Ohiogoatgirl's Escapades & Adventures- Pulse check! pg14

[ohiogoatgirl]

I just ordered a bunch of stuff from premier1. Oy vey there goes a third of my paycheck! But I am excited for the items I got.
Lamb sling (for weighing)
Hanging scale (up to 110lb! and digital!)
Clipper oil & screwdriver (for electric shears)
Applicator & 60 ear tags (that should last me this year and next lol)
Ram shield

I really waffled about the ram shield. I am going to need it for the wether when I move the rams and him to the other paddock. When I first put the new group with the others he and Butthead had at it and Butthead knocked off the outer part of his scurs. He has healed up but it was gross. I will be putting it on the wether and watch them for a good while when I separate them.
The shield isn't something I want to ever need to use. But for right now I do have a need for it. I would rather have it on hand in case I ever need it in a pinch. But I hope to move the flock in a direction of never needing to use it.
Plus the cost of it put me over the $100 mark to get free shipping. Without it I would have been paying more than half it's cost as shipping so might as well get it.

I am also planning to sell the wether after spring shearing.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Much thought-y-ness stuff to follow.. In no particular order..

* I think I have decided that come spring I will be watching for a Border Leicester or Romney ram. And next fall the ewes will be divided between Fitzwilliam and that ram.

*Lamb weights-
Birth, 30days, 60days, 90days, 120days,....?

*Record keeping-
With the rabbits I put breedings and due dates on my phone calendar. So far with the sheep I have put dates of births, buying/selling, etc in my phone as well. I should look for a calendar for farm stuff with big squares. I also need to dedicate a notebook to notes of sheep stuff and dedicate it to a certain spot (and the calendar).

*When I get these tags in I want to put the first on Fitzwilliam. So every lamb born here will get tagged with these.

*Currently I am REALLY thinking lambs from Pigpig x Butthead are going to have awesome fleeces. I am considering if she has a ram and keeping him if he has a great fleece and type. Or if he has a great fleece but some other fault about him I will very much consider keeping him around as a wether for a while.
If I did keep him then it would have to be as replacement of Fitzwilliam as breeding ram here. Because I don't want any one animal having too much genes in the whole flock.

*If all the ewes only have one lamb I could end up with about 9 lambs. Probably about 3-5 ewe lambs. If all the ewes twinned (unlikely, but just to throw numbers) I could end up with 18 lambs. Probably 6-10 ewe lambs.
So next year I could have from 12 to 19 ewes. Plus I want to buy some ewes from the neighbor with high % Icelandic crosses if nothing else.

*Considering it so likely that I will be multiplying my numbers like this it seems very likely the hair cross ewe will not be staying permanently unless I really get some meaty lambs that grow amazingly from her this spring. Enough to warrant keeping her just for that really.
As for the other ewes, I feel like I will probably be phasing out these current ewes to make room for the ones born here. And to a smaller extent a few ewes I will probably bring in of different breeds.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

SQUEEE! My box from premier1 got here ON FRIDAY! So happy with how the ear tags look! I will have to get a pic and share it here. So glad that I went with numbers on one side and (slightly abbreviated) farm name on the other side.
And the hanging scale is really accurate I will be able to weight fibers with it! YAY!

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Sooo.. I wanted to have the rams separated the other day.. Of course I gotta wait until payday and coordinate with dad to get the cattle panels to make the squeeze. So hopefully next week they will be separated. The last two days have been notably cooler. I am just hoping no one has decided to be an early girl to want it yet!

 

[CntryBoy777]

It sounds like ya have things moving right along for ya there. Do ya have a good market for your fleece?....or is it just for you to work with?.....

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

It sounds like ya have things moving right along for ya there. Do ya have a good market for your fleece?....or is it just for you to work with?.....

Thanks. I am a handspinner so some of it I will hand process and spin, some will be sent to be milled for sales, and some will be for my personal stash I have some people interested in raw fleeces, some people interested in milled yarn, some people interested in milled top,...

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

All that I wanted to get done today.. I got exactly one PART of one thing of that done.. HA!
We are getting rain from the storms from Hurricane Harvey up here and it was overcast and raining pretty much from 2am 9/2/17 through until right now.. Still raining and sprinkling off and on..

So I got some wool carding done for selling. Went to town and got the cattle panels. Got home quite a bit after dark. Hoping that in the morning things will be dry enough to pull the truck up the hill and unload them near the paddocks. Monday is supposed to be nice and warm back up. Hopefully not get too warm that I won't want to go out and get things done. I am off Monday and should be a big day for the local auction sale. Hoping to drop some stuff at the auction and come back and do the separating and all with the sheep.

