Dying gray wool and The Black cloud

Yesterday I dyed some yarn. The three skeins hanging on the left are not dyed. The other skeins were also gray to begin with and then I dyed over the gray. I think it makes a wonderful color to have that gray in the background. I also dyed some uncarded wool in an assortment of colors and then I'll drum card it to blend it and spin it that way. Then I did some rainbow dye on a few skeins of white yarn too but I didn't upload a photo of that yet.

The black cloud of depression has once again been hanging over my head these past few weeks (hence the lack of blog posts). I haven't felt like blogging, it has been all that I could do just to get through each day. I think I'm finally starting to come back out of it again. My deepest thanks to those who emailed and even called me on the phone to see if I was OK. You guys are great. We did get a day off from the rain yesterday and the sun came out. Today was cloudy again but this coming weekend is supposed to be nice and sunny and so I think that will really help.

I'm still alive

Yes, I'm still alive. Here are two of the batches of yarn that I finished recently (Proof of life).
Spring is finally here. The grass has started growing. Now if my shearer would show up....

Still no Shearer...

It has rained so much that our shearer still has not been able to come and shear our sheep. On the few sunny days that we have had, either the shearer was unavailable or we were. I am beginning to think that I will have to shear them myself...and that is not a happy thought. My back aches just at the thought.
The biggest share of my lambs are hitting the creep heavy and are ready to be weaned.

Now for the million dollar question.... The lamb on the far left (standing up) is one of Doublestuffed's twins. Anybody know what those markings are called? Is there even a name for them?Here is another picture if him...both sides look the same. He has that white wool under his tail too.

The Finish Line is in sight...

Tinkerbell & her first babies

Tinkerbell (named for her grandmother) is a half shetland ewe lamb out of Zorro. She had these great big twin ram lambs 2 days before her first birthday. Now I just have one more ewe to go and I'll be done with lambing!

Our shearer is thinking of maybe coming to shear this weekend, depending on the rainy weather. I'm tired of rain, the pasture needs it but I need sun. I'm hoping for a few days of sun, just long enough to soak up some Vitamin D and get my shearing done and then it can rain again. I'm shut in the house today, no work (I have a 4 day weekend), and it is too rainy to do anything outside. Yesterday I went out in the rain and put about 50 lbs of pasture mix seed out on the the west pasture. It was windy along with the rain so it was not hard to 'sprinkle' it around on the bare/thin patches.
For the record, the above and below photos were taken a few days ago, prior to this latest rainy epidsode. I think spring is finally here (crossing my fingers). We have our camper ready to go camping as soon as it is time. This is the first year we have had a camper so we are really excited. I'm not much for tents. Tax season is finally over and Uncle Sam has another big chunk of our hard-earned cash. Godluvhim.

I'm still alive

Believe it or not, I am still alive here in the WINDY WINDY midwest. Last weekend we had several inches of snow, then we had a few days of 60 degrees (so we had muddddd), then a few nights ago it dropped to 13 degrees and today it is 72 degrees. Spring is surely here now, right?

I've been enjoying my part time status at work, although I need to learn to say NO and stop picking up extra shifts since I'm almost working full time. Flu season is pretty much over and we are now the lull between winter illness and summer injuries. It seems like we are doing a lot of stitches and broken bones already but that will still pick up more as the nicer weather progresses. The car accidents should slow down now that the icy roads are done (i hope).

Here are some photos of Ginger's twin ewe lambs. They are such dainty little dollies. I haven't named them yet but we've been calling them the Spice Girlz. I may name one of them Nutmeg, I just need need another spice name for the other one.

I have spent all my free time spinning lately. Any day now I'll have time to post some yarn pictures. Lots and lots of yarn spun up. The shearer is supposed to be coming any weekend now, I never know until the last minute. I am anxious to get shearing over with. Just two ewes left to lamb (both first timers) and they are taking their sweet time about it. It will be a sneak attack.

Update

Below is Sheperdshill Sweet Dixie. Isn't she a doll?

Wow, for someone will nothing but a part time job, I sure have been busy. My house is finally clean and, until the rain started, I was getting to spend lots of quality time with my lambs. Today it is raining cats and dogs and by morning it is supposed to giving us 6 inches of snow. This better be the last snow of the year (I'm crossing my fingers). Surely it will end soon?

