Destiny Acres/North Star Shetlands

Chick-fil-a? Noooo Chick- a- day!

2012-02-05T16:30:00.004-06:00

Well, I won't BLOG about her every day, but I do plan on trying to take photos of her every day. Explaining....

I ordered an order from Ideal....in it, were 15 of 3 varieties of blue moderns....blues, silver blues and self blues. Now that their wing feathers are coming out, I can tell two are splash, but don't know if they're splash silvers or just splash. But anyway, in comes Spotsie...She is one of two dark blue chicks...but she's unique in the fact that she has an even darker spot on the back of her head/neck and dark blue almost chipmunk stripes (think typical wyandotte chicks)! Interesting! So I have decided to take a photo a day of her to maturity to see how she turns out. It gives me a project...an excuse to use my camera...and an excuse to make myself blog every week on SOMETHING, since I've kind of left you guys high and dry most of the winter (I am SOOOO sorry :( )

Anyway, so the only photo I got on day one was with my cell phone, and I'm pretty sure this is her in the middle, but not positive. If you haven't, feel free to like our page while your there! We're hoping for 100 people soon so we can have an uber contest!

And here's day two. Yes, those are sheepies on my PJ's :D

Itty bitty wingies!

Hiding "under" momma :)
I think she's half giraffe! :)

Oh, and I have to post one other photo today. This is one of the "for fun" white d'Uccles I ordered. Look at the extra toe! I wonder if there's some silkie or dorking blood in the backround.... It will be interesting to find out how this chickie turns out :)

I'll post another post on Spotsie on day 7 probably, or around there, and compile pictures from the week :) I've got some cute ones :)

Two months until lambing! YIPEE! :)

One word: Unproductive

2012-01-24T07:49:00.004-06:00

Yup. Wish I could say I've been soooo busy that I haven't had time to write. That I've been doing things soooo legen-wait for it-dary it would blow your mind(been on a How I Met Your Mother kick if you hadn't noticed). Nope. Not doing anything spectactular. Nothing outrageous. Nothing even fun really. Last week the world was plunged into an icy abyss...and we rode it out by hibernating :D

I am over half done with Adam's hat though.

But that's okay. Because in the next few weeks, things are gonna get WILD. We're *hoping* to be moved out of the house by the end of March so we can fix up the few things that need to be fixed up and sell it. So we've got about 2 months to get EVERYTHING that's not essential to our living packed and either moved to moms or the storage shed. Things gonna be gettin' crazy....I'm not sure if we'll have internet right away out at moms, but I'll try to keep lambs updated on my Facebook page. Please like it. Trying to get to 100 fans and we're gonna have a big contest! If you have any suggestions as to what we should give away, please suggest away!

Oh, also, 5 registered intermediate/primitive fleeced Shetland ewes and 1 registerable ram for sale. Please inquire if interested. :)

Welcome 2012, and a whole lotta changes!

2012-01-03T09:41:00.002-06:00

As some of you may have noticed, our name changed slightly :) The Shetlands will always be North Star Shetlands, but since returning to the farm this spring is FINALLY happening, we needed a farm name. There's WAY too many "North Star Farms"...there's even one locally, so we didn't want that. So I came up with a list of names, and Adam and I went over them one by one, and decided on Destiny Acres. We both believe everything happens for a reason, so destiny it was! Plus Kumani's name meant 'destiny', so there's also that special meaning behind it.

Goals for 2012:
~Reevaluate the flock. Culling out lots of our Shetlands to pet, fiber & meat homes. Going to slowly start over with a handful and work our way back with proper fleeces. We'll see what is produced this year, but a lot will be leaving. That means if you've seen someone you're interested in, please inquire, ya never know :)

~Start building up my SQ poultry again. I miss having poultry! I've already got a few feelers out on some Cubalayas. Hopefully going to eventually renovate the barn so that there really isn't and poultry loose anymore, so each pen can get the different feeds they need. We'll still have some "yard candy", but not near as many as we do now. So will also have some colorful crossbred roosters and hens available this spring!

~Start selling and sending in WOOL! I have 3 years of the stuff! lol. I'm hoping to buy a wash tub this spring so I can start washing it and sending it out. Going to start making use of the time work is giving me off :) Also want to save up money for some coats, so everything I make off selling raw wool will go right back into a fund for coats. Anyone wanna buy some raw wool? :D

That's all I can think of for the moment. lol.

Married life is good, for those that are wondering :) Adam is loving all the critter changes and ideas I'm having, and he's actually happy that work cut my hours down, it'll allow me to get packing soon!

Also, I'm having a mini contest before the 100 likes contest on my FB page. When I started it there were 30 people left to go til 100, so I posted that whoever invites the most people (people that actually like animals, that are interested in animals, etc) will win a mini prize as well! So get inviting, people! Christy is ahead so far, but it's anyones game :)

So, here's to a healthy and happy new year! Bring it on 2012! :)

Pretty jewelry! Chance to win!

2011-12-22T09:40:00.001-06:00

http://www.thevintagepearl.com/blog/2011/12/last-minute-giveaway

Go there and enter for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate! Neat hand stamped jewelry! :)

Happy Birthday Anisa!!!!

2011-12-22T08:19:00.011-06:00

It's Anisa's 5th birthday today! Everyone got their favorite treat

and I thought I'd share some photos of Anisa! :) Enjoy! :)

Just a few hours after picking her up from the breeder in Superior, and then my mom meeting the breeder in Barnum to get her sister :)

Mmm...socks :)
She's a lot less help nowadays lol
Nice size comparison, even though she's stretched out a bit

In my shoes.....Below she's starting to get into the puppy uglies that poms go through
These were taken in May, right around the 5 month mark....
Next to one of my mom's Cavalier puppies

With her sister, Meeka.

MAJOR puppy uglies :) lol

And now the beautiful princess that she always has, and always will be! Momma loves her naughty, nasty, crabby princess :)

Wedding Tidbits update...

2011-11-26T10:52:00.002-06:00

Okay, so I got yelled at last night. LOL. Okay, so not yelled at, but Tracy pointed out that I missed something in my wedding tidbits blog....The car! Use your own car if you can, limos are expensive and overrated. I, fortunately, had my 74 Dodge Challenger to use :) But if you don't have a cool classic car...see if you can borrow one from a friend/family member! They make GREAT photo props too. Money's not an issue? Get creative. Like golf? See if you can rent a golf cart somewhere. Love horses? Horse drawn carriage. Use your imagination!!!

Wedding tidbits

2011-11-23T06:36:00.007-06:00

As a little girl, I dreamed about having the perfect wedding, as every little girl does. Pristine white dress, winkling lights, and my prince charming all wrapped up into a little bundle of perfect. Needless to say, life is not perfect. And not everyone has tens of thousands of dollars to spend on a wedding to make it princess perfect. Our wedding was perfect for us. This blog is just to share some things I came up with or found, maybe to help other couples, or maybe just to relive it a little more :) Plus figured I'd give some resources as to where I got different things.

Just because some people were so impressed with the different things we did at the wedding, I figured I'd include a small description of them. When I walked up, I lit two candles. I had forgotten to tell Bridget (our officiate) about it, and so it wasn't announced, but one was for my friend Shirley who died this year suddenly, and the other was for my grandfather who died shortly before the wedding.

At the beginning of the ceremony, we had tied the rings together with ribbon, and tied them to the inside of Christinas (our flower girl) basket and our officiate gave our rings to Steve (best man) to give to my side of the family first (I guess it's tradition to give to the brides family first? lol), as part of our ring warming ceremony. Basically everyone gets to look at the rings this way, each person looks, prays, thinks happy thoughts, whatever they want to do, and then passes them onto the next person. At the end of the ceremony, when it's time I wants my rings back so I can put them on my loves hand, the officiate asked for the rings, and Steve went and picked them up. It was really amusing in our case because he handed the rings to Bridget and she just stood there and stared at them. I hadn't showed them to her before because I had been planning on keeping them until that day, but I did end up showing Adam early (I'm SO bad about keeping presents when I have them in advance). She probably stood for nearly 30 seconds while everyone was wondering what she was doing and I was silently giggling to myself, and then turns to me and asks where I got them from lol. I had found this awesome guy on Etsy who hand stamps rings. John @ Unicorn Trading also did Adams promise ring for me. He's a joy to work with, and likes a challenge :) Go check him out!

And now for the box. This puzzled a lot of people as no one had heard of it before, but I've heard some feedback that a lot of people are thinking about it for themselves now. :) I had a box fashioned on Etsy that worked out fabulously. I was originally going to have a box made or find a vintage box that suited me, but everything happens for a reason. The handmade boxes were going to range from $50+, and even more if I wanted different woods for different meanings. But, I found a company called DesignCraft Industries who made me a custom sized box, big enough for a bottle of wine and some other things, for a little over $30 including shipping. I thought that was reasonable enough. Here's a link to give what they suggested for the ceremony, but of course we had to tweak it. We didn't want to ruin or crack the box with nails, so we found a couple of hasps and used antique-y looking locks, each locked our own lock, and then placed the key on yarn (in matching blue, of course) over each others heads. We both wrote letters, and plan to open them on our 5th anniversary while sharing the wine. We didn't put glasses in, we figure we'll have plenty of those :) Plus didn't want them to break. My best friend/maid-of-honor/honorary sister's mother (a.k.a. Mommy #5 for me lol) offered to wood burn the box as part of our gift to us. Here's what she came up with :)

From the front. You can see our locks are heart shaped :D
Close up
Closeup of the hearts
Closeup of the peacock feather. Such detail! She's soooo talented!

The top.
Closeup of the open rose. She said roses have meaning, and the bud was the when the relationship was just taking off, and now the rose is open that we're married...or something like that...LOL.
The bud
One side
The other side
The back
Closeup of the back
And this she added as a joke she said. She actually asked Tracy if either of us would be offended if she put that on there. I was THRILLED! I would actually love this as a tattoo...this or the peacock...or both :)
Isn't that darling? I love it :) She also paints just as lovely! I am extremely proud of this box, and it will be treasured forever :)

I used real freeze dried hydrangea petals for up the walkway and our petal cones. We made our petal cones from old sheet music that I picked up at a rummage sale or estate sale for very reasonably. The petals were from Flyboy Natural Petals, also found on Facebook, and rather reasonable I thought. They do all kinds of flower petals, and they lasted a long time as I bought them shortly after we were engaged and they survived nicely in their packaging for over 6 months. I thought they really added nice color to everything. Wish I would have thought to put some on the tables at the reception *rolls eyes* Ahh afterthought. :)

Instead of a traditional guestbook at the reception, we used a wishing well and black river stones. People could write their names, little thoughts of encouragement, or whatever they wanted and place them in the well. That way when we have a place we'll be staying at, I'm going to spray coat them and they will be placed around our garden, that way everyone will be with us always :) We used black stones from the dollar store, a locally made wishing well, and oil based Sharpie paint pens.

And the bouquets. I was very happy with how they came out. I actually had some people think they were real! I purchased the bridesmaids bouquets on clearance, and actually two bunches of flowers for mine to make it fuller. The hydrangeas in the centerpieces on the tables I bought from the dollar store, and then the bouquets I purchased at Afloral. I REALLY liked that site, tons of awesome floral stuff. Highly recommend it if you want fake flowers. I preferred that anyway, because that way we have them forever :) Yeah sure you can dry real ones, but it's just not the same. I hot glued ribbons on all of them, and then also placed a Three Days Grace guitar pick on mine attached to a string. Our favorite band, if you don't know who they are, check them out :) "Lost In You" is our song, was our first dance as husband and wife, and part of the chorus is engraved on our rings :D

So all in all, I spent a lot of time on Etsy & at the dollar store....lol :) I think the biggest thing is to remember to breathe, and that even if something goes wrong, or not as planned, it's not the end of the world. I just can't believe some of the women on that show Bridezillas. I got complimented a lot on how calm I was.

