SA Farm's journal

[SA Farm]

It’s been a while, so quick update:
All is well. Plants are growing, as are lambs. Just did some shifting around of sheep, so all the girls are together and the two boys are together. Other than Doll being marked, there’s currently no other signs she’s bred to lamb in September, so it’s at the wait and see stage. Now that she’s with the girls I’ll be able to keep a closer eye on her.

Dobby is looking absolutely fabulous. She’s very good with being handled and jumps up on the stand for some attention and handling a few days a week.

Foxy is still giving about a litre a day and DH finally picked up some pallets for me, so I need to start working on that as soon as the pulled muscle in my back stops bothering me
I’ve started a new wool project making needle felted object. This is my first one ever and I’m quite proud of it :

Chickens are doing great. Majority of my extras have been picked up, though I’m still deciding who is going where and with whom. No real rush until fall on that, though.
My boys who I’m keeping for sure (golden Sebright and white Ameraucana):


Happy Father’s Day

 

[Ridgetop]

Apparently none of the feed for sheep OR goats around here has copper in it…odd!

Try cattle feed. We bought dairy ration in bulk and fed it to the dairy goat herd. They did great on it and it should have copper in it. If the sheep and goat feed is for both breeds the manufacturer may not add copper so it can be marketed to owners of both species. The belief that sheep can't tolerate copper is not entirely true. Sheep do need copper, just not as much as goats and cattle. Hair sheep are much more tolerant of copper. If you can't find feed with limited copper for your sheep, consider copper boluses. There are some made for sheep, you just have to make sure you get the dosage right.

 

[Baymule]

I love your very first needle felted project! Cute! You are right to be proud of yourself! Your sheep are looking good, nice and healthy.

 

[farmerjan]

Agree, sheep look good and that little felted project is cute... I am sure not that talented...

 

[SA Farm]

Wow it’s been awhile since I’ve been on here. Partly because it wasn’t working for me a few times when I tried to stop in and partly because very little has been new or exciting lol
Weather is finally getting cooler, so working on all the projects that need done before winter that I’ve been putting off since spring. Cleaning up, building and repairing mostly.
Breeding season for the sheepies starts next month, so today I started getting them ready. Doll didn’t take when she was with Dingo in the spring, so all four girls will be bred this fall, I think, though I’m still a bit iffy on Foxy. I’ll get her on the stand soon and determine what I’m going to do with her then. She looks a little skinny next to the chunks that are Coy and Dobby, but that just seems to be her body type since she’s never really been a rotund ewe, more goat-shaped.


Can you believe the size of Dobby? She’s looking as fabulous as ever
She definitely takes after her daddy. Him with Foxy’s boy:

Doll has been growing her fleece like crazy—way more than she needs over the winter, so I decided to give her a fall shearing (leaving about an inch). I started today and would’ve finished, but a couple of blisters made me stop.

The Lion mane lol
Here’s a slightly better pic:


Ow. I was supposed to be shearing the sheep, not skinning my hand
At least I got her mostly done. Coy will get a crutching due to her tail muscle problem, but no other shearing to do until next year. Just hoof trimming, exams and whatnot, thankfully.

Chickens are good. Ended up with a group of 5 standards and a group of 8 bantams to winter for breeding next year. Just wish I was getting eggs from the free-loading fowl. DH’s hen went broody again (no eggs for her this time) and a few others are moulting, so no eggs from them, and the younger ones haven’t started yet. Slackers.


Next time I’m in reading mode, I’ll try to catch up on some journals. Hope everybody’s doing well!

 

[Baymule]

Wear some tight fitting leather gloves! Blisters hurt! Sheep look good, as always. Got any plans for the wool?

 

[SA Farm]

Wear some tight fitting leather gloves! Blisters hurt! Sheep look good, as always. Got any plans for the wool?

I have gloves, but I never think to put them on until it’s too late. I learned the hard way to wear them when hoof trimming, so hopefully this was enough of a lesson for it to sink in and I’ll wear them from now on. We’ll see how it goes
I might sell the wool. I joined a spinning guild and they’re having a sale in a few months, so I’ll go through my stash and decide what’s going to stay or go then. If I keep it, I’ll wash, pick, card, and spin it myself. Who knows what after that? Will I crochet something? Will I sell or give away the yarn? Tune in to the exciting? adventure that may not even conclude for another year when I’ll have 5 more fleeces to decide what to do with

Also, Katana was looking elegant earlier:

 

[Baymule]

There was a spinners guild near my home in Lindale. Although intriguing, I stayed far away! If I got started, I’d have to buy a wool sheep, then learn to shear, wash, comb, card etc the fleece. Then I’d have to learn to spin, buy a spinning wheel and learn to knit and crochet. Then I could proudly gift my family members with something ugly that they would hide from sight and never let anyone see it. So I took the shortcut and got hair sheep.

 

[SA Farm]

Preparations for winter are well underway. DH is helping me build a pallet hay barn and we’ve got our first delivery of hay to go in it. Hoping to get some more done tomorrow on it and have it finished by this time next week.
Then one more hay and straw load delivered at the end of the month and we’ll be all set for the winter.
Checkups and hoof trimming has begun. Just Coy left to do and she and Doll will be with Dingo at the end of next week. He’ll get done when I put his harness on.
Doll looks much better now.



They’re all checking out Katana here lol.
Foxy and Dobby will go with Dingo once Coy and Doll have been marked. I’m thinking of staggering them by 2 weeks or so to give me a break in between. Depending on when they get marked, of course.
Dingo wants to mark them NOW!

 

[SA Farm]

Dingo got his wish Marked three girls in three days! The fourth is keeping ram ram company until his fated day later this week. Of course, nothing I planned happened in the timeline it was supposed to, but it’s all still doable, so all good.

Coy first (Sunday), then Foxy (yesterday), then Dobby just got marked today. Doll hopefully didn’t/doesn’t get bred to ram ram and will get one of the other girls for company for a week before they rejoin the flock so they’ll all be together for the first time since last fall

(How are they the same size?! She’s 1 1/2, he’s 7months)
He’s not related to her, so not the end of the world if he does breed her. I’ll keep the dates she was with him in my phone and wait and see if Dingo marks her later on.

DS and Katana helping with the hay barn. Almost done, thankfully!


I also got crafty last week and made myself a niddy noddy (used to measure length of yarn) and a set of combs (to clean and align fibres).


Should’ve made the combs years ago! These things make processing at least 4x faster! It’s actually crazy to think how much time it would’ve saved me if I’d made them sooner

Oh, and my latest dye experiment:

I actually love it! The darker roving was done first, then I put the rest into the pot to absorb the remaining dye and they all turned out really cool/pretty (imo).
The roving is from the wool I sent to be milled, so I have a lot of it to play with