This is Double Stuffed and her twin ram lambs. One looks like he'll be black...he has white stripes on his side and underneath, on his head, his tail. His name is Oliver. The other one will be moorit or musket, not sure yet. The roots of his wool has silver fibers in it. His name is Oscar. He is a bottle lamb (I'll explain that in tomorrow's blog post)

I noticed that we have some erosion showing up on our hillsides. I need those areas for grazing! Anybody know of a good book on pasture maintenance/renovation? The pastures were overgrown when we bought the place and in just 3 years we've managed to eat it down way to far in the west pasture and now, with all the hills there, i'm seeing erosion. This year we plan to renovate that pasture and just primarily graze the west pastures. Should we burn the east side? As the ground has eroded, we are finding things coming up out of the ground (old rolls of wire, tractor parts, etc). Medicine man says we need to dig all that up, plow and plant, and the put some railroad ties along the steep hills to slow the erosion. Anywone with better ideas?

This is Ginger and her little pair of new ewe lambs! We have hit the jackpot for twin ewe lambs this year and even had a set of triple ewe lambs.

I've been doing a LOT of spinning this past few weeks. I have pounds and pounds of fresh yarn to photograph and put up on a blog post. I really need to get my yarn shop online set up completely [I've been saying that for 2 years now].



This is a pic of my newest spinning wheel, it is a Majacraft. It folds down flat and has a backpack that you can store it in. Does not spin as nicely as my Roberta, but very acceptable. It also functions differently from other wheels so I was interested in that concept and had to try it for myself.

Lambs nap on a sunny day... and more new babies

I crawled around on the ground out in the pasture to sneak pictures of the lambs napping in the sunlight. What fun. To watch a lamb peacefully snoozing on such a nice sunny day...the breeze in your face...the sun on your back... little balls of sheep shit stuck to your pants and stomach...how fabulous.

They looked so happy and sweet snoozing in the sunlight.
I had originally intended to take photos of lamb races but by the time I got out there, the races were over and it was siesta time. Still cute.
We had three more sets of twin ewe lambs yesterday! So far, we've got 3 HST lambs.
It may be early to judge for sure, but I have a sad feeling that Henry (above) is polled. I don't like the polled rams. I like the horns on my rams. I have a scattering of ewes with polled genes in their pedigrees and it seems to pop up at the strangest times. Either way, he really is a gem. I won't keep him for breeding here if he is polled but surely someone may want him.
Some of this years lambs are really exquisite [but I may be biased].
Can't you just see the naked joy and serenity on their little faces?
Here is the newest HST ewe lamb, born yesterday, she only has 3 white socks though. She still has that 'new lamb' smell...
Her momma is a first timer and had twin ewe lambs. Bonus.
This is definitely the year of the ewe. We have about 3 ewe lambs for every ram lamb. We have 28 lambs on the ground and just 4 girls left to lamb. Almost to the finish line....

And now...for your viewing pleasure...Shepherdchik proudly presents her latest film feature "Lamb Taking a nap, and the Llama who loves him"

Updates...and WHAT TO WEAR TO AN EXECUTION

First is an updated picture of Rosita and her twins (Frosty and Mutton).

Next is Black Mary and her two girls (Cookie & Crackers) Mothering is tedious work....

Larkspur (above) looks a little weary of constantly feeding lambs. Below you can see that Pickles looks a bit weary of the constant harrassment too. She solves the dilemma by laying down.

The reason Pickle's lip is pink is because I had just refilled the mineral tub.
If all else fails, Pickles attempts to ignore them. Below you can see that Pickle's daughter, Carrots, has adopted the same policy with her little one.
Below is an updated picture of Sheperdshill Henry VIII. Isn't he cute? He knows it too.

I've got three of these little funky colored lambs so far this year. Here are two of them:

Below is an updated picture of Frosty's frostbitten ear. It is losing the hair off of the end. No infection but I doubt it will ever look like a normal ear. It kind of makes her look grouchy.




And now... what to wear to a royal execution [this is the educational segment of this blog post] Har..

