Little Country Acres

Moving forward...

2012-01-16T11:16:00.000-06:00

Well, that was fun.
My illinoissheep.com on blogger disappeared into the stratosphere, and blogger's tech support bites. I mean, they are really, really horrible. It took me hours of work and numerous phone calls to get my URL in the process of being moved to a new host, where I can begin building my website from scratch. It's a pain in the rear, but it had to be done. Yahoo was no longer working on any updates for Pagebuilder and they gave me the impression that it is soon to be obsolete. Since my site had been built on Pagebuilder, the pages had been failing to update for some time now. It was time to move.
   My blog also fell off the face of the earth as well with the attempted transition? But I managed to get it back up again just recently by screwing around with the settings. I'm missing some photos, but I have everything backed up on disks.

   Sheep are doing great. My new Katahdins are filling our nicely on forage alone. I'll be ram shopping over the summer. Many of the Kat breeders are lambing in January and I'm being teased with photos of furry little lambs in so many colors.
   The Shetlands are doing great. I sold a bred ewe (Lil'Country BeeSting), Bug went back home in one piece, and I had a nice visit with Kelly Bartels and had the opportunity to visit with her fine flock of exceptional Shetlands.

    I really like my new Sydell feeder that I picked up at Jefferson, and I'm definetely going to add a few more. Much less waste.

   So I just wanted to touch base and let everyone know that all is well, and good things will be coming to Little Country Acres in 2012!

Shelteringpines Bug is here!!

2011-12-04T12:02:00.001-06:00

We at Little Country Acres received a treat yesterday, as Bug arrived to service my Shetland ewes. Thank you Kelly Bartels of Ok Acres, WI for allowing me to borrow this gorgeous polled ram! He was very well worth the wait.

Bug's breeding groups consists of Twilight and her twin sister Victoria, their dame Cleopatra, and Shamu, Ava Adore, Alberta, and Bar. Bug quickly covered Shamu right away, so maybe she'll go first next year. There will be some exciting lambs here next May, hopefully a mini-Bug that I can retain as a flock sire here.

Here is my home grown crossing sire. He is by Punch, our Suffolk ram from Mark Lelli's Muleflock.

"Bonnie the Mule" is on the left, she is our crossing ram's dame. Bonnie is by purebred BFL Shelteringpines Nightwatch, a natural colored BFL ram. Lambchop, a purebred Cheviot, is on the right and she is Bonnie's dame. They are being bred back to the crossing ram.

Rear view of the crossing ram. Nice little "hams". Hope to get some nice little market lambs by him, and some nice sized ewe lambs to retain.

I am not breeding any ewe lambs this year. So they, including my four Katahdin ewe lambs, get to stay in the barn for 3 weeks where there will be less chance of an accidental breeding through the fence. North Winds Netty, who will be 11 next spring, gets to babysit and enjoy her retirement. Let the countdown to May lambs begin!

Taking a little break.

2011-11-23T16:28:00.001-06:00

Until further notice, I will not be registering any more Shetlands.
I am planning on taking at least a year off of NASSA membership. I will be building my meat flock and playing with my Katahdins.
If you'd like a registered Shetland, you might want to buy before Dec. 31st. I have some rams available, may be willing to part with a ewe or two as well.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Sheep photos

2011-10-08T11:40:00.003-05:00

I know I haven't been blogging very much lately, sorry about that! Mostly, I've been using our farm page on Facebook since I spend more time over there. If you haven't already, please "like" our page on Facebook for more frequent updates on what is going on at Little Country Acres. There is a direct link to it on the home page of my website at www.illinoissheep.com

I can't add too much more than what has already been said about the Jefferson show. As you can see, my ram Windy Acres Hickory, bred by Carol Bator, did very well, placing second in Mature Ram class. I am not a big show person, but I'm so very glad that I turned out to show support for Kate Sharp, Alan Hill, and my fellow breeders who worked hard to get them here. I absorbed a lot of information from them to help make me a better breeder, and I am comfortable knowing that my farm, and many others, are on the right path to preserve the Shetland here in North America. And personally, I am through with entrusting my sheep to the scrutiny of the average North American livestock judge who has cut his teeth on big white commercial sheep. We have something unique, I want to be a part of doing what is right and preserve them.

This is Lil'Country Bee Sting, (Fox Meadow Sheamus X Lil'Country BabyBee). I had planned on showing her in ewe lamb class, but she is as wild as a march hare and frankly I got tired of trying to halter break her. So she stayed home. (shrug)

Lil'Country Victoria, yearling Shetland ewe. (Sommerang Eragon X Lil'Country Cleopatra).

Lil'Country Cleopatra (Bluff Country Kokomo X Justalit'l Lacey) Cleo is the dame of both Victoria and Twilight, my spotted twin girls who hopefully carry polled.

Lil'Country Tanjo & Fun Luv, 2 year old moorit gulmoget ewes who are by Windy Acres Hickory and out of Shelteringpines Niobe.

Another shot of Bee Sting.

I LOVE these two twin spotted ewe lambs by Whispering Pines Saturday Night, out of Lil'Country Shamu. Little concrete block bodies on them.

Lil'Country Ava Adore, yearling spotted ewe by Sommerang Eragon, out of Shelteringpines Arabesque. I bred Ava last year, which I usually don't do (bred ewe lambs), she gave me a lovely black spotted ewe lamb, who is a friendly little bugger, featured below.

I still haven't named any of my keeper ewe lambs yet, guess I should get on that. :)

Suffolk X Shetland cross wether, who will be butchered in November for one of my repeat lamb meat customers. Not thrilled with the growth on the crosses using a Shetland as a crossing dame. I cannot meet up with the demand for lamb, and so we have added.....

Katahdins!! Why Katahdins? For one thing, I think they're cool. Not only are they another attractive breed with their colors & spots, but this particular flock is 100% forage based, no grain. Their breed association, while they do have a breed standard, is a no drama association from what I can tell. Phenotype is less important than the performance and health of the individual sheep. Does the sheep shed, and how much do they weigh at 90 & 120 days? Upgrading through crossing is allowed. And most importantly, they are parasite resistant. These particular lambs were dewormed once, and they are sleek and have bright red eye membranes. I have been on a waiting list for over a year for these four registered ewe lambs. There is a lot of demand for them. I really like them.

Up and coming ram lambs.

2011-08-05T17:48:00.002-05:00

I'll start off with a ewe lamb, because I'm sure her new WI owner would like to see how she's coming along. The above little lady is by Whispering Pines Saturday Night, out of Underhill Bar.

Not sure if I'm going to keep this fellow intact or not, he's growing small scurs. Other than that, he's turning out pretty nice. He is by Saturday Night, out of Lil'Country Alberta (Twin Springs Bearclaw X Underhill Bar).

This twin spotty, smooth polled ram lamb is also by Saturday Night, out of Lil'Country Cleopatra (Bluff Country Kokomo X Justalit'l Lacey). I sure am loving seeing spotted lambs again after a long withdrawl.

This nice moorit fellow is by Fox Meadow Sheamus, out of Lil'Country Moss Rose. He sure looks like Sheamus. If I decide to show at Jefferson, this might be my show boy.

This is the twin to the above Cleopatra ram lamb, also smooth polled and looking real good so far. As of right now, I'm planning on using him this fall on the ewe flock. I want to micron test him before I make that decision, though. He carries moorit recessively, so he'll give me some moorit spotties next spring. As you can see, I'm nudging the flock back to my first love, SPOTS.

That's going to be pretty much it for ram lambs this year. I've culled the rest already. A few of them grew larger scurs and I didn't think anyone would want them. One just had a just awful tail out of nowhere.

I'll get some photos of my ewe lambs soon, darn it I've got a few of them out there I really like.

Netty lost one of her lambs after about a week. It simply failed to thrive. The other is doing fine, again looks like Sheamus. He really put a stamp on his get. I'm going to name the lamb Nabby, after the daughter of John Adams. (If you haven't seen the "John Adams" HBO mini-series, check it out. It's absolutely incredible.)
Netty also developed mastitis, my first case ever. Antibiotics saved her from losing that half of her bag and she is doing very well. She looks better than she usually does this time of year, has some weight on her. Still her usual loud self, bellowing for her treat everyday. Spoiled rotten.

Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival Sept. 9th through 11th., 2011

2011-07-14T17:08:00.003-05:00

   I have been attending the Midwest Shetland Sheepbreeder's Assn's. (MSSBA) annual show almost every year since it's inception. I did take a break last year, but I'm very much looking forward to the events this year at "the Jefferson Show".
   What makes this year special? Shetland sheep judges from the UK are coming to share their wealth of knowledge on our favorite breed.
   Jefferson is a very friendly, welcoming show where you'll spend time with old friends, make many new ones, get your hands on a lot of sheep (not just Shetlands), and enjoy tons of good food and maybe a few drinks as well. Tons of vendors, and the grounds are neat and clean.
   Don't be shy, come on out and join us!

WSWF- MSSBA ACTIVITIES

Thursday pm

Sheep check-in

Friday

9-11am Judge's training seminar (Arena)

1-3 pm ram/ewe inspections (Arena)

All Day-Sheep Check-in (Sheep Bldg)

Fleece check-in

Skein Check-in

5-6pm Pizza party (Arena)

6-7pm MSSBA AGM (Bleachers)

Saturday -

Morning Sheep check-in

9am Shetland Fleece Show Judge Kate Sharp Exhibition Hall

12pm Shetland Sheep Show (Sheep Barn)

9-4 Silent Auction (Sheep Barn) Winners announced at 4pm

6pm -So. Of the Sheep barn POT LUCK - all NASSA/MSSBA Members& Shetland Sheep Lovers invited

Sunday –

10-12pm Kate Sharp presentation on Shetlands in the UK So. end of East Exhibition hall across from the Sheep barn Free to the public.

12-2 Handy Shepherds presentations

1pm Skein competition

1pm Handmade ( Note that this will include all handmade items woven, felted etc,) competition Goat Barn

Farm Displays all day- Goat Barn

All weekend there are other activities that would interest Shetland sheep owners There are classes for shepherds, Classes and competitions for youth, classes for knitters and spinners, There is also a Championship competition that the Champions of the Shetland show our invited to compete against other breed winners at WSWF. Check out the website for all that is available. At

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.com

2011 spring microns, the good the bad and the ugly.

2011-05-28T14:49:00.000-05:00

Good quick guide to understanding micron tests. All of our samples were taken off the mid-side.

http://pacificalpacas.com/PAFleeceSGSAlpaca.pdf

Test results:

Lil'County Alberta 27.6 SD 7.4 CV 26.9 CF 70.0% SF 28.3

Lil'Country Ava 25.6 SD 6.0 CV 23.4 CF 77.9% SF 25.4

Lil'Country BabyBee 26.1 SD 4.4 CV 17.0 CF 86.6 SF 24.6

Underhill Bar 28.2 SD 6.6 CV 23.2 CF 65.0 SF 28.0

"Buck Schultz" yearling moorit ram 25.6 SD 5.3 CV 20.8 CF 83.1 SF 24.8

Lil'Country Cleopatra 24.5 SD 7.0 CV 28.6 CF 81.0 SF 25.6

Lil'Country Dixie Cup 28.4 SD 7. 2 CV 25.3 CF 61.3 SF 28.8

Lil'Country Fun Luv 31. 3 SD 5.6 CV 18.0 CF 44.2 SF 29.7 (yikes!)

Windy Acres Hickory 26.0 SD 5.6 CV 21.5 CF 78.8 SF 25.4

Lil'Country Machete 27. 8 SD 5.3 CV 19.1 CF 68.3 SF 26.6

Lil'Country Moss Rose 31.6 SD 5.3 CV 16.8 CF 42.9 SF 29.8 (wha?)

Lil' County Nightcap 25.3 SD 4.6 CV 18.1 CF 86.4 SF 24.1

Lil'Country Rush 27.7 SD 8.8 CV 31.6 CF 66.2 SF 29.9 (the heck?)

Whispering Pines Saturday Night 25.8 SD 5.2 CV 20.0 CF 82.3 SF 24.9

Lil'Country Shamu 29.7 SD 6.7 CV 22.7 CF 56.9 SF 29.3 (gah!)

Lil'Country Tango 27.8 SD 5.3 CV 18.9 CF 73.0 SF 26.6

Lil'Country Toast 24.1 SD 6.0 CV 25.0 CF 86.0 SF 24.4

Lil'Country Twilight 24.4 SD 7.4 CV 30.2 CF 78.3 SF 25.9

Lil'Country Victoria 25. 2 SD 7.6 CV 30.3 CF 74.6 SF 26.8

Lil'Country Wheat 27.4 SD 7.0 CV 25.6 CF 68.9 SF 27.8

A few photos.

2011-05-17T20:41:00.000-05:00

One of BabyBee's pretty little ladies, by Fox Meadow Sheamus. 

Dixie Cup's black ewe lamb, also by Sheamus.

Fun Luv's moorit ewe lamb, by Sheamus.

BabyBee and her babies.

Cleopatra and her twin ram lambs. (She doesn't have a underbite, she's just chewing.)

Tango and her 1/2 Suffolk lambs.

Ava and her pretty little ewe lamb.

 Bonnie the Mule and her beautiful 1/2 Suffolk lambs. I love their round white bottoms.

Netty's last jam.

2011-04-11T19:21:00.000-05:00

North Wind Netty came to me in the spring of 2005, when I had committed to being the first breeder in North America to step out into the great unknown and try to concentrate the poll gene and breed for an all polled flock.
    I had put the word out that I was seeking sons and daughters of the two polled rams I was aware of in the Midwest, Bramble Dixen and Walnut Rise Malcolm. My dear friend Stephen Rouse of Sheltering Pines Shetland Sheep in Allegan, MI, called to tell me that he had located a Walnut Rise Shakespeare daughter. Shakespeare was a polled son of Malcolm. I recall asking if she was a good ewe, and after Stephen reassured me that she was definetely breeding quality, I drove up to Michigan to buy her.
   Over the years, Netty's lambs were admittedly hit or miss. I kept her 2006 ewe lamb, Babybee, who happened to get the best traits from both her parents. The last few years Netty gave me ram lambs that weren't the quality I was really wanting in a breeding ram, and they ended up going to auction.
    This year is to be Netty's last breeding. She is a ewe who gives her all to her lambs, and tends to get very sucked down by lactation. Now she's 10, and I'd like to retire her. Her last covering was under Fox Meadow Sheamus, a polled moorit ram who I thought would complement both her strengths and her weaknesses.
    I had hoped for at least a decent ewe lamb out of her to keep.
   This afternoon, Netty quietly wandered into the barn, old pro that she is, laid down, and with barely a grunt shot out TWO moorit ewe lambs like bars of soap.

One has a bit longer tail than I'd like, but other than that, they look darn nice. Thank you Netty, you did good, girl. Love and kisses from the happy Shepherd.

A few lambing highlights...so far

2011-04-07T17:44:00.000-05:00

This little fellow is one of nearly identical twin ram lambs out of Lil'Country Cleopatra, by WhisperingPines Saturday Night. So far, out of five purebred ram lambs so far, not one set of bone knobs. All smooth, leathery patches or nothing at all up on top.

Both of these ewe lambs will be staying. That's the plan so far, anyway. They are out of Lil'Country Shamu, a spotted katmoget. Sire is Saturday Night.

Another shot of Shamu's grey kat spottie girl. I love it! The fleeces should be incredible.

Twin ram lambs out of Valient Valora, sire is Fox Meadow Sheamus. This is Valora's first brown based lamb. I thought she was double black BB/BB for sure, but being a Shetland, she decided to surprise me. The brown is very promising.

If someone had told me five years ago that I would ever be crossing Shetlands, I'd have told them they were crazy. But here they are, Suffolk X Shetland crosses. A ram and a ewe, they are darn CUTE! Very tiny and grey, they feel like furry field mice. I'll let them grow out and see how they look. I'm think they'll lighten. I think crossing Shetlands is almost as much fun and exciting as the pures. How versatile this breed is.

Lil'Country Ava Adora threw a lovely little black smirslet ewe that is also on the keep list. I'll get photos of her later. Bye for now!

Shepherd's Christmas has begun!

2011-04-04T17:24:00.000-05:00

It is about that time when things can start to happen, so I started doing morning lamb checks just yesterday. Today, all the ewes were snug in the barn except for Underhill Bar. She had secluded herself out in a calf hut, away from the prying eyes of her peers. I figured we'd have our first 2011 Little Country lambs sometime today, and I was correct!

Lunchtime, I found Bar with two dried off black Blettets, a ram lamb and a ewe lamb. Bar is a flawless mother. The ram lamb has leathery patches. So he might scur, he might not. I poured iodine on the umbilical cords, tagged them, checked sex and made sure both lambs had a hole where they really need one before leaving them be. Bar received some Bounce Back (powder electrolytes) as a tasty treat in her water bucket.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz................

Nekkid sheepies

2011-03-26T10:23:00.000-05:00

After a few years of late May shearing, I decided to go back to having it done and over with in March. For one thing, it is easier getting the Shearer out in March. Also, I am considering taking some sheep to Jefferson this year, and I'd like them in fuller fleece. I know I had sworn off showing, but...I've never had the opportunity to show under a UK judge, someone who really, really knows the Shetland breed, either! I'm sure tempted. Not that I think I'll place any better, there as so many really good sheep brought to this particular show, but at least I would love to have some of my flock inspected by this judge and get her honest opinion on where I could do better. And darn it, I miss the good times I always have with my Shetland friends. :)

Last Saturday was mild and in the 60's, so after shearing we let everybody out to fill their empty tummies with hay and a little grain. And I took a few photos.

Lil'Country Nightcap, a 2008 ShelteringPines Pompey Magnus son out of Lil'Country Acorn, who was a Malcolm daughter/ Gallifrey granddaughter, has turned into a beautiful 3 year old ram.

I can reflect back to when I started patching this flock together using those oh-so-rare suspect poll carriers, I can be happy that I'm finally starting to get a few right after so much frustration.

This is my British Suffolk ram, Punch, who I purchased from Mark & Brenda Lelli. He has stayed in good condition over the winter on a hay only diet. He is a calm boy, who gently takes corn from my hand. I'm not partial to blackface sheep, but he has a surprisingly pretty, chocolate colored face. He had been put over three Shetland ewes for an experiment in some market lamb. This will be my first time crossing any Shetland ewes.

I never did get a good photo before of Lil'Country Twilight, twin sister to LC Victoria, a moorit spottie. Scrawny little thing that she is. Her mother is LC Cleopatra, who unfortunately has some pretty bad iset. I was pleased to see no iset on either Twilight or Victoria at their yearling shearing, hopefully I won't see any next year, either but won't hold my breath. Twilight and Victoria were sired by Sommerang Eragon. Eragon was killed in a ram fight last year, (yeah, the polled guys can kill each other too, boys will be boys), but I have some precious babies to treasure by him.

