I am such a slacker....

Seriously! I am!  I can't believe I haven't updated my blog since October!  It's just so easy and convienant to update the Facebook page, and it's a lot easier on gigabytes that cost a fortune for my computer!  lol. 

This winter has seemed UNREASONABLY cold...  but really, I think it's just we've been quite spoiled the last 10 years or so.  I can remember it being quite cold, much like this, when I was younger.  We've had one day above freezing all winter, few days above zero.  We've had even fewer nights above zero, and most of those below zero nights have had anywhere from -15 to -60 windchills!  Very cold for the critters, very hard on the critters.  I lost one older ewe, Shetlering Pines Olga.  Very sad, she was such a sweet old mooch.  I've lost several chickens as well.  It's been rough. 

But, I am now beginning to turn my sights towards spring.  Adam and I have talked things over, and we're cutting back again so we have more money to put towards our bills so we can pay them off faster.  We thought about selling out even, and it still may yet come to that, but I hope not.  We are cutting back to less than 15 Shetlands (not including what my mother keeps), probably more like 6-10.  We are keeping the Romeldales, the 3/4 BFLs, Babydoll, Charm and a couple of the 1/2 Romeldales (for now).  It's going to be hard, but we'll make it work.  I do need to find a new Shetland ram though! 

As of right now, I will still be raising Coronation Sussex, Silver Sussex and White Cubalaya, and will hopefully be adding Ohiki this year or next as well. 

This year will be a year for change.  I'm trying to be more confident in myself and my decisions.  I'm hoping to lose some of the weight I've put on over the last few years.  I'm REALLY hoping to get my craft room set up in the spare bedroom so I have somewhere to put my YARN!  I feel so bad with it sitting outside in storage totes, all alone....lol. 

Anyway, I will try to get better about posting.  Even if it's just mindless babel like this kind of was.  I know a lot of you prefer to hear about things on here rather than my facebook page. 

Now...off to dream of lambs...and try to figure out a theme for this year!

Did you know....?

That the worlds largest pumpkin record comes from Stillwater, MN?  The pumpkin weighed  1810 lbs and 8 ounces!  I think that would take the sheep MAYBE a week to devour.  Do your sheep like pumpkins?  What about your other animals?  Pumpkins are high in minerals and vitamins, so think about giving some autumn treats to your critters!  

New computer

Well, my computer finally died, and this new one is a PAIN!  It has Windows 8 and it's just crap, I hate it.  So needless to say, no pictures on this post.  I'm going to try to start posting once a month at the very minimum, so don't give up on me!  lol. 

Why is it always the boys???

Why is it always the boys that are so FREAKING tame?  I can't go out in the pen without getting mobbed by Rak'nor and Anteaus for attention.  I never coddled them, they were dam raised, the only thing I can think of is they learned it through us bottling the bottle lambs and seeing how they got attention.  But NONE of the girls are obnoxious, even the one bottle baby isn't!  She takes her bottle and then runs away lol.  *sigh*  I really hope Rak'nor and Anteaus get good homes.  Anteaus is JUST now starting to get very minor horn growth, so he would be awesome for a polled program, very tiny crimp and he's spotted to boot!  And Rak'nor isn't what I'm looking for in a ram, but he could be what someone else is, his fleece is going to be longer, with wide, but nice, crimp with high luster and its very soft so far.  Plus he's a light badger face.  I'm keeping his half brother Teal'c and hoping for a shorter single coated fleece.  Hoping to work on some lamb fleece shots maybe Monday, because tomorrow is supposed to be record highs again!  UGH!  Please, if you have rain, send it our way....we are soooo dry! 

Up and coming boys!

 Above is Mr. Aris Bock, bounty hunter...hehehe.  He's a lovely boy, wasn't real receptive about being held, well, none of the boys were!  He's a lovely boy, black based katmoget, 3 white socks and a white dobber on his head.  Lovely boy! 

