RAMSAY FARMS

Sheep in.....winter??

2012-01-26T17:24:00.000-06:00

The first couple photos show our 1-2 inches of snow we have. It was 36 degrees today. Our average high is 15 for this day historically. Last week we had night time temps of -46 windchill and -29 normal temp. That's nearly a 65 degree swing in temps. And yet the animals take it all in stride!

Below is part of the ewe flock.

Below is ShelteringPines NIrvana on the left (horned gray katmoget) 5 year old ewe, and her 2 year old daughter WhitePine Nivea (F1 Jericho daughter). I love how families still stick together after years.

Here we see a 4 year old BFL ewe with a 2 year old white ewe in front of her and the moorit in front is FirthofFifth Ashegon. She is the dam of the WSWF 2011 Grand Champion ram. She's a dainty ewe at 64# and has only singled but her lambs are impressive.

The shaela in front is WhitePine Skor (2007 model) with a few other girls around her. the gullie is BlackForest Tersk, the gray katmoget bleset is an F1 Jericho and the white behind Skor is one the foundation ewes RYL Rachildas. She'll be 10 this year :)

This photo shows a now yearling Shetland mule from the UnderTheSon flock. The mioget smirslet sokket behind her is a Shetland ewe from Stephen's flock (ShelteringPines Cabotine) and the gray katmoget is ShelteringPines Nessebar (i think)).

Here is one of the NCC x Shetland ewes also from UnderTheSon farm. She will be 3 I believe this spring.

Another Shetland-Cheviot from UTS Farm.

And of course the bossy WhitePine Sedalia below. She starts bashing my knee if I stop scratching her and try to pet one of the other 12 girls that want some attention. I usually give in.....I value my knee cap ;)

2012 Goals

2012-01-21T18:47:00.000-06:00

I've been spending too much time in the barn these past few weeks. We have no snow, temperatures are finally normal (below zero for a high) for this time of year and I sit out with the girls in my full Carhart bibs and jacket and my BOGS insulated knee high boots.

I've concluded several MUST DO's for this 2012 year. Some things are a gradual improvement from year to year and will never be complete (like breeding the perfect 1927 standard Shetland). Things I am NEED to do this year are the following:

*Continue fencing with permanent fence. There is a 25 acre pasture that I would like to fence in to paddocks. either 3 or 5 acre paddocks. If I can afford to do the perimeter fence with permanent fencing the inside would be doable with the electro-net from Premier 1 Supplies.

*Said pasture would need to be reseeded/frost seeded/inter-seeded, one paddock at a time (or two).

These above two projects would be quite time consuming and expensive, but on top of my priority list.

*I've been invited over to the UK for a trip to the Shetland Islands and/or the National SSS show in Melton. I haven't decided if I can afford to go there for either but this is high on my wish list. If I would go, there would be many ram inspections done in hopes of finding a few rams to collect and have their semen send back to the US for a much needed new dose of blood.There are several on the 'short list' already but need/want to see them in person, although I trust their breeders' knowledge way better than my own :)

*I wish to continue to market my wool, meat and breeding stock in every manner possible. I need to have more wool processed in to roving and quilt batts as that seems to be the majority of my sales so far.

*There are several things I really would like:

Gulmoget horned ram with fine fleece and stellar conformation

Solid moorit horned ram with fine fleece and stellar conformation

Texel ram for terminal lamb production for my Mules.

Thus far I have been very blessed and fortunate to have outlets for many of my breeding stock, meat and wool, but with 100+ Shetlands, there is always wool to be sold. I'm lucky the local Spinning Guild supports and LOVES my 1927 standard Shetland Wool.

We shall see what 2012 brings. I'm quite eager to see if my breeding groups were wise ones. I'm excited but am more confident that I will know what to expect from my breedings. I can always be proven wrong, but over the years I've been honing in on who to breed to who and fortunately its in the right direction :)

My list seems shorter this year than years prior, but I feel that I'm really making progress towards what I want to do. If i can get this new 25 acres fenced in for sheep, I would be able to grow my Mule flock upwards of 100 ewes for terminal lambs and that would be incredible!

BFL update

2012-01-15T19:19:00.000-06:00

For anyone on the BFL groups or following my blog you will know that i liquidated most of my BFLs last summer after having several years of terrible lambing, awful moms, open ewes, worm issues (although no Shetlands had any worm issues) and such things. I kept two ewes back that through it all were fantastic moms, needed way less worming than the rest, stayed in good condition year round and were much easier keepers than the rest. I also had a ewe lamb that caught my eye and made sure to hang on to her. After much thoughtful decisions, scenarios and such I decided to again try for a BFL ram. An adult this time and one that I could put over the BFL ewes as well as about 20 Shetland ewes for Mules.

I LOVE MY SHETLAND MULES!

There really isn't a better cross. They have a very sought after wool clip, are easy to feed on grass hay and pasture, are worm resilient like their Shetland dams and if I play my cards right, will have a large flock of them in a few years.

I hope to slowly build my adult purebred BFL flock as well, but this time.....surely and slowly. With ewes that can adapt or be born in my environment and survive and do well. Be good mothers, milky, twin or triplet, maintain condition throughout the year, have a good wool clip, but stick to the standard weight of 2-4" and have that lovely drape to their purled locks.

I LOVE MY BFL EWES TOO!

They are extremely tolerant of me, are very inquisitive, calm and easy to halter train. I do miss having a big group of them, but this winter I left the three girls in with the Shetlands and the Shetland Mules and they are still maintaining good condition with no supplemental feeding as in years past. I am extremely please with these girls.

I have quite a few straws of BFL that I have no idea when I will use now. I had originally planned to do LAI in fall of 2011 with all 14 of my BFL ewes but after a second terrible lambing, I scratched that idea after selling most of them off. Let's hope that in the near future I can have the ability to use the straws that I am still excited to use :)

Year in Review 2011

2011-12-22T16:45:00.000-06:00

It seems hard to believe we are nearly at the end of 2011. I sometimes still catch myself thinking its 2010.

Many things have happened this year, mostly good, some not so good. My grandpa always says "there are better days ahead".

The farm as a whole is increasingly getting back to its diverse livestock species that it once had before. We added about 25 more laying hens to add to the bug and frog and mouse patrol. The free ranging girls sometimes surprise me with nests in the most bizarre places (i.e. in a hole in the lawn that used to be a rabbit nest, under the porch steps, atop the round hay bale stacks, in dog houses out behind the house, etc etc). The flavor and color of the eggs is incredible! I've found a small market for my all natural, free range, free of antibiotics or hormone eggs. I truly do appreciate their egg production and their ability to eat most any insect or small creature they can find. They also keep me entertained with their antics and social rankings.

I added three gilts and a boar, all from farms that believe in pasture raised, natural feed, just like our farm used to do. Our first litters should be sometime in the spring. I'm eager for the homegrown pork again and I know my family and friends are too! If you'd be interested in some pork please do contact me. with all of the trips I go on it would be easy enough to bring along!

The sheep are ever amazing me with their ability to forage on grasses and forbs the cattle would overlook. Their condition going in to the breeding season was pretty amazing, and the quality of wool looks as promising as ever. The sheep this year paid for many things and I was able to sell more purebred registered sheep than ever before! The word is slowly getting out that the Shetland can do it all: raise twins with ease, grow a soft, fine fleece, be used for crossbreeding with no ill effects, continue to flourish on a grass fed/rotationally grazed system with little input from the shepherd. if I can continue to progress with the sales of these sheep and utilize local feedstuffs as well as neighbors pastures i will be able to NOT work off the farm at in 3 years. If I want to, will be another question. I love the solitude but I AM a social person. Those that have met me, will understand!

In cattle news, our Simmental cows were bred again to a neighbors Red Angus bull. The premium on our calves at the local auction barn were over 2.20/cwt on average(!!), more than I have ever witnessed in my lifetime at a local auction. Privately, grass fed beef is worth its weight in gold. I hope to get in to that niche market in the upcoming season. The Simmental x Angus or Simmental x Red Angus crosses are a hot commodity and I look forward to utilizing my UK genetics that I imported in 2009 again in 2012. It is difficult to breed seed stock that is of UK bloodlines when no one else here in the US seems to be on that trend (which is a shame). Its also hard knowing that the crosses bring so much money in our local market and we don't have to feed or overwinter any calves. Makes chores in the winter much easier.

I have had a stellar year with the dogs in the show ring and with the one litter I had in April. I was really pleased with the pups from Daisy's litter and kept back a boy and a girl from it to grow up and see how they do. The boy already has both majors in his two attempts for a major :) I also finished two Champion titles from the Bred by classes and looks as though I will have both of them with their Grand Champions in the next show or two. I'm so fortunate to have had the agreement of many judges with the virtues of my dogs.

I've looked back at my goals for 2011, which can be found HERE. I have done most of this with few exceptions. I'll be thinking more over the next week about what I wish to try and attain for 2012 and beyond. When I decide I'll be sure to let you all know :)

I'm fortunate enough to be surrounded by a huge network of friends, mentors, fellow farmers, breeders and buyers. This is why I love farming and will always do it. So thank you all for making my 2011 such a great year and I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us all! Thank you to those who believe in what I do and have purchased meats, wool, pelts and breeding stock from me. I truly appreciate your business and truly appreciate YOU.

Merry Christmas my friends and have a Happy New Year!

Micron Results for 2011

2011-12-06T11:18:00.001-06:00

My fleece samples sat in my pickup in the box, ready to be shipped for testing most of the summer. Since the micron testing was 200.00 or so for all the samples (100+ sent in) I never seemed to have the extra cash to do it. So i finally just made it a priority. None of the results were surprising except for one. The micron testing has helped me learn a ton about each sheep's fleece and in learning the feel/texture and reasons things test at the levels that they do.

I pastured my sheep on 50% alfalfa, and the rest of the mixture was red clover, white clover, timothy, blue grass, fescue, brome and orchard grasses. I have to graze the alfalfa when it is 2/3 bloom, so it is a more stemmy than I like but the sheep have adapted well to this in the heat of the summer. spring/fall pastures are mostly fescue/blue grass and red/white clovers. Everyone is in good condition.

I'm going to list the rams first. The rams were pastured in their own system of 4 paddocks this year and I am extremely pleased with the results. Aside from the 2 polled rams below, all rams have fleeces at least 4" long already (about 9 months of fleece growth). The two polled rams have a fleece around 3". It is extremely dense and crimpy and when stretched is around 4.5". I love the variety my fleeces give me :)

For those not in the know my goals:
AFD: Average Fiber Diameter My flock goal is somewhere between 20 and 25.
SD: Standard Deviation. I want this as close to 5 or below.
CV: Coefficient of Variation. My flock goal is around 20 give or take.
CEM: Coarse Edge Mean. My goal is under 10. The lower the better. this gives it the silky handle and makes the fiber feel finer than it is sometimes. (i.e. 30 afd ewe with a CEM of 7 will feel like a low 20s AFD)
CF: Comfort Factor. This should be as close to 100% for any sheep. Adults over 80% is a goal for me (and i'm close!)
SF: Spin Fineness. What the fiber feels like as its being spun up through the hand. Your SF should always be lower than your AFD for Shetlands.

I have a page on my website (http://www.ramsay-farms.com/understandingmicrons.htm) that explains this in more detail.

Wintertime Jazz AI (Todhill Jericho x Whistlesop 0424 Izzy) gray katmoget - fourth fleece
AFD: 24.9, SD: 5.1, CV 20.3, CEM 9.4, CF 86%, SF 24.1. Amazing numbers for a four year old.

FirthofFifth Nekomis (Wintertime Blues x Bramble Nadine) gray katmoget - third fleece
AFD: 27.5, SD 5.2, CV 19.1, CEM 8.9, CF 75.1, SF 26.3. he had the silkiest fleece with lots of luster and soft handle. This fleece was third overall in the Shetland Fleece Show at WSWF under UK judges Kate Sharp and Alan Hill.

WhitePine Levi (Willowcroft Jamie x RiverOaks Lucy) black polled ram 2nd fleece:
AFD: 23.6, SD 5, CV 21.4, CEM 9.7, CF 89.9, SF 23

WhitePine Ludacris (Greenholme Holly x RiverOaks Lucy) moorit bielset polled ram first fleece:
AFD: 23.8, SD 4.9, CV 20.6, CEM 9, CF 90.6%, SF 23.1

WhitePine Flo Rida (Greenholme Holly x ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis) gray katmoget horned, first fleece: AFD 23.8, SD 4.9, CV 20.6, CEM 9, CF 90.6%, SF 23.1 Flo Rida will be used in 2012

WhitePine Christian (UnderTheSon Arapaho x WhitePine Centennial) black horned 2nd fleece:
AFD: 22.5, SD 5.4, CV 24, CEM 10.4, CF 92.1, SF 22.5 He is available for sale

FirthofFifth Kiso (WhitePine Ephraim AI x FirthofFifth Kamachariy, a Forrest daughter) first fleece
AFD: 25.5, SD: 4.6, CV 18.1, CEM 7.9, CF 86.9, CF 24.2. He is a scurred fawn katmoget and is available for sale.

WhitePine Caiphas (who now lives in Maryland) (Greenholme Holly x Justalit'l Chloe) gray katmoget 2nd fleece AFD:23.8, SD 6, CV 25.3, CEM 12.4, CF 83.7, SF 24.1

WhitePine Roman (who now lives in Maryland) (Heights Orion x RYL Rachildas) white ram 2nd fleece
AFD: 23.4, SD 4.4, CV 19, CEM 7.9, CF 94.4, SF 22.4. He is am amazingly fleeced ram Amazing numbers.

WhitePine City High (Heatheram Lightning x FirthofFifth Koosi AI) gray katmoget (could be modified) first fleece AFD: 22.5, SD 4.5, 19.9, CEM 7.9, CF 96.1, SF 21.7 City High will be used heavily in 2012.

WhitePine Barnabas (Heights Orion x FirthofFifth Booto) - fawn katmoget horned 2nd fleece:
AFD 18.4, SD 3.9, CV 21.2, CEM 8, SF 100%, SF 18

I've not had a 2 year old every micron at 18 afd before!! I"m totally shocked. He has everything in his fleece that I am after and I am not disappointed with any of these numbers from any rams. I sold Roman and Caiphas who I really liked but used both of them two years. Christian is available now that I've used him for breeding and Kiso is available as I have much of his genetics in the ram and ewe flocks.

I have several ram lambs available still from these above rams as well. Please inquire! :)

Breeding Groups: Polled boys WhitePine Ludacris AI and WhitePine Levi AI

2011-11-15T16:05:00.000-06:00

My two handsome smooth polled rams got several ewes each this year. While I am not specifically breeding for polled there is a large demand for polled stock. I have found about 12 ewes that are polled or have a good chance of producing polled offspring. Some of them I had to put with a horned ram in hopes of ewe lambs or horned ram lambs. There are not a ton of fine fleece breeders breeding for horns anymore and we can't have all of our fine fleeced stock only polled. Since polled is a dominant trait, in theory an entire flock could be homozygous polled in two generations. While I'm OK with polled breeding stock, I don't want it to take over my flock, so as I find ewes that throw polled ram lambs, I'll keep doing what I'm doing and keep both!

WhitePine Levi AI (Willowcroft Jamie x River Oaks Lucy) is a black krunet ram (warm black or shetland black I guess) with an extremely crimpy, lustrous, silky and dense fleece. He placed in the ribbons this year at WSWF under Kate and Alan and has produced lovely lambs for me the last two years.

He only got four ewes this fall:
RiverOaks Ginger - Moorit - is a yearling I bought from Becky U. this summer. She's not my biggest ewe, but I believe she is homozygous polled. I'm hoping for lovely moorit and black polled lambs.

FirthofFifth Kamachariy - fawn katmoget (Wintertime Black Forrest x FirthofFifth Koosi AI) is an F2 Jericho with some Dillon thrown in. She'a bit leggier than I like, but she produced a very correct and very fine fleeced ewe lamb that is now living with Kelly Bartels at OK Acres. I'm hoping to repeat the same results this next year and keep this one :)

Owl Hill Miss Lilly AI - black ewe (Greenholme Holly x Owl Hill Rose AI (Orion)) is a bit leggier as well, has produced moorit in the past and very crimpy, dense and fine handle. Anything should be nice out of this breeding

WhitePine Bethany AI - moorit ewe (Heights Orion x Justalit'l Black Lambo) is a lovely ewe but again seems a big leggy. has a fine fleece with very typey head and tail. She has produced lovely lambs for me both years so far so am excited to see what she produces with Levi.

Then we have WhitePine Ludacris Ai (Greenholme Holly x River Oaks Lucy). As you can tell Levi and Ludacris are half brothers from unrelated sires. Ludacris had a complete white necklace around him at birth and tiny flecks of white across his poll and forehead. I can only see them now when he is shorn. He has a very dense, crimpy and silky fleece. Kate and Alan's favorite of the group of rams. he only got 3 ewes though. All very worthy girls I might add!

FirthofFifth Rahu - white illget (Wintertime Black Forrest x RYL Rachildas). I believe she is homozygous black but I hope to find out with this breeding. She is very silky and crimpy but her micron dictates otherwise. Thank goodness I don't use only the microns but use them as a tool! After four years of lambs she gave me a polled ram out of Nekomis this year and so she goes to the polled ram groups this fall. she is a real producer and i'm lucky to have her.

WhietPine Norah Jones - gray katmoget (WhitePine Levi AI x WhitePine Neriah) she is a stunner of a yearling and its a linebreeding but one I'm very excited about. I like everything about this ewe so look forward to their lambs.

RiverOaks Freya - black gulmoget from Becky U.'s flock. She could be homozygous black, but she does not have any side dusting. She is also constantly bleating at me for I have no idea why. She even yells at me with her mouth full eating hay, or even when trying to drink water. She must not like it here, but maybe after she lambs here it will be better!?! She has a very lovely crimpy and dense fleece and could also be homozygous polled.

I think that is it for my purebred groups. I won't bore you with the crossbred groups but I have put a ton of my Shetland ewes over the BFL ram and the Finn ram in hopes of faster growing lambs for market (and for more Mules from the BFL for me to retain). I'm trying to grow my crossbred flock so the fastest way to do that was to use 20 Shetlands this fall on the BFL and Finn. I'll keep you posted as to how that goes!

Breeding Groups: WhitePine Barnabas AI

2011-11-10T10:02:00.000-06:00

Last year I used Barnabas on a select group of girls. I was so impressed with his get, that I had to use him again. Even though I'm awash in katmogets, I needed to use him. Kate and Alan were impressed with him as well and told me to use him heavily.

Barnabas is F1 Orion F2 Timothy and has a pinch of greyling WAAAAAY back there. He's Scrapie 171 QR, microned mid side at AFD 22.3, SD 5.3 and CF of 94%. He carries solid and has thrown modified lambs. I'm on the fence about his horns as he produced scurred ram lambs so his horns may be aberrant, but I'm still not decided on them.

All these ewes have nice fleeces so if they become slightly finer I'm all for it. I'm looking for the ewes to improve on his slight 'in at the knees' and solidify their other strong traits, as well as his virtues. its all about fine tuning. And my lambs every year seem to be better. fingers crossed.

WhitePine Terah - black ewe (UnderTheSon Arapaho x Black Forest Tilly) is a jet black ewe with loads of breed type. Her AFD is 24.7, SD 5.2 but I would like to see more organized crimp. Barnabas should improve on that. If they produced rich dark moorits I'd be happy too.

