Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Winter Sky Sahra & Buster Brown

Sahra is a Winter Sky Sandstone daughter with a wonderfully fine (21.9 AFD 4.5 SD lamb)fleece that is staying a rich dark brown as it matures. Sahra is bred to Tennyson for April lambs. This is a repeat of her first breeding which produced Buster Brown. He is an amusing polled moorit/white ram lamb with a wonderful fleece. Buster is currently at Cynthia Caillagh-Allen's farm:www.finer-fleeces.com.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Bono Creek Dana

Bono Creek Dana is linebred on Kismet's full sister and another Winter Sky Jamie F1 ewe named Winter Sky Delaine. Her mature fleece tested 27.2 AFD with a 6.3 SD and is extremely fun to spin up being all shades of brown and black. She has the prestige of raising the largest set of twins this past year on pasture and hay alone--50 & 55 pounds respectively in August. It appears she is bred A.I. to Todhill Jericho for late March lambs. I am hoping for a splendid pair of grey katmogets with slightly less leg than Dana exhibits.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Winter Sky Ready To Run

Ready is one of my favorite ewes to look at out in the field. She just stands out in a crowd. She combines two of my nicest ewe lines in addition to carrying spots. Her intermediate fleece has a mature side micron of 26.3 AFD with an SD of 7.1. To improve upon her fleece I decided to use artificial insemination this year and cross her with Heights Orion. I am looking forward to seeing what she and some of my other ewes produce around the 30th of March.


Her daughter this year sired by Winter Sky Sandstone is also in the flock and crossed with my daughter's polled Sandstone son "Mac".



Wintertime Landslide

"Mackers-smackers" as my daughter affectionately calls him is a polled NASSA registered ram lamb born this year. Meghan has used him heavily in her flock as he has almost perfect type, size and conformation along with a lovely modified brown tone to his fleece. He is also RR at codon 171 for scrapie resistance, so his lambs will all show improved genetic scrapie resistance.
He is bred to Crisp for early April lambs.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Wintertime Black Forrest

Wintertime Black Forrest is my daughter's NASSA registered gulmoget ram lamb out of Glenmore Crisp. Forrest has one of those rare laid-back personalities where nothing phases him. He is also extremely wide throughout with a very fine, ultra-black crimpy fleece. He was used heavily down at Cynthia Caillagh-Allen's farm in SW Wisconsin, and we are all looking forward to seeing if he passes down his fine fiber and wonderful temperament. For more information about Cynthia's farm, sheep, geese and bio-dynamic farm methods go to: www.finer-fleeces.com.

Australian Spotted Bantam Ducks

We've owned Australian Spotted Bantam ducks for a number of years and find they are a perfect fit for our homestead gardens. Unlike chickens who inevitably removed all mulch from my beds and made huge dusting pits, the ducks wander the gardens probing with their bills and eliminating many pests like slugs, snails and grasshoppers. They are also one of the most cheerful animals whenever it rains and is cold. Our ducklings are all naturally reared and learn early on to come into the barn around suppertime for protection from predators. Our ducks are extremely good mothers, and our drakes have shown the tendency to form bonds with specific females they will watch over with great care.

We currently have all three color variations of the Aussies and will have sexed ducklings available this summer. For more information you can visit my website: www.winterskyshetlands.com.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Glenmore Crisp

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Crisp is a very finely fleece four year old katmoget ewe owned by my daughter Meghan. She tested 21.5 AFD with a 5.4 SD mid-side at four years of age. She was bred by a dear friend of mine down in Indiana and came to live with us for a year before going to another farm for a couple years. We got her back this past winter and she had a lovely black gulmoget ram lamb for Meghan this spring. This year she is bred to Meghan's dark fawn polled ram lamb Wintertime Landslide for late March lambs.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Winter Sky Kismet

