Sheep Update

The gal and her husband who bought my beautiful hand-raised sheep, and gave them a great home, sent me an e-mail update that I want to share with you all. It made laugh and made me so happy, because she is obviously entertained and enthralled by my sheep and I’m so glad Svetlana and Blanca went to such a wonderful new home.

Here ya go:

“I have to tell you a funny story!  I bought a llama that looks like your white one with the brown rear.  He has never been around sheep.  I unloaded him from the trailer and Blanca thought it was her long lost friend (Catlinite). She was SOOOO happy, she and Svetlana chased the poor guy ALL around the pen!  She wouldn't give up!  He was so freaked out but she stayed by his side until this morning, and the two of them were drinking water together!  Love always conquers all!  I love them both but I gotta tell ya, Blanca has my heart completely!  She is amazing!  She lays by the horse pens where I have 4 mares and a stud horse(breeding time).  The mares were freaked out by the sheep at first but Blanca lays as close as she can get to the pens and the mares all groom her!  She is quite the character!  Watching the two of them chase that llama would have won me some money on America’s Funniest Home Videos though!  Thank you for them.  They bring me great joy and I love them both!
~Jo Beth”

Isn’t that the cutest story?

And here’s a photo of Catlinite, my white llama with the brown tushie. haha! This was taken the first time that Apache met the llamas close-up, back in March.

Farewell Ba Ba’s

 

After a year of hopping back and forth on the fence, and being wishy-washy about whether or not I should keep my 2 year old Navajo Churro Ewe and 2 year old Karakul Ewe, I finally sold them to a good home. I decided I didn’t much care for the coarseness, smell and greasiness of sheep wool and would rather focus on my angora goat mohair and llama fiber instead. I could have kept my sweet hand-raised sheep around as pets, but I wanted them to be useful and for someone to appreciate and enjoy them and their wool.

They left on Sunday for their new home out on the open grasslands near Tucumcari, New Mexico. Blanca and Svetlana will live with a flock of their own kind, instead of being bossed around by my grouchy angora goat, Luna. They will have over 400 acres to graze abundant gramma grass to their heart’s content. And their new owners are nice folks. The woman, J, is an anthropology major and is learning the age old art of Navajo Weaving and her husband, L, is a true cowboy through and through, raising cattle and horses out on their rangeland. They were even nice enough to invite me out to watch L compete in rodeo roping events and to bring my horse out to ride with them on their land. I told them to watch out or I just might show up on their doorstep with my horse and trailer ready to saddle up! haha!

J already e-mailed me this morning to let me know how easily my two ba ba’s settled in. Apparently their Navajo Churro ram made my girls feel right at home and they are already accepted into the new flock.

I will miss them, but I know they’ll have a great home. And when I drive out there to visit, I’ll be sure to bring with me their favorite treat of horse cookies. I’m glad I remembered to take one last photo of them before their new owners arrived to take them away. 

                                                 Farewell Svetlana and Blanca!

‘Twas the Day Before Christmas

 

And up in the Woolies’ paddock.

Catlinite is saying Good Morning!

And Cataleya is just happy to see me. Looks like she’s playing dress-up wearing a hay wig.

And Baby Doll, with icicles in her mane, looking up momentarily from her hay net to say “Now What?”.

 

 

And Mud Pie the Nigerian Dwarf Goat says, “Got any treats?”

 

And Luna, the Angora goat, says, “Got any Cookies for me?” (X marks the spot, don’t you agree?)

 

Blanca the Churro Sheep and Svetlana the Karakul Sheep are waiting patiently. Well sort of.

 

Latte the Mini-Mancha goat and Mud Pie are definitely not very patient at all.

Just like happy kids on Christmas Eve, they can barely contain their excitement!

 

But just like Santa Claus, we deliver the goods around here!

 

 

“Whatcha got in your sack, Santa?”

 

“Hmmmm, I thought Santa wore a red hat…not a fuzzy purple one”

“That’s ok, Santa, we won’t hold it against ya”

Santa Claus doesn’t leave out any special creatures in the goodie giving.

And they all politely waited their turn, even though Santa likes to dote on cute baby Yalla the most.

 

Zuni kept a watchful eye on things while waiting for a treat from Santa, too.

 

Meanwhile, from inside the house came sounds of a Christmas Music Jamfest.

 

And there were home-made treats to be delivered to all 7 of our neighbors.

 

And a special handmade gift, too.

 

As the sun goes down we anxiously await Santa’s arrival.

 

 

He’ll have to come through our front door as we only have a gas fireplace with no chimney.

 

But I don’t think he and his reindeer will have any trouble finding our house.

 

And we will be sure to send him along to your house after he leaves here on Christmas Eve.

Thank you all for reading my blog this year. I appreciate everyone who has given me wonderful, supportive comments, helpful advice, and words of encouragement and friendship. You are all my special gifts this year and I feel very blessed.

