Having second thoughts about the Burdizzo

In my last post I mentioned having the shearer wether a couple of my crossbred lambs with a burdizzo.
Oh my, I had no idea how awful that burdizzo looks.  I might have him band them today.  Or maybe just leave them intact.  They are so sweet and their fleece is so crimpy and fine, I'd love to keep them for their fiber and wethering them means they could live longer, more peaceful lives. I'll see what the shearer advises.

Can it be??

I can't believe that a whole month has gone by since my last post. So sorry!

Things have been very busy, I was going round and round with financial questions this summer.  Wasting away my days with indecision. Being a Pisces, it's really hard making decisions. I didn't want to fritter away the life insurance $ on my mortgage payments and bills. Finally I went to see a financial adviser and came away with a concrete plan.

I wasn't real happy about his advice to sell my beloved 40 acres, but I had to agree that it is a necessary step if I want to refinance or pay off my home. In his final days, Stan told me to sell the land too, but I really wanted to keep it.  That was the place where I could go and soak up the big blue skies and see eagles and hawks soaring overhead and let Ozzie run to his heart's content.  It was the place where Stan and I had dreamed of the future together.  It was a beautiful parcel of land, peaceful and quiet -- most of the time.  When the neighbor with 5 kids built a house on the adjacent 20 acres last year, that feeling of solitude was a bit diminished.

This year I was finally going to get a second crop of hay. And nice hay too -- orchard grass, alfalfa and clover.  The sheep will love it!

I listed the land with my hairdresser who is also a real estate agent on Aug. 16. She told me not to expect to get much because land was just not selling these days. I priced it less than I would have asked 4 years ago, but I sure wasn't going to go less than the tax appraised value. Within 4 days of listing, I had two neighbors who wanted to split it and the price was just under my asking price. Okay, I could be creative and split it and do a contract for deed on one of them. But a few days later another offer came through for the entire 40 acres. After much soul searching and feeling guilty about my neighbors, I decided I had to take that offer.  I thought it was all decided until one of the neighbors came up with a plan to get me cash for the whole 40 acres.  That was even better since there would be no appraisal hoops to go through. I signed the agreement on Aug. 31, just two weeks after listing it. I never thought it would go that fast.

The closing was to be in just 11 days, which brings us to today.  Getting all the stuff out of the pole building has been a hassle.  My boys helped out a couple of weekend days, and then my '94 Chevy truck broke down. I got it fixed yesterday, thank heavens! Ozzie and I still have to finish cleaning up the pole barn and haul some loose hay home. The second crop remains uncut in the field. I'll be so glad when I get that hay here in my barn and life slows down again!

On top of the real estate issues, the garden has been quite productive.  I've gotten so many green beans from that 10 cent packet of last year's seeds I bought at the flea market in May.  (I love green beans served with garlic and butter.) Thankfully the ducks and sheep love green beans too, so none of them go to waste. I bought some corn to freeze and now I'm canning tomato juice, spaghetti sauce and salsa.  I don't even want to talk about all the zucchini that seems to grow 2 feet long overnight. The sheep and ducks like that too.

Planting the garden in the old poultry pen was a great idea.  The soil is so fertile. Plus I didn't need to till it up or even weed it much at all.  Next year I will plant in the pen they're using this summer and they will have this year's garden space.

The workload from my job has been heavier than usual in August and September.  This is good for the pay check but bad for peace of mind, although I do love the views while I'm traveling on the job...this is such a beautiful time of year. 

The shearer is coming on Saturday.  He's only going to shear 6 of my longer fleeced sheep and I'm going to have him use a burdizzo to wether two of my crossbred  ram lambs. They have such beautiful fleece.
Fall sheared fleeces will be cleaner than spring fleeces, and I want some shorter stapled fleeces to make into raw-felted fleece blankets.  I can't wait to make some felt again!

Woolen Mill Anyone?

