Titan.

 

 

We have him in the livestock trailer for a while to serve as quarantine.  Since he was vetted before he left Maryland I don't have any reason to think he'd become ill but it's always a good idea to make sure some sickness doesn't pop up from the stress of travel.

 



 

He has a nice head with a blocky, square muzzle.

 

 

And good curls.  His fleece is nice and soft for a Cotswold which is important here.

 

 

We returned home Saturday evening and Sunday morning I washed a batch of lamb wool in preparation for dyeing then went to the last committee meeting prior to our Fiber Festival next month.  Everything is on track.  We still have some openings in the classes which we expect will fill soon.  Right after evening chores I went back up to the wool shed and dyed the lamb wool.  That was a long day.

 

Monday was my annual day to demo handspinning at the NY state fair.  It's two hours each way so Julie and I got an early start.  The route takes us right by the front door of our vet clinic so I stopped to have two prescriptions refilled - prednisone for Holly's seasonal allergies and hyperthyroid pills for Ivan.  Then on to the fair! 

 

The wool superintendant is very dedicated and makes the building a great educational display.  The skeins and all the hanging hats and mittens are also for sale.

 



 

 

All the bags of fiber on the shelves were prepared by the superintendant and her helpers and was available to all spinners to use for demonstrating.  It was replenished daily as needed.  It was a very busy building and just while I was there for four hours there were three spinners, five knitters, a fellow turning out spindle whorls and nostepinnes on a lathe, one person using the drum carder and the great wheel, a weaver, a needle felter and two people dyeing.

 



 

After spinning we took a walk around the fair to get some great fair food and check out a few favorite exhibits.  I always make a beeline (OK, the line wandered past the Bloomin' Onion booth) for the art and crafts exhibit which is huge.  I'm amazed every year at the collected display of talent.

 

A town full of knitted mice.

 



 

Painted birds.





 

Rug hooking whimsy.

 





 

We ducked into the DEC's building and admired the big display aquariums full of native fish.  These big tanks must have a heckuva filtration system because the water was crystal clear despite being densely populated.  The other fish were real active, darting around but that big catfish occupied the center of the tank the whole time, just hanging there like he was being entertained by watching the people on the other side of the glass.

 









 

And of course we had to go through the sheep barn.

 



"Why yes, I do have great hair.  Thanks for noticing."



 

I don't know if these two were siblings or just good friends.

 





 



This one is just so comfy.  It was that kind of heat - just makes you keel over and fall asleep.

 

 

Holly says.........

 



"If someone doesn't put something in my kong......"

 

".... I might keel over too!"

 

And we can't have that!