Some new spoons!
Isn’t it great when you finally make the time to do something that you’ve been meaning to do for a…
New leather edge guards!
I’ve got some really nice new Hans Karlsson bowl carving gouges that I’d been meaning to get a tool…
Our first baskets!
Time to catch up on a few posts I’ve been meaning to write for ages but never quite got round to it!
There’s a new man about the house…or the garden anyway!!!
Over the course of this harsh, long and exceptionally cold winter we sadly lost our two juvenile…
Estimating the weight of wood…
Whilst planning the design and materials for my George Lailey bowl lathe reconstruction I decided…
R.I.P Oddette (12 October 2012)
Oddette, mother to Xanadu, sadly passed away on 12.10.12 aged somewhere about 7 years. She had…
Some ancient saws taken to timber
Robin Page delves into the folklore that surrounds garden trees:
Planting trees is about the most…
The flock grows!!!
Having completely fallen in love with the few Ouessants we’ve had over the course of the last year we decided that it was about time to increase our flock. We’d really like to be able to start breeding this autumn (2012) but having only one entire ewe doesn’t give us a huge chance of success – more ewes were needed!
We spent a while contacting the main breeders with registered stock and finally managed to source some new ewes from Viv Cook at Alpaca Amigos (Oakton Stud Farm) in Cheshire. It turned out that they were looking to rehome their entire flock to make room for more Alpacas, and had we been able to secure a field of our own we would have definitely had the lot – unfortunately we are still without field at this moment in time so we were only able to take a small portion of the flock.
So, on 1st July I was under strict instructions to only come home with what we had agreed we were going for – I suppose I must have a tendency to get more than I said I would! Anyway, we had agreed on a little black ewe lamb (but carrying a caramel gene) called Oakton Xanadu that was born in March 2012, and that was originally all we were going to travel the 3 hours to Cheshire for. However, it occurred to me that a little lamb that young was going to get quite distressed on the journey back to ours having just been separated from both it’s home and it’s mother – so in a moment of pure genius I decided a travelling companion was that way to go! Fortunately Viv at Alpaca Amigos also thought that was a great idea, so as well as bringing back Xanadu we were going to be taking her mum as well. Mum is called Oddette and is somewhere around 7 or 8 years old, has about 2 and a half teeth left and may or may not successfully lamb again. It feels rather good though to have mum and her lamb together rather than split them up, and at least it will be one extra fleece to process each year she stays with us!
With Oddette being as old as the hills, and not guaranteed to lamb again, Viv suggested that we may like to take another of her ewes with us as well (lucky we travelled up in the Landie!) – I stayed quiet, remembering my strict instructions, and was happy to leave with just Xanadu and Oddette. However, no sooner had Viv proffered the suggestion of an extra passenger the voice of Jo perked up and agreed immediately! I make the point that it was her decision, not mine (although I still think I ended up paying the extra!). Vermillion is a true caramel ewe and has a lovely fleece that is bound to produce some wonderful wool, and is probably in her second or third year – she has already lambed once.
Our new trio of Oddette, Xanadu and Vermillion now take our breeding flock to four, and we already know that we’ve reserved another two ewe lambs from another breeder that we’re collecting in September. I think that will do us for a while given the space that we’ve run out of, and we still need to source a ram for tupping come the autumn!
We’ll let you know how things develop as the year progresses!
Our first shearing!
With the temperatures rising and Cloud and Snowy beginning to look somewhat scruffy, we made the decision that it was about time to give the two beasts a haircut! Well, having said all along that this was going to be a job I was going to do myself it was now time to chicken out and find a professional this time around. How does one find a sheep shearer at short notice – and one that’s prepared to travel to shear two sheep (and two very small sheep at that!)?
After a bit of time on the Google machine we stumbled across Mike the shearer (Mike Hewson), who is based in Lincolnshire (or Lincolnshear!) but travels some distance – worth checking out his website if you think you may need his services, he comes well recommended. Anyway, having booked a date and time with Mike we got a call from him asking if we’d consider using another shearer – one that was a bit closer to us and trying to build up his own shearing business. We were, of course, more than happy to go along with Mike’s request, especially with this being our first ‘shearing’ experience and really wanting to get it done as soon as possible – Cloud and Snowy were quickly loosing clumps of their precious fleece all over the garden!
Soon after agreeing to a new shearer we got a call from Jed Feild, and arranged for him to come and do our two on 26th May – unfortunately whilst I was away on a jolly with Maurice Pyle – so Jo would have to be around to supervise the proceedings. If you want to try out Jed’s services he can be contacted on 07876 348786.
All must have gone well, as when I returned from the north there were two very much smaller and skinnier sheep running around the garden! Jed had definitely done a good job, and there were two beautifully rolled whole fleeces ready for whatever we decided to do with them (more about this in a future post). It really is amazing how much fleece comes off even the smallest of sheep, although I can’t really see us ever making a living as wool producers.
We would highly recommend Jed as a competent and skillful shearer, although it really would be nice if we didn’t need to use his services next year and could do all of our own shearing! However, having done some preliminary research into shearing equipment it may take us a long time to pay back the initial outlay of new kit – may have to check out eBay next!!!
Till next time…