This is a painted portrait of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1500's). If you know me well, you know I love the historical tidbits...especially those pertaining to famous women, knitting, and anything juicy. This tidbit contains all of those things. According to Nancy Bush's Folk Socks book (among others), knit stockings were somewhat new in the 1500's and most of these were made of wool and/or silk. Mary Queen of Scots was given a pair of knit silk stockings and she never again wore any other kind of stocking except knit ones (as opposed to the woven/sewn/other types previously worn). Mary had a fabulously scandilous and interesting (though short) life. At age 44, after being queen of essentially 4 countries and being imprisoned for 19 years by a jealous cousin (Elizabeth I), Mary was executed. When she was executed, she was wearing TWO pair of hand knit silk stockings. I am fascinated with the two pair of stockings thing. Why did she have on two pair? After her execution, all of her belongings were burned, did she wear them to prevent them being burned? Were her legs cold? Were they partly worn out and thus she needed both pair in order to cover everything? Was there some kind of emotional attachment to those two pair of socks? Did she knit them herself? Surely she had time to learn to knit while she spent 19 years in a dungeon. Also, she was wearing one pair of white hose and then, on top of those she was wearing a colored pair. The white hose were held up with green garters but the colored hose were not held up with anything. The colored hose were worsted and the white ones were 'jersey'. Why didn't she put the garters on the top pair of socks? How did the top pair stay up? Were they tight and the white ones were too loose [we've all had guage problems before, hey?] Did she make the white ones and then lose weight and so they were too big and needed garters? If the pair on top stayed up without garters, why did the underneath pair need garters, wouldn't the top pair hold them up? Where did she get the dye for the colored pair? Where did she get yarn? Did she spin? Did she make the worsted colored ones 2nd, after losing weight in prison, or did she perfect her guage and so they fit? Did she even make them at all? Did they even belong to her or did she swipe them from some other unfortunate person who decided to be executed barefoot? Did she steal them from someone and then wear them to her execuion just to piss them off? These questions puzzle me. I obviously need more important things to ponder....

If you were Queen and had just been locked up for 19 years and you were getting dressed to go to your execution....(just go with me on this one)...what would you wear? Come on you lurkers...I know you are there. Come out of hiding and let us know what you would wear!! Would you wear 2 pair of socks, and if so, why? Come on...I can't possibly be the only person who is mystified by such triviality!

Here is what I would have worn if I was her: I'd have worn my very best, most fancy pair of hand knit socks. I'd have put at least 2 other pair of socks in the top of my dress to make sure I looked like a Baywatch babe. I'd have left my corset in the cell. If I'm being executed, I'm going to be comfortable. No bloomers either. Why bother? Your dress won't fly up when they chop off your head (unless it is super windy). I'd have fixed my hair up fancy and scrubbed my face. Then I'd have walked out there with my chin held high. Don't let them see you cry. Put on your best socks, stuff your bra, leave your panties at home, and show them what you are made of.

The Genetic Lottery...Wesley is a winner

ITS BEEN RAINING LAMBS HERE
I think it is safe to say that Wesley carries spots in his genetic profile....

This is "Olive" and her little ewe lamb that she had this afternoon. I went outside to enjoy some rare sunlight on my day off and, as I wandered through the field taking pictures of my lambs, I spotted this little gem. Olive is only half shetland, her mother is Pickles [who is a southdown/rambouillet/romney cross] and her daddy is Sheepyhollow Zorro [an HST shetland]. I already knew that, even though Olive is white, she carries spotting genetics. I discovered Wesley's spotting genes a week or so ago when the first of the HST lambs showed up (see below post) but I was really suspicious about it because he is white and I wasn't aware of him ever having thrown spotted lambs before. This latest lamb confirms my suspicions that Wesley does indeed carry spots. This latest lamb, though she looks black in the photo, is actually moorit. She is 3/4 shetland and, obviously, cannot be registered. She'll be a fun addition to my flock anyway. She has great potential even without the registration papers. Who would have thought that you could breed two white sheep and get this kind of lamb? I figured I'd just get a white lamb from that mating.