I don't think iset is the worse trait a Shetland can have, it can make a lovely yarn, but....I personally don't care for it. It creates a coarser hand in the fleeces that I've felt, it is dominant, and I want a black or brown fleece to STAY black or brown beyond the lamb's fleece. I still have a few mature spotted ewes with iset, but I wouldn't shed a tear to see it gone from my flock completely.

This is my Twin Springs Bearclaw X Lil'Country Giselle daughter. I went ahead and registered her, I'll breed her this fall if she doesn't sell or if I decide to keep her. I named her Toast. The Ag made a pretty pattern on her freshly shorn skin. I don't have a lot of Ag, this looks very pretty in my flock. I also registered my Ag kat Bearclaw X Chamois daughter, I named her Wheat.

This is Dolly, a mule (BFL X Cheviot). She belongs to my friend Denise, who decided her Cheviot, Lambchop, and Dolly would be happier among other sheep. I care for them and breed them, and get to keep the lambs. Dolly was exposed to the Suffolk, Lambchop was exposed to Fox Meadow Sheamus. However, I put them in late and don't know if they were exposed long enough to have settled. We'll find out in a month, I guess.

Underhill Bar, a North Wind Holiday daughter. She is bred to Whispering Pines Saturday Night and I'm hoping for some exciting spotted babies!

Lil'Country Tango (Windy Acres Hickory X Shelteringpines Niobe), a moorit gulmoget, was exposed to the Suffolk. Her moorit gulmoget full twin, Fun Luv, was bred to Fox Meadow Sheamus. I'm hoping for a nice moorit gulmoget out of Fun Luv.

This will be North Wind Netty's last lambing. I'm retiring her after this. I bred her to Sheamus hoping for an awesome replacement ewe lamb, hopefully something as nice as BabyBee or nicer. Netty was supplemented with grain over the winter to keep her weight up. At 10 years of age, she is as energetic as ever, but my husband commented that she just looks tired. She will relax next breeding season hanging out with the open ewe lambs. I love Netty, she is my lovable lap sheep. She's my buddy and she'll die here on this farm.

Valient Valora, carrying a Sheamus baby (or babies) looking good as always.

Spotted breeding group and some retained ewe lambs

2010-12-26T11:52:00.001-06:00

I hope everyone had a beautiful, relaxed, and fun filled Christmas. So here are just a few long overdue sheep photos. Above is our spotted breeding group, headed by Whispering Pines Saturday Night (Wintertime Bond X Shelteringpines Cor de Nuit). Although I've abstained from breeding ewe lambs the last few years, I went ahead and exposed a few this year that I thought size-wise would be able to handle motherhood well if they settle. I am hoping that Night is BB/Bb, but if he isn't, we'll have plenty of black and hopefully spotted lambs to make me smile this coming spring.

Whispering Pines Saturday Night. Thank you Rich and Jen Johnson for this awesome ram.

Here are some of my retained ewe lambs. I finally got around to naming the poor girls, lol. This is Lil'Country Ava Adore (S32062). Sommerang Eragon X Shelteringpines Arabesque. How I treasure my precious Eragon babies. I have exposed her to Night.

This is Lil'Country Victoria (S32195) This moorit spottie is by Sommerang Eragon, and out of Lil'Country Cleopatra.

I either failed to take a nice pic of Victoria's full sister, black spotted Lil'Country Twilight, but here she is. These two are of a delicate build, much like their dame, so they remain open this winter.

I love this little lady, Lil'Country Rush (S32063) She is by Sommerang Eragon, and out of Underhill Peep. Peep and my gulmoget yearling ram went to Tennessee to join a polled Shetland flock owned by Voni Anderson at Anvo Acres. Rush was not exposed to a ram this year, either.

I haven't named this musket gal as of yet, as she is still for sale and I like to let my buyers name their lambs. She has an unusual charcoal color to her underlying lamb fleece, I'll have to get a photo of it one of these days. She is by Twin Springs Bearclaw, and out of Li'Country Giselle.

This is Lil'Country Machete (S32065). She is a grey kat by Shelteringpines Pompey Magnus and out of Lil'Country Pineapple Queen (SP Octavian X Justalit'l Grace). I exposed her to Fox Meadow Sheamus, who has been sold and moved onto a new breeding home here in the Midwest.

This is Lil'Country Alberta (S32064), a musket spottie by Twin Springs Bearclaw, and out of Underhill Bar. I named her after a spotted miniature jennet I used to own. Alberta has been exposed to Night.

   I still haven't decided if I'm going to pay for DNA testing on my little Shamu ram lamb. I suspect his sire is Pompey, and I already have a good Pompey son (Nightcap) to use for breeding if I want. If I get something spectacular out of Saturday night, spectacular as in spotted, polled, and of the quality I like, I'll probably want to to use that ram lamb. I've really, really missed breeding for spots as if you couldn't tell. So the only reason I have to pay for DNA testing would be to sell him registered.
     On the meat front, my lamb got rave reviews from my buyers this year, and I have a waiting list for lamb cuts again (Unless Monsanto and George Soros have thier way and put the small farmer completely out of business in the next few years). This leaves me at a crossroads, torn before my pedigree flock and satisfying a potentially financially rewarding demand for lamb meat. I will pray to find balance. I obtained a Cheviot ewe and her mature Mule daughter from a friend, who is cutting back on her livestock. My Suffolk ram, Punch, is doing very well on forage only, growing taller than my mature Shetlands at this time. I'm hoping for a growthy whiteface ram lamb to use as a terminal sire out of one of these two gals next spring.

    Have a Happy and fruitful New Year to all from the sheep and shepherds at Little Country Acres.

Breeding groups for 2011 lambing.

2010-11-24T17:39:00.001-06:00

I finally got around to naming my keeper ewe lambs from this spring. I didn't want to name them if I didn't like how they were looking by fall.

My new spotted ram from Rich Johnson has been named "Whispering Pines Saturday Night" as he is Live from New York. :)
He is in with the following ewes:
-Lil'Country Alberta, my 2010 musket spotty (Twinsprings Bearclaw X Underhill Bar)
-Lil'Country Ava Adore, my 2010 moorit spotty (Sommerang Eragon X Shelteringpines Arabesque)
-Underhill Bar (Northwind Holiday X Shelteringpines Barbara)
-Lil'Country Cleopatra (Bluffcountry Kokomo X Justalit'l Lacey)
-Lil'Country Shamu (Sommerang Eragon X Shelteringpines Chalmeaux)

Fox Meadow Sheamus is in with:
-North Wind Netty (Walnut Rise Shakespeare X NorthWind Lynnette). I am planning for this to be Netty's last lambing, so I'd really like a nice ewe lamb out of her.
-Lil'Country Babybee (Justalit'l Gallifrey X North Wind Netty)
-Lil'Country Dixie Cup (Sommerang Eragon X Justalit'l Grace)
-Lil'Country Fun Luv (Windy Acres Hickory X Shelteringpines Niobe)
-Lil'Country Machette, my 2010 grey katmoget (Shelteringpines Pompey Magnux X Lil'Country Pineapple Queen)
-Valiant Valora (Valiant Telford X Valiant Mavis)

I put the following Shetland ewes in with my British Suffolk ram, Punch:
-Shelteringpines Arabesque
-Lil'Country Moss Rose
-Lil'Country Tango.

  I left three smaller ewe lambs open this year. I named my two Eragon X Cleopatra spotted ewes Twilight and Victoria. Peep's black ewe lamb by Eragon is named Rush. I held over Chamois' katmoget and Giselle's musket as well. They're still up for sale, but I like them enough to keep them as breeders if they don't sell.

   Breeding groups were put up on the sixth, they'll come down this Saturday, with Sheamus as a clean up.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Live from New York...!!

2010-09-19T16:16:00.001-05:00

It was that time of year to do another hard evaluation of who is worth feeding pricey hay to over the winter, and who gets the boot. So the flock was run into the barn where I moved amongst them, feeling this one, taking a hard look at that one. The "for sure" keepers were seperated out and re-released back into the pasture. Sixteen sheep didn't make the cut.

The next morning, eleven went to auction. The five largest were delivered to the local locker to be picked up by our meat customers. I have a lot of friends, neighbors, and co-workers who are interested in buying healthy, natural lamb. I was turning people away!

So I was looking at the remaining sheep thinking to myself, what am I missing? I know I'd like a nice white ewe. I'd also give my kingdom for a good spotted polled ram. Who has one for sale? Whispering Pines in New York, owned by Rich & Jen Johnson, that's who. :)

So the arrangements were made, and here he is. As soon as we unloaded him and I sunk my finger's into that fleece....ohhhh he's soft! Softer than any of my blacks. He has a nice chunky build and a sweet little tail. He is going to do great things for my spotted line, and I can't wait to use him.

Between myself and Kelly B. at OK Acres in WI (who has Shelteringpines Bug), we'll soon be populating the midwest with dynamite little polled spotted rams. Yippee!!

Did I ever tell you that I love love love spotted Shetlands?

Growing lambs!

2010-08-10T17:44:00.000-05:00

Caught the little ones up for vaccinations & de-worming a few days ago. They arn't so little now, almost as big as their dames.

Here is my favorite boy. He's out of Lil'Country Shamu, an Eragon daughter. Sire is probably Pompey, but I'm going to have to DNA test him. He's awesome. Bite is good, testes are down. I'm probably going to retain this guy as a future flock sire here if he tests well.

Twin fawn kat ewes. SP Pompey Magnus X Lil'Country BabyBee. These girls are both available for sale. $200/ $250.

Musket single ewe lamb. TS Bearclaw X Lil'Country Giselle $200

Moorit spottie girl. Sommerang Eragon X SP Arabesque. Not for sale.

Grey kat ewe lamb. SP Pompey Magnus X Lil'Country Pineapple Queen. Not for sale.

Musket kat ewe lamb, TS Bearclaw X Lil'Country Meadow. Sold.

Musket smirslet kat ewe lamb. TS Bearclaw X Lil'Country Chamois. $200

Mioget katmoget ewe lamb. Pompey X Lil'Country Josie. $225

This is the only ram lamb we'll be offering for sale this year. We wethered everyone who didn't make the cut. He's a half poll, small scurred, double patterned. Musket katmoget. Bearclaw X Lil'Country Meadow. $200

Our pastures are just awesome this year. Everyone is plump & sassy. We fertilized, plus all this beautiful rain! Love it!

I also bought a British Suffolk ram lamb from Mark & Brenda Lelli. I want to play around with a little crossing. He's pretty narrow in the shoulder, doesn't have the real bulldog build that a lot of the British Suffolks have. I plan on putting him over 3-4 of my lesser quality girls. I've got lots of people who want to buy lamb, might as well take advantage of that market to help pay for my Shetland habit. I'm also researching possibly adding a small starter flock of Kathadins next year. Why? Because they're cool. I also like that their breed association is production based instead of being anal about cosmetic characteristics. They arn't trying to turn them into showring beauty queens. But I want to see how they taste first.

I love eating Shetlands, but I don't like feeding them through the winter to get them up to a decent butcher size. So that's the plan.

Just a few sheep photos.

2010-06-20T14:39:00.000-05:00

Musket spottie ewe lamb. Twin Springs Bearclaw X Underhill Bar.

Heterozygous black ewe lamb. Sommerang Eragon X Lil'Country Cleopatra.

Musket katmoget ewe lamb, TW Bearclaw X Lil'Country Meadow (Pompey daughter). Will be making her new home in WI.

Musket katmoget smirslet ewe lamb. TW Bearclaw X Lil'Country Chamois (Silvio daughter). Pretty amazing how that super scraggily birthcoat has evened out. $250

Fox Meadow Sheamus, two year old polled ram. I'm going to use this guy heavily this fall.

Yearling moorit gulmoget ram. Windy Acres Hickory X Lil'Country Carmela (Octavian daughter). Will be going to Tennessee to be a flock sire this fall.

A side sample.

2010-06-12T09:53:00.006-05:00

This side sample is from a purebred, registered Shetland ewe lamb. The breeder felt is was a long, fine, luxurious, silky, lusterous and proper Shetland fleece. Don't ask me who it came from, I'm not trying to be a mean bitch here, or be hurtful. I'm not going to lower myself to the bottom feeding level of the idiotic scum who attack breeders on their blogs.

I am trying to share that we do have a little bit of a serious problem here in North America with this "fine fleeced" fiber animal, where "coarse and open" fleece was thought of seriously enough that it was listed as a disqualification in the Standard.

Note: the bill was added as a scale to reference size. The sample measures 14" long. It would be considered an extreme at the far end of an acceptable continuum, and in light of the recent discussions and diatribes, I've finally decided to share it because I think people just don't know how bad some of this stuff is out there in the big world. THIS is what the kindly, classic breeders and some of our Board members are trying to discourage by supporting the Appendix.

Because it should be discouraged. Variation is all well and good, but how can anyone argue that fleece like this is quality stuff?

This ewe existed not because she had uncommon, or other valuable traits that the breeder was trying to tease out. If that were the case, then I can understand her existance. She was sold to someone else as registered breeding stock. This monstrosity is horse hair twine from top to bottom. There is not even a soft undercoat to seperate for the longwool breeders who like that extra step.

I obtained the sample from the buyer, who was quite displeased and shall also remain nameless.

I don't even like looking at it, much less do I want to spin it.
I've spun ICELANDIC, a REAL double coated sheep, that was finer than this!
If I were a non-sheepy handspinner walking through a Shetland show and I saw this trainwreck on the hoof, it would leave a very poor impression of Shetland sheep in my mind. Of course, if this lamb were at a show she'd be washed, shampooed, conditioned, and brushed to give the temporarly impression of some resemblance of softness. For now. And who knows what her mature fleece (3 years +) would even look like. I cringe at the thought.
   If this were "historical Shetland", I don't know how on God's green earth the Shetland got its reputation as a fine fleeced sheep. Is this Scottish Blackface influence? I've seen Scottish Blackface, I've felt it. Looks that way. You tell me.

This was a 100% Dailley ewe, no recent UK genetics through AI. Where did the characteristics come from?

   Of course, I do realize that not all longwool Shetlands are this poor of qualilty. I've heard that in other areas of the country there are soft, fine longwools. Good for you guys for at least keeping them soft.
   But stuff like this is not soft, it is being sold, and people are buying it and breeding it. In a way, none of my business, and my life would be much easier were I to simply look the other way. But is it the right thing to do?
    I AM a Shetland breeder, this does affect all of us. I guess that's why it matters to me. If I bred horses or dogs and observed my breed being degraded I think I would be obligated to say something. This is a hard fleece type to breed out once it gains a toehold. That toehold can turn into a stronghold in one's flock. Once you got it, good luck getting rid of it. And nobody wants to admit they bought crap. So they are stuck in the position of defending their crap or fear looking like fools. It is perfectly understandable. I've been that fool. I defended my crap for a long time until I humbled myself enough to start listening to people who knew more than me.

Disclaimer: My sheep are FAR from perfect. I have my own struggles with coarse fleece, and other cosmetic traits. But if I had a lamb that looked like this, she'd be in the freezer. Or she could be someone's beloved pet, or perhaps she'd be useful in a crossing flock. No way would my farm name be on registration papers for this hairy beast.

   So I guess what I'm trying to say is education on proper fleece characteristics is not necessarily a bad thing. Some people think it is. Some people are more concerned with their own pocketbooks than breed preservation. We see that a lot with fad, exotic breeds, which the Shetland was until pretty recently. Shetlands are no longer selling for $2,000, so...time to start culling. No breed can maintain strength without removing inferior animals. Let's get more semen imported, let's start collecting our own F1's and other higher quality sheep. Let's do what we have to do to save this breed and its reputation.
    A lot of people are satisfied with the "status quo", good for them and I wish them the very best in their breedings and sales. I hope that some of us can disagree and still respect and think highly of each other. I know I am capable of that.
   I'm happy to see the NASSA apple cart of tyranny and censorship has been upset, it's about damn time. I hope some good can come out of it.
   Hopefully my next blog post will be more pleasant and light hearted.

Meadow's boy.

2010-05-29T11:31:00.000-05:00

This the my "pick of the litter" for ram lambs this year. I got a lot of scurs in my boys this spring and I'm disappointed about that. This musket katmoget ram is by Twin Springs Bearclaw, and out of Lil'Country Meadow. Meadow either carries two poll genes, or has alleles for small scurs because she always throws "smoothies".

    He might be the only polled ram lamb I have to sell this year, depending if Valora's grey breaks off his scurs or not. Might carry spots, might not.
   As of right now, I am planning for this to be the last year that I use a half polled breeding ram. Every time I use a half poll, I'm breeding a horn gene back into half my lambs. So I plan on using Sheamus and putting him up for sale. I suspect Hickory and Nightcap to be full polls, maybe my new Shamu boy, so I'll start using them and rearing my own suspect full poll flock sires. I've got a wide enough genetic base in my ewe flock, and I can always bring in the odd new ewe if there is some trait I want to pull in.

For Sabrina...

2010-05-28T11:40:00.000-05:00

Shelteringpines Pompey Magnus X Valient Valora. I'd like to see smaller ears and a bit more lift to them, one of the things I've been fighting with in the pollies. Hopefully, he'll grow into them. Unfortunately he's starting to scur. I think he's a cousin to your grey ram lamb?

NASSA education committee report.

2010-05-26T10:18:00.003-05:00

Theresa Gygi recently obtained a box of educational material (books, articles, etc.) from one of the first Shetland breeders in the US. I cannot imagine how many hours Theresa spend pouring through and summarizing this information, but it deserves to go down in NA Shetland history as a comprehensive document of the history of Shetland Sheep. Every breeder and potential breeder of registered Shetlands should have a copy of this report.

http://nassaeducation.blogspot.com/

My heartfelt appreciation to Theresa, Rich Johnson, and Scott Bailey for supporting the historic Shetland, providing us with citable reference material (which was my dream as a NASSA Board member), and correcting some errors of misinformation distributed by earlier Boards. It really steams my beans that this information was buried and not made available to us (the NASSA membership) until now.
I hope it isn't too late to turn this breed around and restore the Shetland sheep as a premiere, fine fleeced fiber animal we can be proud of owning.

Juliann

Shamu's lamb, Jelly update, and yummies.

2010-05-15T10:15:00.001-05:00

The Jelly Belly is alive and well, thanks everyone for asking. I haven't updated her progress in a long while, I know. For those new to my blog, Jellybean is a suspected puppy mill throwaway from a mill in southern IL, which has a habit of dumping their used up breeders along the side of the road in remote areas. Sigh. At least they aren't shooting them. Jelly came to us through Genesis Pet Rescue in Rantoul, IL.

Winning her trust has been a challenge that has left me in tears more than once as I accept that she will never be what I am used to seeing in a "normal", properly socialized dog. I can only imagine how she obtained the scars on her little body. She is still overly wary of strangers, but she has come a long way. The stereotypic behavior has stopped, and she no longer runs and hides, shaking spastically, when company comes over. She'll even come up and sit on my lap, although she'll stay in a state of high alert. I no longer worry too much about her bolting unless children are around. She remains is terrified of kids.

