Luck!

I usually am on the wrong side up luck. But today we went to an auction and I was very lucky!! I wanted to buy three different things they were offering at this auction and I had a set budget.

I stayed in my budget AND got the three things!! Unbelievable!! I should have went and bought a lottery ticket!

The first thing I bid on were 5 welded wire horse panels.

They are a little mis-shaped, but nothing major. I plan to cut them into more manageable pieces and have my husband weld them onto some angle frames so they are sturdier. Great buy!

The next thing I bought was two mineral feeders.

 I am hoping these will work better than what I am using now. They are fairly light weight so they should be easy to move when I move the flock. I will try it with a small amount of mineral at first to make sure that they will keep out the weather. Another great buy!!

The last thing I bought is a Billy Goat Gruff head gate!!

It has the stand to put it on but no ramp up to it or at the other end. Those should be easy enough to build (Love you honey!!) It also has a hole in the floor that will need attention. Probably will just replace the floor.
The front of the head gate has a piece that I am not sure what it is used for.

I am just not sure what that square thing is for. Can anyone help me out?

I am so excited to get all this stuff!! I plan on mounting the head gate to a small trailer I have so I can move it around to the paddocks as needed. Will build a ramp up to the trailer (very short trailer) and then a ramp up to the chute. The welded wire horse panels (after they are made into smaller panels) will be used to make a catch pen leading up to the ramp and chute. And the panels will be able to go onto the trailer for easy moving! Can't wait to get it all set up! This is going to make thing soooo much easier!

I will try to get lots of pictures of the whole process.

:) Can't hardly sit still!  :)

Bad Dog!!!

We have had Hailey for about a year and a half. She was dumped as a puppy on our property.

Well........ If she wasn't so darn cute, she would be finding a new home!!

Not really, but she really crossed the line last night!

So a little history first. She was a very hard puppy to house break compared to the Great Prynees I have always had. We would crate her when ever we weren't with her and take her out often, but she just could not get the idea she was suppose to ALWAYS go potty outside!  Finally after about 4 months she figured it out. So slowly she was allowed to have a little more freedom in the house when we were not there, just like our other two dogs. It worked pretty good until one day we came home and she had the cushions off the couch with two of them with big holes in them!! Well, that ended the all day freedom!!

Then we gave into those poor little puppy dog eyes and let her stay out of the crate during the night IF she had a lot of time outside that evening. Well, again, that went good for while until the voices started in her little brain again. 'chew me, chew me'  And the couch was the victim again! Not so bad this time, but still! I was not planning on buying a new couch any time soon!

So now she sleeps in her crate and spends the days we are at work in her crate (if it is too hot or too cold for her to be outside). And most of the time when we are home she is outside with us. But it has been so hot lately I don't want the dogs out when I am moving the sheep and goats electric netting. They just get too hot and then they go swimming in the pond to cool off and then want back into the house! So the solution to not having wet dogs in the house was to not let them get so hot in the first place.

So last night I left the dogs in the house while I tended to the sheep and goats. All three loose in the house.
This is part of what I came back to!!!

All my hard work!! She even eat through my Addi Turbo circular needles!! Bad dog!!! Bad dog!!!

I am so upset about this! It has been such a challenge for me the last couple of months to get any knitting done! These where the last of the KAL with Michelle Hunter at Knit Purl Hunter. I could have gotten two pairs of little footies out of the yarn.

Bad dog
Bad dog.........

Harder than it looks!

I had some time the other day to sit and take some pictures of the sheep in goats. I see all these wonderful pictures others post on their blogs and websites and WOW!! Getting really good pictures is much harder than I ever thought it would be. So your stuck with my mediocre pictures of some of the sheep and goats.

This is Biscotti, a grey morrit icelandic ewe lamb out of Evra and by Herriot. She has little bity scurs which was a real surprise since both mom and dad have nice big horns.

 This is Brizben, a black badgerface icelandic ram lamb. He is a twin to Biscotti so he is also out of Evra and by Herriot. He looks like he will have nice wide set horns and his fleece is really nice with lots of crimp.

