Shepherding in the High Desert

Snow...

2012-01-26T16:56:00.000-08:00

...on the spuce in the back yard.

...missed him under the East eave on the garden shed. He was my favorite Hereford bull, hit by a water truck and had his leg hopelessly broken. Snapped and hanging below the fracture like a noodle. Found him down in the bottom of Anderson Wash the next day. Doc gave me the skull because he saw me crying for the old bull. He left some good daughters in the herd.

...and parsley umbels.

... and iron bells on the back porch.

...and my favorite baby llama pretending she can't see me.

An Afternoon in the Mill

2012-01-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

The old Proctor and Schwartz, aka Rhoda, since she came from a mill in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Today's first lot going to roving; a heathered black and grey blend. Some nice, white Shetland Mule is in the picker coming behind it.

Coarse-lot moorit on the frame that's gone to a two-ply rug yarn.

Of Proof and Pudding...

2012-01-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

Proof, served with baked potato and kohlrabi salad.

Working the Shetland Ewes

2012-01-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

As usual, the ewes with the English style fleeces are thin, even in the middle of a very mild winter with much open ground and good feed. The ewes with double-coats and/or scadder are fat and showing in-lamb with rounded bellies and a bit of bag. The modern English type sheep may work for you, and praise God if they do! They just can't cut it here... If my sheep can't work as hard as I do, they can go work somewhere else.

It's a hill flock, not a show flock. They aren't fed alfalfa or grain. They don't have shelter. They aren't flushed. They lamb in the rough. The March-born mule lambs (from good BFL) are slaughtered in June and July for the SonCroft Prime Lamb(tm) label, with ewes producing >120% of their body weight by this time. The purebred lambs are slaughtered in October and into the winter for the SonCroft Winter Lamb(tm) label. They range in age from lambs to wizened grannies like the nearest grey ewe.

You can see the difference between the Dailley and UK katmoget patterning. Maureen's lamb is awfully ugly. Poor thing.

A favorite ewe who looks to be full of triplets again. She has the toad-eye that I like.

For the sheep gestapo out there reading this, there are a few mules in these shots and a Shetland/Icelandic cross ewe who produces excellent slaughter lambs.

Some Sheep, Wool and Textile Photos from this Week

2012-01-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

This is a random lock that I found on the ground from one of the slaughter lambs from Montana. They're coarser than mine by about four microns on average with a bit harsher handle, but as you can see, even the coarser spectrum of double-coated Shetland wool doesn't deserve the bad press that it gets.

This is Marguerite's fleece. Still my ideal. It is super-creamy in handle, fine, highly lustrous, quite dense and with good style and character.

And Mariposa's. I really like this fleece too, but is borderline too fine. It still has the style, character and density from the Bitterroot maternal lines, but "improved" fineness from Carryhouse R1. Any finer and these tend to turn into a dry-handling fuzz with very little lock distinction.

These are a pair of fingerless gloves that were a gift to my Mama from a German friend. Beautiful work, and a fine example of what you can do with good Suffolk wool.

Some of my Shetlands on a chilly morning. Such a mild winter.

Annual Shearing Festival!

2012-01-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

The date is set for February 18th! We'll preview fleeces for sale on the sheep at 9am, first come, first serve, and shearing will start at 10am. I'll be cooking a luncheon featuring my SonCroft Prime Lamb(tm) that will be served at noon, and we'll start shearing again right after lunch.

Dad shearing Bernadine (Starkey B190) at Last Year's Event.

There are a couple of tentative workshops that we'll be hosting after lunch too! I'll post those when they are confirmed. Tours of the mill and shopping in our Sheep Camp farm store are welcome! We'll have a sign-up sheet for summer fiber workshops that we'll be hosting and events to get out of the heat in the valley. I'll be working on an e-newsletter for the mill and the flock soon.

Hey, by the 18th there should be lots of Bluefaced Leicester lambs to hold and ogle too!!!

I'll be bringing a large group of Bluefaced Leicester, Shetland Mule and a diverse group of extremely stylish Shetlands for your selection.

I'll post a preview of fleeces, sort of a virtual walk through the flock, and updates on the workshops soon! I've been photographing sheep, fleeces and yarns like a madman for this and the webstore for the mill. Lots of fun.

RSVP to sheepcampmill@aol.com.

Hey, and 'friend' me on Ravelry... SonCroftJared.

Annual Call from the NASS...