Here's a photo of some of the ewe flock on a rotational grazing pasture. Shearer is due in the next few weeks, thank goodness. Debating going back to March shearing.

This is Shamu's ram lamb. This was a suprise lambing as Shamu was kept in the unbred ewe lamb group, but somebody obviously got her through the fence. I wrote him off at birth as a wether, figuring I don't feel like paying for DNA testing this year, but darn it, look at him! And he's got some white on the top of his head so might carry spots.

I may have to bite the bullet if I still like him as much this fall, lol. As I reflect on the timing of his birth and the physical location of the open ewe lamb flock, they had Pompey on one side, Bearclaw on the other. Gotta be one of the two sires. I can send in Pompey's sample to UC Davis and see how the chips fall. If he ain't Pompey's, he's Bearclaw's.

I had a good time grossing out all my friends on Facebook with a photo of my dinner last night, teasing them into guessing which sheep body part this was. Those minds were in the gutter for sure but I had tears of laughter in my eyes reading the posts.

They are just tongues! And they tasted heavenly! YUM!!

2010 Sales List

2010-05-07T17:35:00.004-05:00

2010 Sales List ( Little Country Acres Shetland sheep)

Shelteringpines Arabesque (S26002) 2007 moorit spotted. Bramble Nick X Shelteringpines Nimet. Darius granddaughter, Double F3 Greyling/ Jamie. Does not carry polled. Aa/Aa Bb/Bb Ss/Ss Spring 2010 midside test 27.2 SD 8.0 CV 29.4 Available in July after weaning. $250

Lil'Country Carmela (S24734) 2007 moorit gulmoget. Shelteringpines Octavian X Lil'Country Dandelion.

At/Aa Bb/Bb SS/SS Spring 2010 midside test 29.3 SD 7.6 CV 23.9 Not fine fleeced, but has great conformation. Carries polled. Available July after weaning. $200

Lil'Country Giselle (S27808) 2008 moorit gulmoget. Shelteringpines Pompey Magnus X Shelteringpines Niobe. At/Aa Bb/Bb SS/SS Spring 2010 midside test 27.5 SD 7.8 CV 28.2. Not fine fleeced, but has great conformation. Carries polled. $200

Or will sell with her 2010 musket ewe lamb, sired by Twin Springs Bearclaw, for $350 for both. Can go now if they go together. Lamb can go seperately for $250

Underhill Galena (S29916) 2008 musket ewe, proven breeder. North Wind Holiday X Shepherd's Gladys. F2 Holly. 2010 mid-side test 25.4 SD 7.3 CV 28.9 Spin Fineness 26.6. Has about 3" harsher outer coat, but has quite a bit of useable undercoat. Gorgeous head and small but sturdy build. Available in July after weaning. Unk. if she carries polled or not. $250

Lil'Country Josie . (S27810) 2008 mioget. Very nicely built ewe, has an awful tail. Proven breeder, will make great mules. Spring 2010 midside test 29.8 SD 5.1 CV 17.2 Spin Fineness 28.1 Available in July after weaning. $125 without papers.

Underhill Peep (S15994) 2003 musket ewe. Winter Sky Jamison X Underhill Lucille. Double F2 Greyling/ Jamie. VERY nice ewe, I don't know if she carries polled or not. Spring 2010 midside test

28.7 SD 7.5 CV 26.2 Spin Fineness 29.3 Available in July after weaning her lambs, has a lot of great breeding years ahead of her. $125

Surprise. Late summer 2009 katmoget ewe. This was an accidental breeding from when Damascus climbed a snowbank jumped over the fence in Janurary. She is very small and I don't think she'll make breeding weight in maturity. Will sell without papers. Not tame, but has a curious personality and will eat out of my hand so won't take much to make a pet out of her. Spring 2010 midside test 24.4 SD 5.1 CV 20.8 Spin Fineness 23.7 $75 without papers

Katmoget smirslet ewe lamb. Twin Springs Bearclaw X Lil'Country Chamois. $250

Lil'Country Meadow (S24739) 2007 homozygous fawn katmoget ewe. Has been twinning, has always thrown smooth polled ram lambs. Hate to part with her but I've got too many kats and I have her ewe lamb from last year. Meadow is slightly cowhocked this has caused her hind feet to grow long. 2010 midside micron test 26.7 SD 4.7 CV 17.5 Spin Fineness 25.3. Available after weaning her lambs. $200

Twin musket katmoget ewe lamb (Twin Springs Bearclaw X Lil'Country Meadow) SALE PENDING.

Twin fawn kats Pompey Magnus X Lil'Country BabyBee. Pick of the litter of the ewe lamb crop this year, $300 each.

Lambs will be sold if they maintain even bites by weaning. 10% discount if 3 or more sheep are purchased. See our website for more sale details or just e-mail me at...

littlecountryacres@yahoo.com

Juliann

Misc. goodies and some lambs.

2010-04-23T10:57:00.001-05:00

This post is just going to be a hodge podge of different things, because that's what I feel like doing today. :) To make up for my neglecting my blog, I'm just gonna be all over the place today!

I'm very happy. We lambed out 15 ewes this year and I gotta say this was the easiest lambing I've ever had. No lambing problems at all. No stuck lambs, no ketosis, no weak lambs or weak ewes, no stillborns, everything was just a breeze. Maybe it was just a lucky year for us, maybe all that hard culling of "problem children" over the years has helped a little bit, knock on wood.

Underhill Peeps, a 2003 musket, was the last ewe to lamb two nights ago. I got what I had hoped to obtain out of her, a twin non-katmoget ewe lamb, by Eragon. She might grey and that's okay, she's staying! That's her in the above photo.

Netty threw twin boys with horn buds (sigh...) not what I wanted out of her as I was hoping for another BabyBee. I gotta say, I'm even enjoying my disappointments and I guess that's a good sign. It gives me something to look forward to next year. I think next year I'll put Netty under Sheamus and maybe finally get my dream moorit ewe lamb out of her.

Fellow Shetland breeder Garrett of Ramsay Farms, Minnesota, spent the night last night and we really had a great time! I caught up all the sheep and we really got our hands into the fleeces and took a good look at the lambs as well. He helped me figure out some of my Ag kats as I'm just not used to them. Then we went over histograms, pedigrees, and fleece samples and really had lots of wonderful sheep talk. It's good to occasionally seek outside, unbiased opinions from a reputable breeder to avoid getting barn blind. I'm blessed with so many wonderful Shetland friends to fellowship with. Thank you Garrett!!

Oh, Josie (Miss Ugly Tail) had a modified fawn kat ewe lamb by Pompey. The tail on this one looks pretty darn good, I guess I'll have to keep the lamb! (I gotta get a photo of her.)

I'm really going to keep an eye out of my surprise Shamu ram lamb. Darn it, he's nice! I just might have to DNA him but I'll wait to make sure he's breeding quality first.

A few photos of Arabesque's ewe lamb when I first let her out of the jug. I love watching the little ones exploring their world for the first time, the novelty just never wears off for me. The tentative, experimental first leaps, then the bursts of short runs around the dame, then the ever-widening circles until the lamb is tearing off on her own, leaping and twisting in the air.....

Here is one of my Hickory X Niobe yearling ewes with her "deep dish" head.

I haven't shared any dog pics in a while, I took these while we were out relaxing by the pond on a beautiful day. Here is Uncle Fester, our 11 year old Frenchie Frenchman.

Banjo the mutt will be 12 this summer, still going strong.

My DH's baby, Angus the Bouvier.

My hunny and I hit the Kankakee river a few days ago on our 'yaks and were fortunate to see a Bald Eagle.

And a white pelican, and I had no idea we had pelicans in Illinois.

And a heron guarding her nest.

I've got a really great zoom on my digital, we were pretty far away from these birds. We were very careful not to disturb them.

Aaaand since this is a sheep blog, I'll end with a sheep photo. Here is "Q", the world's most annoying wether. Q is like "happiness". Q is like a butterfly. If I chase him he runs away, but I sit quietly and he just loves to land on my shoulder, sometimes literally.

So I just chase him (kidding!).

A few lambing highlights...

2010-04-17T12:39:00.001-05:00

Been real busy lately but thought I'd touch base and share some replacement ewe lambs (future Little Country brood ewes) that I'm really excited about.

If you know me at all, you know I LOVE spotted Shetlands. I used to have a bunch of them before I "went polled". It's been challenging, to say the least, to try and get halfway decent spotties while breeding for polled at the same time.

These two ewe lambs are by Sommerang Eragon, and out of Lil' Country Cleopatra. One is black, one is brown. (yeah!) And neither one of them are katmoget! I'm looking forward to watching these little darlings grow up.

This little cutie is by Twin Springs Bearclaw, and is out of Underhill Bar, who is a North Wind Holiday daughter. And you know I love me some NW Holiday! She might go musket, she has a pink nose so I can't tell. I'll have to give her a week or so to see if she lightens. If she does, who cares? She's staying unless she develops horn buds later. (That would decrease the likelihood of her carrying polled....)

Last but not least, this grey kat is by Pompey and out of an Octavian daughter/ Dixen granddaughter. I was hoping putting Pineapple Queen under Pompey Magnus would give me a winner. I really like this ewe lamb. She reminds me of Stephen Rouse's Possum, I'll have to come up with a cool "P" name for her if she turns out to be breeding quality.

Got lots of other lambs here, many look very promising. Got a nice grey ram lamb (Pompey X Valora) who looks to be smooth polled, he'll be worth keeping an eye on. Nicest ram lamb born here this spring is an unfortunate "Oops". I went out a few days ago and saw Shamu (Eragon X Chalomeaux) standing over a gorgeous little moorit ram lamb. I mean gorgeous! Thing is, I didn't expose her to a ram. I thought maybe she stole it, but nope, she had a goopy rear end. It is hers.

Someone got her through the fence. I've heard of it happening, but this was the first time I've had it happen. I have NO idea who the sire is, so he'll make a nice wether. :(

I'll post more photos later, or you can see more at the lamb blog that links to my website at littlecountrylambs.blogspot.com

"Shepherd's Christmas" begins with our first lamb. We got spots!

2010-04-02T09:00:00.002-05:00

Last night at feeding, it was so beautiful out that I couldn't resist relaxing out in the paddock and spending some quality time with the girls. Everyone tucked into their hay with the exception of Shelteringpines Arabesque, who picked at her feed.
Arabesque then wandered off by herself into a calf hut, where she periodically peered out, grinding her teeth with her tail sticking straight out. I gave the girl her privacy for a few hours, then came out to check up on her. Imagine my delight when my flashlight beam picked up some bright white out in the grass!
So we are off to a good start! A lovely moorit yuglet sokket ewe lamb, strong as an ox. Sire is Eragon. I plan on retaining her unless she develops horn buds. Yippee!!

Spring micron test results

2010-03-28T12:22:00.003-05:00

Test date 03-15-2010. Wow, these came back pretty quick from Texas A&M...

Arabesque, 3 year old moorit spotted ewe: M 27.2 SD 8.0 CV 29.4 CF% 71.9

BabyBee, 4 year old moorit ewe: M 28.2 SD 4.9 CV 17.3 CF% 72.1

Bar, 2 year old black: M 27.5 SD 7.9 CV 28.7 CF% 70.7

Brown gul yearling ram: M 27.6 SD 6.6 CV 23.9 CF% 69.0

Carmela, 3 year old moorit gul ewe: M 29.3 SD 7.6 CV 26.0 CF% 64.9

Chamois, 2 year old kat ewe: M 27.6 SD 6.0 CV 21.9 CF% 74.3

Cleopatra, 3 year old spotted moorit ewe: M 25.8 SD 8.2 CV 31.7 CF% 71.9

Dixie Cup, yearling black ewe: M 26.6 SD 6.9 CV 26.0 CF% 73.0

Everett, yearling black gul ram: M 27.1 SD 6.8 CV 24.9 CF% 71.3

FunLuv, yearling brown gul ewe: M 26.8 SD 5.9 CV 22.0 CF% 71.8

Galina, 2 year old musket ewe: M 25.4 SD 7.3 CV 28.9 CF% 78.9

Giselle, 2 year old moorit gul ewe: M 27.5 SD 7.8 CV 28.2 CF% 68.5

Hickory, 3 year old moorit ram: M 26.2 SD 5.8 CV 22.3 CF% 78.3

Josie, 2 year old mioget ewe: M 29.8 SD 5.1 CV 17.2 CF% 57.2

Meadow, 3 year old fawn kat ewe: M 26.7 SD 4.7 CV 17.5 CF% 81.3

Moss Rose, yearling fawn kat ewe: M 23.9 SD 5.2 CF 21.8 CF% 88.5

Netty, 8 year old moorit ewe: M 24.9 SD 6.8 CV 27.5 CF% 78.8

Nightcap, 2 year old moorit ram: M 21.4 SD 5.0 CV 23.4 CF% 94.7

Peep, 7 year old musket ewe: M 28.7 SD 7.5 CV 26.2 CF% 64.5

Pineapple Queen, 2 year old black gul ewe: M 29.3 SD 8.6 CV 29.2 CF% 62.5

Pompey, 4 year old fawn kat ram: M 28.5 SD 5.4 CV 18.8 CF% 63.4

Shamu, yearling fawn kat ewe: M 24.3 SD 6.3 CV 26.1 CF% 82.7

Sheamus, 2 year old moorit ram: M 22.8 SD 5.0 CV 21.9 CF% 94.3

Silvio, 3 year old emsket kat ram: M 28.2 SD 4.3 CV 15.3 CF% 71.7

Surprise, yearling fawn kat ewe: M 24.4 SD 5.1 CV 20.8 CF% 88.8

Tango, yearling moorit gul ewe: M 27.8 SD 6.1 CV 22.1 CF% 70.4

Valora, 5 year old grey ewe: M 29.3 SD 6.9 CV 23.4 CF% 58.9

I compared these results to my fall tests. I noticed that on my more double coated sheep, the micron number itself came down this spring while CV went up. Logical that more softer undercoat would grow in over the winter. On the sheep with a less extreme double coat, some numbers went up, or down a little. Since the fleece is harvested in the spring, I consider the spring sample to be more accurate so I'll probably abstain from fall testing unless I feel a pressing need to test an individual sheep.
Another conclusion. I love love love me Hickory & Nightcap, two rams that I suspect are full polls. I plan on keeping them around here for many years. Sheamus is a half poll. I plan on using him heavily this coming fall, and re-selling him. I'll be asking $350 with a fertility guarantee, he'll be ready to go the end of November.
Another conclusion, it's sure hard to screw up a katmoget. :)

Hey, let me put a "wanted" request out there. I'm looking for an incredible, PROVEN poll carrying white ewe. Prefer a mature girl (2+) with decent breeding conformation. Minor toeing out in the rear is okay, I don't expect Cheviot build on a primitive, but I do want to avoid those screaming cow hocks. Typy Shetland head is a must. Typy fleece is a must, no long scraggly hairy stuff please. Prefer micron tested parent stock. Must be able to bloodtest negative for Johnnes, CL, OPP. Let me know if my dream white is out there.

Spring work.

2010-03-07T10:33:00.002-06:00

The most wonderful time of the year will soon be upon us. As usual, one of the first signs of spring here at Little Country is North Wind Netty starts sporting her trendy spring fashion accessory, "the bag". I couldn't be happier to be gifted with a Coach or a Gucci. Hoping for an incredible moorit ewe (or two) from Netty, by Eragon. Netty will be nine years old this year, retirement isn't far off for her.

We are due to start lambing in about a month. Performing "spring work" on the sheep is an annual ritual, and this is about the time when I always do it. The flock is gathered using a series of gates, and crowded into subsequently smaller areas until I can wade in and attend to each one without having to chase them and stress them. Each ewe is caught up, condition checked, and eye membrane color is evaluated. With the exception of one ewe, everyone is nice and pink or red. No one feels thin, everyone is full of spunk and energy.

Each ewe is carefully tipped, given a CD&T vaccination in the armpit, and the hooves are trimmed. The vaccination will give passive immunity to the lambs. Most of the girls needed hoof trimming, some didn't. I dewormed the ewe lambs only, I'll do the brood ewes in the jugs after they lamb.

I was relieved to see that at least a representative group from each breeding group shows a sign of budding bags. Some just have a little swelling, or a pink tinge around the teats. So all the boys have lead in the pencil. Jolly good.

After a break, time to let the girls out and do the boys. Before I released each ewe, I locked their head in the stanchion and carefully selected fleece samples off the last rib. Good thing I got all this done yesterday, today it's raining and I need dry samples. Each sample will be sent to Texas A&M for "quality assurance testing" otherwise known as micron testing. I'm doing the entire flock this year, young and old alike. Hey, why not? I'm expecially curious to see if there is a difference between spring and fall samples. Inquring minds want to know, and I have an inquiring mind. Can't help that, it's one of the things I like about myself. :)

I was planning on doing spring work on the boys next weekend, but when I was finished with the ewe flock, I decided to go ahead and knock the boys out. Sometimes once I start doing something, I can't stop. Occasionally that includes house cleaning, which is a good thing. Or eating Girl Scout cookies.

The mature rams are too heavy for me to flip, so I wrestled them into the stanchion and lifted their hooves as a farrier would a horse. I work on the more dominant rams first, so I have less worry of being bonked while my attention is divided. Vaccination, fleece sample, then a brisket rub and turn them out.

My rams are awesome. I just love them.

On the other hand, I'm dreading some of the ewe's micron test results. Not all of them, but some of them are not the direction I'm wanting to go. The best rams in the world aren't going to do any good if I can't get all my ewes finer fleeced.

I'll start the sheep on a three week course of a coccidiostat now, that will give us a good head start on knocking the little buggers down. We did this last year and it worked real well for us.

That's all for now, have a wonderful week.

Finished my scarf!

2010-01-24T09:02:00.002-06:00

I finally finished my scarf. I wish I could remember which particular sheep of mine it came from, but I had a ton of roving made up at Wooly Knob several years ago, and had a ton or moorit done. I've never been one to wear a lot of bright colors, I'm happy with the warm, neutral colors of undyed Shetland.

I wore this out last night for a fun night out with friends, and was able to forget I was wearing it. No scratch, no itch, no prickle. It feels springy and bouncy, and kept me warm. I love it!

In a nutshell, this is what I want for all my sheep fleeces. If you've ever worn scratchy wool, you'll know it isn't a pleasant experience. I want to be able to wear it against the skin without having to scratch at my neck all night. How close I am to that goal I just don't know.

I also like spinning fleeces from other sheep breeds to learn about the characteristics of those sheep and see how they differ from Shetland. I have spun Icelandic, angora goat, and Tunis. I have some Jacob roving I'm thinking of playing around with next, but it has some kemp in it, and I'm worried it's going to fly everywhere and make a big mess.

So far I like Shetland the best. There is just nothing else like it.

Not much new on the sheep front. Other than a few rams killing each other (eyeroll) all has been peaceful. That is the one downside of leaving ewe lambs open. That smell stays in the air all winter and the poor rams get no peace.

