MATURE SHETLAND SAMPLES HEADING OUT FOR TESTING

 The katmoget group.  Cinnamon is bred to Moose(moorit).  Danube is bred to Skylark(black).  Sally and Lines are both bred to BoB.  Sally may be for sale to the right farm come summer.

 The blacks.  Moire and Mandalay are both bred to BoB.  Alanis is bred to Moose.  Moire will be for sale this summer.

 The Ag group.  One of our finest groups.  Morocco and Kerry are both bred to Moose.  Marrakech and Chiquita are both bred to Moose.  Kerry will probably be for sale this summer.

 A shaela gulmoget BoB daughter.  She is bred to Skylark(a BoB son)and will not be for sale.

 A lovely white ewe bred to BoB.  Her fleece was GCH over 40 fleeces at the WI Sheep & Wool Festival Shetland Fleece Show.  Mary Gibbings said she was the obvious GCH despite looking as though she had lived in a coal mine.  Our winters are long and the dust in the barns settles on these girls...What can I say?

Our two mature moorits.  Ruby is a flock matriarch and has produced some amazingly nice Shetlands.  Moose won Best Fleece on Hoof at the MSSBA Show in 2014 and won Mary Gibbings praise for his lovely head.  He was bred to Ruby.

2014 LAMB MICRON TEST RESULTS(LAST RIB SAMPLES)

 The R lambs came from my friend Sherry Ecker's Ramble N flock and are inbred on Sheltrgpines Shagbark.  The E lamb came from Erica Solis at Emancipation Acres.  Damselfly and Milano(bred at Stephen Rouse's farm)are bred....Damselfly to BVD and Milano to BoB.  Some of these lambs will be for sale this summer.  Let us know if you are interested in any particular one.  Dixie is for sale(carries spots and modified with a very good horn background).  Kathmandu is spoken for if we decide to sell her.

REMEMBERING SPINNERS END BARRA

Sometimes bad things just happen for no apparent reason....Barra went south to a friend's farm to spend the fall in a small breeding group with some ewes I owned that were heading out to other handspinners' farms.  All went well and after those ewes left Barra went in with the Sheltering Pines flock to breed all those ewes as well.  He was doing well, looking good, and acting even better but mysteriously was found dead one evening in January.

His legacy will live on in the lambs that will be born this spring.  Barra was a true spotted shaela ram with a very fine 19 micron fleece at last rib on his first test.  He will be missed.

 Barra surrounded by Sheltrgpines Opal(Blues X Amethyst), Wintertime Madrid and Wintertime Camisole.  Wintertime Evie and Wintertime Licorice are below.  Some Barra lambs will be for sale this summer.

BREEDING GROUPS FOR 2015 LAMBING

Wintertime BoB--Two year old scurred true black sired by Winter Sky Khan and out of Wintertime Alanis
                            22.1/4.0/18.0/6.8/98.2

     Winter Sky Mandalay(True black three year old)--Show wins for fleece and conformation.
                 25.2/4.7/18.6/7.7/88.9

     Winter Sky Marrakech(Ag five year old)--RGCH Show win as a mature ewe.
                 20.0/4.4/22.2/8.0/98.5

     Sheltrgpines Lien(White yearling)--GCH fleece MSSBA 2014.
                  21.0/3.5/16.9/6.5/98.9

      Wintertime Blurred Lines(Grey gul/kat two year old)--Very nice type and fiber.
                   22.9/4.9/21.2/8.8/93.3

       Sheltrgpines Mustang Sally(Grey kat five year old)--Typey with fleece that roos.
                   25.1/3.8/15.1/6.7/91.4

       Whistlestop 0427(Black ten year old Drum Ram daughter)--Typey and small.  Not recently
                    tested.

       Ramble N Chiquita(Fawn Wintertime Blake daughter)--Lovely yearling.  Blake is BoB's full
                    brother.  20.7/3.8/18.3/7.0/99.1

       Wintertime Milano(Moorit flecket ewe lamb)--Large enough to breed.  Lovely build.  Fourth
                   in large MSSBA class.  Not tested yet.