Oh yeah, and last thing. I bought my dress on clearance at a bridal store...check other outlets. I paid a lot more than I had been hoping, which was still half price, and there were a TON online that were cheaper. Now that I have it, I wouldn't have traded my dress for the world, just a thought though :) Oh, and ivory looks awesome...I always thought it would be too dark and always wanted a white dress...it's not. It's lovely. :) Anyway, those are some explanations and thoughts and whatnot. :)

The biggest shopping day from hell....

2011-11-23T06:10:00.002-06:00

Who's ready for Black Friday?! Well, I work Thursday night into this maddness...*sigh* Walmart will be staying open, and sales will begin at 10pm. 10PM! What is this world coming to?! Next year Walmart will probably begin sales at 9! And I heard a rumor that beginning next year, we will be open through Christmas. Seriously? What happened to our FAMILY company? I tell you, if Sam Walton was still alive, it wouldn't be like this. Money, money, money, that's all they care about. I was out on Black Friday once with my mom before I started working overnights, and while I enjoy shopping with her, it wasn't nearly as crowded as it gets nowadays, nor was it as chaotic. People have gotten KILLED in the last few years. So sad. And so I'll likely be doing a majority of my shopping Cyber Monday(being it's my day off :D ), and a majority of that on homemade stuff, or supplies for me to make my own homemade stuff. I encourage everyone to make your own gifts. There is a sense of pride that goes into making your own gifts, and if they're useful gifts (i.e. clothing, etc), they may just become a family heirloom! I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday season :) /endrant :)

Some wedding photos...

2011-11-08T07:27:00.006-06:00

I don't have my professional photos back yet, but a couple friends took my camera and took some photos :)
My dress hanging up in the hotel room.

Julie doin' my hair
Positioning my hair piece
After over an hour of curling and over 2 cans of hair spray....

Me being the dork that I am...
We had a tent put up at the park so he couldn't see me before the wedding, and so we all had something to get dressed in. Tracy was freezing, but I was quite comfy all strapped into my dress lol.

Me and my home girls :) I think I was making sure my mom was remembering to do something...don't remember what though lol. Mah shoes
Showin' some leg!

The ceremony

Greeting everyone after the wedding

Standing for the multitudes of photos
@ the reception, me and my maid-of-honor Tracy
Tracy & her hubby Nolan
The boys all chatting outside
Adams brother Aaron dancin the night away

My father in law rockin' the air guitarHad to take a photo of my feet back at the hotel....DIRTY! lol. That's what I get for taking off my shoes half the time at the reception. lol.

The night before....

2011-11-08T07:21:00.003-06:00

We had the rehersal @ the park & a meal at Adams parents house the night before the wedding, was a lot of fun. And then, just before midnight, my mom and I headed to my hotel room for the night. Can't spoil tradition! It was a nice room, super cute!

LOVED the fan!

The makings of a wedding....

2011-11-08T07:06:00.006-06:00

I decided to do some of our stuff for the wedding by hand...

First, I made the felt flower for Adam's boutonneire (or however you friggin' spell it lol), then I wrapped the peacock feather with floral tape, and glued the ribbons on. He wanted the fringes trimmed, so I obliged.

And then I made a plainer version for the other boys...

For the girls' hair clips, I ordered the plain clips online, and then added hydrangea flowers from the Dollar Store hydrangeas we picked up for the table arrangements.

And I took our favorite photos of each other and the critters and included them in our peacock fan photo display :)

And this what happens when I get distracted and the hot glue gun is still on.... :)
And of course, we enlisted Smudges help...
:)

This was a card box we picked up from someones wedding for $10 on Craigslist. I ended up adding more to it than just the one feather though.

Our wedding favors, peacock shaped lilac scented soaps. We ended up with a ton of these left over unfortunately, but I suppose it's better to have too many than not enough.

My toss garter

And the one for Adam to keep:
I had the lady send the garter without the ribbons and charms attached, and I added everything afterwards, so I could include the peacock feathers, and instead of the butterfly charm on Adams, I put our favorite band's pick, Three Days Grace. Their song "Lost In You" was also our first dance together.

Jefferson: Day 2 (9/10)...Show day!

2011-11-08T05:29:00.005-06:00

I didn't take a ton of photos today, was too busy sweating as this was our first year showing. I'm proud to announce that Lightning was "moved forward" in the first round of them pulling their favorites forward for Best Fleece on Hoof, and honestly, as many animals as were there, I was really proud. I know it's not much, but it made me happy :) I found out, however, that the reason he hadn't been placing higher, is his bite is off a bit, so his breeding pen is limited this year to hopefully see if it's something he passes on or not. Anyway, here's the very few photos I took on Show Day! :)
"I'm ready for my closeup!"

Goofy boy wanted to try on dad's hat :)
"Ready, willing and able! Let me show 'em what I got!"

Mom standing in line with Lightning, awaiting entry into the ring :)

Mom was SO thrilled that Saigon got 4th place out of pair of ewe lambs.

Adam did SO well showing, I was so proud of him :)

I'll be nice and not post the photos of Juli's stubborn boy or Corinne's butt ;) This time..... Mwa ha ha....

Jefferson: Day 1 (9/9)

2011-11-01T10:08:00.006-05:00

Okie dokie, Friday. Becky Utech couldn't make it, and so she graciously gave me her spot (you rock!) to the judges clinic. This is where Alan & Kate (our judges who came over from the UK to judge this show!) gave us all a course in judging our rams, something they take more seriously over in the UK.

Here Garrett is sitting with his ram White Pine Caiphas AI, as our specimen to observe how the judges evaluated him.

Here Kate is talking about the fluke shaped tails of the Shetlands and how important they are in judging a pure Shetland. If you look under the tail, it is always a V shape. Cool, huh?

One of the forms, these are the big 5. If they don't pass one of these, they generally don't pass the assessment.
Kate showing how to feel the teeth on the pad of a sheep.

Garrett feeling in another position, as sometimes they jut their jaw outward when you pull their heads up.
We all kinda got a kick out of this, but it's a good question :)

Kate showing the spiral of the horns on Caiphas.

Intent Garrett....

Innocent Garrett? Nah. :)
It's all in the hips...It's all in the hips...lol

Feelin' the back...Feelin his chest/lungs area....

Showin that they want wool up on the poll, cheeks and even some as far as wanting it all the way from the back of the head through the horns.
Alan getting some words in about length in the back, I believe. I have the whole thing on tape recorder, I should really download that one of these days. Probably need a computer upgrade first. *sigh* Sometime after Christmas maybe....
At the end of the clinic, we all got a certificate saying we could actually judge things like county fairs and stuff, cool huh? It was all very educational. I still gotta get copies of the papers to Becky though, just been kinda busy....

And afterwards, I had to go get my dose of cute and go see the newborn barn! No black faced babies this year :(

Here's mom trying to halter train one of our newest Shetlands, White Pine Saigon.
Alice grazing.
Wendy grazing...

"I'm keeping an eye on you...."
"I GIVE UP!" hehehe

Pre-Jefferson Opp: I.E. Brushing up on walking with a halter...

2011-11-01T09:40:00.004-05:00

The pictures are kinda self explanitory...lol

Standing nicely, he finally figured out that the halter isn't so bad :)

The girls however, dont' agree :)

Everyones thinkin' they can get a quick snack while mom and dad aren't looking....

Hey Becky? Recognize that big mouth? Diamond, the 3/4 BFL originally from your place :)

Winters coming...that means more posting, right?! :D

2011-11-01T06:55:00.002-05:00

Okay, there are more updates on my Facebook page, it's SO much easier to post on there, but I will try harder now that the busy year is winding down.

So...updates since my last post (which was September 5th...oh I'm sooo bad :( )
*Jefferson was a riot, I will post all the photos on that!
*I got married!
*Went on my honeymoon.
*I bought a small flock of CVM/Romeldales
*We're not moving out to the farm this fall, instead by spring lambing we'll be out there
*Getting everything ready for fall
*Getting breeding groups planned
*Got my hair all chopped off :)

SO much has been going on. I haven't gotten all of my wedding photos back, but I did get some from my FIL, and aunt & uncle. I'll try to go post by post and start updating everyone on my life. I think I'm going to absorb all of my blogs into one now that we can post pages. I can't WAIT until I get a website up and going :)

Hope I don't overload you with posts :)

xoxo - The Mrs.

Last call!

2011-09-05T08:57:00.002-05:00

Sorry I've been so absent of late, but we've been getting ready for Jefferson! Anyway, just wanted to post quick that if anyone is interested in purchasing a sheepie or two, and wants it transported with us to Jefferson, I need to know by Wednesday, as we're going to the vet Thursday on our way down. :) Will have LOTS to post about when we get back :D

'Paca post

2011-07-28T05:19:00.005-05:00

I forgot! I introduced our newest additions to the world on my FB page, but not on my blog!

First came Nitro. We bought him at auction, and were in awe of his fleece. Our gelded boys never even came close to the quality of fleece Nitro has, beautiful crimp, SO soft and fluffy. Nitro is ARI registered as Peruv Noahh's Nitro PPLLC. Can't wait to see some babies out of him. He's a 2008 model, considered "light fawn". I think the 'paca colors are almost as confusing as Shetland colors! lol. Here's Nitro with some lambs. We were SO pleased to see that he LOVES the lambs, he actually get's really upset if he can't see at least one lamb in his line of sight.

Later this summer, mom was searching for some registered females, as we had two unregistered (lost one to old age this spring) females. ((And I just realized we don't have any photos of Dyna ('Nitro' and 'Dynamite' ;-) )! She's a chocolate female with a split ear, who's hopefully bred for a cria next year! )) We found a trio (didn't really want another male, til she saw him :) ), down south of the cities, so she went to check them out, and came home with our new three!

"Herculese" is our 1999 model new male, his primary color is listed as "Medium brown" and secondary is listed as "light rose grey" not sure how they come up with these :)

Herc is a beautiful, well mannered boy, who has hopefully bred both of these girls, though Stormy looks pretty chunky already, so we'll keep an eye on her.

Next is Tiara, or "Pajolo Tiarra" as her papers say. She is a 2000 model, listed as Primary "light fawn" and secondary "white".

Isn't she purdy? I just love her face.

But the star of the show is Stormy a.k.a. "Stormy Days".
She is an absolutely stunning blue eyed white female. If I could clone her, I would. She has a beautiful body, gorgeous head, and beautiful fleece. I can't WAIT to see what she and Herc and then she and Nitro have :D

Well, that's our 'paca herd. If I'm reading these right, both the sires of Stormy and Tiara are imports, Stormy's father from Peru, Tiara's from Chile. I need to learn more about how this paperwork works...hehehe :)

Over-run with babies!

2011-07-28T05:03:00.004-05:00

Momma pastel & 11 babies above. Will be keeping the silvers, and some of the blue bibbed, but should have a few available for sale.

We're having a duckie explosion right now! lol. We were quite disheartened this spring when a momma came up with 4 babies and one of my muscovy hens ATE them all... :( Here's kind of a funny story though...

A few days ago, a hen came up with 7 babies, so mom scooped them all up and put them in the rubbermaid stock tank so the rats can't get them. Well, momma duck flew out! The next day, mom finds "momma" with two more babies, what the heck? So she scoops them up and throws them all in. Momma now stays with the babies...strange huh? Well, she put them outside in a nice cage with a swimming bowl so they could enjoy the nice weather...and here comes this hen just a quackin' away, talking to the babies...Mom made an oops! LOL. Apparently the hen NOT with the babies hatched the first 7, and the second mom that came up with the 2 got to adopt everyone! LOL. Well, she's taking excellent care of them, and is quite alright with mom picking her and the babies up every day to be put outside, so she can keep them lol.

We also had a momma come up with TEN last night I guess! Exciting...we love our calls :)

And momma muscovy is bad :( She's lost almost half of her large brood, down to about 8 babies, but the other mommy is doing excellently with all of her 8 yet, so I still have plenty to pick from, plus the 3rd momma is off setting somewhere.

