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
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