What Weather?

The weather here has been very odd. Of course Reno is like that so really the weather has been fairly normal. In the post before this one we had about six inches of snow. That snow was around for about a week. With the thaw came green grass. The sheep spent their days grazing and very little hay was needed to keep them happy. I was happy also! The green was here for about a week and a half. Then this last Friday it snowed again all day. I would guess we had eight to ten inches. Yesterday it rained all day. The picture below shows some of the snow that slid off the roof just about all the rest of the snow melted.

I was trenching around the barn off and on during the day to keep the water out of the barn.
We have this beautiful out cropping of rocks in the canyon behind our property. Hum looks like more snow today.

  With the sheep being out in the rain and snow their fleeces are nice a wavy. This is the best time for fleece pictures.

It also smells like wet sweaters in the barn.



This morning I finally remembered to get  a picture of Chaparral, Paula's mini LaMancha buck on loan to breed Ginger and Megan my does. He fits right in with the sheep and goats so I'll keep him for the winter. Ginger likes him too. I should have kids born here this next spring in late March or early April. The plan was to get the goats to kid before the sheep lamb just in case I need some extra milk. We'll see. You will find a better picture of "big Al Boy" here. He is at the bottom of the page.

Proof there is grass in the high desert of Nevada in winter. Until the next snow!

Even under the sage brush. I've been told over the years by "experts" that grass does not grow under sage brush (Artemisia tridentata). In the dry arid parts of Nevada not much grass will grow anywhere, but in the high desert with more water, enough for the grass but not so much to drowned the sage brush, they do grow together. We have Brome, Crested Wheat and Cheat grass around and under our sage brush.

Why Shetland Sheep?

This post is my take on Shetland Sheep and why they are the best type sheep for a small land owner and what brought me to love them so much, diversity! I get tired of hearing how they should be just one thing. Like for insistence their fleece an "improved" fleece like all the others breeds of sheep, all the same, even from neck to britch, all short with x number of crimps per inch, soft and silky.

I live on a smallish piece of property with no irrigated fields in Nevada with the annual rain fall for an average year of  7 inches. I was first introduced to Shetlands in 2003 with the soul purpose of raising them for fiber to spin. In my mind they were perfect, small, I can keep more animals per acre, easy to handle with all the colors any one breed of sheep could have plus neat markings to keep them diverse. The next best thing was that they all had different types of fleece. Some were long and lustrous all the same length. Some were very double coated with the softest under coat, 4-5 inches and longer outer coat of  5-7 inches. Some were short coated with a nice crimp from end to end. Most of my sheep now are soft and fine, some with high bold crimp some with small tiny crimp and a few are not so fine. This is just perfect. Instead of having six or eight different breeds of sheep I could have just one, the marvelous Shetland with all it's diversity in one small package. Not improved to the point of other breeds who had one main objective in the way their fleeces grew.

My sheep have a fleece weight of 2-5 pounds. Even when you divide the fleece, softest fiber on the neck, soft/medium fiber in the middle, and the britch being a bit coarser there is more than enough to do most projects. If there is not, say I need more britch for a project I have many more animals with the right colors to add to the pile. If I were to do a sweater the fleece will give me at least two pounds of fiber more than enough to finish a nice sweater, warm mittens and a hat. I know this because my first ever sweater weighs about two pounds and you don't want a sweater to weigh that much! It needs to be -20 outside to even wear it for more than a few minutes.

Judith at BSG passed a Shetland sweater around and it had to be just ounces. Very light and airy yet warm to wear. She also passed around our NASSA tartan woven fabric, not soft at all but a cloth made to wear like iron both made from our little Shetlands!

And yes my sheep will always have a diverse fleece, softest neck, soft middle and not so harsh britch this is an unimproved not for commercial fleece. A perfect fleece for a spinner who likes diversity and can not afford to feed large massive sheep or buy a 14 pound merino fleece. Sounds like a Shetland Island land owner would want a sheep like this!

 I can do almost any project with my Shetlands fleeces. If I want to make something that is drappy and fine like a shawl my sheep have that type wool, small tiny crimp with less memory. If I make some thing that works up best with more memory I have that type fiber too. I can felt slippers that are next to the skin soft with microns about 30 for a durable end product. Or a purse that felts up easily and does not scratch your arm as you wear it and does not "pill" like softer cotton like wool would.
I love my Shetlands just the way they are diverse.
And in answer to a comment on a Shetland Yahoo List we west coast Shetland breeders are not morons! I will preserve all the diversity in our sheep you can do what you want. They are all Shetland Sheep.

Skirted Fleeces

Seems I've never shown the types of fleece I'm getting from my sheep so here are the few I've skirted the last week. All these are from ewe's that were bred last fall and one from Watson my new black ram. All of my sheep get no grain and very little if any alfalfa. Their main diet is grass hay and grazing on our hill side, native grasses and brush.
First is Desert Peach Charlee, four year old, the ewe who has the Shirley Temple lamb. I hope her lamb has a fleece much like her dam. I love Charlee's fleece. She gives me close to three pounds, 2.6, of heavily skirted fleece every year. That is a dirt line in her fleece but no color. Great hand and blends wonderfully with silk for a smooth silky next to the skin yarn. With or with out the silk. Beautiful shine!

Desert Peach Hattie three year old ewe. She has pretty much the same type fleece as most my sheep but too short for what I want. Black Ag ewe very little black left in her fleece.

Desert Peach Siskin four years old bred ewe gave me 2.9 lbs of heavily skirted fleece this year. She has more britch than I like but her fiber also has a great hand and makes next to the skin soft yarn, with great shine. Yes the micron count on most these fleece will be high, never tested, it's the end product that I have judged my fleeces on so far. No her fleece doesn't touch the ground at this length! The piece on the left is from her britch area.

Desert Peach Zephyr, two years old and bred this year for the first time. Intermediate type fleece with nice hand. 1.8 pounds on her skirted fleece. I haven't been weighting my fleeces before I skirt because how much usable fiber is more important to me. I do not coat my sheep so I loose some of the fiber over the top of their backs and skirt the britch out if it is way coarse.

With all these Ag sheep so far it makes me wish I had more solid colors in my flock. My moorits and blacks do not have as nice as fleece as my Ag sheep yet. We will shear them this next week.
This is Wilson a yearling wether. Beautiful color and you can see next year his fleece will look much like the ewe's above. His fleece is very much a single type coat. I have about a pound of his usable fleece and spun up that piece of yarn. He's fiber makes a nice lofty yarn with candy strips from the layering of colors. This fiber is lower in the micron range of all the other fleeces so far.


Stonehaven Watson yearling ram with teeny bitsy crimp all the way up each lock. One pound of skirted fleece jet black and appears that it should spin up into a nice lofty yarn. Very soft too for a black fleece. Can't wait to work with it!

Desert Peach Tru, pending, two year old first time bred. On her body her fleece looks like a single/tippy type fleece. Great hand loads of usable fleece. (I need to get the weight). I also need to spin some to see what type of yarn I will get.

Desert Peach Stevie, yearly bred ewe. Awesome length but eeewww not very soft!! She is breed to Watson so hope her lambs do better in the fleece department. I will keep Stevie because I want that length of fiber on my sheep. Four to six inches.

Desert Peach Pepper, pending, two year old first time bred. Black Ag ewe with a moderate double coat type fleece. Very little color. I love the length, hand and she gave me 2.5 pounds of usable fleece.