EWES in Waiting!!

Spring is here!! Thank you, Lord!! Here is a line up of 7 of our 8 bred ewes, a yearling (not bred) seventh in line and an old girl at the end. We only shear at the end of April so they are still in full fleece.

The first in line is Gina. She is a 5-year-old yuglet socket. Gina lambed twice and then had last year off. She is bred to Rarefind Farm Cory, a fawn katmoget.

Behind Gina to the left is Lucille Ball. She is a 2-year-old grey katmoget and a first time lamber. Lucy is bred to Sycamore Farm Tundra, a black smirslet socket ram.

To the right is Amelia Earhart. She is a 2-year-old fawn katmoget with a beautiful lustrous fleece. She is also a first time lamber. Amelia is bred to Sycamore Farm Tundra as well.

Next in line behind Amelia is Sprinkles. She is a 3-year-old grey ewe that will be lambing for the 2nd time. Sprinkles was bred to Rarefind Farm Cory.

Next to Sprinkles is our oldest bred ewe. Spinning Spider Annie Oakley is a 9-year-old grey ewe that will retire from lambing this year. She has been bred to Cory for the first time. The past several years she has given us ram lambs so we are hoping for beautiful replacement ewes with her long fleece.

Then comes Windswept Shania. She is a 6-year-old mioget(?) yuglet sokket and one of our favorites!! We can't wait to see what she will produce with Sycamore Farm Tundra.

After Shania is Solitaire, Sprinkle's yearling ewe lamb.

The moorit smirslet, Charlotte Bronte is next. She is a 2-year-old Shania daughter that will probably be our first to lamb. She was bred to Tundra. Can't wait to see what these two smirslets will produce!!

Last but not least is little Spooky from our original flock that was a freebie. She is 11 years old and living out her time with us. She gave us many tiny lambs at the beginning of our shepherding Shetlands. A fantastic mom that has some amazing survival techniques. Spooky is one of our untouchables.

Abigail, not pictured with this group, is a moorit, 4-year-old Shania daughter. She has also been bred by Tundra with the hopes of some flashy babies. She has the momma waddle down pat!

This past fall was an interesting breeding season. It seemed that the ewes were very late cycling. Then we had bad weather, rain and windy conditions, so we weren't sure of breeding activity by checking messed up wool. We didn't have anything written down for Charlotte, the ewe pictured above. About 2 weeks ago as we were vaccinating, deworming, and trimming hooves, we discovered a very distinct udder. Charlotte appears to be the furthest one along. A few days later, we were able to visibly see her udder as she walked. So...148 days from the time she was put with the ram will be this coming Friday. I guess we just watch and wait...

The next ewes to lamb will be Annie and Gina around April 2nd and 4th. But who knows...Abby has more of an udder than Annie and Gina. The fun has begun!

Here are yearlings Camille and Christmas Jones as they watch us preparing lambing jugs on the first day of SPRING!

What a beautiful day!!

***And Yet Again***

The forecast for Friday was...snow showers possible after 1 pm with little to no accumulation.
The snow began around 2:00 and didn't stop until late Friday night while leaving behind around 4 inches!
So much for little to no accumulation!!

Winter Weekends...When will Spring spring?

A beautiful mid-January day.

Last Friday we had another round of snowy weather.

This snow kept us home from school this past Monday and Tuesday.

Today we missed school due to snow, sleet, freezing rain and more rain!!

Tonight we still can have a wintry mix as we go into Saturday.

I see buds!! They are waiting patiently for Spring to spring!!

I think I know why our sheep didn't breed as early this year!! Maybe they knew that we would have a real winter here in our area!!

Reflections and Resolutions

As we Reflect on 2009 we see many of God's blessings in our lives. We were definitely blessed with healthly lambs and a trouble free lambing. Some of those little ones are seen here above and below.

Another school year was successfully completed not only for me as a teacher but for Katie and Lauren (her Freshman year) in college.

My 3 brothers were able to visit in 2009 from New York, Iowa, and Florida at different times this year. It's always nice to get together to reflect on the past and look forward to the future.

