LeTour de Fleece - Day 1

This is my chosen fiber for the 2011 Le Tour de Fleece. The idea of Le Tour is to to spin every day that the Tour de France cyclists compete, plus including challenging oneself, doing something difficult during the most difficult day of the Tour de France... you get the idea.

I've started Le Tour de Fleece the past 2 years, and haven't finished. This year I'm on the start line again! My big challenge will be to finish Le Tour. My stretch challenge will be to complete the above batts. I'll be using my Majacraft Rose, and the days I'm not at home, I'll have one of my trusty spindles with Shetland fiber. I have moorit and white in work that I take with me for demonstrations.

I took the Designer Batt class at Shepherds' Extravaganza this year - taught by Amy Wolf. These batts came from that class. The class was incredible. If you ever have the opportunity to take a class from Amy, or listen to her judge sheep or fleeces, DON'T MISS OUT!!! She is an incredible instructor and judge, always with something positive to say.

The batts are:

(Vertical from left) - Rescue batt, Gradations (dark), Gradations (light), Rainbow, Water Lilies, and horizontal - Sunset.

They're all made from Washington grown fiber :-) and include kid mohair, Romney, Gotland :-) :-) :-) , Jacob, Icelandic, Shetland, Corriedale, and some I don't remember. We got to add silk, more mohair, flash, and other assorted goodies. Amy had some examples and walked us through making shade and tint gradations, rainbow batts and rescue batts (something didn't turn out well - instead of tossing the fiber, add "things" to it!)

I think I'll start with the shade and tint gradations. I won't be alone in my spinning. My "helpers" Toby and Kat are always close by!

And just so the sheep don't feel left out... This is my favorite Gotland ewe: Gem.
Gem is 75% Gotland and 25% Finn. She has lovely, lustrous, dark grey curls, and classic Northern Shorttail conformation, plus is friendly and easy to handle. Lovely ewe!

This year, Gem gave us two beautiful 87.5% lambs. The lighter one is a ram with the tight pincurl type lamb fleece that I love. Her ewe, Crystal, has the more traditional curly fleece. Their sire is Hamish Black's (Chocolate Wool NZ) Gotland ram, Ralph.

More Le Tour and Lamb updates to come!

Mad Dash from Pasture to Pen!

This is their third excursion from pasture to pen. (Pen to pasture doesn't go quite as smoothly - yet.) There is grain in the pen and the ewes know it! The lambs just (mostly) follow their moms. At the end, I have to wait for Chamois and her triplets, then scoop one laggard through the gate into the pen.

These are most of the Gotland ewes and their lambs. Several are for sale. :-)

6 ewes - 17 lambs

EVR Chamois and her triplets, 1 ram, 2 ewes.

We did AI late in the breeding season this year. We AI'd 6 Gotland cross ewes - 4 at 50% and 2 at 75%, then left them with the backup ram, 87.5% Gotland ram RCF Calloway, for just one cycle. The lambs came in late May and early June - two sets of twins, three sets of triplets and one set of quads! That's almost a 300% lambing rate, and more than doubled the number of lambs on the farm.

EVR Gem with her twins, a ewe and a ram

This group is being kept separate from the rest of the flock so the ewes can get extra nutrition. They're feeding many mouths! I like the lambs in general. They have nice bodies, long loins, tall legs. Several have the tight pincurl fleeces that I like, usually seen on the whites, also on some of the greys this year.

Chamois and her triplets again.

These photos were taken on the lambs first trip out to the "yard" pasture. I like having the sheep close to the house where I can just glance out the window and see them.

Bossie and her quads - from left: Chrome (ewe), Marlene (ewe), Sooty (ewe and sideways), ram.

I stole Michelle's idea of leading the ewes out to the pasture and letting the lambs follow.

Oh, my! The first time was total chaos! The ewes came just fine, but only a couple of the lambs initially crossed the "threshold" into the great unknown. With Dave holding ewes in the pasture, I made several trips back with one mom or another to pick up the strays. Finally! They were all in the pasture. I kept halters on the ewes in case they were needed on the trip back. The ewes had been confined for a while, so they only got to be on the fresh, green grass for a bit, working them up to full access.

