New Faces

I have purchased two sheep this year, one from my Tori in Indiana and one from Stephen in Michigan.  Wait, that was before I went to MFF and got to see more sheep that just happen to be for sale, and can I help it that they are my favorites....grey katmogets!  I also caved and bought an emsket gulmoget that came from Becky Utecht....I am weak and should be ashamed of myself for not sticking to my plan of only getting 2 new sheep this year.  sigh......someone slap my hand and take my checkbook.  My husband's response to me telling him that I had more than 1 sheep to bring home was, "Now there's a shocker", it would seem he knows me better than I thought.

L: Anais Anais   R: Bengal ~~ Two ewes from Sheltering Pines

A very cool little gulmoget ewe lamb from River Oaks

Side shot of the River Oaks 2012 ewe lamb

S'More Cotillion~yearling

Define...Excessive

           12" plus length on this fleece sample that was pulled from a bag of "Shetland" wool.
          (I won't say where this came from, as I have no desire to attack people or their sheep) 

This sample is approx. 8" plus in staple length and the shortest sample among 12 bags of fleece that is supposed to be Shetland fleece.  

Excessive length......I found both these samples to be very coarse and not breed typical at all.  I am going to send them in for micron testing, just so I have a number to attach to this for my own fleece sampler book. I'm not even sure how you could spin these fleeces, , they have a lovely color and they would look nice in a braided rug.  These overly coarse and long fleeces are no more breed typical than a merino type fleece on a Shetland sheep....my point being that extremes on either end of the limits is changing the breed. 
Excessive weight......The other excess that I am finding hard to understand is the new weight limits for Rams and Ewes that have been changed in the NASSA judges packet.  Where did those numbers come from?  Where is the historical data that supports this trend upwards in weights?  I'm not trying to be sarcastic or mean, I honestly want to know where those number originated. 
Old ranges were: Rams 90-125# and Ewes 70-100#'s....new limits allow the rams to be 150# and Ewes 115#....  that seems to be changing the breed to satisfy the livestock judges in the show ring.  I don't know why it was changed or where the historical data is that supports such a large increase in size limits.   Over the last couple years there's been a lot of discussion and disagreement about the correct type of Shetland fleece. I actually thought that the only differing of opinions was fleece styles, but now I can see that I was incorrect in that assumption.

How long before Shetland sheep are allowed to be even larger?  This truly concerns me, far more than the fleece debate. 

Longer fleeces, larger animals, loss of crimp and bounce in the fleece, loss of fineness... how much more will we lose before we care enough to say something or take the time to educate ourselves about what a Shetland should be or what they were?
I think it's time for breeder judges to be trained and utilized, it's time to leave livestock judges in the ring with meat sheep.  They do a great job judging the sheep they know,  market sheep, let's leave them to their area of expertise and develop judges that have their own area of expertise.......the Shetland sheep that conforms to the 1927 Standard! 

How many of you feel the breed is being morphed into something other than a Shetland sheep by the large increases in weight limits?  I'm very curious............

Green County Fair 2012

Clayton showing Alabama in the ewe class. (psss-she's the moorit sheep on the left)   Bamba is having trouble believing that a sheep has to have it's head in that position to look good.  :)  

Reserve Champion Showmanship for his age group....way to go Clayton...(Clayton later went on to win Premier Showmanship for his age group)

Clayton and Bing in the ram class........I purposely didn't crop out the giant sheep following Bing to show the size of the sheep in Clayton's classes.  Poor little Bing didn't stand a chance against the Hercules sized sheep that were there.  Still, we had fun and that's what 4-H is all about.  FUN. 

Clayton is the son of a good friend of ours and he's shown Shetland sheep for 2 years now and loves it.  He does all the work with them, halter training, helping to vaccinate, worm, trim hooves etc.   He also shows dairy and so the sprint between barns can be a bit nerve racking for him at times.  He does a great job with the sheep and I thoroughly enjoy going to watch him.  
Nice job Clayton!!!