Introducing.... Sheperdshill Tabitha

Introducing... Sheperdshill Henry VIII

Introducing....Sheperdshill Dolly and Sheperdshill Dixie

Introducing.... Sheperdshill Rusty
Sheperdshill Carmella also had a lamb [yesterday], a ram lamb. I banded him today. So far, only the HST ram lamb has escaped banding. This little boy will be a pretty little fiber fella, I'm thinking his fleece will be a lot like his mothers. He looks a little pissed off in the photo, hmm? Perhaps he was not pleased with the banding process. I bet it smarts a bit. This little guy is sired by North Wind James

Introducing...Sheperdshill Molasses & Sheperdshill Miss Maple

I still have several lambs that I haven't gotten good photos of yet. Diva is a solid white ewe lamb by Wesley that I really love but she does not stand still...ever. Soon, very soon. This morning we banded more ram lambs and changed some coats and I did get some updated pics of the older lambs to post. I'll post those hopefully tomorrow. Now that I am only working a part time job [as opposed to a full time and a part time], I have more time to blog. So far though, in the 3 days since I finished my full time job, I've mostly just slept and done chores.

We have our First HST lamb...and that ain't all.

It has been a big weekend so far. Yesterday we had a ewe lamb from Barakul Farms Cora (early in the day), then by evening we had a set of twin ewe lambs from Barkul Farms Dora. Two days earlier, Barakul Farms April Love had a little moorit ramling. This morning I found Ethel with a set of twins, a ewe and a ram. All of these girls were in Wesley's breeding group, oops, no - Ethel was in Alf's group. All of the other girls are registered shetlands and they were in Wesley's group.


Here is the big news though... this afternoon the medicine man and I found Sheperdshill Superstar with a little HST ram lamb. He has 4 white socks and the white tail too. He looks perfect. The joy was slightly dampened when I discovered that she had given birth to twins and the other ramling did not survive. The other ramling was a solid black, was completely cleaned off and even dry (the surviving lamb was not dry yet so he must have been the last to be born). The dead lamb was still warm, I almost thought he might be able to be saved, but no. There does not appear to be anything wrong with him, no idea what happened. It was 36 degrees outside at the time. Heartbreaking. However, I'm very pleased that the HST survived (see mass quantities of pictures below). Here is my question - - - I have it recorded that Superstar was in Wesley's breeding group! That surely isn't possible, is it? Where are you Nancy and Kim? Wesley couldn't have thrown this lamb, could he? It just seems more believable that one of Zorro's sons somehow got to Star...except they were locked up by then! REALLY locked up. They never escaped. There were a couple of lambs born late january to early february that I blamed on zorro's sons but by the date of this breeding, those boys were no running loose. Superstar is doubled back to Sheepyhollow Alf (Zorro's brother), so is it possible that this lamb got all of the HST genes from Star? I need to brush up on the genetics of this, but I did not think a solid ram with no spotting genetics could throw this type of lamb. Do I need to do paternity testing on him? I haven't even sent in papers on zorro's boys yet because they are all solid colored (but obviously the genetics for spots are in there). I didn't think Bramble Wesley had any spots in his pedigree. Let me know what I should do about this, will you Nancy/Kim/whover. Anyhow, without further a-do, here are the pics...

Yes...I know he is still dirty. She picked a dirty spot to have him in. He'll look clean and shiny by tomorrow I'm sure. She how felted her fleece looks? I had a coat on her after shearing last year and then later discovered that she is one of the ones who cannot be coated. I removed the coat a long time ago but this fleece will still be less than perfect (plus she is a piggy like her mother...doublestuffed...so she is covered in hay).


Isn't he nearly the most darling little thing you ever saw? He is just a tad over 2 lbs I think. He is less than half the size of my pomeranian. If I am able to get paternity tests sent in quickly enough, I will not band this boy. If I can't determine paternity, I might have to band him. The medicine man really wants to leave this one as a ram though.
Below is Cor's baby girl...she is a day or two old already. Another cookies and cream style fleece. The medicine man named this lamb "CC" which is short for Cookies and Cream.
Next is Ethel and her giant twins. I won't be keeping either of these two. Ethel is also going to a new home this year in order to make room for the purebred shetland ewe lambs to stay. I think I can feed about 4 shetlands with the amount of feed that hungry Ethel consumes. She does have a nice fleece...but it isn't nearly as soft as I'd like and, since I'm mostly about the wool, Ethel will be moving. Don't cry, she'll be fine.

I just realized that I didn't even load up a pic of April's little moorit boy or Dora's twin ewe lambs. I'll get some tomorrow. Dora had a black krunet and a black smirslet.