WhitePine Ciara - white ewe (WhitePine Roman AI x WhitePine Castle Rock) is Orion/Jericho blended. She's a nice ewe with a lot to offer, density, crimp, breed type, silkiness etc. I'm just excited about some nice lambs.

WhitePine Centennial - gray katmoget (Wintertime Jazz AI x Justalit'l Chloe). I've found the Orion lines blend well with Jericho in my experiences, so I'm hoping for nice things here. They both carry solid so solid lambs would be gravy.

WhitePine Blu Cantrell - gray katmoget smirslet (Todhill Jericho x Justalit'l Black Lambo) This pairing could be dynamite and the chance of double katmogets too but if they are nice who cares!

OwlHill Pranilla - gray ewe (Enfield Greyling x OwlHill Rose AI). She is greyling/orion and I think the linebreeding on orion could be special. More grays or muskets would be ok too.

FirthofFifth Ashegon - moorit (Wintertime Blues x FirthofFifth Ashanti) the mother to the Grand Champion ram as WSWF this year (Avyt). She's a smaller ewe but produced dynamite last year when bred to Barnabas (they gave me a moorit ewe lamb). I"m hoping to repeat it again.

Black Forest Tersk - moorit gulmoget (WhitePine Ephraim AI x FirthofFifth Towanda) carries spots but I'm really just wanting a few more moorit gullies with a finer lock structure.

ShelteringPines Tresor - (Wintertime Fudge x ShelteringPines Debonaire) black ewe. Any of Stephen's stock is phenomenal conformationally and I'm just lucky to have her :). Tresor goes back to lambo and I can see it in her face.

ShelteringPines Cabotine - mioget smirslet sokket (Wintertime Fudge x ShelteringPines Ceylon). I'm pumped to see if Barnabas carries spots, and hope for some modfied lambs here. Anything again will be good from this pairing.

WhitePine Rihanna - white mirkface (Willowcroft Jamie x FirthofFifth Rahu). My only F1 Jamie ewe, she IS white, but she carries that gorgeous dark moorit fleece of Jamie's. I'm excited to see what she produces. She is a brick house, and my pick ewe lamb from 2010.

Breeding Groups: WhitePine Christian

2011-11-09T13:16:00.000-06:00

In my third group I'm blogging about there is a huge desire for black and moorit lambs that are NOT modified and are NOT going to sun bleach on the tips. I put my best fleeced ewes with Christian as he has near perfect conformation, carries moorit, should NOT carry spots and has nice spiraling horns. Everything I wanted in the first two groups (spots, modified, etc) are NOT being wanted in this group. Yep. I want it all. I want every color, every pattern, with fine fleece, polled or horns, and great conformation on a Shetland with primitive (unimproved) characteristics like, hardy, good mothering etc.

Christian has a 5"+ fleece, nice black color, and very typey Shetland characteristics. His last fleece test was AFD 23.0, SD 5.4, CEM of 9.6 and CF of 92%. He is out of UnderTheSon Arapaho and WhitePine Centennial (Jazz x Chloe). He carries dark moorit which i hope I can get.

WhitePine Rush: white ewe (FirthofFifth Aman AI x RYL Rachildas) needs a bit straighter rear with more breed type (her ears are a bit pointy and stand more upright than I like.) Her fleece is ok but could be finer. I'm being extremely hard on the ewes. I'm my worst critic.

WhitePine Lydia: gray katmoget smirslet (Wintertime Jazz x Winter Sky Layla). Lydia is a double F2 (Jericho/Orion) and is my best ewe in terms of fleece (AFD 24.4, SD 3.9, CV 15.8, CEM 6.7 and SF of 22.8. I'm just expecting the best from this mating.

OwlHill Butter: musket (OwlHill Xavier AI x OwlHill Rose AI) Greyling/Orion genetics and her lambs have really impressed me. She's a bit leggier and longer than I personally favor, but excited to see what I get. An Ag gray ewe lamb would be ok with this pairing but anything would be nice!

FirthofFifth Koosi: gray katmoget (Todhill Jericho x Justalit'l Chloe) is a homozygous katmoget with lower stature (i find this true of the entire Jericho line). She is an average sized ewe (74 pounds) and has a fine fleece, but I would wish for a longer staple length from this mating.

FirthofFifth Blottir: gray katmoget (Wintertime Black Forrest x Minwawe Boppitty) is a very fine fleeced ewe. She is longer on leg like many of the Forrest offspring and a slightly longish tail. I'm looking to lengthen her staple length and pray for moorit lambs (both she and Christian carry moorit)!

WhitePine Neriah: gray katmoget smirslet (Wintertime Blues x ShelteringPines Nirvana) is fine fleeced ewe with 5-6" crimpy staple length. AFD 23.3 SD 5.5 with a CEM of 9.8. Looking now I'm not sure what i was hoping to improve on her with Christian, except perhaps to see if she is double katmoget or double black. At any rate her lambs will be great I am thinking.

ShelteringPines Amarige: fawn katmoget (Wintertime Fudge x Lil'Country Possum) is a nice addition to this group. Size, fineness of fleece with proper tip, I have loved her mother Possum since I met her years ago at Stephen's farm. I'm anxious to see if this breeding happens or if she is bred to Stephen's ram.

Breeding Groups: Crosswinds Apollo

2011-11-09T09:20:00.000-06:00

Crosswinds Apollo is a moorit flecket ram lamb out of FirthofFifth Avyt and Crosswinds Mountain Laurel. he is most likely modified and I fell in love with him at birth. I pretty much tried stealing him every chance I could get and when Jefferson came around I was tickled that the option of me REALLY taking him back with me was happening!. I had to pinch myself.The photos below are from a few months back at his place of birth. I need to get updated photos.

Apollo got 8 ewes. Apollo is most likely modified and most of his girls are modified or spotted, so this group should give me great lambs. Apollo is a Forrest grandson and his grandmother is Ashegon, who I have, so he's related to some of the sheep here but am excited nontheless!

WhitePine Skor (FirthofFifth Telmo don Bourbon x FifthofFifth Assam Meleng)- shaela ewe. Could carry spots. She does carry moorit. She is the only lamb left from my first year of lambing. I love her color want more of it. I'm hoping to add more crimp and more consistent from front to back.

Wintersky Layla AI (Heights Orion x Underhill Loretta Lynne)- mioget horned ewe. Could carry spots. I'm hoping for something modified with fine fleece.

WhitePine Sedalia -(Wintertime Jazz AI x Minwawe Sterling) smirslet sokket gray katmoget. One of my favorites. Curious to see if she carries moorit. Fleece and spots will be abundant I'm assuming from this breeding.

WhitePine Eiffel 65 (Wintertime Jazz x Sommarang Emerald) smirslet sokket flecket gray katmoget. Her fleece, conformation and type are just awesome. I just want spotted babies (and to see if she carries moorit)

WhitePine Nina Sky (Todhill Jericho x ShelteringPines Nirvana) bleset sokket gray katmoget who carries moorit. She is a gorgeous ewe who is easy on the eyes. She produced magic when bred to Caiphas (F1 Holly) this past year (remember she jumped the fence to be with him for a JUNE lamb?!) These lambs should not disappoint.

WhitePine Naomi (Wintertime Blues AI x ShelteringPines Nirvana) fawn katmoget smirslet, quite related to Nina Sky above but totally different 'look' to her...shorter in leg, wider, deeper bodied and her fleece is a more bold crimp. She produced wonderfully when bred to Barnabas (Orion) this year so eager to see what Apollo can do to her.

FirthofFifth Basotho (WhitePine Ephraim AI x FirthofFifth Blottir) gray katmoget yearling who grew amazingly well this year. she could be modified (its hard to tell on a lot of the kats) but for sure carries modified and moorit. Gorgeous ewe with lots of breed character and typical Shetland fleece.

FirthofFifth Anki (Wintertime Black Forrest x FirthofFifth Ashanti) smirslet black gulmoget. I wanted some moorit gulmogets please! More organized crimp would be a bonus too. And spots. Hey I'm not picky.

This group excites me, just as Cadillac's did. I don't expect any bad surprises out of either of these groups and the hard work of honing in on what I like and what I see in the UK is happening here. I can't wait to show you photos of the lambs from these matings.

Breeding Groups: Ok Acres Cadillac

2011-11-08T17:24:00.000-06:00

The groups have been in since October 16th. The last few days has seen a flurry of flirty ewes and rams that pace the fence lines to other pens with girls in season. I have quite a few pens again after swearing I wouldn't breed this many this fall but after Kate Sharp and Alan Hill's visit after the Jefferson show, I was pretty eager to breed more :)

I ended up getting two spotted moorit ram lambs at Jefferson. They both have a mixed bag of ewes. I was having a hard time finding a moorit ram, and a spotted ram, and this year I found two very deserving ones that Kate and Alan really liked.

Ok Acres Cadillac (ShelteringPines Bug x Sheltering Pines Ceylon) got 10 ewes.

WhitePine Salome (Wintertime Jazz x ShelteringPines Snow Cloud) is a black yuglet sokket flecket horned ewe. I of course was hoping for spotted lambs (and to see if Salome carried moorit) and more definintion of crimp as Salome has unorganized crimp. She microned around 25 AFD and SD of 5.5

WhitePine Nivea (Todhill Jericho x ShelteringPines Nirvana) is a gray katmoget smirslet. She could be bred to any of my rams and give me awesome lambs (i would hope) but again put her here to see if she produces spots and moorit. Kate loved this ewe every time she saw her.

WhitePine Faith (Wintertime Jazz x Minwawe Flopsy) is a krunet, sokket gray katmoget ewe with a white tail. I'm expecting spots and fine, crimpy fleece from this pairing.

BlackForest Tilly (Wintertime Black Forrest x FirthofFifth Twiling) is a black gulmoget who carries moorit. I'm not sure if she carries spots, but we'll find out! She oozes breed type but lacks the lock structure I'm after so she is here in hopes of getting that Shetland character.

FirthofFifth Sukhada (Wintertime Black Forrest x FirthofFifth Soleit) is also a black gulmoget without side dusting or very visible eye flashes. She carries moorit and solid, but again checking for spots and a longer staple length in this pairing.

FirthofFifth Ashanti (Wintertime Black Forrest x Yuletide Angel) is moorit smirslet. This pairing better give me moorit spotted lambs! haha. Ashanti is a great ewe with lots of descendants in this flock from her. Anything she gives me should be great.

BlackForest Andalusian (WhitePine Ephraim AI x FirthofFifth Anki) is an emsket (whole color, modified black, not Ag) with length, tippiness and gorgeous steele blue coloring, but not enough crimp definition. I'm hoping for modified lambs out of this mating with more crimp. maybe spots too.

WhitePine Festus (Wintertime Jazz x ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis) black krunet ewe. I would like more lock character here as well (my blacks seem to have more disorganized crimp than my other colors). She has nice fleece length, tippy fleece, breed type, and would like to see if she carries moorit and will throw some spots.

BlackForest Tokhara (WhitePine Ephraim AI x FirthofFifth Towanda). Tokhara is a lovely fawn/light moorit color who carries spots. I'm in need of more moorit based ewes so am excited about what they can produce together.

ShelteringPines Mademoiselle (Wintertime Fudge x Underhill Amethyst) is a fawn katmoget who carries spots and has the most amazing fleece. This is a win:win pairing. Then again all of these matings should be hopefully fantastic!

Meet the Rams Part 4: WhitePine Christian

2011-10-19T11:11:00.000-05:00

Christian is a ram I wintered over the first year as I was impressed with his conformation and fleece type at birth. His biggest fault is that although his tail is properly fluke shaped (by lifting his tail and seeing the proper shape) it appears to be a bit wooly (not enough hair at the tip). But it is fluke shaped. He also is on the smaller side, but his mother is a small ewe and I'm not holding that against him.

Christian is out of UnderTheSon Arapaho (F2 Orion) x WhitePine Centennial (F2 Jericho F3 Minder). he carries moorit.

Christian is a mellow boy who has 7 girls with him this fall (6 katmogets and a musket) as I'm hoping to get some solid lambs out of them. they are all proven Ab/Aa.

Perfectly Square

Shoulder

Mid-Side, last rib

Just above the britch

Christian will be available after Thanksgiving this year. He has nice length to his fleece and crimp from front to back. Of course there is britch, he wouldn't be Shetland if he didn't have it :)

Meet the Rams Part 3: WhitePine Barnabas AI

2011-10-18T14:43:00.000-05:00

Barnabas is an F1 Orion, F2 Timothy with a splash of Lightning behind him. When he was born I wasn't impressed with his birth coat, but his fleece has not disappointed since then! In using him for breeding last year I believe his horns are abherent. They are not symmetrical, nor are they very 'heavy'. While I do like the round horns I don't think are true 'round' horns either. Maybe i'm way off.

He's pushing in to me a little bit in the below photo, but he is pretty square, but not perfect. very typey tail.

Shoulder

Mid-Side, last rib.

Right above the britch

I'll be using him on about 10 ewes this fall and then he will be available for sale. Please inquire.

Meet the Rams Part 2: WhitePine Levi AI

2011-10-11T09:54:00.001-05:00

When this lamb was born he took my breath away. I never in my wildest dreams thought he would be POLLED! But, being one for diversity, I have fully embraced it and have a small flock of proven polled ewes that were bred to him last fall. This fall he'll get only 3 of my own, but he is not going anywhere any time soon.

Levi was born with a krunet, and although bred to a few spotty ewes did not produce any spots this spring. We will see about that this next spring.

Levi is Aa/Aa, BB/Bb, Ss/Ss, MM/M? He appears to be warm black or "shetland black". He is 67.5% UK. Sire is Willowcroft Jamie. Dam is River Oaks Lucy.

Levi's shoulder fleece parted below.

mid side, last rib.

Just above the britch

Levi is one of the very last F1 Jamie rams in North America. I plan to use him heavily in 2012. If you would like to lease a few ewes of mine to put to Levi, he would be your best friend :)

Meet the Rams Part 1: Wintertime Jazz

2011-10-10T14:42:00.001-05:00

How can I start with any other ram?

Jazz was not my first ram, but the ram that has done the most for my flock and its continual improvement. I've used Jazz for four years and this year he sadly gets to sit out of breeding. I plan to use him next fall on some of my lambs from this year. I have many of his daughters and grand daughters to use this year instead.
This picture says it all...

Jazz is At/Aa, BB/BB, Ss/Ss, MM/MM. Jazz is 87.5% UK, and very mellow, respectful guy who keeps the peace between all the other rams and still is the #1 boy on the hierarchy of rams.

Shoulder area fleece.

Not too bad for a 4th fleece, mid side.

Not perfectly standing but he is very square.

If you are interested in leasing a few ewes to breed to the Jazz Man, he would be much obliged :)

New Scale and Chute System

2011-10-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

Photos will be forthcoming :)

I am now able to run the sheep through the chute system myself wihout assistance. The chute is home made, but it works pretty slick! The scale is so helpful because 'eye balling' a sheep for its weight can't be done effectively and correctly all the time.

The average weight of my mature ewes (2 years and older) was 82.4 pounds. The Shetland Sheep description states ewes can be up to 99 pounds in the south of England where grain and grass is plentiful. Since my sheep are grass fed and not fed grain, having two ewes at 95 and 96.5 pounds was surprising to me. I did have some ewes around the 60-65 pounds as well, so I guess I have the whole spectrum of size in my flock. Another time I can use the term 'diversity' :)

Lambs were weighed and I was pleased to see my Mules and terminal lambs weighed 55-70 pounds. I have some orders from friends for grass fed lamb and I ate quite a bit myself this year so will hold back everything for myself and friends' orders.

I am putting my breeding groups together when I return from my Michigan trip. I guess it looks as though I"ll have 9 breeding groups again this fall. Three are for crosses: A BFL ram to my three BFLs and 20 Shetlands. A Finn ram to 10 Shetlands and some of my Mules, and my Leicester Longwool to my LL ewe and a few of my Mules.

I'll be using 6 Shetland rams: Crosswind Apollo (spotted modified moorit) will get 10-12 ewes, OK Acres Cadillac (spotted modified moorit) will get 10-12 ewes, White Pine Barnabas (modified moorit katmoget) will get 6-8 ewes, WhitePine Chrisitan will get 4-6 ewes, WhitePine Levi will get 6-8 and WhitePine Ludacris will get 6-8.

Well as of today. We all know we change our mind at the last minute :)

74 Shetland ewes will be bred this fall, 11 Mules, 3 BFLs and a LL. I'm holding back 12 ewe lambs and not breeding 8 yearlings that I think are too small. We shall see if this holds true the day i put groups together :)

Sheltering Pines Fleur de Lis

2011-10-07T10:01:00.000-05:00

I was able to buy this ewe from Stephen as a yearling. She was a favorite of mine when she was a lamb and I jumped at the opportunity to purchase her from him when she became available. She has produced me three quality lambs in three years (always has singled) and all have had minimal spotting. Next year I hope to breed her to one of the spotted moorit rams I got this fall to see if I can get some wildly spotted lambs from her.

Her mid-side parted fleece:

Fleur is a smirslet gray katmoget. I love the fact that she doesn't have any white on her tail or legs so it makes her face even more stand out.

When Kate Sharp and Alan Hill picked her out of my ewe flock of 50+ girls and they commented on how she stood out as a nice sized ewe, with loads of Shetland type and very typical of what you would see in the UK.

She has mostly Minder, Timothy and Jamie in her background, and has been bred to Greenholme Holly, and to Jazz (Todhill Jericho son) and she has crossed really well on all of those lines. She is four this year and has a long life of producing fantastic lambs ahead of her.

katmoget vs. light badgerface

2011-10-04T22:00:00.001-05:00

A great photo of side by side moorit based ewes. The ewe on the left is Alisa, from Oregon. She is 99.2% domestic, yet has a lot of crimp (disorganized) for a ewe that has barely any imported semen in her background. She is light badgerface and comes from Wally Rutledge's farm.

The ewe on the right is from Michigan. Myra is a katmoget (also known as badger face in other breeds). She is also moorit based, but retained the dark belly wool. Alisa is NOT Ag (fading). She produced a solid lamb, and a light badger face lamb this spring.

I love the fact that they are both looking back at me, while Tylor is taking the photo.

Also notice the difference in build, body depth, leg height, face etc. DIVERSE, yet both very much typical Shetland. I love my very diverse flock :)

Ewes available for leasing

2011-09-29T11:09:00.000-05:00

Last year I leased 18 ewes out to other people for purebred lamb breeding. Since my flock is in the Scrapie program as well as tested negative for OPP, Johne's, CL and BTv, I want to make sure that that stays that way. Since I have a plethora of ewes, and am not going to be breeding them all pure this year for myself, I was going to use them fro crossbreeding for mules or other crosses for market lambs. Last year every ewe except one that i offered for lease was leased out so only had one ewe bred for mules last year.

This works for people who want to utilize the sheep and bloodlines that I have, but I'm not quite willing to sell them yet :)

Below is a list of the ewes available for leasing for this fall. They can be bred to any of my rams for a $35 breeding fee, plus $130 for feeding/boarding them. More details are available privately.