2012-01-03T18:54:00.000-08:00

I feel once again violated. USDA's statistics gatherers (think Tolkein's crows and harpies) called and have even begun inquiring about how many animals are processed for our own household consumption. Oh, yeah... We need more invasive control of American agriculture because of foodborne illnesses or other such propaganda. This administration sure has brought plenty of "change" and I shiver at the thought of the alternatives of the incumbent executive branch. Left or Right, they're hands of the same System. Reading Chronicles and Kings seems to reveal a foreshadowing of this epoch. We, like Israel and Judah, have turned our backs on Yhwh, our nation is divided, and we have a unabashedly corrupt political leader and a syncretic spiritual grey malaise.

Often I feel like Tirian, surrounded, with his back to the rock and only a few allies at my side. I need to keep my back to the Rock and await the return of the Lion. The real One, not the donkey in a lion's skin... (Not familiar with the story? Read The Silver Chair and The Final Battle by CS Lewis, and also Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Joshua, Ruth, Hosea, Hebrews and the Revelation.)

Tasteful Yarnography- Bluefaced Leicester

2012-01-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

I took these shots this afternoon. My own white Bluefaced Leicester wool in two ply. Dad has spinning BFL woollen yarns to an art form. Twenty skeins of it should be up on the web store soon. http://www.sheepcampwoolmill.com/

Respect Your Food

2011-12-30T16:25:00.000-08:00

So what would you change about this rack I cut tonight? Keep in mind this is Shetland lamb, SonCroft Prime Lamb (tm) no less, and because of the breed, they have a higher spinal process which equates to a more elliptical loin-eye muscle shape.

Here is a challenge for the conventional producer-finisher-processor-consumer model with the modern industrial breeds...
1) Get this kind of finish, without the waste of backfat.
2) Get this kind of finish on grass hay.

3) Get this kind of flavor, texture, juiciness and consistent quality.

Kirk's Lambs Just Keep Getting Better and Better!

2011-12-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

Molly (Kirk x Monica)

Cordelia (Kirk x Claybasket)

Are there some things I would change about them? Aye, but fewer than their dams. I'm excited to see how these girls produce this spring. The ewe lambs are all exposed to Churchill, so I'm expecting some added width and muscularity from the breeding. All of the older ewes are bred to Kirk again, so I'm very blessed to be expecting another crop of lambs like these. Especially from that silver Silvie daughter in the background from Robina. Woohoo! Sired by the best ram we've imported yet and a Barlaes T5/Monique dam. I was able to purchase a Varrius x MacKenzie daughter that I'm very excited to see in my breeding program. Best Leicesters in the country, those Moniques. I like to see those foundation names in my pedigrees.

Some of the Things I Love About Bluefaced Leicesters...

2011-12-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

The eye!

An expressive eye can tell you so much about an animal, or a person...

Claybasket

Marcella

Maple

The Wool...

So maybe you're not a fleece junky or wool freak like me... What can I say? You're missing out.
Marguerite's fleece is my ideal for the breed. Bold, lustrous purls in the lock that give the impression of strung pearls, with soft, creamy handle and excellent density for the breed. There's a bit of cross-fibering in there, but you can't have everything in one package. The Monique (Firth B20) line is tops in my book.

Polled Delaine Merino Yearling Ram for Sale

2011-11-22T09:53:00.000-08:00

Shoulder.

Midrib.

He falls off in the breech by about two microns and crimp widens a bit.

Not perfect, but he's better than most.

Staple is about 1.25" right now, since we sheared the merinos in May. Brilliant lustre, excellent color, good density, high yield. He's a smaller-framed ram, not one of those big water buffalo sized outfits. Lamb fleece sheared off at @15 lbs and was @5" staple. Again, he was shorn late. Not perfect, but not bad. Rafter 7 and Mendenhall on John Jewell lines. Not too much neck or wrinkling. Sound on all four and put together fairly sharp. I'd like to see a little more muscularity on him. I'm sending these samples and from his lamb fleece to Texas A&M and will post results.

His dam was champion white finewool at Estes Park Wool Market 2008. (She's freakin awesome...) I plan to have embryos for sale out of her next year by this sire and/or this sire.

This ram is priced $550, unregistered.

Sharpen Your Sheepy Senses

2011-11-20T13:24:00.000-08:00

A B

C D

E F

G H

Here is the challenge:

These are eight samples of white wool. Very subjectively, based only on these photos, describe each sample as best as you can. Describe the character, style, lustre, staple length (the photos are in an @6"x7" field), approximate AFD (SD and CV if you're brave, but you don't have to because these are all very tight SD and CV samples), breed, composite or breed family, faults and/or commendable qualities of these samples.