6 Reasons to smile

More beautiful wool =Reason to smile
Love our new shearer, David Keir and I highly recommend him for Shetland sheep.  He understands the "rise" in Shetlands, he's gentle, calm and my fleeces aren't full of second cuts!!!!  

I admit that this week has had some trials that I could have done without.  Without trials, we can't fully appreciate some of the little jewels in life, nor can we fully appreciate the priceless jems...Friends & loved ones. 

My hubby, Mike, the my #1 reason for smiling on a daily basis,.....and the reason I can do what I love in life.

Just when I think I'm having a horrible week, little things pop up that make me smile.  One of those is a little "contest" given by a friend, fellow shepherdess and blogger.  I shamelessly promoted the fact that I wanted to win and guess what? I won!!!  I opened my little package from Michelle of Boulderneigh and I found a yummy bag of candy and a mini raglan sweater that she had knit.  Thank you Michelle, I love the gifts, especially the little sweater because it was made by someone special.  

This picture made me smile

My friend , Terri....holding the oops lamb, Santana, that was born yesterday
Terri helped us with shearing yesterday, as did my friend Donna.  Since Donna was our photographer for the shearing, you won't get to see her .  (big grin) Reason #2

Candy!!!!  Who doesn't love candy?   Smiling again.

A perfect mini raglan sweater, THIS was a very pleasant surprise since I secretly covet these little
works of art.   Yep, smiling.

A couple weeks ago I got this wonderful gift from Pat, she is a fellow ASK member (Argylian Society of Knitters).  I was so touched by this kind gesture that I actually cried.  She paints a lot of dogs and when she saw that I had posted a picture of our new Maremma pup on Facebook, she picked out a rock and painted  a profile of Bianca's head on that rock.  My dad took the rock home and mounted it on a nice little wood plaque so I could hang it on my wall.  Another thing that makes me smile.  

Pat is a friend and fellow knitter that belongs to my knitting group, and she paints too.  I was delighted to come to knitting to find this little treasure waiting for me.
(the rock is about 3 1/2" in diameter)

Smiling can be quite contagious.....Happy Wednesday everyone. 

Life can be fickle

Before I tell you my good news, I want to thank each of you for your heart~felt words of comfort.  I know that there is no real answer to my question, but it's how I felt yesterday when my heart was heavy.   I prayed for an end to the little lambs suffering even when I knew there was not much chance she was going to recover, my prayer was answered, just not in the way I had planned.  Answers to pray aren't always what we want, but it's always what is best, that is a life lesson I've learned the hard way.  Her mom, Alabama, spent most of the day and night calling for her baby and I so wanted to be able to comfort her.

So, my good news.........We had another oops baby waiting when I got back home!!!  Salina, a Salicional x Forrest daughter, had a beautiful, healthy fawn kat ewe lamb.  She is lovely and has the oddest markings on her head and around her neck.  I had no intention of breeding any of my 2011 ewe lambs, but it turns out that Bug had other ideas.  When I saw that there was another lamb on the ground, my husband reminded me that Bug did escape after he got him back to me from his vacation at Juliann's house in December.  I remember saying to him, "Boy, I sure hope he didn't breed anyone".   Ha, subconsciously I knew it was rubbish the second it left my mouth.  

Here she is.....Santana, my little oops lamb that came at exactly the right time.  

Salina and her ewe lamb, Santana
Salina is a stellar mom, just like her mom...Salicional.

What would you say this head marking would be?  She has a white "beard " that goes around her head too.  And that
goofy white spot on her nose.  She's just a cutie pie.
Click to bigify

We spent most of last night preparing for the shearer's arrival, he is coming tonight after we get off work.  We spent a bit of our time flipping over the rest of the "unbred" yearlings to make sure we didn't have any more surprises.  Looks like we are finally done with a total of 29 lambs.  

One more ewe

I can't say enough good things about the 2 ram lambs I got from Velma this year, she never disappoints me, always gives me top notch lambs no matter what ram I use.  I have to see how these guys mature, but if they look close to how nice they are now, I don't know how I will decide who goes and who stays.  Lambing is bittersweet for me, it means I have to make hard decisions.  But I can certainly put those off for a bit yet.

