New girls in town -

Since both Jewell and Moni had "birthing" problems, The Shepherd decided that they needed to go to a new home/spinner flock where there would be no chance of them getting bred - Since we had gotten both of them from our friend Donna - she graciously offered to take them back in exchange for two of her lambs from this year. Both of these girls have such beautiful fleeces, I am glad that they are going back to their original home to live out their lives.






In exchange, we got two new lambs - Tinkerbell and Pixie Dust - however, The Shepherd decided that he wanted to re-name them - so we now have DonnasSheep - "Donna" (so named because her wool is almost the same color as Donna's beautiful red hair)









And DonnasSheep Vanessa

We loaded them into dog crates and since it was cool, we all went to a local restaurant for the yummiest brunch.












So, after several years, The Shepherd has his little red sheep back. I think they will both hold their color too - as they haven't done the "lamb color change" yet - here are Wicket & Krissie checking out the new girls in town.





They both have just the sweetest faces and are different enough that even I'll be able to tell them apart.

They had only been weaned for a day or two when we moved them, but they were very good and quite quiet, in contrast to Wicket & Krissie (whose moms went back to Donna's) - they are STILL complaining.

Poor little things.

Was it just Dumb Luck?

Or am I getting better at this craft?

As you can see one bobbin is EMPTY and the other one almost EMPTY!

I have been able to do this spinning from top or from roving, but not from a batt before. I was quite pleased with myself, I must say...

This is Moni's lamb fleece - it didn't do too well at Black Sheep, but it has sure spun up nicely. In fact, I've had to concentrate on not getting it too fine -





Here's the finished product - ready to make into a skein. (yes, that bobbin is pretty darn full - wasn't going to get much more on it anyhow...)

I have decided to start spinning up all the Shetland wool that we have (trust me, there is lots) - The Shepherd wants a "sampler" sweater of some kind - (I still have not gotten the 1600 yards of the Regina/AnnaDee blend that I made last fall to Denise so she could start THAT sweater...)

Hmmm - maybe she'll be at guild on Saturday...

I'm supposed to be doing some "work from home" this evening but I'm playing hooky from my own resolve. I've been "working from home" a bit more lately - still trying to get caught up from the new accounting system installed in October. We're almost there - but not quite.

I hope your New Year is going well. I'll have a few pictures from the New Year's Day brunch at Nancy's Farm and a recipe for you this weekend - Cheddar, Bacon and Apple Bread Pudding. It was surprisingly tasty (well, there was almost 2# of bacon - yes, it was that good)

Making a fashion statement

Here is Moni, returned from her stay at the hospital. She was very glad to be home, with familiar tasting hay and her girlfriends all peering over the sides of the pen she was in.

She has continued to improve. (I understand that she was "pronging" around the pasture this afternoon) I never did clearly understand what the problem was- I know there was a lot of afterbirth that had to be removed (ick) after the death of the twins. The staff and Dr.s at Kulshan Vet in Lynden are just the best. They even sent The Shepherd a very caring sympathy note after he'd had Buddy put down and the loss of the twins on the same day.

Actually the coats and shirts all came off last Friday - the weather man was calling for rain, and since these garments were all of man made fabrics, we didn't want the sheepies to get wet and then chilled - making things worse. So Friday evening when I got home from work, The Shepherd was just finishing his "sheep laundry" and standing there laughing - it seems that he had missed this lable in the coat that H.B. was wearing - MacBaaaa - The perfect manufacturer for the clothing of the well dressed ram, now, don't you think?

Baby, it's COLD outside!

New York, you can keep your "haute couture" - here on the farm, we have "oat couture"

The temps are supposed to hit lows in the teens tonight with an Arctic blast moving down from Canada. The Shepherd went shopping at Value Village this afternoon - Since it is not supposed to rain, he went with heavy fleeces (ironic...) H.B.'s new coat fits him like a glove.

We think that he thinks he's got casts on his front legs because he walks all stiff legged, but he seems to appreciate the warmth of his new duds as he snoozes in the late afternoon sun.


Like any teenaged boy, Taylor wasn't too sure about his new sweater, but he seems to have gotten used to it pretty quickly.

It was snowing a blizzard this a.m. when it was time for me to leave for work. Since snow equals no work for The Shepherd/Landscaper, he played Chauffeur and took me to work. I was glad for the ride - cars were slipping and sliding all over the place!






Hey Danny - you look pretty good in red.

Pearl and Luna got Ladies size M - The Shepherd said he thought the M should stand for Maternity - they are pretty snug around those bumpy bellies.

The girls are locked in the barn with the heat lamp on tonight - he said they looked pretty comfortable when he went out before bed.

Even in the few minutes that I've been writing the temperature has dropped a few degrees and the wind is picking up. I'm really glad that he decided to do this.






The shepherd resisted the little pink hoodie that said "Princess" on the front for Miss Violet.

The funniest part about his shopping trip was explaining to the ever helpful sales clerk that he wasn't buying clothes for his daughters but for his sheepie girls. I'd love to have heard the coversations that brought up this afternoon.









I think Jewell looks kind of like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance, don't you?

Moni update:
Moni is still in the hospital. (cha-ching) They were going to "turn off" her IV's over night in hopes that her body will start normal functions again, if that makes any sense. It sounded like her rumen system had shut down too, so they have given her something to get that back up and running.

The shepherd drove there this a.m. in the blizzard to take her some of our hay, as she wasn't eating. Everyone agreed that leaving her there overnight was safest considering the weather. We're keeping our fingers crossed.




Well, it is a neighborhood legend that when we have lambs in the front pasture, it stops traffic. I'm sure that these two running around in their new sweaters will give everyone a good chuckle on their way to work in the morning.

Looking back Sunday

Looking back to March 8, 2006 - the dafs were up and blooming - they are a few weeks away this year - it snowed around the county today - big fat fluffy flakes - that were gone in an hour - but the temp is 32 degrees out right now and it's supposed to get colder tomorrow.

Sheep update: The Shepherd took Moni into the vet today (cha-ching) - apparently she had developed some kind of magnesium/calcium toxicity - they almost lost her and the vets said that if the lambs had lived and started nursing, the toll on her system would have been so great and we probably would have lost her then.

Sheesh.

The Shepherd is concerned about bringing her home in the Arctic cold weather that has gripped our area. Hopefully he can devise some sort of coat situation for her.

Hopefully the weather doesn't get too bad tomorrow - I'm signed up for a crocheted hat class at my LYS tomorrow night. It sounds like it will be fun.

Marietta Shetlands Welcomes Moni

Susie: "Who's that?"

Anna D: "What's all the baa'ing about?"

Regina: "Luna - why are you and Jewell out in that pasture by yourselves - you girls come back here this minute"

Gwendolyn: "I can only guess, but you'd never believe what happened to me this morning - to heck with the kids!"



The object of (most of) their questions is Moni. She came to live with us today from Donna & Tom's farm in Alger. She is black but she has several grey/fawn colored spots including her little krunet spot on the top of her head.

She is very well behaved and settled in quickly - her "farm sister" Jewell came to live with us in late summer and I think that they recognized each other. They both have a very distinctive little "Baa-AH-aa" where it goes up at the end- very cute.

Watching a new sheep come into the flock is like watching a marching band gone amuck - but there was no violence only a lot of calling to "Mom" (ok, Luna, it's time to put your big girl pants on and deal with it)

Moni has been to several fairs recently, so I think she just believes she's just at another fair - I guess she'll figure it out in a couple of days...






She figured out the feed bowl anyhow!

Neelix is just glad that those "vishus sheep" are on the other side of the fence!