This is for fun and only meant to challenge and sharpen our knowledge of wool, so there is no judgment. (And that goes for anyone viewing and participating! Be polite and encouraging or go somewhere else! Refer to Galatians 5:15) But do go out on a limb and guess. These are all raw samples from 2010 fleeces. Be warned, one of these is from a non-ovine species... but which one?

Photos From Shearing Day 2011.

2011-08-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

These photos are courtesy of my friend, Nancy Mangnall. If you would like to use one of them, I'll put you in touch with her. Please respect that these photos belong to her.

Here is Dad shearing some Bluefaced Leicesters.

B206 is a bit uncomfortable...

...because she ate those watermelon seeds.

Awesome photo.

This is my favorite shot when cropped a bit.

Kirk's turn for a haircut.

Skirting Monica's fleece. How do we say it, Oregon? "Blue-Faced-Leicester!"

Kirk; "I changed my mind. I want my fleece back."

Series of Fiona Photos.

2011-08-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

The emphasis of this series of photographs is to showcase a healthy production system. The grasses, the sheep, the grazier and the landscape are all integral.

Fiona's aging a bit. I am never disappointed with the quality of her lambs.

Dual-coated Wool Specimen.

2011-08-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

This is a good fleece, though a bit heavy on the outer coat. I can't find the histograms from the last batch of sampling that I did on the rams with intact rib samples and also samples of the outer and inner coats. If I remember correctly, it was around 30 micron intact staple and 19.8 or 20.1 micron inner. Somewhere in that range. I like this style of fleece for several reasons.

1) They outercoat sheds moisture so the sheep don't produce the excess lanolin to waterproof themselves. The innercoat locks in warmth with it's highly insulative qualities. Because of that, it protects my ewes better in particularly nasty weather and they maintain condition out on the hill better than the single and intermediate fleeced ewes in my flock. It also protects the inner coat from sunbleaching, so jet black stays jet black and moorit stays moorit. It's ready to spin from the lock right off the sheep.

2) The crimp structure and handle are more like cashmere. Organized crimp definitely has it's place in the industry, but this is something extraordinary. The handle of the inner coat is something unique to other dual-coated fibers like cashmere, quiviut or camel down. It is very fine, but doesn't have the cottoney-stickiness that commercial finewools have, or the slippery-dryness of alpaca. It has much loft, but without being spongey.

3) It's a genetic goldmine. This has the quality of wild fibers without (as much of) the wildness.

Flower's Ewe Lamb

2011-08-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

She's one of my favorite lambs this year.

Llooks a little bit like her mother, eh?

(Flower)

Fresh Flock Fotos...

2011-08-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

The boss lady.

Ava Gardner and her girls.

Minder Mara and her lamb.

Veronica Lake's ewe lamb and some older gals.

Rita Hayworth's ewe, so very, very Rita.

Some of the flock...

I've got the Shetlands in a savory grazing, electric block rotation. The ewes are in swell condition and will be marvelously fat by tupping. A few ewe lambs are passing some tapeworm segments, so I need to figure out how to herd the little devils down to the corral without them scattering like a bushel basket full of grasshoppers... There are several ram lambs ready to slaughter, and I've been thinking of grilling, roasting or pan-searing a particular blonde-musket ram lamb...

Candace's Ram Lamb

2011-07-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

Candace's First Lambs

2011-03-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am a keeper!

"Lord it's hard to be humble... but I'm doin' the best that I can."

What do you mean, it's supposed to snow?!

Candace is a Carryhouse R1 daughter out of Starkey Spring, who was Morlea x David Firth bred. Morlea Ebony Boy 1907/N74 was the highest indexing Sire Reference Scheme ram born in 1998. That with the old Canadian Firth genetics seems to have made a solid, easy keeping ewe that milks well, but is kind of short and dumpy. The Carryhouse R1 and Beeston T70 infusion has styled them up, brought them up off the ground, added tremendous milking ability and added more fleece weight.

If you're looking for a stylish+productive white ram for siring purebred Blues, he's your boy. Drop me a note if you're interested.

~And a BIG thank you to Margaret and Cindy for giving me the extra nudge to buy Ward Moor-Kirk and Kelly for selling him to me. Kirk's been the best investment I've made so far for this flock. I look forward to the impact his progeny will have here. xo

Marcella's First Lamb

2011-03-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

Marcella is double-bred Firth B20 'Monique' on her dam's side, from my Mia line, and her sire was by Beeston T70. Super genetic combination, complimentary for a highly productive ewe with extended longevity in a grass/forage-only production system. I expect great things from her and her new ewe lamb by Ward Moor-Kirk. This lamb is blue from stem to stern, and her already lustrous fleece looks like frost crystals over her blue skin. Born unassisted, but I brought the pair into the barn to make sure she nursed before I went to work... (So, her record will have to show an assisted nursing.)