Ewes:
ShelteringPines Nirvana - horned gray katmoget. I have five of her daughters and a ram.
Sommarang Eva - gray katmoget. lovely ewe, I have three of her daughters
RiverOaks Lucy - gray katmoget poll carrier, I have two of her sons.
FirthofFifth Booto - fawn katmoget , probable poll carrier. Very typey ewe.
ShelteringPines Myra - fawn katmoget - deep bodied ewe that really produces. I've kept back two of her rams and she is very breed typical
ShelteringPines Nessebar - gray kat smirslet - deep bodied ewe who had amazing lambs when bred to Nekomis last year. I wish all my ewes looked liked this
RYL Rachildas - white/Ag ewe. Carries spots. homozygous black. has improved under ever ram I"ve used her on.
Justalit'l Chloe - homozygous fawn katmoget. She is one of my foundation ewes. I've kept everything out of her
FirthofFifth Taika - longer fleeced with more tip, carries moorit and spots. Produced some lovely lambs
ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis - smirslet gray katmoget. Lovely ewe that produces well. I've retained all her lambs
RiverOaks Eliza - white ewe - carries moorit and spots. She had awesome lambs this year when she was leased out to someone else.
FirthofFifth Tamarack - moorit gulmoget. she had lovely lambs out of Jazz last year
WSR Alisa - moorit light badgerface from Oregon.
Whistlestop Yuma - fawn ewe from Jim Chastain's flock
Whitestop Zariah - shaela ewe from Jim's flock
Whistlestop Xena - white ewe from Jims. F2 Ridland, very rare new bloodline Jim brought in.

Any of these ewes can be bred to any of the rams listed on my Current Rams page of the blog. Please inquire!

More Photos on WSWF

2011-09-17T16:54:00.000-05:00

My new sign on Friday morning before the Ram/Ewe inspections and Judges Certification. My bestie friend Tylor made this sign design for me and I love how it turned out. I thought it looked nice against the morning sunrise as well.

The next two photos are of our highly esteemed judges from the UK, Kate Sharp from Scotland and Alan Hill from England. Both have had Shetlands for over 30 years, are both SSS Certified Judges and have judged shows on the Shetland Islands, as well as been SSS Committee members and Alan was the first Chairman of the SSS and is now the current Vice President. They have an amazing amount of knowledge and everyone was so receptive to their information and came away learning a lot and most were able to look at their flocks with a more critical eye. I can't wait for the DVD!

Below was WhitePine Caiphas. He was the ram that was used during the Ram Inspection talk. Kate and Alan have a great sense of humor and commented on my 'barely present' wool on poll (on me, not the sheep). Everyone got a good chuckle and I hope its not edited out because everyone should see them picking on me.

Four of my favorite people. From left to right Theresa, Lori, Juliann and Rich.. They made the weekend very special.

I also had a great first fleece show, taking a 3rd in the colored class with FirthofFifth Nekomis' fleece. The judges really loved me.

Also in the top 10 colored fleeces was WhitePine Lydia's fleece. Kate and Alan said that any of the 10 fleeces in the top would have won a show over there any given day they were all that good! So that was reassuring.

A photo of the ribbons I won. I earned two 3rd places, 3 fourth places and a 5 place. Kate and Alan also said that they would have awarded up to 10 places in most of the classes as there were so many quality animals in each class.

A shot of some of the fleeces on the hoof.

The ram pen.

The ewes.

Overall the weekend was good. I didn't bring my very best sheep and when Kate and Alan saw my sheep at home they asked me why I didn't bring them to show under them. And i thought the ones I brought did OK. I guess that's a good thing they liked them eh?

BEST SHOW EVER!!!

2011-09-15T12:07:00.001-05:00

I arrived Thursday evening around dusk to unload sheep. Kelly Bartels and her husband Mike were there and offered to help unload and pen my sheep. These two people are two of the most amazing people ever!! Always there to lend a hand and always full of positive vibes. Such good people. I did set up my tent in the dark and did get to sleep at a decent time.

Friday morning came early and I won't go in to detail about the days happenings as Rich and Theresa did a great job on their blogs describing the day. But I did want to show you this photo of myself and WhitePine Caiphas AI. He was sold to a chap in Maryland and was along for the inspection. While you cannot see his fleece well in this photo, he did have what we call bolder crimp and what Kate and Alan referred to as a wavy crimp. That totally baffled my mind as they described it as fine and wavy. Not to be confused with the 1927 Standard being wavy or 'fine waves'. He was fine, but not as fine as other rams I have. And again, both very finely crimped and fine waves are both acceptable and both are found in UK flocks. But both have the Shetland characteristics of their wool "memory, elasticity, density, crimp/wave". All things typical of a Shetland fleece.

As for our now traditional photo of Kelly, Briony and I in the bleachers we had to get a photo of us all waving at Corinne. We had to do it during the juniors class as we had entries in every other class (at least I did) and I wanted to thank Briony for all her help as well.

The rest of these are out of order and I'm to tired and busy to take the time to put them in order but wanted you to see me in 'action'.
Below is WhitePine Nesse's Monster Mash (or M&M). He was pulled for the final lineup and I can't even remember if he placed or not LOL. my bad. He's now in a fantastic home in Iowa.

Below amongst friends is myself with WhitePine Skor, a 4 year old shaela ewe (solid color, not black/white fibers blended). She did quite well considering never being haltered before this year ;)

Another photo of Skor and I. My back was a wee bit sore from squatting, bending over, kneeling etc all day :).

The MSSBA potluck! At one point I counted 46 people at the set up. It was fantastic! Thanks to Briony and Matt for setting up! ALL of the lamb brats I brought were gone and the lamb sausage Michelle brought was all gone as well! All the food was fantastic and everyone enjoyed themselves fully.

Below is the ram lamb class again with M&M and the white ram lamb of mine that Briony showed. He is now in a fantastic home in Colorado and am so happy he went there :)

This was the first class...the senior rams. I have the black polled ram WhitePine Levi who was 5th in the class of 12 or so and behind me is Wintertime Jazz being shown by Briony. Both boys walked well having not been haltered before this year :)

Finally we have Sunday morning with Kate and Alan's talk on the Shetland Sheep, the Shetland Sheep Society and proper 1927 Standard Shetlands. This was taped by audio and will be part of the DVD from the Friday/Saturday inspections/judges certification and MSSBA Show.

Oh I also was 3rd in the colored fleeces at the fleece show with FirthofFifth Nekomis' fleece and in the top 10 with the other fleece I entered, WhitePine Lydia, who is out of Jazz and WinterSky Layla. A great start to my first fleece show!

After the show and seminars we headed back to my farm (Kate and Alan along with me). We spent two days going over my sheep, inspecting the rams, ewes, ram lambs and ewe lambs, and seeing the sites around here. I have never met such educated, selfless people who are more than happy to answer any questions we may have, educate us on what THEY know, inform us about the SSS, and help us with breeding direction etc. I am forever indebted to them for their time, patience, assistance, support and friendship. Words cannot express how I feel about this past weekend. Thank goodness we have the DVD coming out of the weekend for those of us who could NOT be there to still learn and be educated as well.

A few things I wanted to say:
1. Kate and Alan clarified many sticky spots in regards to the 1927 Standard, Appendix A (clarification of the 1927 Standard), what a Shetland fleece should look and feel like as well as length and crimp.

2. I"m more determined than ever to continue on this path of being a good steward of the Shetland Sheep and the 1927 Standard.

3. I'm eager to see what my breeding groups produce with the help of Kate and Alan's suggestions.

4. I realize now that I am on the right track for breeding 1927 standard Shetland Sheep and that really nothing else matters. I am breeding for what those in the SSS and the SFBT are breeding for and that is all that I care about. To have Kate and Alan say many of my sheep, or sheep from the show in general they would take home in a heartbeat meant a lot. And every time we drove my flock along the road they would say "look Alan (or Kate) that looks just like our flock at home!". You can't get better than that.

I'm not sure how we'll top this year:

One of the largest entries of Shetlands in North America ANYWHERE, EVER!

The largest for a UK judge in North America ever! Kate and Alan said they have never had a ewe lamb class of 37 ewe lambs...ever...anywhere in the UK or on the Shetland Islands.

The wealth of knowledge that was ingested by us Americans, and how everyone was SO receptive to all that was talked about.

The amount of laughter, jokes, hugs and congratulations passed by all those who were entered or ringside was amazing. What a great group of people! I believe this was the most fun ever for a show and I hope those of you who were on the fence about coming this year will for sure plan to come the next time we have a UK judge.

Yes I did ok in the ribbons, but it wasn't about the ribbons. Those animals that won, won because they deserved it. They were amazing sheep and i'm proud to have been considered for any placementst. There were a lot of Shetlands of quality there and I look forward to next year.

Bringing to Jefferson

2011-09-05T19:55:00.000-05:00

I will have the following sheep at Jefferson available for sale:

WhitePine Radler - black scurred ram lamb - FirthofFifth Nekomis x FirthofFifth Rahu. For a Shetland he is a beef cake. Really pleased with him conformationally.

WhitePine Kaliber - gray katmoget polled ram lamb - WhitePine Levi (F1 Jamie) x FirthofFifth Koosi (F1 Jericho). Smooth polled, carries solid. Could carry spotted and moorit.

WhitePine Salvator - gray katmoget horned ram lamb - FirthofFifth Nekomis x WhitePine Salome (Jazz daughter who is yuglet sokket flecket and horned. Corinne Rasso has first right of refusal.

WhitePine Nastro Azuro - white horned ram lamb - WhitePine Roman x WhitePine Neriah. Probably one of the best matings I've ever had. I love this ram more and more and will keep him if he doesn't sell as he is that nice.

WhitePine Nesse's Monster Mash (M&M). He was sold to upstate New York but plans fell through so he is available. He is a horned gray katmoget with spots at birth. He could be homozygous katmoget but don't know unless test bred. His fleece alone is worth trying him out. He'll stay too if not sold.

WhitePine Maccabee - moorit ram lamb. FirthofFifth Nekomis x Sheltering Pines Myra. He's a handsome lad with smaller than typical horns. He's a beefy boy for a shetland (still breed typical) and will also stay here if not sold.

WhitePine Negra Modelo - black horned ram - WhitePine Roman x ShelteringPines Nirvana. Nirvana has produced 5 outstanding ewe lambs that I"ve retained them all. I don't think NM will be as fine as his sisters but he's still a handsome boy.

whitePine Calvinus - gray katmoget horned ram - WhitePine Caiphas x WhitePine Centennial. Not ideal half brother/sister mating but the results were absolutely amazing. When you see him you'll understand why. He's a bit younger than the rest as he was a result of the clean up ram in with the ewes, but he's a great ram lamb worth consideration.

Also two black ewe lambs WhitePine Fiji (WhitePine Roman x White Pine Festus) and WhitePine Raffle (WhitePine Barnabas x WhitePine Rush). Both are double F2s and will have a 5-6" staple length with more tip than I like, but very worthy of being bred.

Also will have a 2 year old F1 Holly fully horned ram available. His transport to Maryland fell through and will be available for sale.

Photo Heavy Fall

2011-09-03T15:59:00.000-05:00

I had moments of time and wanted to show you a bit of my flock, since i've been obviously absent for awhile.

The first few photos are of the rams. Their new ram paddocks and they are LOVING it. All beefy (for a Shetland) and in pristine health and condition. I called in a deep voice "Here boys" and the first photo is what they did in response. I do not grain or treat my rams. And most are NOT friendly.

This is my F1 Heatheram Lightning ram, WhitePine City High. He is a modified katmoget out of FirthofFifth Koosi who is F1 Todhill Jericho. His horns last fall looked fatal, but they curved around and look pretty good now actually. He's really filled out this summer and I'm taking him to Jefferson with me.

Below the two black based katmogets (City high in the rear, and Flo Rida in the front). They are my yearlings I am showing this year. Fo Rida is F1 Holly out of ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis. FirthofFifth Kiso is in the far back and is a modified moorit katmoget with scurs. His sire is WhitePine Eprhaim, an F1 Orion who was mioget.

I love to pick on Stephen Rouse. He has grass this tall and says he is in a drought. I hope all of my 'droughts' are this plentiful :) :P Below are my 2 year olds with my 4 year old Jazz in the front. They have all really filled out this year and look really great.All of them are F1s except for Christian (black, horned) who is F2.

Then I went to see the girls in their rotationially grazed paddocks. This is day 2 of their grazing this pen and they didn't want to be moved and were for the most part wary of my presence. This is the closest they have been to the buildilngs since lambing.

Another shot. It was a bit brisk today at 65 and overcast and windy. Sure signs of fall.

Below is my true shaela (whole color, not blend of black/white fibers) WhitePine Skor. Her daughter is a Levi offspring who looks like she may be modified as well. I'll know more when shearing comes as it took her mother and grandmother the same amount of time to tell me what they would be. Skor is a bit lower in leg than some of my others (the word diversity strikes me here) and her daughter has the same lower leg, which is fine with me!

Justalit'l Black Lambo. A vision at ten years of age. Behind her is her yearling gray katmoget Blu Cantrell (F1 Jericho) and behind them is Lambo's 2 year old F1 Orion daughter Bethany. I'm amazed at the family groups that stay bonded even when seperated for lambing or breeding groups.

Sheltering Pines Catalonia. One of two BFL adult ewes left on my farm. She's never been friendly until this year and she was a welcome guest for scratches.

Winter Sky Layla almost came up to me. she is a mioget F1 Orion out of Underhill Loretta Lynne. she was bred purebred two years and two years to the BFL for mules. Her lambs are always growthy, and her first year shetland ram was a tasty yearling i butchered and ate. Her lamb this year is a Mule ram lamb so I'll probably keep him to eat too.

Jefferson entries

2011-08-22T22:27:00.000-05:00

This is my first year entering an entire string of sheep for a show!

I have two senior rams: Jazz and Levi, two yearlings, Flo Rida and City High, and two ram lambs, Radler and most likely Kastrel, although idk if I want to show horned rams or polled. Either way my 'pair' of lambs would look identical. I'm also bringing 2 senior ewes, 2 yearlings and 2 lambs. I wrote down some i'd bring but I may change my mind. I want to do dam/daughter class and fleece on hoof too, as well as small flock....gosh so much to do. so little time......

You still have time to enter a few for yourself! enjoy some fellowship and laughter with a great group of people! Should be an educational weekend as well as fun and maybe even a few new sheep?? See you in a few weeks!

Transport needed

2011-08-21T18:45:00.002-05:00

I have two Shetland rams that need transport to Maryland. Buyer is unable to meet anywhere to pick up the rams but is willing to pay expenses involved for transporting. I would be able to bring them to Jefferson, WI or could meet elsewhere if necessary. Please pass the word. Thanks

My new motto

2011-08-06T12:10:00.000-05:00

It is better to understand a little than to misunderstand a lot.

I think many people could use this as their motto, or at least live by it. Educate, educate, educate before you make a fool of yourself (or worse, others). And learn what is REAL and not just hearsay. Off to clean the chicken coops...

Organization and Sale Animals

2011-07-24T19:27:00.000-05:00

This weekend was a weekend of organization, regrouping and redirecting some things with the farm. Nothing 'huge' I guess, but stuff got done, in part, to my friend Tylor and to my Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Ell. Ell is a fun girl to watch work the sheep and I was able to bring the sheep in to the barn and sorting pens without running, yelling or injuring myself or the 4-wheeler (shorter grass in these pastures).

I took the first round of evaluated ram lambs and mature ewes to the sale barn today. I dewormed everyone for liver flukes and tape worms given the extremely wet summer we are having for the 2nd year. Its the first time I've wormed them all blanket style (that means everyone) but I think it was for the best. All but two sheep had dark red or dark pink eye lids the two that didn't, went to the auction.

I evaluated all lambs. Ram lambs were checked for two testes (all passed!), good bites, good flesh, and breed typical traits: fluke shaped tails, bright and alert expressions, good horns (or lack of horns), wool on cheeks and poll. And of course the fleece type that I prefer, the 4-6" crimpy UK style fleece of the 1927 standard.

There are two black ewe lambs that will have a longer 5-7" fleece with a bit more tip than I prefer, but they are solidly built ewe lambs, nice growth and condition, and good conformation. Delivery to Jefferson is possible. I feel they still fit the 'diversity' of our standard but are not extreme, and are more typical of most of the intermediate fleeced sheep.

WhitePine Festive Ale - black ewe lamb - Sire: WhitePine Roman (F1 Orion) x Dam: WhitePine Festus (Jazz x ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis. She could carry spots and moorit. Very typey ewe.

WhitePine Rare Vas - black ewe lamb - Sire: WhitePine Barnabas (F1 Orion F2 Timothy) x Dam: WhitePine Rush (F2 Orion). Just as square as the above ewe. Would make a great pair of ewe lambs. Slightly related but different points as well.

Ram lambs: All have good bites, fully equipped ram parts. Nice horns (where applicable). Fleeces are typical of the style I like, UK type crimpy, soft and even fleeces.

White Pine Salvator - gray katmoget horned ram. Carries spots. FirthofFifth Nekomis x WhitePine Salmone. F3/F3 Jericho.

WhitePine Kaliber - gray katmoget polled ram. F2 Jamie F2 Jericho. WhitePine Levi x FirthofFifth Koosi. could carry moorit and carries solid.

WhitePine Nastro Azzuro - white horned ram - F2 Orion F4 Jericho. WhitePine Roman x WhitePine Neriah (Blues x Nirvana). Neriah is my best ewe and this lamb does not disappoint.

WhitePine Radler - black scurred ram - F3 Jericho F4 Dillon. FirthofFifth Nekomis x FirthofFifth Rahu (Forrest daughter). I'm planning on showing him in Jefferson and he'll be available for sale anytime from now until then, I just want to show him.

WhitePine Manchester United - gray katmoget horned. WhitePine Caiphas (F1 Holly) x Owl Hill Miss Lilly (F1 Holly, F2 Orion). He has a small krunet on the forehead.

WhitePine Back Fin - black horned. WhitePine Caiphas (F1 Holly) x WhitePine Bethany (F1 Orion x Lambo!)

Manchester and Fin are late lambs so they may NOT be ready to breed ewes this fall.

I also have a black fully horned ram out of WhitePine Roman (F1 Orion) x ShelteringPines Nirvana. He could carry the horned ewe gene, is nicely conformed and growthy, but does not feel as fine as my other lambs. He was born with a dog coat, but its starting to come in crimpy at the skin.

please inquire for any further information.

Clarity and Peace

2011-07-20T09:02:00.000-05:00

I love this post. If there is ever a time for clarity of subjects, this is it. And I cannot say it so eloquently.

Theresa's post

I always have so much to say but not the proper way to say it without sounding offensive, know-it-all, or degrading (which is NEVER my intent if you have met me and know me and are my friend!)

Back to work and trying to heal!

First crop of hay

2011-07-07T22:55:00.000-05:00

Last year we fertilized several of our hay fields with sugar beet lime, organic substance that apparently did well. We had two smaller hay fields and got over 100 and 140 LARGE round bales for our cattle for the winter months! Last year we had only 150 total from TWO crops of hay from the same fields and same weather conditions! Fantastic!! We also fed oat straw to the cows during the beginning of the fall as they didn't need such high protein in their diets and they were just as fat and sassy as they were in years past when we fed them corn silage (shudders at the thought). All of the second cutting of hay will be small squares for the sheep. last year i needed about 1500 small squares to get through the winter and I had a few extra bales up in the hay mow. This year I think I will need about the same, as i won't have as many BFLs to over winter this year. But I'm excited for EXTRA hay as this stuff will be higher in protein and nutrition than last years hay, which was harvested from land that my dad is letting our neighbor rent this year.

I'm quite pleased to already know that there will be enough for everyone again this year to eat!

Catching up

2011-07-07T09:31:00.001-05:00

A lot has happened since the last update!

