Shearing 2013

Shearing 2013 commenced late Friday evening.  We were a smaller crew than years passed, but experienced, so all went well.  I did feel a bit bad about keeping my "seasoned" relatives and friends working until 10:30 at night, but we were able to get all 25 sheep sheared. 

 Grandma Butchy, Daisy, and Jeri.

 Our favorite shearer: Brian F. who estimates he has sheared 60,000 sheep.  "You get the hang of it after the first 10,000."

 The crew is ready and waiting to bundle freshly shorn fleece.

 Auntie Linda and Daisy got in lots of loves.

 Auntie Linda and Grandma Butchy teaching their tie technique to Isaiah.

J.J, 1/2 Shetland, 1/2/ Icelandic girl was the last to be sheared.  She is one of the largest sheep in the flock anyway, but looked especially huge next to the nakeds.  Notice Annafleece, black ewe, to the back right.  She was carrying her baby belly off to the side after being sheared!

If anyone is interested in some nice fleece let me know.  Now we begin the baby waiting game.  I don't mind waiting, given our lack of spring weather.  It was -10 degrees on Friday morning! 

5 MInute Update

Yes, I actually set the timer for five minutes and am typing a quick update post.

Calves- still only Choice. Not sure what the rest of the girls are waiting for. The bulls are not happy about their separation, but it will last for a few more months at least.

Pigs- Would you believe Gertie and Gwennie both went into labor at the same time? On a Monday morning, of course. Between the two we have 16 beautiful baby red wattle piglets, over half of them are already spoken for. We haven't decided if we will be raising any feeders this summer or not, we'll see what the demand looks like after Earthfest. A new pasture area for the pigs is in the works, as soon as Nate and I get time to fence.

Sheep- Shearing went well, our assistants all oohed and aaahhed over the wool, there may have been some wheeling and dealing, and plenty of claiming, but at the end of the night 10 of the 20 fleeces had new owners! Sandy C. has already begun working with Darla's fleece, and claimed it for next year! She even sent a skein of it over for me. My poor spinning wheel hasn't seen any action since last summer.

Boys- The boys are both doing well, getting anxious for summer and more time at home with their animals. Isaiah's having a rough day of it today- his ear tube (place two years ago) is coming out, and causing him some pain. They spent time this morning at the local easter basket extravaganza, and both came home happy.

Growing things- I have heirloom tomatoes, herbs, and peppers under lights in the back porch, my seeds and potatoes should get here next week. Now for more warmth in the soil so things can begin to grow outside.

My five minutes is up, More to come!

Hi Don M!!!

Shearing Date Set = Spring Must Be Near!

Yes, and Shearing is only a week away! I won't be shearing as close to lambing this year. Ewes aren't due until mid April, but I was happy to get our wonderful shearer Brian Fitzpatrick booked again this year. This is the fifth year he has sheared for us, and the fifth year we have had sheep to shear! Don't mess up a good thing right?
We have had wonderful, very warm for northern MN, temperatures lately. Most of the snow is melted, and we are all hoping it stays that way.
The sows are ready to farrow, we are waiting on more calves, and the lambs. I also ordered 15 magpie ducklings. Magpie's are a heritage breed, listed as critical. They are known for their good foraging habits, and a taste for those nasty slugs and snails that carry the dreaded deer liver fluke our area is lucky enough to have. We lost three sheep to it last year. Not a fun thing. We are excited for some ducks again. Not to mention less snails!

Shearing 2011

Thor with Annafleece, he jumped right in and helped.

Since there is a break in the lambing action (darn it) I decided I better post about last Saturday's shearing. We have had Brian Fitzpatrick shear for us each year, and he always does a great job. He lives a considerable distance away, so he usually only makes one or two passes this far north each year. Shearing was set for Saturday evening. All the sheep were in the garage, tables ready, sheets and tags ready.

We had a good crowd this year: Judy and Jerry, Jeri, Tim & Karlene along with Thor and Autumn, Sandy, Nate's mom Jan, my parents, Auntie Linda and of course Gramma Butchy.

After a good meal of bbq beef, salads, mac and cheese, onion casserole, and other goodies, we got to work.

All 19 sheep were shorn, and everyone had a good time. The rams were brought back to the pasture and decided to put on a show for everyone since they didn't recognize each other. I appreciated all the help. Nine fleeces were sold fresh off the sheep, so heading in the right direction there too.

Spring...where are you?

Kohen with the red girls Gertrude and Gwendalyn.

I've got it, the spring bug that is. Yesterday I sat down with my calendar and realized it is less than four weeks till lambs could arrive. Not a happy thought when every outside surface is buried under snow and ice.

Our plan is/was to lamb in the barn this year. Novel concept right? The past two years lambing has taken place in the garage. Nate the great does a nice job of converting out two stalls into a large pen and four lambing jugs. The concern now is if the snow will be gone enough to move the hogs out of the barn and into their pasture pen, easier said then done. From there we would set up jugs (small pens the ewe and lambs are located to, assists with observation and bonding) and move the sheep into the barn. I admit the garage had its advantages, namely an eight step walk from the house, convenient on middle of the night checks.

