Milking a sheep...crazy!

I weaned my two Icelandic lambs last night, and we had to listen to their cries all night long! Poor little girls! It was kindof hilarious...if you've seen one of those screaming goat videos on youtube, yeah, it was like that.  I sheared their Icelandic mom, Ysabel, this morning with a pair of scissors. I had to tie her to the fence, but she stood for an hour while I worked her fleece off. I'm fairly sure the prior owners hadn't been doing the needed twice a year shearing, because cutting through the wool was like a foam mattress. I did salvage *some wool to experiment with, and the silky wool coming in underneath is gorgeous. I can't wait till fall for a good fleece!  And then...I milked her.  Never  in my life did I think I'd milk a sheep. Wierd experience. I definitely need some practice.  I've had one milk goat and she was a nice calm milker...but mostly the milk tasted like goat and I only used it in baking. I only got about 2 oz out of  Ysabel  because I think she's still pretty stressed over the weaning so I'll try again tonight. I pasteurized it because it was my first time and I wasn't sure how clean everything was.... but OH MY. I'm shocked at how delicious it is! No aftertaste...just like the creamiest raw, whole cows milk you've ever tasted. Yes, I think this will be worth the trouble! :-D
 

For more information on our farm, please visit http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#

Icelandic Sheep

On vacation with the family this month I was reading about Icelandic sheep, and their fine meat & milk, hardiness, but mostly the long beautiful wool...and wow, I wanted to add a few to my flock! When we arrived home I looked for breeders in Virginia, and found this rarer breed here in the states ran around $500- $600 each! Yikes. I chalked it up as a dream I'd make happen someday....
Well, last week when I was doing my daily  browse of the Craigslist farm & garden section (pathetic, yes, I know.) I stumbled on an ad for a family of them. A 2 yr old registered Ram & Ewe with the CLRC, and their two unregistered ewe lambs, $600 for all four! My amazing husband hardly batted an eye...I guess he knew how much I really wanted them. So, yesterday we went to meet our new additions & bring them home. They were pretty wary of us, and we had to do some creative wrestling, tackling and hobbling to get them all loaded into our 12 passenger van. Thankfully the sellers were flexible with our lack of livestock transportation! It was a little crazy and exciting getting them all loaded, but we managed to get them home safe and sound. The Ram is MASSIVE and I'm in love with the corkscrew curls on the lambs!
Here we are driving home...

We are quite intimidated by those horns, but Ysildur, the new ram, is already eating out of our hands...still afraid of us, but with his size, we like that he is afraid of us. ;-) ha!

The ewe lambs are already 2 months old so we'll try to wean them soon. This year with the CLRC, the names are supposed to begin with A, so we are naming them Aowyn and Astryd. Hoping to get them registered but since I still don't know how to tattoo or do the ear tag, they may remain unregistered. This is all a learning process! We will definitely be organized by next spring to make sure the new yrs lambs are fully registered as purebred Icelandic. :-)

The wool on these sheep is very thick and shedding off, and the condition leaves me wondering if they were sheared in the fall at all. The prior owners were pretty scared of Ysildur...I can see they may not have had them sheared. We will tackle the job this weekend with one of our LDS sister missionaries from Utah who in addition to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, also knows how to shear sheep. haha!  Once we get Ysabel (mom) sheared, we will wean the girls and hopefully get her trained for milking. Ooooh, to make soap and cheese and kefir with fresh sheep milk! Looking forward to that experiment!

Last week my best friend came to stay with us for a vacation. I showed her how I learned to sort, wash, and spin wool. It was such a great time, sitting around with our piles of fleece...sooo relaxing! I also made her a tinker toy spindle. You make do with what you have! haha!

This is her first skein of California Red yarn. :-) Still needed to be washed to set the yarn so it was all sweet and curly!

My in-laws visited last week as well, so I sent them home with my first hand spun wool project of a scarf. I've since learned to spin thinner strands, but still, I thought it turned out to be beautiful!  Amazingly soft for wool...no itchy wool on my sheep!

& I've just gotta mention how much I love my hubby and how grateful I am for his support. He has always funded and encouraged my crazy ideas...I don't think he ever expected it to be sheep. Here he is out riding Mr. Baxter.  Thanks sweetheart! <3

For more information on our farm, please visit http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#

Boiling fat? o-k....

Fresh off of butchering the lambs and running out of room in the freezer, I decided to make tallow from the lamb fat so that I can try soap making later in the year. In the crock pot is definitely the easy way to cook down the fat...but next time, it will go outside on an extension cord. HOLY-moley, the smell!!! Still,  I had a great end product! I never thought I'd be so excited for a 'pie slice' of fat.

