Farm Happenings
About Our Sheep
We raise Registered Shetland Sheep, a breed raised primarily for its soft, beautiful wool, which occurs in several colors. We have healthy rams and ewes available for sale, and we invite you to visit our farm if you are interested in breeding stock. Call or email first so we can schedule a convenient time for you to see them.
August, 2008
The flooding in June was very bad in Martinsville - some businesses have not yet re-opened and some will not re-open. We were very lucky that the only damage we had was to some fencing. We have had it replaced, so now the sheep can graze on grass instead of being cooped up near the barn and forced to eat hay and grain (they lead a tough life). While they were here, we had the fence builders fence in another pasture, so now we can rotate pastures effectively.
June, 2008
The first week of June has been quite wet. The evening of June 6 we received six inches of rain, and two more are expected this morning, the seventh. That is in addition to rain from the storms that have passed through about every three days for the last week or two.
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The back pastures are flooded at present because of a creek that passes through just behind the tree line. The area covered by water in the photo represents the 100-year floodplain of the creek. This is the second time this week it has been covered. So much for floodplain statistics. |
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This is a close-up of part of the last photo. When the water recedes, we will have to replace at least four fence posts and about 100 feet of fencing. |
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This photo was take behind our shop building. Beyond the grassy area you can see (submerged) part of our pasture and part of a neighbor's. At the right-hand side of the area shown a fence divides our pasture from his. The fence posts are about four feet high, so either they have been swept away, or the water is quite deep there. |
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May, 2008
Two geese are raising their young on our pond. The goslings are about one-half the size of their parents, and as of the end of May, their coloring is starting to develop. The tail feathers are now black and their bottoms are white. The rest of them consists of gray, fuzzy-looking feathers.
The parents are quite protective. When flocks of other geese land in the pond they are not allowed to come anywhere near the goslings.
Spring 2008
Spring is finally here, but it has been a long time coming. We decided not to breed last fall because we have more than enough sheep to sustain our operation. So we have no new lambs cavorting in the pastures, which seems very strange. Shearing is over and we have about 100 fleeces, mostly in the mini-barn, but some are in the shop to give spinners an idea of what we have available. As we find the time, we are describing and photographing them, and putting the information and images on the "Fleeces and Fibers" page of this site.
April, 2008
Shearing Days are here. We did 28 sheep on Friday, March 28. We did 21 more on Monday, the 31st, and 29 Wednesday, April 2nd. We will not be shearing on Thursday, April the third. We will resume shearing on Monday, April 7, in the afternoon, weather permitting. We have 27 more sheep to shear, so we will have one more shearing day after the 7th.
March, 2008
There is an old Yiddish proverb that goes: "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." For the last couple of weeks, we have identified with that proverb. We were planning to shear the sheep the third week in February. We had the shearer set up, the local newspaper was going to send a photographer to get pictures for a story about our business, and a local television station wanted video footage for a childrens' program. Well, first the shearer said he had a scheduling problem, so he could not shear in the mornings. Then the weather forecast called for very cold weather on Monday and Tuesday of that week. So we decided to do what we could on Wednesday, and reschedule the rest. Then Wednesday's forecast changed, so we put everything off. Now we are in the process of hoping for a continued spell of suitable weather.
January, 2008
Winter has finally arrived. We had a couple of low intensity snowfalls, and a little cold weather in December, but the first week in January has been much colder. And, no doubt, the worst is yet to come.
From time to time one of the rams manages to get through a fence and ends up in the wrong pasture, so fence mending is one of those perennial projects.
The puppy, Mari, is not quite fully grown, but she probably weighs about 100 pounds by now, and knows how to be a guard dog.
We will be shearing in March and April, so we will have plenty of fleeces to add to those already in the shop for the hard core spinners to work on. If you would like to watch the shearing process, and perhaps help in skirting the fleeces as they come off the sheep, call us in March to find out when we will be at it.
November, 2007
Fall has finally arrived. We have had a couple of frosts, though they have been mild thus far.
We will not be breeding this year because the 110 sheep we have are more than enough. We have not yet fenced in the last pasture we have, but with as the cost of hay goes up, the cost of fencing does not seem as excessive as it once did.
We will be shearing next year, as usual, and the open shearing day will be early in April as usual.
August, 2007
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This has been a very hot month, with only a few days in which the temperature has not been in the mid to high 90s. And very little rain.
The field shown at the right is not fenced for our sheep, so instead of using it for pasture, we have it baled. This is the second cutting this year. The farmer who supplies us with small square bales of hay cuts the field and feeds the round bales to his cattle. |
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May, 2007
The new lambs are enjoying running around in the pasture, and then settling down with their moms or with Moose, one of the guard dogs. Some of them are quite friendly, coming up to anyone who goes out into the pasture.