I do realize that we live in Minnesota, where the weather is known to make crazy shifts, but I don't want to count on that.

Vaccines have been ordered, the shearer called, I'm trying to get the pieces I can control taken care of, and hoping that the weather turns around. Unfortunately, our forecast includes snow in the next few days.

The animals are getting ready for spring. Turk is currently in the tree gobbling and displaying for the hens, who happen to be on the ground. The chickens have increased their egg production, the goats are getting fat (they aren't due until May), my seed starting materials have at least made it to the back porch, and the boys are talking about novel things like gator driving, grass, and mud. I spent some time with the sheep yesterday, and felt udders on a few of the friendlies. Darla surprise me most of all. She has some good development. I'm excited to see what Isaiah's favorite sheep and Marshmallow will present us this spring. It will be Darla's first lambing.

I get anxious to get the sheep sheared, it's so much easier to see the condition of everyone. It looks like Jacobs is carrying twins again, but I'm a bit concerned about Pamela, she's one of our oldest girls and has started to look a bit swaybacked. She also lost one of her horns which had been cracked since last spring. I get so excited at the thought of new babies, and watching my ewes with great mothering abilities take care of their babies. Nate thinks that all the lambs should be market lambs this year, and that our flock should shrink a bit. I refuse to make any decisions yet.

One of the things I am most looking forward to is June, and not having to use 2 1/2 gallons of gas each day to drive to work. Mukwah will be much happier when he gets more free time too.

Today is a busy day too. Nate and my dad are headed out to pick up our beef. We bought a whole this year and it's been hanging for nine days. The guys have converted a side room of the morton building into a meat shop. I'll spend the day with freezer paper, a sharpie, and tape, lots of tape. Tonight will be capped off with some fresh cut steaks on a wood fired grill (coals taken out of the outside wood boiler and thrown in the webber.) My mouth is watering.

Busy Day with an extra surprise!

Backwards order on the photos, darn blogger.

Johanna, first lamb of 2010.

Kelly, Kohen, and Lily supervising Brian Fitzpatrick's work.

Fleecy girls, before.

Poor Jacobs, look at that swollen belly and growing bag. It will be less than a week for those babies!

Setting the last beam on the barn.

So, in the past 15 hours we have been busy. The garage has been converted to a lambing barn, complete with four jugs, and the ewes have been moved on in. All 17 sheep have been sheared and given CD&T vaccinations. The barn now has beams on top of the posts. With some nice handworked mortise and tenons. I also squeaked in time for a batch of yogurt, 2 loaves of bread, and lamb stew. Add that on top of the regular chores of milking the goat, feeding the chickens and turkeys, and you can understand why this is the first moment I've had to sit for more than ten minutes today.

Add in one brand new lamb as a surprise to this eventful day! Earlier this morning I had noticed that Plum was down at the bottom of the pasture alone, I thought it a bit odd, and even said something to Nate, but when she saw me approach the fence she quickly came back up to join the others. I moved the ewe flock to the garage (thank goodness for portable fencing and a husband and dad assisting!) and then went into the house to make lunch for the guys who were busy placing beams on the barn. We ate, and headed back out to work on the barn. You can imagine my shock when I check on the ewes and there was a brand new, wet lamb in the middle of the flock! She was walking around trying to figure out which of these wooly critters was her mom. I quickly realized Plum was her mom and we moved them into a jug. Nate and I were gasping in shock and shaking our heads the whole time. Plum came to our flock 1 1/2 years ago along with her mom Kizzy, and twin sister Sugar, from Rayna at Northstar Shetlands . She was not bred last year so this was her first lambing and she was a trooper! The ewe lamb is a bit early, the rams weren't put in until the last week in October. (Of course I can't remember the exact date unless I looked back on the blog.) I've checked bags on my usual early lambers- Jacobs and Kizzy and was expecting either of them to be first this year.

Well, after shearing it was obvious that we have a number of very pregnant girls! Jacobs and Kizzy are both much bigger than last year, as is Scar. Fiona looks smaller, but is bagging up nicely so it is anybody's guess. I was most excited to see Anna's rounded belly and growing bag. Our little girl is finally going to have a baby! It feels much longer than two years since we were coaxing her through life in the mudroom.

Back to the baby! Nate's buddy Johann brought his mini excavator over today to help set the beams on the posts for the barn. He also cleaned up what will be the inside floor of the barn, did some ditch work and scraped up all the excess hay that was left in the field from feeding round bales this winter. That was disheartening, well over $200 worth of hay wasted by my picky sheep. Not sure it was worth it to feed lower grade large bales, even though it was much more convenient for us. They just wasted so much. I know that they were able to get enough good feed out of it because they all look to be in great condition, but what a mess to clean up.

Ok, I have a lot of barn and sheep pictures to post, but they'll have to wait till tomorrow, even my fingers are slowing down now!