The Count Down to Shearing and Lambs – 28 days

Feb15

Shearing date has been set for the morning of Saturday, March 16th (usually around 10:00, but rather fluid). This is a fun day with friends, family, and interested members of the public invited. Potential new shepherds are especially welcome, since they are often pressed into service and, thus, have a chance to learn a bit about the process before they have to do it for themselves. A light lunch is provided. Lambs could begin arriving as early as the 15th, so there may be lambs to cuddle (or just watch frolic) during the event! RSVP appreciated.

North Star Farm Tour – Sep 29 & 30!

Sep26

Final preparations are under way for this weekend’s event. Latest shipment of cleaned and carded wool is wound in 3 ounce balls and labeled, and the last couple of batches of preserves are in the works. Sheep, wool, and tree fruits are the essence of Prairie Plum Farm and this is one of the few sales events of my year. Once again I will be packing up and heading to Melodee and Hugh Smith’s, Clear Spring Yak Farm in rural Welch, MN. It is a phenomenal venue for public events with indoor sales and demonstration area (and luscious food!). Come see the many fiber animals…. yaks, alpacas, rabbits, and, of course, my Babydoll and crossbred lambs! A fun weekend outing with opportunities to learn about animals and fiber to boot. And maybe replenish your fiber stash!!!!

https://www.facebook.com/northstarfarmtour/

The rovings, both simple and combed (a.k.a. top) have been rolled into balls for easy dispensing. Here are colored and off-white Babydolls’ and one silver Shetland’s most recent shearing harvest.

Daria is a honey – she is first to come to the fence to greet me. Her lovely fleece is coming in beautifully. She is one of the triplets born this spring to Brea and Tioga. She validates my desire to introduce Finn fleece traits into a fraction of my registered Babydoll flock.

Not quite a stunt double – this is Babydoll ewe lamb, Dayna, not the off-white flockmate, Dixie, who most likely will be traveling with Daria and I to Welch. Dixie is camera shy.

Numerous flavors of preserves will be for sale, some from fruit harvested from trees mown by the flock and others to provide variety and all to capture the flavor essence of summer for year-round enjoyment.

Readying for this Weekend’s Shepherds’ Harvest

May9

I’ve been working towards the Shepherds’ Harvest weekend for months now, but it wasn’t until this morning that it turned out I will be in my own booth. I’m not sure where that will be. The North Star Farm Tour was ousted from Building A so we are dispersed to the commercial buildings and out-of-doors.

Five of my fleeces are entered in the Fleece Competition and Silent Auction: 2 dark gray Babydolls, 1 off-white Babydoll, 1 super black Finn x Doll, and 1 bright white Finn x Doll. All of these are from animals that wore protective coats for much or all of the year leading up to shearing.

I will be bringing additional skirted fleeces, rovings, top, quilt batting, and yarn – all natural colors. I’m throwing in a photo of myself and Sasha, my livestock-guardian-dog-in-training so you will recognize me when you see me this weekend.

Calvin’s first fleece – intense black but smaller

Tammy’s fleece (will be in competition) – gorgeous grays and SOFT!

Becka’s fleece will be in competition. She is half Finn half Babydoll.

A sampling of the fiber that will be for sale next weekend (or any day on-line). It does not include items yet from this year’s shearing, like super black lamb and a wool/alpaca blend.

Natural Babydoll Lambswool – Olivia.

Me and my new LGD Sasha.

North Star Farm Tour

Sep21

I will once again be taking part in this very enjoyable event. Carly, Brea? and I, along with wool and fruit products will be traveling to Melodee and Hugh Smith’s Clearwater Yak farm outside Welch, MN for the weekend of September 3oth/ October 1st. I just got back a bunch of roving that I will be selling. Hope to see you there!

http://www.northstarfarmtour.com/

Olivia’s off-white Babydoll rovings. More off-white besides her’s will be available.

Tammy’s rovings (Babydoll).

Fergie’s rovings (Babydoll) Warm light brown.

Finn x Doll twin combined rovings. (greater portion of their fleeces were sold as coated raw fleece). First fleece and luxurious! Brighter white than Babydoll.

Penny’s rovings. Darkest Babydoll.

