Shearing is done!

Another season gone. Some gorgeous

fleeces, must have been all that rain. We had lots of ram lambs this year and their fleecesand keep track of who produces what, although having said that the same sheep can produce vastly different fleeces as they mature and age.

We bought a new ram this year and am looking forward to his lambs, he is mild mannered and has never put his head down at me. Ronnie is a gentleman, I never take chances though, breeding time is full of testosterone and vim and vigorous.

Everyone is in their breeding groups for another couple of weeks which will give us lambs end of March, too cold before that in southern Ontario.

Wild

Some of this years fleeces

Moorit and more

Summer sunshine

Summer days waning

Yesterday I picked up my rovings from Rampart Farm, they are just gorgeous, every one of them, so now I have rovings by the bag full, white, cream, grey dark brown, moorit, variegated,, I want to do something with it right now!

I have the llama fleece to wash myself, it is so soft and so dusty but it will clean up. The barn is cleaned out, need to figure out a better way to feed in the small lambing pens.

Unfortunately the Fleece Festival is cancelled, makes sense, but it will be missed, so if anyone is looking for fleece we will be shearing the beginning of October.

The lambs are growing and there are some very good ewe lambs left, ready to go to new homes, we have had such little rain this summer and the pasture has slowed down but they go in and out of barn to field all day,

Sheila always close by

Soon the rams will be having their noses in the air with that whiff of ewe appeal so need to get those ram lambs out of there soon.

Sanity with the lambs

Why would I call my post “sanity with the lambs”. In this year of unprecedented happenings, there is nothing more calming, satisfying and reassuring  than opening the barn door to hear the morning bleats and baas of mother ewes talking to their babies.

A typical scene is when you spy a yearling having her first lamb running round the barn trying to shake this “thing” from it until the poor lamb lands on the floor , she stops turns around and starts licking it and talking to her newborn. The most magical of time follows, some of the older ewes walk up to them and sniff then leave, including Pickles our llama Who is always interested in what is happening. The welcoming committee Let it be known the new one is part of them then leave the new mum and her lamb to bond

This Sunday past was shearing day, for once the sheep came down the corridor to the front pen without the aid of dog, grain or pure strength, who knows, maybe they sense relief was coming. Some of the ewes had already started to cast their winter fleeces and were looking very tatty or maybe they knew there was lush green grass out the last door.

Either way it went well and some of the fleeces are quite decent, which for a winter of hay feeding is a bonus. Our temperatures went from minus-5C to +30 C in a matter of days,  pickles got sheared for the first time since we bought her and I was blown away by ,how soft her fleece is, , what to make with it, that is the question?

 

Fall in the Willows

Willow Farm is enjoying the last of the Summer Wine. That is the name of a popular BBC Tv programme and our weather certainly heralds that. glorious sunny days and cool nights, the leaves have stayed on the trees longer this year and are gradually falling in an array of magnificent colours.

Our sheep have been sheared, and I think they were glad to get their summer fleeces off, they ran off jumping as they went out when the door was opened.

The fleeces were beautiful, full, clean and soft. Last Saturday we took them to the Woodstock Fleece Festival where we sold them all, thanks to several repeat buyers and some new faces. I was thrilled that some spinners brought the finished projects for me to see.it means a lot to see what the wool,is used for and the finished product, especially since my own spinning and knitting are getting slower and slower.

I took the ram lambs out of the flock, they are not happy to be away but the cooler nights mean they are starting to have their noses in the air and thinking about breeding, since I like to know who bred who they are in their own pen for now.

I sold a fair number of sheep this year for breeding stock but kept one lovely moorit and white ewe lamb for myself, she is horned and is a pretty girl.

Summer in September

It has been a tough year finding pasture this year, thank goodness for a good first cut hay crop and for the foresight to keep some second cut for next years lambs to grow on, they love it!

Fleeces were slow to get started this year because of the heat and drought but yesterday I saw that they had really grown out in the last month, cooler nights will do that. Because of the lack of rain we were not able to take off any  second cut hay so decided to give the sheep the benefit of having it first hand, so yesterday Jake and I opened the gate to the field and let them fill themselves, munch munch for an hour and then they came back in, Jake loves to work and kept them in a group moving them around the field gently but no runaways allowed.

 We will be shearing soon, a lovely time of the year and the a mad frantic week to skirt and classify the fleeces befor Woodstock. Also the time of year I fantasize about what I am going to do over the winter with one fleece or. Another, it rarely, well, not true, never happens but I can dream.

The apples are falling and are a tasty treat for the girls, so sweet and crunchy.

Spring and lambs, what joy!

