update

This spring I moved 86 adult sheep (yearling or older) to the new place 10 miles away. Of those 86, I have 39 wintering this year. Of the 54 ewes that lambed, I have only 13 of those left. of the 18 rams, I will have 5. To say it was a year of downsizing, is no understatement. Although I tried diligently to keep ewes out of each of the ewes I sold, that did not always work. I hope that because I sold them to homes I know, i can someday get something back if i need to.

That being said I'll be breeding this fall:

Three yearling Leceister Longwools from Anne Campers flock in Montana. I purchased them last fall when I had plans of staying on my 32 acre place, but that sale fell through due to the seller, so I am where I am now because of that.

Four Blueface Leicester ewes, two yearlings, a four year old and a six year old. Thank you Nancy, Lisa and Brenda for these girls, again.

27 shetland ewes, with 2-4 ewes available as bred ewes this fall/winter, so I will lamb 23-25 Shetland ewes, totalling 30-32 ewes to lamb.

so in 2013 - 146 ewes lambed
2014 - 0 (i didnt know if i was moving or not)
2015 - 72 ewes lambed
2016 - 34 ewes lambed (i had a crossing ram who was sterile so had 18 ewes not lamb this year)
2017 - 49 ewes lambed

So it will be my lowest number of ewes lambing in quite some time. It will feel like a holiday!

Flock numbers for the 27 shetlands are averaged to this:

AFD 25.5, SD 4.9, CV 19.1, CEM 8.6, CF 80,6, SF 24.5, CRV 70.8

I am extremely happy with these numbers, and although i sold a lot of my best sheep, I have a nice mix that I've kept, plus ewe lambs to move forward with. 

That being said, I will have at least 10 ewes available next year after lambs are weaned. The list is subject to change, but this is what I am thinking:

WhitePine Versoix - 2016 - black gul/kat - Sommarang Luca x UnderTheSon Viva

WhitePine Bivina - 2012 -musket - WhitePine Caiphas AI x Owlhill Butter

WhitePine Neunkirch - 2016 -black gul/kat - Sommarang Luca x WhitePine Nina Sky AI

WhitePine Laga - 2015 -moorit - WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Lydia

WhitePine Nike - 2015 - moorit smirslet sokket - WhitePine Carver x WhitePine NinaSky AI

WhitePine Renens - 2016 -white - WhitePine Loki x Lancien Clarice

WhitePine Nidau - 2016 -white - WhitePine Loki x WhitePine Noss

WhitePine Yeshivas - 2016 - black light badgerface smirslet - Whistlestop 1123 x PS23Josey

I will also have an older ewe, UnderTheSon Viva, who I would like to find a good home for, or a breeding home that could use her another year or two. She's ridiculously soft and placed 2nd in her fleece class at MSBBA fleece show.

If you send a deposit now to hold a ewe, I will pay transfers, room/board and give a 10% discount.

I am hoping after the next week or two I will have time to get better photos of the ewes and the breeding groups.

KSpirit Farm Cedar's breeding group (group 3 of 6)

When Donna and I first started enabling each other a few years ago, she teased me with this horned gulmoget ram. Since most gulmogets with fine wool are polled, i was a bit skeptical over how much crimp or fineness or softness this ram would have. She sent me a sample last spring and I was really pleased with it. Well as enabling happens, she ended up getting one of my favorite ram lambs last year and it was agreed I'd get Cedar this year. We both know his horns are close (not touching) and that we would need to consider that, as well as keep back ram lambs with good horn spacing (not too wide, but not too close). I had planned on eating him after this years breeding groups, but he's pretty nice so will hold on to him to make sure we get something gulmoget with nicer horns.

There are 11 ewes in here but only 9 are mine/will be staying here.
WhitePine Des'ree is going to Iowa as a bred ewe, and GlenTam Ganymede is here to get bred. She's a knockout ewe, so honored they brought her here to be bred.

That leaves 9:

WhitePine Taconite - black gulmoget (OK Acres Cadillac x Black Forest Tilly). Throwing all my gulmoget chances to one breeding. Let's hope they produce them! She really produces.

WhitePine Ady - black light badger face (Whistlestop 1123 x FirthofFifth Ashegon). She is a great producer so whatever she throws will be nice.

WhitePine Pacena - musket - (FirthofFifth Nekomis x Owlhill Pranilla AI). She's a sweetie who also produces well.

Whistlestop 1241 "Heylor" - fawn/moorit (WS 1108 x WS 0922). constant producer of high quality modified sheep, i'm hoping for some lovely miogets or gulmogets from this.

WhitePine NinaSky AI - gray katmoget smirslet sokket (Todhill Jericho x ShelteringPines Nirvana). She's been a fantastic producer as well and so i'm hoping she'll really click with Cedar.

WhitePine Niamh - fawn (WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Neriah) is a beautiful yearling with the perfect fleece length, crimp, handle, silkiness, density. She's also friendly. Hoping she produces like her mom.

WhitePine Frigg - fawn smirslet sokket (WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Foley) is another yearling who really came in to herself this year. I'm excited to see if she'll produce some spotties or modifieds

WhitePine Kali - fawn (WhitePine Carver x WhitePine Isbister) is another beautiful yearling who really came in to her own this summer. she's a beautiful ewe and hoping for more greatness here.

WhitePine Adicia - fawn katmoget (WhitePine City High x WhitePine Aywick) is one of the typiest ewes i've had with phenominal looks and fleece from birth right on through to adulthood. I really wanted to put her in all four groups but had to make up my mind. Let's see some magic happen here too.