Then both my husband and I had pay cuts, but we both have jobs and God continues to provide in many ways. My surgery in August was unexpected but very successful with a speedy recovery time. A wonderful interim teacher took care of my class in my absence.

We had two successful fairs showing our Shetlands and were able to sell all that we needed to for 2009. It is always my prayer that our sheep go to homes where they will be loved and cared for. This definitely happened!

We even received lovely snow the week before Christmas...12 inches or so. Just about unheard of for our area.

Overall, 2009 was a blessed year!

Resolutions... according to the Merriam-Webster's online dictionary the definition is "the act or process of resolving." How about that for a definition!? Then it said "the act of determining."

My life verse fits with this idea completely...Phil. 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!"

Next I noticed that a synonym for resolution is courage. I found this to be quite interesting. The definition for courage is "mental or moral strength to resist opposition, danger, or hardships; firmness of mind and will in the face of danger or extreme difficulty." Wow...as we face the unknown future of 2010 I know that I can depend on God's promises. He promises peace, strength, hope, joy, salvation and courage (synonym for resolution). I don't make yearly resolutions but am resolved to serve Christ and face the future knowing that He is in control.

Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble."

Isaiah 41:10 "Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand."

Jeremiah 29:11 "'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the LORD. 'They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.'"

Philippians 4:6-7 "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

Ephesians 2:8-10 "God saved you by His special favor when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none can boast about it. For we are God's masterpeice. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago."

Psalm 23:1 "The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need."

It's going to be another blessed year!

Home For The Holidays

Snow before Christmas in Hendersonville, NC? Highly unlikely!! It has been a very wet summer and now maybe a wet winter?

My Christmas break began a day early from teaching middle schoolers. Snow began this morning at 6:00 AM with the possibility of 6 to 12 inches throughout the day. School was cancelled which means that we will have our Christmas concert and class parties in January.

We have about 8 inches tonight and as I blog it is sleeting. The forecast says that it will taper off soon leaving us with a cold, white, icy landscape.

Evening chores were very interesting!! Some of the sheep are dry and others look as though they haven't come in out of the snow.

My husband trudges through the white stuff with me lagging behind with the camera. A snow event is quite unusual for these parts. Well, for the past few years anyway.

Peppermint Patty and Charlotte Bronte (moorit smirslet) anticipate supper. Patty was to leave for her new home today along with Emily Bronte but that was postponed.

Charlotte is a yearling in one of our two breeding groups. We still aren't sure if she bred or not.
Breeding was really late this year for some reason. Looks like some lambs will come late April.

Tundra peers around the barn trying to decide whether to visit me or not. We planned on separating our breeding groups this weekend. Plans have changed!!

Here's the 2nd breeding group of Annie, Sprinkles and Gina. They have all been settled and are waiting to be moved here to our house for lambing. Gina (black yuglet) will be the first to lamb during the first week of April (maybe).

Do we really have to come out today? What about supper in the barn?

Yes, it's nice to be home for the holidays! I have been writing out my Christmas cards. Yes, I'm late. I'm also knitting a scarf to go with my dress coat. It's Annie and Maisie, a mother/daughter pair. What a beautiful day to be at home with the Christmas lights on, candles burning, and snow!

Merry Christmas!!

Fall in WNC

Katie found some beautiful leaves to photograph this fall as well as our surrounding mountains.

Cory, our 4-year-old fawn katmoget ram, has 3 ladies in his breeding group. Annie, an 8-year-old ewe, (grey on the far left) will be bred for the last time. She has never been with Cory before so we are excited to see what they will produce. Sprinkles (behind Cory) will be with Cory for the 2nd time. Gina, a black yuglet, wasn't bred last year and is with Cory for the 3rd time.

Peeking around the post is our new ram, Sycamore Farms Tundra. He is a black smirslet out of Bluff Country Sandman and Hidaway Farms Bridgett. We sold Bridgett as a lamb to the Orr's and since we wanted some HST's we decided to bring back some of our original lines with some new ones. Charlotte is next to Tundra, then Abby, Emily, Patty, and Shania. Emily and Patty will be bred and then sent to their new home. Not pictured is Amelia and Lucy. Charlotte and Emily are yearling twins out of Shania and Abby is Shania's first ewe. Spots are in Amelia's background as well. So, that is a total of 8 ewes being bred for us here at Hidaway Farms.