I drove to central Wisconsin to pick up pigs. Three gilts that are Hampshire x Yorkshire girls and a boar that is Duroc x Hampshire. I looked a long time for Berkshire or Tamworth hogs and couldn't find any. I checked local sites, breed associations and no replies or returned phone calls. The hamp/york/duroc cross is one that my Grandpa and his dad and grandpa did while on our farm. My grandpa sold the last of his pigs 2 years ago and I have sorely missed the farm raised bacon and pork that we get, so I went out and after a two year search, was able to finally get some. I will post photos soon. Their pasture is so tall its hard to get good photos of them. They are a friendly and inquisitive lot and I look forward to being able to produce pork for local people and friends alike.

Chicken Math happened while I was picking up the three girls and I brought a lavender Ameracauna rooster home with me named Click (or Clack). This rooster from day one has had it out for me. I went to feed the girls one morning and he came right up to me and jumped at me with his spurs. luckily I was wearing pants and I proceeded to chase him around the building a few times for good measure. Since then he begins crowing about 30 minutes before sunrise, so its 430 or so and its EVERY day...and ALL day long. He likes to crow jsut outside my open bedroom window. When I yell out the window at him he marches CLOSER to the window and crows again. That Cheeky B*st*rd!!! I'm not sure he'll make it past this breeding season :)

I have one ewe left to lamb. Never will I again keep a clean up ram in with the ewes until shearing day. Never. I love the lambs but NEVER!

Rotational grazing is amazing. I JUST put my girls into my first warm season grasses paddock of the year. At this rate I won't get through all the paddocks more than twice. that should help any remaining worm cycles get broken.

Lambs are growing by leaps and bounds. I have a few new customers coming up this weekend to pick up their lambs/ewes, and am delivering a few more to Jefferson, WI at the WS&WF.

I was out at BSG this year again and this year, now knowing how judges are supposed to judge, they are supposed to judge on wool 60% and conformation 40%. This judge this year was from NDSU and lives in ND. if you closed your eyes and listened to his reasons, you would have thought he was judging meat sheep classes. His reasons such as "massive size, substance, amount of bone, length, extreme width, carcass, depth of body, etc" were all things I would think would be fantastic for breeds like BFL, or the more meat type sheep like his homegrown Hampshires and such. Unfortunately this judge yet again disappointed me, and after seeing his placements, even the wool, regardless of 'type' of wool, was inexcusable as the sheep were unshorn, rooing, large peices were missing, and yet they placed reserved grand champion ewe. Makes my heart sad just to think about it. In the supreme champion ring, every animal was the largest, biggest, longest, widest specimen of the breed classes. The largest animal in the ring one, a Merino and I was not at all surprised.

Tuesday I was thrown from our 4 wheeler. The grass in the home cattle pasture is 4 feet tall in places. Too tall for any of my dogs to see the sheep to herd, and too tall for the sheep to not run in circles when evading the four wheeler. Much to my error, I hit an abrupt mound of earth (covered in tall grass) and was flung from the machine. I watched it land inches from my body. Scary stuff. I drove myself via motorcycle to the ER and had an MRI, xrays and a CATscan done to see just how bad it was. A torn liver, bruised ribs and kidneys, abrasions all over my left shoulder blade and deep cuts on my right knee... they sent me home and told me to take it easy for a few weeks....a farmer who landscapes....yep. this will happen. My parents left today for Montana on their annual motorcycle trip with the Fargo Harley Chapter.

At BSG I fell in love again with Joanie Livermore's Leicester Longwools. Given my battle with the BFLs, I thought I may be brave enough to try a few heritage sheep. I got two white yearlings, a ram and a ewe, out of AI lines and from a Scrapie Certified flock that also is negative for OPP. I'm really tickled by them and they already are friendly, calm and personable just like the BFLs are.

My garden has fallen to the wayside since my tiller died. its only 4 years old so i'm having it repaired but watching that stupid brome grass aka quack grass, spread through the garden is irritating.

My Ancona ducks turned out to be all hens! I had 3 chocolates, 2 blacks, and a blue, but lost the blue suddenly and for no apparent reason. She was laying next to where they sleep with no abrasions or liasons, and no sign of struggle. They will be my egg laying machines once they start to lay and I love the breed almost as much as I love the Swedish or Saxonys. I guess I just have a love of ducks :)

I have a few Cardigan puppies still available that are 9 weeks of age if anyone is so inclined. 2 pink males to be exact. :) I take payment plans.

I hope this finds everyone well

A few of the keeper rams

2011-06-18T23:23:00.000-05:00

Some of you may have been missing some photos...So I went to the new ram pastures (its fenced off in quadrants).

Below is the fantastic, fabulous, incredible, Wintertime Jazz. He is 87.5% UK, and a very proven ram at four years of age. He is spotted, and homozygous black. He is out of Todhill Jericho (imported semen) and Whistlestop 0424 Izzy. This ram is the one I compare all other rams to that I have. He's still available to a serious UK type breeder.

The two gray kats and the moorit are ALL F1 Holly rams. Two fully horned and one polled. Cool huh? The big guy is WhitePine caiphas and we'll talk more about him below. The other gray kat is WhitePine Flo Rida who is Holly x ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis. I'm excited to use him eventually! The moorit is WhitePine Ludacris out of River Oaks Lucy. I'll be using him this fall. The fawn kat with scurs is FirthofFifth Kiso out of WhitePine Ephraim (F1 Orion mioget) and FirthofFifth Kamachariy (a Forrest daughter). Caiphas is 2, the other three are yearlings.

Another photo of Ludacris below.

This is WhitePine Caiphas out of Justalit'l Chloe and Greenholme Holly. He is going to Maryland to be a flock sire. he was my clean up ram last fall and produced some awesome lambs! So many that I don't need to keep him around.

Caiphas' rear (and whitePine Levi , polled F1 Jamie black ram)

White Pine Roman (Orion x RYL Rachildas) He's also going to Maryland, and yes his horns are turning ;) he's been used for two years and i LOVE his offspring.

WhitePine Levi, F1 Jamie out of RiverOaks Lucy. He's been used two years as well and just a super impressive ram.

Levi's noggin.

After I took several photos I realized I was missing a few rams. I searched the pastures high and low and couldn't find them. Surely they jumped the fence? Coyote?

Nope.

I just couldn't SEE them :)

WhitePine Barnabas (Fawn kat F1 Orion) and WhitePine Christian (F2 Orion F3 Jericho) were found 'grazing' in their pasture.

Both are two years of age.

Available ram lambs

2011-06-17T17:29:00.000-05:00

These ram lambs are passing evaluations so far. This is RiverOaks Lucy, a proven poll carrier ewe with her WhitePine Barnabas (F1 Orion, F2 Timothy) twin ram lambs. Both appear scurred at this point and both are for sale as I have two polled Lucy boys already in the flock!

WhitePine Radler. Sire: FirthofFifth Nekomis x Dam: FirthofFifth Rahu (Black Forrest daughter)

Radler again

Radler in the background and WhitePine Salvator in the front (also for sale)

Radler with his dam Rahu.

Below is Salvator again. He is out of Nekomis and WhitePine Salome (black yuglet flecket sokket horned ewe). He carries spots and is linebred on Jericho .

WhitePine Kaliber out of WhitePine Levi (F1 Jamie) and FirthofFifth Koosi (F1 Jericho) who is shown below with her son. He could be double polled and could carry moorit. he does carry solid..

WhitePine Nastro Azzuro : WhitePine Roman (F1 Orion) x WhitePine Neriah (Blues x Nirvana). He is fully horned. Could carry katmoget under the white. Also could carry moorit.

Below is Kaliber again. Smooth polled handsome boy.

Nekomis x ShelteringPines Nessebar twin ram lambs. One of these is going to Washington, the other is available.

Black Sheep Gathering

2011-06-13T18:37:00.005-05:00

Trying to finalize my trip! It looks as though I will leave around June 22 and be home around June 28. My dad is taking care of all animals (thanks Dad!) but it will be easy on him since all the sheep (rams included) and cattle (bulls included) are in lush pastures and will be just needing daily fence checks to make sure the fences are not down or someone is stuck.

I will be taking Oliver and Zoe with me to place them in their forever homes and Ballantyne and Brewer get to make the trip out west to see their daddy Pilot's breeders. It should be a good time.

If anyone needs hauling I'm the cheapest there is! Someone inquired with a professional hauler for about a 12 hour trip and the first animal was quoted at 1065.00 and each additional animal 65.00. I guess my rates don't look so bad after all :) And I'm doing a 29 hour trip so double that price! :) :)

I'm so fortunate to have a dad who is willing to help me out, and a business that I can get everything squared away before I leave and can leave in good hands until I return.

Unless something changes, this will probably be my last trip west for awhile. The only way I can afford to go is if I am able to transport animals for people and this year is a slightly more meager year in that regard.

Can't wait to see those of you who are going there! Should be fun as always!

Sale List

2011-06-01T09:27:00.003-05:00

black ewe lamb. Conformationally lovely. Will have a longer fleece than I personally like. Less crimp. Some would call this intermediate, but my guess is it will be 5-6" long with little crimp. It IS soft and she will be jet black like her mother. Sire is White Pine Roman and Dam is WhitePine Festus. Available any time.

ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis - gray katmoget smirslet ewe. Has given me two great ewes and a ram and therefore can move her on. She had mastitis on one side of her udder last year but is raising a single lamb this year with no assistance. Her price will be lower accordingly. Her pedigree and conformation are enough reason to give this girl a try!

WhitePine Eve - mioget F1 Orion. She is a very typey ewe like her mother was, and her micron results were nice last year. However she falls out at the last rib (too much britch wool for me) and although she really can produce (was bred to Jazz this year) I need to sell a few nice ewes to pay for some bills. Serious inquiries please.

Sommarang Emerald - black flecket. Looks like a dalmation. Had twins the last two years, very milky ewe. So milky in fact she was the ewe that got mastitis this year on one side. She is available for auction price immediately. I retained a daughter from her last year and she is amazing.

Wintertime Jazz. Anyone who follows my blog knows about this handsome ram. He's available to a serious shepherd who has the 1927 standard and Appendix A in mind when looking at the ideal Shetland.

Five ram lambs.
white ram - WhitePine Roman (F1 Orion) x Justalit'l Chloe. he's the ram in the previous post with the phaeo and incomplete color coming through. Fully horned.

white ram - WhitePine Roman (F1 Orion) x WhitePine Neriah (Blues x Nirvana). He's pictured in the previous post as well. I may hang on to him if he does not sell. Beautiful ram. Fully horned.

gray katmoget - WhitePine Caiphas (F1 Holly) x WhitePine Centennial (Jazz x Chloe). He is dynamite! Will not be available until mid July. He's correct in structure and fleece. Cannot fault him.

gray katmoget - WhitePine Caiphas (F1 Holly) x Justalit'l Black Lambo (everyone knows her!). He is horned, but to what degree I'm not sure. His fleece will have less crimp like his sires did at the same age, but should still be quite fine. Available mid July.

gray katmoget - FirthofFifth Nekomis (Blues x Bramble Nadeen) x WhitePine Salome (Jazz x SP Snow Cloud). This ram lamb carries spots, and possibly moorit but not sure. He's had pizazz since he was born and he knows it too. dam is also horned and therefore ram lamb could carry the horned ewe gene, although its hard to know without test breeding.

I also have four polled ram lambs available that I posted to the polled yahoo list.

Once micron results come back I may have a few more adult Shetlands for sale. With the current price at the auction houses it makes me anxious to breed them all to a crossing ram for market lambs next year, so I may not have many to sell. And with fleeces like the ones that are in my flock, its getting harder and harder to part with any ewes!

Finally. some photos

2011-05-26T22:28:00.004-05:00

Coming up for air...and i know you want to see some photos :) only three ewes left to lamb :) never will I again breed this early, OR this late :)

This white ewe lamb is out of WhitePine Roman (F1 Orion) and ShelteringPines Nirvana. I hope to God she is horned. She has a pink nose :) My first in a white :) And she is the blending of two of my favorite ewes....Rachildas and Nirvana. The perfect blend. She's a keeper :)
WhitePine Salome and her Nekomis gray katmoget son. He had a krunet and obviously carries spots. He's available for sale pending further evaluation.
These three lambs are all lovely. The white is available for sale. He's related to the white ewe above..Same sire, and his mom is WhitePine Neriah, who is a Nirvana x Blues daughter. The moorit kat is most likely going to Oregon and the gray kat is going to New York! Handsome boys they are. The White ram is available for sale pending final evaluation.
Owlhill Butter gave me a spotted musket girl out of WhitePine Caiphas. She's a keeper!
Caiphas also sired this gray kat ewe lamb out of ShelteringPines Fleur De Lis. She's a keeper too.

This POLLED gray katmoget ram lamb is out of FirthofFifth Koosi (shown here...F1 Jericho) and my F1 Jamie polled ram Levi. Koosi proved last year she carried polled so this boy could be double polled/homozygous polled. He's available for sale. I'm repeating that breeding and praying for a ewe :)
Sommarang Eva (left) and her gray kat ewe lamb out of Caiphas. He really produced. I'm tickled with the lambs.
This 3/4 BFL ram lamb carries color and is out of B17 my Shetland Mule from Under The Son. He's a handsome lad and is available as a crossing sire or he is destined for my freezer. Mmmm lamb chops. lol
There's that handsome white lad again. Still for sale :)
Spring is coming. The White Oak trees are finally starting to open their buds. And we are in a frost advisory tonight. Come on grass! The girls are getting restless!

ram lamb for sale and a moorit ewe

2011-05-19T22:36:00.006-05:00

This handsome lad is for sale. Sire is WhitePine Roman (F1 Orion) and dam is Justalit'l Chloe. He is white, showing his fawn katmoget pattern underneath (incomplete dominance). I was thinking he was a giant spot, but his katmoget is apparent on his spots on his rump. He is horned and will be a nice single coated ram. He is white/katmoget and is moorit based. I have much of both of his parents lines and that is why he is offered for sale. Micron results and blood tested negative flock, annually. Typical Shetland tail, very growthy. His dam is one of my foundation ewes and his sire is fine fleeced white ram with giant horns. Pending final evaluation he'll be offered for sale $325 Can be delivered to Black Sheep Gathering or Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in September. A keeper for sure! Sire is WhitePine Caiphas (horned gray katmoget F1 Holly) and WhitePine Neriah fawn katmoget (Blues x Nirvana)

I'm gone for the weekend but am borrowing my sister's digital camera for a few days so will have more lambs to post (for sale ones too) when i return.

I promise to reply to emails at that time and post more photos of animals of interest.

Email and last week

2011-05-08T18:22:00.003-05:00

Again please email me at ebonwald@gmail.com from now on. My arvig account is inaccessible and I cannot go and retrieve any old emails either.

Last week was a week that I never want to ever live through again. With the cold, rainy, muddy, windy spring I've had the spectrum of atrocities happen here. Sick animals, animals not responding to treatment and losing them. Unexpected losses, hard ones too.

My chickens have gone completely in to eating all their eggs unless I sit there and watch them lay them. I put a rooster in with them and it doesn't seem to help. I don't have their indoor/outdoor chicken door ready yet so I just gave up and let them all outside. I'm sick of losing so many eggs each day. I knew the 7 new ones did this and no matter what I did, or supplied, they still ate them. I am furious and disappointed.

My cell phone died last week and in the course of two days I got two new phones...a replacement for my newest phone and a replacement for my back up phone. So in the end it was ok, and i got 10 dollars off my next purchase of accessories b.c. I was the nicest customer they'd had in days! I was SUPER nice, as I always am and it was recognized and rewarded!

I lost my parakeet of 10 years, Kipper. He was my first cage bird, and he stayed here longer than any other cage bird I had. I miss his singing already.

My desktop is still broken.

I'm finally starting my spring clean ups, but not having any income for 6 weeks really sucks. No snow to push and it was too cold/ rainy with heavy frosts every night to go start clean ups any sooner.

I am STILL without green grass.......and although its starting to turn, my sheep are still on hay and they hate this fact and remind me every time I go outside. they are completely spoiled.

I've had ewes with no milk for their lambs this year. I'm also supplementing EVERY BFL lamb, and four Shetland lambs.

I've had a ewe with mastitis. Lord talk about one end of the spectrum to the other!

At any rate I'll stop there.

This spring has been the wettest, coldest, windiest, spring on record in my county and I am feeling it through and through.

Yesterday I had my first lamb of the second round of lambing. A gorgeous moorit ewe lamb out of WhitePine Caiphas (F1 Holly) and WhitePine Naomi (Wintertime Blues x SP Nirvana). She's got the most crimpy and consistent fleece I've seen this year from a moorit so I'm pretty stoked about her.

I'm hoping gas continues to go down. otherwise my trip to Oregon and back for BSG is going to be so costly for my transportation I'm doing for fellow shepherds.

Off to tend to the critters. Today is a better day. Let's hope they continue to get better :)

computer issues

2011-05-02T13:45:00.003-05:00

Can those of you who inquired about the F1 rams please email me again? My home account via Mozilla Thunderbird is inaccessable due to my desktop computer having crashed.

Please email me at ebonwald@gmail.com.

I am going to Black Sheep Gathering in June, as well as the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI in September and can transport to either place.

thanks!

F1 rams for sale

2011-04-25T10:45:00.002-05:00

I've decided to let three of my F1 rams become available as funds are tight here. These rams are available immediately. Yearly micron results, blood tests, and they are some of the last F1s of these imported rams.

F1 Holly - WhitePine Caiphas - gray katmoget - huge horns. Carries moorit, and most likely spots. I have two other F1 Hollys that I would like to use and don't need three. Micron results available on request. 65.5% UK

F1 Jericho - Wintertime Jazz - gray katmoget smirslet - huge horns, homozygous black, Ab/Aa, throws wild spots, improves just about everything he is bred to. 87.5% UK. Micron results available.

F1 Orion - WhitePine Roman - white - huge horns, Awt/Aa, BB/Bb, could carry spots. I can only have so many whites and have used him for two years and have liked his offspring greatly. 56% UK. Micron results available.

These photos are 10 days old now, but.....

2011-04-20T09:56:00.002-05:00

Rayna was out to see her lambs that she got when she leased a few ewes. These are some random photos of some of the lambs in the nursery pen about 10 days ago.

Below is the gray katmoget ewe lamb out of OwlHill Pranilla (F1 Greyling F2 Orion) and FirthofFifth Nekomis.

This napping little gray kat (notice the spots!) is out of FirthofFifth Nekomis and WhitePine Terah (UnderTheSon Arapaho x BlackForest Tilly)
WhitePine Neriah (Wintertime Blues x ShelteringPines Nirvana) was bred to WhitePine Roman (F1 Orion) and gave me this handsome white ram lamb. Neriah is one of my best ewes and this ram will be available for sale pending his summer evaluation. He is quite fantastic now with great parents! Inquire if you would like to be put on the list for him.
Wintertime Galina with her twins. Galina has a possible sale pending, but if it falls through, she will be available for sale this summer after weaning her lambs.

Dynamite ram lambs

2011-04-18T15:58:00.005-05:00

As promised (although late) Here is ShelteringPines Myra (Starry Night x Canosia Farm May) and her smashing moorit ram lamb out of FirthofFifth Nekomis. He's awesome. I kept his half brother from last year (out of WhitePine Ephraim AI (Orion)) so this boy is available (pending evaluations on ALL lambs as is customary here in mid summer).

He really is a smashing boy.
Also available is this dynamite ram lamb out of Nekomis and WhitePine Salome (Jazz x ShelteringPines Snow Cloud). He certainly carries spots as you can see his momma in the pics with him. She is also a horned ewe so he COULD carry that gene if you like that (I LOVE IT!) I've been getting several gray kats this year with black spots on their bodies that do NOT fade. They are also very 'blue' at the skin and those are the kats I love, although I do have all shades of gray kats.
Isn't he something? LOVE him. Big 'ol horn buds too. Again pending summer evaluations he will also be available for sale.

