NICE ENDING TO A GOOD MONTH

Wednesday last Meghan found out she won a short story contest for the local monthly periodical. There were 47 entrants and she was judged by professors, published authors and last year's winner.

Then on Thursday Meghan's new horse Sofie arrived at the barn where we will be working off her board every month. Sofie is an overweight grade paint mare with a build like a Mac truck who is good for trail riding and seems to be very sensitive to Meg's cues when ridden English. She likes to go forward and seems to have a pretty good, rhythmic working trot already--no peanut roller.

And when we got home from settling Sofie into her new digs, we found a pair of lovely moorit lambs running about in our back paddock with our very pregnant older ewes. Ruby is the proud mother and the sire is Lil'Country Nightcap(polled). The ram lamb has a very short, soft, crimpy fleece and lovely elegant look to him...and it appears he is clean polled. The ewe lamb has a slightly longer, crimpy fleece that is also butter soft. Both lambs are doing well and already giving the rest of the ewes which are due anytime now fits.

Then the test results on our two newest ewes arrived from Yocom. Rose is 23.9/6.7/28.2 and 16.1% as a five year old ewe at the last rib. Heffe is 22.6/6.7/29.5/13.4% fibers greater than 30 at the last rib as a three year old.

So March is ending on a high note. And we still may have some lambs to come before it ends. YEAH!!

THE NEW GIRLS

Due to the untimely death of a nearby farmer and friend we have recently added two new ewes to our flock. On the left is "Heffe" a two year old daughter of Sandstone out of a Skater Boy ewe. We will be sending her very nicely crimped fleece in for testing during our next round of CD/T shots.

On the right is Winter Sky Secondhand Rose who is one of the last registered daughters of Winter Sky Skater Boy(one of the first spotted katmogets born in the U.S.). Rose has a very short crimpy fleece and a wonderfully mellow personality. She likes to hum in the mornings when I am bringing them their hay.

Both ewes are bred to a shaela colored Finn ram for May lambs. This fall if their test results are good they'll be A.I.'d to Heights Orion with a back-up breeding to Forrest or Red for Rose and Tennyson for "Heffe".

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?