This year we have started lambing with a bang, a set of beautiful triplets standing beside our lovely Ginger last Saturday morning. A couple of days later I found a Romney who has at least six inches of fleece on her, standing with a prolapse. , got that back in, but yesterday it came out again so now she has a stitch in and I am on labour watch, as it needs to be loosened off for her to lamb. ( one more reason to stick with Icelandics)
The later in the afternoon, the other Romney ewe lambs out an enormous ram lamb who took quite a time to come round ,but after he was tube fed with colostrum looked as though nothing had happened.
Whew!
Fast forward to Saturday, if only you could see us doing lamb checks , peering at rear ends with a flashlight it would give you a chuckle.
Our very experienced Hannah went into labour, she had triplets two years in a row so am expecting a multiple birth. Only the nose, 1/2 hour later still a nose, so I decided to see what was happening, front legs were firmly stuck so with hubby we get her over a hay bale and I start pulling the lamb out, trying to get it into a better position, and it did, out it came, a good sized mouflon ewe lamb, mamma happy with her and talks and licks until she is on her feet.
Because she always has multiples . I checked her frequently but no sign of any more until 5 hours later when I found a small dead lamb beside her, then she gives a push and out comes another good sized ewe lamb.
Needles to say Hannah was exhausted, this morning both lambs are nursing and she is talking and nosing them.
We are hoping for a couple of regular births today without any drama but who knows, which is why we practically live I. The barn during lambing.

Winter wonderlands

Here we are, another Ontario winter, it was late starting this year but she came all the same. The girls are all bred and even although it is -14 C with wind hills to -24C, most mornings I find those girls lying out under the lean to. Only if it is windy will they be inside. The last few winters have seen more strong winds from the South West, straight up from the Ohio valley.
This breeding season I have attempted some cross breed breeding between the Icelandic and Romney breeds. Ough it might give some interesting fleeces, we shall see.
We had a good lambing season in. 2015. Lots of twins some triplets and even quadruplets. I would like them all to have twins. We are still participating in the Woodstock Fleece festival in October. Icelandic fleeces fly off the table, several repeat customers who share their experiences and achievements either us. It never fails to amaze me how creative some folks are. The Romney fleeces are always in demand, some of which weigh 10 lbs or so.
Easy for me to say right now about winter as I am out in Oregon visiting family while my other half deals with the frozen taps and snow clearing, keeping the sheep happy. The boys are in a three sided shelter behind the drive shed so are pretty sheltered from the wind and then we put a round bale at the entrance so they don’t have to go out to eat if it is stormy. That is about it for now. We are grateful to our customers who come back year after year to buy our fleeces and very appreciative of those who buy our breeding stock. Thank You

Winter Wonderlands

Bouquets to all the Icelandic sheep

2014 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Toronto
Icelandic fleeces took first 4 places in the Specialty Fleece Competition , whoopee! Two were Willow Farm fleeces and two Anne Bishop in Nova Scotia.
Great news for the breed. Competition was tough this year, some beautiful fleeces out there.
Next year, send in YOUR fleece, the more who exhibit the better. Come to the fleece auction on the 16 th. ,it is always an interesting and exciting afternoon, you would not believe where spinners appear from, one minute there is no one there, next, whoom ! the place is full of people smelling, touching, sniffing again, is it a ram fleece? Is it not? testing the locks, touching again, deciding, lots of fun.
Went to the annual Ontario Sheep Marketing Conference this week, good news on the horizon about that nasty little worm haemonchus, blood sucking barber pole, maybe a new dewormer, but more importantly the message is out there, stop deworming every sheep in. I heard it first in Quebec 2004 and touch wood, we have increasingly fewer sheep affected drastically by this little nasty!
Met a couple of lovely other wool producers, trying to get a registry started so that spinners know who has what,. One shepherdess had an amazing hat on which she felted, loved it, our product is so versatile, we need a good PR person
Snow In the wind today.

The leaves are falling

November! Where did fall go, we had some snow today, not a lot but enough to show us that winter is coming.
If only we had a camera on Thursday, we decide to weigh some lambs, so pulled the scale out , checked it, checked it and rechecked it, every time with a different result. The only conclusion was that one of us had to actually crawl into the scale and test its validity, well, the other half of this “partnership” is 6 ft 3inches and has had a hip replacement so guess who got to crawl in! It was hard to be serious as we laughed at the spectacle it must have been, oh for a camera.
Now it is breeding time, the boys are with their respective ewes, not everyone happy as Alistair , the boss ram is patrolling the fence lines, seems he thinks there should be more ewes in with him, too bad, there’s enough white lambs.
Took his fleece down to the Royal Winter Fair yesterday to enter the fleece competition. I am hoping it gets placed, it is like a cloud of white, the other fleece I put in was black, solid black and lustrous, here’s hoping. However, I did see a beautiful Shetland wether so the competition is strong. The more fleeces there are the better choice for spinners so bring them all in