Saturday, February 21, 2015

It Seems We Just Meet Our Puppies and They're Gone

Our last two puppies are being picked-up on Saturday and one of my precious lambs. So hard to let go of the last babies. Our lamb is a yearling-past and skiddish. I had to put her in with the goat yearlings to get her away from our ram coming into rut.


See Laney, my daughter and family's Queensland Heeler trying to help me? She's peeking behind the gate.

The goats at this age are annoying! They both want to chew holes in clothing and do brodies off anyone's body. I think I have hoof bruises. I hope they settle-down before they knock me down. They've got to stop that behavior; I don't need to be pushed-over ever again. The buck just plain convinced me I don't need that type of rough play. These young does are still so playful and I know they're trying to get my attention.


I was taking a picture of the yearling ewe. Not a prize winner. She has such a thin face no brains at all (and that's a shame because she a sheep) Her general conformation shows she needs generally more width.


We just had our sheep shorn recently and I had a really hard time making a full load of hot water to wash our new wool. There's new regulations in temperature in water heaters so we all don't scald ourselves. I remember wearing rubber gloves when we had the older HOT water heater to protect my hands from the hot water. 

I tried and tried to carry scalding hot water from my stove-top to my washer.  It's pretty dangerous walking with heavy and almost boiling-hot water. 

Steve saw what I was doing and rigged a new method. I heated water on the BBQ and used Dawn Dishwashing liquid. We used the old washer that has a hard time agitating, but spins perfectly. All water spinned-out...goes directly into my flowers and plants. Here's the set-up. Grease is gone. (basically)


I'm looking forward to getting it all done and dry. Pretty long process when we have winds or RAIN LIKE COMING TOMORROW. Wool dries slowly out on the make-shift racks. We use our extra chain link fence, hog fencing and chicken wire over the big holes.


I completed one and one-half fleece of the white. I don't see much true white, it's still more like off-white and darker...I don't think I can use the darker. The wool has been felted on the sheep. I know most of it will spin. It feels like spider-webs.


The dry wool looks brown, but it's faded black with lots of silver from our older ewe. Most off the silver wool's still protected in the car and hopefully not getting glued-all-up together.


Is this the most fun, ever! Well...no. Finding someone in my genealogy gets a shout every time, but this is a dream to spin my own wool from my own sheep. I have a Schacht Spindle and it's called The Ladybug Spinning Wheel, and there's a secret ladybug hidden near the wheel. I found it! I received new cards because a lady took my old ones when I gave her some extra wool. That's okay, because they gave me blisters. These cards are curved. There's also extra bobbins and a drop spindle to learn how to draft to make my wool tightly woven. It'll be fun when I go with Steve and use the drop spindle in the car or truck. This spindle takes some effort and isn't weighted like the others, but my efforts will help give my legs and feet some added exercise, not to mention the concentration brain power to be able to feed the wool-in and not make "crazy yarn". Crazy yarn is my specialty.

Here's Trevor Hollenback Services for shearing our sheep. It was trained in Austria and New Zealand. The motor is above and never burns the sheep's delicate skin. He changes the cutters often and then goes home and grinds them sharp again. I bet there were 50 cutters on his wire-holder up hanging on the fence to change-out. The fleeces came out on one-piece like a blanket. Be sure to look at his website for more information. He's traveling the western states.


More wool washing after our rainy weekend.

Time tomorrow to say goodbye to the lamb ewe and our two little female puppies. The little girl puppies are both traveling a long way to their home. Tomorrow will be a good day with tears mixed-in.



The pups have great homes. Bye Mercedes and Jetta. We'll really remember this darling litter. Thank you very warmly to all for getting your puppy from us and we are thrilled they'll be blessed with such great families!


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

We Still Have Puppies Check-Out Our Heeler Page


 
Darby & Duelly
 



I think its my turn to show some pictures and they're really just starting to really play!
We over-worked them before the pictures and poor Chevy, he was sleeping at my feet,
it's a wonder we had pictures of him with his eyes open. 
 

These pups are still little and just starting to feel good about being without their mother and out in a field. They were either at my feet or in my arms or under the camera while Tanner was taking pictures. We tried for the middle of the day so not to have long shadows, but that's their regular naptime and their playtime was only about an hour before they were sound asleep. Wake a puppy and we get a grumpy face. I'll update again next week and we should have a "wild bunch" on our hands.

 Marnie's Puppies Are All Sold


Lottie Sold