I'm on fall break for two days and loving it....spinning and weaving a shawl....visiting with the sheep....enjoying beautiful weather as my hubby puts up hay for winter!!

Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair--A Weekend of Fun!

What a weekend!! SAFF is an event that we so look forward to each year. Located near the Asheville Airport and only 20 minutes from our house makes this event a real treat. We loaded up 16 Shetlands Thursday evening due to rain in the forecast.

Friday was a rainy day. This is the day we like to shop around by looking at all the wonderful fiber related goodies that the vendors bring from all over. Our sheep always ham it up for all the visitors. Faces poked through the pens saying, "Here, pet me!" Friday is also a great day for meeting new people and previous customers of ours. We had a wether and a ram lamb to sell this year. The ram lamb was the most important sale of the weekend. Felix went home to a nice flock of ladies. His shepherdess had another ram from us in the past that she had purchased from someone else. Whisper went to Tennessee with a sweet lady that has purchased Shetlands from us over the past several years.

Saturday was the Junior Sheep Show where both of our girls have aged out. We watched the show and talked to visitors and did some shopping. It was pretty warm in the barn until late in the afternoon when the temperature dropped about 9 degrees in an hour. While I was spinning, Katie was teaching an impromptu class on making hairpin lace scarfs with fancy fibers and wool.

My purchases over the weekend included a sweatshirt that says, "Wool- a renewable resource" with sheep on it, a long sleeve t-shirt with Proverbs 31:13 embroidered on it, 4 oz. of hand painted merino to play with, a shawl pin, a tiny pin for my collar with a black and white sheep and a heart in between them, and a pair of alpaca socks and gloves. Katie also bought me a wonderful print called "Teacher's Pet" by a very talented artist that returned to SAFF for the second year. Guess what the pet is...a sheep, of course!

Sunday morning dawned very cold indeed. The Open Show began at 9 with the ram lamb classes. The Shetland class had only 2 which consisted of James Bond shown below by Katie and Tundra from Sycamore Farms. (At the end of SAFF our two farms planned to switch ram lambs for breeding.) Katie placed first with James. She hated to see him go--gorgeous, soft, long fleece and a wonderful temperament.

He just stood waiting his turn to enter the show ring with no one holding him.
The picture above is the Shetland ewe lamb class. Our farm had five entries- Money Penny, Electra, Solitaire,Vesper, and Camille. There were a total of 10 entries. Vesper was 1st, Camille was 2nd, Electra was 4th with Money Penny and Solitaire 5th and 6th respectively.

Below is Lauren with Amelia in the yearling ewe class. There were 11 entries. We placed 1st with Amelia, 3rd with Lucy, 5th with Clara, and 7th with Jackie. Our judge really liked the brown based sheep today.

The 4th picture is the aged ewe class. We are fortunate that here in the south they recognize this age group in the show ring. We had 3 out of the 5 entries. Shania placed 1st, followed by Annie in 3rd and Sprinkles in 4th place.

The champion Shetland ewe class was made up of our 3 ewes-- 2 belonging to Lauren and one to Katie. Odds were in Lauren's favor but the judge really liked Katie's Shania.

The picture above is Katie in the show ring with Shania for the Supreme Champion Ewe of all breeds which included Border Leicester, Costwold, Romney, Shetland, Fine Wool, Long Wool, and Jacob ewes.

Below you can see who the proud winner of that class was. This was a first ever for Katie and boy, was she thrilled. She works hard with the sheep and loves them very much. This was a nice reward for her hard work.

We also did well in the Shetland fleece class with 1st (Amelia), 2nd (James Bond), 4th (Vesper), and 5th (Camille). In the all breeds pairs class there were 22 entries and our little ewe lamb pair placed 4th. Yes, it was a great weekend.

We came home with 14 sheep including a new ram lamb. We made new contacts, talked sheep and fiber all weekend, spoke with past satisfied customers, and had FUN!!