purplequeenvt - Ivy Knoll Farm

What a cutie!!!!!
What is her breeding?

Four Winds Ranch said:

What a cutie!!!!!
What is her breeding?

Click to expand...

She's a mini. She'll probably end up about 38" or so. She's bred for driving so she's got long legs.

Sooo.....it's been ages since I've posted anything on my journal. I'm going to try to revive it, but I make no promises about posting with any regularity. I try to keep up with reading on the forum, but I don't always have the time (or energy) to post anything.

I'm going to restart things with the "getting to know you" list.

What state/province/country are you in?

I live near Burlington, VT and Lake Champlain. In fact, I can see the lake from the house.

How many people are in your family?

There are 8 human members of my family. I am the 2nd oldest of 6 kids. I am done with school and am a trained Phlebotomist (have yet to find a job) and manage our family farm.

How would you define your farm?

We are a small family farm. Our main focus is sheep, but we raise a few pigs every year plus some beef, a milk cow, a couple milk goats, poultry, and a few mini horses.

What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed?

In my spare time? I would love to travel. Italy in particular.

Who or what inspired you to be a farmer/rancher, hobby farmer?

Farming seems to run in the blood a bit. My great grandfather raised sheep in the 1920s. I was 11 when we started our little farm, but the desire was there from the start.

Is it a hobby or an occupation?

It's a hobby with the goal of becoming an occupation. I'm always working to come up with ways to make the farm financially viable on its own.

In what areas are you knowledgeable and in what areas would you like to learn more?

I know a lot of stuff (useful and not), but there is always something more to learn. 14 years of raising sheep and there are still things I don't know.

In what types of farming will you never choose to do?

I wouldn't want to do any feedlot type stuff. Or rabbits. I'm allergic to the little buggers.

Are you interested in providing more of your own food supply?

Yes! We raise all of our own beef, pork, and lamb.

Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi?

Tractor, yes. Semi, no. We have a little 22hp John Deere that we've had forever and my dad recently bought a 50 or 60hp Ford. He tried to convince me to learn to drive it, but I didn't want to. And then I got the little tractor stuck while brush-hogging along the creek. My dad wasn't home with the truck and my mom was wanting the little tractor to mow the lawn with. So I called my dad and he talked me through the controls. I managed to get the little tractor out of the mud without getting the big tractor stuck, breaking anything, or killing anyone. Although my sister claims that I almost dumped her in the creek.

Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these?

I use to do a lot of fiber arts, spinning and felting in particular. I haven't had time for that in a long time.

Can you legally have all forms of livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds?

We can have pretty much any type of livestock. We live in a small town that use to have a large number of small family farms. Unfortunately, we are too close to our "big" city and we have a lot of city folks and out-of-staters (flat-landers) moving in and changing things. Most of the town is still zoned agricultural though.

We have:
Sheep
Goats
Cattle
Pigs
Chickens
Ducks
Mini Horses

I also had llamas for almost 14 years.

Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing?

To some extent, yes. I've got better things to do with my time than weed.

Do you fish? Bait or explosives?

I've done some fishing, but not a lot.

How much space/land do you have or rent? City farm? Country?

We own almost 8 acres, but have a total of about 20 acres that we have access to. It's all open fields.

What is your farm specialty? Or what one would you like to learn?

We primarily raise sheep. They are registered breeding stock (two breeds, Border Leicester and Shetland), but we keep a few crossbred ewes for extra meat lambs. Our lambs go as breeding stock, pets, and meat.

Are you interested in herbal animal medicine?

To some extent, yes. I don't like to overdo the drugs, but I also will not let an animal suffer needlessly because I'm stuck on herbal/homeopathic remedies. I saw a sheep suffer for a long time with the worst case of mastitis I've ever seen. She died because her owner had an issue with the vet and wouldn't let them come see the animal and continued to treat with homeopathics when it was clear that they weren't working.

If you could live any place you chose, where would it be?

Somewhere with lots of open pasture and no annoying neighbors.

Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking?

Yes! We have a wood stove for heating. We also have a wood cook stove, but it isn't installed anywhere. We had it in our old house and there isn't a place for it (yet) at the new.

Are your family or friends also interested in animals?

Some of them are. One of my best friends has sheep, but she left this fall for vet school....in Scotland.

Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs?

Yes! We eat a lot of meat, try to eat minimal grains and processed foods. Raw milk, yes. We have a Jersey milk cow and 2 milk goats. We really aren't big milk drinkers though so we end up making kefir and yogurt. I'm working on the cheese part. It's always depressing to eat those pale store bought eggs.

