New Residents of the Barn

Sunshine and her daddy Whiskers (who is taking a quick cat nap) would like to introduce you to some new residents in the barn:

First, meet the ewes.  On the far left is my favorite.  Her name is Pearl.  In the middle is Silje’s ewe that was her special birthday present that she picked out herself.  She has some horns, typical of the mixing of Icelandic with Jacob breed of sheep.  Her name is Cinnamon.  On the right is the ewe that Solveig named “Sugar Flower” but since neither Silje or I think that’s really her name, we are calling her “Bessie” for short because I think her face looks like a cow’s.  And it rolls off the tongue a little better than Sugar Flower.

Pearly girl.

Bessie, next to Cinnamon.  These creatures are so timid, and so gentle.  They don’t like us touching them much yet, but we are slowly taming them.  They were born this spring, and have gotten big quick so they are almost at maturity.  We are discussing borrowing a ram from a neighbor this Fall, and letting them have some lambs next March or so.  Within another week or so, we will have the fencing set up for them in the pasture.

In the background here, you may see our all black boy, who does not photograph well in the barn.  Honestly, he’s not too friendly, and the only one we haven’t gotten to eat oats out of our hands.  If we are being more honest, we haven’t been trying very hard to get to know him either because he is destined for our freezer.  The harsh reality of farm life, is a keen awareness of where our food comes from.

His name is Mutton.  That’s probably why he doesn’t like us, come to think of it.

Cinnamon is a scrappy little thing, that is the most curious and bold of the bunch.  She and Silje really bond, and I think that’s why she picked her.  Her wool is just gorgeous.  She is the only one who has let me touch her coat a little bit (as long as I leave her head alone!) and oh my… I think there is a spinning wheel somewhere with my name on it, and a long afternoon with this wool.  I’ll make Silje her own Cinnamon hat.

I’m just living in a dreamworld with these sheep, but Knut is reading books on sheep like crazy and is convinced we are going to screw them up and kill them by mistake somehow.  He was never like this with our chickens and turkeys, but something about adding 4 legged “farm” animals is very intimidating.  We literally don’t know what we are doing.  I’m not so pessimistic.  We have a pasture, we have a barn, we have tons of hay for winter, we have some neighbors with experience.  The only thing we don’t have is a spinning wheel.  That’s where the problem is.

On a related note, please remember to click on the link on the right for “Nerdy Gerdy Designs” and take a look at my knitting patterns.  They support good causes…like spinning wheels.