She's already got a beautifully expressive eye like her mama. I look for that in all livestock. A dull, stupid eye will tell you just exactly how that animal is going to perform. From horses to chickens, it's somewhat universal. Doofy looking lambs, well, they taste great. Because otherwise, they'll be nothing but trouble.

What I Look For in Our Leicesters

2011-01-31T21:15:00.000-08:00

As a developed breed, Bluefaced Leicesters are bred to perform in a specific (though more diverse than often given credit for) niche in the industrial production of the world's most efficiently-produced, prime quality lamb.

As a breeder of these sheep, I have set criteria for my replacement females and especially sires who will go into my breeding program. It is up to me to focus on the future health and productivity of my flock, and most importantly, the sires or occasional brood ewes that I sell. There is always the proverbial balance of science and art to consider that goes with breeding livestock and crops.

So I'm developing this written guideline to showcase the emphasis of my breeding program. I want ewes in production in my own flock who will cover all bases, and rams who will produce daughters to work in your flock, who will also cover all bases. My ewes have to work for and with me. This is not a welfare outfit, and is certainly not government subsidized, nor will it ever be! God provides for our needs according to His will. (Adonai-roi!)

This is what I strive to produce and what I work hard to ensure that you get when you purchase Jehovah-jireh rams and brood ewes:

I. Production- (All Traits Given Equal Priority.)

A. Maternal Ability
1. Longevity

2. Prolificacy

3. Maternal Instinct

          4. Lambing Ease
          5. Milking Ability
          6. Forage Conversion Efficiency and Rapid Growth

7. Maintenance of Body Condition on Forage

B. Hardiness

          1. Rugged Constitution
          2. Parasite Resistance
          3. Disease Resistance
     C. Disposition
          1. Gentle, Quiet and Easy-Going

II. Type-
     A. Breed Character
          1. Bold and Alert Carriage
          2. Deep Blue Skin
          3. Correct Structure and Fluid Locomotion
          4. Foursquare Stance with Good Width
          5. Improved but not Excessive Muscling and Bone
          6. Tremendous, Long Loins with Good Width
          7. Capacious Depth with Good Spring of Rib
     B. Fleece
          1. Fine, Soft and Lustrous Character
          2. Improved Density and Fleece Weight
          3. Style that Gives the Impression of Strung Pearls

Are any of my sheep perfect? Hardly. But I'm working hard to breed the best Bluefaced Leicesters in the world. There is a addage about how the only perfect sheep ever born was sacrificed when Noah and his family disembarked from the ark. According to the story, we've been trying to reproduce him ever since.

Silent Auction Preview- Bluefaced Leicester Fleeces

2011-01-15T17:46:00.000-08:00

Cruz;

Dark blue with chocolate tips, medium-coarse, very high luster, loose drape, soft hand.

Monica;

Light blue with beige tips, medium, high luster, loose drape, soft.

Freckles;

White, fine, high luster, drapey, very soft.

Churchill;

White, fine, demi-luster, drapey, very soft, somewhat cottoney.

Cana;

White, fine, high luster, drapey, bold purl, very soft.

Capri;

White, very fine, demi-luster, very soft, slightly cottoney.

Claybasket;

White, fine, lustrous, structured style, very dense, very soft, full hand.

Minder Masada's Yearling Fleece

2010-12-21T20:48:00.000-08:00

A mid-rib sample for Minder Masada...

His twin brother's midrib lamb fleece sample.

Samples from English ram lambs for comparison.

The Llook...

2010-12-15T21:51:00.000-08:00

There's an ancient mystery and independance in the expression of a primitive breed. A mystery that calls to some inner Scandinavian within me, begging to be clad in woollens and fårskinn, pillaging along the coasts during the week and farming with a good woman and ten or twelve of my strapping sons on weekends and federally recognized holidays. I'm calling it 'the Llook.' It lies in the cool, fierceness of the eye, the alert earset, the die all, die merrily head carriage and the general character of the animal... Almost an aura, if you will. We're losing it in many of the Shetlands as we further commercialize them, and trading it for a goofy looking critter by my estimation.