Elvis
Velma x Thor ram
divets instead of horns, great structure and very promising fleece.
As Corinne would say, Crimpy Purse too!!!  

Let me introduce you to a few of our new flock members.

Bing Crosby
Challis x Bug ram
being retained for further evaluation

Everything Bing does seems to scream........"Look at me"
I'm almost done lambing.....27 lambs to date, Purebred Shetland count is: 9 ewes and 13 rams. Crossbred lamb count is: 2 ewes and 3 rams.
I purchased Bee Sting late in the fall and while at Lil Country Acres, Juliann exposed Bee to Bug, she leased him for a month after I pulled my rams from their breeding groups.  This puts little Bee about one month later than the rest.  She's round and has an udder, so I'm thinking she won't be too much longer now.

Celine
Challis x Bug ewe
Being retained

Last night I sat on the hill and got a good ole dose of cuteness from the lambs, and coincidentally, I had my camera, so here are some of the lambs with a few weeks under their belts.  Let me know when you are sick of looking at lamb pictures, it won't stop me, but you can tell me.  :)

Buddy Holly
Dot x Bug ram
Can't let this guy go yet. 

Daughtry
Catherine x Thor ram (for sale)

Elton John
Salicional x Bug ram
Love this ram.......will consider selling, but reluctantly after evalutation 

John Lennon
Garnet x Bug ram
(retaining for evaluation)

Madonna
Meadow x Thor ewe
(I have two of these ewes, one is sold)

Axl Rose
Catherine x Thor ram
horned-will be offered for sale after evaluation

Mick Jagger
Hermoine x Thor ram
horned-will be offered for sale after evaluation

Olivia
Salicional x Bug ewe
Being retained

Ozzy Osborne
Hermoine x Thor ram
for sale after evaluations

Reba
Farrah x Camden ewe
Being retained

Ringo Starr
Velma x Thor ram
Being held for evaluation

Shania
Bailey x Bug ewe
Love this ewe, but I have several fawn kat so may be for sale

Tina Turner
Dot x Bug ewe
Being retained

Whitney
Catherine x Thor ewe
Being held for evaluation

Fiber Fix

I spent this past Saturday and Sunday in Waukesha at the Wi Spin In.  This was to be a maiden voyage for the FFSSA booth, and I was not disappointed.  I spent a lot of time coveting things from other booths, but did manage to spend a fair amount of time speaking to other vendors and customers that were shopping about Shetland sheep and their fleece.  Time and again I heard, "Wow, very nice, or This is Shetland?"  I like to see the reaction of folks when they realize that Shetland is not scratchy and coarse.  Right after you see "that look", they start looking around to see if you noticed and then they feel compelled to comment.

It was just nice to have some fleece/wool/yarn/sheepy fellowship and recharge my batteries.  

Great people, friendly vendors and a nice weekend of being immersed in everything fiber related.

Basket of needle felted balls in various grades with micron data key provided
One of many contributions from Sabrina)

Left side of the display table

Right side of display table

Double coat samples on left and single coat samples on right

Needle felted sculptures donated and on loan from Sabina with micron data attached
The mouse was, hands down, the star of the display!!!
 (you better give me a name for him soon Sabrina)

Display board and right side of table

Fine Fleece Shetland Sheep Association booth 

Mioget fleece

Fawn fleece

Everyday is a gift from God.

Spots...gotta love em'

Tuesday mornings gift  

Challis x Bug ewe 

Challis x Bug ram 

Great birth coat on both these babies and if the end up being built like their parents, they will both be staying right here.  No horn buds on the ram so far.  (crossing my fingers)

Challis is gernerally pretty wild and sticks to herself, but now that her lambs are here, she ubber quiet and very content.  There's so many things that I like about this ewe, but the first thing that struck me about her was her structure, she has a leg in all 4 corners and properly proportioned...not too small, not too large and has good fleece to boot.  Her fantastic mothering ability is just another reason to pass along her genetics.  Thank you to Lori of Sommarang Farm for allowing me to lease her.
Everyday is a gift from God.