Winter

No, I didn't fall off the face of the Earth-yet. I've just gotten behind with things.

I sold all of my lambs (except the replacement ewe lambs of course.) Most were sold direct, but some through the system. I'll save that for another post though.

I took two of my biggest Shetland X Coopworth lambs to the butcher for my family and I got to compare carcasses with some of Wagners smalller purebred Coopworth lambs. (I do have pictures if anyone wants I can e-mail them, I just don't want to gross anyone out by putting them on here.) My cross lambs were quite a bit fattier (back fat and internal fat) than Wagners pure lambs (if I had taken them in a few weeks earlier they would not have been as fatty.) The carcasses were about the same size, but the pure Coopworth had a longer leg of lamb than the cross as they are taller animals. The interesting thing is even though my lambs were fatty the lamb chops were not fatty. If anything the lamb chops are actually less fatty than the pure Coopworth lambs.

Lambing will start at the end of March-the clock is ticking. I have quite a bit of spinning I want to do before lambing and I'll need to shear everyone as well.

On the fiber front, I started an Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/psalm23farm and can take Paypal now as well. (I still have my wool sale blog http://psalm23fibers.blogspot.com.)

I also am going to Greencastle, IN Fiber Event for the first time as a vendor in April. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I'm nervous because I may still be lambing (my mom and sister will have to take care of my sheep and goats) and excited because I have never been to Greencastle before. Now I just need to wash and dye some more wool and mohair....

A New Guy and Some Visitors

I was feeding my animals after the big snow storm we just had and looked over and thought "the horses are the wrong color", then "oh! the neighbors horses are here!" Two Norwegian Fjords, a donkey and a spotted horse came for a visit with my sister, Lydia's horses. While they were waiting for their "ride home" I served them some hay. (That was to distract them from getting into any trouble while their owner walked over.) Their owner got a halter on one and the rest all trotted back home.




The horses with sheep in the background.
A Fjord.

On Sunday a lovely kitten appeared. He/she is taming down a bit and is very cute. The two cats we already have are leaving ignoring at. They stay in the garage and it is in the barn with the chickens. The little guy slept next to a chicken last night. Now to think of a name...



To top off all that excitement I had a "blond" moment. This morning I had to dig trails and dig out gates so that I could feed everyone tonight. The flashlight that I keep in my coat pocket fell out. Then when I was almost done feeding tonight (it was twilight) I noticed that the snow was glowing. "Weird, why's the snow glowing?" I thought and then "ohh it's the flashlight." (I guess that's what happens when I stay up too late. My brothers were out with some friends and barely made it home. They got stuck three times and then gave up and managed to get a ride in a truck to our house and they all stayed as the rest of the kids lived farther away. Boys. Never. Think. Ok sometimes they do...)

Sheep know best

Sheep know best-they always eat dessert first!

On a more serious note-the lamb prices are incredible! Finished market lambs are going from $1.55-1.75 and feeder lambs are $1.80-2.00. Even culls are up with cull ewes going from $0.70-0.90 and cull rams going for $0.75-0.85 a #. That's almost lamb price from other years! Equity Livestock (WI) has a website and on the website they have market reports for each sale yard (bottom of page) and after each sale they update it with the new prices. http://livestock.equitycoop.com/market_reports/?vm=r I'm planning on taking my lambs (that I haven't direct marketed-sold quite a few direct so far) to Johnson Creek (that's the best sale yard in the system price wise for sheep and goats due to a strong buyer base) in two weeks. I hope to get a good price!

I have four kids that will go to market, but I'll keep them for a while longer so they can grow more mohair before I sell them (I'll shear them before they go.)

Size Comparison

I thought that since I had time/daylight yesterday when I started doing my chores that I'd take some pictures of the Shetland ewe lambs side by side with the Shetland cross lambs.
From the left two Shetland X Coopworth ewe lambs, the biggest Shetland ewe lamb that I have (Sabbath Farm Swan X PS23 Fife) and the Shetland/BFL X Corriedale ewe lamb.

From the left again two Shetland lambs (one wether and one ewe PS23 Daysong X PS23 Fairlight) and then three Shetland X Coopworth ewe lambs.

A close up of two Shetland lambs (white ewe is PS23 Daysong X PS23 Fairlight) on the left and two Shetland X Coopworth ewe lambs on the right.

On the left and in the background are three Shetland X Coopworth ewe lambs and the grey one is a Shetland ewe lamb (PS23 Emrald X ShelteringPines Justinian.)

Few more fleece shots

A Shetland X Coopworth ewe lamb
Grey Katmoget wether-unfortunately he is a wether not a ewe! I'm going to use his sire PS23 Fandango next fall in hopes of getting some nice dark grey katmogets.
White Shetland ewe lamb out of Windswept Lime and PS23 Fandango
Black/charcoal Shetland ewe lamb out of PS23 Emrald and SheltringPines Justinian
Shetland X Coopworth ewe lamb
White Shetland ewe lamb out of Sabbath Farm Silvia and PS23 Fairlight.
Shetland X Merino ewe (Shetland sire/Merino dam) This one is a bit blurry and the tiny crimp doesn't really show up. This is more matte than Shetland, while the Shetland X Coopworth is much shinier. (Coopworth lamb is more matte than adult Coopworth so these Shetland X Coopworth lambs' adult fleeces should almost glow!!)

A couple fleece shots

The other day I snapped a few fleece shots of some of my ewe lambs...

Musket Shetland ewe lamb out of Sheepy Hollow Sienna and PS23 Drummond.
One of my Shetland X Coopworth lambs. Nice bold crimp and very shiny. (This picture turned out a little blurry.)
The Shetland/BFL X Corriedale lamb. Vey soft and silky.
One of my favorite ewe lambs. This is a musket out of Sabbath Farm Sawn and PS23 Fife.

Replacemanet lambs

When I walked down the driveway to get the mail the ewe lambs all lined along the fence hoping to be fed. (The lambs are Shetland and Shetland crosses, a few are wethers destined for market in the spring.)