My wish for all of you is a fun-filled, peaceful Christmas filled with love and joy. Don’t forget to enjoy all the beautiful, intangible gifts of the season as we celebrate Jesus' birthday. We are all so very blessed each and every day to be brought together through our community of blogs. Thank you for sharing your daily lives with me. I’ve enjoyed getting to know each of you, your families and critters, as I sit with tea and snacks in hand stopping by to visit you each day.

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Shearing Day

I’m a little behind in posting recent happenings. We had our two llamas, two sheep, and angora goat sheared two weekends ago. And of course, I took a bunch of photos to share with all of you. I’m nice like that. lol!

Please excuse the photo quality, though. The barn didn’t have the best lighting. 

Our shearer lives only 10 minutes away and I always try to give my business to local folks, if possible, so this makes me very happy. He and his wife, who joined us for the fun a little later are super nice folks, too.

We started off with Blanca, the Navajo Churro Ewe.

Sheep are usually easy to shear or trim feet. You lay them on their back or side and they seem to play dead. I’m sure that’s one of the reasons they are easy prey for most predators.

All done!

Next up was Svetlana, the Karakul Ewe.

The Shearer was surprised at how non-greasy (the grease is technically called lanolin) and dry a Karakul sheep’s wool is. This makes the wool lighter and fluffier than greasier wool.

 

See how limp sheep get when handled?

Next up was Luna, the Angora Goat Doe.

Goats don’t typically go limp and cooperate when being sheared, getting hoof trims or vaccines. So we put Luna on the Milk Stand/Staunchion and gave her a little grain to keep her occupied.

  

Half done! (Wouldn’t it be funny to just stop here and harvest half the wool?)

 

A little bit of enforcement showed up for the hoof trims and finishing touches.

Voila! Naked Angora Goat!

Moving right along, it was Llama Drama Time!

Cataleya, the female llama, was up first.

 

Llamas don’t typically enjoy the shearing process. They complain quite a bit. Sometimes they will spit, kick out, attempt to lay down (kush), and dance around.

Cataleya wasn’t too bad actually. She did dance around a lot, but she mostly just hummed. The Shearer was pleased with how my llama girl didn’t mind being touched on her legs or belly, or even having her feet trimmed. All those hours of me doing Tellington TTouch with Cataleya, desensitizing and stroking Cataleya’s legs, back and belly seem to have paid off.

Next, and last, up for shearing was Catlinite, the gelding llama. Now it’s time for some real Llama Drama!

Catlinite had been shown in county fairs and won lots of ribbons in his first year and a half of life, but then he was bought by an alpaca farm and used as an alpaca guard. So, even though he was handled a lot early on, he was mostly left alone the last couple years before he came to live here. Suffice it to say, he’s not happy being handled. He will halter easily and he will lead calmly, but he’s not an affectionate, loving llama and prefers no touching at all.

He hated Tellington TTouch. And I think I can say with confidance that he hated being sheared, too.

But the Shearer didn’t let Catlinite’s disdain for having a hair cut, phase him and he just kept going. 

 

Even when Catlinite thought laying down on the job would get him out of being sheared, the Shearer just calmly kept going.

And while I tried to take photos and video, Cataleya kept sticking her nose in my ear, hair and face. She can be such an attention hound. lol!

Of course, all the while, Catlinite was kicking, growling, gurgling, spitting, making grouchy faces and just generally showing his displeasure.

 

But we got him done.

And then we let him go. And he was still unhappy. lol!

Catlinite also didn’t seem happy that his herd of sheep and angora goat looked so different either.

And he certainly didn’t seem to appreciate his llama sister’s new look either.

But he got over it when dinner was served.

Blanca had to take a few peeks to look at her new exposed shape.

And Svetlana just seem relieved to have shed a few heavy, hot pounds.

Cataleya was just happy to eat, figuring that now that she’s a few pounds lighter, she can afford to eat more.

And I was just excited to have all this wool to process and eventually spin into beautiful yarn.

Navajo Churro  and Karakul Sheep Wool.

Angora (Mohair) Goat Fleece.

Llama fleece. (Catlinite)

Llama Fleece (Cataleya)

Ooooh! Cataleya’s fleece is so soft and silky. I could just sit with my hands in it all day.

And as I sat on my bumper in the garage, skirting fleeces, and picking out vegetable matter, I had a couple visitors. My friend Val (Fantastyk Voyage), and her mare, Nadia were on their way back from the mailboxes and stopped by to say hello and chat for a little while.

I thought that Nadia might be concerned about the plastic bags and piles of wool, but she wasn’t phased at all except for her curiosity about the llama fleeces, which she just sniffed at. I suppose it was probably confusing to her why they smelled like llamas, but there weren’t any llamas around. lol!  

From the Tower of,