~Flower has the Llook. Flawless, as Shetland ewes go (just Llook at the style in her fleece), except for that bit of Viking tendency to plunder neighbors' gardens and alfalfa stands... (Ahem.) I took this photo before I left to film the show in LaLaLand.

~Veronica Lake has the Llook...

~Sabina has the Llook (and she's 25% English to her discredit...)

~Chub had the Llook...

~And she passed the Llook on to her babies...

~Indio Moab, of course, inherited the Llook from her...

~Every Vanna lamb had the Llook... Like Indio 623.

~Vanna had plenty of the Llook herself. That's her in the lead with several of her daughters.

~ Ruby had the Llook...

~Nellie has lots of the Llook...

Thanksgiving...

2010-11-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

Three years ago today I received a shipment of twenty ewes from Nancy Starkey and two rams from Kelly Ward. When the arrived here after a couple of thousand miles on the road I divided them into three breeding groups.

Ward 06-763 'Estes' had come to work here the year before and already had the Bitterroot ewes. I split off four Starkey ewes for him as well.

Ward Sooty (a Ward Formby son) got eight head of ewes...

As did Ward 06-750 Gower (a Gigrin Red Kite son.)

Gower also got to clean up the Bitterroot ewe lambs later...

A close-up of Gower's fleece.

Here are some of the resulting progeny...

Lambs by Sooty; this is Handsome Hank, who now works for Teri Peterson.

Lambs by Gower; these are Spring's twins.

Lambs by Estes; ironic that the white ram was the only sire to give me colored lambs...

~Cruz.

Estes' daughters, Cruz (the English blue) and Monica (the blue), as short yearlings.

Leicesters, etc.

2010-10-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

My lovely Candace.

Sired by Carryhouse R1, out of Starkey Spring.

My Capri was a ham today. She is sired by Ward Gower (F1 Gigirin Red Kite) out of Starkey Spring (F2 Morlea Ebony Boy.) I was having trouble with losing background or foreground... The shots where she was posed the prettiest were lousey.

Babylon, our dairy herdsire this fall. He's a Hamilton buck, a truly fantastic milk herd, from Goldthwaite and Saada lines. He produces big, voluminous does with the most beautiful fore-udders and easy-milking, gushing teat orifices. Awesome stock! I'm taking orders for 2011 doelings out of our lovely Mamm-Key bred Alpine does. I bred them for hybrids this year to put some heterosis in the milk string. (I have some very pretty 2010 Alpine doelings for sale too...)

Gilkeson Joycee and my Cana.

Joycee is a Koenig Varrius daughter out of a Bitterroot Lizzie daughter! Two productive and beautiful lines

Cana is a Ward Gower daughter out of Starkey Bronwyn, a Bracken daughter.

Lilacs in Mom's garden.

Yesterday's Lion Kill and Mauling.

2010-10-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

Here's the truth about Mountain Lions/Cougars/Pumas. Disregard any superfluous misinformation that you may have read on any wildlife regulatory agency's website and publications, or studies done by respected universities. Unlike "scholarly" research, conducted by sandal-wearing Boulder natives in nature outings with their graduate students during business hours, in amiable weather, of course... The collective information gathered over generations by people who actually live and work amongst these animals is rather, by contrast, something factual and as a result, valuable.

Let's confront a few of my personal favorite myths...

Myth: Mountain Lions prey on the young, elderly and diseased, which in the fluffy, magical circle of life ultimately optimizes the health of the prey species.

Fact: Mountain Lions are cats. They are picky eaters and contemptuous non-conformists. They kill when it bloody well suits them and they will only kill a diseased animal under conditions of starvation.

Myth: Mountain Lions bury their prey to return to it later, because they are fluffy, magical native American spirit animals, in tune with the universal mind, who make use of every digestible morsel of bone and flesh. They also do not want to become obese and fall victim of the diabetes epidemic.

Fact: Yeah, so the sarcasm was thick there... But that's only partially true. They will return to their prey if they have not made a fresh kill. Cats will not consume decaying flesh except under conditions of starvation. They bury the prey so scavengers cannot find it.

Myth: Mountain Lions average a kill per week, yadda, yadda...

Fact: Lions are cats (see above) and prefer fresh meat. That means that especially during fawning, calving and lambing seasons of both the native and domesticated ruminant species, they are eating a fresh fawn, calf or lamb daily. But heavy and indescriminate predation is not limited to neonates and the young of prey species. I have seen mature, healthy mule deer buck carcasses from successful -daily- hunts by individual lions, usually by males. Fortunately, most females do tend to be a bit more conservative in their hunting.

