Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Shetland updates

I have certainly dropped the ball with this blog lately.  I sure hope that being busy is a good excuse, because it's the only excuse I have right now. 
Lambing was over the 2nd week of April and I have 15 lambs on the ground.  I lost one little moorit ram, our first ewe to lamb too.  I've got an almost 50/50 split of ewes and rams this year, and since I've decided to redirect my breeding program a bit, most of what I have is for sale.  I've purchased a handsome spotted moorit (possibly modified) ram from Corinne Rasso in Eldrige, IA, a lovely ewe from Stephen Rouse, an equally lovely ewe and her ewe lamb from Meghan Namaste and a sweet little katmoget ewe from Juliann Budde.  I'm hoping to retain 5 of my current ewes and one ewe lamb and the rest are for sale.  I've got a lot of great fleece on my flock, but I really want to see what I can do with some spots and possibly some modified sheep also.
I have fallen in love with Karen and Meghan fleece since purchasing 2 ewes from them last summer, so I was keeping a close eye on their sale list for this year and choice a older ewe and her lamb.  I'm hoping I can incorporate a trip north to get them when I pick up my ewe from Stephen. 
Besides sheep happenings, we have been very busy with gardens, flowers and tree planting.  We got about 30 new trees in the ground this spring, tilled up a section of ground behind the chicken coop for a potato bed, added 3 more raised beds and got all the flower beds planted and mulched. 
We had a terrible scare this last month with my favorite horse, Misty.  She had a bad stretch and developed founder, so I had the vet out and now we have to get a specialty farrier to fit her for special shoes.  I'm so relieved that we can help her that I didn't even care what the shoes were going to cost.  I cried when the vet told me she would be ok!  I guess I didn't know how much I was dreading bad news until the relief flooded over me with the GOOD news. 
We also have our usual new batches of chicks running around the place this spring.  They are still about 2 months away from laying, but what a nice bunch we got this year. 
I recently got an opportunity to acquire a couple alpacas (babies) and they arrived last Wed. night at my friend's house and once it warms a bit and we can shear them, they will move to my house.  Next on the agenda, angora bunnies that I'm getting from a lady in my knitting group.  I think that will bit the extent of the new animal additions to our place this year.  I did have a tragic cat versus budgie incident last month....RIP little Leroy!  Buster now has a girlfriend, welcome to our home little Violet the Budgie. 
My husband feels horrible that his actions are what led to poor Leroy meeting with his makers, but he sure didn't do it on purpose, so there's no way I can blame him. 
That's all for now, I'm hoping to keep this updated a bit more in the future.  Cross your fingers.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Kelly, I'm trying to get a ewe from Stephen's to Garrett Ramsay in Perham, MN between June 11 and 16. When are you going to Stephen's, and how far are you from Garrett?

    ReplyDelete

He who angers you, controls you.

And my favorite.......You can't control what others say or do, but you can control your reaction.

Mike and I

Mike and I
Mike and I at Nick and Emily's wedding

Raised beds & chickens coops

Raised beds & chickens coops
Can't wait for this stuff to actually be food....