Moorit fleeces

2011-04-14T09:26:00.006-05:00

Since I have had most of my lambs born so far from ewes that were leased out, I myself have had few ewe lambs (10), and two are moorit based (a musket and a mioget). So to make myself feel better I'm going to post a few photos of some moorit fleeces that I DO have so I can feel better about myself hahaha.

My ratio for black based vs. moorit based is almost 2:1. This does include all patterns except white, so the 21 gray katmoget adult ewes I have are counted as black.

SO if anyone would like to pout with me....

Eat your heart out world!

2011-04-13T16:02:00.002-05:00

FirthofFifth Kamachariy (Forrest x Koosi) is a fawn katmoget ewe who carries polled. She was bred to WhitePine Levi (F1 Jamie) and produced this stunning dark gray katmoget girl! To say I am pleased is an understatement! :)

stunning ram lambs

2011-04-12T21:37:00.003-05:00

These stunning moorit ram lambs were born today. Both are stunning. Just beautiful. Since I have their mother's lines heavy in my flock I am offering both for sale. . The first ram is out of FirthofFifth Blottir (Wintertime Forrest x Minwawe Boppitty) and WhitePine Levi. I'm assuming Blottir carries polled, and Levi IS polled, but this boy appears to have horn buds. We shall see what happens to those horns as he grows. He's just beautiful. A better photo tomorrow.

The next two photos are of ShelteringPines Myra (ShelteringPines Starry Night x Canosia Farms May) and her moorit ram lamb. Big horn buds and he is out of FirthofFifth Nekomis. He has some white on his throat but otherwise solid moorit. He's just gorgeous.

Myra's boy again. He was out sunning himself when I came home from work.

The gray kat below is out of WhitePine Levi (F1 Jamie) and FirthofFifth Koosi (F1 Jericho). Both parents have one gene for polled, and this boy IS polled. He could be a full poll, but won't know without test breeding. He carries solid (Aa) and possibly moorit as both parents carry moorit as well. He's a stunning ram. Long legs like his daddy.

Here is the Koosi boy showing off his rear end while Rachildas tries to hog the photo. Since I am keeping both parents (and really wanted a ewe out of Koosi...) this boy will be available. I"ve had both parent lines for awhile now and am really pleased with this cross. It will be repeated. This ram is F2 Jamie/F2 Jericho. A great cross in my book!

Fleece shots

2011-04-12T14:28:00.007-05:00

I've had these awhile but talking with a potential customer today is giving me the incentive to post some photos of some of the girls/boys. I won't label who they are but it will give you an idea of what i am striving for (SSS 1927 standard fleece, naturally! )

This is just a sampling of the fleeces folks! Life is good here!!

PLEASE CLICK PHOTOS TO BIGGIFY!!

Below is a gray katmoget. She has the darkest fleece I've ever seen on a gray kat. LOVE the blue tones. She is out of WhitePine Levi and WhitePine Neriah.

Below is actually Neriah. Love her fleece too. Also gray katmoget. She has a 5" fleece that is just lovely.

Below is another gray katmoget, this is F1 Jericho

This is emsket folks. She was born black, and her tips sun bleach. At the skin she has that lovely bluish tone. No iset, no white fibers. They are whole colors on those fibers!

Below is another gray katmoget. Love the fleeces on the kats.!

A lovely white below.

Below is a fawn katmoget. love the oatmeal color.

Below is shaela. Born black. tips sun bleach. whole color (no white/black fibers that give the illusion of modified. not iset. No white. Not one.

I think this is a white. I'd have to double check as i haven't labeled any photos yet and I can't remember the order....lol

ShelteringPines Nirvana! Her fleece is about 4.5" and a lovely blue hue to it still. she's a dynamite ewe!

More lambs and thoughts

2011-04-12T09:28:00.004-05:00

Sorry this no camera thing is a joke. I have so many lambs I can't remember who I've taken photos of. I of course have my favorites but overall I'm really pleased with the lambs. I again have a plethora of gray katmoget and black lambs. I'm tickled that most of my white ewes gave me black lambs. I need more solid black animals so that was a treat.

Birth coats were as expected according to their lines, with just a few exceptions. All birth coats seem to be soft, but what lamb ISN'T soft when they are just days old?

I am having to supplement two sets of BFL lambs, and a set of Shetland lambs. The moms have huge udders but the lambs are growing so fast that the lambs are really taking a toll on their moms so I'm supplementing. Its not completely bottle feeding but it sure makes for friendly lambs. If anyone hasn't seen a BFL lamb pile (think dog pile/monkey pile/hog pile) on top of a 6'3" shepherd, it is quite the site!

I have 25 more ewes that were exposed. Everybody looks to be bred, and most of them will hopefully have small twins. I hate when they have large singles that are 7+ pounds. I hate watching them lamb, although they seem none the worse for doing it, but those are some mighty big lambs! The ewes should mostly be done by the 18th of April, and many are starting to get udders and have been moved from the 'awhile to go' pen to the 'any time' pen. We'll see if I have better luck guessing this time around :)

I'm nearly complete skirting all of my 2011 fleeces. I am doing several years worth of each sheep and having them processed in to roving or yarn depending on how much is available. I've got friends who are excited to make socks, rugs, scarfs, hats, mittens/gloves out of my wool and even a few Aunts who are going to tackle making quilts for the quilt batts I had made out of my Cheviot-Shetland ewes! I can't wait to have more items that are made from my sheep.

On to new lambs! :)

RYL Rachildas the queen bee gave birth a handsome white ram out of Wintertime Jazz.

Whistlestop 0935 "Yuma" (fawn) gave birth to a black krunet ram out of Jazz. He has a dog coat birth coat so time will tell with this boy, he is VERY FIESTY and a big bully like his mom....

WhitePine Lydia (Jazz (F1 Jericho) x Wintersky Layla (F1 Orion)) x WhitePine Roman gave me a gorgeous and feminine white ewe lamb.

WhitePine Neriah (Blues x Nirvana) x WhitePine Roman gave me a stellar white ram

FirthofFifth Anki (Forrest x Ashanti) x Jazz produced a black gul/kat krunet sokket EWE lamb!

FirthofFifth Taika (Forrest x Twiling) x Jazz produced a black gul/kat ewe and a black gulmoget krunet ewe lamb

FirthofFifth Blottir (Forrest x Boppitty) x Levi produced a dark moorit ram lamb. I'm praying now for horns because this ram is dynamite!

That's it for now.....

Lamb stats so far

2011-04-05T22:06:00.002-05:00

So far....

FirthofFifth Nekomis sired the following lambs:

x ShelteringPines Nessebar (gray kat) = gray kat smirslet ram, fawn kat krunet ram

x OwlHill Pranilla (Ag gray) = gray kat ewe, musket ewe

x FirthofFifth Rahu (white illget) = black ram

x WhitePine Terah (black) = gray kat smirslet ewe

x Whistlestop 0916 "Zariah" (shaela) = moorit ewe and fawn kat ewe

x Whistlestop 0934 "Xena" (white) = black ram, black ewe

Wintertime Jazz sired the following lambs:

x FirthofFifth Booto (fawn kat) = gray kat ram and gray kat ewe

x WhitePine Charity (gray kat) = gray kat ram

x RiverOaks Eliza (white) = white ram and gray kat ram

x Sommarang Emerald (black flecket) = black smirslet sokket brandet ewe, gray katmoget bersugget ram

x WhitePine Eve (mioget) = gray katmoget ewe (looks to be modified!)

x Wintertime Galina (black gulmoget) = gray katmoget krunet ram, black gul/kat smirlset ewe

x BlackForest Tamarack (moorit gulmoget) = black gulmoget krunet ewe, black krunet ram

x WSR Alisa (moorit light badgerface) = gray katmoget krunet, black light badgerface ewe

x FirthofFifth Sukhada (black gulmoget) = gray katmoget ram

WhitePine Levi sired the following lambs:

x FirthofFifth Ashanti (mioget smirslet) = black ewe, moorit ewe

x FirthofFifth Koosi (gray katmoget) = gray katmoget (polled) ram

x WhitePine Skor (shaela) = black ewe

WhitePine Roman sired the following lambs:

x WhitePine Festus (black smirslet) = black smirslet ewe

x Justalit'l Chloe (homozyous fawn katmoget) = white ram with tons of phaeo or giant white spot fawn katmoget. I will have to look tomorrow when he's dry!

WhitePine Barnabas sired the following lambs:

x WhitePine Faith (gray katmoget krunet sokket) = fawn katmoget krunet sokket ram

x WhitePine Rush (white) = black ewe

x RiverOaks Lucy (gray katmoget) = fawn katmoget ram (polled) and moorit smirslet (polled) ram

I think that's its for the Shetlands.

Beechtree WyCliffe (purebred white BFL ram) sired the following lambs:

x Beechtree Kearsley (white) = white ewe

x Beechtree Kershope (white) = white ewe, english blue ram

x Cross Wind Clover (white) = white ewe, white ram

x ShelteringPines Catalonia (white) = white ewe, white ram

x Beechtree GlenLuce (english blue) = white ewe

Lambs part 3

2011-04-05T15:34:00.003-05:00

River Oaks Lucy gets her own post too. Lucy has given me four ram lambs in 3 years. No ewes. :( That being said, her rams do NOT disappoint! These boys are out of WhitePine Barnabas (F1 Orin F2 Timothy) and they are both quite nice for birth coats! Crimpy and even, just like Shetlands in the UK!

Here is Lucy still in all her girlish figure after having twins...

And again with both babes...

Closer photo of the moorit (possibly modified)

And again.
Just look at that awesome fleece!
And again...

lamb photos part 2

2011-04-05T14:05:00.003-05:00

These two fantastic boys are out of ShelteringPines Nessebar and FirthofFifth Nekomis. These boys are just yummy. I can't describe them any other way!

I could look at these boys all day....if I had the time :)

Lamb photos part 1

2011-04-05T09:44:00.004-05:00

I'm trying to keep up! Honest! I'm just tickled with this years lamb crop and I still have 36 ewes to go :)

Below is a gorgeous black ewe lamb out of WhitePine Skor and WhitePine Levi (F1 Jamie)
Here is Skor (shaela, modified whole color, not iset or Ag) with her daughter WhitePine Saku. She's a keeper for sure!
Speaking of keepers.....This is OwlHill Pranilla (F1 Greyling, F2 Orion) and FirthofFifth Nekomis (F2 Jericho) twin ewe lambs. Musket ewe and gray katmoget ewe. Dynamite I think. Sorry for the blur. More photos when they get outside! Below is the gray kat ewe.
This is obviously the musket girl. I'm tickled to have gotten an Ag from Pranilla, even if it is moorit based!!
Just minutes old (maybe an hour?) On the left WhitePine Pacifico (musket) and WhitePine Pacena (gray katmoget). Just beautiful. Thank you Pranilla for such awesome little girls!

Update:

2011-04-03T16:23:00.003-05:00

32 lambs and counting. They are dropping like flies out there! (well figuratively!) Almost all twins thus far with some REALLY exciting lambs!

Just a tease I know, but I can't remember who has lambed without looking at my spreadsheet. Thank the Lord I was prepared (as usual) for lambing season! No sleep for the weary....

A few things. Nekomis indeed carries moorit! Yay! Barnabas indeed carries SPOTTING! Yay! Every year I am getting more and more lambs with the fleeces I prefer, with the conformation I'm after. All the Shetlands have been superb mothers (as expected!)

That's its for now! Mandatory Nap Time!

Newest Member of....

2011-04-01T16:13:00.003-05:00

With all that this family farm provides and grows, this was a no brainer. YIPPEE!!

Its a great networking and promoting tool that I can't believe I just found out about! Better yet I can put this marketing logo on all of my products! How cool?!

Some lambs FINALLY

2011-03-31T14:40:00.003-05:00

These girls are going to show me up! All of these ewes are lambing from the 'not close yet' pen, while the girls in the 'any time' pen are all laying around, or trying to lay around, with their huge bellies and udders. I"ll have to get some photos of their backsides for you to see. I think I have Dairy Goats their udders are getting so large.

Below is a giant single modified black katmoget ewe lamb out of Jazz and WhitePine Eve (twin sister to WhitePine Ephraim) This was Eve's first lambing and I have no idea where this 9 pound lamb was hiding as Eve still looks the same from before the lambing. I found this girl popcorn-ing around the pen when I got home from my day trip.

This is Wintertime Galina (Wintertime Black Forrest x ShelteringPines The Holy Grail) and her twin gray katmoget lambs (ram and ewe) out of Wintertime Jazz. They were both up nursing and tail wagging at the 9pm barn check. I can't believe no gul/kat OR gullies but Rayna leased her so I'm not too mad.

What I am mad about however is the ewe lamb is quite SPOTTED. Ahem. Pink nose Bill! Sorry the blurry photos. they were taken with the phone!

WhitePine Skor, a true shaela (modified whole color) was bred to WhitePine Levi (black krunet F1 Jamie) in hopes of polled rams. Instead I got a jet black ewe lamb! I am glad this is a SOLID ewe lamb Aa/Aa as the rest of my lambs born this year have all been katmoget! Her fleece looks pretty nice and again, a fairly large lamb, and her mother doesn't seem to have lost any of her figure..... ahem.. She was up nursing and jumping this AM at the 6am barn check.

Better photos hopefully soon. I need to just bite the bullet and get a new digital camera. They are so cheap right now.....

Chicken Math at its finest!

2011-03-31T09:10:00.004-05:00

If you can count properly you will notice that my FIVE new chickens are actually SEVEN. ahem. Yes. Chicken Math. Totally blaming it on that. Well and Corinne. Maybe Rayna too.

These girls are from my enabler and friend Lisa who got me in to the laying hens in the first place by trading fleece for chickens. Hey I 'needed' chickens, and she needed fleece. Problem solved. Lisa also taught me how to spin, and she knitted my hat/scarf out of Jazz fleece.

The two Barred Rock and the two Easter Eggers are the same age as the two layers I have left, Helen and Henrietta. So they are just about 2, but still laying well. The three Black Australorps are GORGEOUS girls, but are more aloof and tend to hang together. They are just yearlings.

There was quite the introduction yesterday Henrietta (my original barred rock and sister to these girls) made it quite clear that they were all peons and she was queen B. In the photo above where the two australorps are standing was off limits last night to the new 7 girls! The new 7 had to smash on to a tiny saw horse to roost, while Helen and Henrietta had the ENTIRE area you see above to lounge on during the night..... *SIGH*. those silly girls.

I checked on them during the night to make sure everyone was OK (while i was out doing lamb checks...which is in the NEXT post!) and those seven girls looked so sad crammed together. lol Below is a photo of one of the new girls modeling the saw horse.

And yes I have the 11 chicks yet too! They have upgraded to a larger area of the 'coop' pen. I was walking towards the barn from the house this am and heard a terrible commotion! The hens were all screaming, the bantam chickens were screaming and the guineas were all screaming and alerting. I dropped the bucket i was carrying and ran across refrozen snow drifts, mud and newly fallen wet snow to get to the coop thinking there was a weasel or mink in the barn.

It wasn't.

It was one of the White Wyandotte pullets who happened to fly over the wire caging keeping them separate from the big girls and was in with the new 7 and 2 original girls. WHAT A BUNCH OF WUSSES!! They were carrying on like the sky was falling. And they can even SEE the pullets so it wasn't like it was a big surprise or anything. Silly girls.

Below are the young pullets...

All of the adult girls are from breeds that are very cold hardy. And the new pullets, aside from the Sicilian Buttercups are all cold hardy. So the Buttercups are more of a 'let's see how it goes' trial and will report more as they are growing up. So far so good!

The chickens are of course all part of the sustainability i'm trying to get a better grasp of. If the layers can provide eggs for myself, the dogs, and my family then they are doing their job (plus being free range bug/frog/rodent eaters in the summer)!

Chicken Math

2011-03-29T12:53:00.002-05:00

I can't get the Trademark logo to show up behind the Chicken Math idea. Corrine you really need to get the TM on that saying! Its catching on like...well....chicken math.

A while back Rayna and I went in on an order of egg laying day old pullets. I ordered 7 but only 5 arrived because several were not available or the hatch was poor.

Well the day I went to pick them up I ended up bringing home 11 :) See how this chicken math works???!!

They are really in an ugly stage but I'm happy with the group I got.

2 White Wyandottes

1 Gold Laced Wyandotte

1 Silver Laced Wyandotte

2 Buttercups

1 Partridge Rock

2 Easter Eggers

1 Buff Orpington

1 mystery chick that has yet to be identified. It is either a Minorca, Lakenvelder or Andalusian, which any would be fine with me.

Tomorrow I am picking up 3 yearling Black Australorps and 2 two year old Barred Rock from my Enabler and fleece friend who taught me how to spin (she also made me my hat and scarf from Jazz's fleece). I'm trading more fleece for these 5 chickens and so that should help with my current egg supply.

Since the my first original two hens are also two years old (a Barred Rock named Henrietta, and a Red Star named Helen) and now laying daily thanks to me moving them from the barn where the two rats were spotted (and later killed by our last remaining barn cat), I've been getting a dark brown (not Maran brown, but still fairly dark) and a lighter brown egg from each girl every day for the past 9 days.

With the help of these 5 new ladies I should be able to feed my 3 egg omelet breakfasts AND feed the dogs their raw eggs that they get twice a week (two times a week x 9 dogs = 18 eggs).

I ran out of my eggs and had to buy eggs from the store. The 'yolk' if you could even call it that was such a light yellow it mimicked banana color AFTER you peel off the skin. No kidding. Gross.

Since I know these 2 year old ladies probably won't lay forever I'd like to get a few more pullets this year. I'd like a variety that are good layers and will be able to free range and not give up laying in the winter months.

I LOVE the look of the Wyandottes and am looking at other varieties of them but also would like a few different Marans, Chantecler, Sussex, Egyptian Fayoumi, Hamburg, etc. Now I don't need 40 chickens laying, but a variety is nice.

My goal this year is to be more sustainable than I already am so if I am able to have enough eggs for myself, the dogs and my family, plus maybe a few neighbors in the future that would be great by me. Help pay for the girls' feed.

If you might have something in the forms of pullet chicks, or yearling laying hens to trade or for sale, do let me know!

Ah yes....chicken math at its finest....

Update

2011-03-29T10:54:00.003-05:00

Well the girls are holding out on me!

Aside from WSR Alisa lambing very unexpectedly with twins on wednesday things have been quiet.

I'm always wrong as who will lamb first in the Shetlands. The girls with the 'caution wide load' signs on their bellies and udders are all still just hanging out in the 'close up' pen. The girls in the 'aways a way' pen is the pen Alisa came from.

If you remember Alisa is a light badgerface moorit ewe I traded Wally Rutledge for while I was out in Eugene, OR for the Black Sheep Gathering. Alisa has .78% UK (that's less than ONE percent) in her (Greyling waaaaay back) and still has the breed character fleece that is hallmark of the breed in the UK and Canada.

Alisa was bred to Jazz. I knew I'd only get black but I was hoping for a light badgerface black based ewe lamb. And I got one. But she was chilled when I found her with her mom. The gray katmoget ram lamb was off with one of the Shetland-Cheviot ewes who swore it was hers, even though I know she isn't due for another month. Got Alisa in with her twins in a jug but the little girl wasn't getting up. So off to the house for a lambing warmer. Five hours later she's up and eating colostrum from a bottle (Thanks again Shel!) and by morning she's jumping out of the laundry basket.

