The Great Delivery

Okay all, sorry for the delay, but my camera has crapped out on me and since I haven't had a chance to get a new one, I'll have to rely on pictures that were sent to me when I was searching for that right ... thing.

With regard to my hints, you could have assumed a number of different things ... no?

The item in question could have been a guard llama.

They come in brown and white.

The item in question could have been a herding dog.

They also come in brown and white.

How about if it was a cow?

They also come in brown and white.
Maybe another sheep?
Yes! Drum roll, please.

Now introducing Windswept Goshawk. The newest addition to our breeding stock.
Okay, so you were right. Lets not try to be too smug about it!

Stay tuned. Breeding groups are up next. Can't November 11th come fast enough? No,, I can wait, still haven't decided who's going with whom.

Exciting news aka The Great Delivery

In case you've been reading my posts on Facebook (not on it? Don't fret, there's a side bar here with all the farm's posts so you don't miss out!), there's some news on the horizon. Saturday Tim and I will be heading to the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival, not to look around, but we'll be having something delivered to us to take back home.

Here's some hints:
1) The item is brown and white.
2) It's coming from Michigan.
3) It's for the farm.

Any guesses out there? Can't think of what it could be? Don't despair, by the end of the weekend I'll post on the Great Delivery.

9th Annual Jefferson County Fiber Festival

This year I decided to try out the 9th Annual Jefferson County Fiber Festival in New York. It's located at the Stone Mills Museum, in LaFargeville. LaFargeville is just north of Watertown, NY. Since Tim's folks still live in Potsdam (about 1 1/2 hours away), we stayed with them and drove down to the festival. The festival is pretty small, so it's the same weekend as the Old Farm and Home Days and everything seems to fit in pretty well.


We were able to set up in the pavilion, which was nicely located so that vehicles driving by could see what was going on. We had our usual items for sale, wool rovings, wine socks, spinning tools, etc. In the two upper pictures I was still working on setting up. After I moved some things around, Tim took a few more pictures of the "finalized" booth.

Close up of the cedar sachets and wine socks.

Here's a shot of the overall booth. I need to work on getting some material to make a nice skirt for the tables. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. It's a two day event, but we opted to only vend on Saturday becuase Sunday was pouring rain and there was some talk about possible flooding. No need to get stuck in a flood with items that will absorb water!

There were some nice fiber folk also vending there and we enjoyed chatting with them. One lady had two angora goats for sale and they were adorable and friendly! The only few things that saved Tim from me purchasing one was the fact that we didn't have any room in the truck with all the fibery stuff as well as the fact I'm not sure how goats are involved with the Voluntary Scrapie Program. Perhaps in time, I will add an angora goat to the mix ... but not today.

Summer Lambs

Gullison, our musket gulmoget ram lamb. We'll be keeping him.

Alendil, our white ewe lamb. We'll be keeping her.

Mulan's grey ewe lamb by Bach. For Sale.

Mulan's black scurred ewe lamb by Bach. Mulan's black scurred ewe lamb's back end. For Sale

Viveka's moorit katmoget ram lamb by Bach. Nice horns so far, as well as a not bad tail. For Sale.

Viveka's other moorit katmoget ram lamb with scurs. Unfortunately, his scurs are not looking like they're going to clear. This is, in my opinion, a fault and he will more than likely turn into little white packages.

Last, but not least is a beautiful moorit gulmoget from Arwen (right next to her). She's absolutely gorgeous and will be a keeper at the farm. Any ideas on a name?

Bittersweet

On Wednesday, April 28th, I woke to the strains of Tim calling, "Jen, can you come help me?" Brisingamen, our black ewe had just given birth to a brown gulmoget ewe lamb. She had been bred to Gulliver. This is our third gulmoget of the year. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the newest birth, and the last one for this year. Lambing season officially ended with that birth.

On Friday, I picked up my friend, Ruth, and we traveled to Maryland to attend the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. The largest and I believe longest running festival in the US. Ruth had been to it many times before, this was my first time. It was lots of fun, although a bit hot. Crazy me had packed a nice heavy sweater just in case it was chilly. Glad I had also packed tee shirts, as that was all that was needed. Was amazed that there were announcements to folks who decided to leave their dog in the car. What are they, whackos? Anywho, I bought a few things and Ruth bought a few things, including a BFL ewe lamb! Since we drove down in my Prius, we had to find a pet store to buy a crate. Luckily in Columbia, we located a PetSmart and they were fairly understanding about the fact that we needed to make sure that the carrier would fit in the hatchback. Needless to say, I've done this before (remember we brought Mulan home that way). Great time there and came back Sunday.

