As I mentioned in my post about all of this year’s changes, we went from living on a small rental in Los Angeles to a 5-acre property in Tennessee. By far, the most FUN part of this entire process of change has been adopting and raising farm animals. I will leave the birds for my next post (although to my great surprise, the birds give us more entertainment than even our house pets).
We started with 5 wool sheep, and then, for my birthday, added a pair of Nigerian dwarf goats. I will not write too much in this post, as I am sure you’ll find the photos much more entertaining. The important things to know are that the sheep are a Bluefaced Leicester/Shetland/Cotswold mix, which my spinning friends tell me is going to make some lovely yarn, and were about 6 months old when we got them and are now, as of this writing, nearing their first birthday. Sheep are not easy, and if anyone is interested, I can do another post about all the things we have learned so far about raising them, but I really do enjoy our new life. Despite the hard, and often dirty work, going out to the barn to take care of the animals is one of my favorite parts of the day.
And the goats… what can I say except that they are as people-loving, cuddly and fun as they look!
This has all been a huge learning process for us. We did lots of reading and research before buying our animals so that we’d know how to keep them healthy and happy. It has been so fun and rewarding, but I always feel like I have so much left to learn. Next up is learning to process wool and spin it. I hope you enjoyed meeting our ruminants, and I will do another post soon about our birds.
I can’t yet sell any of my own fiber, but if you’re in holiday shopping mode, I do have a little treat for you. Lovecrafts.com gave me a discount code for my blog readers: Use EKB2019 to get 15% off orders over $10 (excluding PDF patterns, sale items & value packs). One use per customer, valid until December 31, 2019.
(And if anyone is wondering, I don’t make commissions from any sales, this is just a treat they are letting me offer you!) Please enjoy – their site has goodies for knitters, crocheters, quilters, and cross stitch and embroidery.
ELIZABETH KAY BOOTH 
Oh what fun. You need a sheep dog for the sheep and goats to show them who is boss.
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We thought about it, and we may in the future. From all our research, those dogs are quite amazing, but they do require alot of training. We didn’t feel ready to do that just yet as we are still puppy training our retriever. Some day if we grow our flock, we will probably get one… I’d be thrilled to have that experience because we have watched those dogs on other farms, and they are truly amazing!
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We used to have sheep but they were meat sheep so the wool was not that great. I do miss the lambing season as it was so much fun to watch those new lambs. We discovered it was much easier to lead the sheep around by carrying a feed bucket rather than chasing them!
I often laugh when I read in the Bible that we are like sheep….it is not always a compliment!
Your goats are so cute!
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Yes, alot of people around here have meat sheep – from what I hear from people, we are the oddballs with the wool sheep. lol I imagine you probably know alot about raising sheep then – honestly, the best information we have received is from talking to other shepherds who have raised them. I can only imagine how adorable the lambs are! I do hope to breed our ewes, as I would love to raise lambs… stay tuned! And yes, I looked up the Biblical references – and I realized that alot of them refer to shepherding, with Jesus being the good shepherd. I am seeing those verses in a whole new light now that I am shepherding – but it is a beautiful picture. ❤ And yes, the goats are hilarious! Even on a bad day, they make me laugh!
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I tried convincing my husband we needed wool sheep but he loved how the Suffolks looked with their black heads and legs. I had visions of yarn!
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But of course you did! 🙂 Our local fair was in August and there were so many sheep there. I have to admit I don’t know as much about meat breeds as I do wool, but some of those breeds are so beautiful! Did you sell your flock or do you still keep a few sheep around?
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They are gone. When my husbands hips gave out he sold them. Now that both hips are replaced he keeps thinking about it again.
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I’m glad your husband is doing better. If you get more, maybe this time around it’s your turn to pick the breed. 😉
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