Reintroduction to mom was not good. I even waited and smeared poop from her brother on to the girls tail but mom wasn't being fooled. She smelled differently. Alisa doesn't have enough milk to feed twins so supplementing will have to do. I can't believe she twinned either as she wasn't very large, or had a large udder. Some of these Shetland girls surely will have huge twins or maybe triplets based on the size of their bellies and udders. Crazy how different they all can be.

Of all the BFLs that were exposed (10) I have had only 4 lamb, with one due any moment to Wycliffe. There are three that look bred to the back up ram Burma, and three that don't even look bred at this point which is extremely frustrating.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for pandamonium surely to ensue.

lamb count:

2 BFL ram lambs, 4 BFL ewe lambs (lost two)

Shetlands 1 ram lamb, 1 ewe lamb

BFL lamb photos

2011-03-23T22:32:00.003-05:00

Sheltering Pines Catalonia (out of Beechtree Blyth) was also bred to Beechtree WyCliffe. She produced a ram and a ewe. Nearly 3 days old and I think we are out of the woods. The ram is on the left and the ewe on the right. Both were around 10# at birth. Hey that ram isn't blind...he's looking at the camera :) Apparently they were maybe born a bit early and needed to finish developing?

Lovely fleece on these lambs. Excited to watch it grow! (ram in front, ewe in rear)
Below two photos are of Kershope's twins at 8 days of age. They are in a 'nursery' pen all by their lonesomes since lambing has been slow going here. Well and we got a ton of snow after most of ours was almost gone. *sigh*
Sorry for the eyes...the flash was on and the barn was kind of dark (its an old dairy barn!)

Minnesota March

2011-03-22T14:49:00.000-05:00

Details for Tuesday, March 22
Windy with a wintry mix of precipitation. Temps nearly steady around 30. Winds E at 25 to 35 mph. Snow and ice accumulations less than one inch.
Evening: A wintry mix this evening, becoming all snow and windy overnight. Snow may be heavy at times. Thunder possible. Low 18F. Winds ENE at 25 to 35 mph. 6 to 10 inches of snow expected.

Details for Wednesday, March 23
Snow during the morning will transition to snow showers during the afternoon. Significant blowing and drifting snow. High 22F. Winds NE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 80%. 2 to 4 inches of snow expected.
Evening: Scattered snow flurries and snow showers before midnight. Becoming partly cloudy later. Cold. Low 1F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 30%.

lambs so far

2011-03-22T13:03:00.003-05:00

BFLs are starting to lamb. It looks as though several were bred to the back up ram Burma.

The first four ewes have lambed:

Kershope: white ewe, natural colored ram - great mom - healthy lively lambs

GlenLuce: white ewe - terrible mom, rejected baby, baby died after several days of me trying to feed it and try everything i could think of. Luce is going to a fiber home where she will not be bred.

Kearsley: white ewe - great mom, only one nipple worked. Came home from a weekend at the Fiber Mill and found lamb dead. My dad 'didn't see anything wrong'. This will haunt me for life as I wasn't there. She was healthy and nursing when I left. UGH! Kearsley is very distraught too poor girl.

Catalonia: white ewe, white ram - great mom - she had milk fever but got it under control, ram lamb appears blind. Gave B-complex and thiamine shots, he can sense light and doesn't run in to his sister but its very frustrating.

I need to invest in an E-Z milker as my carpal tunnel sure doesn't seem to help when I'm milking out the BFLs. For all the work of the BFLs I surely love them and want to see them remain here. They are SO docile and loving towards me. Like big 'ol dogs. They come up for scratches and such and follow me around on a lead/halter after only seconds of being on one. They are very trusting.

Shetlands still look a ways away. Udders are not as large as they were last year so that apparently means later lambs this year. Thank goodness I didn't pull the rams out early last year like I do for the time period around the Cardigan Welsh Corgi Nationals. My luck they will all be due around that week!

I'm really getting anxious for easy lambing to commence with the Shetlands.

My weekend

2011-03-22T13:02:00.002-05:00

http://www.okacres.com/2011/03/trip-to-mill-and-garretts-visit.html#comments

Here is what I did last weekend. Photos and all!

Nekomis' Fleece

2011-03-17T16:15:00.002-05:00

FirthofFifth Nekomis is a strong contender for elite ram status here over Jazz :) Nekomis as a 2 year old microned ridiculously low numbers. AFD 21.8 / SD 4.6 / CV 21 / CF 97.8%

Jazz is Nekomis' uncle and I'm curious to see if Nekomis carries moorit as he hasn't been used until last fall. He was put over a good portion of my ewes. He has lovely conformation, nice horns and loads of breed type. If he carries moorit I'm hooked! :) I am either way. Those numbers are fantastic!

His fleece weighed in at 3.5 pounds unskirted. Here it is on my kitchen table.
Here it is rolled up and ready to be put back in the bag
Here is a close up of his fleece. I took the photos with my camera phone so not the greatest but you get the idea. I believe I will enter this at Jefferson this year in the fleece show. I think its amazingly fantastic.

Lambing Begins

2011-03-15T09:50:00.004-05:00

This morning at my morning feeding I heard a very LOUD and adamant lamb noise coming from the BFL pen. I dropped the hay bale and ran to see that Beechtree Kershope had given birth to a large set of twins!

My lambing theme is "Brands of Beer" and thanks to BeerBible.net I was able to find two names that were fairly fitting. I also like to name the lambs starting with the first letter of the ewe's name. This helps me follow ewe lines in my flock (I started this with my Simmental herd 20 years ago, and its amazing how the make up of your herd favors certain lines). The lambs are out of Beechtree Wycliffe (F2 Rossiebank X003).

This photo was taken with my camera phone so not the clearest but I WAS running behind for work today! The English Blue ram lamb is WhitePine Kent (Australia) and the white ewe lamb is WhitePine Kestrel (Scotland). Both lambs had full tummies when I dipped their navel and gave them a squirt of Nutri-Drench. Weights when I get home from work!

Got Wool?

2011-03-13T23:25:00.002-05:00

Well this is MOST of the wool from my flock! I was very pleased with Shearing Day 2011. More help, more customers (new and old), more fleeces, more efficient, more food, more laughs. More fineness of fleece. Overall extremely pleased with the flock! I'll be taking some photos of some of the fleeces as I clean them.

This weekend I am going to visit some Shetland friends and take some of my cross bred fleeces in for a quilted batt, the BFL fleeces will go to roving, and a few of the Shetland fleeces will go to see what this mill can do with fine fleece. Most of my fleeces are in the fine category so I'm nervous to have any of it processed at a mill.

The dogs love running in circles around the new 'toy' and they now have three race tracks...one around the table, one around the bags of wool and one around the couches. Oh the joys of being a dog!!

Shearing Day Tomorrow!

2011-03-11T09:50:00.002-06:00

Well come snow or sunshine, we'll be shearing tomorrow! All 106 sheep! Brian Fitzpatrick our awesome shearer will be starting at 8am. I will have help coming in shifts for most of the day, but you are welcome to help, or just sit back and watch too! The more the merrier!

Food and Drink will be provided all weekend for those who wish to stay over.

Fleeces right off the sheep will be available as well for sale :)

Shetland Mule and Shetland-Cheviot ewes

2011-03-10T20:43:00.006-06:00

I'm really not going to show you all 106 sheep. But I wanted to show you some 'special' ones.

Below is UnderTheSon B17. She is a Shetland Mule and will be two this spring. She's a gorgeous ewe with a gorgeous fleece.
B17's fleece

Below is UnderTheSon Y06 who is a Shetland-Cheviot. She's my favorite of the S-C ewes I have.

Her fleece is below:

UnderTheSon Y03. She is also a Shetland-Cheviot. 2 years of age. She loves to pull hay out of her fleece...hence the 'hot mess' *sigh*

Her GORGEOUS fleece below:
UnderTheSon Y40. Has the most 'grey' face of the S-C ewes. She's also two.
Her fleece below:
This fleece below is of a now yearling Shetland Mule (English Blue, Aeb/Aa, BB/Bb, SS/Ss)
Here she is.....albeit slightly hunched up...she hated being 'cooped up'
This is one of the Shetland Mule's out of FirthofFifth Evidence of Autumn (Ephraim, Eve and Aman's mother). This is Aeb/Aa and long, lusterous fleece.
Below she is sporting her lovely new purple ear tag!
This fleece is of her twin sister who is slightly larger than her sister.
Below is her profile. they retained the white spotting on the face and ears. Super cute :)

WhitePine Sedalia

2011-03-10T10:53:00.008-06:00

Yes she gets her own post :)

For anyone who knows me, has followed my blog or talked to me in person, they KNOW how much I LOVE this ewe. Her dam is 100% domestic, her sire is Wintertime Jazz (87.5% UK) so she is around 44% UK.

I did a repeat breeding of her and got WhitePine Selah. They were so similiar I was in heaven! I then took Selah and Ruben (Black ram out of UTS Arapaho x FirthofFifth Rahu) to my good friend Kathy Davidson in Glen Rock, PA. I hope that both of them help Kathy in her quest with her Shetlands. I hear Selah is still incredible in the fleece department too! Selah is one of my favorites!!

And who could not LOVE this face? She's becoming increasingly tame, after a year or so of being completely rude and standoffish. LOVE this ewe. LOVE LOVE LOVE this ewe.

Two white socks and a white tail to boot. She was bred to WhitePine Levi and I got a gorgeous ewe lamb with small smirslet named WhitePine Sarai. I'm almost certain Sarai is a poll carrier. Time will tell. Sarai is getting bred to WhitePine Ludacris this fall (Smooth polled F1 Holly moorit bielset ram).

Sedalia is bred to WhitePine Barnabas (F1 Orion F2 Timothy) Mioget Katmoget ram. These lambs should be amazing given their parents!
And this yummy fleece. Its about 3 inches long and when stretched out it is around 5 inches. Super crimpy its hard to get a photo to show it off well.

BFL fleece and photo shots Part 2

2011-03-08T12:29:00.008-06:00

The white BFL is an amazing animal. Their blue pigmented head with the roman nose and erect long ears took my breath away. Its not a look that every can appreciate and I respect that. The BFLs are just amazing animals when you look at all they have to offer, and all that they can do.

Without further ado I bring you my white BFLs!

Beechtree Kearsley.

Foundation ewe ( I have four of her daughters here, Kershope, Morovia, Sine Qua Non and Prima Facie). She herself is more domestic looking (less than 50% UK) with only Carryhouse V2 and Rossiebank Laird in her pedigree. She is not my ideal ewe but produces them! See how she produces in her daughters below:

Below is her fleece parted.

2010 Micron Results: AFD 26.9, SD 4.3, CV 16, CEM 7.5, SF 25.1

Not bad for a 5 year old!

I have no secrets on this farm. Kearsley has frost bite and gets it every year. Its not that she isn't hardy enough, or that its too cold. I believe its because she's too fat. It happens in the same spots every year. Usually around mid February. She does NOT pass this on to her offspring and she is not a peeler. Her daughters all have lovely fleeces as well.

Beechtree Kershope

She was my very first ewe lamb I bought and she is F2 Titan F3 Carryhouse V2 among other things. She had Kacy the Natural Colored ewe in the previous post. Last year she was AI'ed to Titan but didn't settle. This year she is huge and looks to have triplets or more in that gigantic body.

Kershope's fleece

2010 Micron Results: AFD 30.1, SD 4.6, CV 15.1, CEM 7.7, SF 28

Cross Wind Clover

2010 Micron Results: AFD 30.4, SD 5.7, CV 18.6, CEM 10, SF 29

ShelteringPines Morovia

2010 Micron Results: AFD 26.9, SD 4.7, CV 17.4, CEM 8, SF 25.4

Sheltering Pines Catalonia

Her fleece below:

2010 Micron Results: AFD 26.2, SD 4.7, CV 18, CEM 8.2, SF 24.9

ShelteringPines Sine Qua Non

(latin for: absolutely essential)

She has the most awesome fleece. I love how it drapes and how fine it appears! She is out of Beechtree Cragganmore and Kearsley. Lovely blue pigment...you should see them in the summer!

Below is her fleece:

2010 Micron Results: AFD 25.3, SD 4.2, CV 16.8, CEM 7.3, SF 23.8

I also missed a photo of her twin, Prima Facie (means at first look), but below is her fleece. Its fantastic!

2010 Micron Results: AFD 26, SD 4.2, CV 16.2, CEM 7.5, SF 24.3

These last two girls are exactly what I am looking for in the breed: drapey, long fleeces that open cleanly to the skin. Deep blue pigment. Typey heads and proper ear set. Below is a photo of them being shown at Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI last September.

BFL fleece and profile shots Part 1

2011-03-08T09:52:00.004-06:00

Natural colored BFLs are my favorite. They are not registrable in the UK, but thankfully the founding members of the BFL associations in the USA permit them.

Natural colored BFLs are really English Blue in pattern (Aeb) and that pattern can be very dark to very light. I have both ends of the spectrum in just a few specimens.

The BFLs are just big dogs in wool jackets. They are inquisitive, friendly, sassy, and tame by nature. They accept handling quite readily and free stack naturally. Unfortunately the photos below are not all perfect as I can't see what I'm doing from in front of the sheep (yes that's my red arm).

*As always, click photo to biggify*

Beechtree GlenLuce
WS&WF Reserve Grand Champion Natural Colored Ewe 2009

GlenLuce is bred to Beechtree Wycliffe, an F2 Rossiebank X003. Below is a photo of her fleece.
2010 Micron results: AFD 28.9, SD 4.6, CV 15.9, CEM 8.3, SF 27

Sheltering Pines Burma

Burma is my natural colored ram. I have his triplet sister (white ewe, Catalonia) and his triplet brother is making Mules in Indiana at UnderTheSon. Burma has produced a lovely ewe below named Kacy and several lovely Mules here. Burma is available for sale for either purebred breeding or making mules. Very handsome and mellow man.

Burma's fleece below (apologies for blurriness)
2010 Micron Results: AFD 27, SD 5, CV 18.5, CEM 9.2, SF 25.8

WhitePine Kacy
(her wool on her rump was quite fluffy today, she is level)

Kacy is my only lamb from 2009. Burma's daughter out of Beechtree Kershope.
2010 Micron Results: AFD 26.3, SD 5, CV 18.9, CEM 8.5, SF 25.2
Kacy's fleece below

I forgot apparently to take a photo of Cross Wind Bea in profile, so all you get is her fleece photo for now. She's my lightest Aeb (English Blue) girl.
2010 Micron Results: AFD 27.9, SD 4.5, CV 16.1, CEM 7.7, SF 26.1

I can hardly walk (and more photos)

2011-03-06T20:54:00.004-06:00

*CLICK PHOTO TO BIGGIFY*

(just LOOK at the diversity in my flock! Fleece types, colors, patterns, size, etc)

Well my friend Kody, Bless his heart, volunteered to help me collect fleece samples today. We did NOT get 106 sheep collected. We did get the Shetland rams and Shetland yearling ewes done (40 sheep......) fleece samples collected, photos of fleece parted on every one of those, and then standing photos of the sheep in full fleece. Some are not the greatest stances, but you get the idea.

I also roo'ed Jazz's sides completely (this is an annual thing) and Levi was completely in the rise (about a month later this year) and I got some good 'action' shots of that. My carpal tunnel really hurts so much that its difficult to type almost, but type I must!

Since I'm way too tired to edit and upload photos from today, you will have to accept the photos I took yesterday while it was sunny, instead of today when it was very overcast and SNOWING! ugh.

So here are a few from yesterday of the mature Shetland ewes. I hope you enjoy them. leave me a comment so I know you are reading!!

Below is River Oaks Eliza. She is such an amazing ewe! I love her fleece, her personality and her conformation. She's mostly Bramble lines and will be available this summer for sale. I can't keep them all.

Below is WhitePine Neriah (Wintertime Blues x ShelteringPines Nirvana) She's one of my bestest ewes and when bred to an F1 Jamie (WhitePine Levi) last year she had an amazing ewe lamb whose fleece is so blue its nearly black. No lie. Photos tomorrow of that!.

With Neriah laying down is a fawn colored ewe from the flock of Jim Chastain in Oregon. Whistlestop "Yuma" Who has Orion, Jings, and Skeld in her background. Again. Notice the diversity in just these two ewes. Night and day, and yet STILL both Shetland!
Below is one of my favorite all time ewes. A matriarch of the flock, she has been improved upon with every ram she's been bred to. Her daughter from 2010 (Regine Spektor) was sold to a lovely family in Indiana. They want another :). RYL Rachildas is on the left. her breeder was from Scotland orginally and would certainly know what a real Shetland looks like. This ewe is NOT double coated, but a long intermediate. As an 8 year old her micron was 32.2 AFD, 6.2 SD and 20.1 CV. Fantastic numbers for an aged ewe. She has stood the test of time. I've retained two ewes and a ram from her and she will be available for sale this summer after lambs are weaned. She is Awt/Ag and thows spots on her Ag lambs every time.

With her is her daughter FirthofFifth Rahu. Rahu is a Wintertime Black Forrest daughter. She is Awt/Aa and last year out of Willowcroft Jamie gave me a GORGEOUS white mirkface EWE lamb who is structurally the most impressive ewe lamb from 2010. As you can see from Rahu's rear, she is quite correct (breed typical tail, fine bone) yet she is still wide, square and SOFT/fine! Rahu was bred to Nekomis and I'm praying for twins this year other than katmoget :)

This photo has Rachildas again with two Wintertime Jazz daughters. The flecket is WhitePine Salome out of ShelteringPines Snow Cloud. I believe she is also bred to Nekomis if memory serves me right (hey its been a long day). The black ewe on the right is also a Jazz daughter out of another ShelteringPines ewe, Fleur de Lis. WhitePine Festus, who is krunet (duh her mom is Fleur who is heavily spotted!), is bred to WhitePine Roman (a Rachildas x Orion son) in hopes of pulling out some solid ewes :) Hey I can order right?
Below on the left is WhitePine Skor. My shaela ewe from my very first year of breeding here. She was the pick of the crop and has such remained in my flock. She was bred to Orion last year and gave me a gorgeous shaela krunet ram and a fawn krunet ewe. this year she is bred to WhitePine Levi for solid colored lambs. Both carry spots. The sky is the limit!

The gray katmoget next to her with her head down is ShelteringPines Nessebar who is bred to FirthofFifth Nekomis. She's one of my largest ewes and looks to be carrying triplets (something that has yet to happen on this farm!) and I could care LESS if they are all katmogets I'm so excited about this breeding!
The two ewes below are ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis (front) and ShelteringPines Nirvana (rear). Both ewes I persuaded out of Stephen's flock a few years ago. Every lamb from both of them have been retained. Nirvana has given me two ewes out of Blues and two out of Jericho. Fleur gave me Festus out of Jazz and Flo Rida out of Greenholme Holly. Nirvana is also bred to Roman, and Fleur is bred to WhitePine Barnabas, a mioget katmoget out of Orion and FirthofFifth Booto.

Below, the black gulmoget is FirthofFifth Taika, out of Forrest and FirthofFifth Twiling. I have her two full siblings from the next year here also. What is interesting is that Taika has one of the least crimpy or wavy fleeces, one of the longest fleeces, but is VERY single coated and one of my SOFTEST ewes.