Dixie Cup, one of my Grace daughters, was causing trouble the other day. I noticed the rams fighting and mounting each other, and little Dixie had squeezed into a small paddock adjacent to the ram pen and was purring and brushing up against the fence. I shooed her back where she belonged, away from the rams.

I sure hope all my ewes settled. I didn't use a back up ram this year and I'm wondering if I should have. Guess I'll find out in a few months. :)

Snow sheep

2010-01-03T11:37:00.005-06:00

Usually I get a case of the "why am I doing this again?" sometime during the winter. The barn door freezes shut, drifts have to be shoveled, water has to be hauled, gates freeze shut, sheep climb snow banks and go visiting where they shouldn't, poop piles up and freezes and I can't shovel it.
The cold weather blues haven't hit me just yet, I'm loving the snow and have a real sense of peace right now. I am eager for the new year, I appreciate what I have, and I am so very blessed.

This is Lil'Country Nightcap, my Shelteringpines Pompey X Lil'Country Acorn yearling. His pedigree is impressive, Dillon, Greyling, Timothy, and Holly along with some other polled sheep I really like. Walnut Rise Malcolm, Justalitl Lana, Bramble Dixen, Windswept Pansy and NorthWind Holiday. Nightcap went to WinterSky Shetlands for last years breeding, and I liked him enough to buy him back when he was offered up for sale.

The ewe flock waits for dinner.

Q, my husband's pet wether, is so spoiled he thinks he should eat before anyone else. When I lug a hay bale into the paddock, he thinks its funny to leap upon the hay....while I'm still carrying it. Little brat!

Silvio comes up for a chin scratch.

The doublemint twins, Underhill Galena and Underhill Bar, are always together like two peas in a pod.

Dinner is served, and everyone tucks in. Now is a good time to watch for a few minutes, make sure everyone is eating. This is expecially important the last month before lambing, when ketosis tends to rear its ugly head. But I won't have to worry about that for a few more months.

My chooks are still giving me an egg or two a day. I still have a motley assortment of sex links, cornish cross, wyandotte, dunghill crosses, and there is a white silkie in the upper right hand corner. My two silkies were miserable when I tried bringing them into the barn for the winter, so I let them back into the coop and hope they have the sense to protect themselves from the worst of the weather.

Now where will I put those Shetland geese I'm thinking about?

Reflections on 2009, and looking forward.

2009-12-31T17:08:00.005-06:00

What a wonderful, hectic year it has been for this Shetland shepherd, and now I can finally slow down and think about what I have accomplished, assess where I am at, and what I would like to accomplish with my flock in 2010.
Really, not much has changed. I really wanted to work on fleece quality, tails, and conformation, and I feel I've inched forward. I kept back six decent keeper ewe lambs and one ram lamb who I plan on using to breed with next year. (Yes, I'm thinking that far ahead!)
My mantra of the last few years has been quality over quantity, so although I'm not breeding as many ewes as I used to, I feel that I'm using better animals and carefully paired them in the hopes of the best lamb crop ever. Through the cold and the wet, I keep thinking spring...and lambs! Only 3 months to go!
Several waves of hard culling over the last two years have removed the more extreme cow hocks, unlevel toplines, and harsher, coarser fleeces from my flock. Tails for the most part are pretty acceptable, although many are not textbook perfect. I still have a lot of slight toe-ing out in the back, but looking at photos of UK sheep I'm not stressing it.
I am more and more pleased with the handle of my fiber although I still have a lot work to do in that regard as well. Most of my flock is microning in the 20's where I want them. I'll continue to work on uniformity and fineness. I want scarf quality fiber. Gotta keep culling out anything that prickles.
Although I said I wasn't going to buy any new sheep this year (ha!) I did end up purchasing an absoultely gorgeous moorit ram, Fox Meadow Sheamus, from Maryland. A homegrown ram, Lil'Country Nightcap, has also come home to roost so I'm going into 2010 with 10 rams, 7 of which are mature. I also brought in a few new Underhill ewes that I thought would compliment the lines I have here.
I'm still breeding for polled. Each year I get fewer scurs and smaller scurs. I need to start retaining suspect full polls and moving out the half polls. I'm working towards non-patterned brown based rams so I won't have patterns overtaking my flock. And I'd like a side helping of spots with that self pattern, please!
And after being deprived of my precious spots for so long, and getting teased just a little this spring, I'm hoping for loud and glorious bling-bling color in our spring green pastures next year! Hopefully Bearclaw and Eragon came through, and there are little shiny chrome buns growing in the Shetland ovens, waiting to delight me when I see all that WHITE sliding out. I'm still a shameless spotaholic.
I have been very on-the-fence about showing this upcoming year. I never wanted the show ring or a judge's opinion to influence my perception of my flock. I would much rather rely on my research of the breed's history and the opinions of reputable breeders to help me evaluate my sheep.
I'm also not exactly thrilled with some of the negative energy out there, and I think it's a shame. I always thought Shetland people were different. Maybe I've been a poor judge of character and I've been wrong all along. I always thought of my fellow breeders as friends, not competition to be stamped out.

After 5 years of being involved in MSSBA, and 3 years with NASSA, I am very much looking forward to just being a normal Shetland shepherd again, remembering why I got into Shetlands in the first place, relaxing with the flock, enjoying the challenge of meeting my breeding goals, celebrating the accomplishments of my fellow shepherds, and learning from my disappointments. Most of all, I look forward to hanging around with good Shetland people, the good friends I've made over the last 8 years. You all know who you are. And so many more of you that I'd love to meet in person someday!

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years, plenty of hay for the winter, healthy and strong lambs, milky ewes, green lush pastures, and good, supportive Shetland fellowship in 2010.

Peace be with you.

For sale: Under The Son Silvio Dante

2009-12-19T10:22:00.002-06:00

I've decided to put Sil up for sale. I know this isn't the best time to advertise a ram, but in retrospect, I've got plenty of rams and my breedings planned for next year already.

I used two katmoget rams this year, and plan on keeping most of my ewe lambs next spring. I'm sure I'll have plenty more kats (maybe too many) in next years lamb crop. :)

This guy is true modified, btw, and proven. He does not carry Ag. Half polled through dame with bone knobs. Friendly puppy dog personality, nice tail. I have been nothing but happy with this ram.

Ab/Aa (proven through breeding). BB/Bb (again proven through breeding).

NASSA Registered S25468

Yearling side micron 24.8 SD 4.4 CV 17.6%

Two year old side micron 26.8 SD 5.1 CV 19.0%

Fleece is soft and crimpy, about 2.5- 3" long.

UnderTheSon Taggerty X UnderTheSon Peaches n' Cream

Click here for a little more info and a few more photos...

$350, or will offer a reasonable discount if someone can take him reasonably sooner rather than later.

Ewe profile- Lil'Country Josie

2009-12-05T09:15:00.004-06:00

This is Josie, my only mioget ewe. She carries spots as well! She is a "butter tail".

She's a beautiful girl as she approaches, but if she turns around...then I can't help but say "Oh, but her tail!" It's awful, it truly is.

Josie's dame, Lil'Country Josephine, came to me by the way of purchasing her dame, North Wind Netty, who was heavy with lamb by North Wind James. James is an F1 out of my favorite UK import ram ever, Jamie. I had owned James' dame, Kirkshire CeCe, and knew she was a good quality ewe.

Netty was a rare find, a Shakespeare daughter. At the time, only 3 known polled rams existed in the midwest, Malcolm, Shakespeare, and Dixen. Shakespeare was permanently out of the gene pool. Stephen Rouse was kind enough to find Netty for me when I had put the word out I wanted to collect good quality daughters out of these three polled Shetland rams. A flurry of phone calls, and Stephen transported Netty to his farm to await my pick up.

Josephine was born a non-descript ewe, unfortunately very cow hocked and had a lousy tail, but her fleece! Fine and silky, mature micron at 22.2 with an SD of 6.3, nice 4" staple, crimped and soft soft soft!

Paired with UTS Silvio Dante, Josephine produced gold mioget twins, both with smirslet markings. The ram lamb was perfect, and although I was eager to watch him grow I did eventually cull him. Poor Josie was born with a long tail that reminded me of a dog. I wrote her off as a cull at birth and planned on shipping her to auction.

Later on that year, Josie was on the truck ready to go to auction, and something made me take another hard look at her. It looked like she was growing into her tail a bit. I decided, what the heck, to give her more grow time and released her back into the flock.

Josie didn't grow into her tail. It's still cringe-worthy, but I decided to play around with her and see if she can't produce a keeper lamb.

Josie's late yearling micron test came back higher than I expected, at 30. I'm not "okay" with that, but her SD at 4.6 and CV of 15.2 have made it a soft 30. So she stays, exposed to Pompey, to see if she'll produce something really exciting next spring. I'm hoping for a fawn ewe lamb or fawn polled ram lamb, but with a nice Pompey tail. C'mon, Josie, you can do it!

Fall micron tests.

2009-11-22T07:58:00.003-06:00

Lil'Country BabyBee, 3.5 year old ewe. Mic 29.0 SD 5.0 CV 17.4

Underhill Bar, late yearling ewe. Mic 26.8 SD 7.2 CV 27.0

Carmela's brown gul ram lamb, Mic 28.6 SD 6.8 CV 23.8

Lil'Country Chamois, late yearling ewe: Mic 29.0 SD 6.3 CV 21.9

Lil'Country Dixie Cup, ewe lamb: Mic 28.3 SD 7.4 CV 26.2

Lil'Country Everett, ram lamb: Mic 27.3 SD 8.0 CV 29.2

Lil'Country Fun Luv, ewe lamb: Mic 26.1 SD 5.9 22.6

Underhill Galena, late yearling ewe: Mic 28.9 SD 7.6 CV 26.4

Lil'Country Giselle, late yearling ewe: Mic 29.8 SD 7.9 CV 26.5

Lil'Country Josie, late yearling ewe: Mic 30, SD 4.6 CV 15.2

Lil'Country Moss Rose, ewe lamb: Mic 23.9 SD 5.2 CV 21.7

Lil'Country Mudpie, late yearling ewe: Mic 27.3 SD 5.8 CV 21.3

Lil'Country Pineapple Queen, late yearling ewe: Mic 29.1 SD 7.0 CV 24.0

Lil'Country Shamu, ewe lamb: Mic 25.1 SD 6.8 CV 27.0

Fox Meadow Sheamus, late yearling ram: Mic 24.7 SD 4.1 CV 16.6

Lil'Country Surprise, ewe lamb: Mic 23.4 SD 5.1 CV 21.7

Lil'Country Tango, ewe lamb: Mic 27.4 SD 6.5 CV 23.6

Lil'Country Tony, ram lamb: Mic 23.9 SD 6.1 CV 26.4

October samples, taken carefully at midside off the last rib.

Some of these numbers I'm okay with, it shows that some lines are heading in the right direction. Some of my higher microning ewes have low CV and softer handle than others. Some micron lower but don't have that great a handle. I'm displeased with some results, but the individual has other contributions that I appreciate.

I've really been concentrating on conformation and tails the last few years, fleece quality is inching forward painstakingly.

I'm thrilled with Sheamus and feel good about my decision to use him heavily next year for 2011 lambs, and am confident he will have resale value when I'm through using him here.

This has been my first time doing fall tests. I will retest these sheep in the spring. I'm curious if the mature stock will test lower as they'll have more soft innercoat growing in over the winter. If that ends up being the case, if I've gathered mostly coarser outercoat for testing on my mature stock, I'll probably only test lambs in the fall and again in the spring, and mature stock in the spring only.

I'll probably take breeding groups down in another 10 days, that will be a little over 3 weeks of exposure. Whew, can't wait!

I don't know if I'll use a clean up ram or not this year. I always used a clean up in the past, but they always had proved unnecessary.

Breeding groups and sheep weights.

2009-11-08T09:23:00.008-06:00

Yesterday, we sorted the sheep into their breeding groups. We set up our new scale in the corner and led each sheep onto it before releasing them into the grouping area and herding them into their respective paddocks. The ewe lambs were given one last deworming and moved off into a paddock by themselves.

Eragon, pictured above, quickly zoned in and covered Arabesque. I hope for a loud Aa spottie from this pairing, I don't care if it's black or brown.

Pompey's group. Pompey briskly covered Valora. A nice grey ewe lamb out of this pairing would be nice.

Bearclaw tag-teamed both Chamois and Bar, and this morning he was busy with Meadow.

Here is a portion of our bachelor group, waiting on ice for next year. The proven rams were not pleased at having to sit out this year. The ram lambs, who seem to not know what they are missing, are taking the news a little better.

Here is Nightcap, my yearling Pompey son. Nightcap will have a turn to breed in the future, but I don't know when. Next year, I plan on using Tony, Sheamus, and Silvio. I'd love to use Hickory again as well.

Here are the weights of my sheep. The only sheep I didn't weigh were Bearclaw, Grace, and Easter Day, since they were already turned out and I didn't bring them into the barn. Weights are in pounds.

Mature rams: Pompey 114, Eragon 106, Silvio 93, Hickory 93, Sheamus 83, Nightcap 67.

Ram lambs: Carmela's gullie ram 60, Everett 47, Tony 36.

Mature ewes: BabyBee 88, Peeps 86, Netty 80, Pineapple Queen 79, Carmela 76, Valora 76, Meadow 70, Arabesque 69, Josie 63, Chamois 62, Cleopatra 62, Giselle 58, Bar 57, Galena 51.

Ewe lambs: Pet quality black 55, Dixie Cup 52, Fun Luv 49, Shamu 47, Moss Rose 40, Surprise (June lamb) 37, Netty's kat lamb 36

Okay...revised breeding groups.

2009-11-01T15:22:00.006-06:00

Pompey Magnus has a strong possibility of going to a new home next year, so I've re-vamped my groups so I can use him this year and keep some lambs by him. I can't let him go only having two ewes by him. So this year Pompey (fawn kat) will get:

Babybee (moorit)
Josie (mioget smirslet)
Valora (Ag grey)
Galena (musket)
Pineapple Queen (black gulmoget)

I might sell Eragon next year, might not. He'll get:

Cleopatra (moorit flecket)
Arabesque (moorit flecket)
Netty (moorit)
Peeps (musket)

Bearclaw, my Ag/Aa spottie, will get:

Giselle (moorit gulmoget)
Carmela (moorit gulmoget)
Bar (black smirslet)
Meadow (fawn katmoget)
Chamois (fawn smirslet katmoget)

I normally don't like katmoget/ Ag breedings, I don't like fader kats. I like bold kats. Plus, I'm always afraid I'm not going to be able to tell an Ag kat from an Aa kat and mis-register it.
Next year I'll use Sheamus, Silvio (and then maybe sell him), and Tony.
Hickory and Nightcap, both non-patterned, brown based suspect full polls, can stay and get cycled in with some keeper ram lambs in the future.

Any thoughts about my planned groups?

I can't believe I'm only breeding 14 ewes. I need more ewes! Why don't I have more brood ewes?

Ewe profile- Lil'Country Cleopatra

2009-10-25T11:08:00.004-05:00

Lil'Country Cleopatra isn't my highest quality ewe, my typiest ewe, or anything I would bring within a hundred miles of a show ring, but she is one of my favorites. Cleo is part of my dream for starting my own line of spotted polled Shetlands.

It's no secret that I love, love, love spots, always have, expecially the recessive brown based spots. As soon as I found out that spotted Shetland existed, I set about buying a few to add spotted lines to my flock. Years ago, believe it or not, spots were under attack as not being good fiber animals. Spot lovers were called fad breeders, and some people wanted "broken patterned sheep" forced into a sub-registry. I recall sharing my excitement about my first loud flecket lamb ever, and getting flamed for it!

Instead of being discouraged by the haters, it made us more passionate than ever to keep breeding for spots. The fall- out birthed a seperate yahoo group, started by Stephen Rouse, as a safe haven for us spot lovers to share our love of spotted Shetlands.

Years ago, spotted sheep were a bit pricey, even less typy ones were selling for $450 for black based ones, brown based were $500 upward. If a brown based Shetland had so much as a smirslet marking, they were scooped up with a quickness by spot lovers.

Like any rare, challenging trait with high demand and low supply, culling took a backseat for a while. Early spotties were plagued with extreme cowhocks, long heavy wooly tails, early iset, and very coarse fleece. Once the market became saturated just a few years ago, people became more selective in their purchasing and began culling heavier. There are some real nice spotties out there now, and it is my dream to breed my own line that will rival any solid moorit in quality. I am years away from that, but Cleo is a part of that beginning.

Cleo came into being after I obtained a scurred ram lamb from the Bluff Country, Kokomo. He was brown, spotted, and carried polled. That provided me with a good start. :) I put him over a bunch of my spot carrier ewes, including Justalit'l Lacey. Now Lacey was my very highest quality ewe, puchased for the spots that lurked underneath her non-descript grey pattern. Her conformation is exceptional, her mature fleece microned at 24 and felt like cobweb in its softness. Sometimes we roll the dice and get something to be proud of, and little Cleopatra was my dream come true out of this cross!

Little Cleo wasn't perfect, but her conformation was better than a lot of my spotties. She has survived two years of harsh culling here. She has a decent back end, tail is okay, dishy head with no bone knobs, and at two years of age she still has no iset. She isn't fine fleeced, but I have hopes of getting softer lambs out of her by breeding her to better rams. Her two year old fleece microned at 25.7 SD 8.0, CV 31.2%.

This is Cleo's lamb from 2008, Lil'Country Chamois. Chamois is a smirslet kat by Silvio, carries modified and will be bred this year, although I'm still undecided who to put her under just yet. I'm awaiting her 18 month micron.

This year, Cleo produced Antonio "Tony", by Eragon. Tony is pictured in the top photo. He will be test bred this fall, and if he performs for me and I like his get, I plan on using him more heavily in 2010. I'm awaiting his micron test results as well. I do think Tony is a half poll, so he won't be staying her forever, but he'll give us a nice injection of color before he moves on.

Cleo herself will be waltzing with Eragon again, with high hopes for another brown based Aa flecket.

Ewe profile- Justalit'l Grace

2009-10-17T10:21:00.004-05:00

Justalit'l Grace was one of my first Shetland ewes, purchased at the old Converse IN show in the fall of 2002. Not long after buying her, I foolishly almost lost her forever.

I had bought a few ewes and a wether earlier in the year, and attended Converse after reading about it on the yahoo Shetland group. I loved my recent purchases, and really wanted to pick up a few more ewes, and hopefully my first breeding ram.

After hours of talking with exhibiters, I asked some of my new friends to look over my potential picks before I bought them, and Grace passed the test. I don't recall Grace lambing the following spring, but after studying tails and finding out that hers was less than 100% perfect, I threw the baby out with the bathwater, and re-sold her to a non-registered flock the following spring. Dumb move, and a lesson in being too hasty.

Several years later, I began working with polled genetics, and found myself driving all over the Midwest seeking out the rare suspect poll carrying Shetland sheep.

