Be careful what you wish for!

Remember that old adage "be careful what you wish for"?  A Shetland shepherdess close by me had an adorable little ewe that was such a pet!  Sheperdess Sue named her Jewel and after a little while she came to live at our farm.  Pet sheep can be wonderful and then again... they seem to know how to push your buttons easily!...or tear them off your sweater, whichever opportunity presents itself first! 
Jewel had twin ewe lambs for us last year and again this year.  She is the best mommy!
Her she is with this year's girls...the "little holstein" and Chocolate Chip who takes after her mommy for fleece color...badgerface? katmoget for sure. 

The Sheep Speak!

There are no wordless Wednesdays at our farm as the sheep ALWAYS have something to say, God Bless Them!

That little black and white Icelandic ewe lamb always has something to say even if it is just "Hi mom!"

SHETLAND LAMBS

Since I have been slow at getting my blog started I will look back at pictures I have taken of the lambs that we had born on the farm in late May and early June.  I was soooo sloowww at getting any breeding pens together last year and it finally happened in late December!  Oh my.  I have a habit of pushing fall as much as I can until all the cold and snow says "STOP" and then I am running behind on something else!  Oh life! Gotta love it!

This is a morrit wether that went out to be a fiber pet at a farm near Litchfield,Mn.  Righ behind him is our "little holstein cow" at least that is what she has been called since I don't have the naming convention down on these shetland colors and patterns.  Can someone help me with what her description would be?


My friend Deann who took the wether, took the picture of me with the ewes and lambs in the barnyard a few months ago.  Seems to me when I look at the picture that the ram lambs are the friendliest or is it nosiest?  Very sweet sheep and one of my favorite pictures.  We still have most of our lambs for sale.  They are all hanging out in the shed today on this miserable rainy day.

 I had a nice phone call from Kelly yesterday asking to purchase the Ashford Traditional spinning wheel that I listed in the previous post, so it is considered sold. 

I also have the jumbo flyer unit available for sale with (3) bobbins for the traditional wheel for $125.

Ashford finally came out with a larger bobbin and winder unit for the Joy wheel which travels with me almost everywhere and I have lamented the fact that the bobbins are so small and when you ply the two together you get a small skein so since I have the traditional wheel I purchased the jumbo flyer unit for it and then I plyed my singles off the lazy kate of the joy onto the flyer of the traditional.  A process but it worked.  Now however I no longer need to do that.  You can email me at thesheepcote@ll.net if you would like pictures of the flyer unit or of course of our wonderful sheep.

See ya chickies!

Nice Rams and Shearing Time

We are lucky enough to have a very qualified shearer come over and give our sheep their "haircuts".  Icelandics get sheared twice a year with the premium fleece usually being in the fall as they have probably been on pasture all summer, and hopefully burr-less pasture so their fleeces are long and beautiful and very clean of vegetable matter.  I debated shearing some of the lambs as we lambed late this spring but decided that I will just make sure they have shelter if they want it and feed them a little extra. 

We have several spring ram lambs that are available for fall breeding and also the mature "older boys" that need to find new homes as we no longer want to use them for breeding... not a thing wrong with these wonderful boys, just becoming all related.  We are reasonably pricing these boys to find them good new homes.  You can email me at thesheepcote@ll.net for more info and prices on these nice rams. 

A couple of the young rams are quite flashy with their spots.  Sorry about the strange eyes...I have a very cheap camera and have not taken the time to get good at taking pictures.  We have two boys like this with similar markings and another b&w with spots.  I am not sure, but they may be identified as black with huge white spots!
We also have young ram lambs that are reaching market weight and are excellent grass/hay/grain feed sheep.  Please email if you are interested in purchasing a lamb for butcher as not all rams are the best choices for using for flock reproduction.

And one more thing...typical, can't get started and then I can't stop!....I have this wonderful Ashford Traditional Wheel for sale.  Single drive, Single tread, very nice condition, 3 bobbins and lazy kate sell with it for $350.
Supposed to be a beautiful day tomorrow before the rainy cold weather moves in.  Everyone get out and ENJOY!

Gettin' to be THAT time!

Now that fall has arrived it is getting to be sheep breeding season for those of us hoping to have cute little lambs doing races next spring.  We bred most of our ewes this year, both Icelandics and Shetlands and ended up with some very nice ram lambs that are looking for a job to do rather than head to someone's freezer...however that is a possibility also.  Please contact me is you are interested in any of these beautiful boys.  They are ready to go.