The Boys Mid-Winter

Red and Kodachrome in the back. Nightcap(aka Bailleys)and Captain in the foreground. Wintertime Red Velvet--Forrest son out of Ruby. He has an incredibly soft, fine single-coat. We think he may even be better than his sire who tested 21 as a two-year old. We shall see.
Li'lCountry Nightcap--Dillon/Holly/Timothy lines and appears to be modified moorit in color. He has a very fine/crimpy/locky fleece that is consistent. He may be for sale this summer to make room for another Little Country polled ram.
Winter Sky Captain is a son of Forrest and out of Winter Sky Amaretto. He has an amazingly soft(97.0 comfort factor), locky, crimpy, fine shaela fleece.

Freedom After The Deep Freeze

V Creek Sarah is an F1 Roban Dillan, F2 Holly ewe that produces clean polled ram lambs. She is bred to LilCountry Nightcap for April lambs. She'll be for sale after her lambs are weaned.
Wintertime Ruby is the dam of Wintertime Red Velvet and has a very fine(21 micron)moorit fleece. She is bred to Nightcap for April lambs and will be used for LAI next fall.
Winter Sky Kismet is an F1 Willowcroft Jamie ewe. She is the matriarch of the flock at age ten and has the "look" I love. She is bred to Captain for late March lambs and may be slated for LAI if she holds her condition well this summer.
Glenmore Staccato was purchased from Louise Hooper's flock as a lamb. She's going to be seven and is a true musket Greyling F2 with a lovely fleece. She is bred to Captain for April lambs.
These two modified moorit girls are Orion F2's from different sires and dams. Chiffon in the background is bred to Red for late April lambs. Ani in the foreground was kept open this year.
And not to be left out of the flock pictures is Raggedy...our colored Cormo X ewe lamb who is also open this year.

WINTERTIME RED VELVET

Red is maturing nicely this winter. He's my daughter's polled moorit gulmoget Shetland ram whose first micron test mid-side this fall was 21.7 AFD, 3.8 SD, 17.7 CV with a 98.6 comfort factor. His dam Wintertime Ruby is pictured below. She was bred to Li'lCountry Nightcap(polled fawn ram lamb)for early April lambs.

RAGGEDY ANN

Raggedy Ann(a colored Cormo cross) came to our farm in November after travelling all the way from California(thanks Sue)to Kentucky and then up to lower Michigan(thanks Char). She was born last March and will be bred next fall, as with all the travelling she seemed stressed and not in the best condition. She spent November up at my farm in a pen with two little Shetland ewe lambs that I kept open this season and almost immediately won us over with her big sweet eyes and calm disposition. Butting heads is a game she doesn't quite "get", but she does her best to accomodate her Shetland buddies when they get going in the mornings.

Her fiber tested 17.6 AFD, 3.2 SD, 17.8 CV with a comfort factor of 99.9%. She's consistent from front to back. We plan to add at least a couple more colored Cormo crosses to our flock this next season and breed them in the fall to the finest colored/white rams available for use. We will have lambs for sale in 2010.

TAGGED--I'M IT.

Thanks Stephen...I think?

Favorite Foods: Ice Cream(except mocha)

Fresh sun warmed berries of all types and colors

Shelled peas lightly steamed

Chocolate(except when coffee beans are involved)

Pecans(actually I've never met a nut I didn't like)

A really good burger(locally purchased grassfed Highland)

Fresh fish(we have whitefish and trout fresh from Superior)

Potatoes dug in the spring



Favorite restaurants: Border Grill

Oakland Bistro(in Kalamazoo)

Tu Kaluthia(Greek cafe in our library)

Babycakes Muffin Shop(good wraps and soups)

Red Lobster(truly remarkably "hot" waiter)

Any place where I do not have to do the dishes...



What I did on November 26th: Got the fire going in the wood cookstove.

Spun yarn for the farmer's market on Sat.

Got all the barns opened up and the animals out in the paddocks with their hay ration for the day.

Shot, sheared and necropsied a ewe lamb that I suspected had acute liver fluke. She'd been doing poorly for several weeks despite numerous treatments and I vowed if she started not rallying and showed signs of pain I wouldn't let her suffer. She was grinding her teeth and unable to rise this morning. She did have liver fluke but fortunately the rest of the flock is fine.

Nailed horizontal boards up along the back paddock fence to improve its height and hopefully keep predators out. I rebuilt all the paddocks this fall and am just finishing up now.

Put the critters to bed.

Fixed spaghetti for supper for Megs.

Got into my pj's and settled in to watch Grey's Anatomy which we rented.




Favorite stores: TSC(they just opened one about an hour south of us)

Target(because they don't have muzak)

Super One Foods(I've been shopping there since moving north and everyone knows me there.)

Farmer Q's(they sell me 45# boxes of apples for $5.00 for the sheep and these are high quality apples--sometimes even three for one)

Mares-Z-Doats(our local feed store)




Wish List: A calmer/saner world

A healthy planet

Contented people living with less "stuff"

Cars that run on hydrogen and have air flow instead of tires

A biodynamic way to fight parasites in livestock

A mild winter and early spring

A truly wonderful life for my daughter

Growing old gracefully and with a good sense of humor



Things I like to do with family: Sit with the sheep

Watch Casino Royale over and over again

Laugh

Clean barns

Watch my daughter ride

Go somewhere out of the ordinary



I believe everyone whose blogs I read have already been tagged?

REAL OR RESIN?

Meghan has been "painting" and customizing resins for the past six years and is becoming very competitive in the model horse show circuit. This is her major project from this season--she has to work around the weather and spray her models outside to "fix" them, so it takes some time and effort. She usually only does smaller scale models, but this one caught her eye so she just had to have him. She does commisions and enjoys doing micro-minis which are the size of the change in your pocket.

EWES & DOES AT BRIGHT ANGELS' FARM

Winter Sky Diva is a Jericho F1 spotted katmoget out of Winter Sky Calypso. Her yearling micron test was 23.5 AFD, 5.6 SD, and 23.8 CV. She will be crossed with Kodachrome this November.
These two daughters of Wintertime Black Forrest are Elle(the black gulmoget)and Kir(the fawn gul/kat). Elle's fall lamb test was 23.5 AFD, 4.7 SD and 19.9 CV. Kir's yearling test was 19.5 AFD, 5.1 SD and 25.6 CV. They are both being bred by Kodachrome this November.
The moorit smirslet ewe in the back is Winter Sky Breathe. Her two year old micron test was 25.9 AFD, 6.4 SD and 24.7 CV. She is being bred to Captain this November. Thistlekeep Aquilegia is the black 6 year old ewe in the foreground. Her micron test this fall came back 24.6 AFD, 5.7 SD and 23.1 CV. She is being bred to Wintertime Red Velvet.
This lovely fawn gulmoget ewe lamb is Winter Sky Kahlua. Her sire is Winter Sky Cointreau and her dam is Winter Sky Kir. Her lamb test this fall was 20.9 AFD, 6.6 SD and 31.4 CV. She has a very long, silky fleece. She isn't going in a breeding pen this fall as she was a later lamb and is the smallest on our farm.
These colorful does are my daughters AGS registered Nigerian Dwarf goats. She maintains a very small(seven)number of does and all but one are bred to Twincreeks PDF Megapixel for next March. Megapixel is the son of two permanent champions who both appraised excellent. He has a lovely temperament and is long and stretchy and dairy. Kids will be available from this cross for competitive prices.