Popping by one day to visit with the friends who had bought Grace, I was shocked to see that she had been producing polled ram lambs, when bred to a horned ram! You could have knocked me over with a feather as I put two and two together. Bramble Dixen daughter + polled ram lambs = rare poll carrying ewe. Duh.

And I had let her go.

As much as I tried to pursuade the owners to let me buy Grace back, they let me know in no uncertain terms that they were not interested in parting with her. Period. As in "stop asking"... So I stopped asking.

Three long years passed, and then the call came that my friends were looking at their stocking rate, and we're willing to let Grace come back! And here she is, better late than not at all, and Grace is now producing NASSA registered, poll carrying lambs here on my farm.

She has a ram lamb in MN, a ewe lamb in MI, and two of her daughters are staying here to pass on her genetics.

Grace isn't a super fine fleeced ewe. Her 5 year old micron test came back at 30, which suprised me as she has a very soft handle. She currently has no iset. Her conformation is strong and she has a lovely Shetland head. She is my last Bramble Dixen daughter, and I named this years ewe lamb "Dixie Cup" in honor of Dixen's legacy.

Grace exhibits what would be called "leader sheep" qualities in other primitive breeds. She is as wild as a deer, and will struggle aggressively when caught for routine maintenance. Always wary, always sassy, always leery of all humans.

Head up, alert, and bold, Grace is the ewe who leads the ewe flock out onto pasture each day. The rest of the ewes follow her submissively.

Some Shetland breeders view this refusal to be domesticated as a negative. Some even cull it out. To each their own, but personally I respect this rugged individualism as a primitive breed trait. I don't expect sluggish commercial dumbed-down docility in a flock of Shetland sheep.

Imagine a free style Arabian horse show, where the horse is loosed in the arena to frolic and show his graceful way-of-going and beauty in front of the cheering crowd. Put a natural peanut roller in that class.....yawn...

Don't get me wrong, I love my tamer girls and my "snuggle-ewes", and I would be pulling my hair out with an entire flock of stubborn Grace attitude, but I won't cull this characteristic when it shows itself.

When my husband helps me trim hooves or vaccinate and he catches a particularly wild lamb, he'll say "This must be Grace's lamb", and he'll be right.

Grace is getting older, but age has not dulled her. Since I have several ewes out of her, I decided to let her go into a new home while she still has some good lambing years left in her.

Grace is currently being exposed to Bearclaw, and will be traveling to TN to help start a polled flock down there.

Jello shot.

2009-10-10T11:38:00.002-05:00

What?!

There is more to life than Shetland sheep (gasp)?

Remember my little rescue pug Jellybean? Here we are doing one of my favorite things, cuddling up on the couch with a good book.
(I put a sheet on the couch to keep dog hair off it for company. Not everybody views dog hair as a fashion accessory like I do.)

How I love my little jelly belly.

OPP/ Johnnes Neg.!

2009-10-02T10:05:00.002-05:00

I recently had the entire mature flock blood tested for both Johnnes & OPP. This includes my new ram from Maryland, and the two ewes from Gail. Results were sent to the stringent MN lab, which is know to err on the side of false positives rather than false negatives.

We are OPP & Johnnes negative! Whoop! :)

Sheep aromatherapy & sale rams.

2009-09-26T19:12:00.008-05:00

Sometimes....the best thing one can do for one's mental health is take a deep breath, step away from the computer for a while, take the phone off the hook, and immerse one's self in the ewe flock.

Not to evaluate conformation, decide who to cull, who to breed to who, balancing how many crimps per inch does this one have, versus outercoat of that one, versus this other's one's disappointing micron count, and the fact that yet another one has nice fleece but is cowhocked, that one has a heavy tail....

but simply to JUST BE. In the moment, with the sheep.

Between a demanding job, family obligations, the demands of being a NASSA Board member & Education Chair, keeping up with house, dogs, and farm care, keeping up with e-mail, answering and returning phone calls......I have come to realise that I simply don't do this enough.

There was a reason why I got into sheep, and it was NOT to add stress and anxiety to my life.

My sentimental old favorite, North Wind Netty, reminds me of this as she calmly walks up and rests her trusting head on my shoulder.

Brisket scratch. My horse used to do this when I groomed her.

Lil'Country Meadow, the ewe who graces my homepage, my show sign, and my ad in the NASSA News.

A few more the ewes.

A better photo of Sheamus now that he is fully rested and relaxed, out of quaranteen, and adjusted to the rest of the rams.

Here is the moorit gulmoget ram lamb (Hickory X Carmela) I might keep, might put up for sale yet. I'll micron him next month. Chalmeaux's scurred ram lamb is to his left. I am debating switching to all non -patterned (Aa) rams in the next few years.

This black ewe lamb has lovely fleece, knock out conformation, sweet little tail. Sadly, she also has an unattractive, atypical head that came out of nowhere.

The poor girl has airplane ears, a slight roman nose, and small, non-bulbous eyes.

Because something about her just smacks of another breed, she won't be registered. I allow a LOT of variability in my Shetland heads, but to me, the sheep should still be immediately recognisible as a Shetland, and should not look like another breed of sheep.

The Shetland head should be pleasing to the shepherd's eye.

She has been sold into a pet home with another cull ewe lamb.

Here are the two Shetlands I have left for sale.

This is Twin Springs Bearclaw, a musket spotted aberrant/long scurred ram. He will be available in December, after I have exposed him to the ewes I've selected for him. Bearclaw will be for sale for $300.
Two poll carrying ewes, exposed to Bearclaw, will be headed to Tennesse to lay the foundation for a spotted polled Shetland flock down there.

This is Lil'Country Everett. Everett did not place well at Jefferson due to the excess hair on the tip of his tail. I'm torn about culling him for this alone. I will send his fleece in for micron testing in a few weeks, that might push me one way or the other. I will continue to offer him for sale for $250.

I'd really like to see how his emsket fleece looks after shearing next year.

The end! :)

Jefferson & Underhill Farm

2009-09-16T09:32:00.004-05:00

The Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival was last weekend.. It was a whirlwind, and I didn't get my camera out nearly as much as I should have. My BFF Denise came with to show her mule lamb on Sunday, and to sell her little white grade lamb, which she did.

After we got our sheep tucked in on Friday, a bunch of us had all-you-can-eat fish at a local greasy spoon, one more check on the sheep, then I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next morning, I volunteered for almost 2 hours at the NASSA/ MSSBA tables, then quickly prepped my two lambs for the show. Letty Klein was the judge, and she really did a good job judging. She specifically stated that she would not take size into consideration, which is always music to my ears.

My ram lamb placed last place out of eight. Letty commented that she felt he had excessive hair on the tip of his tail, which I did not expect to go unnoticed. I did get a lot of complements on both his structure and his fleece.
He did not sell, and now I'm debating if I should cull him or continue to offer him for sale. Any advice from anyone who checked him out at the show?

Lil'Country Maid Marion, A Stephen Rouse creation (Blues X Arabesque) came a hair away from winning Best Fleece on the Hoof. Letty had a difficult time deciding between my lamb and Lori Stephenson's (excellent) sheep. After a loooong, agonizing wait, she choose Lori's.
Immediately afterward, as I was leaving the ring, I was quickly approached by someone wanting to buy her. When I relayed that this lamb had already been sold (to Rayna), several people still wanted to touch her and feel her soft, crimpy, consistant fleece.

Much of my time was spent chatting with fellow Shetland shepherds. If I try to list everybody, I know I'll forget someone. So many friends old and new, so little time to really, really catch up. But it was wonderful. :)

Except when I got stung by a bee while eating a lamb bbq sandwich. One of those annoying garbage can bees.

On Sunday, Denise showed her mule lamb. I told her not to expect to place very well in the ring, up against Mark Lelli's mules, and she didn't. But the judge did say she had a nice lamb, and Denise had a blast! She wants to come back next year and show her mule again.

After the mule show, we finally got around to visiting the vendors. I bought a few books, and Denise expressed a desire to learn to spin. Luckily, we ran into Chris and Allen Greene, perfect people to get advice from for a beginner spinner. Allen recommended the 1.1 oz, 2.5" whorl Schacht Hi-Lo spindle, and gave us a quick lesson.

I bought one, too. Gail Former had recommended to me, in the past, to spin up a bit from all my sheep so I could better learn the fleece characteristics of each individual animal. It will be quicker and easier to do this on a drop spindle rather than my wheel.

While I was off at Jefferson, Gail Former of Underhill Farms, IN, was at the AGM in New Jersey. Gail was kind enough to transport my new polled ram for me, all the way from Maryland.

While we visited, Gail mentioned that she had some North Wind Holiday daughters for sale. Holiday is Gallifrey's sire (remember him? My first polled ram), and Bill Stearman got scurred ram lambs by him this year! I decided that I would buy myself a few birthday presents for myself. ;)

Holiday is now in Canada, I probably wouldn't have the opportunity to get my hands on any more of his get.

Gail and I caught up all of his ewes, all yearlings, and I haltered up the six that had depressions on their heads, and no bone knobs. I figured these ewes had a 50/50 chance of carrying polled, and the lack of bone knobs would make them more likely poll carriers.

After about an hour of careful hands-on examination of both conformation, tails, and fleece, then releasing the ewes in a pen so I could observe their way of going, I made my choices. It was HARD. I felt like a kid in a candy store, and all the ewes had good characteristics that I liked. These were my choices.

This is Underhill Bar. A heterozygous black smirslet. Dame is Shelteringpines Barbara. Her fleece does have some crimp to it and has minimal outercoat. And of course, I'm a sucker for spots. I think she'll have a nice lamb for me.

I saw her full twin at Gails, he is scurred. She's slightly hocky, but I liked everything else about her. Typy head, open shoulder, cobby build. I think I will put her under Bearclaw.

This is Underhill Galena, a heterozygous musket. Dame is Shepherd's Gladys. My eye was instantly drawn to this ewe's build. Like a concrete block, nice and cobby. She has more of an outer coat than I prefer, and a small amount of shoulder scadder (beaver fleece) but even the outer coat has a soft handle. She'll throw me a nice lamb under the right ram, I'm sure of it!

And this is Fox Meadow Shamus. (I'm probably butchering his name). A yearling moorit, and he's absolutely, incredibly gorgeous. He looks big-headed in this photo, but he isn't. He simply had enough of travel and was not cooperative for a quick photo shoot, and I didn't want to push him and stress him further.

Upper mid-side.................Wow.

I just might have to use this boy this year. :)

Now that Jefferson is over, I can simply relax and enjoy the sheep for a while. Breeding season is a few months away yet. I have some books to catch up on.

"The Fancy"

2009-09-08T12:11:00.006-05:00

So my friend Nancy, up in the Bluff Country, got bit by the purebred poultry bug. Reading her post and the comments awoke old feelings of yearning and really got me thinking about one of my first loves, the world of purebred poultry.....otherwise known as "the fancy".

A defining moment of my youth, perhaps when I was about 10 years old, was when I was called into the house from playing. I could tell from my mother's tone that I wasn't in trouble for anything. I remember standing in the mud room, my dad lowering a cardboard box for me to see inside. I heard small squeaks. I saw four yellow/ brown mottled ducklings. A friend of the fancy was born.

The ducklings, pet quality rouens, soon bonded to me and my siblings. They followed us around the yard. We went swimming in the creek, and they followed us in and out. I lay in the yard and they hopped on my back. They ate bugs and were comfortable enough in my presence to sleep with their heads tucked. I hugged them, they hugged back. I loved my ducks. They were my friends when I was lonely.

Skipping lunch gave me some pocket change, and the ducks were followed by a pair of golden sebrights. On Saturdays, I would ride my bike across town to the library to check out every book I could on ducks and chickens.
I also had Dutch rabbits, but I liked the poultry better.

I dreamed of someday having my own small farm, where I could raise lots of different varieties of poultry, plus have a horse, donkeys, and of course sheep. Yes, I wanted sheep since I was a kid. I recall having my own imaginary flock.

When I was 28, my wish came true, I have a house on 10 acres. As soon as we moved in, the first thing I did was run out and buy a trio of runner ducks. Within a few years, I was running a small rare breed hatchery. My thing was fancy bantams, expecially the crested ones. I had over 70 breeding birds, and hatched out over 1000 chicks a year.
I had a hardcover "Standard of Perfection", and birds born with the wrong number of toes, or developed the wrong color ear lobes, or brassiness or mossiness to the feathers were culled.

I got into waterfowl both domestic and exotic, as well as exotic pheasants.

I had a cabinet incubator, and rows and rows of brooders to rear the chicks. Breeding quartets were kept in pens and cages. I had floor- to- floor cages for small pairs, larger 6 X 6 pens for some of the larger fowl I kept as well.

I shipped hatching eggs all over the country. Sometimes juvenile or adult birds. Although I had pretty decent birds that I felt met the standard, I never got into showing. I guess I felt intimidated by the real show people I talked to on the poultry message oboards, although I shouldn't have. Many of them were really nice. I knew my birds weren't good enough.

Once day in 2002, scrubbing brooders, my DH made me a proposition. Get rid of these chickens, and he'd let me get a few sheep.
As much as I was dying to get sheep, parting with most of my fancy chickens was difficult.

9-11 had made shipping birds very challenging. The already beleagured airlines were getting pressure from animal rights groups to stop shipping live animals. I would sell a trio, get the check, go to ship the birds, only to be turned away sometimes. Shipping was very hit-or-miss. When it was "miss", the check would have to be returned to the buyer.

I had no local market for my chickens. No one wanted to pay $50 for a pair or trio of exceptional birds. Not when they could buy chickens at the swap for $3 each.

The thought of walking away from this stress and getting sheep was too tempting an offer to pass up. Most of my breeding birds went to The Feather Barn hatchery up in Elwood, others went to auction.

Although I've kept a flock of 15-20 chickens back, mostly crossbreds, for meat and eggs, I put my thoughts of the fancy away for a long time.

But I'm thinking about getting back into it. First, Becky and her Shetland geese. And then Nancy. :)

Why can't I have sheep and a modest flock of purebred chickens along with my sheep? Really, really good ones....As long as I don't overdo it.

I've grown increasingly disillusioned with showing Shetlands, maybe I should look into dabbling in poultry shows?

That I will have to think about. Next week, after Jefferson. I have the Jefferson show to get ready for, I have NASSA Board responsibilities that need my attention.

Next week. :)

Now to start thinking about a chicken breed to specialize in...

Mutton a'plenty.

2009-09-06T09:37:00.003-05:00

Our rams came back from Lisbon locker a few days ago. Hard to believe we are stepping into our ninth year with Shetland sheep, and although we regularly dump culls/ overstock at Lowell auction, this is the first time we've had sheep brought in for processing.

I should have started doing this a long time ago, but....I always thought I hated lamb. I tried it once in a fancy restaurant, got sick halfway through the meal. I thought I was going to puke, no kidding. It was horrible! In retrospect, it was probably overcooked. Who knows what breed it was or how it was fed.

Then, I had homemade "shepherds pie" at Chris Greene's place one day. Crispy pie crust, brown gravy, peas, carrots, add a katmoget ram lamb named Osbert, and Chris knocked my socks off and sold me on Shetland meat. Mmmmmm! I had two helpings.

After Tom and Al dropped off the rams, I talked to the one of the employees on the phone to get advice on how to have them processed. She said they don't do anything fancy, but here is what most people have done.
I know this is probably "old hat" to most of you who have done this a million time over, here I'll share it here just in case someone out there might be in a similar position.

Loin: Chops, specify inches. I chose 1".

Shoulder: Steaks, or roast. specify inches for the steaks. I chose steaks, I eat store-bought shoulder pretty regularly so have an idea what to do with that, at least.

Leg 'O Lamb: You can get roasts, specify full or half. I chose halves, I figured they'd be easier to cook. OR you can get lamb steaks.

Did I want the shanks? Yes or no. I decided to take them.

Ribs? Yes.

You can get the rest ground, or as stew meat. I wanted both. Specify how many pounds in each package. I asked for 1 lb packages.

They included extras, such as liver, tongue, and hearts. I intend on using all of it. Hard to scale the top photo, but there is a lot of meat there! The mutton filled the chest freezer, and overflowed into the smaller refrigerator freezer. I'll have enough to share with family and friends, and last myself a long long time.

Now is the time to share that I'm a terrible cook. I can do very simple recipes with mixed results, the less ingredients the better. I cook for myself, but I never cook for people other than my husband, and even he turns his nose up at most of my efforts.

A friend recommended the book "Spices for Dummies".

If anyone can recommend good websites for recipes for lamb or mutton, it would be greatly appreciated! The easier the recipe, the better.

Tentative 2009 breeding groups.

2009-09-04T07:54:00.005-05:00

When I try to decide on breeding groups, I usually sit down at my desk, list all my breeding rams, and add ewes underneath that I think will produce a nice lamb. I evaluate the weaknesses of each ewe, and put her with a ram that has a strength in that area. I also take color genetics into consideration of course. I know what I like, I know what is dominant and can take over a flock.

Then, I take my paperwork into the pasture, and actually look at the sheep, and picture them paired with the ram, and let my imagination tell me what kind of lamb might come from this pairing. I end up scratching out some ewes and switching them underneath another ram.

It looks like I'm going to be breeding 14 ewes this year. I don't breed ewe lambs anymore, I have found they grow so much better if they are allowed to be babies for that extra year, to grow without being stressed from trying to pour energy into a fetus while they are still growing themselves. I have yearlings from last year that are larger than some of my two years olds who were bred as lambs. Nice, healthy weights and strong bodies ready to make babies for many many years to come.

I have two more months to change my mind, but here is what I've come up with so far...

Twin Springs Bearclaw, an aberrant horned musket loud flecket, will get:

Giselle and Carmella. Both are well conformed moorit gulmogets. Easter Day & Pineapple Queen are two black gulmogets. None of these ewes are expecially fine fleeced, but we'll inject some moorit spots into those lambs, keep the excellent conformation, and give me a well conformed spotted base. Their lambs can be crossed onto something in the future, probably a moorit to soften them up.

Sommerang Eragon, a half polled spotted grey katmoget, will get: North Wind Netty, and her Gallifrey daughter, Baby Bee. Both well conformed moorits with decent fleeces. Netty will be retired in a few years, and her lambs have been very hit-or-miss so far. I'd love another exceptional daughter from her to retain. I think Eragon is the ram to do it.
I will also be repeating the Cleopatra breeding that produced Tony. If I can get an incredible spot carrying ram by Eragon, I might move him on next year.

Tony, my little shaver. I have to try him this year, I've decided. If I can get him proven, I'll use him more heavily next fall. I've picked out three laid back ewes for him, hopefully they won't beat him up. Valiant Valora, a grey. SP Arabesque, a moorit spottie, and Josie, my mioget smirslet with the world's worst tail.(It is BAD!) But I look at the rest of her...

I haven't decided on a ram for Underhill Peeps (a musket coming soon from Garrett), Lil'Country Mudpie (grey kat), Lil'Country Meadow (homozygous fawn kat), and Lil'Country Chamois (fawn kat smirslet.) I can use Hickory, or the moorit ram I have coming from Maryland. I'm avoiding any double -pattern breedings again this year.