 This is Bra'tak!  He is a moorit light badger face.  Lovely fleece coming in!  LOVE his tail :)

This is Omoc...he is a grey CVM.  He does have tiny scurs, his other brother had thumb sized scurs when he left for his home last year. 

The Shetland boys are both ready to go, Omoc needs at least another month.  :)  Please email or post on the facebook page if you're interested! :)

Evaluating, For Sale page, etc

Well I just updated the For Sale page of my blog...I'm really hoping to get a website up one of these days :)  Please feel free to browse :) 

Okay, evaluating....It's tough!  I'd love opinions on these lambs I'm thinking about keeping... The good, the bad AND the ugly :)  This is just a sampling, hoping to take more photos soon :) 

 Okay, I know these aren't lambs...lol.  But these are two of my yearlings, Annatto & Chicory.  Annattos fleece is longer, and so I'm debating on selling her.  Chicory will be staying, she microned very nice and threw an adorable lamb :) 

 This is Brenna.  She's one of the ewe lambs I'm debating on.  Thoughts?

 This is Kynthia.  I absolutely think she's adorable!  I plan on keeping her... Any comments? 

 This little mite is Reese.  This is Raja, one of my best ewes, daughter.  Raja is in the top picture with her.  Spotted Katmoget X Spotted Katmoget, and what do I get?  Solid moorit...although if you look at her rump, she may be going fawn?  Opinions?  I just love everything about this little ewe lamb....

 This is Teal'c.  I'm hoping to keep this little boy.  He's been slow growing, but I think he'll catch up soon enough, his daddy is a beast! 

This is Drey'auc & her momma Zaria.  She's a little different style, but I think she has her merrits.  What do you think? 

Okay, I give up for the night.  I'm having trouble making it work!! lol.  Stupid blog.  Still lots of updating to do!  :) 

Updating...

WOW are we out of date here on the blog!  I'm updating the For Sale page first, and then I will continue with all the other pages :) 

Oh my goodness, it's been so long!  How I've missed you all!!!!! 

I've finally jumped from dialup where I couldn't even ACCESS this site, to MiFi through Verizon, which is the best thing I've ever done!  Wish I would have done it sooner!!!  It's amazing! 

Okay!  Some quick updates!

Lambing season is officially OVER as of yesterday.  Delta ended it with a beautiful CVM ram lamb! 

Here he is!  Isn't he gorgeous?!  This years theme was Stargate SG:1 for names, so I have to pick him out a name from the list.  I'm thinking Omoc!  What do you think?!

Flock average for microns this year was 26.4!  I'm SOOOO PROUD of my flock!  Average SD was 6.0 and CV was 22.9!  So happy with my results!  I will post individual results later!

I will be posting more regularly again now!  I hope I didn't loose all my readers in the interim....

Have a wonderful day everyone!!

Wow, it's been nearly 3 months!

Hoping to remedy the dial up situation by year-end...It's killing me!  Every time I start a blog, by the time I finish it it's totally outdated lol.  I miss you all!  :)  If I ramble a bit, I appologize, but I worked last night even though it was my night off, covered for a friend.  So I am a little sleep deprived :D

So, what's new?  Lets see here...For non-farm life....Adam and I both turned a year older...yipee...lol.  The 20ths of June & August :)  My beautiful god daughter turned a year old in July, and my awesome niece turns to a teen in a couple days.  Gonna be pulling my hair out between those two within the next couple years...the older because of boys, the younger because of toddlering...lol.  It's been nearly a year that we've been married now, and we've had our ups and downs, but we're nearly over the first hurdle!  :)  I've got something awesome planned...but shhh don't tell him!  We're still working on selling the house, going to finish moving everything to our storage locker this week.

And the biggest thing I'm sure a few people will notice in a few days:  We're not attending the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI this year.  Between needing to clean the house, clean up my mom's place, and various other things and expenses that have come up, we're just not able to go this year.  But that's okay, because next year we'll be back in the show ring! 