And I will be shearing Fitzwilliam.. And possibly Midget, hers is definitely long enough to shear but I would like to just clean up around her face and see her fleece in the spring with a full years growth. I have been shearing her and Pigpig twice a year. Pigpig's wool is shorter this year, I think due to her lambing whereas last year she wasn't pregnant or raising a lamb.

I am going to cut back on the rabbits. Just keepin a couple. Signs of rat in the barn so got some traps. I really need to sort out things and get a shed built for the rabbits to avoid predator problems and setup issues. Keeping the pet doe from my cousin (thank you familial guilt), the minirex doe, and the silverfox buck.

I lost a few of the chickens and am at 2 hens and 2 roos. Bantams. I need to build a mobile coop to have them out in the pasture with the sheep. I would like to get some more hens but that is on hold until I get stuff caught up with everything else.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

These little bugger seed-burr things are the current bane of my existence!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYgVKiDHrdf/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats

Fitzwilliam being a lovebug (two parts). I am SO EXCITED to see lambs from him and how he grows next year. Right now the plan is that most likely he will breed all or almost all of the ewes next fall. After that it depends on how he grows and if I don't find a ram I just gotta buy and keep myself from holding back all the ram lambs! HA! It is going to be a struggle!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYgTt9QHCkK/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYgT7yMHdHh/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats

Midget being nosey and lovey too (two parts). I get so excited with everything that I can forget how much I just love these critters. I really love the character of Midget's fleece. It might just be bias on my part But I am really excited to see what lambs she throws with Butthead.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYgUKMYHlqq/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYgUYJbH-l-/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats

And Pigpig.. Her attitude is that half-feral-cat that you feed through the winter and let it sleep in the garage and it meows at you and maybe lets you pet it twice a year for five seconds... Yeah.. That's her.. Surprisingly she is mom to Fitzwilliam! Hoping he passes on being sweet to his lambs!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYgUuEGHUr_/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats

L to R- Midget, Fitzwilliam, Pigpig. I am glad he seems to have gotten his growth from Pigpig rather than Pythagoras, who was quite small. I think under all the wool he is, right now, probably very similar in body size to Midget.
I can't wait to see lambs from him and what traits he passes on! Pythagoras was moorit (poooossibly carried spotting?) and Pigpig is an unknown kind of black/grey something. And he will be in with two black ewes with unknown what they carry. Obviously I am expecting black and hoping to see if anything else pops up though. Next year with him breeding most/all of the ewes will really show though.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYgU1_pnPMo/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Generally in the mornings I am greeted by the "clearly starving" sheep. Once in a while I sleep in a bit and can sneak out without being spotted and mobbed. Those mornings I enjoy the small gift of being able to simply pour feed into feeders without a crowd of wooly heads trying to eat it before it can get there.
Then of course I look up and watch them graze.. And finally call them in to eat and be rushed by them. "Clearly starving" they will tell you. They simply don't listen to my claims of other sheep that only get feed through the coldest of winter.. Or sheep that NEVER get grain at all! *Gasp!* The horrors!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXpP68xFNcF/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Sheared Fitzwilliam and separated the rams. I am sooooo stoked for lambing!
I did bring out a comb and tried picking the little burr things out. Wasn't happening. It'll be easier on me and Fitz shearing and me combing the tips clean. If it wasn't so bad with them it would probably be fine.
(copied from the following IG post)
I sheared Fitzwilliam today with the scissors. I waffled about it but I already needed to wrangle everyone for separating anyway. And his fleece wasn't getting any cleaner... So here it is. 23.6oz Skirted more heavily than usual due to the state he got into with the tiny burrs. And he will still need a bit of a clean-up around his face and butt. But we were both tuckered out and getting cranky

I am going to comb the tips out as that is really the only VM. I hadn't realized the gorgeous crimp he grew into! At birth he was a bit wavy curly. I tell you what there is some fiber-gasm crimp

and the deep rich black

It is interesting to note the texture change in his britch wool. Not unpleasant at all. While shearing it was the oddest sensation with the change of it. I can't quite put my finger on it. Somewhat like going from a medium fine shetland to a fine dorset lamb?
I am even more excited to see what kind of lambs he throws now. And I checked over the black shetland-cormo ewe that he will be breeding (and the black shetland ewe). She has nice wool and it will be really neat to see if he passes on the long staple length.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYpbXSBnvTU/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats

I want to keep the vm and bag the combed tips good wool, then weigh both. I know there is many oz of those darn things and at least one regular burr