Pompay and Silvio will sit out again this year. I absolutely love these rams, I just don't want to use a lot of katmoget rams. It feels like a waste. Nightcap can sit for a while as well, as well as a few promising ram lambs that we be reevaluated for breeding potential next year.

A trip to Sheltering Pines, of course I brought something home!

2009-09-01T19:37:00.006-05:00

Due to some terrible predator problems, my dear friend Bill Stearman has decided that life at Willow Garden would be too risky for Lil'Country Antonio Banderos for now. The coywolf has been favoring lambs.
Lil'Country Greyson, a substantially larger and very stout yearling ram, will be making the journey over the border into Canada. Greyson will be contributing to polled Shetlands under the Maple Leaf.
I can't take credit for producing Greyson. He is Carol Bator's breeding, by one of Stephen Rouse's rams, back when she was doing the polled Shetland thing.

As distressed as I am for Bill, I was more than happy to grab "Tony" back again, and this time, I'm not letting him go!

Now this guy....this one I'll take some credit for. I worked to produce Tony, although luck always has something to do with it. :)
It has been a real challenge for me to breed a spotted Shetland, must less a polled one, that I thought was pretty decent. A lot of my past spot carriers (including the hornies of the days of yore) were troubled by coarser fleece, heavy wooly tails, heavy iset, and cowhocks. A LOT of culling got me this far with them, and I've still got a ways to go yet before I'll be content.

Tony's good traits are the result of careful combining Justalit'l, Bluff Country, Underhill, Sommerang, and all the farms that bred the ancestors of those sheep. You just never know what you are going to get by playing "mad scientist" with the Shetland gene pool. It's nice when you get something to be proud of, something to bring you one step closer to your goals.

Tony won't stay here forever & ever. I don't know how his fleece will turn out, and I'm guessing he's only a half poll. I do want to use him heavily.
I'm thinking about using him this fall.....but I'm torn. I need to get more lambs by both Eragon and Silvio. I'd like a full poll ram lamb or two by each of them, then I can move them on to new homes. And I want to use aberrant Twin Springs Bearclaw as well.

Tony is small, sometimes these little ram lambs get beat up by mature ewes, who intimidate them into not performing.
But I'm just dying for more wild, loud, crazy spots, and it's so hard for me to be patient.

Tom and I had a nice visit with Stephen, as always, and we had time to stroll through the pastures and take leisurely looks at his incredible Shetlands.

I spotted this sharp little fellow in Stephen's ram pen. Right away, I noticed his pretty head, curious expression, and delicious, rich fleece.

Sired by FirthOfFifth Thayu, out of Underhill Alix (And I LUV me some Alix.) I'm pretty confident those skinny scurs will pop off, by looking at their base. Perfect little tail. He's slightly hocked, but I'll put him in my back pocket and have a good look at him again as a yearling.

Since I'm struggling with "airplane ears" in my Dillon line, maybe his perky ears will give those airplanes a little lift-off. Thank you Stephen!

I brought this guy home in an attempt to sell him for Stephen. I just don't need another kat, I'm swimming in them.

Another Thayu ram lamb, out of Lil'Country Possum (Pompey X Twinkle, a Dixen daughter). Grey kat with bone knobs. Strong conformation, four square and solid. Good tail. He'll be papered if he sells.
Come see him at Jefferson. $200 (obo) will get you a very nice flock sire.

And let's hope Bill obliterates that coywolf that has been troubling him and his gorgeous Shetlands.

Ram weights.

2009-08-30T13:01:00.004-05:00

Titus Pullo and Damascus are going to the locker tomorrow morning. I usually take my culls or overstock to the Lowell IN auction, but since I've been feeding these boys for a long time, and they have enough meat on their bones to justify the $60 each processing fee, I will be putting them in my freezer. Between them and the 10 cocks I just butchered, I won't have to buy any meat for a long, long time.

Both rams were caught up out of the ram flock so I can catch them easily to load them tomorrow. They look to be about the same size to me. I was chomping at the bit to try out my new scale, so after the scale was calibrated, I haltered them, and with Tom's help, walked them onto my new scale.

I was shocked to see that Pullo weighted in a 155 lbs! Egads, he's a big boy! He's a beast! That is really pushing the upper limits of this breed.

He has a lot of body mass. I don't know where all that weight came from, but I guess these extremes are to be expected on any farm from time to time. His dame is petite, and Ock was never that big. Pullo has been on grass in the summer, hay in the winter. Rarely do I give the rams any grain. He is a 2 year old, a double F3 Dillon, his maternal Holly contribution is off the charts enough to probably not count anymore.

I do remember remarking the day that he was born that he was a very large ram lamb, a big single.

Height-wise, Pullo only comes up to about mid-thigh to me, at his wither. I'm short, only 5' 2". He is not an overly tall or leggy ram. His bones are not thick or overly substantial. They look like good, typy legs for a mature Shetland ram.

You can gauge their size by the pipe gates in the photo with them.

I have a miniature horse measuring stick, left over from when we used to raise miniature donkeys. Pullo measured approximately 26 1/2" at the wither. I did scrunch down the fleece to get at his wither.

Then came Damascus' turn. He only weighed 128 lbs. Okay...that's more like it. He measured in at 24" at the shoulder. This is upper "babydoll" limits according to their breed standard. I have been trying to use that approximate height for my Shetlands, as well. This doesn't mean I will cull every sheep that is over 24", but it will be another tool in my tool box to keep my sheep from gradually creeping into "Monster Shetland" realm.

Damascus is also a two year old. He was an average sized lamb when he was born, and a twin. His dame was a thick built Dixen daughter. He is also an F3 Dillon with a distant Holly contribution on the bottom. He'd have made a real nice flock sire, and would still be for sale, if he didn't micron in the 30's.

I still can't believe there is 30 lb difference between these two rams!

So that's my driveling trivia for the week. :) Next time I catch up the flock for maintenance, I'll weigh everybody, just for fun.

Have a wonderful week, fellow Shetland addicts.

Parasite resistant sheep.

2009-08-27T08:11:00.008-05:00

My new scale got here yesterday. Wow, that was quick. I'm going to try to get it set up this weekend. Pullo and Damascus are both going to the locker on Monday, I'm curious to see how much they weigh before they go bye-bye.

On the parasite front, this is usually the time of the year when internal parasites are at their worst. We have had one heck of a damp, moist, muddy, rainy summer. Great for the pasture, bad for hay-making, and the absolute worst for parasites.

I am happy to say that we have no coccidiosis in our fecals this year, NONE, thanks to preventative treatment that started back in March.

Our heavy cull last year paid off. This year, I have very few sheep showing signs of parasites.

Parasite resistant sheep are special sheep. They don't carry as much of a load as the non-resistant, wormy sheep do. A small percentage of your sheep will carry the most parasites.
Being parasite resistant is a heritable trait, you can breed for it!

This article is the best I have read on parasite resistance in sheep.

Do yourself and your sheep a big favor. Print this article out, read it, re-read it, so you can have a happy, hardy, thrifty, healthy flock of parasite resistant Shetland sheep. Develop a relationship with your sheep vet, fecal test regularly. Practice "Smart Drenching", don't overuse dewormers, or under-dose.
Non-resistant worms are your friend, as funny as that sounds. Keep the strong, resistant sheep, and their weak, wimpy worms, for breeding.

This will also save you money on pricey dewormer.

I'm also going to experiment with DE. I used to give it to my chickens. I liked the idea of a mechanical, yet safe, dewormer. I ordered a 50 lb bag. I'm planning on mixing it with baking soda and offering it free choice, since I'm not feeding grain right now. Any advice on using DE?

I'm getting a sheep scale!

2009-08-24T12:42:00.014-05:00

I have been really wanting a livestock scale for a while now.

I never had any interest in weighing sheep until this year, when I thought a yearling ewe was going to be too small to breed. The "husband on a bathroom scale" was used to weigh her, but that won't always be practical. For one thing, I try to do every farm chore I can by myself, and only ask hubby to do things I simply don't have the physical strength to do alone. And asking him to boost a four year old ram...and hold him while I try to read the weight, that's asking a bit much of anybody.

I also don't want sheep poopy on my bathroom scale.
I've gotten increasingly curious about how much my lambs weigh, and my adult sheep as well. I'm horrible at trying to guess weights.
I thought about trying to find a used livestock scale to buy, but disease is always a concern and I'll bet a used scale coming from a commercial sheep outfit would be just loaded with little nasties.

So today, when checking my e-mail, I received an e-mail ad from Sydell. I thought I'd poke around on their site, and see what they had available for sale. Hmmm... a sheep scale for $400. A lot less expensive than a lot of livestock scales out there, a LOT less, but still more than I wanted to spend.
I wondered if scales designed to accommodate large dogs would be less pricey? So I googled "veterinary scales".
Most of these scales were much more expensive, running into the thousands. I really only wanted one that would go up to 150 lbs. If I have Shetlands weighing more than that, I've got a bit of a problem.

But I did eventually find one company offering a walk-on scale that goes up to 700 lbs., for only $315, with free shipping. I can even put it by my head gate and weigh the sheep while I perform routine maintenance on them. A free rubber mat for traction and easy disinfecting was included. This sounds like a good deal. I don't think I'd ever find a new scale priced more reasonably than that.

The website is www.balances.com. The scale I'm buying is the Weigh South VS-2501 Vet Scale. 42 X 20 platform. Suitable for dogs, up to larger stock such as llamas.

Purebred animals can drift, over time and generations, into resembling other breeds. Sizes can begin to trend up or down, and appearances can slowly warp, depending on the traits that breeders select for, and away from. Sometimes this is a good and healthy thing to have happen. Sometimes it isn't, and the subject is almost always the topic of debate and discussion in a breed organization's membership.
Like micron testing, this scale will be a useful tool for me. I would like to keep my sheep from gradually, over the years, drifting away from the traditionally recommended weights for Shetlands. It will also be useful for selling cull sheep to meat buyers by the pound, and letting potential customers know how much a sheep weighs if they are interested in knowing that.

Ewe lambs I am retaining.

2009-08-20T20:36:00.008-05:00

Lil'Country Fun Luv and Lil'Country Tango. Twin ewes by Windy Acres Hickory, out of Shelteringpines Niobe. Both moorit gulmogets, both very nice and they look exactly the same. Only of of them is pictured here. Giselle, their 2008 half sister by Pompey X Niobe, is in the background.
Carmela, a moorit gulmoget Octavian daughter, will be available for sale next year, I've got enough replacement stock out of her.

Lil'Country Moss Rose. Sommerang Eragon X Lil'Country Meadow.

Lil'Country Shamu. Sommerang Eragon X Shelteringpines Chalmeaux.

Bold and beautiful, just like her dame, Lil'Country Dixie Cup. Eragon X Justalit'l Grace. She tries to stare me down every time I stroll the pasture. Love it!

My sale boy, Lil'Country Everett. Smooth polled. Hickory X Zephyr Easter Day. Look for him at the Jefferson show. He's available for $250.

Shetlands on my mind.

2009-08-19T07:40:00.010-05:00

I'm not very good at making small talk, not a highly developed talent of mine. I have lots of thoughts, many I should and do keep to myself. Or I think of something worth posting about, then get busy with other things, and the moment has passed. I had a cute little ram lamb story how I was gathering culls for market, and my DH picked out delightful little fellow to keep as a wether, until I came back from MFF and found he had caught up his neck and horns in the woven wire fence and died. Ah, I so miss those horns (not!) I very rarely have dead sheep, each one stings and stabs so. So now it's not such a cute fluffy tale, but shepherding isn't always "sunshine and butterflies".

I've been sitting quietly back, watching lambs grow, culling ram lambs, ewe lambs, yearling ewes, two year old ewes, and a few mature rams. I haven't begun to plan my breeding groups yet (yikes, can it only be 2 1/2 months away already?) I know I'll change my mind a million times.

Michigan Fiber Fest was a weekend of ups and downs, but altogether I had a really good time seeing friends, seeing lots of sheep, and feeling lots of fiber.
Due to a vacation the weekend before the show, I did not prepare a show string, and in retrospect I'm glad I didn't bother. My sheep would not have done well in the ring under this judge, and it was nice to be able to wander around at will and not have to deal with the training and prepping of displaying sheep.

I simply dumped a trailer of sheep at Stephens. I had some sold sheep to deliver, and I sold my last sale ewe, SP Niobe, out of the trailer, which was nice. I'm now sold out of ewes. A lot of experienced breeders went over my stock with critical and constructive eyes and offered helpful comments, which is always welcome. I'm unfortunately in an area of Illinois where there are not a lot of Shetland breeders, and I don't get a lot of farm visits. I'd love to have some experienced Shetland breeders stop by and help me evaluate my breeding stock. But bringing the trailer to Stephen's place was just as good.

I'm such a dummy when it comes to modified colors. I had no idea that Hickory's dame, SP Leila, was mioget! I had thought that Hickory was simply light moorit, but he is fawn! This doubles his value in my eyes, and I am just thrilled to have a brown based, non-patterned, modified ram of his quality. Thank you again Carol!

I also got Lil'Country Nightcap back from Karen , and once I sunk my hands into his fleece I nearly swooned. Soft soft soft and crimpy as a yearling, non-patterned, and brown based on top of it. I think he is going to do wonderful things here on my farm.

I brought my sale black gulmoget ram lamb, smooth polled, by Hickory and out of Zephyr Easter Day. He will have an intermediate fleece, but it is coming in a bluish color. He's modified! I'll probably be showing him at Jefferson in ram lamb class. I plan on showing my Blues X Arabesque daughter in ewe lamb, and in best fleece on the hoof. I'm saying "probably" and "I plan on doing this" because Jefferson might be my last show. I have been feeling lately that my sheep cannot compete with "show sheep", and I'm tired of fretting about that fact and wondering what the judge will like when I evaluate sheep.

Last night on Facebook, someone posted a few photos from the Shetland Museum. I started looking through these old photos of Shetland Sheep in their native environment, and I couldn't help but think "What on earth are we doing to these sheep"? Do we really, really need to turn them into "show animals"?
The sheep in the photos were obviously small and stunted looking, the bones are delicate and flinty, the fleeces looked fine and soft. Some of them were conformational trainwrecks...
But... they were very good at being Shetland Sheep, and doing what Shetland sheep were supposed to do... living on scrub and seaweed, climbing rocky hill and slopes, producing lambs that could keep up in a harsh environment, providing meat and fiber to their shepherds.
I do believe we should make every attempt to breed these animals into sound bodies for health, longevity, and mobility, and of course we want our sheep to have the best nutrition we can offer. But at some point I just feel like yelling "They arn't club lambs, darn it!" These animals in the photos would come in last place at a Shetland sheep show. We would snicker at the cow hocks and uneven top lines.

But how many of our sheep could climb that bluff in search of food!

Anyway, I'm not trying to rant or rave or make a statement, honest. Just sharing something on my mind. And I've got sheep on my mind so much lately. I'm so behind on my reading and neglecting my workout regimen.

Scur growth on 2009 ram lambs.

2009-07-21T10:18:00.004-05:00

I learned a new word at my anthropology class last week. Morphology: in a nutshell, the shape, size, form, and structure of an organism or it's parts. I learned it in the context of bone studies, why not sheep horn studies as well? So here is the morphology of the scur growth on this years ram lambs.
These guys are all around the three month mark, a good time to be able to make an educated guess about how big those scurs will grow.

Hickory X Easter Day. Black gullie ram, no scur growth. This guy was smooth at birth, may be a full poll.

Eragon X Meadow. Fawn kat ram, tiny little scurs that will probably slough off and won't amount to much. Might be a full poll.

Eragon X Cleopatra. Small buttonish scurs on this wildly spotted, probable half poll.

Hickory X Carmela. Moorit gullie, larger buttons that I think will just keep breaking off. Probable half poll. I'm planning on keeping this guy, will see if I like how he's built after shearing next spring, and see if I like his numbers after micron testing.

Eragon X Chalmeaux. This guy had "knife blade scurs" that stayed at a modest size for a while, and are now starting to kick growth into higher gear. They are very flat and still small compared to horns. I predict they will be large substantial scurs, and of course I have no way of knowing if they will need trimming or not. Nice build on this spotted kat, he may be going to Tennessee this fall to be a flock sire and pass on that desired poll gene that he carries.

Eragon X Adriana. Full horns or aberrants on this few- spot- white kat. Amusing little story with this guy I'll be relaying in a future post.

Unk sire X Netty. Full horns or aberrants.

Two new rams heading my way.

2009-06-29T12:54:00.008-05:00

I've got a few new boys coming this way, as well!
I am very fortunate to have the wonderful rams I have. They came from flocks that are breeding for the very highest quality horned Shetland stock, and "oops" there happened a polled ram or two. Because these are conscientious breeders, they were good rams. And Juliann was there to snap them up.

Most of these rams just happened to be katmoget, which is a dominant pattern. And all those katmogets went on to produce more katmogets. So now I've got a bunch of katmoget.
Moorits used to bore me to tears, but now I found myself in the position of trying to find some good quality polled ones.
This fellow is coming all the way from Maryland. Gail Former will be transporting him from the NASSA AGM for me. Thank you Gail!

This is Fox Meadow Sheamus, from Fox River Croft. He is already a year old, which I really like because now I have a better idea of what kind of ram he will be, opposed to buying a little ram lamb. I am pretty leery of buying sheep over the internet. I requested photos of Sheamus from several different angles, then asked for a fleece sample on top of it.

Once I got this guy's fleece sample in the mail, I swooned with delight. I said to myself "okay, I have to have this ram!" Super soft and crimpy! Right up my alley.

This little shaver is from Kristi's Harvest tyme flock in Ohio. At two months old, he has such little scur growth that I think he'll "stay polled". Looks like he carries spots (yum!), and a rear photo showed straight hind legs and a workable tail. His bite is even, and his testes are coming down. I am a sucker for a pretty Shetland head.
I'm happy to support a new polled breeder by giving the little fellow a shot here at Little Country. I won't use him this fall, and like to give him some grow time and get a micron count on him before deciding who to pair him with.

Polled little noggin.

I'm thinking that breeding 15 or 16 ewes a year is my "sweet spot". Lambing was a breeze this year compared to last year, even with the Octomom.

Having lots of potential flock sires isn't a necessity for a small flock, but I can rest assured of having a lower coefficient of inbreeding by maintaining a wider genetic base due to keeping a healthy sized pool of polled rams.
I'll have sheep to retain every year, can still cull reasonably heavily, and have a few nice sheep to offer for sale every year.

Cheviot & cross for sale, selling for a friend.

2009-06-26T11:01:00.004-05:00

Some of you have met my friend Denise.
Denise bought a cheviot bottle baby ewe lamb three years ago as a pet. She was not bred as a lamb, but was exposed to one of my polled Shetlands her yearling year, and produced a Shetland-Cheviot (pictured below). I have been helping her with vaccinations & deworming since she's had them.
Both were bred to my BFL last fall and produced lambs.
The Cheviot is very tame and friendly, the Shetland-Cheviot is shy. The Cheviot is long docked, the cross has not been docked.

