Sunday, April 26, 2015

Oh my sheep...what beauties you are!

You can probably tell from the title of this post that I am going to spend a great deal of time talking about how wonderful my sheep are...how lovely they are...how cute they are...what beautiful creatures they are! But I'm not just referring to their looks (although they are awfully good-looking ovines!)...I'm also referring to their demeanor.

Panda Bear, Mikey, and my son, Iain

Our day begins with letting them out of their barn. If the weather is nice, I just slip on my Birks and head out the back door, calling to them as I walk up the hill. From inside the barn, I hear shuffling as they get up, and sometimes a few knocks on the door...but then I hear, BAAAH. I admit that I do not yet know their different voices, so I'm never sure who is doing the calling, but regardless - it makes my heart sing to hear it! I open their door and there are those sweet, sheepy faces, looking at me. They then shuffle out the door and get to work grazing - usually. Sometimes they stand and look at me as if to say, "Well, what are we doing today? Did you bring any bread?" Let me explain - these sheep LOVE bread. I mean, LOVE it like I love peanut butter (and seriously, I love peanut butter so very much). So when we come outside to visit them, they come running down the hill, and I have to say that I see disappointment in their eyes when we come empty-handed! Well, they seem to know that the routine first thing in the morning does not include bread, so after checking out my face, they head out to their job - grazing. They are little mowing machines, and I am continually in awe of how their bodies work - all of that grazing to produce beautiful fleece, creamy, rich milk, and delicious meat (Icelandics are truly a triple-threat breed, although my sheepies will only be fleece critters)!

After letting them out for the day, I make sure that their feeders haven't been knocked onto the ground (they sometimes use them as scratching posts, so I have found them laying in the straw in the morning), and that they still have plenty of salt, mineral mix, and kelp. Then I go back inside and have my coffee, but the kids and I spend quite a bit of time outside, visiting the sheep throughout the day. Of course, we have to take offerings of bread to them, and it is quite the dance to make sure that Mikey doesn't hog it all! That sheep is definitely bigger than his sisters, and he uses that body mass and height to move them out of the way and reach for the bread! By the way, for those of you old enough to remember the old Life cereal commercials with Mikey, who LOVED Life cereal - that is why Mikey was given this name! When he was a lamb, he ate anything and everything, and clearly, things haven't changed much since then!

At Lee's place, prior to shearing - Mikey LOVES his bread and LOVES Iain!

Sometimes I take sliced apples to them...Lee gives apples to her sheep quite often, and they love it! Apparently my three didn't get that memo - sometimes they will eat them, and sometimes they have no interest. And Panda Bear has yet to eat an apple since she's been here! Black Velvet will maybe have a slice or two, and if Mikey realizes that there is no bread to be had, he'll start munching on the apples. But today I ended up eating more than any of them...and that was fine, too. Just standing out in their field, sharing apples and spending time with them? Perfect!

After several visits and much grazing on their part, they can oftentimes be found under their favorite tree:



Panda Bear and Black Velvet, chewing their cud and chillaxin'

This is such an awesome tree - it provides shade all day long, and even gives them a place to scratch their heads (I saw Mikey doing this today and it was adorable)! However, if one of us walks down the driveway to check the mail or bring up the garbage can, you can bet that they will stop what they're doing - even relaxing under their tree - and run down the hill to see what's going on! And the BAAHing that happens then! I checked the mail today and once I walked past the corner of the fence where they could no longer see me, the BAAHing began and didn't stop until they could see me again! Talk about making a person feel loved!

After much grazing, many visits, and about a loaf of bread throughout the course of the day, it's time for them to go to bed. Once the sun goes down, but while we can still see to walk outside, one of my kids will come out with me to help get them back in their barn. It takes two people - one to tempt them into the barn with bread, through this little window:




and one to quietly walk around through their gate to shut that bottom portion of their Dutch door. I have been incredibly impressed by my children's abilities to sneak either over the gate or through it without alerting them that somebody is out there - of course, my job is to keep them VERY occupied with snarfing down the last of their bread for the day! Mikey makes that a challenge as he does his best to muscle Panda Bear out of the way - and she is the one most likely to make a run out the door and not get locked in at night (that has only happened twice, and when it does, all 3 of them stay out - they still have access to their barn, like they do all day, but I don't keep two locked in when the other won't cooperate)! But as long as I make sure she gets lots of attention and bread, she stays put until my helper can lock the door. In fact, Elise and I just got done putting them to bed for the night - and what did we hear as we walked back to the house? BAAAH - a very sheepy Good Night!

What gets me about them are their unique personalities and their total trust in us. They are truly happy to see us (and the bread), and they want us to spend time with them - when we leave the pasture and head back to the house, what do we hear? BAAAH. It's not a scared, desperate sound - it's more of a, "Can't you stay for a bit longer?" It lets us know that they have a connection to us and want us to be there. It tells us that they think of us as part of their flock - and they are most definitely part of our family! Although Panda Bear doesn't like the pets that Mikey does, and Black Velvet wants to be very close to us without necessarily getting pets (sometimes she just likes to smell our hands), they have all adopted us into their flock, and they have all made warm, wooly spots in our hearts as well!