Bossie and her quads again.

Fortunately, the trip back was like going "home" and the lambs followed very nicely... following their moms who were following me with the grain bucket. You gotta love the pig-sheep.

87.5% ewe lamb - one of Jewel's twins.

Today - I led the ewes out to the pasture with a bucket of grain. About half of the lambs followed the first time. We made the trip past the gate a couple of times and got everyone except Chamois' triplets. Putting her on a halter and leading just her to the gate got the trio moving. The second time around was much easier!

Not shown - this time - Jewel and her other daughter, Bits and her white triplets, Bunny and her grey triplets.

Digging in the Dirt

First, a gratuitous photo of one of our older hens, an Americauna. the chickens are great at digging in the dirt!


Dave got the tiller going, and the rain held off long enough to get the garden area tilled! The back left corner is where the Sheepie Hilton compost pile was. I shoveled about half of it over the garden after the first tilling, then the rest stayed put... mostly. Sheep compost is wonderful! I plan to put the tomatoes in that location.

This is an expansion of our last garden - in 2009 during one of the best growing seasons that I can remember. This garden is maybe twice as large. The portion behind and to the left of the shed is new, as is most of the back towards the stump.

So, first I laid out the garden using Territorial Seed Company's new Garden Planner. What a great tool! I moved plants around and around until I liked the layout.


I started with the potatoes. The "potato towers" have intrigued me since I saw one at the Island County Fair two years ago. Potatoes take so much garden space when grown traditionally. The towers let the potatoes grow up, and produce more potatoes in the vertical space. There are many versions on the web, and I designed my own (of course!).

We had taken this field fence wire down several years ago, and I was about ready to take it to the dump. It had been grown into the grass and took some doing to get it loose.


I chose to make my towers about 3 feet in diameter, so that's just over 6 feet of length. The bolt cutters made quick work of cutting the wire lengths. Then, I wanted the towers to be low enough that I could reach the bottom, but high enough to grow lots of potatoes!

Bending the tops down, doubling the wire at the top, then rolling it into a cylinder, securing with the cut wire ends... voila - made a potato tower. Actually, the length of fence was enough to make 6 towers.



Above is the wire doubled and ready to roll. Below are 4 of the towers sitting in their planned location (yellow squares at the left of the plan above).

The box at the left, full of junk mulch quality fleeces, has a role to play. You'll have to wait until later to see that part.

So, below are four of the potatoes placed at the bottom of their tower, ready to be covered with dirt. I got three varieties this year, Satin (a yellow midseason), Carmine (a red midseason), and Burbank Russet (the most popular potato in the US, late season). This one is Satin.

As they grow, I'll add soil, compost and maybe straw. New potatoes will grow from the covered stems. The longer the stems, the more potatoes will grow. At least that's the idea. It's important to keep the growing potatoes from the light, so as I fill the tower, the sides will have to be covered with something dark.

Next I laid out some of the paths, and put boards down to walk on. This helps keep the soil from compacting around the plant roots. The broccoli, Brussels sprouts and Leeks were the next to go in. Here they are waiting in their assigned locations - green and purple boxes on the lower right of the plan.

The starts have been living on the patio awaiting this day. I repotted the broccoli and Brussels sprouts once, giving them more growing room. I was pleased to see vigorous, healthy new roots on all the transplants.

Above are my tools of the trade - board walkway, kneeling pad, garden gloves, trowel, organic fertilizer and PLANTS! Feather, one of the barn kitties had to "snoopervize". The hole left of the gloves has a bit of fertilizer in the bottom, ready to be mixed in before putting the plant in.

Below, the little leek plants are in their trench, waiting to be covered. They had nice root systems, too, and were easily separated. We use young leeks like green onions, so planting them close together allows some thinning along with a nice harvest during fall and winter.

So, 2/3 of the potatoes, all the leeks, and the broccoli and Brussels sprouts are in the ground! There is much more, of course, to go in. Now the pots that contained the broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and leeks will have squash and melon seeds planted in them, so they can get a good start while the unsettled, cold weather forecast for the next week passes.