Oh! And our dewlap toulouse hen is setting! I don't know if any of the eggs will actually be fertile since the buff romans didn't hatch this spring, but we'll see :)

And I never got all the lambs evaluated the other day :( I got sunburnt and got lots of other things done, but not that. *sigh* So between the sunburn, my stomach and my head (yay for days long migraines), I've been off work for a couple nights now. HOPING I can go back tonight, but we'll see if I'm feeling okay. Hoping Saturday I will feel good enough to go out and seperate sheep, because I have one, possibly two people coming to look at and buy sheepies, yay! Some of them I REALLY hate to sell, but gotta do what ya gotta do.

PS
Max says the dog days of summer are here...hehe.

Poor old Max hates the heat, but hates being shaved even more lol. I think this is a really cute photo, might black/white it and put it in the fair :)

Sassy Sapphira

2011-07-26T09:44:00.002-05:00

Had to post this...

2011-07-24T08:25:00.002-05:00

This was our male llama Passion meeting the yak for the first time.

Wedding Invitations!

2011-07-21T11:11:00.003-05:00

Front:

Left side of inside:

Backside:

I didn't upload the info page, for obvious reasons (who knows if there's someone stalking me! or Adam! LOL), but if you'd like the information to come on up, please feel free to message me! Not EVERYONE is on Facebook, contrary to popular belief, and ALL of my friends are invited so please, message me if I somehow forgotted you! And sorry for forgotting you :( I'm pretty proud of these puppies! Designed and printed by us :) And the picture of the hands is our hands, my engagement ring and his promise ring I got him. It says "Anam cara" which loosely translated means "soul friend", which soul mates we are :) Anyway! Off to some errands! Have a wonderful day!

Summer Sunday....

2011-06-26T14:13:00.002-05:00

Kemp

2011-06-08T16:19:00.002-05:00

I want more information on kemp. Can anyone inform me? I have some ewes who have what I think is kemp. I've never seen it before this, so don't have anything to compare it to. They were all F2 orion yearlings, and it showed up in 7 ewes, 1 ram from my "keepers". Is it carried or expressed only? Must be carried as the ewes that had these lambs have never shown this before, and don't have it themselves. Is it possible this is just a fluke and they'll grow out of it? Any info would be appreciated. :)

2011-06-08T09:35:00.002-05:00

Figured some of you might get a kick out of this. I swear I've never seen a dog run this fast...lol. He's really amazing. This is my moms Chinese Crested, Rufus. He's absolutely adorable, and is such a ham. He's my "circus dog"...He loves to please. He's still reserved with strangers and children, but is very good with us. Thought you guys might like a laugh :)

Fiber starter flock!

2011-06-01T16:16:00.004-05:00

This would be a nice pair for someone wanting fiber animals. The ram lamb can be wethered before leaving if someone would just like a pair of fiber animals not for breeding as well. The ram lamb is a grey katmoget, 5/8 Shetland 3/8 BFL, out of Thor and Diamond (See microns on previous post), and the ewe lamb is a 1/2 Shetland 1/2 Babydoll out of Babydoll & White Pine Philemon AI, who was modified, so who knows what colors are lurking beneath that white! :) The ewe microned at 21 something, and has very nice fleece. A little more open like the babydoll, but still very crimpy and lovely.

He is a beautiful boy! Pictured here with momma. I'll have to find photos of the babydoll ewe, or take new ones, I can't find any at the moment! hehehe

Found some photos from last year on this blog post
http://northstarshetlands.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-photos-from-mid-july.html

Adult Micron Results

2011-06-01T15:24:00.002-05:00

And now on to my adults. Most were much better than I thought, some were worse than I was hoping. My average over all the animals was 23.8 microns, 6.4 CV and 27.0 SD. Granted I've got almost as many yearlings as I do adults, which is why the numbers are so low, I might do an average myself of just all the adult ewes, we'll see how much free time I have hehehe :)

Ewes:
Name/Year Born/Mic/SD/CV
North Star Aurora/2009/25.8/8.3/32.3
Justalit'l Bedegrayne/2004/28.1/6.0/21.5
Minwawe Bejig/2006/32.6/11.0/33.9
Sheltering Pines Chalmeaux/2006/27.4/6.7/24.4
Sheltering Pines Cornet/2006/26.4/5.9/22.4
Sommarang Disa/2006/23.2/5.4/23.1
North Star Dory/2009/24.5/6.2/25.5
Minwawe DoSiDo/2006/21.4/5.0/23.3 (This one I was quite shocked about)
North Star Freyja/2008/22.9/6.5/28.7
North Star Frigga/2008/24.2/8.5/35.3
Sommarang Gail/2009/25.4/7.6/29.8
North Star Iduna/2008/23.6/7.6/32.3
North Star Jasmine/2009/21.5/5.9/27.5
FirthofFifth Kimia/2007/23.4/6.6/28.2
RYL Konnel/2002/25.8/7.7/30.0
Minwawe Lyra/2007/28.8/9.6/33.2
Minwawe Magnolia/2005/31.4/10.0/31.9
Glenmore March Madness/2001/27.5/5.7/20.6
Justalit'l Maid Marion/2009/24.6/5.2/21.0
North Star Mary Poppins/2009/23.8/7.1/30.0
Minwawe Miracle/2004/24.1/7.4/30.7
SHeltering Pines Modron/2004/28.3/7.5/26.4
North Star Nanna/2008/25.2/7.8/30.9
Sheltering Pines Olga/2005/26.2/6.2/23.7
Sheepy Hollow Peoney/2002/26.9/7.4/28.7
Minwawe Polka/2005/23.6/6.3/26.5
North Star Raja/2009/24.1/6.1/25.3
FirthofFifth Rhiannon/2005/29.4/8.2/28.0
White Pine Salida/2008/28.8/8.3/28.9
Minwawe Skippy/2007/23.2/6.3/27.3
Minwawe Spearmint/2006/28.9/8.9/30.7
River Oaks Tasha/2006/25.6/7.3/28.3
Winter Sky Torrent/2004/27.7/7.0/25.4
North Star Wendy/2009/27.5/7.2/26.0

Rams/Wethers:
North Star Abu/2009/18.7/5.5/29.2
Minwawe Combination/2008/30.9/10.8/35.0 (For sale, not so great tail, but GREAT spotting genetics, and his full brothers micron was very nice)
North Star Lightning McQueen/2009/28.6/4.5/15.7 (Quite shocked about this one as well)
Minwawe Padlock/2008/24.0/8.8/36.7
North Star Thor/2008/25.0/5.1/20.4

Crosses/Other:
Babydoll ewe/Not sure of age?/33.8/6.5/19.4 (This is okay, she produces amazing crosses)
Diamond/2009 I think?/3/4 BFL 1/4 Shetland/28.4/6.2/21.8

This helps a lot. I have people interested in unregistered ewes, and may make some decisions based on the micron tests. :)

F2 Orion Yearling results

2011-06-01T14:20:00.006-05:00

Most of these haven't been registered yet as I was waiting for micron results. These are all White Pine Philemon AI lambs. Most of the ewes will remain here, but a majority of the rams will be available for sale. I didn't write down if they were modified or not, but some are, as daddy was fawn. Here they are:

Rams:
Ear tag #/Color/Dam/Micron/SD/CV
13/Black /Minwawe Bejig /20.6/6.9/33.3
16/Moorit /LRO Gretel /20.5/5.3/ 26.0
22/Fawn Katmoget /Justalit'l Maid Marion /19.1/4.2/22.2 (Wether, Comfort factor of 99.6%!!! WOW!!!)
25/AG Fawn Kat Flecket/Glenmore March Madness /19.2/4.6/24.1
26/AG Fawn Kat Flecket/Glenmore March Madness /22.5/5.4/23.9 (For sale, poll carrier, short scurs)
32/Moorit /FirthofFifth Kimia /18.4/4.9/26.7
48/Moorit /River Oaks Tasha /22.0/5.5/24.9
49/Moorit /North Star Iduna /21.7/6.6/30.3
50/Black Blettet /Sheltering Pines Modron /18.1/5.4/29.6
51/Moorit /LRO Tansy /18.8/5.9/31.6
52/Moorit /LRO Jet /20.3/6.6/32.2

Hard decisions on who to keep. Some have lower microns, some have lower SD/CV...hmm.. Any advice would be highly appreciated :)

Ewes:
Ear tag #/Dam/Micron/SD/CV

2/Moorit /North Star Frigga /22.3/7.1/31.8
4/Black /Minwawe Polka /19.0/5.0/26.1
7/Moorit /FirthofFifth Rhiannon /19.9/5.7/28.9
10/Moorit Krunet /Minwawe Magnolia /21.6/6.5/30.1
12/Black /Minwawe Bejig /23.6/7.3/30.8
18/Moorit /Sheltering Pines Olga /22.3/6.8/30.4
21/Moorit /Justalit'l Bedegrayne /20.8/5.1/24.7
28/Fawn Katmoget /Winter Sky Torrent /23.4/5.5/23.3
29/Grey/RYL Konnel/19.6/5.3/27.1
31/Moorit /FirthofFifth Kimia /18.7/5.7/30.2
42/Black /Minwawe Polka /19.8/5.5/27.8
44/Moorit/White Pine Salida /23.2/5.7/24.7
45/Moorit /Sommarang Disa /20.5/6.1/29.6
46/Moorit Krunet /Sheltering Pines Olga /20.2/4.9/24.1
47/Moorit /Minwawe Skippy /21.9/5.8/26.7
55/White /Babydoll /20.5/4.3/20.7
56/White /Babydoll /21.4/4.5/20.9 (For sale to a fiber farm along with Diamonds Grey kat ram)
57/Moorit /Sheepy Hollow Peoney /20.2/5.8/29.0
North Star Ruby/Fawn Kat/19.7/4.1/20.7
North Star Shale/Ag Gulmoget/23.0/5.5/23.7

Most of the yearling ewes will be staying at least through this year, we'll see how they micron this coming year.

4/14 Shearing day!

2011-05-23T16:09:00.004-05:00

Shearing day went off without a hitch...kinda. The weather SUCKED! It was SO cold, we were all wearing sweatshirts AND jackets! Our previous shearing day had been rained out, so we weren't going to give this one up as it was hard enough to get it rescheduled. I was too cold to take many photos....lol :)
I think this is Aurora getting shorn.
Even Babydoll got a haircut! LOOK AT THAT BAG! lol. She looks like a fricking dairy cow this year, it's crazy. And only had twins! She's definitely heafty....lol
Calico colored ground after shearing that light fluffy alpaca wool in 30 mph winds....lol
Even Willie got shorn! This is his reaction.....scary, I know. Willie the billy prides himself in terrorizing the public....*shudder*
NEKKID GURLZZ!!! I was pretty happy with everyones condition. A few could have used a few more groceries, but are now fine now that they're on grass.
Ahh the scrap wool pile....wait a minute....what's that?
CUTE wool scraps! lol. Biggify if you can't see what I'm talking about in the middle of the photo. They blended right it, it was hilarious :)

4/13

2011-05-23T15:58:00.003-05:00

The 13th was a historic day at the Funny Farm! But first, I just love this picture of 3 day old "Gift"...she is such a cutie!

Anyway, the 13th was when we had our first set of triplets! Ever! We were planning on shearing that weekend, so we had been sorting everyone for taking fleece samples. They hadn't been run very much, just enticed into the pen with grain and hay and the doors slammed on them lol. But Charm decided to pop out the triplets in a span of less than 20 minutes. We literally had locked everyone up to settle down for a few, ran in the house to eat, and came back out and in 15-20 minutes she had 3 little boys all cleaned off and trying to nurse.

2 white and one grey katmoget. Thor is the father. The little katmoget who was the smallest, and the smallest of the white boys had a hard time attaching to that nipple, so needless to say, they came in the house for the night and took bottles like troopers!

"Dis MY brother...."

