Fall is time for shearing the Icelandic sheep, winterizing the barns, preparing the pastures for kidding and lambing, and putting the goat and sheep breeding groups together.
Once again, the 5 older does produced a lot of excellent milk for drinking, cheesemaking, and churning into ice cream. Two yearling does joined the breeding groups this year. Trixie had quads this spring. Her 3 doelings-Snowy, the leader of the pack born all white and now with some faint tan patches on her body; Vanessa, a tan color with blue eyes; and Milky who is dark brown with white spots-were added to the herd. Spaghetti, Lola’s blue eyed beauty who is half black/half brown, joined the 3. Rocky and Fireball continued to do their job as well mannered bucks. Fireball got into some tasty burdock when he was breeding and will need to have his beard dematted when breeding season ends.
The photos show the gorgeous diversity of the goat colors (as seen with some of the sheep) and Rocky and Fireball enjoying some of the last warm days before winter.
Left to Right: Rocky, Fireball; ewes Natalia, Nott, and Rada.
Bottom Right: LoLo the ewe.
For more Fall 2018 News and photos see Ewes, Lambs & Rams page.
In 2018 the sheep continued to be a rich source of fiber for my Etsy shop which has expanded to include roving, core spun rug yarn, and craft yarn. Check out all my yarn products on my Etsy shop website Farmofbeautysheep. Three lambs added include Reyna (white lamb pictured with River, a solid moorit), Rosa (solid black lamb pictured with Njala), and Rada (a moorit gray lamb pictured enjoying the last tastes of fall pasture grass). Nina, a tan gray moorit and Noni, a cream colored badgerface pictured with a black ewe between them display some of the contrasting colors that are most notable right after shearing. The two black mouflon ewes, Aurora and Natalia, both appear to sport a bit of gray after shearing. Nott and Njala (previously pictured) are also a dark gray, in contrast to Ny who is a solid black. Leaka, a tan gray moorit and Lily, a white spotted SGGM, are the “old ladies” of the flock. Both are always the first to kid and both always have lambs with beautiful fleeces. Oslo, nicknamed LoLo, completes the current group. She is an exceptionally friendly gray yearling who was acquired in 2017 swap.
In 2017 the breeding ewes were shuffled to diversify fleece colors and to continue to build a flock of milky ewes. Margret who lambed a solid moorit and a black and white spotted ram last year and Nancy a yearling with exceptional parasite resistance (never treated!) were sold as part of a starter flock. The farm added two 2 year olds- a homozygous gray ewe (Juanita) and a white (cream color) ewe (Crystal); Aurora, a black mouflon yearling (Dominik’s twin) and her carbon copy lamb Portia; and Oslo, a parasite resistant homozygous gray ewe lamb that was acquired in a swap
Three well-mannered Icelandic rams, two Icelandic wethers, and two dairy rams complete the flock. With the onset of cooler weather and shorter days, the rams are anxious to breed, wrecking havoc with a photoshoot.
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