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Shepherdess Jen, Reporting for Duty!

WHEW!!!  It happened...the sheep were sheared...they were brought to our house...and they are currently grazing happily in their new pasture!  And I think I might still be in a bit of shock over the whole thing! So please bear with me if I sound scattered (and still a bit tired!)!

Mikey and I, pre-shearing

We arrived at Lee's house around 8:40 a.m., and met Martin the Shearer (as he will forever be known in my mind), and said howdy to all of the sheep, taking one last look at them with their winter fleeces. Then Lee's friends and neighbors who come to her Shearing Bees every April and October began to arrive. It was really neat to see a couple of the familiar faces from my first Wool Gatherers meeting, back in February - Wool Gatherers is a local knitting/spinning/fiber guild/group that meets once a month, and Lee is on their board. So saw some folks I knew already, and met some new ones, including the local sheep-owners who also raise Icelandics. Once Martin had his equipment set up, the shearing began! Here are shots of my 3, getting their summer haircuts:

Mikey

Panda Bear

Black Velvet

After Martin was finished with them, they went over to the next station, where they got their pedicures done by 3 amazing vet students from Washington State University:


These girls were so fabulous! I was right there with each of my 3, and was able to ask questions of these ladies, and they were so knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful! When the sheep are sheared, it's common, no matter how careful and experienced the shearer is, for them to get nicked. The beauty of sheep (one of the many amazing things about them) is their ability to heal - their skin heals so quickly that Lee says scientists need to work on figuring out how to graft sheep skin onto human burn victims! But sometimes the nicks are deep, and so the pedicure station takes care of treating any big cuts with betadine solution. In addition, if the sheep requires worming medicine, they get that while they're in the sheep chair, having their hooves trimmed. Once all is finished up, they are done for the day (and quite relieved to get back to their grazing)!

34 sheep were sheared yesterday - and we found out that Martin the Shearer has been doing this for 48 years...that's a year longer than I've been alive! He was so interesting and kind, and it's clear that he loves what he does. He talked about shearers who shear flocks with thousands of sheep - I can't even imagine. He also told us about his travels, and the variety of places where he's worked as a shearer, including New York, Wyoming, and the Falkland Islands! I am just grateful that he ended up in northern Idaho - we are so lucky to have his expertise!

After a wonderful potluck lunch following the shearing, Lee loaded up my 3 into her Ewe Haul (yeah, that's what the sign on it says...it's the back of her big pickup truck that her husband modified, adding sides and a top for transporting sheep), and we drove out to our house. After getting them unloaded and up to their new home, we got their leads off of them and off they went...I think maybe 1 second passed before they were all grazing away, content as can be. Lee said, "I don't think I'm going to even get a backward glance!" We just laughed - this is what we wanted - for them to be happy and content, and to have a safe, loving home to live out their days as fiber sheep. 





There is a Spanish proverb that says, "Wherever the foot of the sheep touches, the land is turned into gold." Not only is this true from an economic standpoint, but also from the point of view of those who love these animals. I have fallen in love with sheep - with my 3, with Lee's remaining 25, and with all of the ones I saw yesterday at the Shearing Bee. Not only is our land blessed by these animals, but our lives are as well. Thank you, Fate!






Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Just One More Day...BEYOND excited!

Brace yourselves, readers...tomorrow is Shearing Day!!! The excitement that is building in me is liable to spill onto these pages!


The kids and I went to Lee's yesterday to get barley straw (which now needs to get put into the barn...but we got snow last night and today, so now I'm waiting for it to melt and the wind to calm down), and I also discovered that the sheep not only need mineral mix and salt, but also kelp...I thought the kelp was part of the mineral mix! Poor Lee - she has explained things so clearly, and I think I'm so excited, I'm not hearing/remembering everything she's telling me! However, I have the mineral mix and the salt now, and tomorrow, I'll get the kelp...along with 3 fleeces and 3 sheep!

Our sheepies were happy to see us yesterday - well, they were happy to see the bags of bread that Lee gave the kids!



We tried really hard to get a hold of Black Velvet, as she still needs to be wormed - but that is one tricky sheep! No matter how clever we thought we were being about grabbing her collar, she was one step ahead of us! It amazes me how fast the sheep can move - particularly, how quickly they can change direction - they are fleet of hoof!

So tomorrow...we'll get there at 8:30 a.m. and head to wherever Lee needs us...we'll see sheep sheared, their hooves trimmed, and some of them receive vaccinations and worming medicine. It will be a whole new world for us, and I am THRILLED!  Thanks for reading today's bletherings - I am definitely having a hard time staying on track!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Six Days To Go...and Fleece!

The countdown continues...just six more days and those wooly critters will be home with us...although they won't be as wooly as they are now because they will be sheared first! My son said it will be like taking our dog, Black Beary, to the groomer to be shaved...you take a dog in and get a puppy back!