They were put out with momma every day for the first three days, then the little katmoget went to live at a former classmates home with her family! Jojo is now doing well, and HIGHLY spoiled, she even texted me the other day to find out when his birthday is so he can get cake next year :)

4/12/11

2011-05-12T12:58:00.000-05:00

Three ewes lambed on the 12th. Sheltering Pines Olga, North Star Jasmine & FirthofFifth Kimia. Olga had a cute little bielset black ewe lamb. Jasmine had a gulmoget ram lamb. Kimia had, both solid black lambs, and one of each sex. The ewe lamb has dog hair, ram lamb is quite nice. They are the only solid black lambs I have, so I appologize for the poor birth picture, but there are nicer photos to follow :)

Above is Jasmine & her ram lamb, Pen.

Kimia hiding with the twins, Petal and Black Tie Affair.

Olga and her daughter, Party.

Lambing (Continued, and pic heavy)

2011-05-10T11:45:00.007-05:00

Okay! To continue!

RYL Konnel was in the polled pen, just to see if she was a possible carrier...and I think that's negative. The ram lamb born, Gazebo, has HUGE horn buds.

Not to be out done, my lovely Torrent had twins, a boy and a girl. The ewe lamb, Gift, is a sweet little katmoget, I believe she's modified, as her main fleece is almost white. Goblet, the ram lamb, is a gulmoget. Goblet will be for sale, but Gift, along with every other Torrent lamb, will be retained. I LOVE this line. :) Goblet is as of now, unregistered, but that could change.

And, not to be out done again..... North Star Wendy had a BEAUTIFUL little spotted girl, Lace. Lacey is beautiful, I just love her patterning. She's a goon. She will be staying.

The next day, the 11th, DeeJay and Banner(I didn't name him) were born! DeeJay is so named because he's got BLING! :) FirthofFifth Rhiannon is a proud momma :)
I thought DeeJay was black a first, but if you enlarge, he's actually a VERY dark brown. Maybe modified dark brown? Mom is mioget & dad was emsket, sooooo.... :)

Anyway, that's all for today. I gotta get to bed! Oh! And a photo of the yaks for Becky!

Finally! :) (Pic heavy)

2011-05-10T11:14:00.008-05:00

Finally some photos! I am SO sorry to everyone, I've just been going nuts over everything, and going 20 ways at once!

Less talk, more lambs!

Here is North Star Iduna, with North Star Bachelor. He was born on 4/5 and was one of the first lambs born. He is for sale, he could possibly be for sale with momma before weaning, but it would have to be to a VERY special home. Iduna is a total sweetheart, and I have to know that she's in good hands :) Daddy is Minwawe Padlock.

Also this day, Minwawe Magnolia had twin girls! They're so cute. "Maid of Honor"(Black) & "Bridesmaid"(moorit) are darn cute, and growing every day! Daddy is Sheltering Pines Arturo. Both of these girls are available for sale.

I got a TON of facial spotting this year.

Before we headed out to Garretts, Justalit'l Marion graced us with a ewe lamb. "Dress" is out of Arturo.

We'll have to watch the bite on this girl though, she may be need to be sold as a pet only. We'll watch her as she grows, and see how she turns out before offering her for sale.

Minwawe Bejig also had a ewe lamb on this date, but I wasn't able to get photos before I left. But when I came back.....

This little cutie is also for sale :)

Now on the 9th, this is the day that my first poll carrier pen decided to lamb. I am quite excited about these two, "Grace" & "Elegance", sired by North Star Lightning, dam is Sheltering Pines Cornet. They will likely be for sale, as this was a line breeding (Cornet is Lightnings mother) so I do not want to breed them back to him. This will definitely be a repeat breeding!

The color difference between these two is nifty. :)

The other lamb born on the 9th was Minwawe Polkas daughter, "Friend". She's not tame, but will probably be tamer than most of the lambs since momma is a honey. She will be for sale when weaned.

I'm gonna start in another post so these don't become TOO pic heavy. :)

Whew it's been a cold spring! Small update, some photos

2011-04-29T10:21:00.005-05:00

Well, with the nasty cold spring we've been having, and a handful of first time mothers, we've had our hands full this year. We had TWO sets of triplets! We've never had trips on the farm before, so its' been interesting. One of the crossbreed Charm's triplets, the little katmoget ram, went to live with an old highschool class mate of mine, with her kids and her zebu in the front yard :) He was a sweet, tiny little fella, and his brothers are doing awesome with momma out in the field, so I think it was a good choice.

A purebred Shetland ram who was confused who his mother was went to a family member as her husbands Easter present. We've had one mother who wanted nothing to do with her lamb, and one lamb who was REALLY weak since that we've had to bottle, hoping to find good homes for them. Unfortunately both are ram lambs, but they'll hopefully find good pet/fiber homes. Mothers will be given another chance before they're culled, of course. I can only imagine how confused I'd be as a first time mom :)

Glenmore March Madness suprised us with a second set of triplets on Monday (4/24). A black ewe, an Ag ewe and an Ag ram lamb. We'll be keeping a CLOSE eye on her with her age and keeping a good amount of grain on her so she can keep the babies without too much help. We've got her seperated with a wether as a companion (Tigerseye) and is doing great. They were actually good sized babies, but I just figured she'd have two HUGE lambs again like she did when Woody & Mater were born with 1/2 inch horn buds lol. The pictures aren't very good as she was in the barn, but they're cuties. Mom is THRILLED to get an Ag girl out of March. Little boy and one little girl both have tiny krunets, so they *should* carry spots, YIPEE! The fleeces all look pretty nice, little black girls probably the best. Ugh, another keeper out of Lightning! lol.

Speaking of keepers out of Lightning, daddy did very well for himself. He had five ewes; RYL Konnel (Ag), Sheltering Pines Cornet (black gulmoget), North Star Jasmine (moorit gulmoget krunet), Firth of Fifth Kimia (black) and March.

Konnel had a single ram lamb, with HUGE horn buds, and therefore likely does not carry polled. He was born with a dog coat, but hoping he'll grow out of it like a lot of them do.

Cornet had two of the most perfect ewe lambs! They're leggy, elegant and super nice fleeces already. They were the second named, "Elegance" & "Grace" to go along with our Wedding theme. Cornet IS a poll carrier (she's actually Lightnings mother, so this was a line breeding that will be repeated!) so these girls have a good chance of being full polls! Neato :)

Jasmine had a single gulmoget ram lamb. Dog-like baby fleece, already starting to show nice crimp underneath. Also had big horn buds, so she doesn't likely carry polled (test breeding since she's a Forest Granddaughter)

Kimia had twins, one of each, both jet black. Girl had the dog fleece, boy is gorgeously fleeced. Boy had small horn buds, so we'll see how he turns out.

17 rams, 21 ewes (lost one ewe lamb in the rain, sold two ram lambs so far) is the current total, and we're a little over half done, though about half of the ewe lambs doing look to have taken, which is okay.

I will post another post with bunches of lamb photos that I've taken so far :D

Lambs lambs lambs!

2011-04-16T12:55:00.002-05:00

So sorry, been neglecting the blog again! Been on vacation all week, and the lambs have started!

Lambing started on the 5th with North Star Iduna & Minwawe Magnolia both lambing. Iduna having a single ram, and Maggie with twin ewes. On the 6th, Bejig had a single ewe lamb. On the 7th, Justalit'l Marion had a single ewe lamb. We skipped a day, and on the 9th, Cornet and Polka both went. Cornet with TWIN GULMOGET EWES! That are absolutely amazing. And Polka with a black ewe lamb. On the 10th, Torrent, Konnel and Wendy all went. Torrent had twins, a gulmoget ram and katmoget ewe. Konnel had a black ram, and wendy had a black ewe. Skipped a day again, and on the 12th, Olga, Kimia and Jasmine went. Olga with a single ewe, Kimia with black ones of each, and Jasmine with a gullie ram. Then on the 13th we were suprised with Charm, our crossbred ewe, giving us triplets! Our first set of triplets on the farm! And ever since its' been FRICKING COLD out. 2 inches of snow today. Shearing went off without a hitch on Thursday, but, with this snow, I feel SO bad for everyone! One of our alpacas came down with pneumonia, but the whole day was particularly stressful for them as they all got moved around and all put in with the sheep.

Last night, our Babydoll had twins, and they're doing well out in the snow today. Chalemeaux had twins today, and it sounds like Lyra also had a single. We're headin gout to the farm today to take photos and get some more wind blocks up for everyone. Big fat Glenmore March Madness is in the barn because she looks as big as a house, and was quite cold the other night after shearing. She should be carrying AT LEAST twins sired by Lightning McQueen.

Other than that, everything is peachy in the frozen hell of Minnesota. Had a rough start to the day, some bad news, but that means everything else can look up right? Oh, and our wedding favors are being shipped today! Yay! Just a week over five months left til the wedding! AAAHHH!!! I keep telling him we should elope, I just feel bad throwing all this money into dresses and tux's and chairs and an officiant and everything. Not sorry about my dress, as I probably would have purchased one anyway, but yeah. Maybe just prewedding jitters? Who knows.

ALSO!

Wedding is my theme, since we're getting married this fall. I have 84 key words so far, but I want more, as I don't particularly like some of these, and there will be others I'm sure I like better. Please give me your suggestions!

aisle

arrangement

bachelor

bachelorette

beloved

best man

betrothed

bliss

boquet

bridal matron

bride

bridesmaid

budget

cake

card box

centerpiece

ceremony

church

courtship

cupcakes

Deejay

dessert

diet

dress

engagement

eternity

exercise

favor

feather

First dance

flower

friend

garter

gazebo

gift

goblet

gowns

groom

groomsmen

guest book

happiness

honeymoon

invitation

kindness

kiss

lace

love

maid of honor

marriage

married

matrimony

memory

miracle

music

nuptuials

officiant

partnership

party

pen

petal

photographer

planner

planning

promise

reception

rehersal

ribbon

ring

ring bearer

RSVP

sanctity

sequin

soulmate

speech

sunny day

tenderness

tie

toast

togetherness

union

unity

usher

vase

veil

vow

wedding

Busy, busy busy!!!

2011-03-29T13:43:00.002-05:00

Seems like I'm running steady right now. The girls are all ready to explode. Judging by backsides, Marion will be one of the first to go, which is a good thing because I have to keep an eye on her bag incase there's scar tissue from the infection she had last fall. The dogs, cats & chicks are doing good, the bunnies are doing good, I will try to get updated pictures up soon. As are all the farm critters. Need to get updated photos of what we aquired at the last auction lol.

My BFF Tracy is now on a LOA from work and will be through the remainder of her pregnancy and through my wedding (thank god, I need my MOA!) but at least the little munchkin will be born healthy. Baby is breach right now and will require regular checkups to make sure the little thing isn't tangled in the cord, but doing well now. Can't wait to meet my little godchild/niece or nephew!

Ummm...wedding preparations are still going alright. House rennovations are still going. We're working on getting the shelving up in the kitchen now. Soon as my camera battery is charged I'll work on getting some photos.

Sorry for the quick update, but it's my "sunday night" and I have to work tonight, so gotta get my butt to bed! Night!!

It's a mystery....

2011-02-28T12:31:00.005-06:00

We've got these 3 little sweet black chicks in the order...and don't know what they are!

Of the breeds that Murray McMurray offers, these are the black breeds:

Black Australorps
Black Giants
Blue Andalusians (blue gene means you get 25% black hatch usually)
Anconas
Black Minorcas
Sumatras
White Faced Black Spanish
Lakenvelders

They could be any of those breeds. Adam and I went through the list and through Murrays site, and think that they're either Anconas or Lakenvelders (G's hoping the later), but I'd like your opinions! Here are the chicks!

Here they are as day olds:

And now as week olds:

Chick1

Chick 2

Chick3

Please let me know your expert opinions!

New peepers!

2011-02-22T11:54:00.008-06:00

This tells you how evil our cat is....lol

Since I won't have a real gypsy for quite a few years yet, I had to buy this cute little family at L&M in town.Yay peeps in the mail!

Peeps in their pen!

Hey you!

I see you!

Partridge cochins
3 mystery chipmunks
Maybe a BLR Wyandotte?
2 different shades...hmmm....