If you compare her to the gray katmoget behind her (Sommarang Eva) you will see that Eva has a slightly shorter fleece, with less tip, but just as narrow and extremely tall histogram. Both are fine, BOTH fit the Standard. Again, that word Diversity keeps nagging on me.....and people say my sheep are cookie cutter 'modern' sheep. I beg to disgree!
This closeup below is of FirthofFifth Booto (F1 Timothy) and one of the Shetland-Cheviot ewes. Sorry. I haven't named them. I can't. Their kids are just destined for my freezer and its easier to not name any of the 'production' animals. If you biggify and look close you will see my F1 Holly ram WhitePine Caiphus in the with the ewes yet. He was my clean up ram that I ...uh...never took out. He'll get put back in with the boys at shearing. To his left is WhitePine Naomi, one of the Blues x Nirvana lambs (twin to Neriah who is photo'ed above). She is shorter, wider and has a longer fleece than her twin sister. She was the one i witnessed getting bred to Caiphus, so she'll be later to lamb.
The moorit in the foreground is WhitePine Bethany. She is F1 Orion x Justalit'l Black Lambo. Stephen never thought Lambo would produce moorit and Lambo gave me a ram AND ewe bred to Orion. Bethany is a fantastic ewe. The gray behind her is my F1 Greyling from Susan Kimball in California. She's 75% UK and her name is Owl Hill Pranilla. The spotted gulmoget to her left is FirthofFifth Agio, a Forrest daughter out of FirthofFifth Ashanti (also a Forrest daughter).

I am SURE you are just SICK of looking at my sheep. So I will leave you for tonight. Its bed time. Right after this glass of wine.......

Yearling Shetland Ewes

2011-03-06T08:50:00.004-06:00

Just a few. I have to save some of the photos for another day. Naturally when I have hep coming its lightly snowy and overcast so the photos will all be a 'gray tone' instead of their natural selves. Sigh. Story of my life.

*AS ALWAYS CLICK PHOTOS TO BIGGIFY!!*

The photos below are of the yearling group of girls. Three Shetland Mules and 25 Shetland ewes. 10 of those Shetlands are from AI, the balance are all out of F1 rams.

Below the white ewe looking away is WhitePine Ciara (WhitePine Roman AI (Orion x RYL Rachildas) x WhitePine Castle Rock (Wintertime Jazz x Justalit'l Chloe) She's a chuck and has dynamite fleece like that entire Rachildas line. Jazz of course left his stamp too making it finer!

The dark faced gray katmoget is FirthofFifth Basotho (WhitePine Eprhaim AI (Orion x Autumn) x FirthofFifth Blottir (Forrest x Boppitty) She is becoming quite tame like her momma.

The gray katmoget with the spots on her face is my F1 Jericho daughter WhitePine Nina Sky out of ShelteringPines Nirvana. She and her dynamite twin sister (in the back left of the photo) are just fantastic. Breed type, presence, etc. All these girls have lovely density and bounce to their fleeces. Amazing conformation.
A group photo of most of the girls...... I'm so pleased with my girls!
This photo shows my Smirslet Sokket Flecket Gray Katmoget ewe WhitePine Eiffel 65. She is out of Jazz and Sommarang Emerald. Huge improvement on her mother and spotted to boot.
Another group shot of the girls...looking at something. Just about every color and pattern in this bunch!

Speaking of color...This is one of two emsket yearlings that WhitePine Ephraim produced for Cynthia. They were born jet black and are an awesome bluish hue to their fleece. No Iset in them to make them 'appear' modified. I've tried for years to have one born here but JUST got shaela...and of course mioget and fawn! Ephraim produced some lovely length to the fleeces on these lambs from Cynthia and I am really excited to see how they produce next year for me.

BFL photos!!

2011-03-05T16:18:00.006-06:00

I went out with my camera and just started pointing and clicking. I only took 54 photos and came up with about 25 keepers so that's cool!

I'll try and pace myself with the camera photos. Tomorrow I"ll be having help to collect fleece samples for microns and will take individual photos of each fleece parted and of the individual animal for my records. My friend Kody is bringing his digital camera and while not super great, it will do the purpose much better than mine!!

I know you are all dying to see my sheep (cuz you're nosy like that!) so I'll help with your addiction.

A week from today is our shearing and I have friends coming from North Dakota, South Dakota and Milwaukee, Wisconsin to help! YAY!! I'm a blessed person to have any help at all!

(they have no idea what they are getting themselves in to!)

So here are two photos of my BFLs.

The whole group (including my ram Burma), and minus Prima Facie, who was at the fence begging to be scratched. Seven white ewes, three natural colored. (there is a shetland-cheviot ewe in the background too....sneaky girl).

*CLICK PHOTO TO BIGGIFY*

Below is WhitePine Kacy. Her sire is Sheltering Pines Burma (ShelteringPines Nightwatch x Beecthree Blyth) and Beechtree Kershope (Beechtree Titanium x Beechtree Kearsley). She was my only BFL lamb in 2009. She is bred to Beechtree Wycliffe, an F2 Rossiebank 840/X003.

Countdown drawing down

2011-03-03T13:13:00.002-06:00

March 9 - first day that sheep can lamb. Not before.

March 12 - shearing. I'm having a shearing party. Many people will be around to help this year! I'll need it too! 106 sheep I have on my spreadsheet!

March 14 - Scrapie inspection and Scrapie genotyping of my rams

March 15 - I might be ready for lambs to come

March 20 - I might be ready for shearing

March 30 - I might be ready for Kelly to come visit.

will keep you posted.

Shearing Date March 12th

2011-02-24T13:24:00.002-06:00

Our shearer has a full day ahead of him with over 100 sheep to shear on Saturday March 12th.

You are welcome to come and help skirt fleeces, move sheep, or just take photos and purchase raw fleeces! Beverages and lunch will be provided! Just let me know if you are coming so I can plan for food. There is also plenty of beds to stay the night either or both nights before and after shearing!

It will be a LONG day!

New Chicks

2011-02-21T21:05:00.003-06:00

Rayna and her mother and I banned together to place a chick order.

I ordered 5 chicks and they got an 'exotic mix' of layers.

The five I got were all different kinds for variety sake.

White Wyandotte

Silver Laced Wyandotte

Gold Laced Wyandotte

Partridge Rock

Buff Orpington

I'm still hoping to find a few yearlings to add to my egg production for the time being and let these five little fuzz balls grow up. They will be coming home in about a month to my farm when I can meet up with Rayna and her mom. So I have a little bit of time to get their pen ready!

YAY! Chicks! It truly MUST be spring!

Rams used for 2011 lambs

2011-02-14T23:10:00.004-06:00

I was looking through my micron results from 2010 and thought i'd recap the rams I used last fall for 2011 lambs.

I only used a ram lamb for my BFLs and did not do fall lamb tests.

Wintertime Jazz (87.5%UK) His third fleece test was 26.7 AFD, 5.4 SD, 20.1 CV, CEM 9.1 with a spin fineness of 25.8. He's proven himself as a breeder here for three breeding seasons.

WhitePine Barnabas (76%UK) Yearling fleece test was 22.3AFD, 5.3 SD, 23.9 CV, CEM 10.6 and SF of 22.2. He's a modified fawn katmoget of Orion and Timothy lines.

WhitePine Caiphas (65% UK) F1 Holly (horned) gray katmoget ram used for clean up this year. AFD 21.9, SD 4.7, CV21.5, CEM 8.8 with a SF of 21.4

WhitePine Roman (56% UK) F1 Orion white horned ram. 2nd year I've used him! AFD 22.3, SD 5.1, CV 23.1, CEM 10.1 with a SF of 22.1

WhitePine Levi rooed completely in February before I did fleece samples last year so I didn't get his yearling fleece microned. I did have a fall lamb micron but can't find my organized papers...ahem. I do remember it was lovely or I wouldn't have used him on 9 ewes this year. 2nd year I used him as well.

FirthofFifth Nekomis. A Jazz nephew (his sire is Blues and out of Bramble Nadeen) and also gray katmoget. His TWO year old fleece was AFD 21.8 / SD 4.6 / CV 21 / CF 97.8%. I like this boy. A lot. I'm excited to see what he produces

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival 2011

2011-02-14T14:58:00.005-06:00

I wanted to share with everyone that there will be THREE Shetland Sheep Society members coming over to the Jefferson WS&WF in September 2011. All three are SSS certified ram inspectors and SSS certified judges. This will be a huge weekend of education and learning and I am so excited they are all coming! They are VERY modest in their bio's and I cannot wait until they arrive!

Here are the bio's for two of three people.

Alan A. Hill

Vice President (ex chairman) Shetland sheep Society

I was raised and educated with a rural background and had a grounding in beef cattle & heavy horses.

In my early marriage kept poultry & Jacobs, Wensleydales and finally Shetland sheep in the early to mid 1980's.

I became a member of the then Shetland Sheep Breeders Group in 1985, the year of its formation.

Elected to committee of the SSBG in 1988 then under the Chairmanship of Dr S.H.U Bowie. I was elected to chairman in October 1990 and re-elected chairman in the following years until retiring from that position in September 2003. I was then elected an Honorary Vice President of the now Shetland Sheep Society.

I was appointed a judge for the Society in 1988 and I've judge all of the Major shows in the UK where Shetland sheep are represented. The Royal Show of England , The Great Yorkshire Show, Royal Bath & West Show, The Royal Highland Show of Scotland and the vast majority of county and regional shows throughout the UK including judging at Voe Show on the Shetland Islands.

On retiring from " the chairmanship" I reverted to showing sheep again taking many Supreme and reserve supreme championships at shows throughout the UK. I have also taken top honours at SSS shows and sales. In 2007 I won the SSS UK small flock showing competition.

Kate Sharp

I was raised and educated with a rural background, and a grounding with horses, dogs and other animals

I married a farmer in 1987 kept poultry, horses, dogs, Shetland sheep and many other breeds.. From 1988/89 I have concentrated on breeding and showing Shetland sheep and I also started my hand spinning & knitwear business.

I was a SSS committee member for 6 years

After being appointed a Judge and Ram inspector for the SSS I have judged many of the major SSS shows in the UK including The Royal Show of England, Royal Bath and West, The Royal Highland Show of Scotland and have had the honour of judging on the Shetland Islands at Voe Show in 2009.

Over many years I have been very successful in the show ring winning top honours at many SSS represented shows and sales throughout the UK including winning The Royal show of England, The Great Yorkshire show 4 times and The Royal Highland show 3 times.

The SSS Champion of champions UK held every 5 years started in

2000 I won reserve supreme champion with my Moorit ram,

2005 I won supreme champion with my black shearling ewe,

2010 I qualified my grey katmoget shearling ewe (co-owned with Alan Hill) and also my moorit shearling ewe who qualified at Melton Mowbray SSS show and sale (see SSS website)

I have mainly concentrated on breeding moorits, blacks, grey katmogets sheep for over 20yrs and still doing so.

Several years ago I went into partnership with Alan Hill to concentrate on breeding a flock of Grey Shetland sheep, we have been very successful doing so

Together we run over 150 Shetlands

Udderly Amazing BFLs

2011-02-14T09:24:00.002-06:00

Several of my BFLs are gearing up for lambing. Their udders are starting to swell up. Their 'back ends' are starting to soften and get bright pink. Their waddling in and out of the barn is just cuter than words. I put the BFL together only a day earlier than the Shetlands. I do think however that the BFL cycle earlier so I'll expect them to lamb earlier. I checked most of them for udders last night at their PM feeding. It appears most of the ones that have lambed before will all lamb together early. It looks as though the F2 Rossiebank ram lamb, Wycliffe, did his job well :)

They shouldn't start lambing until March 9 or thereabouts which is about 2 weeks away so I won't get TOO crazy about checking in the barn yet, but I will have everything done before they come this year. Let's hope they are better moms this time around!

Chick Order Anyone?

2011-02-10T10:07:00.002-06:00

I'm in love with my three laying hens that I have. But they are going to be three years old. They've stopped laying for the past few months ( I do not blame them!) and I'm looking at getting around 6-10 hens. Of course one needs to order 25 chicks at a time to ship so I'm looking for friends who may have some of these available, or would like to go in on an order with me. I have no problem raising them until they are started and can ship them to you.

I of course NEED two Blue Laced Red Wyandottes from Jerry or Nancy. ahem....

Then of course one or two of each of the following, in no particular order:

Black Australops

Barred Rock

Buff Orpington

Partridge Rock

Speckled Sussex

Ancona

Cookoo Maran

Delaware

Golden Laced Wyandotte

Silver Laced Wyandotte

Aside from those I really like the Lakenvelder, WhiteFaced Black Spanish, Buttercup and Golden Campine but not sure if they are good layers. Will have to research more.

These will all be free range come spring time and the egg layers seem to really be a lot more friendly than the Old English Game Bantams that I have. But those OEGB sure are fun to watch!

So. Without wanting too much chicken math....who's in with me?? :)

More pigeon itis

2011-02-04T13:17:00.002-06:00

Another one of my favorite breeds

The Exhibition Homer. LOVE these birds and their personalities. So mellow.

Pigeon itis

2011-02-04T12:56:00.003-06:00

I'm starting to get more excited about my pigeons again. Lord knows its been a long time since I've really talked about them. One of my favorite breeds was and still is the Berliner ShortFaced Tumbler. Its been a recognized breed since mid 19th century.

I do kind of miss them. Ok I really do. Maybe I need to get a couple pair again. They are so endearing. Ok maybe I'll see who of my friends still has some and see what i can get :) You talked me in to it!

Less than 5 weeks until lambing

2011-02-01T18:26:00.002-06:00

I need to get my lambing jugs organized, the lamb bucket of goodies prepared, the alleyways swept out and limed, and just stuff put back in place. When Shetlands get out they tend to climb stuff like cats, and everything falls on to the ground. Add in free range chickens (you know who you are....) and there tends to be a lot of my organizational skills put to shame. You would think with my OCD (self diagnosed) that this would drive me bonkers. It does. But it does give me something to do. And the animals look so innocent when I ask them about it.

I'm a bit overwhelmed with the thoughts of lambs coming already. I can't believe its nearly here. My friend Kathy D in PA already had her first lambs and I just can't believe anyone would want to lamb this early! Most of my neighbors with the big meat breeds are already all shorn and lambed out. I can't understand the shearing thing. Its the coldest month of the year and their sheep are slick shorn. It makes no sense.

Its been over 6 weeks since Adam has left. He decided he needed to stay in Milwaukee after the holidays and while we still talk nearly every day, its very dull and boring here in comparison to having his bubbly personality here. He is going back to school and has a job now. We still remain the best of friends and although he is missed greatly here, he is doing what he needs to do and I am happy for him. Unfortunately I am having some health issues related to this change but am working through it and am thankful for all of my friends amazing love and support during this time.

Lambing would have been MUCH easier had he been here, but I've done it alone for many years so what's another year? I believe the lambs will be better than ever and I'm just super excited to see what comes out of these breeding groups. I really have a good group of animals and now its just tweaking what I need in my own personal flock. Proven ewes will be available if they have ewe lambs this year so if you are looking for proven ewes with good lambing history, blood tested negative for 4 diseases, micron tested yearly and proper breed type, then I may have just what you are looking for ;)

Hope everyone is doing well in this cold and snowy time!

57 days

2011-01-28T19:13:00.002-06:00

Its been 57 days since our last day above freezing (or even 32 for that matter!)

Today was 30 degrees and it was very enjoyable out. The pregnant BFLs and Shetlands even tried kicking up their heels in the 2-3 feet of snow that was compacting much faster underneath their heavier bodies. Now when it says it will be a HIGH of -3 for the next few days that snow will refreeze and the 'ladies in waiting' and myself can walk on top of the drifts. That makes for much easier chore time.

I'm really happy with the condition of my ewes. The Bfls seem either very fat or they are carrying LOTS of lambs. The Shetlands are all well conditioned and although, being a primitive breed, carry their fat around their organs, you can tell that they are still not missing many meals.

I am going to start feeding them twice a day versus once a day as their growing babies are not going to allow for so much food intake at one time. The BFL and Shetland adults are doing well on 1st and 2nd cutting Timothy/orchard/brome mix and the Shetland ewe lambs (yearlings I guess technically) are on nice 2nd cutting alfalfa/timothy blend. Everyone looks quite happy......well except for feeding time when I am MUCH too slow for their needs. The rams and the BFLs at least don't scream. The Shetland ewes and yearlings are MUCH too bossy. Another reason I love 'em lol.

Stay warm everyone! The last few days when its hovered around 30* its been 'so nice' outside that my dad and I have got a lot of things taken care of outside.....gates shoveled out and opened....more roads plowed out around the farm, wood cut and hauled in to the wood stove, snow pushed off of roofs, barns rebedded with new straw, etc. So much for weekends hey?

Winter in Minnesota

2011-01-19T08:10:00.002-06:00

12-3-10

This marks the first day of successive daytime highs of below freezing (32 degrees *F).

That makes 48 days. Below freezing.

I also found out that our area of the state/country has less than 100 days of sunshine. The rest of the days are clouded or overcast. Typically up this way if the sun is out in the winter its because its close to 32 degrees and it feels really warm and the snow starts to melt on the south sides of buildings.

Maybe the overcast days helps to keep the snow that we need to cover the ground?

Regardless the sheep and dogs and cattle take it in stride. I'm just getting sick of the cold. Lambs to start coming March 9th or there abouts. It will be here before I'm ready I'm sure :)

A June lamb?!!

2011-01-16T18:07:00.002-06:00

Yesterday in the bitter cold my adult ewes thought it would more enjoyable to somehow knock the large aluminum/steel cattle gate over to get in with the 2010 ewe lambs and their more choicy hay/alfalfa blend. Not the entire flock, but I did have to separate them out.

Needless to say I still haven't taken the clean up ram out of the adult ewe flock (WhitePine Caiphas, F1 Holly). Much to my thanks he was NOT in the ewe lamb pen, but there WAS a ewe lamb in with the adult ewes!

One of my F1 Jericho ewe lambs, a bielset, sokket gray katmoget ewe lamb out of ShelteringPines Nirvana was the very IN LOVE girl. *sigh*. I really wasn't going to have any ewe lambs bred. Honest.

It is good to see that most are nearly the same size as the yearlings (now almost 2 year olds).

*sigh*

Let's pray she didn't take. 3 months of lambing is a bit much right? :)

New Pages

2011-01-14T08:33:00.001-06:00

Instead of 'meet the ewe' which would take me months to finish, i am just putting them all on pages (now that I finally figured out how to get them to work on this blog!)

As time permits and I find photos of the ewes I will post all their information on those pages. So when you stop by to read the new posts, check out the pages too!

UK links

2011-01-13T13:37:00.001-06:00

While trying to update my website and blog to include up to date photos of current animals in the flocks, I went to my 'links' page and found this farm website for Cleulow Shetlands in the UK.

Two pages with lots of Champion winning Shetlands. Oh to have a flock full of these animals!

http://www.cleulow.com/10541/11330.html

http://www.cleulow.com/10541/index.html

Maybe someday!

Thoughts and Directions

2011-01-11T18:14:00.004-06:00

Its been awhile since I've really sat down to blog. Not for lack of time. I've had plenty of that :)

I've tried to remove myself as best as I knew how from the political hoopla of NASSA for awhile. I spent a lot of time, emotion, energy, resources, love and heartache for an association that I felt was finally back on track with their sister organizations. We have only one standard. I would think all of our sheep on both sides of the pond should reflect the same look, as it is the same standard.

I won't go further in to that, but I wanted to share what has been happening with me.

I'd done a lot of soul searching. Praying. Meditating. I've spent a lot of time with Adam who is currently back in Milwaukee taking care of matters there on an extended Holiday visit. I've spent quite a bit of time with the dogs. Dog shows, dog training, etc.