In the meantime, what have we finished and what do we still have left to do? Dear Husband mounted the 2x4 for the mineral mix and salt feeders to attach to, but it's been so cool and rainy that we haven't been able to hook up the power washer to scrub down the hay feeder. I may end up taking out a bucket of hot, soapy water with a scrub brush - I did something similar to clean out the new water trough because it had a coating of gray dust inside of it (probably something from either manufacture or shipping), so I scrubbed it out and it's all ready to go. Speaking of the water trough, my kids and I got a ring of nice, flat rocks set up for the trough to rest on - the next thing to do is get some more flat rocks for the bottom "belly" of the trough to rest on so that it doesn't bend and warp out of shape from the weight of the water. Phew...this is starting to sound like giving a mouse a cookie...one thing just leads to another. Okay, a list - what is left to do before Mikey, Panda Bear, and Black Velvet come home:

  • Wash hay feeder and get Dear Husband to do a few renovations to it.
  • Get all rocks placed for water trough.
  • Bolster fence where barn waste was hauled over the top of it - just needs another post to steady it in that spot.
  • Bring home barley straw from Lee's place and get it spread out on the floor of their barn.
  • Bring home mineral mix from Lee's place, and get it out to the storage area along with the hay and salt I bought the other day.
My goodness...I think that's it!  I mean, yes, it would be nice to have been able to paint the barn before the 15th, but the weather is not going to cooperate, so that will be a job for the summer! We're so close to being ready - it's so exciting!

A word about barley straw - WHY does it have to be so difficult to find????? Here's my saga, but in shortened form - I found out from Lee that barley straw is better than wheat straw to use for the sheep's bedding because wheat straw is dirty - barley straw is typically much cleaner, which is better for the animals overall. But barley straw is more difficult to come by - which I find odd because Idaho is supposed to be one of the largest producers of barley in the country! So where the heck is all the straw?? Well, I found two sellers of barley straw on craigslist that are close enough to drive to - but neither one of these are at all interested in returning my phone calls and texts. I'm not sure why somebody would go to the trouble to advertise on craigslist if they're not going to follow through when potential customers call...seems counterproductive in my mind. Fortunately, Lee has a barn or two full of barley straw because she bought tons of it a couple of years ago, so I can buy some from her. I'm just hoping that as we get closer to harvest time, there will be more barley farmers out there who are trying to sell their straw!

And now...about fleece! I have the October fleeces from each of my sheep that I purchased from Lee, and I started skirting, scouring, and prepping Panda Bear's. Here are some fun before and after pics:


Pretty Panda Bear


Her October 2014 fleece


Close up, showing the inner and outer coats


After scouring


And after combing - all ready to spin!

Kind of a fun shot - before and after, with my Viking combs in the middle:


I was amazed at how long it took me just to comb that much - after about 45 minutes of solid work, I had almost 1 ounce! That's not very much, so now I know that handcombing is quite labor-intensive, and I have to give myself extra time to get it done - no rush jobs for that!! Fortunately, I have a drum carder on the way, so I will be able to process some of the fleece more speedily, and hopefully be able to get my shop up and running!

And all because of some sweet, sheepy faces that I fell madly in love with!













Saturday, April 4, 2015

10 more days...and Lamb for Easter!?!

I say "Lamb for Easter" with my tongue firmly in my cheek...to celebrate Easter and springtime and the arrival of my sheep in just 10 more days, I am going to show off pictures of the 10 lambs that joined the flock at Jerry Lee Farm this year! :)

Here are Wanda and her two girls, Spring and Daylight:



Next are Shadow with her girl and boy, Windy and March:



Then came Prima Donna with her little boy, Bjorn Lothbrok:


On the same day, Nina Negra had 3 little girls - Saga, Sif, and Skadi:


And finally, Daisy had a boy and a girl - ???? and Ivy (I'm not sure what the ram lamb's name is yet):


Check out these close-ups!!!






I was telling Lee the other day that this is the first year that I am actually enjoying spring. Yes, seeing the green grass and the spring flowers come up is always nice, but usually I equate spring with the coming of bugs and summer heat. But this year has given me a new appreciation for this season - and 99% of my newly discovered love for springtime has to do with sheepy little faces!


Today I worked on scouring a large bit of Panda Bear's October fleece (she's the one on the left in the above picture), and I am just stunned by how beautiful it is after it's been washed!  It truly is fleece as white as snow, and I am anxious to get it loaded onto my Viking combs and see what I can make of it! Tomorrow is finish work on the barn - although it might not dry out enough for us to paint it before April 15th, we still need to get the mineral and salt feeders installed, and get some rocks laid out under the water spigot for their trough to sit on. Then sometime this week or next, I need to find somebody in the area to who will sell me some barley straw - Lee told me that barley straw is better than wheat straw because it is so much cleaner. Unfortunately, finding barley straw is proving to be difficult to impossible, so I'll have to make some more calls after the Easter holiday. I'm sure that I can buy a couple of bales from Lee to get us started - just enough bedding in their little barn to tide them over until I can find a supplier. The thing is, I know I'll find it. I know it will work out. For whatever reason, these sheep have landed in my lap (not literally, thank heavens...they're rather solid wee sheepies!), and I am learning to trust that what needs to happen for them will happen.

Wyrd bið ful aræd.
Fate is inexorable.

Thank you for reading!!!