First stop was Ruth's where we offloaded all her purchases, including the ewe lamb. Then I got home. First thing Tim tells me is that we had a loss. Seems as if Brisingamen's lamb, the one just born on Wednesday, was found lying on her side dead at 2pm. She was doing great as far as feeding, but I kept thinking she was lying down an awful lot. Tim remarked that she was looking/acting funny on Saturday. She was also still lying down quite a bit and evidently leaning against the barn. He's wondering if she may have also been blind in one eye. Needless to say, something was wrong and she decided to cross that rainbow bridge.

I'm so sad about it. Think I might go out and spend some time with the bouncy lambs.

The singleton

On Tuesday, April 27th, at around 6pm Arwen started to go into full labor. I was on my way to knitting group, when I got the call from Tim. I immediately turned around and came back to watch/help out (or as Tim would say, worry incessantly). Arwen did a good job and delivered a healthy brown gulmoget ewe lamb.

Arwen was bred to Gulliver, our black gulmoget ram that we lost due to hypothermia. Such a sweet looking little baby. Makes the loss of Gulliver a bit easier.

The triplets cometh ...

What started out looking like this:

Ended up giving me triplets. Viveka was bred to Bach, and she's never given triplets before. Since I was at work and Tim was out at the time of the birthing, we're not sure what order they came in, but we ended up with this little guy. A nice brownish katmoget.

This little guy with the white stripe on his back also appeared. Yes, another katmoget.

The third lamb born was a light looking brown based ewe lamb (normally when we get moorit babies they're so darn dark it's almost as if they're black) that most likely would have been fawn colored. Unfortunately she was stillborn. Looks like, from her development, that she died in utero at the later stage of Viveka's pregnancy. The lamb was fully formed (as far as I could tell) but her eyelids were closed and they appeared sunken in where her eyes should have been. Also, where she should have had a nice rounded looking belly, she appeared as flat as a pancake. Is it possible she ran out of space to grow? Something happened, and I'm sure it was a blessing in disguise, although a bit of a let down.

These are the only ram lambs that came from Bach's randy insistence that he breed everything on the farm that was wooly and female. Unfortunately, it looks as if Bach's insistence to breed others left Rakel (Viveka's twin sister) without being tupped this year. But, fortunately for us, it also looks as if he didn't get any other ewe we didn't want him to have!

Two more to go. Will I get any more gulmogets from Gulliver ... time will tell.

Third and Fourth Babies of the season!

Late last night Mulan gave us twins. She was a bit sneaky. So much for them not eating prior to lambing. She tucked into the minimal grain that we give them each evening and also went out for some hay at about 8pm. When we went out around 10pm, she had already delivered her twins. She gave us two girls. These girls are Bach's lambs. I was hoping for at least one ram lamb, but alas, no go.

I like them much and they both have a bit of white color to them. I'm thinking the one could be grey, but since Bach was modified, perhaps an emsket? Thoughts?

They're adorable, so we'll do a wait and see as to their true colors.

Second baby of the season!

Today Maybelle Sabrina, my white ewe, who was bred to Underhill Bach gave me a lovely looking white ewe lamb at about 2pm. She weighs 7 pounds.

She's just adorable. She has a little patch of phaeo on the back of her neck (at least I believe that's what it is). It's hard to see in this photo as mom hadn't finished cleaning all of the gack off her neck, but it's slightly above mom's nose.

Dare I say I want to keep her? This lambing season isn't bodeing well if I don't have any new lambs on a sales list!

First Baby of the Season!

Yesterday morning, Sabbath Farm Sylph gave me a beautiful brown based gulmoget ram lamb.

He looks like he may even carry spotting, which isn't surprising as Sylph does carry spotting and his daddy, SheltrgPines Gulliver was a spotted gulmoget ram.

This little guy will most likely be kept here on the farm to replace Gulliver.