Don't even get me started on wolves.

A badly mauled survivor.

Over the fence... A lock of wool and a bloody pawprint.

Where the lamb was stashed and cached...

Leftovers...

This was the lovely Monique (shown at BSG this summer), my best Leicester ewe lamb...

I found what was left of her in August.

Pasture at the Bender Place.

2010-10-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

This morning~

The Leicesters and dairy does are on Georgia Mesa, the Shetlands on Buzzard Creek.

A view of the Sunnyside country and the Battlements to the North. (above)

Looking East, towards Cottonwood Creek.

To the South, with some of Nick Mountain in the background. (above)

To the West. Those little-bitty hills down there are the Bookcliffs.

The new girl.

There's Nick Mountain behind the llama-mama. Still some color on the oakbrush and quakies up there.

Getting a drink...

Fuego's Breeding Group

2010-08-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

Thungerhead Fuego; who will get ten ewes on the fifteenth of November.

The other stock tups, in the meantime:

~Minder Masada gets between fifteen and twenty head of registered ewes this fall.

This year the remainder of the flock will go to Leicester tups for Mule production. For now, I'm taking the more progressive British idea and skipping the terminal sire mess, breeding to BETTER Leicesters and sending BETTER mules direct to slaughter. I plan a mid-April lambing on pastures that will be just greening up. We'll be able to skip pasteurella vaccination that way and get a head start on worms.

~Cap'n will go on about twenty head of straight-Dailley ewes next year and then go in the tank.

~Indio will go in the tank as soon as I have enough money to collect him (since he has only three legs and a nubbin' now) and then flock clean-up after January.

Some of the replacement ewe lambs in the weaning pasture...

Tails... from flawless on the domestics (bottom) to the slightly flawed produced by the UK lines (top.)

Sabina and Isolde, twin Veronica Lake daughters. (Compare them to these or these.)

Milkmaid (top) and Molly's friend, Rose Rita (bottom.)

Dayspring and an un-registered musket (pending with the other Cap'n daughters and granddaughters.)

The lovely Dayspring, for Kathy L.

Red Rita (center) for Kathy L.

New Shetland Junior Flock Sire

2010-07-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

Thunderhead Fuego- Moorit Gulmoget with pale blanket.

Mid-rib lock; whole (left) and seperated (right).

In my hand.

Conformation Assessment:

From the ground up; Sound and correct pasterns and feet. Correct, fine bone and clean joints. Deep hocks. Clean shoulders with correct slope. Level hip and long pelvis. Long, wide loin and level top. Good spring of rib. Neck blends into shoulder (and all the way to the tail) beautifully. Good tail, could fluke a little more, but I do see less correct fluke and greater length with more and more UK influence. Sound bite. Good horns, but a little smaller than I like. Gentle, expressive eye. Earset is a tad low and long.

Fleece Assessment:

Handle:

Exceptional. Cashmere soft, with the handle that makes Shetland recognizable and distinct. I think he'll incorporate well into my breeding program.

Style:

~Outer coat; well-feathered, rounded fingerling locks. Distinct, open and soft. Easily seperated. Some purl.

~Inner coat; exceptionally fine and soft. Crimp is stylish, bold and disorganized, but consistent from tip to blunt, as it should be in a dual coated fleece. Fine, soft and strong.

Staple Length:

Ideal. I think he'll mature at just >7 inches outer, and an ideal 4.5-5 inches inner.

Luster:

Brilliant and deep.

Diameter:

Outer is around 30 microns. Inner is within my ideal range (as it is the fiber we're looking for in traditional artisan products) at 20.5-21.5 microns.

I could not care less about this color, other than he is moorit based. I need some more red ewes working in my pastures. I want my ewes to look like the Gear and Holbourn (from whom I want to import sires) stock on Foula, the Fair Isle sheep, the Papa Stour sheep and the Leask stock on the mainland. Flock Book sheep can work in the Flock Book flocks, I have no use for them.

He'll be used on the Minder influenced females and a few domestics, as I want to maintain my own domestic lines, particularly the Dailley Violet (S0332) granddaughters. (Yes, grand-daughters! A lot of my sheep are only second and third generation removed from the Islands!)

His daughters should perform well on the hill, and should have the structure and correct bio-mechanics to be producing lambs on rough hill pasture into their late teens.

Dilution and Modifiers... Some Thoughts.