This is my little Batman. He still has a rough go of it sometimes when he gets stressed, but he interacts with the rest of the herd and they all seem to know he is kind of a 'special needs' child. His fleece is incredible!

This is Hettie a yearling black icelandic ewe. She is a very alert ewe and is really tough to catch, even it a small pen, to check her eye lids and get her feet trimmed. Her fleece is coming in good and so far is staying fairly dark.

This is a ram lamb that is out of Kate, a shetland, and by Herriot, an icelandic. The cross was not planned, but the out come produced two very nice lambs! His horns are nice and he is a coal black.

This is Heidi, a yearling black badgarface icelandic ewe. She looks just like her mother Evra. I sometimes have to look twice to make sure which one I am looking at!! Very nice ewe, can't wait to see what she produces next year.

This is Hosta, a yearling white icelandic ewe. She has some incredible fleece and is very friendly.

This is Budster, a black badgerface icelandic ram lamb. He is still living up to his name! He has an impressive set of horns and a huge amount of fleece that is very soft. He is out of Garnet and by Hank. Nice, nice ram.

This is Hazel, a yearling moorit icelandic ewe. She has really grown into a nice ewe. I think she will be the largest of the ewes when she is full grown. She has a nice heavy fleece that has a lot of character to it.

This is Bahli, a black shetland ewe lamb out of Ester, by Cocoa. She is a very curious little ewe. When I am feeding Batman his bottle she always comes up and visits. I can't touch her but she stands there looking at me like she understands every word I am saying.

Here is Baxter, a black angora buckling.  He is turning out to be a nice buckling and should make someone a nice herd sire or and incredible fiber wether!!

Christmas in May?!

Well, not really, atleast no snow! LOL!! But I did get a small little package in the mail the other day from a fellow Icelandic sheep shepardess, Tonya Fedders.
She is a very gifted artist. These are her latest designs. Click on the image to make it bigger and really take a look at them! They are great!!

She is also very gifted at making pottery. Last Christmas I ordered me a mug that I just love!! It is the only mug I use for my tea now.

To check out all of her pottery click here.

I am thinking that next Christmas I will have to buy myself a yarn bowl, or maybe another mug, or a pichter, or maybe a vase. Oh my!! Too many choices!!

2011 Spring Shetland fleeces

 Here are the Shetland 2011 spring fleeces I will have for sale. I do not coat my Shetlands, but all of these fleeces have never little VM (vegetable matter) in them. I you are interested in any of the fleeces, please contact me at the email address  on the left hand side of this blog. To look closer at any of these fleeces you can click on the picture to make it bigger.

 This is Ellen's fleece, a 3 year old Shetland ewe. With a staple length 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 inches long. Nice crimp. 25.1 ounces

This is Merry's fleece, a 2 year old Shetland wether. Staple length 3 to 4 inch long. Nice crimp. 37.3 ounces

This is Sam's fleece, a 2 year old Shetland wether. Staple length of 3 1/2 to 4 inch staple length. Lots of crimp. 33 ounces 

This is Pippin's fleece, a 2 year old shetland wether. The staple lenght is 3 to 3 1/2 inches long. It has some incredible crimp to it. A very nice fleece. 28.6 ounces

These fleece are from my three Shetlands that where born last spring. I had them sheared last fall  and got beautiful fleeces off all three. This is there spring shearing so it is only 1/2 to 1 inch in length so it will only be suitable for felting. It has hardly any VM. If it doesn't sell I already have plans for it. 29.9 ounces.

This is Kate's fleece, a 4 year old Shetland ewe. I also had her sheared last fall because I really wanted to work with her beautiful black fleece with the silver highlights. So her spring fleece is very short and only suitable for felting. The staple length is 1 to 1/2 inches in length. 13.7 ounces.

I will not have any Icelandic or Mohair available this spring, I am doing some different projects with both so want to make sure I have enough of both to finish the projects.

Thanks for looking at my fleeces. If you have any questions please let me know.

Have a wonderful week!