I've been a terrible friend. I have hardly called or emailed any of my friends. It seems most of my time alone was spent just doing that. Basking in solitude, or out with the sheep. Any time I did have with people was mostly with Adam, or a few friends brave enough to attend my 3rd 29Th Birthday (I'll give you a minute to digest that).

I've made some realistic decisions on my flock. Let's go through them shall we? Let me grab my hot tea...with some raw honey.....

OK. I'm back :)

My 2011 goals for my flock are as follows:

Part One: The commercial buyer.

1. Re-enroll in the Scrapie Program. I recognize that hardly any Shetland folk are in it anymore. And that is OK with me. I really do not NEED any more sheep and with what I have I should be pretty set for ewes. Promote this as an advantage of purchasing from an enrolled and/or certified flock. Going the extra distance to show I care about my flock, and the buyers flock too.

2. Continue blood testing the entire flock for OPP, Johne's, CL and BTV. Another incentive for people to choose me, if they are trying to decide between two or more seller's flocks.

3. Become OPP Negative certified. This should be easy as I have all of the paperwork from the past several years for this.

4. Join the MN Lamb and Wool Producers' Association. My voice as both a purebred and commercial producer needs to be heard.

5. Market my roving and raw fleeces better. I DO have a contract for three years for all of my BFL fleeces, and I have a mill that will readily take all of my Shetland wool I have left to process it in to roving.

6. Continue to sell lamb chops/burger/brats to friends and family. I haven't had one person turn their nose up at it and actually sold several live lambs this fall to others who wanted to butcher them.

7. Increase my Mule production. I am planning on breeding nearly all of my Shetland ewes to the BFL this fall (2011) for Mule production. With lamb meat at record high prices, it would be foolish to do anything but do this. Shetland ewes eat way less than BFL ewes and they produce fast growing Shetland Mule lambs just on grass alone.

8. Send letters to local sheep producers in regards to the benefits of Mules and the terminal cross Texel sired lambs. The data I have would most likely astonish them. The word is slowly getting out about my 'unique' breeds of sheep locally and its nothing but GREAT things.

9. Scrapie type my rams. The state of Minnesota is doing this for FREE for up to 10 rams. I will do 10 of my rams just for the sole knowledge and for any customers that may inquire. It doesn't mean much to me, but its another tool.

Part Two: The purebred buyer:

This will most likely be a very limited group. My goal for 2011 with this is to breed my yearling ewes (lambs from 2010) to the purebred Shetland rams. I have kept back about two dozen ewe lambs to see who makes the grade with the micron results this spring. Those that don't, will be put in to the Mule group.

I also am excited about the UK folk who are coming over to the Midwest in September. I'm hoping they will be able to do flock inspection, or at the very least, ram inspections.

I'm not a huge fan of showing sheep. I think its been a huge disservice to our breed. However this fall in Jefferson there will be UK judges presiding over the ring, and I will be able to better understand their take on the Standard, and the direction I need to go to make my sheep better fit the Standard. They are the stewards of our breed. We should follow suit.

Continue to promote, preserve and protect the Shetland Sheep that we can find in the 1927 Standard. Learning, educating, and sharing knowledge amongst new and old shepherds a like is what needs to continue to be provided and encouraged.

Its a tall order, but I think I'm ready for new challenges. New customers. New friends (keep the old ones!). It looks to be a very BRIGHT future for the Shetland here!

Hey a PHOTO!

2010-12-21T17:05:00.002-06:00

I went out and tried to point and shoot with my digital camera. There is still no screen but I'm sick of not being able to take photos to add to my blog :)

Needless to say I took over 200 and only had ONE that I thought was nice enough to share. So here you are!

2010 Simmental Calves that I retained!

In the front and center is my only UK semen heifer calf born this year, Inga. The Red/White baldy in the back of her is the UK semen bull I kept, Drexell. The yellow spotted/baldy calves on either side of him are from the 1980's old US semen. Their entire structure, hair and look is totally reminiscent of the super tall, long legged, skinny bodies of all beef breeds in the US during that phase. The British calves are much stockier and have curly winter coats like the original Simmental. I hope to be able to save the yellow color and the spotted pattern using both lines and blending them.

The light red goggle faced heifer is from my own lines of US and Canadian bulls that I hope to also blend with the old and 'new' semen so I can continue to save the old light red, yellow and spotted markings that were the Simmental breed here just a decade or so ago and still can be found all over Europe.

We'll see what happens....

Lack of snow = ewes and cows for sale!

2010-12-17T12:53:00.004-06:00

Due to the lack of snow (we have maybe 4 inches of snow) and having missed five of the last 6 storms that brought FEET of snow here to Minnesota, I need to sell some ewes and cows to pay for my bills.

I wanted to let those of you who leased ewes from me, the option of purchasing the ewes first.

Also I will have several other ewes available.....of course with me kicking and screaming....but bills must be paid!

All ewes are blood tested negative several times for OPP, Johnes, CL and Blue Tongue. Several years of micron tests also available. UTD on vaccination and worming.

I will sell TWO Simmental cows, that are bred to a Red Angus bull (calves would make great steaks! I'm just sayin'!) Callie and Rena are both traditional Simmental (red and spotted) and are regsitered with the American Simmental Association. Proven mothers. I'm asking $1500.00 for each cow. Both have daughters that I have retained in the herd, and thus are available. Both are in their prime years for calving!

I also have several straws of British Simmental semen available to anyone interested in using some of the first UK semen to enter the US for Simmental!

Once I have finalized for sure who is available, I will try and collect photos of them. If pick up is not an option until spring, a small boarding fee would be added to the price.

Please inquire

Breeding Groups and Sheep Breeding

2010-12-13T18:08:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I put the clean up ram WhitePine Caiphas (F1 Holly horned gray katmoget) in with all the Shetland mature ewes. Having never been with ewes before and nearly two years of age I didn't know if he'd know enough to breed anyone, but within moments WhitePine Naomi was batting her eyelashes and standing for him. I've never witnessed a mating between sheep before. I honestly thought the up until now that the stork brought them as I never witnessed it.

Now I know why!

It lasted an entire 5 seconds, twice. Last year Naomi was a lamb and she didn't cycle apparently when I had her in with her ram of my choosing. Not odd as many lambs don't cycle at all their first year, or cycle late. This year she was with Barnabas, but apparently she is a slow/late cycler again and so now I'll have a May lamb for sure. Yippee.

I was unable to find a way to the Bluff Country to pick up another Texel ram so my 5 mules and one unregistered Shetland ewe, and the three mule ewe lambs that were to go with him I finally just put in with Burma the NC BFL and the 10 BFL ewes. If my white BFL ram lamb Wycliffe missed anyone in the purebred BFL group, Burma will get them, along with the mules and crosses. Better late than never. And no Texel crosses for next year, but I'll make sure to be better prepared then.

I had separated out the Shetland ewe lambs in to two groups today. Breedable size and 'too small to compete today' size. I was going to put my other F1 Holly, a bielset moorit smooth polled ram lamb named Ludacris in with the larger sized girls, but then decided reasonably that I am crazy to want 10-15+ more ewes lambing in MAY after my initial 65+ in March/April and then the Burma group later. Reason finally won over.

I really wanted the Brits to see lambs out of the F1's and may change my mind tomorrow but if I don't decide soon, it will be way too late and I don't want tiny lambs come next fall that I can't breed or sell that are of any iffy size.

Always rambling. And still waiting for snow here in the deeply frozen MN country.

9:20 AM and -18 degrees without windchill

2010-12-13T16:07:00.003-06:00

Its cold enough that when you walk outside the corner of the eyelids start to freeze up!

And although there is an 'urban legend' going around Oregon that because they are "so cold" there that their fleeces become double coated and longer than 7".

That silly myth surely was proved erroneous here in Minnesota these past few weeks! Our frost is nearly down 6 FEET already, with the limited snow we've had. The Shetlands, Cattle and dogs are not growing longer wool/hair or going double coated on me in any stretch of the imagination. The last photos I saw of a friend's blog they had green grass in Oregon right now....surely not as cold as Minnesota's deep freeze that we've had the past month or so.

Nope. I'm pretty sure the longer fleeces are genetic. For the better or the worse, its genetic and not due to the weather.

I'm not slamming that 'type' of fleece, just merely debunking that silly myth.

A link

2010-12-03T14:45:00.001-06:00

My friend Philp Cowan was made the Featured Student of the Month at his University over in the UK.

Its worth a read and shows a photo of one his pedigreed Shetland Sheep that he showed this year.

http://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/press/article.cfm?ID=201218

Ewe lambs I am overwintering for evaluation

2010-11-19T15:42:00.004-06:00

Grab some coffee or tea.....this is a long post!

For those that forgot, I did a second round of AI in the fall of 2009. I was much happier with the amount of ewe lambs I got and therefore have more to retain over the winter. I'm pretty blown away by this years' consistency overall for the lambs both from AI and ground breedings. Tails, feet and legs and overall structure and breed type are getting more 'set in stone' as much as they can for such a diverse breed.

Since I am striving for the SSS approved Shetlands that adhere to both the 1927 Standard and Appendix A, these ewe lambs I am quite hopeful would pass inspection both in structure and fleece, as well as breed type and their respective micron results. They are almost all consistent from front to rear with little britch wool.

Since I still don't have a camera I'll just have to describe the lambs :)

AI ewe lambs:

WhitePine Shakira - 62.5 % UK - fawn F1 Orion out of WhitePine Skor (shaela). She will have a longer staple length of 5-6" at shearing with some nice crimp coming in at the skin level.

WhitePine Auburn - 59% UK - moorit krunet F1 Orion out of FirthofFifth Ashanti. A very refined and feminine ewe lamb who is a lovely dark red at the skin level. Very consistent fleece with the typically perfect fluke shaped tail and breed type of the SSS type Shetlands.

WhitePine Adele - 59% UK - fawn F1 Orion out of FirthofFifth Ashanti. (twin to ewe lamb above). She is identical to her sister except in color.

WhitePine Rihanna - 65.5% UK - white mirkface F1 Jamie out of FirthofFifth Rahu. She is built like a brick house! Appropriate width of loin, perfectly straight hind quarters with the epitome of a perfect tail (IMHO!). Her fleece is a bit of a more bold crimp typical of the Bramble Connor lines and her build is very much a Bramble look, with of course much help coming from Jamie's perfect conformation. She's one of my bigger girls and I'm looking forward to putting her in with a clean up ram in a few weeks (call me crazy now and later please!). She was my last Jamie straw so she is very special to me!

WhitePine Cascada - 65.5% UK - Fawn Moget Face (Ag katmoget) F1 Minder out of Justalit'l Chloe. My only Minder ewe lamb! Her birth coat was not exciting, but she is getting a lovely crimp at the skin level. She had body spotting at birth.

WhitePine Blu Cantrell - 62.5% UK Gray katmoget smirslet F1 Jericho out of Justalit'l Black Lambo. Her fleece will be a longer 5-6" at shearing. She is a big girl out of a 9 year old ewe. She's very tame and I love her dark blue fleece.

WhitePine Aaliyah - 76.5% UK Gray Katmoget smirslet F1 Jericho out of FirthofFifth Ashegon. Aaliyah is very typical of the UK katmogets with the dark katmoget markings, the dark blue fleece and she carries moorit! AND has a huge black spot on her rear. She's very feminine and dainty like her mother was at this same age.

WhitePine Nivea - 68%UK Gray kagmoget bleset sokket F1 Jericho out of ShelteringPines Nirvana. I didn't try for spots but this ewe lamb sure got my attention as a lamb! Not only her spots but her fleece, her conformation (her dam is also spot on for this) and her breed type!

WhitePine Nina Sky - 68%UK gray katmoget F1 Jericho out of Nirvana too (twin to Nivea). She is identical to her sister minus the spots. She has a smirslet on her face but it has since faded away as she has aged. Both have lovely bright eyes that draw you in when you see them.

WhitePine Colby Caliagh - 79.5% UK - black F1 Timothy out of WhitePine Centennial. Cute as a button, breed type, perfect ear set and tail with less crimp which I've found is typical of the Timothy line. With her dam's pedigree she should throw some dynamite lambs herself.

Ground Bred lambs:

WhitePine Eiffel 65 - 61% UK gray katmoget smirslet flecket sokket F2 Jericho out of Jazz and Sommarang Emerald. Spots and spots galore! She is a vast improvement on her mother and i'm tickled to see how this Jazz daughter matures.

WhitePine Ciara - 58% UK - white out of WhitePine Roman (F1 Orion) x WhitePine CastleRock (F2 Jericho). She is a knock out ewe lamb and am happy I have a white F2 Orion ewe with Jericho genetics. Her mom was highly improveable and I should have held on to her instead of selling her.

WhitePine Beyonce - fawn 62.5% UK - double F2 Orion (White Pine Ephraim x WhitePine Bethany). The best UK fleece ewe lamb I have seen yet. Gorgeous fawn color like her mother she is just as nice as her mother is and I'm excited to breed her to the Jamie line of moorits to tease out that lovely dark moorit color of his.

WhitePine Sarai - 53%UK gray katmoget F2 Jamie F3 Jericho (WhitePine Levi x WhitePine Sedalia). Gorgeous crimp, perfect conformation, possible poll carrier. I'm glad Michelle decided NOT to take her.....she's pretty awesome :)

WhitePine Norah Jones - 62%UK gray katmoget F2 Jamie F3 Jericho (WhitePine Levi x WhitePine Neriah). I'd say she is very much like Sarai but more refined. her katmoget fleece is nearly black at the skin when parted she is so dark! I'm in love with this girl too.

WhitePine Dido - 50% UK gray katmoget by WhitePine Levi out of Sommarang Eva. Gorgeous blue fleece that is really crimpy. Structurally correct and just as nice as her twin sister below.

WhitePine Des'ree - 50%UK black smislet twin to above ewe lamb. Non fading black with excellent structure and very crimpy fleece. I'm excited to see how these twins produce.

WhitePine Robyn - 67.5% UK white out of Jazz by WhitePine Rush (F2 Orion). A different kind of crimp, not as tightly crimped but from a wonderful pedigree. She may be sold to a newer family who bought her half sister and aunt (its confusing yes). If she doesn't go, she will make a great addition to my flock.

Black Forest Tokhara - fawn out of Ephraim and FirthofFifth Towanda. She has a slightly longer staple with nice crimp at the skin. Lovely breed type and structure.

Black Forest Tersk - fawn gulmoget to Tokhara. Same kind of fleece and structure. I'm tickled to have a gullie of the moorit persuasion :)

Black Forest Andalusian - EMSKET smirslet out of Ephraim and FirthofFifth Anki. Longer fleece staple with amazing conformation. I'm excited she's emsket!

Black Forest Azteca - Emsket out of Ephraim and FirthofFifth Agio. Shorter fleece than her half sister but ever so nice. A bit more refined but has the lovely bluish color that I've been after in an emsket.

FirthofFifth Basotho - gray katmoget out of Ephraim and FirthofFifth Blottir. A nice big girl who again has a slightly longer fleece with lovely crimp at the skin. She is Forrest/Orion bloodline and is very unrelated to the katmogets of the Jericho line that I have so that is also a bonus.

Now I"ll be quizzing you in the next blog so please make sure you studied up :)

Ram lambs that I am overwintering

2010-11-16T14:44:00.002-06:00

After the three previous culls I have retained animals that I think will be well used in my future breeding goals. These rams are from mostly UK lines (rams that follow the SSS ram inspection protocol and the 1927 Breed Standard and Appendix A) and are diverse as the day is long (summer days mind you!). Horns, patterns, pedigree, staple length etc. With the yearlings and mature rams I have kept, I think I'm sitting pretty good right now :) Photos when I get a digital camera!

WhitePine Ludacris. 67% UK. Smooth Polled red moorit bielset (tiny strand of white fibers completely around his neck) Greenholme Holly x River Oaks Lucy (Holly and Dillon lines). He is a half brother to Levi and he is every bit as nice as Levi. I will be using him heavily in the 2011 breeding season.

WhitePine Click Five. 65.6%UK. Homozygous Fawn Katmoget. Had body spotting and smirslet at birth. Shirehill Minder x Justalit'l Chloe (Bartok daughter, so F2 Minder herself). I have no idea when I'll ever use a homozygous katmoget ram but by gosh is this ram impressive! I hated his birth fleece by he soon shed that for an extremely crimpy UK style fleece that just begs to be touched. Perfect horns, tail and conformation, I love everything about him except that he is Ab/Ab!

WhitePine Flo Rida. 72% UK. Gray Katmoget smirslet. Greenholme Holly x ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis. His conformation and lock structure are just simply amazing. They've been my favorite of the ram lambs since birth. He is Ab/Aa and could carries moorit. Unfortunately he is a gray katmoget. There is no other fault I can give him and that is really a weak one. I don't care about pattern. Too much :)

WhitePine Maxwell. 91% UK. mioget smirslet scurred ram. Heights Orion x OwlHill Miss Lilly (F1 Holly, F2 Orion etc). Gorgeous fleece, wonderful structure and a very respectful yet curious personality. He'll be wintered over in hopes of possibly using him in 2011. I love that he is modified, but also still wanting some nice red moorits in the flock too.

WhitePine City High. 83% UK. Gray Katmoget long scurs. Heatheram Lightning x FirthofFifth Koosi (F1 Jericho F3 Minder etc). Fleece is very uniform and dense, crimpy and butter soft. He is Ab/Aa and maybe carries moorit. His body structure is perfect in every instance. Lovely square back end, wide loin, perfect fluke shape tail, masculine face. His downfall is that he has long scurs that will need to be trimmed. These are not typical fatal horns, but since his mother has now proven she carries polled through her mother's side, I will keep them trimmed and see what his fleece results come back as. He is my only F1 Lightning and while I will not breed with bad horns, he does give a unique outcross for people breeding for polled.

WhitePine Morrison. 42%UK fawn. WhitePine Ephraim AI (F1 Orion) x ShelteringPines Myra (Starry Night x Morgan Le Fey). Moorison's greatest assest is his staple length. I hope that I can use him to continue to use my shorter stapled sheep but have a 'go to' ram that will 'correct' the ones that get a bit too short (under 2" according to the Appendix A). Perfect horns and conformation he is the only ram lamb I kept out of my ground breedings from 2010. That is saying something! He showed nicely at Jefferson this year and is a very calm soul.

FirthofFifth Kiso. Scurred Fawn Katmoget. WhitePine Eprhaim AI (F1 Orion) x FirthofFifth Kamachariy (Forrest x Koosi). Kiso was the chosen ram lamb from Cynthia's final year breeding Shetlands. He is inquisitive, calm, respectful, structurally on point, fleece is amazing and I hope to use him on some of my Levi kids next fall. He really is an amazing ram lamb.

Besides these 7 ram lambs, I am keeping
WhitePine Caiphas (horned gray kat F1 Holly)
WhitePine Christian (horned black ram F2 Orion F3 Jericho)
ShelteringPines Veni (horned gray kat F2 Jericho)
WhitePine Barnabas (horned mioget kat F1 Orion F2 Timothy)
WhitePine Roman (horned white F1 Orion)
WhitePine Levi (smooth polled F1 Jamie black krunet)
FirthofFifth Nekomis (horned gray kat F2 Jericho F3 Timothy)
Wintertime Jazz (horned spotted gray kat F1 Jericho F2 Drum Ram etc)

Sounds like a lot, but this way I won't need to buy another ram for awhile or do AI! :) Thank goodness for the new ram pastures!