Heads up everyone, there is a complete Wool Milling set up offered at auction this Saturday, August 4th, west of Cambridge, MN.
Details are here:
http://www.strombergauctioneering.com/index.php?subp=1&sct=1566&pg=ap&pid=28318&ap_sub=fp

I went to check it out with my friend Deb the other day. It's HUGE and heavy.  Requires a 32' x 48' building.

There's the carder, circa 1918...

And the picker...along with a convertor and two big bins.  One for feeding the fiber into the picker and one for feeding the picked fiber into the carder.  Shown with a batt roller, but it comes with a roving attachment too.

Shetland Sheep for sale!

Heddy and her horned ram lamb

I've finally got my 2012 sales list posted on the Stock for Sale page -- complete with up-to-date photos!  I spent yesterday taking photos of the sheep, before separating the ewes from the lambs.
Needless to say, last night was a noisy one around here. :-)

Rita and her twin gulmoget crossbred lambs

In order to reduce work and stress levels around here, I've decided that I should just retain a fiber flock in the future. So almost all my Shetlands are listed on the sales page. I'd like to keep Camille and Hattie, but even they could go to the right home.

I plan to keep all four of the Bluefaced Leicesters and the crossbred gulmoget ewe lamb. I'm very tempted to wether all the crossbred ram lambs and keep them for their fabulous fiber. But if someone wants to use them for breeding, I'd hate to eliminate that possibility.

Please check the sales page and feel free to contact me with any questions.

Camille, Godiva and Mia heading out of the barn with Goldie in the back

The nine orphan chicks are down to six, but they are really growing up fast.  The boys are starting to crow already.

In other news, I got three new bobbins specially made for the antique spinning wheel I purchased in early June.  Special thanks to Russ Johnson for getting them done so quickly.  I've been spinning up some yarn and that wheel spins like a dream!

Nunofelt Top

I got a chance to make a little nunofelt top the other day.

I want to make a dress, but thought it would be best to start off with something smaller (and sleeveless).  You can see the resist I used behind the top -- and Tippee on the right.
I used 5mm habotai silk and my BFL/tencel batting.  I had my BFL fiber blended with tencel and made into 45" x 72" batts weighing 2 lbs each. I split the layers of batting down until they can be split no farther.  The less wool the silkier the fabric will be. (Next time I'm going to try two layers of silk with the wool sandwiched in between.)
To make this, I took a sleeveless top that fit well.  I folded it in half lengthwise and drew around it in pencil on newsprint. I cut that out and then I used the shrinkage rate of my fiber to enlarge the pattern in all directions on foam underlayment.  The shrinkare rate was 50% in this case, you need to make a sample first because different fibers and fabrics will shrink down differently.

I had planned to dip-dye the top, but now I'm thinking of trying some eco dyeing like Terrie did on her lovely felted purse in this blog post.

I've decided to sell all but two of my Shetlands, so I need to get the lambs wormed and vaccinated, take photos, etc. Not to mention I need to spray the thistles in the pasture, clean out the chicken barn, and as the photo above clearly shows, I need to get that 1980s wallpaper out of my kitchen! The weather is tolerable today, but when you get the felting bug, it's hard to quit thinking about it.

Here is a mystery fleece that I raw felted last week. It's coarse and it is going to be a rug.  It's a beautiful color, I would call it mioget if the sheep was a Shetland. The gal who gave it me thought it was from a Jacob sheep, but I'm wondering if it was an Icelandic.

My youngest son, Matt, did a fabulous job on the Kanabec Art Association's 50th anniversary video.  As part of a grant project, I was privileged to interview 17 members of the association while Matt filmed.  We worked together with editing it all down to a 50 minute video, but Matt did all the technical stuff.  The video was a big hit at the retrospective art show on July 13 & 14.  He's put the finishing touches on it now by adding music supplied by my friend Denise and chapter links, etc.   I'm so proud of him, and glad to see that college tuition was actually a good investment!