Teddy watching the chicks...
Buttercup babes!

I think these might be Sumatras or Anconas...hmmm...One of Garretts blonde girls....white wyandotte :)

Buttercup babe!

I believe this is G's partridge wyandotte....
Cute little red chipmunk....

POOF!

G's Buff OrpMaybe gold laced cochin?

Last night we took Meiling & Jia li out to cuddle :) This is them in Adams lap

And in my shirt....Someone pooped on me!
Here's the girls!

Arent' they darling?

Numbers numbers numbers....

2011-02-17T10:03:00.002-06:00

Oh wow. without numbered posts, it's kind of a pain in the arse to figure out who goes to what number...but I'm working on it. I've already used Random.org to draw the numbers for the prizes, and I added a few as well! I will post names/blogs and pictures of all the prizes by tomorrow :) Thanks to everyone who participated! I didn't realize what day it was as I've been not feeling well the last week, so I only made it through about half the blogs this year, but I intend to keep the list and keep going through!

Themes....

2011-02-10T06:15:00.002-06:00

Okay...The time is getting closer....and I don't have a theme yet! Someone had suggested wedding theme with our wedding this year, but I've tried coming up with a list, and even if every ewe that was exposed only had a single, I still wouldn't have enough names lol. I'm thinking maybe poets....Or wouldn't chicken breeds be funny sheep names? Lol. Looking for suggestions. If I still played World of Warcraft, I'd use NPC (non player character) names from there, but being I don't play anymore, it doesn't seem fitting. I thought about cattle breeds since all my sheep are frickin' cows anyway...lol. Maybe flowers? Wines? Favorite bands? Maybe I'll name them after songs like Cait suggested? Not sure.

I've got two babies to buy for now! My godbaby and my good friend, Eryn at MacDh'omhnuill Farms, is having a baby as well! Really excited :) I'm not having my own, therefore I get to spoil other peoples :D I started buying Tracy's baby Noahs Arc stuff cuz I found some REALLY cute stuff while thrift storing, but they want a bear theme, so I've been finding really cute bear stuff now :) I've got a bear picture holder that I'm going to repaint the bow around it's neck the same color as the babies room. Light orange. Wee. It was either that or Nolan wanted blaze orange...lol. The suspense is going to kill me though, cuz Tracy is waiting to know the sex. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH *pulls hair out* :D Hoping for a girl for Eryn though, cuz she has all boys so far :)

I can't believe how many people have visited the blog with the OWOH event! I feel so blessed that so many people like my blog :D *blush*

I think over the next few days, being it's the last OWOH event, I'm going to add a few more prizes. I already made another kumihimo braid, and maybe I'll loom a couple hats or a scarf or something. Have to finish Adams scarf first though.

Okay, time for more of my best friend Pepto to calm the turbulence in my tum-tum! Back to music and more blogs :)

(Wow, I kinda did a 180 topic thing there, didn't i?) :D

Poultry post

2011-02-08T15:06:00.005-06:00

Took some fun feather photos (try saying that 10 times fast hehe) yesterday at the farm. Unfortunately my camera didn't last long (forgot to charge the battery), so here's some of what I got :D

Silver Spangled Hamburg hen
Nargansette turkey hen
bantam Partridge Wyandotte hen

These next two are the same guinea, but I darkened the photo a bit so you could see the spotting a bit better. She's a powder blue, one of moms favorite colors :)

And I was very sad when I walked out to Lightnings pen....He rooed ALL his neck fleece! I should have thought about that with how soft and fine and tight his crimp mid-side is....*sigh* He's rooing out the rest of his fleece too, hard to say if there'll be any left for shearing on April 2nd. lol. If anyone is interested in fleeces, please email me if there's a particular animal you want. I took a photo, but it was with my phone, and I'm still not sure how to download photos off my iphone so I can post them on here...but they're on my Facebook if anyone wants to see them :)

I also have last years fleeces for sale. I will give deals before April 2nd to make room for the new fleeces if anyone is interested :)

Thor and his group
He's such a pretty boy.

And some ice crystals on the windshield...Part of the reason I couldn't take many photos at home as I was playing in the car on the way there....and then noticed the battery only had one bar left. *sigh* lol

All for now from the funny farm. Adam and I will be getting engagement photos done soon (won some from the Bridal Show) so hopefully I'll be able to post them when they get done.

Also! I'm looking for a double treadle spinning wheel if anyone has one for sale or knows of one for sale. My single treadle just isn't cutting it. We got it fixed, but I just can't keep a steady rhythm with it, the wheel doesn't want to keep moving the same way, and I think I'll have a better time of it with a double treadle. Would love to do a trade! Anyway, hit me up :)

One World One Heart Giveaway Event!

2011-02-08T14:28:00.006-06:00

Hello blogland! I am participating in this years OWOH (One World One Heart) Event put on by Lisa, and she's saying this is the last year! I wanted to participate last year, but due to personal issues, couldn't. Well, being it's the last year I had to jump in!

The picture above should link you to Lisas blog, but if it doesn't, here's the link, just to be safe, incase you want to participate or take part in the giveaways:

http://awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com/a_whimsical_bohemian/2010/12/annoucning-the-fifth-and-final-one-world-one-heart-event-.html

Okay, a little bit about me. I love art. All types. But there just aren't enough hours in the day! I love my loom knitting, needle felting, love painting, etc, etc., love all types of art projects. Photography has ALWAYS been a big love of mine. Really wanting to get into working with premade felts. I love shiny things! This is first and foremost a farm blog, and I do have an art blog, but I try to post anything artsy on this blog as well as it's my main blog. I love my animals. Espically my finacee ;-) hehehe. If you go further down in my blog, I recently posted photos of him and I. We got engaged a few months ago :)

I hate living in town, but it's what I have to do until we can afford a country home with lots of acreage! I collect milk glass, and other odd antiques. Adam would tell you I collect yarn and fiber, but that's just cuz I have to find that special project to use it for! :D I also love little trinkets. And sheep stuff (and my sheep of course!). I think about the only crafty type thing I haven't gotten into is scrapbooking...I'm just not organized enough for it! lol. I had Lymes Disease when I was 2, and still have a lot of the lingering issues, so if I don't blog in a long time, don't worry, I'm still here! I need to try to make myself blog once a week, and do one project a week.

And, if you couldn't tell by this post, I pretty sure I have ADD lol. :)

Anyway, to enter, please post a comment and be sure to have some way for me to contact you. Either you're a blogger with your email address linked to your profile or leave your email address (anybody AT anywhere DOT com, if you don't want to take the chance on spam). No special requests, no hoops, just a good old fashioned drawing!

I have 3 giveaways!

1. A pretty shiny daisy necklace!

Also a Kumihimo hand braided bookmark, antenna topper, whatever you want it to be, etc., made by me, and one of those mardi graw necklaces you can play around with.

2. Yarn bits! Mostly acrylics, possibly some others thrown in. Small balls and bits here and there for you to adorn your projects with!

3. A mulled cider candle (Gold canyon brand I think) that I adorned with three super cute little bracelets that say "Laugh", "Life" and "Hope". When you're done with the candle, maybe you can make a cute charm bracelet with the little pieces :)

Upclose of charms

Winners will be picked by random number generator. Post to win! I'd love to hear more about all of you too! Last year I added SO Many blogs to my blog roll, it's hard to keep up! I love them all though! I've already added a few this year as well...whew! :)

Thanks!

Rayna

Update: Made a bracelet last night :) This'll be giveaway number 4. Made with a vintage mother-of-pearl button, Kumihimo braided with dark blue, light blue, teal and white. Thought about keeping it myself, but decided someone else would enjoy it more :) I think I might make something else too....but it's a suprise so far :D Even to me!

Scrambling....

2011-02-04T11:00:00.002-06:00

Scrambling to find something to giveaway for the One World One Heart event!

http://awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com/a_whimsical_bohemian/2010/12/annoucning-the-fifth-and-final-one-world-one-heart-event-.html

It's a fun event in it's 5th and final yearly installment to bring together bloggers from all over the world! Everyone signs up and chooses a doorprize(s) to giveaway and your blog gets linked on her page and people from all over the world comment and you choose a winner! Simple. But finding things to giveaway....not so simple. Thinking about going through my stuff and destashing some....Maybe some ribbon....maybe some yarn....maybe some buttons....Fabric....We'll see :) You all know what an eclectic sense of....well, of life, that I have, so lord knows what I'll end up throwing in lol.

And sure, it figures. The day I buy walking shoes? It's raining/sleeting out... *sigh* I will lose the weight!

1/10 Farm photos

2011-02-02T10:38:00.011-06:00

Peoney filling her face as usual....

Pretty turkeys! Mom's keeping the lavender pair, but the three browns in teh back are for sale.

Paddy and his harem

Mmm...snow....

Upclose of Paddy and his dirty nose

Aaahhhh chin scratch

Loopy Lucy

Lets make faces!

Cheese!

Who's the giant? lol

Awww...if I cuddle with you, do I get more apple treats?

Isaac says "GIMME MOAAARRRR" lol

I don't think Filipe' liked the apple treats....lol

aahhhh scratches
Lucy & QueTee

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Awww Blondie is getting horns!
Blondie, Edith & the other cows
Awww TBone in his sweatshirt hehehe

Hey...ummm...I think you're supposed to EAT it not WEAR it....
One of these things is not like the others......

Adam lounging with the sheepies
Marion & DoSiDo
Sheepie butts
Beautiful Marion
Olga checking out Adam
Meesha with a mouthful
Awww a family! Funny enough, daddy's the little one in the middle lol
Skippy looks pissed that she got kicked out of the hay pile lol
Omm nom nom
Gail, Marion & Olga
The four fair maidens (Ruby's butt is back behind the rest of the girls)

Buddy & Marions ram lamb...too bad he had to be wethered, he had the best fleece this year I think
Beautiful rams! And Buddy getting in the way as usual
Pretty Buddy Goat

My fiancee and I

2011-02-02T10:17:00.005-06:00

Just some photos of us together, in case family far away wants to see my hottie :D By the way, wedding is set for September 24th, everyone is invited :)

Fleece samples

2011-01-30T13:58:00.003-06:00

These are the samples I'm sending in.

Mmmm.... Lightnings sample :)

Woody's sample
Thors sample (3 years old)

Lets play catch up!

2011-01-30T13:43:00.003-06:00

So sorry! Been a hell of a last few months! Lets see if I can sum it up....

I got engaged! A few days before our 6 month anniversary, Adam took me up to the lake walk and proposed! So we're planning a wedding, the date is set for September 24th of this year. All of my Shetland friends are invited, of course! We're going to have the wedding at a park in Jay Cooke park, and the reception at the Buffalo House near Duluth. Going to be catering it ourselves, a cold type salad and dessert bar. Going to look at dresses on the 13th of February, and looking for photographers. But otherwise we're working on getting decorations ready and stuff. The colors are blue and green, mostly dark, to match peacock feathers that we'll be using for decorating :) Hoping to sneak some wool in there too :D

56 ewes and ewe lambs exposed to 5 rams: Sheltering Pines Arturo (emsket flecket), Minwawe Combination (black yuglet flecket), North Star Lightning McQueen (polled black katmoget), North Star Woody (moorit based moget face poll carrier), and North Star Thor (poll carrier gul-kat). We're selling a few ewes here and there to make room for the leased lambs. Lambing should start in late March at the very earliest.

Miss Ruby is doing great! If any of you followed the blog last spring, Ruby was a miracle lamb as she was born with her twin sister, but she was premature and had some problems. She's one of the largest lambs in the maiden pen, and her fleece is soft as butter and actually getting some crimp in! She's got her mothers tail (Justalil Bedegrayne) Ugh...lol. Thick and wooly, but otherwise she's a doll. Still wants her bottle, and mom still lets her once in a while, just a little and mostly water. Some of the ram lambs turned out very nice, and depending on what I get out of the leased lambs, I may end up keeping one of my ram lambs out of Philemon, but we'll see.

