Recent content by purplequeenvt

Too many pictures for one post so photo dump #2 2621 Symphony’s ram 2622 Melody, Symphony’s ewe. Keeper 2623 Freyja’s little boy 2624 Cornelius, Freyja’s big boy. He’s going to be castrated and will be staying here. No new picture of 2625 Meadow’s ram 2626 Taiga, Meadow’s ewe. Keeper...

Photo dump. I was trying to get good pictures of all the Shetland lambs so I can start advertising them. 2601 Newton - he is huge and his horns are coming in large and wide-set. He does not have the gray gene. He’s worth watching as a potential herd sire. 2602 Olivia - potential keeper 2603...

Pamina’s girls Kermit helping put milk in the bucket. He isn’t taking any off the bucket himself, but he likes to be involved. We have now reached the point of the year where I want to strangle all the ewes. The screaming and bad behavior is constant. They have plenty of hay and they...

The day ended better than it started, but it was a near tragedy. Pamina (Border Leicester) had twin girls about 30 minutes ago. I was pretty sure she was going to lamb today when I fed this morning so I checked on her via the cameras a bunch through the day. She didn’t start pushing until a...

Disappointing/Frustrating morning. Lise lambed this morning and lost her lamb. She was not looking terribly close to lambing yesterday so I hadn’t penned her up. Checking back on the cameras (of course she picked the one spot in the barn I couldn’t see), she lambed around midnight, again no...

Current lambing counts. Bred ewes: 30 (20 Shetlands, 9 Border Leicesters, 1 Shropshire cross) Lambed so far: 25 (18 Shetlands, 6 Border Leicesters, 1 Shropshire cross) Total lambs: 43 Live lambs: 40 Deceased: 3 (all stillborn) Live lambs Shetland Lambs: 28 Rams: 12 Ewes: 16 Crossbred...

I might be making a trip to the MD Sheep and Wool Festival next month. My sister organizes the Youth Conservationist Program where sheep breeders can donate a registered yearling ewe to the program, youth apply (I think there’s some kind of essay or similar involved) for their top 2 breed...

I got all 13 boys sheared today. My shoulder is on fire tonight, but they are done. Something broke in my shears when I had just the belly left on the last yearling so I had to pull out my old clippers to finish him. Everyone got their feet trimmed and CD&T. Some of them are leaner than I’d...

You can absolutely use dog brushes to start with! Processing equipment can be very expensive and I own quite a few pieces that I really wouldn’t be able to afford. I have been gifted some nice tools from other fiber arts people that were retiring, changing hobbies, or had upgraded their own...

If you do decide to learn to spin, look into the Electric Eel Wheels. They are little electric (plug in or run off a battery pack) wheels. Extremely well designed and affordable. There are currently 3 models - the Nano, the Fold, and the 6.1. I have the 6.0 which is the previous model to the...

I’ve got a broody duck who is a master nest builder. There’s a 2nd duck thinking about going broody as well.

My PCP’s office submitted the request for the MRI to my insurance yesterday, but the office girl called me to say there was a good chance that they were going to deny it and would want me to do X number of weeks of PT to “prove” that I actually need an MRI. I told her that I would absolutely not...

Update: Edith was NOT pranking me! She had a 5.4lb black ewe. Today is also Edith’s 4th birthday!

Edith had a big udder change on Sunday which prompted me penning her up on Monday. This may not look impressive, but that is at least double what it was the day before. This was her udder when I got out to the barn this morning. 😱 Her belly has dropped and sides are hollow. She does...

Happy 13th birthday to Freyja! Her boys are doing well. Interestingly, the darker one, Cornelius, drinks almost exclusively from the bucket. I don’t seem him nursing from Freyja very often and the lighter boy (no name yet) mainly nurses from Freyja, but also enjoys a snack from the bucket...