Denise would like to sell these sheep so she can concentrate on her goats. She is concerned that the Cheviot find a good home, she is dear to her.

First four photos are of the Shetland Cheviot ewe.

$200 takes both, but she will sell them separately for $100 each.

Below is the Cheviot, with her cheviot mule ewe lamb.

Valora's ewe lamb- For sale

2009-06-24T16:19:00.006-05:00

I'm not selling a lot of my ewe lambs this year. I am offering Valora's ewe lamb. She's a quality lamb who captured my attention right away when she was born. This is a breeding that I can repeat, as I'm keeping both sire and dame for the time being.
With the exception of the top photo, these photos were all taken two days ago in 90+ heat. She still looks good even though she's a wilted little flower.

This lamb is sired by Windy Acres Hickory, who is Winter Sky Jamison (F1 Jamie) X Shelteringpines Leila. Both poll carrier sheep.
Hickory's yearling fleece at mid-side microned at AFD: 24.2 SD 5.1 CV 21.2%.
His TWO YEAR OLD fleece tested at 23.9 SD 5.3 CV 22.1%.

The dame is Valiant Valora, a solidly built grey ewe that Carol Bator imported from Arizona to bring new polled bloodlines into the Midwest. Valora was sired by Valiant Telford, dame is Valiant Mavis. Her four year old fleece tested at 30.4 SD 7.3 CV 23.9%
You all know if I'm keeping a "fader", I really like this ewe. :)

If Hickory is a half poll, the lamb has a 50% chance of carrying polled, 25% of being a full poll.

If Hickory is a full poll, she has a 50% of being a half poll, 50% of being a full poll.
This lamb carries brown recessively. If bred to a brown based ram, she has a 50% of producing a brown lamb.

I think she'll make someone a nice brood ewe. I can only fault her for a very slight toeing out in the back. She has an attractive head, and the promise of a deep heartgirth, and very growthy. Mature fleece is very difficult to predict, but she is very consistant with very little britch. Nice tail.

Why am I selling her? I'm keeping an eye on how much dominant black I keep in my flock. That's it.

I may or may not have a few more girls for sale in the coming weeks. I'm still trying to decide how many lambs I want to hold over the winter.

I do have a few rams I'm keeping my eye on for potential flocks sires, but I'd like a little more grow time on them yet before advertising them.

Valora's lamb is priced at $225. Price includes registration, transfer, and the buyer can pick out a name for her. Can deliver to Michigan Fiber Fest in August, or Wisconsin Sheep & Wool is September, health papers & pen fee at buyer's expense.

Micron results in!!!!

2009-06-18T15:58:00.003-05:00

I have been anxiously checking my mail box each day, anticipating the results on this spring's micron testing. Here they are, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Following the sheep's name is the year born, AFD, SD, and CV.

Lil'Country Adriana (2007 spotted ewe) Mic: 26.8 SD: 8.7 CV: 32.4 (yuck, but I'm culling her anyway...)

Lil'Country BabyBee (2006 moorit ewe) Mic: 28.5 SD: 4.9 CV: 17.3

Twin Springs Bearclaw (2008 spotted ram) Mic: 20.0 SD: 5.6 CV: 28.0

Shelteringpines Chalmeaux (2006 spotted kat ewe) Mic: 27.2 SD: 6.1 CV: 22.5 (she's for sale, wink!)

Lil'Country Cleopatra (2007 spotted ewe) Mic: 25.7 SD: 8.0 CV: 31.2 (I wasn't expecting her to come back with a good test, but I like everything else about this ewe, I'm not going to cull her for this.)

Lil'Country Damascus (2007 moorit ram) Mic: 32.1 SD: 6.4 CV: 19.9 (Is this okay for a ram?)

Sommerang Eragon (2007 spotted kat ram) Mic: 27.8 SD: 6.0 CV: 21.6

Lil'Country Greyson (2008 Grey gul ram) Mic: 21.3 SD: 5.2 CV: 24.4

WindyAcres Hickory (2007 moorit ram) Mic: 23.9 SD: 5.3 CV: 22.1

Lil'Country Meadow (2007 kat ewe) Mic: 26.0 SD: 5.5 CV: 21.0

Shelteringpines Pixie Stix (2008 moorit ewe) Mic: 20.9 SD: 5.8 CV: 27.6

Shelteringpines Pompey Magnus (2006 kat ram) Mic: 25.7 SD: 5.0 CV: 19.4

Lil'Country Titus Pullo (2007 black ram) Mic: 27.9 SD: 6.5 CV: 23.2 (Shame I'm culling him, he is soft!)

Shelteringpines Queen Anne's Lace (2007 white ewe) Mic: 29.4 SD: 5.0 CV: 17.0

UnderTheSon Silvio Dante (2007 modified kat ram) Mic: 26.8 SD: 5.1 CV: 19.0

Valiant Valora (2005 grey ewe) Mic: 30.4 SD: 7.3 CV: 23. 9

Just for the heck of it, 4 year old Clun Forest ewe: Mic: 32.3 SD: 7.2 CV: 22.2

My flock AVERAGE is Mic: 26.6 SD: 6.1 CV: 23.1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results, although obviously there is room for improvement. It has been difficult to breed for polled, culling for conformation & tails, AND trying to get softer fleece on top of it.

A visit to Under The Son....

2009-06-14T10:33:00.011-05:00

Yesterday, I paid a visit Theresa Gygi's Under The Son farm to see her flock again, and discuss sheep conformation and Shetland characteristics. Gail Former accompanied me, and of course a shepherd cannot help but soak up tons of information around such knowledgable and experienced fellow Shetland shepherds.

After breakfast, we started off with a hands on examination of Theresa's rams. Theresa's daughter Tori is training to be a judge, and Theresa encouraged her to help answer my many questions, and articulate why certain traits are important. I received a very in-depth lesson on shoulders, muscling, and body capacity.

I learned how to probe my finger's deep into a Shetland to feel the underlying bone structure, and muscle layers. I felt shoulder blades in relation to the spine, pin bones, and finally learned what a "twist" was. I have read about such things, but didn't really "get it" until I got a hands-on lesson. Then it clicked!

I was suprised that Theresa's white ram wasn't any bigger than her other rams, which were not any larger than my larger rams. I have been very leery of "Big White" genetics, which certainly have a different look than a lot of the colored Shetlands that I have seen. I was expecting to see this huge monster of a ram, but I found him to be quite reasonably sized.

Theresa explained that on Shetland and a lot of the UK, colors are kept seperate. Kats are bred to kats, whites to whites, moorits to moorits, for so long that each line of sheep carrying a certain color or pattern began, over decades and decades, to take on slightly seperate characteristics. That certainly makes sense.

I suppose a more appropriate term than "big white" would be a "commercial" strain of Shetland sheep. They are more dual-purpose than what I am used to seeing, having a fleece suitable for a wool pool, and a meatier carcass.

They arn't for everybody...but neither is polled. Chalk it up to Shetland diversity. Anyway, I promised Theresa I would quit using the term Big White, lol!

Gorgeous Bramble ram. The white ram is behind the kat ram.

Of course, after seeing Theresa's sheep, I joked that I was going home and culling half my flock, lol. Theresa and Gail both stressed what I already knew, that no sheep is perfect, and the strengths and weaknesses of each individual animal should be carefully evaluated before making culling decisions. Both of these breeders use the ram and ewe assessment forms provided by NASSA, and encouraged me to start using them. Not by just looking at the sheep in the pasture, but by catching each one up and really going over them hands-on.

That head gate is going to continue to be real handy.
Theresa and Tori showing me shoulder structure. One wants a wider shoulder (not pinched) for mobility, but not so wide the we start having lambing problems in our primative breed. This is a breed that should be able to climb steep hills and gullies, over long distances. I could get one or two fingers in between the spine and shoulder blade of most of Therea's stock that I felt, it was relayed to me that this is ideal.

Looks can be decieving.

The ram lamb on the left looks like he has a wider shoulder than the ram lamb on the right, but once I dug my finger's in, the opposite is true! The lamb on the right actually has a wider shoulder, with the shoulder blades slightly further from the spine than the fellow on the left.

Theresa said this is important when watching Shetland judge's in the ring. We may not agree with their findings, but we are not feeling what they are feeling underneath the fleece. A very double coated, long stapled Shetland fleece can cover up a lot of conformation flaws. But even single coats can. One really has to get their hands on the sheep to evaluate it.

Beautiful, high UK% spotted ewe lamb. Before you contact Theresa, she isn't for sale, lol!

The structure of a mature Under The Son brood ewe. She is holding up well after years of lambing due to her strong back and legs, and deep heartgirth. Theresa also stressed that you have to offer some lee way when judging conformation on older ewes who have been bred every year, lambing is very stressful on the bones and muscles.

Nice rear and and tail on this lamb.

POLLED ram lamb! And an very, VERY nice one at that.

Gorgeous, soft and crimpy fleeces that make me swoon! Theresa uses the coarser britch wool when she wants to knit a durable product, such as socks.

If I were breeding for horned stock, I would have certainly been driving home with a truck full of sheep last night. Theresa has stock for sale. If you are sheep shopping, check out Under The Son.

Fellowship is important. Let's support each other, not tear each other down. Visit some flocks, get your hands on people's sheep, talk talk talk. Don't be afraid to learn, don't be afraid to change your mind sometimes. We all don't always have to agree, but at least let's open our minds and listen.

To be a true student of the breed means we must never stop learning.

A few lamb photos...

2009-06-09T18:34:00.004-05:00

This guy is on my list to be retained as a possible future flock sire here at Little Country. His dame, Carmela, is one of my best conformed ewes, unfortunately, she is also one of my coarsest (Micron: 28.4 SD: 8.1 CV 28.6 CF 65.7% at 2 years old) I'm hoping that Hickory's influence will soften that up.

I haven't named him yet, probably won't until I decide to paper him. He's heterozygous for gullie, he's brown based, nice and robust, and is four square. Bite is good, testes dropped, tail looks pretty good, scurs look like they are going to stay small.

I won't use him this fall, but will hold off until I can do a yearling micron test on him, probably late summer of 2010.

Here is little "Mr. Pink Nose" (Eragon X Cleopatra). He is also coming along very well and I think he's going to make a nice flock sire.

This black ewe lamb is by Windy Acres Hickory, out of Valiant Valora.

A BabyBee bag? And new chickens.

2009-06-07T17:10:00.007-05:00

Like many of us do, I take time almost every day to really look at my breeding stock and my rapidly growing lambs. My eye was drawn today to BabyBee, who is starting to look a little bit on the plump side.

Just a little bit plump. And is that a flaccid remnent of her bag from last years lambs? Or...is it a budding bag hinting at the promise of new life? Did Damascus hit more than just Mudpie when he strolled up a January snowbank and visited the ewe flock?

I guess I'll know sometime this month. :) I love suprises, pleasant ones anyway.

If BabyBee is bred, I'm actually pretty pleased. I was disappointed that she didn't settle last fall. Although I've been careful to watch the dominant patterns in my flock, most of my polled rams just happen to be katmoget, and my flock is getting a little katmoget heavy. A moorit lamb will be a welcome addition.

Some chicken news. We lost three more chickens to an unknown predator. So I'm going to have to lock them up at night, although I will allow them to free range when I'm home. We went to the Kankakee bird swap today and bought 15 pullets.

This little mottled bird might have fooled me. He/ she's hen feathered, but behaves an awful lot like a cockerel.

Columbian patterned Wyandottes or 'dotte crosses.

A pretty red- pyle type pattern, and a white. Probably crossbreds, but young and healthy.

Got a few Columbia patterned Brahma or brahma cross pullets.

Grey Cornish pullet, a solid little lady. I've never had Cornish before, having heard they have heart attacks at an early age. But thought I'd try them out. If one dies, I'll just butcher the rest.

More Cornish, greys and blacks. Below is another pretty little cross.

We now have about 20 hens and pullets, one cock, and some chicks. A pretty healthy chicken population of pretty birds. Eggs, meat, and eye-candy.

A few yearlings & lambs...

2009-05-30T12:37:00.004-05:00

Just a few more photos of the sheep that I took on shearing day.

This is Shelteringpines Pixie Stix. She is one of the non-poll carrying (hornless) ewes I bought from Stephen last year, in an effort to improve conformation in my flock. This spot carrier will be put under Bearclaw this fall. I hope to have a spotted, poll carrying lamb to keep out of this pairing. I have a 50/50 shot.

This is Lil'Country Josie, my only mioget. This is the ewe lamb I had on the truck last year to ship to market, but pulled her off the last minute.

She had smirslet markings at birth that are still visible, so should carry spots. Josie is out of my ewe Josephine, who I culled last year. Josie has the worst tail ever (just like Josephine), but her full twin had a fantastic little tail. I'm not sure who Josie will be bred to this fall, but I'm hoping her lamb will have a nicer tail than she has, plus all of Josie's good qualities.

Josie and Mudpie having a minor skirmish. I did not breed my ewe lambs from last year, wanting to give them some grow time. I noticed just two days ago that Mudpie has a little bag forming. So this is the evil temptress that coaxed Damascus over the fence last January. I hope she is pleased with herself, and I hope that the lamb will be a moorit.

Justalit'l Grace's ewe lamb has nothing really remarkable about her. I am retaining this lamb, as Grace will be going to a new home this summer. Grace is my last Bramble Dixen daughter, so has some sentimental value to me. I might name this lamb Dixie Cup.

Both Valora and Queen Anne had black ewe lambs that are better in quality than Grace's lamb. Above is Valora's girl. She's a big, strong girl who is very elegant and expressive.

My best friend Denise brought her sheep down to be sheared, and I haven't brought them back to her yet. Denise has a purebred Cheviot, and a Shetland-Cheviot that were exposed to my BFL ram last fall. Above is the Cheviot mule. What a nice cross, so big and thick! Isn't she just gorgeous?

I caught all the lambs up yesterday for their first deworming. I will also treat the water for the next 7 days with Coxi-stop. I checked everyone's bites, and testes on the rams. So far so good.

Meadow's ram lamb and Easter Day's ram lambs are both smooth polled. "Mr. Pink Nose" (Cleopatra's lamb), Chalmeaux's and Carmella's lambs have small scurs. Adriana's & Netty's lambs will be horned.

Arabesque & Chalmeaux lambs.

2009-05-24T10:17:00.010-05:00

The conformation clinics are fun, but I want to share some other photos as well. We'll get back to those later.

Shelteringpines Arabesque produced ram lamb/ ewe lamb twins in March, here is how they are coming along. Sire is Wintertime Blues.

Above is the ewe lamb. She is looking sharp!

The ram lamb is looking just as good. His horns are slow growing, but I know he doesn't carry polled so it has nothing to do with that. I have two other ram lambs here that I think will have full horns. They are younger rams, and their horns are growing much more quickly. So horn growth rate is just an individual thing with some sheep.

This is Shelteringpines Chalmeaux's ram lamb. I thought he would be horned at birth, but it looks like he might be scurred. He has little flat fingernails of horn material growing sideways off his horn bud area. It will be interesting to see how his scurs grow. I do hope they arn't fatal, but you just never know with the larger scurs. Hopefully, they will just break off and continue to break off but I won't hold my breath.

His dame is either p'p or p'p'. If he is indeed scurred, then he inherited a poll gene from Eragon, and a horn gene from Chalmeaux. He'll be Pp or Pp'.

Chalmeaux's ewe lamb, who I'm going to retain. I usually don't start thinking of names until I decide if I'm going to register the sheep or not, later on in the year. But I might name her "Shamu", as that is Chalmeaux's nick-name.

Both of Chalmeaux's lambs are really nice. Very typy, nicely put together, good tails, and even have wool on the poll, which you usually don't see in spots or kats.

Here is Chalmeaux herself. She is an elegant and friendly ewe. Chalmeaux is for sale for $250. Her micron test is pending. She is a spotted katmoget and proven to throw very nice lambs. Excellent mother, no lambing issues, good bag.

I purchased Chalmeaux last year for several reasons. I needed some nice spotted sheep to get spots into my polled lines, the spotted sheep I have arn't nearly as nice as she is. Secondly, I was curious to see what the poll gene would do when mixed with p' (horned ewe) genetics. I wanted a ewe lamb to retain, and a ram lamb as a science experiment. I got what I wanted this year, so it is time for "my little cow" to go to a new home.

I can bring her to Michigan Fiber Fest and Wisconsin Sheep and Wool if someone would like to buy her. If she doesn't sell, I'll retain her and repeat the breeding with Eragon.

Chalmeaux in full fleece.

EDITED: Here are additional photographs of Chalmeaux taken on Sunday, May 24th, at 2:00 p.m.

I had previously posted two photos of Chalmeaux on pasture, immediately after being turned out after shearing. She had been in the barn since the evening before, drying out after being rained on.

I try to give them an empty rumen for shearing and subsequent hoof trimming so the rumen doesn't get injured or bloated with all the tipping, tossing, twisting, folding, and turning that the ewes endure. I think the procedure is more comfortable for them with "an empty stomach".

Chalmeaux had an empty rumen and the photos were not her most flattering. Nancy, thank you for drawing my attention to that. :)

As you can see, she isn't normally overly thin although shes does get sucked down by lactation. This isn't uncommon in lactating ewes. She has a lot of energy going into those big, healthy twins!

Body lengths, humps and dips.

2009-05-20T11:03:00.006-05:00

Okay, I really learned some new things from my last posts, THANK YOU to everyone who participated. Now I'm seeing important things I didn't really think to prioritize or even look for when evaluating breeding stock. Sometimes, you just can't put your finger on something.... I've decided I'm going to cull Pullo. I know I can do better.

So above is Pullo, with his long back and dips. Now I can really see it compared to the rest of my rams. I've decided I do prefer a shorter, more cobby build to my Shetlands.

Lil'Country Greyson is pictured above.

I'd like to have Damascus evaluated next, but I need to get a lot more photos of him first. Already I can see he is shorter bodied than Pullo.

Stout little Bearclaw, rockin' the Ag.

Pompey Magnus is pictured above.

Silvio

Eragon

Conformation Clinic- Titus Pullo

2009-05-18T12:20:00.008-05:00

In between the rains, I've been very busy spraying our fields for weeds. I went from a hand held 2 gallon sprayer, to a 4 gallon backpack sprayer, to a 15 gallon pull behind. I'm using a heribicide called Pasture Pro, that kills broadleaf weeds but doesn't kill the grass. Amazing stuff. I knocked down a bunch of stands of juvenile sandbur. Our pastures are looking great!

We had our flock sheared yesterday, and I took lots of photos of the sheep. So I'll have TONS of photos to share in the near future!

I'd like to do some online conformation clinics. I tried to get these started on the yahoo groups several years ago, very few people seemed interested in participating. Now that everyone is blogging, I think they are a perfect forum for this sort of thing. Please comment away.