They look so little, with lots of space around them. Assuming all goes well, they'll fill in soon enough, and I'll feel for the boards with my feet through all the greenery. Better, will be the eating!

PS. The sky was getting dark and threatening as I was finishing. The last photo was taken with a flash! As I was going back into the house, the rain started... again. It's still raining... hard.

Fiber Test Results

...came back today. I was starting to think the package had been lost. So, here are the raw results, some surprises, and some changes in my keeper sheep.

First, the Shetlands, since I think there are more Shetland readers than Gotland readers. :-)

Format is Name/Breed/age/AFD/SD/CV

Astrid/Shetland/3/32.1/10.2/31.8

Barish/Shetland/4/27.2/6.2/22.9

Bessie/Shetland/5/31.4/7.3/23.3

Blanca/Shetland/2/25.7/5.4/20.9

Electra/Shetland/9/31.6/6.3/19.8

Mindy/Shetland/2/27.9/7.3/26.3

Toffee/Shetland/2/24.7/7.1/28.7

Average - 26.66 - not bad!

So, the surprises - Astrid has a much softer feeling fleece than her micron results show. However, she will be for sale.

Bessie has been below 28 for the last 2 tests, so she's worth retesting. I didn't expect Toffee to be as low as she is, so she's coming off the sales list, and is staying. Electra and Barish are similar to previous results. I didn't expect Mindy to be so low either, but I'll leave her on the sales list. Blanca has a nice tight peak, both Toffee and Mindy have significant "tails" on the higher side - shown in their higher CV's.

Now the Gotlands, starting with the yearlings:

Alice/75%Gotland-25%Shetland/1/29.5/6.8/23.1

Caidon/87.5%Gotland-12.5%Shetland/1/28.2/7.3/25.9

Cocoa Puff/25%Gotland-75%Shetland/1/24.4/7/28.5

Dancer/75%Gotland-25%Finn/1/27.5/7.6/27.6

Eclaire/37.5%Gotland-67.5%Finn/1/25.8/6.1/23.7

Fiona/67.5%Gotland-37.5%Finn/1/25/5.3/21.3

Marie/75%Gotland-25%Shetland/1/30.4/8.0/26.4

then into the adults:

Bits/50%Gotland-50%Finn/4/34.6/6.8/19.8

Bossie/50%Gotland-50%Finn/4/32.4/6.8/20.9

Bunny/50%Gotland-50%Shetland/4/35.6/9.3/26.2

Chamois/50%Gotland-50%Finn/2/34.3/7.4/21.5

Daisy/37.5%Gotland-25%BFL-25%BL-12.5%Shetland/2/36.7/8.0/21.8

DeeTee/50%Gotland-50%Shetland/4/33.9/8.9/26.2

Gem/75%Gotland-25%Finn/2/35.5/9.6/27

Jewel/75%Gotland-25%Finn/2/39.9/10.8/27

I've been selecting for finer fleeces in the Gotlands, too. Gotland sheep are not fine fleeced, althought the lamb fleeces are often under 3o micron afd. So, I'm seeing higher AFD's in the higher % Gotlands. I'm hoping to select for finer fleeces still within the standard range for Gotlands.

So disappointment wise, 75% Gotlands, Gem and Jewel, have 35.5 and 39.9 microns at 2 years old. Alice and Marie are near 30 afd in their lamb fleeces. Bunny is their dam at 35.6 afd, and Hoppy is 33.61 afd, so I was hoping these two would mature in the low 30's. They still might.

Also, Bits as a 2 year old tested 27.4/6.3/23, considerably lower than this result. Six of the fleece tests came from sheared fleeces, where I guessed at the midside, last rib location. Bits was one of these, so she deserves to be retested. Bunny and DeeTee also showed increased thickness since their 2 year old tests, so maybe Gotland sheep coarsen for several years... or again, maybe I just need to retest those six (Bits, Bunny, Bossie, Chamois, Gem, Jewel)

So, there they are, just as they are.

Just so the blog includes photos, here are Cocoa Puff:

and her daughter Licorice Drop. Licorice is 50%Gotland/50%Shetland.