What was your best animal experience? Worst?

There are so many "best" and "worst" experiences. Lambing is amazing. Lambing is also terrible. Spending 3 hours in the middle of the night trying to pull a dead lamb out of a prolapsing ewe before making the decision to put the ewe down. That was one of the worst. Coyote attacks. Those stink.

Watching that adorable fluffy Great Pyr puppy grow into a strong guardian. That is one of the best.

What skills do you have that help you be more a self sufficient farm?

I know how to process chickens. I could do sheep too, if I had too. I can shear and spin.

Do you process your own meat?

Yes, we processed 77 chickens and 5 ducks just over a week ago. We did 71 a few weeks before that.

What is on your to do list?

Finish getting ready for winter!

Have you ever lived completely off what you produce? Would you like to?

Meat wise, yes. We have 5 freezers full of meat.

Do you make and fix things yourself to save money?

As much as we can.

Has the experience with animals changed your attitude or habits?

Definitely! Raising an animal up to the point where it is ready to butcher and being part of that process from beginning to end gives a person an appreciation for their food. It's not just a hunk of meat in the cooler at a store. You know exactly what went into that animal both in terms of care and drugs/feed.

Welcome back!

Breeding season is almost over for us. The Border Leicester rams were put in at the very beginning of September.

We used 2 BL rams this year. The first is Sebastian. He is a homebred ram and we are very pleased with him. This is our 2nd year using him and his lambs this spring were lovely. They got nice fleeces and classic BL heads.


The other ram is Alfonso. He's not much to look at, but his lambs all had gorgeous fleeces and nice BL heads. Alfonso was raised by my sister as a bottle lamb and you would never know it. He is beyond non-aggressive. He doesn't even fight with the other rams. He's a sweetheart.


The Shetlands got their boyfriend on 9/24. Geode is a lamb that I bought from a youth breeder in MA. He has lovely horns and his fleece is deliciously soft. He is a Moorit (brown) Katmoget (pattern where the fleece is light and the underbelly is dark)


We also added 3 registered Southdown ewes to our flock. We bought them from a friend who was downsizing because she is at vet school in Scotland. They are bred to a registered Southdown ram, but their main purpose is to provide extra market lambs.

Love the Shetland ram, he's got the coolest face and horns!

COYOTES!

We have a lot of the pests around us. Last year we lost 3 sheep (a 4th one to a bobcat) and had one seriously injured by them. With 2 LGDs and a lot of extra work (no one is left out in the pasture without a dog past dark) we've managed to keep everyone safe so far this year. The coyotes are still really bold. They come really close to the barns and house and poop right outside the fence were the dogs are. The dogs are on alert from about 7 pm until 8 am.

Last year we had a trapper come in and we caught 2 coyotes and a fox. Trapping season just opened and he came back today and set out 6 traps, 3 sets of 2. He put 2 in the spot that we caught both the coyotes last year. He didn't see too many signs over there so those traps might get moved. Another 2 are in the path between 2 fields are there was lots of sign there. I've been finding tracks and scat there all summer. The 3rd set is closer to the house.

I hope we catch ALL the coyotes.

A little about our sheep:

We raise purebred, registered Border Leicester and Shetland sheep, but we also have a small flock of production ewes for market lambs. The flock is currently at 54, but 13 or 14 of those will be put in the freezer this fall. There are another 2 or 3 that are for sale.

We have 12 breeding age Border Leicesters - 4 white ewes, and 8 natural colored ewes. There are 7 breeding age Shetland ewes and 5 production ewes (3 registered Southdowns, 2 crossbred).

We are growing out 8 ewe lambs over the winter as replacement stock (5 BLs, 2 Shetlands, 1 crossbred) and 3 ram lambs (to show and hopefully sell as breeding rams next fall).

There are 4 breeding rams (3 BLs, 1 Shetland) and an old retired ram that we may decide to put down before winter.

Our goals are to breed quality stock that do well in the show ring and at home. They need to be able to go home and produce after the show season. We are also working towards animals that grow well in a primarily grass-fed situation.





My sister and her Supreme Champion ewe, River, a BL yearling ewe

Beautiful sheep!

Sorry about the coyotes. They are a common thing in the west but I don't them going after much except for lambs or weak ewes. I wonder if it is connected to the space and prey dynamic in the west vs the east.

We got two! An adult female and a male pup.