Making jam

This year I made my old standby Ginger pear preserves but I got pretty radical and also made lemon Ginger marmalade!

Snazzi

The oldest member of my flock died over the weekend of old age. She was already a seasoned ewe when I got her along with her ewe lamb Olive. While I had her she gave me two wonderful lambs, Sukki and Kyra.

Sukki inherited her mother's incredible maternal instincts and has the most incredible chocolate colored fleece (her name which comes from súkkulaði the Icelandic word for chocolate).

This year's lamb Kyra, pictured above, is the spitting image of her mother and I hope she also has inherited her maternal instincts. (Kyra is named for the kÿr, the Icelandic word for cow!).

Fall Shearing

Another successful Fall shearing! This year, for the first time I had a number of lamb fleeces. I am so excited to see how they spin-up. Also, the mill I use now has an antique sock machine so stay tuned for some super warm Three Dog Farm socks in all your favorite natural Icelandic colors.


Melissa brought her daughters who are shearers and sheep women in training! The girls did a great job helping out.

value

there is value in the seeing the fruits of one's labor no matter how small.

Newest Lamb!

More cute overload...

Lolly is an adoptive mom

Frigga has her lamb

Spring Shearing

My awesome shearer, Melissa Higgins, drove up from CT yesterday and did the whole herd. She did a wonderful job and was very gentle with the two ladies who are still waiting to lamb.

Frigga and the gang

Cute overload!

This is Eyja



This is Esja and Eyja, Freya's twin ewe lambs.

giddy up!

this is just all sorts of wrong...

Freyja's lambs

Third time was a charm for Freyja...she finally got the mothering thing right! She had two very large ewe lambs. One will be dark grey (she has sugar lips!) and the other I am not sure! Perhaps gray mouflan or a brown gray? I have never had this color lamb yet. She was stuck and had to be pulled to life but was kicking and screaming as soon as she hit the ground. Fine, healthy lambs Freyja!





Here they are actually nursing! Finally Freyja!

trying to nurse!

Let the lambing begin...

I was not planning on lambs this year, but my ram Saga had other plans. Sukki was the first to go and produced lovely male/female twins. One moorit and one piebald. Of course it was the coldest day we've had in weeks and they were pretty cold. They got some extra TLC and plenty of colostrum before I let them fend for themselves.








My neighbor, Val, was on hand with hot towels from the dryer (her idea thanks Val!) and she also finally captured me in action. After three years of lambing alone, it was nice to have some company! Someone finally witnessed my adeptness at milking colostrum one handed while wrangling a yearling new mother!

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxf0iq8UZ8eBu2w-OQjwCsSGCy8z4-IvB7wWtY1YLe-BK6YVS_B95Wez8R-sTGi_d05SQZRE8LOFQ_34uUA7xLNffTkpraqZrtEXtEwCbs3e4jvLnOawJRSYnNdtIcRbXvy9D/s1600/DSCF2041.JPG">

Icelandic Wool!

Finally these guys can start earning their keep!

Three Dog Farm has finally produced some wool. Thanks to my awesome shearer Melissa and the great work of Still River Mill, I have some lovely yarn to sell.

Check out my etsy shop for details.

The colors are all natural. From left: white, light brown, dark brown, medium grey, light grey, and dark grey (mixed black and white fleece from piebald sheep!) Skeins are single ply, about a dk weight, and approximately 250 yards/skein (40z skeins).