2010-07-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

Genetic code is finite. Mathematically, every physical property within our realm of Creation is finite. Even biology is determined by expression of simulated multi-dimensional, digital code. Think of the best video game or flight simulation and make that four, five or six dimensional... Or more? And have an Omniscient and Omnipresent Creator design it. We have tried to chart it to explain one trait or another to varying success.

DNA, think of it; expression of physical format, determined by chains of acids... Wow.

Nothing occurs randomly. If anything we have seen through physical and mathematical law that all physical matter and energy eventually deteriorate rather than improving in organization and strength. Genetics are not exception. We see through gradual mutations, that those mutations in and of themselves, are never beneficial to the respective organism. The original organism was superior to it's offspring. Case in point, albinotic or spotted deer. They are the first ones eliminated from the herd by predators. They stick out like a sore thumb. Cat chow, end of story.

Now, back to topic. The best way to visualize color genetics is like beholding a ray of natural light being divided by a prism.

Go to the source. The wild sheep pattern included every characteristic of the patterns we see expressed today. Then, with imbreeding (imagine that with seven head of sheep disembarking the ark and one of them being sacrificed to Adonai) we began to see deviations of the original pattern occur.

Today we'll look at two of these.

Dilution; a gene that removes variable amounts of pigment in the skin and keratin (hair, wool, horns, hooves.) The amount of expression of this gene is determined by the following component;

Modifier; in this case, I put to you, a component of a particular gene that controls the amount of phenotypic expression. Usually modifiers are represented visually with positive and negative markers in groups of five, like you were rating a film. The more positive markers, the more intense the expression of the gene. The fewer, well, you get the picture.

One thing that prompted me to write this is our interpretation of "fawn."

"Fawn" in Great Britain is what *we* register here as moorit katmoget, aka red badgerface. The fleece is a warm beige tone. A boring color that inspires over-dyeing, in my opinion. We have our holy color cult document; the poster that shows the eleven whole main colors in Shetland sheep... And fawn is very similar to a pale mioget, aka dilute moorit. But all we see on that colorful chart is a single lock of wool... Not the animal. Not the face/leg/belly/tail/horn/hoof color expression.

Summary; "Fawn" is the color of wool on red katmogets. Ask a Limey. I learned this last fall and am only sharing it with blog followers. When Mr MacIntosh asked for a fawn ram to be imported, the president of SSS (was it still SSBG at that time?) arranged to have collected the only inspected fawn ram he could find; Shirehill Minder.

There are really only three main colors. Black; pure eumelanin expression. Moorit; pure phaeomelanin expression. Brown; both eu- and phaeo-melanin expression. Dilute 'em. Grey 'em. Roan 'em. Badger 'em. There are only three.

But before everyone gets fired up when they read this, let's look at something. I'll illustrate a few common pattern variations within moorit, chosen simply because it's my favorite color.

Self (Aa) Moorit (Solid Red.)
+Dilute; Mioget (Solid Gold.)
+Grey; Red Musket (Moorit Grey in Icelandics. They have red heads and legs with the impression of warm, bluish/lavender fleeces.)
+Dilute and Grey; Gold Musket (You know them, they have the golden faces and legs and their pale fleeces have that faint lilac shade peeking through layers of keratin. Very pretty.)

Then you can add all kinds of fun pattern variations in addition to those, like being the Swedish Chef making a mess in Dr Bunson's laboratory!

Well, take that for what it's worth. It's not meant to be read as an exhaustive account of ovine genetic code or a singularly correct accumulation of words. It just makes a lot more sense to me... +z

0026 Jehovah's Masada Milkman

2010-04-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

0026 Jehovah's Masada Milkman. Triplet, Single/Intermediate Fleece, Spotted* Black Katmoget Ram. $650, firm.

By Jehovah's Minder Masada . 2009 Twin, Moorit Katmoget. Own F1 son of Shirehill Minder.
Out of Jehovah's Buttermilk. 2003 Twin, Black Katmoget. Dailley Violet maternal line.

Primarily when you are buying a ram, this information is MOST crucial to your selection criteria. After all, what is he going to do for you? As your flock sire, his genetic influence will directly affect the future quality of your flock. So, before you even look at the photos, please read the following information!

~Buttermilk's lifetime production record '04-single, '05-twins, '06-twins, '07-single, '08-not exposed (on lease), '09-triplets via AI, '10-triplets. The Dailley Violet line are HEAVY milkers with correct teat placement and large well-attached udders. They have very stylish, fine, dual-coated fleeces with silken cashmere handle. They have tiny, perfectly fluked tails and their male progeny bear huge horns that curve safely away from their faces.They my preferred line for keeping replacements lambs from.