We're changing the flock around a bit, downsizing the Shetlands, keeping back more meat crosses & purchasing a few more Romeldales.  Ideally I'd like my Romeldale flock around 10 animals, hopefully a representation of every color available eventually, though I think it'll be a while before I'm able to get my hands on a Swiss marked.  I love my Shetlands, but there's not much of a market for registered stock up here, and while I'm trying to improve my flock every year, it isn't going as fast as I'd like, though there are a few REALLY nice lambs out there right now, I'll try to get photos up soon.  Bedegraynes daughter and granddaughter espically.  I do have a young ram I kept back from last year I may use this fall, who's pretty darn nice.  The toughest part is cutting some of the ewes that have made the difference, to let them be replaced by either their own progeny or someone elses.  Some I can't cut, and will be kept on as crossers, like Bejig, and some who I'll probably cross this year, but next year if I get a better ram, will breed pure, like Rhiannon. 

We're hoping to get a website up in the next year or so, so be on the lookout for that!  I'd love to have all of my animals profiled on there, along with their stats for microning, lambing, etc.  We're also hoping to start testing for Johnes, CAE, etc., as soon as money permits. 

And while most animals choose to produce in the spring, it seems the fowl on this farm think that summer into fall is better.  We have chicks popping out all over the place.  I'm sure this year it at least has SOMETHING to do with the flood....OH THE FLOOD!  Okay, I'll come back to that...So I have three abandoned chicks in the house.  Twinkletoes was the first.  I found Twinkie all by herself (hopefully) in the barn.  Her momma was a first time momma, and didn't understand that you have to wait for newbie chicks to catch up.  So she was cold, and I took her and warmed her up.  But then, oops!  She thought I was her mommy.  She still runs into my hand every time I open the cage, too cute :)  Next were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum...Unfortunately Tweedle Dum didn't make it, and Deedee is really touch and go right now, they got very chilled through at least one night before we found them abandoned.  And now Wookie has joined us.  Wookie is the fuzziest non-silkie chick I've ever had!  Total puffball.  Wookie was hatched under a guinea where a hen accidently laid her egg, and so we grabbed her quick before the guinea left the rest of her guinea eggs to go off with one little mutt chicken and ruin all those eggs.  They're precious :)

Okay the flood.  That was Mother Natures birthday present to me...lol.  But I also believe everything happens for a reason, and let me tell you, while the rest of this nation was having severe droughts, we were still okay because of all that rain.  Our rain gauge overflowed within the first 12 hours...and by the end of 24 we were under 10 inches of water.  Luckily our poor sump pump was working over time and only kicked itself out once, so we only suffered 3 inches of water in the basement.  While we're in the Nemadji Flood Plain or whatever it's called, we're much higher than Barnum or Moose Lake are, and they got hit HARD.  They had to recover people from the assisted living home there by front end loader out of windows.  Lous weren't sure they'd ever open again, but with LOTS of donations, I was able to have breakfast there this morning :)  They opened just in time for the fair.  There are still a lot of people working to fix up their homes after the disaster.  And FEMA is denying assistance...I'm sorry, but let me step up on my soap box for a second.  People build homes where hurricanes, or at least tropical storms, happen YEARLY, if not more than once a year, and they get assistance?  But when Duluth, MN and the surrounding area FLOODS, they deny it?  People were KAYAKING by the mall in Hermantown.  ON A HILL.  /steps off soapbox.

Okay, on to more farm news.  The baby alpaca is ready for a new home!  As are MANY lambs, chicks, muscovy ducklings, young call duck pairs and other critters.  We have farm kittens available as mousers as well.  We are selling off most of the miniature horses as well, cutting down and refocusing everything it seems!  We also have purebred Holland Lops available at this time, and hopefully will have Flemish available in the next couple months. 

For cattle, we will be keeping back several of the young heifers for a couple years down the road because they're black carriers and we will be slowly switching over to black angus as it pays a bit better :) 

I think that's it for now...the dogs are demanding my attention, along with taking over my lap, so I must retire.  :)  Have a wonderful day, and Twinkie says don't forget to check us out on Facebook!