Author: Rose
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Flat Stanley
Flat Stanley arrived from Tennessee to visit us for a while. Here he is with Larry and Andrew as they work on the new elk fence. Continue reading
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Larry’s Back!
Larry’s back to do the next section of the big elk fence. This will be the last tall fence we put in. It will go from the hay barn to behind the house, and it’ll enclose a small section of the cedars pasture. We had to start taking down parts of the old fence so Continue reading
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Toe Trimming and Deworming
I finished trimming toes on at least half of the adult ewes today. The sheep have better feet this year compared to other years. We’ve been culling for poor hoof growth patterns for a while, but not very heavily. It seems to have made a big difference this year. Our next batch to do is Continue reading
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Sorting More Sheep
No pictures, but a lot of work. Today, we sorted all of the adult ewes into their breeding pens. I also got the toes trimmed on half of them. We’ve still got to trim toes on the rest of the adult ewes, all of the rams, and all of the lambs, but it’s a start. Continue reading
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Guard Dog
Winnie is now guarding the adult rams who have not only their winter pen, but the entire west side of the orchard to run in. We’re hoping they’ll clean the ground of fallen apples. Continue reading
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Planning Breedings
I have the opportunity to run 14 primary breeding rams this year, plus two backup pens. Each primary ram will only have four ewes, and the backups will each have 28 ewes. This is a chance to use 16 different rams for breeding, an opportunity that is very rare and potentially very valuable. Trying to Continue reading
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Meat Cutting
We had the great opportunity to watch some of our sheep being processed at the slaughterhouse recently. This is the typical carcass of a US-line sheep. The first step is breaking the carcass in half. This is the cross-section. It’s not a very meaty loin compared to some of our sheep. We had one lamb Continue reading
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History Lecture to Small Vision School Class
I was asked to give a short lecture to a very small, five-person class of Vision students about clothing from between 1625 and 1750. I dressed in my mantua and full Golden Age of Piracy outfit made from Reconstructing History patterns. I’m not very good at spinning on a hand spindle. My spinning wheel is Continue reading
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Making Cider!
Our orchard was primarily used to grow apples for cider. My mother had Kate’s Sweet Cider as a business when I was in high school. We still own the crusher and press, and I’d hoped to get it all running. This year, we had a huge crop of apples. We couldn’t get pickers, so most Continue reading
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Shop Heater
Just in time for Halloween and a coming storm next week, the new shop heater is installed. The trench has also been filled in where the propane line runs. In a quick test, it heated up the shop after being on for just a few minutes. We’ll see how well it works once we get Continue reading