What's New on the Web Site and on the Farm

2009 Pups at 10 weeks

Lambing 2010

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Ninety two lambs were born on the farm this year and are growing up quickly.   There are more boys than girls this year, most are ACSA registered Cormos and some very colorful spotted lambs.

Hester did it again this year and took Phantom with her and they both produced lambs more than a month early.  I'll forgive her once again because she has a beautiful ram lamb, Henry, who looks like he might be the same color as half (at least) sister Henna. Hester's daughter from last year, Hessie, had a nice brown ewe lamb.

Fleeces 2010

The colored Cormo crossbred fleeces sold out in a day but the white Cormo fleeces have not been listed yet. They are still being re-skirted re-weighed and locks scanned for the web page.

We sheared 4 days in Feb. and the wool shop is filled with beautiful white Cormo and colored Cormo cross bred fleeces. We didn't get to some of the hoggets so there will be another shearing day scheduled I hope in May.   They should be really nice and longer staple than my usual hogget fleeces.

We are still lambing and busy taking care of the critters. They always come first. The fleeces are sitting in the shop airing and waiting to be skirted, and prepared for sale. The fleeces are expected to be ready for sale in late April and May. The natural colored fleeces are prepared first then the white fleeces. We don't take reservations for individual fleeces. Email newsletters containing information on fleeces and other products are sent to previous customers and subscribers.  Sales are opened to customers before the general public and fleeces are sold by time email or phone order is received.

Events 2010

June 5, 2010  - Spinning at Retzlaff Winery, Livermore, CA  -- This event is lots of fun, beautiful setting, great food at the pot luck, nice raffle prizes Contact: Kate & Will  So sad ... I missed this event this year do to my broken elbow.

June 12, 2010 - Spinner's Day at the Farm, Healdsburg, CA --- Always a great event, lovely sitting under the trees in the vineyard  Event Flier

Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010 - Fleece Judging Monterey County Fair -- A relaxing day of learning, enjoy a pot-luck lunch  Monterey County Fair - Wool

Sunday, Aug. 22, 2010 - Handcrafted Judging Monterey County Fair -- Lots of classes to enter and good prize money! Entries limited to certain counties but anyone can enter items made from fleeces purchased at the fleece auction.  Monterey County Fair - Wool

Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 6, 2010 12:30 Fleece Auction Monterey County Fair  Monterey County Fair

October 2, 2010 Hope to see you there! - Lambtown,  Dixon, CA -- A nice event. Looking forward to the better timing and cooler weather again this year.  Lambtown -  Dixon, CA

Ongoing consignment ... Heart Felt Designs Gallery in Red Bluff, CA. --- A gallery of  fiber, art and fashion.

A Shearing Day in Feb.

I thought this picture was nice because it showed so many things. This was taken on a shearing day in Feb. 2009.  Holly is wearing a sweater knit with the old batch of the 3 ply Cormo yarn. Last year she found us on the internet. Her mother offered to knit her a sweater for her birthday and she wanted to use a special yarn that she could treasure for years. She tried out 1 skein of different types to see which she wanted to use for this project. These are city folks but last year she brought some of her family and they worked all day on shearing day and she bought the yarn for the sweater. What an awesome surprise! This year they came back for another day with the sheep and she was wearing this beautiful sweater. That is Holly’s husband petting Alex, the livestock guardian dog.

It's Lambing Time 2009

Since we are so low in rain this year and I’ve been too busy to keep the grass mowed in the yard I decided to sacrifice the roses and stretch my feed by letting the small group of the most pregnant sheep graze in the house yard. The white ewe just had this lamb. She just cleaned it up, let it have it’s first suck and they both are taking a needed rest. I can’t remember her name right now but she is young and this is her first lamb. The colored ewe hasn’t delivered yet. She is an older ewe Dinah and followed the young mother around all afternoon staying near by to lend support. A couple of hours later Dinah was off grazing with the rest of the flock again. I just couldn’t resist grabbing the camera when I saw them laying under the tree in full bloom. It reminds me how blessed I am.

There are 78 lambs playing in the pastures with just a few more expected. This is just the best time of the year with all these little miracles. This doesn't happen often here but we do now have one orphan bottle wether lamb for sale. He is very cute and healthy and would make a good fiber producing lawn mower. He is living with the other lambs and bumming off the mothers and getting bottles of goat milk from us two legged folks.