Moonshadow, the Shetland’s, pindrafted rovings. Beautiful silver!!

Hattie’s Babydoll rovings. Cooler lt. brown.

Shepherd’s Harvest Outcome

May17

It was a wonderful time at Shepherd’s Harvest in Lake Elmo, MN this past weekend. Unlike last year when I borrowed mittens, both days were warm and sunny. The fleece competition went about as well as could be expected. Three of my four fleeces got first place ranking (blue) and the 4th got 2nd place – because it was competing against one of my other fleeces. I was especially happy about receiving 2 ratings of 19, 1 of 18, and 1 of 17 out of a possible 20 pts. for cleanliness and purity. In all, I sold 8 plus 2 halves out of 10 fleeces taken to the event, so I am very satisfied. One customer already reported back that she spun some from one of my fleeces “in the grease” and loved it! I got to talk sheep and wool the entire 2 days, plus was able to see friends and the other exhibits. It was great! I’m looking forward to seeing some of the folks who stopped at the both at the North Star Farm Tour September 30th and October 1st. I’ll be at Clear Spring (Yak) Farm with a couple of this year’s lambs and more wool.

The display got a little sparse towards the end. Note the ribbons displayed on the card/rovings rack.

Shearing Day at Prairie Plum Farm

Mar19

It was a super busy day at Prairie Plum Farm on Saturday. Guests pitched in and helped shear the flock – learning as they went. There were also 2 new arrivals – ram/ewe twins, tentatively named Calvin and Calista from Hattie and 5 lambs were reserved to go to new homes.

Steve Johnson showing good form holding Beck a in the on-deck circle.

Naomi Johnson and Ken Heidlebaugh taking a break after cornering Bashful and removing her coat for shearing.

Brent Winslow in the middle of shearing, Carol Wiegrefe and Moonshadow watching. He’s hoping for an opening so he can make a jail break.

Kari Jovaag awaiting fleece to scoop up, Lilly contemplating next coat to hand over, and Carol discussing some random sheep with Sara West.

Larisa Walk and Hailey working out the intricacies of the bag holder for storing the new fleeces.

The newly shorn ladies in their new spring attire.

The first morning for Hattie’s twins. Watchful mom to upper right.

Twin sisters (Fergie’s) cuddling in the corner of their jug.

Fantastic Fleeces

Feb18

I’ve become super excited about this coming season’s shearing! This week I was out changing up coats on the flock to keep ahead of growing wool and got to see and feel their fleeces – up close and personal. They so impressed me that I’ve decided to enter a number in the fleece competition at Shepherds’ Harvest fiber festival this May. If all goes as planned, here is the line-up:

Sheep Division Class Breed

Olivia Purebred Medium Babydoll Southdown

Adrien Purebred Medium Babydoll Southdown

Becka Colored Medium? Babydoll Southdown X Finnsheep

Bro White Medium? Babydoll Southdown X Finnsheep

Below are a few close-up images of the wool beneath the coats. Nina’s fleece is always longer than most, but she was only coated since November, so Olivia’s, who also trends longer, will be entered. She’s been coated since last shearing. The Finnsheep crosses may be fine enough that the judges will move them to the fine category. There they would be up against Merinos who have very fine textured wool. Since cleanliness is highly weighted, I’m thinking they should do fine anyway. I am planning – time permitting – to post pictures/ weights of fleeces and offer for sale on this website. The fleeces exhibited at Shepherds Harvest will be auctioned off there (unless I get an “offer I cannot refuse” 😉 ). I am also planning a shearing day open house (March 18th) where newly shorn fleeces can be purchased. My coat provider, Rocky, was telling me that it’s been a good wool growing year with some flocks growing into sizes of coats they’ve never had to use before. Click on each image for a close up look at their crimp!

Nina’s back wool – luscious and long!

Adrien’s back wool – still nicely dark.

Bro’s back wool – perhaps 4″ long!

Lamb Mug Shots

Apr19

NABSSAR has amended its registration requirements to include hard copy photos of sheep to be registered showing their head and ID tags – preferably the Scrapies farm tags. Taking these gives me a chance to show you-all the cute faces of this season’s lambs.