Totally joking - my dear husband would not want to move to Iceland...and as I've never lived anywhere but the US, I have no idea how I would do living outside of my beloved country. But when it's early June and the temperature gauge is already above 90 in this part of the world, it makes me want to head north (or super far south to Antarctica)!!
After learning about Icelandic sheep in preparation for owning the little sweethearts, I learned some really interesting things about the country of Iceland:
- Iceland is the most sparsely populated European country.
- There are just a little over 329,000 people in Iceland - more people live in St. Louis, Missouri, than live in Iceland.
- Iceland was settled in 874 C.E.
- The highest average temperature in the summer months is only 55.9 degrees Fahrenheit!
(Thanks to
Wikipedia for this fascinating information!!)
Yeah...I think I'd do okay there!!
Well, since I likely won't be moving to Iceland anytime soon, let's talk about Mikey, Panda Bear, and Black Velvet! My three Icelandics seem to be doing fine in the heat - when the temp was hitting over 90, I made sure that the kids and I checked on them several times a day. They seem to have a routine down - when it's still reasonably cool, first thing in the morning, they go out and do their grazing. Later on, they choose one of three places to hang out - either inside their barn (which seems odd to me because it feels very warm in there), or in the breezeway of their barn (this makes more sense because unless the day is perfectly still, which rarely happens up here, there is a good breeze blowing through there), or underneath their favorite tree on the hill. I adore this tree - I don't know if the previous owners planted it there, but it is the perfect shade tree because it provides shade all day long. It is far enough out from their fence that they have 360 degrees of resting space beneath it, and it provides shade for them during the daylight hours:
The Trio has already grown out a great deal of wool - and it's only been about 2 months since shearing! I can only imagine how amazing their October fleeces are going to be - oh, wait! I don't have to imagine! I've been scouring Mikey's October 2014 fleece this week and it is AMAZING!!!
His tog is SO LONG, and his þel is different than Panda Bear's - this was especially interesting to discover because I assumed that, because they are twins, their fleece would be alike - nope! Mikey's þel has much more crimp to it, and has more of the Columbia/Rambouillet feel to it than Panda Bear's. Of course, this shouldn't be surprising because he looks different than she does - I just didn't know it would extend to differences in their fleece!
So yes...I have a pretty good idea as to just how much the Trio is going to grow out before their October shearing...just hard to believe they've gone from this:
to this:
in less than two months!
Next blog post - I will introduce you to my online shop, Blaine Fleece and Fiber - in the meantime, feel free to check it out! Thanks for reading!
