Hand Spun

Hand Spun
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Saturday, May 21, 2011

Merino Lambs

Well, as my dad predicted earlier this year, I will be getting sheep before the month is out! Crazy right? Dad was teasing me about it when I bought the baby angoras earlier this year saying that it wouldn't be long before I had sheep too. I laughed because I thought that sheep were at least another year down the road. Then to my surprise, things sort of just came together as they sometimes do, and I'll be taking a delivery of 4 lambs on May 31st. I'll have one wether and 3 ewes. 3 of the lambs will be merino and one will be a merino/border leichester cross so that lamb's wool will be a medium grade wool as compared to the very fine full merino fleeces of the other lambs. The problem right now is going to be finding alfalfa hay for the little beasties. Starting Monday I will be scouring the countryside, asking friends where they get their hay and checking with local livestock and feed stores to try and find at least a half ton of last year's hay until I can start buying hay this year.
So I thought' I'd update my blog and mention this momentous event. I'm sure I'll post pictures galore once they've arrived. All the lambs except the cross breed have been bottle fed so they're more like pets than regular sheep. The wether is a sweet boy who loves his head rubbed and let me give him kisses on his nose when I met him. Cleo and Duane at the Sheep Shed in Nampa,ID raised these little ones and they did a great job! My husband Jeff has planned out the shelter he's going to build and how he's going to move the fence to create a sheep pen enclosure that will keep the lambs safe from predation. We have a few coyotes out here and there are domesticated dogs as well though we see little of either type of predator around here other than our own dogs. They will be kept safely away from the lambs because I don't think our dogs would be able to resist the idea of chasing the babies.
My cockatiel Colby is sitting on the back of my chair reminding me what a pretty bird he is and that I need to change his water and put him safely away for the night's sleep. Tomorrow I'm attending a fiber fair and I'm very excited about it. Meanwhile, we have a storm rolling in and the weather has cooled down again. It was almost a very nice day all day today. What a weird year for weather it's been!!!!

1 comment:

  1. So you are beginning a new adventure!You will love your sheep,they are such cool pets.Hay is indeed hard to find.I got lucky getting our hay,buying from a farmer & his wife who sell raw milk near here.They came out to buy a calf hutch as we got that for the goats shelter,but they hated it,& the farmers bought it & said they would supply us with hay.The hay we were getting was crappy,they said.We ended up getting a alumiumn shed from Sears & fixed it up as their shelter with a concrete floor.I can hardly wait to see your sheep,phyllis

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