        Rose(Bond X Cormo)light moorit two year old--20.7/4.4/21.4/97.6

        Maire(Dohne bred spotted Merino yearling--21.7/3.3/15.2/98.6

        Lourre(Cormo X Shetland black spotted yearling)--21.9/3.9/17.3/7.0/98.5

        China(Cormo six year old)Not recently tested.

     
Wintertime Moose--Best Fleece on Hoof MSSBA 2014 as a yearling--moorit with no mixed fibers.
         19.6/3.3/16.9/5.9/99.9

       Wintertime Alanis--True black four year old GCH MSSBA 2014.
                   26.1/4.7/18.1/7.9/81.2

        Wintertime Cinnamon Sugar--Fawn katmoget yearling with very fine fiber.
                    19.6/3.6/18.5/6.4/99.6

         Wintertime Kerry Hill--Grey ilget yearling BoB daughter with very soft, dense fiber.
                     21.6/4.3/19.3/7.6/97.7

         Wintertime Ruby--Eight year old matriarch with some exceptional offspring in various flocks.
                      24.5 last rib AFD.

       
Wintertime Skylark--Modified black yearling third place MSSBA 2014.  He will be covering some ewes at other farms this winter as well.  20.4/3.6/17.6/6.4/99.3

          Spinners End Mousa--Emsket spotted gulmoget yearling BoB daughter.
                      20.7/4.2/20.1/7.7/97.7

          Sheltrgpines Blue Danube--Dark grey katmoget two year old ewe with good wool coverage.
                       23.8/4.4/18.6/7.6/91.8






       

GROWING YOUR OWN FIBER

Wintertime Samarkand(emsket ewe lamb--behind hip)

At the Farmer's Market I am often asked if my yarns are alpaca....I think because they come in a wide range of natural colors and are soft which most people do not associate with wool.  I then have the opportunity to educate my customers as to what makes wool "itchy" and how one can breed away from those traits to create very beautiful, soft-wooled sheep.  I couldn't find the quality of fiber I use in my products, if I were not breeding it myself.  Below are some examples of this year's fiber crop:

Wintertime Skylark(Yearling polled ram)

Wintertime Moose--Best Fleece on Hoof 2014 MSSBA Show(Yearling scurred
 ram--britch wool)

Wintertime BVD(Spotted fawn katmoget scurred ram lamb)

WINTERTIME MOROCCO'S FLEECE WINS GCH AGAIN

 Meghan made the final fleece selections for WI Sheep & Wool Festival this year and chose Morocco's sister's fleece over hers to take along with another two year old we have on the farm.  So I took Morocco's fleece down to Michigan Fiber Fest this past weekend to see what the judge would think of it down there.  Bottom line is she thought it was a bit of heaven and once again Morocco's fiber brought ooh's and aah's from the crowd.  I also took our yearling black ewe Camisole's fleece down and it placed second, so a good weekend overall for our Shetlands.(Photo courtesy of Kim Nikolai)

 This was Morocco's first fleece at Jefferson in 2013 when the audience was invited to touch it.  Meghan said they all gasped when it was unrolled.  She took GCH overall at this show and our other fleeces placed 2nd and third with a RGCH win for her sister Madrid's fleece.(Photo courtesy of Dave Lewis)

And this is Morocco pre-shearing this May basically saying, "Would you please get this thing off of me asap!"  Next year we hope to get a lovely ewe lamb from her with another generation of prize-winning fleece. 

2014 LAMBS

Wintertime Alanis with her twin ram lambs. 

Mustang Sally with one of her twin ram lambs(other twin is solid black).

Winter Sky Mandalay with her twin ewe lambs.

 

Blue Danube's twin ram lambs--spotted fawn katmoget is polled.  Dark grey katmoget ram is horned. 

Winter Sky Marrakech with her surviving twin ewe lamb.  Suspect she is modified.