 I was so happy to find that tractor supply sells these awesome old -school burlap bags. It's much nicer to see my wool stacked out in these than in big plastic bags. I love sitting out on the balcony and watching the birds and the sheep & horses while picking through the fleece, my hands smelling like grease and lanolin. It's so relaxing!  I can just picture some household servant sitting out and doing the same thing in this very spot 200 yrs ago.

 

My old brick oven in the background...one of these days I'm going to bake a loaf of bread out there, or better yet, a pizza!

Washed my first skein of yarn in hot water to set the spin...a cast iron skillet makes an awesome weight! I'm really getting the hang of it now, and am on spinning my 4th skein of yarn!

 

Expanding our rabbit...flock? Someone from church had half a dozen rabbit babies to re-home before going on vacation, so of course, they ended up at my house. This one is a New Zealand mix, but 2 of them are pretty white lion heads, and another friend dropped off a cutie- pie of a lop eared buck for my lop eared female. Babies to sell next Easter?
:-) We made them a grazing pen out on the lawn and each of the kids adopted a bunny or two. It's crazy to go out and see chickens, ducks and rabbits all over the place! haha.

 

 

I celebrated my 40th birthday this week. My birthday present this year was my 'old' house, my sheep, and a new flag. :-) My family and best friends celebrated the day with us, and really, I couldn't have asked more! I am so blessed by my Heavenly Father to have a life I've always dreamed of. Sure there are trials and hard work, both raising my children and growing our farm, but there is so much joy in a simple life. I guess if I actually had blown out 40 candles on my cake, I would have wished that my kids will not lose the freedoms that this flag represents.

 

 

For more information on our farm, please visit http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#

"Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy yarn, which is kind of the same thing.”

This weekend I grabbed an old book on wool spinning, my carders, a bag of freshly washed wool, and a drop spindle I made from tinker toys as my family headed down to Virginia Beach for the weekend. I didn't take nearly enough wool because after only a few hrs in the car, I had a good technique down and actually had spun a substantial amount by the time I ran out of wool! It was so easy and amazing, I taught my 7 and 8 yr old how to do it! The wool is so soft and almost has a silky quality to it. The oatmeal color has flecks of auburn which are just beautiful. It's not perfect, but I am excited to set the spin and try out a crochet project! It will take some significant time to spin enough to have yarn to sell, but I do have 4 bags full of sheared wool waiting to be washed! I think I'd better ask my hubby for a spinning wheel for Christmas!

After returning from our trip, we had two lambs sitting in the refrigerator waiting to be butchered. I've never actually eaten lamb, so after about 2 hrs of slicing and trimming and occasionally sawing (through the ribcage... that is quite an experience) I made a lamb-burger out of some leftover cuts. Ohhhhh, so tender and delicious! I am hooked! We had a roast for dinner tonight cooked in the crock pot with just rosemary and sea salt. It was the best meat I've ever tasted. Only the very slightest 'sheepy' aftertaste, as the kids call it.  So rewarding to have taken the lamb from pasture to table!


For more information on our farm, please visit http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#

 

"I think I am quite ready for another adventure!"

I suppose I have to start blogging somewhere! My hubby Jason and I have been thrown into the farm business here in Woodstock. We are starting off small with a flock of 10 sheep, and hope to expand to be able to provide meat, wool and milk for our own family and to the community. We have a few Black American ducks and laying hens, and with the weather finally warming up, the garden is finally starting to take off...hopefully I'll have thousands of heirloom seeds to sell this autumn! I'm really excited to be growing bushel gourds this year, in addition to loofah sponges and birdhouse gourds. I am also growing a rare corn seed called glass gem corn!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We love our old place and despite the quirkiness and constant repairs required on a house that is 200+ years old, we thank our Heavenly Father every day for the opportunity to own our very own piece of paradise...(if paradise has the occasional scent of manure wafting through the breeze.) Please be patient with us as we develop our farm! Last week we did the unimaginable and sheared our own sheep. We had a few nicks and too many mistakes with second cuts on our wool, but overall we did a pretty good job (with 4-5 people helping with each sheep, lol) and today I started the sorting and washing process. It's beautiful oatmeal and auburn colored wool which I hope to begin carding and spinning into sellable yarn. I have lots of raw wool to work with and may just try to sell it, too...but there is something really wonderful about the smelly work of washing out a fleece. (No cheating with a washing machine!) I couldn't help but marvel about how this process has been going on at home for thousands of years, up until the last few generations. I am so blessed to be able to experience it with my family!

For more information on our farm, please visit http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#