We butchered 5 rams, yum yum! A couple were too nice to butcher, so they're still for sale.

We lost Woody, unfortunately :( He was very rowdy with his ewes, and ended up busting through the fence and getting tangled up and had some internal issues. I used him on 4 or 5 ewes this year, so hoping for some spectactular results like his ram lambs were this year. RIP Woody :(

Really excited for the Jefferson show this year. Adam will be coming with, and we'll be showing! Lightning McQueen will be shown for sure, along with some ewes more than likely.

Marion poked her udder, which we drained and treated, but we have to watch her this spring, and if she twins, we may have another bottle baby. Not that Adam minds....lol

Ummm....I'm going to be sending in samples from the rams soon, as soon as I find the information for the two places and the current prices. I want to do some of my finer ewes as well, but time will tell if I get to it or not this season.

Shearing is set for April 2nd! WOO! At least we'll have a good amount of fleeces for showing :) Very excited, I love shearing, it's so smooth with Brian! We took that whole weekend off, so it will also be hoof trimming and worming weekend as well. Hoping it doesn't cause any of the girls to go into labor =/

Ummm...Not sure what else to post, so now I'll be posting some photos in the next couple posts. :)

Newest addition(s) to the funny farm....

2010-10-07T23:49:00.006-05:00

Okay, so the main reason for going to the exotic animal auction in Perham, MN, is to visit my bestie Garrett Ramsay and catch up. Even though I've been ill as of late, I figured most of what I'll be doing is sitting anyway, so what harm could be done? All I do at home is sit also. lol. So we're looking through the barns...the Adam's are oohing and ahhing at all the nifty critters. Garrett and I are doing our usual "Oh you need that!" "Oh, I think that needs to go home with you..." and we walk over to the goat pen, and low and behold, there's a goat out! With very little effort, my Adam nabs the little bugger and opens up a pen and tosses him in. No biggy. I notice he was kinda cute, but a HE, so not really a second thought about that. So we finish in the barn, and head out back to see what kind of cattle are out there. Check out the horses, make sure Ricky isn't tearing the place down (We brought one of our mini studs), and head over to the highlander cattle. We're hmming and hawing over them (Garretts always wanted some, and I think they're darned cute), and I turn around and...What?! There's that darn goat again, standing behind Adam and I! Okay, this is fate. I figure he's gotta be someones pet. This goat likes us! He found us through TWO doors and around a few corners....and I'm still heart broke over loosing our bottle baby, and I can tell Adam is already attached to him. This little guy is some kind of crossbreed I figure, but he's really soft, maybe I can use his fiber? Okay, put him back and go find our seats...

Fast forward a little bit, I come to find out he is a bottle baby from a friend of mine! And she had him at the chicken swap I missed! Crazy small world, huh? He's a "Nygora", Nigerian X Angora cross. Shirley had had his mother for 7 years and she'd never bred. Last year she was around 14 or 15 years old, jumped the fence and finally decided to settle with the Nigerian buck. Then this spring, she dropped poor Buddy goat in a snowbank as Shirley was on her way to a funeral, so she dried him off, tubed him some cholostrum, set him on a heating pad and left for the day. Came home to find him doing just fine. And now he's a fine addition to the Frigon Funny Farm...lol. He is the biggest baby, has an awful scream when you leave him alone. He loves to follow us around the yard, and the little turd has figured out how to get out of his pen multiple times. He fits in great!

Nummy soft fleece :)

And for those who now my mothers boyfriend Garys odd sense of things, he also purchased two highlander heifers and a pot bellied pig. I guess at the auction the pig was biting everyone, attacking peoples boots and everything. I think she may have been smacked around a lot, but she's coming along great. She'll take food out of my hand nicely, and tolerate some scratching. She's not tiny, but she'll do a good job rooting up the pens that need cleaning :)

AND, like my mom doesn't have enough dogs, also brought home this Chinese crested hairless male! Rufus dufus just got neutered today, so it's not SUCH a big deal, and he's kinda cool...lol
And we have a rouge goat...She escaped when they brought her and a couple other does home, and has been living with the cattle ever since. They push her around, but she's safe as long as she stays by them, as the coyotes have been TERRIBLE lately. Adam tried catching her the other day, but shes' REALLY fast. Plus ya gotta watch out for the bull in the pasture right now, but he's a pretty calm bull, didn't bother Adam at all. Please "biggify" to see her....lol

Next: evaluations! Only two ewe lambs for sale, so far 2 rams have made the cut. All the lambs this year were at least 31% UK, so it really improved my fleeces. I also have quite a few adult ewes and rams for sale, so if you're looking and someone catches your eye, don't be afraid to ask! :)

For Sale (its that time of year!)

2010-09-19T19:43:00.003-05:00

I'll be keeping a few ewe lambs, but no ram lambs this year, so most of the lamb photos I have posted are of lambs for sale. I will also be selling a few adult ewes, and about a half a dozen mature rams. For those interested in polled, I have 2 moget (ag Katmoget) faced ram lambs who have teeny tiny little scurs, and their Uncle, North Star Woody (think Toy Story..) who has a few inch long scurs, available. I have a few nicely horned adult rams available, mostly intermediate, some more towards double coated, but still with a nice handle. Lots of spots in the adult rams.

I have been ill all week, and so haven't separated and evaluated the lambs, but I know there will be some breeding quality ram lambs, and some VERY nice fleece animals. All lambs minus the polled boys are out of White Pine Philemon AI, an F1 Orion ram, hence all lambs no matter their mothers side are over 30% UK.

Just wanted to put it out there. I am sure most people already have their rams purchased for this year, but I'm hoping I don't have to whether all of these gorgeous boys! Some of the adult rams for sale will likely be searchable in my blog. Sheltering Pines Arturo is available after breeding. Minwawe Bayeau, Mangrove & Combonation are all available now, as is North Star Woody. I have an unregisterable black smirslet gulmoget ram who is also looking for a breeding home.

Please contact me with any questions. northstarshetlands at gmail dot com

*EDIT*
I just found my last springs micron tests on 2 of these rams for sale, and one of their brothers.

Name - Micron SD CV

Bayou - 22.7 7.8 34.1
(He and his brother are for sale, I suspect the micron has risen though, judging by the CV & his fleece. Still potential though.)

Forsetti - 20.3 5.6 27.8
(black smirslet gulmoget unregisterable ram)

Padlock - 17.6 3.8 21.5
(this is Combonations twin brother that we're keeping for now)

Dear polled breeders... :)

2010-09-14T01:59:00.005-05:00

Yup, we're lookin' at you! Tuff & Pumice (going along with the rocks & minerals theme!) will be looking for a nice home with some nice polled/poll carrier girls :) These are older photos, hoping to update photos sometime this week. They are Glenmore March Madness X North Star Lightning McQueen (Winter Sky Blues AI X Sheltering Pines Grand Cornet) Both boys were spotted when they were young, very pretty boys. They are both moorit based Moget Faced (Ag Katmoget)

Great book series!

2010-09-08T11:03:00.002-05:00

If you haven't read this series yet, pick it up :) Rachel Vincent is an excellent author, and I'm really excited for this next book!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjRJKmo61CA

Here's the trailer. Enjoy! :)

More photos from Mid-July

2010-09-07T04:58:00.009-05:00

More photos from Mid July of lambs. Above are Olgas twins

One of Marchs twin 1/2 poll boys. Both have very small scurs that keep breaking off.

One of the moget face boys rear ends. These boys are both for sale to someone who wants to expand their polled genetics. These boys are (if I did this right) F3 Jamie, Jericho; F4 Drum Ram, Dillon; F5 Drum Jings; F6 Holly, Timothy. Lots of nice genetics back there.

Babydoll X Shetland
Babydoll X shetland
Another photo of Basalt
The two moget face (Ag Katmoget) boys.

March boy & both Babydoll X
They're just so darn cute!
The difference in Tigereye's fleece compared to another moorit

One of Charms boys
Charms twins are so different...this is what happens when they're 1/4 Coopworth, 1/4 Border Leiscter, 1/8 Shetland, 1/8 Karakul, 1/8 Lincoln, 1/8 Corridale.... *whew* lol
But so cute!
and adorable...

and want cookies :D

Another shot of one of the moget face boys

This little guy is a looker...
This little tiny tyke is out of Minwawe Mopsy II.
Boys hoping for new homes! The Ag boy in the middle looks to be a poll carrier maybe?
Moget faced boy
Boy on the right looks to be destined for slaughter or a fiber home...Boy on the left is a hopeful to a breeding home :)

North Star Mary Poppins & Minwawe Lyra

Puzzle girl is growing up...

2010-09-07T04:34:00.003-05:00

I had posted a post in June about my "puzzle" lamb :) Here's some photos of her in mid-July. I'm thinking she is modified...North Star Basalt (Sheltering Pines Grand Cornet X North Star Buzz Lightyear) is likely polled, and is a (if I did this right): F3 Dillon, Jericho; F4 Jamie, Drum Ram; F5 Drum Jings, Holly, Timothy. Beautiful girl with a beautiful tail, nice back end, and I love how feminine her head is. She will be staying around while I play with polled genetics. She will likely be bred to her half brother in hopes of full poll babies, and some extra soft fleeces.

What a carbon copy of momma, eh? :)

Better late than never, right?

2010-09-07T02:30:00.006-05:00

Yes, I've been a very, very, VERY bad blogger. I've been SO busy, and having personal issues, that I've been neglecting my blogging duties! hehe. So, better late than never I guess :) Getting excited for the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival! I only work two days this week, and then it's off to southern Wisconsin! Bringing my spinning wheel with in the hopes that one or more of my lovely friends can give me some crash courses in it. I've always learned best with a combination of reading and seeing it done.

The sheep are starting to notice the impending cold. The boys are starting to get rowdy. I have quite a few stunning boys for sale this fall, if anyone is looking for some good breeders. Lovely spots, and all of the lambs this year were F2 Orions at the very least. Almost all of the lambs this year were moorit, so we tagged early to make sure we knew who was who. Well, you know lambs and ear tags....ugh. Luckily they're still sucking, so we can still tell who's who for the most part. Going to buy some chalk and mark numbers on their foreheads I think...lol. Or spray paint... Or paintballs LOL J/k. Lots of nice even fleeces this year though.

I'm not sure what will be available for ewe lambs yet this year, but I do have a few ewes available for sale as I make room for new stock and lambs. Little Red Oak Tansy and Little Red Oak Jet for sure, possibly Minwawe Lyra & Minwawe DoSiDo if I get a couple more spot producers to replace them. I have twin black krunet girls out of Minwawe Polka X White Pine Philemon AI that will be available. Those two are full of spit and vinegar, that's for sure. Happy go lucky as can be.

Okay, time for some photos! They're from the end of July, but you get a good idea of how the lambs are developing. Every time I've gone out since, we've had too much to do, or it's been crappy out and the pictures suck.

This little guy has the likeness of a ram lamb who went to live on the East coast last year. Penny, remind you of anyone? hehehe

Still deciding on this little gem if she'll stay or not.

This is North Star Tigerseye. She will be staying with us. She is FirthofFifth Rhiannon X White Pine Philemon AI.

This is Ruby (and Kumani's butt...lol). She was our little preme. Mom re-cycled after settling, and so had her and her BIG sister. Sister did great, but we had to suppliment Ruby after they got into an accident with a hog pannel and Ruby couldn't keep up with mom very well any more. Bedegrayne still knew who her baby was, so mom brought little Ruby out every day to visit with mom, and then would bring her in and feed her a bottle. Now she and Kumani share a bottle every day :)

Sommarang Gail with one of the aforementioned black ewe lambs of Polkas. Little turd tore her ear tag out already....

Little running boy

"I'm cute, gimme cookie!"

Gail in the backround, Polka next up, Dory (with an unknown lamb at her side), and Skippy in the front.
Ram at rest

One of Charms *yummy* boys :) Look at all that fleece already! Too bad moms is so harsh. It'll be good felting fleece though.