- Franna

Lamb Photos

Finally. FINALLY. We had a good photo day - dry, warm, good light, and me at home - when I could go sit with the sheep and take some photos. These lambs are between 7 weeks (Ashley and Lenny) and 3 weeks old (George).

We have 6 more Gotland ewes due the end of the month.

Shetlands - Electra with daughter, Spark, sired by FirthofFifth Barish

Shetland - Bolt is Spark's twin brother. He is for sale.

Shetland twins - Orville (ram) and Popcorn (ewe)

Another shot of Orville. Sire and Grandsire both have mid 20's micron adult fleece. Orville is well built with soft, crimpy fleece. He's for sale.

62.5% Gotland (with BFL, BL and Shetland) ram - Patch is very light grey.

Gotland - Morgan, Patch's twin brother. Morgan will be a medium to light grey as an adult. Both Patch and Morgan have nice, curly fleeces and are for sale.

62.5% Gotland/37.5% Shetland ewe - JayDee is for sale.

JayDee again.

Gotland - DeeJay, JayDee's twin sister. DeeJay is also for sale. JayDee will be fairly light grey and DeeJay will probably be medium to dark grey.

Gotlands - Angie (50%) and daughter, Delilah (68.75%). Both have incredible fleeces and nice bodies.

75% Gotland/ 25% Shetland - George is for sale and might carry brown.

Mutt sheep - Scottish Blackface/Gotland/Shetland.
Lenny and Ashley playing King and Queen of the stump.

Shetlands - Abe and Astrid, his dam. Abe is sired by Barish and is for sale.

Abe in another shot, liking that nice, spring grass!

Shetland - Toffee, 2yo, in full fleece. She is for sale.

Thanks for visiting the EverRanch lambs!
- Franna

Speaking Spaniel

The big Seattle Kennel Club dog show draws a lot of spectators. Breed information booths fill three whole rows the length of the building. This year (as last year), three Spaniel clubs went together to rent one booth - "Spaniel Central", with the Mount Rainier Sporting Spaniel Association taking the lead. Cascade English Cocker Spaniels and the Pacific Northwest Welsh Springer Spaniel Club joined in. Clifford and I spent two hours in the booth meeting people, talking "spaniel" and promoting the breeds. Some of you might recognize the clip on the monitor as coming from "The Working Welshman" - a wonderful video showing how conformation affects hunting performance, showcasing Welsh Springers, but applicable to all spaniels.

Clifford particularly likes young girls. He's reserved around others, will tolerate being petted, but will make eye contact with the young girls in the aisle, wag his tail and grin at them with his eyes and ears until they come up and make a fuss over him. It works.

- Franna

Home Made Egg Nog

After experimenting for several years, just off and on - not extensively, I came up with an egg nog recipe that suits my taste buds! This round of taste tests was inspired by our chickens, who're just getting up to laying speed this spring.

I'm a sucker for egg nog lattes and warm egg nog, yes, sometimes fortified a bit. :-)

Now I have my own - I don't have to rely on seasonal, store bought egg nog with its laundry list of chemicals and heavy sugaring.

Here's what I'm drinking:

1 big mug
1 whole egg, fresh from the nest
1 tsp sugar
dash/pinch of allspice
bigger dash of freshly grated nutmeg

I put a bit of milk in the bottom of the mug - maybe a tablespoon, add the egg and beat with a fork. When it's pretty well homogenous, add the sugar, allspice, nutmeg and more milk. Beat it some more with the fork. Add milk to fill the mug. My size mug in my microwave gets 2 minutes on high, then stirred, followed by another minute on high.

It comes out smooth and creamy with just a hint of custardy texture. It's golden yellow from our free range eggs and just sweet enough. Just right for a stormy Monday morning... or Tuesday, Wednesday....

Too late for a photo, it's already gone!
Franna

EverRanch Ashley and Lenny

Scottish Blackface, Eve, presented us with these twins late on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Their sire is 75% Gotland. The Gotland influence is amazing even on a Scottish Blackface fleece!

