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!

Felting Fun

Feb16

It’s not ALL work with the farm. I had a mini-vacation earlier this month to play with fleece. I had long wanted to learn needle felting from Stacy Dreckhan of Beelighted fiber shop and Artify consignment art store in Zumbrota. The opportunity presented itself and I made the voyage for a private lesson, no less! It was great fun and I was quite satisfied with the resulting gnome. The sheep is, I believe, a product of Nancy Ellison’s daughter, but is something I am interested in emulating.

Stacy, the master felter.

New Projects Inside and Out

Feb16

The woolly ones are often foremost on my mind as lambing time nears. I’ve been doing some updates to their accommodations to keep them comfortable and healthy.

The feed bunkers improve things in 3 ways – greater space (shoulder room) to feed grain, hay not eaten off of ground (less loss of fines and fewer parasites ingested), and, (when 4″ x 4″ fence grid in place), less neck wool contamination. Although this is mainly for the new mothers come late March – here the wethers are vying for some choice bits. Bashful hangs out in the background.

Second feed bunker modified to prevent through passage in first use.

This shows the reroofing of a shed that was partially deconstructed a while back. The white metal was saved from remodel of my house. At least a part of the non-pregnant sheep will have shelter here for the next couple of months – depending on how well the rams get along. …Or bratty Moonshadow vs. little Bucko.

former PPF lambs hit the fair circuit

Aug5

Michael Goulet and an assistant made a bit of a splash at the Benton County Fair this week showing Bella and Bliss in the March Lamb division. This is the first time Babydolls had been exhibited at in that county’s fair. Bella landed a second place award and Bliss came in right behind her in third place. Congratulations to Michael for his showmanship and thanks to his mom, Connie, for the image!

Michael with Bliss and assistant with Bella in the show ring.

Spin In Fiber Event Saturday, April 23 Decorah

Apr20

I’m looking forward to this Saturday’s Spin-In in Decorah, IA. The Oneota Weavers are hosting the Iowa Federation of Weavers and Spinners Conference at the Winneshiek Co. Fairgrounds. I’ll be vending my Babydolls’ wool as raw fleece, rovings, top, batts (quilt and craft sizes), sport yarn, and felting 4-packs.
There are sessions most of the day for Federation members, but the vendor building will be open to the public from 11:30 to 1:30. Any Fiber Fiends among you are invited!

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.

Bashful – TW Hattie by Winslow DOB 031916

Bea – SG Penny by Winslow DOB 032216

Becka – SG Tammy by Arlo (Finn) DOB 032216

Betsy – TW Claire by Winslow DOB 033016

Bliss – TW Claire by Winslow DOB 033016

Beau – TW Fergie by Winslow DOB 033116

Bella – TW Fergie by Winslow DOB 033116

Brea – TW La Nina by Arlo (Finn) DOB 040416

Bro – TW La Nina by Arlo (Finn) DOB 040416

Bonita – TW Olivia by Winslow DOB 040316

Babette – TW Hattie by Winslow DOB 031916

First of the cross-breds arrives

Mar27

Becka selfie with eartag.

On Tuesday afternoon, March 22nd, Tammy gave birth to a bouncing baby girl who I’ve named Becka. She’s deep black and her half-Finn heritage is evident in her shorter tail and incredibly soft facial hair. She’s the best snuggle buddy in the pen! She’s the youngest right now (March 27), but more than keeps up with her pen mates. I will definitely be keeping this treasure for my fiber flock. I’m hoping Nina provides me with an off-white half-sister soon.

Wooly Warmth

Dec20

I’m super excited to be getting a duvet (comforter inside a case) made from the bulk of my second-quality wool – FOR ME! The St. Peter Wollen Mill offers this service. I send them 8 pounds of greasy (but skirted and sorted) wool and they return a 90″ by 90″ duvet. I also intend to take them up on their service of sewing the zippered cover once I figure out what 10 yards fabric I will send to them. I will be cozy this winter snuggled under my flock’s old coats!

End-of-Season Hazel Count

Dec20

This last week I made a final hazel inventory with the help of my boarder, Mark Hamann. We found 121 first year hazels still alive representing an 82% stocking level and 63% survival. You can see I did lots of replanting even during this first year to replace losses from wandering calves and weak plants. I accepted some weak plants at discount because I wanted specific genetics – so expected some losses.

In general the plants, all from Badgersett, performed well. One high light was the final row, planted on the 16th of August, which has 100% survival to date. These plants had been upcanned to Anderson bands (AB39, 3″ x 3″ x 9″ or AB410, 4″ x 4 x 10″) and were actively growing when planted and had been growing outside for a number of weeks. As Philip says, maintaining the momentum is important.

There has been much burrowing by rodents under the landscape fabric I used to keep weed competition down. The diameter of the tunnels is about 1.0 to 1.5″ so could be 13-lined ground squirrels or mice. There are mole tunnels as well in the planting area

Mark with ground cloth removed from row B.

Snowless winter allowed us to mow tall weeds that had provided summer protection from desication.

, but between the rows, not under the fabric. They tend to be quite a bit larger in diameter. The nicely loosened soil there is much more to their liking than that compacted by the calves on the other side of the fence.

In our year-end clean up, we removed the fabric from one of the 4 rows and mowed the weeds down that had provided protection from drying wind. At this point I figure the risk of providing habitat for rabbits and rodents was greater than the plants getting desicated by wind. I’m hoping they will soon be covered in snow.

Fiber Farming Update

Jul2

Things appear to be taking off on the fiber front. I prepared materials explaining my fiber offerings for sale and sent them to a couple of potential customers and received good feedback from both. North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN and Blue Heron yarn shop in Decorah, IA both expressed interest in buying rovings. I will continue to do direct market sales at fiber events but this will enable me to move more volume. The direct sales margins are better but the time invested is also seriously greater.

Brochures highlighting rovings for retail outlets and class materials use.

Prairie Plum Farm

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