Not sure who she is, but she's gorgeous :)

Another treat monger....

I'd have to look at the list to see who this is, but look at that crimp, all the way down the legs :)

Here's one of the lookers. Fawn katmoget ram lamb out of....oh crap, who's he out of?! Ummm....I forget off hand. lol.

And his backend.

Kimia with a few lambs around her.

The "end" :) Adam with Kumani. Nice rear, eh? (Anni, not Adam ;-) )

Quick blog! Puzzle!

2010-06-08T05:26:00.003-05:00

Okay, quick blog then back to cleaning. Going to try to do these all this week! lol. A lot of the lambs look similar, have to get out and tag them soon! Just got my tags yesterday lol. Stupid state taking so long, oh well. ANYWAY, here is my puzzle...

Pink eyelids, right? So she's a moorit gulmoget, right?

Look at how GREY this fleece is underneath? That hardly looks musket....lol
Midside:
Hip:

This little girl is likely polled. Momma is Sheltering Pines Grand Cornet, a poll carrier, and daddy is North Star Buzz Lightyear (Wintertime Blues X Glenmore March Madness)She has the deep impressions that a lot of people characterize with the polled ewes, but only time will tell. This little gem is likely staying right here :) Was hoping for a gulkat instead, but I'll take her, she's cute :)

The bad blogger is back...kind of?

2010-05-24T12:39:00.005-05:00

:D Hi guys! Long time no...seeing you read me? lol. ANYWAY...Lambing is in full swing. Unfortunately, it's looking like Philemon isn't a big spot thrower, though I have gotten once nice set of spots so far. And we ran out of tags yesterday...which is unfortunate because most of the lambs look alike, lots of moorit krunets or solid moorits. Some beautiful babies though, wow.
Nice tails and nice rears and nice fleeces! This is either Disas or Gails ram or ewe lamb and Marions kat ram lamb.

Here's a fleece shot of Marions boy. Mmmmmmm....

Polkas twin ewe lambs. Both will *likely* be for sale, but we'll see :)

Bejig's twins. She has got to be the best momma there is! Hopefully both twins are going to go modified like she is. Of course the ram lamb is the prettier one.

This little gem, whom I've already deemed is going to be North Star Tigerseye is a LOVELY modified little dear out of Rhiannon. Looks like she's going to be mioget and her brother fawn (different shades). Anyone have an opinion on her? LOVE the short crimpy fleece!

Torrent and her brand new baby as of last night. I didn't want to disturb her, so I didn't check the sex yet. I wonder if she's homozygous katmoget? She's thrown 2 gulkats bred to gulmogets & a kat bred to a solid for me, so far. She usually singles, but she hadn't passed the afterbirth when we left, so fingers crossed!

Frigga & her ewe lamb.

Magnolia and her twins., one of each.

Polka and one of her girls.

Bejig and her goons again.

And now for dessert....mmm....

March had twin boys(unfortunately) Looks like both are going to be AG, but look at these spots!

And...for all you polled breeders out there...both parents were poll carriers, and both boys only have leathery patches on their heads so far..... :) They both have fuzzy baby coats, but underneath that is soft, gorgeous, crimpy wool!

And what the heck? These aren't sheep, but they sure are damn cute :)

Total blogging slacker...

2010-05-05T14:01:00.002-05:00

I am SO sorry. My offline life has been very hectic lately. Updates: Kumani is getting HUGE...I still need to post her original post, just haven't gotten time. Sommarang Disa and Gail both delivered SOLID ( *pouts* ) moorit lambs, a boy and a girl. Both look gorgeous! Will post photos of them soon as well. Had to move back shearing, it was raining on our shearing day. Am going to have ewes with lambs at sides for sale to make room to keep some of the ewe lambs from this year, and am also looking for one or two really nice white ewes/ewe lambs. Would LOVE more gulmogets, but we'll see what the budget holds. I've got my eyes on a couple ewes, but need to move some out and makes some $ before setting anything in stone. Haven't had much time to work on artwork either, so art blog is lacking as well. So sorry :( I'll get back into the swing of things soon guys, I swear.

5...no 6 new additions!!

2010-04-13T10:10:00.005-05:00

Okay, I've been lacking in my blogging. Lots of pictures to update! On the 5th, Charm, one of my crossbred ewes whom I'm hoping to use for making butcher lambs, gave twin ram lambs. One white, and one RED?! Where the heck did that red come from? I'm assuming somewhere in Charms backround. The ram was 1/2 Coopworth, 1/2 Border Leicester, and Charm is 1/4 Lincoln, 1/4 Corridale, 1/4 Shetland, 1/4 Karakul...So maybe the Karakul? They're cute nonetheless, but destined for freezer camp.

All the above photos are from the 6th, they were a day old.And above is a photo from yesterday. The white really stands out now, didn't notice it at first.

And yesterday I get home from a wonderful time (as usual) staying at Garrett Ramsay's farm over the weekend for the Exotic animal auction in Perham. Walked out to the barnyard...hmmm...everyone seems to be there...oh wait...where's Chalmeaux? I hear that soft almost nickering sound, omg she must be in labor! So in high platform sandals, I attempt to climb over the fence...ker-plunk! On my butt/lower back...of course all of my tame ewes came over for pets and treats, but I like to think they were checking to make sure I was okay. Which, I'm alive, but in a lot of pain right now. Don't think I did anything too severe, just stiff and sore mostly. So I hobbled over behind the quonset hut, and low and behold! Twins! Both...almost solid :( lol. That's okay, I've got healthy twins! Both boys... :( Oh well, they're still good, healthy boys. And cute to boot. Both moorit, one blettet for sure, the other may be a krunet, but still has a couple small white spots, so we'll see if they fade or not. Both are F2 Orions out of White Pine Philemon AI, and the one looks to have very nice fleece, other has a bit of a baby coat, but hopefully that will shed out.
yummy fleece!

And last night, mom walked out to the pen to find Maid Marion not a maid anymore! lol. She had a single pretty little fawn kat ram lamb with her. I'll hopefully get photos today or tomorrow :)

So that makes 1...2....3....4...5....oh yes, and number 6, last, but definitely not least. Well, she's kind of a camera hog, so you're going to have to wait til the next blog post to meet my little sweetheart. :)

Waiting impatiently...

2010-03-22T09:56:00.003-05:00

I just wanna go squeeze Disa! She looks to be the first to go. Disa, Marion, Gail & Chalmeaux were all first in with Philemon, for about 3 weeks prior to everyone else. I've been trying to look up the exact date, but so far have been unable to. Last fall/winter was a pretty trying time for me, but it's a new year, and I'm working on a new me.

Sheepies look great :)

2010-03-03T10:49:00.006-06:00

Of course...at the top...my baby Thor :) He's such a honey! And still sooooo soft. Actually thinking about wethering him this year because there is likely no way to get him registered :(

An ALWAYS fat Magnolia. I would hope she's carrying quads this year, but she looked the same last year with twins...hell, she looks the same when she's NOT pregnant...lol. Not wormy, doesn't seem to get too much grain/hay...just is a hefty girl! lol

Silver, our 1/2 Shetland gulmoget spotted ewe lamb. Her other half? Your guess is as good as ours...Goldie is an oddball :)

Beautiful Maid Marion hopefully isn't a maid anymore...:D She's really coming into herself, actually looks more like I thought Alice would...I actually THOUGHT she was Alice the other day, the ear tag gives it away though...because she looks exactly like Alice's mom, Bedegrayne.
And Alice!
Another shot of Maggie :)
And for Ginny...Dory! My beautiful little gulkat out of Torrent and Likei
Trying to get a photo of Raja, nearly impossible...
Chalmeaux :)
Torrent
Mary Poppins
Princess Aurora
This little guy is likely going to be for sale! He's a poll carrier/half poll out of Wintertime Blues X Glenmore March Madness. He is an Ag fawn katmoget. SUPER soft handle, wide crimp.

And mr. Lightning McQueen will likely be staying here. Mom calls him "boyfriend" because he loves her lol. He is Sheltering Pines Cornet X Wintertime Blues. And unfortunately has rooed all his beautiful neck wool! lol. He has little bone knobs, but nothing more. I put each boy over the others mother, so hopefully will get full poll lambs! I decided it can't hurt to have a polled line...right?

March...My old girl. She's such a doll, and I LOVE her face!

Now I need to get my lambs registered asap! Been procrastinating. Had a lot of life changing events happen this year, I'm lucky I even remember to renew my NASSA membership. Lambs will be late this year, and other than the two ewes for the polled line, all lambs will be sired by White Pine Philemon, so probably not too many spots this year as he's solid, but I'm hoping he passes on his wool quality to all his lambs. I still have to find a really nice white ewe this year, so be on the lookout for me! :) I also need to get fleece samples taken! Gah! So behind, so behind.

OMG! I found the sock stealing monster!

2010-03-03T10:01:00.001-06:00

Damn cat....

2010-03-01T06:29:00.002-06:00

Read the wrong blog! lmao...j/k! :D Stole it off a fellow shetland breeders blog, cuz she said to! :) Not much going on in the Northland, getting some decent weather finally. Totally jealous over Garretts babies!

"One Word"

"Your Cell Phone?Walkman

Your Hair? ponytail

Your Mother? friend

Your Father? gone

Your Favorite Food? adobo

Your Dream Last Night? falling

Your Favorite Drink? monster

Your Dream/Goal? spin

What Room Are You In? livingroom

Your Hobby? critters

Your Fear? abandonment

Where Do You See Yourself In Six Years? happier

Where Were You Last Night? work

Something That You Aren't? normal

Muffins? chocolate

Wish List Item? improvements

Where Did You Grow Up? hereish

Last Thing You Did? ate

What Are You Wearing? clothes

Your TV? n/a

Your Pets? spoiled

Friends? few

Your Life? meh

Your Mood? painful

Missing Someone? yes

Vehicle? car

Something You Aren't Wearing? jewelry

Your Favorite Store? HT

Your Favorite Color? black

When Was The Last Time You Laughed? gym

Last Time You Cried? Yesterday

Your Best Friend? Rocks :)

One Place You Go To Over And Over Again? walmart

Facebook? yup

Twitter? confusing

Favorite Place To Eat? Lobster...

I'll just tag whoever reads this... :)

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-23T08:38:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone is having a very merry Christmas season! Although I'm sitting here listening to hard rock (Distubred - Down with the Sickness at the moment...lol) I'm starting to get the Christmas tunes stuck in my head. It's usually sickening to listen to them because being in retail, I start hearing them about 2 months in advance of December...Yeah...Not cool! lol.

Anyway, some fun things coming up/happening in my life!

Got ticket to the Three Days Grace/Breaking Benjamin/Flyleaf concert! SOOO excited. Missed TDG & BB last time they were here in Duluth, was sooo sad. The last time I saw Breaking Benjamin was when they were a no name band with Evanescence at the St. Cloud college and it was just after Denny and I started dating...he actually bought me the tickets before we started dating (Christmas present). They are some very good bands, and I am very excited!

Got the breeding pens together FINALLY! White Pine Philemon has been with Disa, Gail, Wendy & Chalmeaux since he came home, so they should all have earlier babies, but boy did he get a big suprise last night when he got put in the BIG pen with most of the girls! He was one HAPPY boy! lol. Lightning & Woody got put in with each others mothers, in hopes for full poll lambs...that should make some of you poll breeders VERY happy, as these guys should throw GORGEOUS babies! Lightning is a grey kamoget and he is in with March who is a Musket, possibly modified (she's a very neat color). Woody is an Ag Fawn Katmoget, and he is in with Cornet who is a gulmoget...Crossing my fingers for a gulkat! Wouldn't it be fun to get a full poll, uber soft & crimpy, Ag gulkat ram? Although a ewe would be nice too ;-) Philemon got the rest of the girls minus Goldie. Which comes to another, although sad, story.

