Goodbye Winter!

Before winter slips away, I thought I'd share a few more photos.
Here is the north pasture, so calm and peaceful in it's blanket of white.
The view right across the road from us. I love our meandering creek.Wandering in the winter wonderland.Our ducks taking a winter swim.Snowflake, our Sebastopol goose who thinks she's a sheep.Elvis, one of our Muscovy drakes.
With a crest like that, how could we name him anything else? A barncat, sunning herself.

Salem, always keeping a watchful eye.
We may have her bred this spring.
We've never had crias born on our farm.
We could use another guardian.

Rams, hanging out. Their job is over for another year.

They are such a handsome group. A few of the ewes, waiting for breakfast.

Our matriarch Stella, wading through the snowdrift.

The days are getting longer. The snow is almost gone.
Lambs will be here any day!!!

Snow! Snow! and more SNOW!!!

We are still digging out from the recent blizzard.
We ended up with around 15". Very hard to tell though,
with the high winds of 30-50mph.
Chicago is about an hour east of us,
and they had 20+ inches with up to 70 mph winds!
We had thundersnow during the evening.
Mother Nature showing off her many talents! Our 4 wheeler with a blade is usually adequate for snow
removal, but not when you have 4 and 5 foot drifts.
The snow is so peaceful. I love winter.
I love our dinner bell up on the top eave of our house.
It is over 100 years old. We still use it.
You can hear it from over a mile away.
The largest drifts were behind our house. It's a real mess between our house, barn, wool house, chicken house, grainery and garages.
Our outhouse!

We even had drifts inside the barn.

The sheep aren't bothered by the snow,
as long as the hay supply keeps coming
and the water buckets don't freeze.

The ewes don't venture too far from the barn
when the snow is deep.

Girlies, waiting for breakfast.

The rams hung out in their "man cave" (trailer)
during the big storm.

Halla, one of the 2 ewe lambs I kept for our
breeding program. She always looks alarmed,
but is really quite friendly.

Stella, following me out in the heavy snow.
Love this wise, calm ewe.

Hesperis, Halla & Gardenia, my beautiful girls.

You can see larger views of most of my photos if you click on them!

Snowy January Days

Glimmer

Many people complain about the snow & cold, but I like it. We are so busy during the summer. Winter is when I get caught up on my paperwork, have the chance to read some of my sheep books, spin, knit, and cook hearty meals.

Ellyssa

The sheep like winter too. They barely notice the cold. Hesperis

During the winter, I always try to attend
at least one sheep workshop.

Grettle
I went to one today, just south of Chicago. The main reason I wanted to attend, was because they had a lab class on Fecal Sample Analysis. We learned how to prepare fecals to look at under a microscope,
then determine what parasite eggs were in them.

Gardenia
I have books outlining the procedure,
but nothing beats a hands on class!

Claire, Charlotte (sisters) & Delphine
Here's a link to the wonderful handout we received:
GUIDE TO INTERNAL PARASITES OF RUMINANTS
Other classes were on record keeping, pastures, etc.
A very worthwhile day of learning!

Changes, changes...

I'll never part with my Claire
We had the opportunity to sell a large number of ewes to a new dairy farm in Oklahoma. After much debate, I went through our flock, and parted with some of the ewes that weren't on my sales list, as well as all of the ewes on the sales list. I kept all of the bloodlines that I needed, and my very favorite, calm, special ewes. Our sales for 2010 went very well--a BIG thank you to my customers! I love sharing my sheep with you, and am here to help you along for as long as you need it! or even if you don't need it. It's wonderful to build up a camaraderie with other shepherds. We can share our hopes,
dreams, joys and sorrows.


Our flock, with lambs numbered in the 70's this summer. It kept us very busy, moving the electronet fencing daily. Now, we have a mere 16 ewes, with only 12 or 13 bred! It's been a long time since my numbers were that low. I'm really excited though, about our 2011 lambs. With 2 new beautiful rams, plus our Finn as flock sires,
we should have an amazing crop of lambs.
Grendel, our new moorit mouflon ram from The Creeks Edge
Now, I'll be able to buy a few things on my sheep wish list. #1 is a decent stock trailer. #2 is a digital scale
to weigh the sheep. Any other suggestions?

Is it Really 2011?

Just yesterday, we were enjoying a long warm fall.
Now its January 2011. What happened?

Belle is back to her old self, barking all night, sleeping all day.

Frosty winter days have been beautiful!

Breeding groups have been set up, and already disbanned.

Thunder SRX 917T --can't wait to see his lambs this spring!
Ewes on a frosty morning.

Another new ram to our farm, Grendle TCE 561W.

Finn & Fable

Some of Thunder's ewes.

Harmony and Snowflake, our Sebastopol goose pet.

Happy New Year
from Red Brick Road Farm!