Overall the ewes in this group were put here for either more fleece length, more density or if nothing else, because they are great sheep and I hope for more modifieds (so I can offer them to friends who produce those colors more specifically)

In my quest to move out my moorit based sheep, Niamh, Frigg and Kali and 1241/Heylor, will be available midsummer of 2017. If you would like to put down a deposit, I would be happy to hold  them until that time for you.

1927 Standard, breed typical fleece

There seems to be a lot of misinformation in regards to just what exactly is a 1927 standard typical fleece. While it is obvious there is a spectrum of what a correct fleece could look like, they are all undoubtedly standard typical fleeces. No 1927 standard Shetland should have a dual coat. Those are considered atypical. I am extremely happy with the progress I've made in conforming to the 1927 standard, considering my original stock was not to this caliber. Every year the sheep continue to get better. Micron testing has helped for sure. And never being afraid to be wrong, but always learning, reading articles online, visiting with other breeders, visiting the UK and the Shetland islands, has all helped to cement in my mind what we are trying to preserve and protect. Which is the 1927 Standard Shetland Sheep.

Photos from Vementry Estate - Shetland - Day 1.

Barn Updates

As is the 'norm' around here, things continually change and I need to be ready for it when it happens. A few weeks ago I applied for a job with Washington State University. I planned on moving and needed to make the barns as efficient as possible for the sheep to stay at the farm over winter until I could afford to bring them out in the spring. That may be on hold for now, but in the mean time my barn is FINALLY becoming much more efficient :)

Something that I wanted to do for a few years was build a better way to feed my sheep. Round bales are terrible on the fleeces, I lose ear tags on some of the sheep, and unrolling them take a lot of time and I have to feed them outside in a pasture.

This is the lean to our old dairy barn. This alleyway is used about 90% of the time when entering the barn now so I needed to keep the space wide open. The plywood used for the small square bale flakes of hay is perfect.  They fit in there snugly against the metal hog panel and still allows me a clean, open, bright place to walk.

Inside the pen shows enough feeder space for the 60+ Shetland adult ewes that will be here over the winter. There is room to add three more 8 foot sections, giving me head space for 24 more Shetland adult ewes if I ever needed it.

Below is the south side (left side in photo above) showing some of the feeders.

A better close up below showing only the smallest holes in the hog panel exposed, while using lightweight plywood for the top. The hay all fits in there (more actually on the north side) and still there is room in the small trough for the beet pulp and hay chaff that falls down. No eating on the floor (unless they eat the bedding/oat straw). Little to no hay on their backs or the neighbors' backs.

Reinforced mineral tubs. The ewes kept rubbing their butts on them and breaking/snapping them off of the board they were on. This makes them much sturdier.

Above is the ewe lamb pen feeders that I am using for now. they were 55 gallon plastic drums that I cut in half and screwed on boards for the ends so as to not flip them over. They are lower, and easier for the lambs to eat out of so I am using them in their part of the barn.

Above and below, the girls are approving of the finished feeders.

Above is my home made chute system. This used to be the manger of the dairy barn where we fed the cows and walked with he wheelbarrow. It works nicely for the smaller sheep and I can get an entire system within an area that wasn't utilized before. The middle aisle is for myself. Its not the largest area but this allows me access to both sides of the chute and the digital scale is to the right where the plywood 'gates' slide up and down to allow a new sheep to enter or exit. I've not had any jump over it yet and its low enough I can access the sheep ear tags and check eyelids and worm if necessary.


And below are two samples of the new Whistlestop rams I described in my last post. The 'white' fleece is actually a light badgerface ram (black based) yearling ram that I am SO pleased I got. He is everything I'm looking for in a rams: fine fleece, conformation, horns (my preference only), rare color pattern, depth of body and capacity yet still fine boned, and some unrelated lines to work with. He's a yearling that I hope to use a LOT in the future.

The moorit fleece is of a ram lamb. I was able to go through Jim and Brandy's entire flock and take my pick of the lamb crop. There was a ram lamb with wider horns but this one was finer in my opinion. They will both be going to quite a few ewes in the next week or two.

WSWF 2012 - part one

 Let's get right to the important stuff in this post! BEST WEEKEND EVER (year two!)

Everyone had an amazing time, we had over 80 Shetlands and lots of laughter, bonding, sportsmanship and everyone helped out where there was help needed.

Supreme Champion Shetland was UnderTheSon Coburg, Reserve Supreme Champion was Sommarang Elise and judge was Letty Klein.

Coburg was also Grand Champion Ram!

Elise was also Grand Champion Ewe!

ShelteringPines Classique was Reserve Champion Ewe (thanks Stephen!)

OK Acres Ringo was Reserve Champion Ram!

So much more to come (candids, corny photos) and a full write up! Stay tuned!

A new blogger, and Shetland breeders! Please add!

Joe and Rachel purchased a bred ewe from me this early spring, named WhitePine Rush. She is my only FirthofFifth Aman AI lamb, and out of one of my foundation ewes, RYL Rachildas. She is a Grade 1 ewe (if my memory serves me right) and I wanted to make sure they got something nice. She was bred to WhitePine Barnabas AI (F1 Orion, F2 Timothy) that came back at 18.9 AFD for a 2 year old.

I got an email as well as some photos of what Rush produced at their farm:

TADAH!! Doesn't Rush look proud??! And naturally he has a PINK nose (my first) so i'm betting he carries moorit! He is coming back to me this fall as I don't have a white ram to use anymore since I sold Nastro and Roman last year.They will be getting more ewes from me when they bring Robb back :)

I wanted to introduce you to Joe and Rachel and their blog: http://rocky-top-farm.blogspot.com/. They are both very fun to get to know and I think they are going to be a welcome addition to the Shetland community! Stop by their blog and say hello!

Sheep in.....winter??

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 ;)