- Franna

The House Pumas

After stealthily ignoring the pumas for most of the morning, I managed to catch them on their perches.

Here's Toby on the back of the sofa. Toby's second favorite perch is on this Scottish Blackface pelt. His favorite perch is the very top of the kitty tree. The two kitties used to share this perch. Now Toby lops over on all sides all by himself. Kat still fits neatly inside.

And here is Kat who took over my chair while I was stalking Toby and capturing his spirit in the black box. I caught her while she wasn't looking, at least not looking at the lens.

This is our other house kitty - no longer a puma. She's actually doing fairly well for a 15 year old kitty. Spike disappeared for days last year. Sometime in there she got injured and almost starved. She managed to come home, but I didn't think she'd live. Obviously, she lived, but didn't heal well, so now she's our "broken" kitty with a pronounced limp in the rear. She gets around well enough to climb onto the living room sofa and chairs and mostly keeps to herself and seems happy. She came in to see what I was doing - stalking her nemeses, Kat and Toby.

Later, Toby wrestled me into my chair, where he held me down and forced my hand to repeatedly stroke his fur, while he mesmerized me with his enchanting buzz. It was all a plot to get his spirit back. It worked.

- Franna

Toby and Kat

Almost 2 years ago, I found these kittens amongst the straw bales in our trailer. Today, they're happy and healthy house pumas. The calico is Katrina (the Calico) and the tabby is Toby (the Tabby). At the time it was a big decision to take them and bring them indoors where their feral mother wouldn't be able to find them. I'm glad we chose to raise them. :-)

Adventures at the Beach

Dave and I started our life together as a couple 11 years ago very near this site, on January 1, 2000. There was so much hoopla about how all electronics were going to die or malfunction as the calendar turned over to Y2K. Businesses large and small updated their computer systems and installed work arounds to keep the calendars intact and continuous. It all worked! As we sat on the beach at the turn of the year, drinking champagne and talking about our future together, none of the lights went out and the world continued. There were awesome fireworks at midnight :-)

You don't get to see this view often from the jetty at Westport. These are the Olympic mountains... from the West side. If you look really, really hard, right through the middle of the photo, you can see ERN on the other side of the range.

Gotcha! ...didn't I? Yes, ERN is there. Of course, you can't see it in this photo. We can, however, see the other side of the range from ERN on a clear day... and imagine looking through to Westport.

We drove to our favorite stretch of beach, south of Grayland to find this... This stretch of beach is known as "Washaway Beach" and wash away it has! This used to be about 200 yards of beach access road, complete with rest rooms about half way down. It has been reclaimed by nature! Every few years, a house falls into the water. The constantly shifting sand spit is not permanent. Long Beach, Westport, Ocean Shores, and other coastal places are built on sand spits, and will eventually be remodeled by Mother Nature.

We chose another portion of the beach to enjoy.

The dogs love to run on the beach and chase each other and the shore birds. Clifford, especially, loves to chase the birds. The birds stay well out of reach, and he barks his frustration at them, and continues to run.

The Labradors just love to run, both in and out of the water. Winnie and Villa are racing each other and the surf.

...and they check in when asked to.

Back from the surf, there was a small pond, partially frozen. We spent quite a bit of time here with the dogs. They explored and slid on the ice, chased the shore birds who'd taken refuge here on the open water, and chomped ice. When they got to the edge of the ice, their footsteps created a harmonic within the ice and it made an eerie, musical sound that carried far along the beach. Here's Villa, checking it out.

And Clifford fallen through at the edge. Notice, it's pretty shallow, so we weren't worried about them getting stranded or stuck.

And here's Winnie with a prize piece of the ice.

Just so you don't think it's always this clear and sunny... Westport is very near the rain forest of the Olympic mountains. While the temperature might be moderated by the Pacific, the clouds build up against the mountains and many more days than not, it is cloudy and wet.

Regardless, it's one of our favorite places, and we don't get there often enough. This year, our visit happened to be during the very limited razor clam season. As low tide approached, more and more people and vehicles arrived. We packed up some tired dogs and ourselves and made our way home - still in sunshine, but in much colder temperatures.

- Franna