More LGD (livestock guardian dog) Puppies

Alex's puppies are at their cutest stage. They are just 8 weeks old and soaking up their world like little sponges. I really enjoy just observing them. It constantly amazes me how they learn so quickly from their parents. See them here: LGD\lgd.htm and new photos of some of the dogs from the first litter here:  LGD\litter1photos.htm

Surprise It's Twins!    

Born to Hester and ????? on Sat., Jan 17, 2009, 147 days after the rams broke through the fence. A black 8 pound ewe lamb and 7.75 lb. white ram lamb were up and nursing quickly. I'm always amazed at the miracle and find myself just standing around watching them when I should be working. I justify it by saying that observation is 95% of being a good shepherd. By 24 hours, although they still looked a little wobbly they were running, playing and leaping sideways.

We are actually expecting the lambs to be born in March and April. This is not the first time that Hester has surprised us with early lambs. There is a reason she was named Hester and why she wears a scarlet A on her coat. I'm very glad that it was Hester who is a colored crossbred so it is not so important to know the identity of the father. I would have been upset if it had been one of the ACSA registered Cormo ewes.

New Yarn is Coming

I just talked to the processor Jan 15 and there is about 50 pounds of new Cormo yarn on its way to me. It is supposed to be 900 yards/lb. 100% Cormo 3 ply.  I asked the processor how it turned out and she said it was beautiful and so white she just had to wash a skein so she could see it completely finished. She also commented that the Cormo fleeces didn’t have the waxy lanolin like the Merino and washed easily. These were not freshly shorn fleeces that I sent and some were well over a year old.

Livestock Guardian Dog Alexis

I've enjoyed  Alex's first litter so much I'll have to write more about them on the LGD page. Here is just an update for now. All 8 of the puppies have gone to new homes and every one has a great working home. Four of them are 24/7 with stock and 4 are more general farm yard/animal/family/companion/guardian dogs. Two of the people who have them with stock want more puppies. In fact, all of the new owners are very happy with their puppies. Yes, that is right, all of them are gone and the main purpose of the litter was so I could have another future LGD. After consulting with the vet I bred Alexis to Boris again and she is beginning to show signs of pregnancy. I just hope and pray that all will go as well again with both Alex and the new pups.

Big Event on the Farm

Eight livestock guardian dog puppies were born to Alexis and Boris on 6/27/08. The puppies are 3/4 Anatolian Shepherd and 1/4 Central Asian Ovcharka. There is a new page up for the Livestock Guardian Dogs. I will be adding more information as I have time but I just had to get up some puppy pictures right away.

Estes Park (Colorado) Wool Market

This year, 2008, for the first time I was able to enter 3 fleeces in the fleece competition at the Estes Park Wool Market. A customer who bought the fleeces lives in Boulder and was kind enough to take the fleeces to the show for me. I hope to get more information abut the judging.

Raven, a black Cormo crossbred ewe's fleece was 2nd in her class.

Cormo ram 625's fleece was 2nd in his class to Cormo ram 632's fleece.

Cormo ram 632's fleece was 1st in his class and went on to win the Grand Champion White Fleece.

New dyed Cormo pin-drafted roving Flash! Photos are up

I got this from Shari at the Livermore event on Saturday. I was excited  to see what Elemental Affects and Morro Fleece Works would do with my Cormo.  From their reputations and what I have witnessed I was expecting some spectacular rovings and I wasn't disappointed. ..... Well, maybe just a little because two of the colors that I really liked a lot and wanted at least a little for myself were gone on Sat. The spinners really liked them too. I'll be working on getting pictures up in the next few days. I hope the colors show up decently.  Dyed pin-drafted Cormo

Cormo featured in Spring 2008 Spin-Off magazine  - Margaret Heathman wrote a nice article about Cormo sheep and some of her experiences using Cormo wool. She also includes patters that she used for wrist warmers, scarf, business card holder and I really love the baby jacket/sweater. I haven't subscribed to Spin-Off for several years but I really enjoyed this one. I just may have to subscribe again. I advertised in it for quite awhile but it was just too expensive.