Raw Felted Fleeces

River Oaks Mystery's lamb fleece is long and silky and VERY soft.  44" x 40"

The heat wave finally let up and I was able to get outside and do a raw felted fleece last night.  This fleece is from River Oaks Mystery, she's out of River Oaks Camille and Sommarang Hansel. I wasn't sure if she was Ag Gulmoget or not.  I sold her to an old friend last summer with the agreement that I would get her fleece. Well, here it is and she definitely wasn't Ag. I would love to have her back in my flock!

This is River Oaks Mia's lamb fleece felted into a lap blanket. It is very soft and shorter than Mystery's. 38" x 36"

Mia before shearing.  Next year COATS are a must!

My Shetland Mule wether Socks before shearing.

Socks' fleece felted into a couch throw. He's got a lot of fleece, this one measures 60" x 29"

 I know many people make these for use as rugs and they felt them down very hard so only a few locks remain. But I keep mine soft to be used as couch throws/lap blankets. I spend all year drooling over the beautiful fleeces in my flock and this way I can enjoy them in the house too.
I've got three more HUGE Border Leicester/Cormo cross fleeces to make into blankets and one coarser fleece to make into a rug. Now is the time to get them done. They are too messy to do indoors.

Quick Catch Up Post

 Sorry I haven't kept up with the blog.  It seems there's always so much to do around here.

Leta and her ram lamb born on June 7th.  Another yearling BFL who is an excellent mom!

Sheep News_ 
Lambing Done- 12 lambs born, 7 ewe lambs, 5 ram lambs.  Two Shetland rams are for sale, see the sales page for photos of them in their younger days.  They are both friendly, with fine, crimpy moorit fleece.  One polled gulmoget.  The other is horned, very solid, good horns.  I want them to go to good homes, will entertain offers.  Also have three crossbred ram lambs if anyone is interested in using one for breeding or fiber.  All the ram lambs are very sweet-natured and friendly like their sire was.

I'm still trying to decide about the ewe lambs, which include a beautiful solid black gulmoget, two emsket gulmogets, an AG grey gulmoget with exceptionally soft fleece, a beautiful musket, and an English Blue/gulmoget crossbred (BFL/Shetland).
I'm so glad lambing is over.  I'm reconsidering if I should breed any ewes next year.  I am not in the market for a ram, but I may consider leasing one or using the UK BFL semen I invested in a couple years ago.  My yearling BFL ewes were excellent moms.  I'm so impressed with them!

Weather News-  very hot and humid here. Supposed to be in the 90's for the next 4 days. Sheep are not happy in hot weather.
Had a big willow tree come down on the corner of my house in a storm last week (while I was at the vet's office with the Ag grey gulmoget ewe lamb).  Lots of work cleaning up. No insurance reimbursement. The insurance guy says my other willow must be cut down too, because it's leaning over with sod ripped up.  If it falls on the pole barn they won't cover the damages.  Dang, those insurance companies!

Poultry News-  A fox got two of my Buff Chantecler hens and something else killed three of the orphaned chicks -- all within just 8 days.  I have six adult chickens and six chicks left.  The last remaining Buff Chantecler hen just went broody again.

I got six nice young ducks at the weekly auction in early June.  Two Saxony ducks, one Blue Swedish duck, and the other three are drakes. I just love ducks!  Hopefully they will get to spend their days down on the pond later this summer.  I'm just too worried about that fox to let them out now.

Memorial Day- 
I decided it was time to spread Stan's ashes and plant the Blue Spruce I received at his funeral.

The boys and I sprinkled ashes over the white pines Stan planted on the east border of our pasture a couple years ago, and some over on our 40 acres in Ogilvie.
The Blue Spruce went to the "ranch", where Stan spent so much time with his best friend Dick.  Dick and his wife Kate had prepared a special spot for it. Now whenever we drive by we will be able to see that tree.

Stan's best friend Dick on the right and his wife Kate on the left with my boys.

We sprinkled Stan's ashes under his favorite deer stand and Dick brought some up in the stand too.  It was my first time seeing Stan's deer stand at the ranch. I was never interested in deer hunting myself. But once there, I could see why Stan loved it so much.  Dick and Kate were/are very special friends.