Winter Sky Kismet is a six year old ewe sired by Willowcroft Jamie and out of Rarebriar Kiss Me Kate(one of my favorite ewes of all time). Although Kismet did not inherit the extreme softness of her dam, she does exhibit almost perfect Shetland type and size. Her mature fleece tested out at 27.1 AFD with a 7.5 SD. Kismet is an exemplary mother. She is standing behind one of her twin lambs from this past spring--Winter Sky Halla. Halla is a shaela ewe lamb with an extremely interesting locky, crimpy fleece. Both Kismet and her daughter are bred to Tennyson for late March lambs.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Let us all try to become more tolerant, peaceful, thoughtful and understanding in our daily lives and pray that by our actions we can help others follow in our footsteps.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Sugar Frosted Moorit Lamb

This is Winter Sky Anya. She was born dark brown with no white markings, but this fall I started seeing some "dustiness" behind her left ear and as the season progressed so did the white areas. She now has white down onto her cheek, around her ear, over her eye and down the lefthand side of her nose. I am not quite sure what is happening, but I do know her sire produced some animals that developed white spots or other markings over time. Some people call them "moonspots". Anya is bred to Tennyson for an early May lamb.

Sheep Coat Trial

This winter I am using some sheep coats for the first time to see if I can't keep my fiber even cleaner than I usually do. Breeding for finer fleeces all my animals tend to be chaff magnets and the smallest, finest, darkest lambs always tend to ruin their fiber. Since selling this fiber is the only way I have to pay for their feed, I am hoping the coats will do the job. So far I am very pleased with how they are holding up and how nice the fleeces are developing underneath. I purchased these coats from www.rockysheep.com.

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Winter Sky Wool Company



I became tired of sending my yarns to various business to sell and decided to create my own home business and work the farmer's markets in the area. The first season was very successful, and I am hopeful next year will bring many new customers in addition to the old, valued ones.


One of the most frequently heard comments was: "Is that alpaca?". Since I've been working very hard over the years to produce Shetlands with ultra-soft fiber in glorious colors it was heartening to know my yarns didn't feel like "wool" to most people.




I'd like to thank Wooly Knob Fiber Mill in LaOtto, Indiana for doing such a wonderful job of processing my fleeces into roving for me. For contact information you can go to my website: www.winterskyshetlands.com.


Winterscapes







Some views of the homestead in winter.

Dancing Angels Nigerian Dwarf Goats







Some people are just goat lovers and my daughter Meghan is no exception. At an early age she delighted in being trampled and chewed by kids of all sizes, so it came as no surprise to me when she decided she needed to own goats. For the past five years she has owned a lovely small everchanging herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats. She has already bred her own champion buck, and I have no doubt there will be more in her future. For more information about her herd you can go to her website: http://dancingangels.equusrising.net/.




















Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Black Silky Bantam Ducks

The newest and rarest residents of Bright Angels' Farm are this lovely pair of black Silky Bantam ducks. We are hoping in this age of avian flu worries to preserve several color strains of this breed along with three color types of Australian Spotted Bantam ducks. Both breeds work very well in a homestead setting. Ours live in a small barn near the gardens and go out daily (when not setting their own eggs each spring and mid-summer)to patrol for slugs and other pests. They are small but vigorous in their activities. The Aussies can fly but tend to do so only in circular routes that bring them right back home. If all goes as planned we will have sexed ducklings and possibly some mature proven pairs of ducks available for sale this upcoming summer.

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Winter Sky Tennyson



The heart of Bright Angels' Farm is our Shetland flock. They have created pastures, provided nourishment for our gardens, given us untold hours of peaceful interaction and grow the most colorful fleeces each year for me to process into yarns and knitgoods. I've been working with pure Shetland stock for more than 14 years now and strive each and every year to only breed the highest quality fibered animals possible.

Tennyson is the culmination of my breeding goals. He has an extremely richly hued dark brown fleece with the softness of alpaca and the crimp most often seen in only the finest sheep breeds. He also displays an intriguing personality and in his first test season threw two spotted polled ram lambs and a very lovely ewe lamb. He is also resistant to scrapie and passes on that resistance to his lambs. We look forward to this spring's lambs as Tennyson was used on a number of my nicest ewes.