Perhaps I'm shooting myself in the foot by drawing attention to some of the flaws in some my sheep, but if we are honest with ourselves, I'm sure mine is not the only flock out there with some less than perfect sheep in it. I also acknowledge that in seeking out poll carrying sheep over the last five years, I've limited myself to some less than perfect specimens to get that poll gene.

And although my flock isn't perfect, every sheep currently out there has his or her strengths as well that I'm trying to retain, while eliminating undesirable traits that still haunt me.
In other words, if I wasn't breeding for polled Shetlands, I think I could have a flock of much better quality sheep as I could choose from a larger pool of Shetlands.
I'll only be showcasing sheep of my own breeding for these conformation clinics.

I'll start with Titus Pullo, a two year old half poll ram. There are a lot of things I like about Pullo. He is very soft for a black, solidly built, no cowhocks, good tail, no iset. But there is something about him I don't like and it is bothering me. See if you can't spot it as well.

Cule: It isn't his ear set, or his bulbous head. I think the shape of the half poll skull forces the ears onto a horizontal plane, and makes them look heavier.

Invasive Horse Nettle

2009-04-25T11:53:00.004-05:00

I believe it was Kristi who had asked for photos of invasive Horse Nettle. This is a really great photo of it. If you get a patch of this stuff in your pasture, get rid of it before it spreads. It is a b**** to get rid of once it gets a toehold.

"HORSE NETTLE (Solanum carolinense)

Adverse EffectsHorse nettle contains solanine, a toxic alkaloid. All parts of horse nettle are poisonous, and ingestion of the fruit can cause death. Symptoms of poisoning include fever, headache, a scratchy feeling in the throat followed by nause, vomiting, and diarrhea. Ingestion of the unripe fruit causes abdominal pain and can cause circulatory and respiratory depression (Lewis 1998)."

Thankfully, the sheep are smart enough not to touch it, but I don't like it being out there and I'm laying in wait for it to start coming up this year. When it does, it will meet certain death because I'm going to spray the heck out of it.

On the deworming front, I have been following Becky U.'s suggestion of deworming the brood ewes in the jug. This gives me the opportunity of not only cleaning up shed parasites as I always clean out the jugs between lambs, but I can take a good look at the poopies while I'm at it. I am happy to see no tapes in the poops, and we haven't dewormed our brood ewes since last fall! Yippee!

Unless a ewe needs it, I won't deworm my mature ewes until next fall, before breeding season. This will put them to the test so I can select for parasite resistance and see how they hold up.

So far, everyone is in really great condition and has nice pink eyelids and no scours.

Still waiting for Netty and BabyBee to lamb, then we'll be done with lambing for the year.

Some sheep photos

2009-04-18T14:11:00.004-05:00

Just some random sheep photos. Above is UnderTheSon Silvio Dante, a two year old emsket katmoget ram with his short scurs.
Shelteringpines Chalmeaux nibbles hay while watching over a very soundly sleeping ram lamb, who is growing little horn nubs. I figured he would.

Shelteringpines Arabesque's twin kats are growing rapidly and looking mighty sharp.

Two of the ewes I'm waiting on. Lil'Country Meadow is on the left (Pompey X Sandcastle, who was a Malcolm daughter). One the right is my favorite ewe, North Wind Netty.

One of my retained yearling ewe lambs, Lil'Country Mudpie (Silvio Dante X Lil'Country Carmela, an Ock daughter).

A few of my moorit gullies. I might retain the fellow on the left as a potential flock sire here. He is Windy Acres Hickory X Carmela. Since most of my current flock sires are mostly katmoget, and katmoget is a dominant pattern, I need some more self colors, and I've also been wanting a moorit gulmoget ram as a flock sire.

A Niobe ewe lamb is on the right.

My handsome little black mule ram lamb.

Lil'Country Cleopatra (Bluff Country Kokomo X Justalit'l Lacey) and her little "Mr. Pink Nose" ram lamb by Sommerang Eragon.

Yearling Ag gulmoget Lil'Country Greyson (Shelteringpines Justinian AI X Valient Valora.)

A lil' bling bling and a hard decision....

2009-04-14T08:24:00.007-05:00

I hope everyone had a nice Easter.
Friday night, I watched "The Passion of the Christ", as I always do on Easter. I know this particular movie isn't everybodies cup of tea, but it moves me like no other movie does as a vivid reminder of the sacrifice that Jesus made out of a love that I cannot even comprehend. And in the end, the Risen Christ.

Easter morning, Cleopatra gave me a lovely little moorit spotted ram lamb. He has the same "mantle" pattern that his dame does, like a horse blanket laid over his back. Slightly raised leathery patches on the poll. Sire is Eragon.

Still waiting on Netty, BabyBee, Meadow, Grace, Queen Anne, and Adriana.

Expecially looking forward to my Adriana lamb, hope it's something real special.

My three mule bottle babies went to a new home yesterday. For the first time, I have the sensation of having a little free time during lambing. If all goes as planned, the buyer will be coming back next weekend and purchasing my three Clun Forest ewes, and their mule lambs at side.

The writing has been on the wall for my home meat flock for a while now. I've wavered back and forth. I've decided to sell them, no, I just have to keep them, I love them so much. Back and forth and back and forth.

I love my Cluns. I love the little mule lambs with their long furry legs. I'm looking at my six acres of pasture, coming in very slowly, and thinking about supporting nine more sheep, nine big meat sheep on that pasture over the summer.

I'm also thinking that I could probably keep 3 or 4 more Shetland ewes for the resources that the Cluns consume.

I love having a little something different out there, but I feel I can only do one breed justice at this time, and my love is the purebred Shetland.

Maybe years from now, I'll be in a position to buy more land, lots and lots of green meadows and a big, big barn. Then I can entertain the thought of picking up one or two more minor breeds.

Latest lambs

2009-04-10T12:16:00.004-05:00

The last few days we saw Shelteringpines Chalmeaux give us spotted kat twins. The ram lamb is pictured first, krunet with blaze, and sokket on the hind legs. He has leathery patches on his poll area which are raised, I'm guessing he'll scur but he'll be fun to watch.

Here is just what I wanted as a replacement. A spot carrying ewe lamb. Sire is Eragon. Chalmeaux will be available for $250 after weaning her lambs. If you think you don't like horned ewes, "Shamu" will change your mind. She's a friendly and eye-catching ewe.

Big black ewe single out of Valiant Valora. No sugar lips on the lamb. Sire is Hickory. I had thought Valora was homozygous for Ag, but I guess not. (good!)

Zephyr Easter Day gave me a black gulmoget ram lamb, no horn buds. This little guy was stuck for a while when I found her in labor. I had to pull him. Poor little guy's head was swollen up like a grapefruit. Even his poor little eyes were swollen shut.

Thank God it wasn't a head only presentation, we'd have lost him. Poor Easter was exhausted. Got him started on a bottle and massaged his head for a while. Easter got a drench of Power Punch, and some electrolytes. Once the swelling went down, the little guy found the teat and now both dame and lamb are doing well.

This is my only colored mule, out of Cora. He's quite handsome, and I like looking at him.

Last but not least, here is one of my little bum mule lambs. All five are doing very well, and Alice had recovered from her milk fever. A big thanks to Mark Lelli of muleflock.com for talking me through her treatment, and even taking the time from his busy day to follow up and see how she was responding.

I still can't believe she recovered as quickly as she did.

Smokin' Lamb Cakes

2009-04-09T13:21:00.003-05:00

I just had to share this real quick.

It's Easter...lamb cakes will abound this weekend.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

"Octomom"

2009-04-06T17:06:00.003-05:00

A few photos of "Octomom" and her litter of mules. Please excuse the turds, I don't have fancy photo editing programs on my 'puter.

The lambs are doing great. The two largest of the bunch, a ram lamb and a ewe lamb, barely know I exist. They are doing fine nursing off Alice. I catch them up and give them a few sips off the bottle, but they don't seem to be needful of it. A third lamb, a ram lamb, will come up and help himself to some of the bottle then run back to mom.

The two tiniest, the runty ram and ewe lamb, rely mostly on bottle feeding. They are very clingy. The ram lamb loves to crawl up onto my lap and nap afterwards. I'm getting pretty attached to "Mouse", I'll have to be careful.

My game plan, as of right now, is to find pet homes for the two little ones. I don't need anymore sentimental pets eating up my resources, and they will make someone a nice pair of pet sheep.

I will supplement the trio as needed with the bottle.

Alice is still lame, although she is doing much better now that she is on the calcium shots. I'm still giving her banamine and vitamins. I know that God will let me know when it is time to let her go if it comes to that point. And she may recover yet. She has a great appetite and is alert and restful.

I won't be breeding her again, but what to do with her will be a decision I'll wait to make. No hurry.

Rosie, another one of my Clun Forest ewes, gave me a nice big whopping pair of mules, one ewe lamb and one ram lamb. Uneventful labor, and they are doing just fine. Once Cora goes, that will be it for my Cluns. I think I have 12 Shetlands left to go.

Rough & wild start to lambing.

2009-04-04T18:27:00.007-05:00

Day 146 was yesterday, so I had planned to start conducting my barn checks a little more frequently.
I went into the barn yesterday around 5:00 a.m. and saw that Alice, one of my Clun Forest ewes, had a white lamb standing between her front legs. Oh goody! Behind her is another lamb. Off in a corner, another. And there's another, and another. I just kept counting and counting in disbelief.
I thought for sure that one of the other Cluns had lambed at the same time, then got run off while Alice claimed all the lambs for herself. But no, Cora and Rosie had clean butts and were plump and contented.
The lambs were shivering. The two smallest were depressed, hunched with lowered heads. The three more robust lambs were trying to nurse off two teats, bumping each other off. Alice was doing her best to get them cleaned up, but this was a lot of work for her.
I swallowed my panic, grabbed some paper towels, and got busy rubbing the lambs and trying to get everyone a chance at some colostrum. I wrestled each one into a plastic lamb coat and hoped that Alice wouldn't reject them.
The two smallest did have warm mouths and a suck reflex. Thank God I had leftover milk replacer from last year. I got them on the bottle for a drink. Then I had to get to work.
I expected the two little lambs to be dead when I got home. Everyone was alive, but they were bawling and obviously in distress.

So we have five Mules, three rams and two ewes. We are supplementing them with frequent bottle feedings. Did I ever mention that I have never, in seven seasons of lambing, even had triplets? I had always dreaded the thought of triplets, and here we are with quintuplets. Tom has nicknamed Alice "Octomom".

I did not flush my flock, and last year Alice twinned. Don't know why this happened. I HOPE that Cora and Rosie, my other Cluns, don't get any ideas.

Alice has shown increasingly waning interest in her lambs. Lying down too much, no nickering or sniffing going on. I figured she was just tired and sore from having so many lambs. Then I observed her limping when she got up, favoring one hind leg. That clued me in. Milk Fever.

So she is on Power Punch, vitamin injections, electrolytes, and calcium gluconate 23%. I have some leftover Banamine from Ock, so I gave her some of that, too. After about 15 minutes, she did stand up and start nickering to the lambs, but she is still limping. I'll keep her going, hopefully, until the vet's office opens Monday morning.

To balance out the disturbing news with some good news. At 10:00 p.m. last night, Niobe's uneventful labor gave me twin moorit gulmoget ewe lambs. I will keep one or both if they are breeding quality, and sell Niobe as planned. I also have her lamb (by Pompey) from last year, so I'll have enough of her genetics in my flock.

Here is one of Niobe's ewe lambs. I'm not going to hold my breath for fine fleeces on these girls, but they look pretty nice other than that.

This afternoon, Carmela was in labor a little too long. Sure enough, a HUGE head was sticking out the back, with only one hoof showing. I pulled a beefcake of a moorit gulmoget ram lamb single, with depressions on his head and no horn buds. Nice conformation, four square. Fleece unfortunately falls off at the heartgirth, but...I'll keep an eye on him anyways. :)

He is pictured above and below. Both Niobe's and Carmela's lambs are by Windy Acres Hickory, a Jamison son out of Shelteringpines Leila.

So my Shetlands are off to a pretty good start, anyways. I'm seriously re-thinking my whole "home meat flock" plans, I think Shetlands have spoiled me with their hardiness.....but have a whole summer to think things over. Those mules are darn cute, they have little donkey heads. I'll get better photos of them once they get up and around a little. They are loving their heat lamp at the moment.

Polled or Horned? What was the question?

2009-04-01T13:47:00.005-05:00

I've received a few e-mails asking about what happens when one brings a polled (or half polled) ram into a flock of ewes that all carry the typical horn genes that the vast majority of Shetland ewes have tucked within their chromosomes.

Here is my reply to one recent e-mail:

"To answer your question, if you were to add a genetic half poll to your flock of hornless ewes, you'll be doing exactly what I did in 2004. That's where I started.
That first year, I didn't get any polled ram lambs. I do believe I did get one scurred ram lamb.
Second year, I got one polled ram lamb. The next year, I got a few more polled, some scurred, just a few full horns. The last few years I started getting about half smooth polled, half large scurs. Maybe 1 or 2 horns.
So you'll get scurs on your ram lambs. You'll get lots of scurs, and you'll be getting them for a while. :)
How will those scurs grow? Any way and every way. They can be tiny or large, narrow or thick, long or short & stubby. They can grow fast, or grow slow. They can break off and bleed, they can break off and not bleed. They can break off and grow back, or break off never to be seen again. Some are more pleasing to the eye than others, and yes some will grow fatal (ahem...just like horns).
I'm 5 years into it, and I fully expect to get some scurs this year, but it seems every year I get less and less of them, as I select and retain poll carrier ewes.
It takes years to breed your own bloodline. It does not happen overnight. Anything worthwhile takes work, time, and a lot of patience.
I expect it to take perhaps a decade to get my flock full polled, maybe longer. So it's something you have to want, and you have to be willing to work at it. You have to be willing to cull if you are breeding sheep anyway.

The way I see it, only 10% of one's ram crop, horned or polled, is worthy of being a flock sire. The rest of that ram crop, that 90%, have to be pet wethers or go to market. So it doesn't bother me to ship rams to market, I'm used to it. I even ship ewes to market!
I've been keeping a yearly log of my work towards a polled flock here:

http://www.illinoissheep.com/polled_log.html

That will give you an idea of the work and thought that's going into doing what I'm doing. :)
Good news is, if are person starts breeding for polled and changes his/her mind, one simply has to buy a horned ram and reverse the process. Cull ewes producing scurred ram lambs, keep using horned rams for each subsequent generation, breed the poll gene out. So far, everyone I know of who's "gone polled" hasn't gone back to horned stock.
The decision to go polled is something each person needs to think about, and go into it with the knowledge you have to cull some of your ram lambs.
Are you on the yahoo group for polled Shetlands? I've got photo albums that show each years lamb crop and their scur growth."

I'm sharing this because I think it's important. There is a bit of "opinion evidence", mis-information, bias, rumor, and unfortunately a lie or two spread about polled Shetland rams. It has been that way since Tami Mulder dared to think outside the box and use the polled Bramble Dixen as a flock sire.

If getting flamed builds character, then Tami has lots of character. :)

If a fellow breeder wants to "go polled", I want them armed with the knowledge to make an informed, intelligent decision. If anyone has any questions, I welcome your e-mail. I'm not a "know it all", I don't claim to have all the answers, but I'll help you if I can.

And if you happen to love a majectic set of horns on your rams, I'll be here on the sidelines to cheer you on and "oh" and "ahh" over your lovely lamb photos. We're all in this together. :)

First Little Country lambs of 2009.

2009-03-24T18:55:00.003-05:00

Wintertime Blues X Shelteringpines Arabesque. Fawn kat ram lamb, fawn smirslet kat ewe lamb. Tight fleeces on both.
Day 146 won't be until April 4th, so I'm not expecting a lot more action for another few weeks. Happy to have Arabesque out of the way, now I can quit worrying about her going early.

Contented ewes drowsing in the sun.

2009-03-21T09:10:00.007-05:00

Last weekend, it was so nice out I just sat out in the paddock with the ewe flock. The sun was warm, and the ewes had a belly full of afternoon hay. Lambing hasn't started yet, so it was a perfect time to enjoy the calm before the storm with my girls.
BabyBee, my only Gallifrey daughter left, lies stretched out on her side. It always scares me for a second to see them do this, I have to look and make sure they are breathing, lol!

Queen Anne still browsing on hay. She'll have Hickory's lambs, as Ock did not settle her. Finger's crossed for two exceptional white ewe lambs!

Niobe is nice and wide. I hope she'll twin this year. Niobe will be for sale this year after lambing. I'm just not sure she carries polled, as she throws ram lambs that grow larger scurs. I hope to keep one more ewe lamb out of her.

"Do you have any corn in your pocket for me?"

Pretty little Josie (UTS Silvio X Lil'Country Josephine). I had this smirslet mioget ewe lamb on the truck to ship to market last summer, then had second thoughts about culling her. I took her off the truck and released her back into the pasture.

She's got her dame's heavy tail, but darn it, I can't bring myself to cull her just for that. I think she deserves a chance to see if she can't produce a lamb someday with a nicer tail. Josie was left open this year, she is nowhere near the generally accepted 55 lbs to be bred as a lamb.

Justalit'l Grace relaxes in the sun. Grace is 8 years old this year, and will be going to a new home this summer after weaning her lambs. She is the last of my Dixen daughters. I have her ewe lamb from last year by Octavian, and I'm hoping for another ewe lamb to retain. She is bred to Eragon.

Chamois (Silvio X Cleopatra) enjoying the lazy afternoon. This smirslet fawn kat was also left open.

Adriana is one of my spotted ewes. Her quality isn't the best. She is typical of the quality of spotted ewes 5-6 years ago, with coarser fleece, cowhocks, and a heavy wooly tail. I want her spots, and her brown base color. Her dame was also a favorite of mine, so for that silly reason I also would like to keep her genetics in my flock.

I'm going to see if I can't coax something nice out of her, then I'll probably sell her into a pet home.

Big ol' waddling hippo of a Clun Forest ewe, with a belly full of mule. My Cluns are getting nice big bags, and they bred very quickly to Nightwatch the minute I put them in their breeding pens last fall. A breeder told me that the Cluns start cycling earlier than Shetlands, so these girls will probably start lambing first.

Alice also approaches to see if I have any corn. The Cluns are confident and curious.

BabyBee finally rouses and gives me a nice pose to photograph. BabyBee is out of Netty, one of my favorite ewes. She really got the best of both of her parents, and although she isn't perfect herself (she has modest cowhocks) she has given me some of my very best lambs.

I'm hoping to retain some ram lambs this year that I suspect to be full polls. I'd like 2-3 ram lambs from both Eragon, Bearclaw, and Silvio before I move them on to new homes. I suspect both Hickory and Pompey to be full polls, so they will be staying.

I know I have to sell some of my ewes this year. I would like 2-3 keeper lambs out of my exceptional Shelteringpines pp ewes before moving them on to new homes. That may take a year or so. Other than that, I'll just have to play it by ear. I'm trying not to think that far ahead as of right now. :)