April, 2007
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The 16th (and our last) lamb this year (a ewe) was born the evening of Sunday, April 22. |
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As of the third week in April we have 15 lambs, and one more ewe is pregnant, so there could be two more. One of the lambs has decided that our oldest guard dog, Moose, is a satisfactory pillow. The dog does not seem too concerned. |
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March, 2007
Spring is finally here. The daffodils are blooming and the lambs are coming. We bred 12 ewes last fall, so we expect to get about 20 lambs. As of the fourth week of the month, we had three (a single and a pair of twins), all rams. The photos below show the first lamb of the year.
February, 2007
The seasonal weather that struck in January has persisted into the middle of February. Cold fronts keep coming through, so low temperatures in the single digits and highs in the teens are the rule of thumb. The afternoon temperature managed to get above freezing once since the third week in January. We have had two snowfalls this month: the first left about 6 inches here, and the second, about 4 more inches of snow and plenty of ice.
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This picture was taken the day after the ice storm. All but two of the sheep in this pasture are at the barn. Who knows what the attraction is for the two at the tree? |
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January, 2007
Winter finally arrived. The last week in January brought low temperatures in the "teens" and highs in the 20's. With a dusting of snow on the pastures, the sheep spend much of each day in or near the barn. We no longer have the two llamas. The male became aggressive toward the sheep when they were near the female, so we found a llama breeder who was glad to add two more to his flock. In their new home they will get more attention than we could give them so everyone benefited from the transfer. Marinara ("Mari" for short), the new guard dog is about a year old, and clearly knows her job. A coyote was browsing outside of the fenced-in area recently, hunting for field mice (successfully). Mari and Moose spent the afternoon barking at it. The coyote did not seem too concerned, apparently recognizing that the dogs were on the other side of a secure fence, but it stayed away from the fence. We will shear the pregnant ewes in February (we bred twelve last Fall). Although shearing day for the rest of the flock will not occur until early April, three spinners have already reserved the fleeces they want.
September, 2006
The size of the operation increased again this year. As of late August we had about 105 sheep. We had 31 lambs in the Spring, and this summer we bought two rams and a ewe lamb. The chicken house is now complete so the 13 Aracana hens and one rooster are in their new home. We took 18 sheep to the Shetland show at the Indiana State Fair in August and did fairly well (e.g. we got first place in the "best of four head" competition). We will be showing more sheep at the annual Shetland show at the Scottish Festival in Columbus, IN the second weekend of September. October starts the "sheep year" again, as breeding season begins. The farm seasons pace our lives. It is a nice life!
June, 2006
We have a new arrival this month. A third Great Pyrennes guard dog is now a
member of the flock.
Marinara (Mari for short) is a four month old puppy. We are acclimating her to our yearlings at present. In a few weeks she will be larger than they are. Our original guard dog (Moose) can be seen in the barn in the right hand photo. When they met, he wanted to play a little roughly, but he backed off when she snapped at him.
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We finally got a good picture of the llamas. The male, Pumkin, is on the right. Mary Helen is on the left. They are not really glaring at each other - they get along just fine. |
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It is not true that sheep are dumb animals. They certainly seem to know when it is feeding time. |
April, 2006
So far, April has been a busy month. We had 31 lambs in the first three weeks, had 60 (non-pregnant) sheep sheared (on the first and fourth), manned a booth at Fleece Fair in Greencastle, IN on Apr 7 & 8, and ran the yarn shop.
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Here are a few of the 31 Shetland lambs born this month. We had one set of triplets and a few "singles," but as usual, most were twins. |
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When we let the lambs out into the pasture, sometimes they stay near their moms, but occasionally, a group of them forms a flock and they gallop across the pasture.
In March we had 80 sheep two llamas, two guard dogs, a few other dogs, 20 chickens, a duck, two Angora rabbits (and a partridge in a pear tree). With the new crop of lambs, we are up over 100 sheep, most of them Shetlands.
October, 2005
Sheep Street Fibers has been "on the farm" for nearly a year (since
Thanksgiving week, 2004), and things have changed a bit.
We started by fencing off four areas for pasture for the 51 sheep we had
then. Two of them were breeding pastures for the 22 ewes we planned
to breed, and the other two were for those we did not intend to breed.
Of the 22 we bred, 20 became pregnant, and we ended up with 35 lambs.
We also have three Merino and four Lincoln lambs, so at present, our
flock totals 93 sheep. And two Llamas.
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The first two lambs were born on April 2, when we were shearing the ewes that
had not been bred, so some of our customers and their children, who came
to see the shearing, got a chance to see more than shearing. |
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The 22 pregnant ewes produced 35 lambs because Shetland Sheep often have twins. Many types of markings are possible |
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This photo of a few of the lambs was taken this Spring from a window in the teaching area in the shop. |
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We brought 14 sheep to the Indiana State Fair this year. One of our rams
(Destiny View Manchego) was Reserve Champion Ram. Most of the
others came in second or third in their classes. |
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In September, we fenced off two more areas for pasture. One of them
is in front of the picture window in the shop, so we often have sheep
grazing about 10 feet from the window. In this case they are two Shetlands and one recently sheared Merino. |
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