Likei is no longer top ram...by any means. They knocked him down and would have made mince meat out of him had mom not been there, so he got moved to a seperate pen, and now has Goldie for company and a lil' lovin, since she produced such a GORGEOUS spotted gulmoget ewe lamb last spring.
Silver

Silver & Goldie

Likei will likely live out the rest of his days at the farm, as mom is SUPER attached to him. I do admit, he's been our best ram. Never once put his head down towards us, even in the ewe pen. Mom never had to worry about him in his years here. Can't say that about ANY other ram we've had. Although mom gets a kick out of Philemon...She was worried at first because he was always crowding her, but he was just wanting a scratch and to be close to her because she is the "grain bringer" lol.

So, I thought Philemon was MORE than enough of a Christmas present...so a couple days ago, mom starts mentioning that she's getting me ANOTHER BIG present...I kind of had an inkling the way she'd been talking about our neighbor lady A LOT lately...our neighbor lady who likes to SPIN...our neighbor lady who has voulnteered her wheels for me to come SPIN on to try them out...low and behold...what does mom bring over yesterday?

Spoiled do you think? lol! It's a homemade wheel, but Carol even says it's WAY better than her first wheel ever was...*sigh* What ever shall I do with my mother...besides hug her :) lol. So now I need to watch some videos on Youtube so I can try to figure out what I'm doing...She also sent over some Corridale roving! Nice lady :) Apparently Moose Lake has open spinning sometimes in the evenings, and Carol thinks if I bring my wheel one of the ladies can get me started. Very excited to start spinning!

And this is for Ginny...her favorite ewe lamb of mine...well, at least the only one she's ever mentioned!

This is Dory, Torrent X Likei. Cute little fuzzy gulkat. She's open crimped, and feels pretty soft when I've gotten ahold of her. Unfortunately not registerable :( But a gorgeous gulkat nonetheless.

Anyway, I think I'm going to try to get some things done today. I hope everyone has a great Christmas!

Free Chicken nesting box!

2009-12-07T05:49:00.000-06:00

Excellent giveaway on http://georgiafarmwoman.blogspot.com/2009/12/chicken-nest-box-giveaway.html A free nesting box! Go, sign up now!! :) I'll blog later for real :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T16:41:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours...And happy shopping in less than 12 hours! :)

TWLOHA Day

2009-11-13T13:40:00.004-06:00

To Write Love On Her Arms day...Depression Awareness. Emily has a nice blog about it. Please don't overlook it if you think someone may suffer from depression.

Doggies!

2009-11-09T06:12:00.010-06:00

My Smudgy showing off her pretty nailcaps! :)

Was going to get breeding groups together this weekend, but my back is out, and that makes for not fun moving big sheep. lol. Sooo it will have to be next weekend. I already have an idea, but I'm sure I'll be making last minute changes!

These are all backwards of how I wanted to post them, but here goes anyway! This is Wally...short for Walrus...LOL. He was the single survivng puppy out of Meekas 2 pup litter (His sister had no sucking reflex and didn't last the day). Of course, he got all the milk...and he's a cute little chub because of it! He is SO darling. He is looking for a new home, please inquire if interested! :)

"What is this!?"

"Huh?"

"I've got squash on my face!"
"Here, this is my good side"

"What's this thing in front of your face?"

"PLAY WITH ME!"
"Hey you..."

"Whachya doin' down there?"
"This is humiliating! And cold!"

"Pet me! Pet me! Pet me! Pick me up! PLEASE!"
Here he was saying hello to Oden...the dog who could likely eat him in one bite...but LOVES other dogs, so would never hurt him intentionally...but he would love to play with him too, hence the fence...lol
"It's bright out here!"
"Yes, I'm beautiful!" Rebel is all grown up...almost!
Pretty Meeka is blowing most of her coat being it's weaning time for Wally!
Rebel's bracing himself for impact of...
TIMMY! lol

These two are best buds...it will be sad to see Timmy go, but Rebel also loves his girlie Madonna, and plays just as rough with her, plus she can keep up...longer legs help lol.

Mr. Priss is sitting on the step so he doesn't get his bum cold...I wish I could have gotten a good shot of his "pajama pants" SO cute...he's all frilly and fluffy in the back end right now...

Cutesey Wootsey Timmy...who is also looking for a home.

Da boys...

2009-10-26T13:17:00.004-05:00

Everyone was in for the day on a dreary morning a week or so ago, so I took some photos! The young boys let me in their pen with no problems, but I just stayed in the back so as not to cause any problems. Plus, Robin Hood & Rifle are quite naughty, and like to take not so nice shots at me...lol.

Robin Hood & Lightning (Both Blues sons)

Everyones names are on them if you want to biggify and look. Marlin, Mickey and Pluto are for sale at the moment, though Pluto may be going to the butcher barn, not sure yet.
Beautiful Peter Pan! Keeping a close eye on his horns. They're looking good so far, but want to make sure they STAY looking good. I have high hopes for this young man :)
Even though I've always preferred horns...these two have stolen my heart. Lightning McQueen & Woody. Woody is Ag as well.
Beautiful Lightning! I ADORE his face. And he's SUCH a sweetheart!
Thor and Rifle demanding attention...and even though it looks like they're the same size, they're not. Rifle is just a mite compared to Thor, he's fooling us by standing in the wall feeder lol.
Thor & Peter. You can kind of see Peters faded facial markings here, he's a spottie :)
Awww...he's smiling...lol.
Arturo & Likei being NAUGHTY! They only do a little barn bashing when breeding season starts coming around, and even then it's nothing to shake a stick at compared to what I've seen some rams do. I'm SO glad I've been so lucky with boys.

"Bye Mom! Come back soon for more loving!"

Most of my older boys will be getting someone. I have some VERY nice boys available at the moment. Please contact me if you're looking for a nice boy to introduce to some ladies :)

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

2009-10-10T09:37:00.003-05:00

Dammit Eryn, you jinxed me!

Baaaaddd blogger...

2009-10-09T12:07:00.016-05:00

I'm sorry! :( I've been having lots of problems lately, including being sick for about the last three weeks, and just haven't had the mental capabilities to blog. Anyway! Better late than never, right?

Mom and I had a BLAST. We got there in time to chit chat with some people, help Garrett round up his loose Shetlands :) and see some of the vendors. We were planning on sleeping in the truck, but Lori Stephenson of Sommarang Farm was nice enough to offer us a bed at her house instead. So we putzed around, went to eat with Nancy, Juliann, Gail, and a few of their friends at this super cute little eattery in town. Great food! I think mom and I may make that a tradition...because she TOLD me that Jefferson is GOING to be a tradition now, because she is going to be showing sheep, wether I like it or not LOL. Instead of going home with just the three I was picking up from Juli(Shetlering Pines Chalmeaux, Robin Hood & Maid Marion out of Sheltering Pines Arabesque X WinterTime Blues), I ended up purchasing a ewe I've been *literally* drooling over for nearly two years now from Lori. Her name is Sommarang Disa, and I have just loved her look from the first time Garrett showed me Lori's website. I also purchased her daughter, Gail. Photos in the blog to follow. But anyway, I met lots of lovely people, though unfortunately I got Emmy's call too late to hook up with her friend to get one of her corgi's siblings photos. I bought a needle felting kit, and a drop spindle kit...I am now officially addicted to needle felting! I haven't even touched the spindle kit yet :( lol Doesn't help with being sick and all. If you go to my art blog, I put up a photo of my first creation! Anyway...on to the photos! As always, click to biggefy!

There was a whole pen of these ADORABLE little lambs that were just born...I just wanted to scoop them all up and take them home! Can anyone elaborate on what breeds they were?

I <3 Spots!
Lookee the spots! :)
And then this girl...now, I'd heard of 6 horns on the rams, but on the ewes too?! Amazing. Just gorgeous!
Closeup!

Garrett and Briony...Garrett's sporting a LOVELY new fashion this year... an ankle brace and a plastic bag! lol. This is G showing his beautiful BFL ram lamb.

Woolsy getting comfortable next to my beautiful bag I bought from the NASSA booth. They're very durable, I use mine all the time now. I actually went back and bought a second the next day because I liked it so much!

I believe this is the Juniors class.
I am in love with this ewe of Lori Stephensons...but of course, it's a gulkat! :)

Panoramic of the juniors class.

Mature ram class
Letty Klein speaking about the rams. She did a lot of that, talking...lots and lots...
Poor Corinne waiting for Letty Klein...She looks so bored, doesn't she? Hehehe

Beautiful boy!Yearling rams
Ram yearlings

Bad ram yearlings not walking...lol

Juli's Ram lamb...what a cutie!
Aren't they adorable? :)
I <3 Gulmogets!
Champion ram
A Sommarang bred GORGEOUS little boy...the owners were going to neuter him for a pet because he's a bottle baby, but Letty Klein strongly advised Lori to talk to the owners and to use him for breeding. He was stunning!
Ewe class
Lori with her adult katmoget ewe
Yearling class I think?
Juli with Marion
The whole ewe lamb class

Marion ALMOST got best fleece on hoof...Letty kept going back between that super nice little ram lamb of Lori's neighbors, one of Under The Son's and Maid Marion...Theresa's little ram lamb was GORGEOUS as well...Lori cleaned up by winning most of the classes, and this single coated katmoget ewe above took most of the ribbons, I believe. I don't know why I don't have photos of the group classes, but Lori took the small flock class too :) Congrats Sommarang Farm!

Oh yeah! And I won a lovely shawl in the MSSBA auction. Juli's friend said she was going to outbid me, but let me have it cuz I'd put like...8 bids on it lol. I absolutely love it! I had an allaround great time, and can't wait til next year!

A day at the fair with Kenzie!

2009-08-16T23:33:00.007-05:00

And Brian and Stacie (her parents) of course! I figured I could blog all my photos, rather than email them because it's way cuter that way, and then it doesn't bog down their email :) Enjoy!

I LOOOVE the above photo!

It's been decided...

2009-08-16T11:21:00.002-05:00

well, pending a micron test...I'm going to keep Lightning McQueen, even after the test breeding to March. I just adore his fleece, and he's become the second sweetest ram I own. Plus, the scurs have competely broken off and there are just lumps there now. Soooo...that means that I may have some polled genetics in the works :) Very very SOFT polled genetics...I LOVE Lightnings fleece...did I mention that already? lol. I've got a comparison photo, though it isn't very good, between Peters and Lightnings...it's crazy. Lightning has this very beautiful soft grey/blue coloring to his fleece, and Peter has a gorgeous dark blue/grey color. 1/2 brothers, so different...I love them both. As long as Peters micron and horns are okay, he'll be staying. Unfortunately, it looks like Maters fleece (Cornet X Blues) isn't turning out as nice as I'd hoped. Time will tell, but also unfortunately is both black boys look to not have good horns...Maters esp. So, they both may be looking for pet homes, which is great for Abu (Olga X Blues) because he is so overly friendly as it is.

I took some photos, but am heading out to the fair soon (camera in tow) so will see if I can't post them tonight or tomorrow. My vacation is almost over...unfortunately I didn't get to go to MFF because between Dennys car and my truck, we didn't have a vehicle that was good enough to go...Dennys starter went, he was stuck in Duluth for 45 minutes the other day before it would start again...lol. Was suppose to get tires for my truck (my tires don't wanna make it much more than to and from Barnum), but the dude never called me back, so I could have bought brand new tires, but then I wouldn't have been able to afford to go out there anyway lol. Ahh the joys of life. Anyway, have go to meet some friends at the fair, so better go get dressed into real clothes instead of PJs! Hopefully have some nice photos later :)

New Guinea Singing Dogs

2009-08-11T11:58:00.003-05:00

Will likely take a while to load...but it was just neat! Got to see them in PA at Claws N Paws Animal Park. Along with loads of other nifty critters, including a white tiger, an albino wallaby and some uber cute monkeys!

I'm beaten and bruised but....

2009-07-18T16:05:00.001-05:00

SHEARING IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

woot woot!

Maybe some photos tomorrow...forgot my camera today...forgot a lot of things today...now must go shower and get butt in bed...have to wake up in 5 hours...*cry*