To see more Buttermilk progeny photos click here. There are also photos of sheep from this line on the website.

Now look at phenotype. He is structurally correct and sound. As Jayne Roberts (Myfyrian) would say, "a leg in every corner."

He has a very classy look. He comes into his shoulders beautifully, and is very clean-shouldered and up-fronted. His topline is long, wide and straight as an arrow. He is wide made with good bone and ribshape. He has big, wide hips and correct rump angle. He is deep and capacious. His fleece is stylish and even throughout, and will most likely have a very nice single-coated fleece with better HANDLE and staple length than most singles. Lock formation is ideal and his crimp pattern is stylish and deeply helical. His tail is perfect and he has beautiful golden horns. I would like to see is ears at a slightly more elevated angle.

(Photo comment: his triplet sister pictured above is a bit calf-kneed, but straightening out. It's a common triplet thing... In the lower photo she is running which gave the appearance of cow hocks, which she does not have!)

*I don't particularly care for spotted sheep...

Mmmmm.... Cashmere.

2010-03-08T15:07:00.000-08:00

These are fleece shots of two of my Cashmere does.

Your fingertips come into contact with this wool and you are instantly transported into another world... It's as if you've found the key to inter-dimesional travel.

Yeah. It's probably that soft.

Shetland Wool Samples...

2010-02-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share these with you...

This first sample is a lock I plucked from the intermediate/single-coated pale apricot-musket brockle-faced twin ram lamb by Shirehill Minder, out of Chub. He's for sale, by the way; $450. Correct, square-made with a leg in every corner, clean lines, sound, long and wide top, great tail... but he's a half-poll/aberrant horn (non-lethal) kind of fella. Look closely at his crimp pattern and read below.*

Also sired by Minder; In this photo, the first lock is from J's Minder Mara, an intermediate/dual-coated spotted black katmoget triplet ewe lamb, out of J's Buttermilk. She is marked yuglet-flecket, with only a few spots, but her white body is not really white. You can't tell by the photo, but her wool is a cool blue-grey with white primary follicles. I haven't seen anything quite like her...

The second is of Minder Masada, an intermediate moorit katmoget twin ram lamb, twin to the musket of the first image. He is the one who is really baffling me. The following two images are also his...

In this you can see a typical progression of crimp structure and pattern... This sample was taken when he was about six months old, and I was evaluating the sire prospects.

*Then a few days ago I open his fleece and see what has happened over the winter... Look at how he goes from that deep, wide crimp to the freaky, super-fine, tiny crimp pattern... So now I'm really anticipating his yearling fleece. (Note; the tips of his locks were tender when I stressed the staple, and that is why the lock is blunt. This is a quality that I would normally cull for, but with almost the entire crop of lambs from three sire groups with tender tips, and factoring in the wicked battle with coccidiosis we fought last spring, I'm allowing for some tenderness.)

So I'm happy with what Butter and Chub produced for me now... There were a few months where I was largely unimpressed with the results of breeding to in-bye mainland UK sires, but it's developing some character that I like... I can't wait to get some fine hill blood, plucked from the Shetland Scattald and introduced to the Jehovah-jireh genepool.

Last summer, of course Masada's dam puts on her warpaint and decides to go AWOL in the hillside jungle of Vietnam (the South side of Buzzard Creek) and is quickly and quietly sniped by Charlie (or more likely, Charlene, the lionness)... So no more lambs from her... The upside is that I bred this fella to all of the ewe lambs (except Mara who was exposed to Indio) and six mature ewes including ol' Buttermilk.

These samples are from two of Mr McLean's four-horned Oakenbank lambs in Cheshire. The first is a sample from the lamb I mentioned as being pastured at Mrs Theaker's. He is one of the softest handling single-coated Shetlands I have ever had my hands on. It is lush and creamy, and ideal for next-to-skin garment wool.

The long-tipped intermediate on the right is the handsome lamb from my earlier blog. Also very nice handle, though ever so slightly more cottoney.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T15:46:00.000-08:00

Ancient rabbinical scholars teach us that all scripture has meaning in three tenses; past, present and future. (Triune, as with almost all aspects of Elohim.) These following verses allude to the birth of our savior, Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate this day. They are not traditionally read for Christmas, but are very relevant (as is all scripture) to the foundation of our faith.

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Genesis 3:15

Later when Cain was born, Eve thought that the Lord was delivering on his promise to send a deliverer... Just a little early. : )

"Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren will praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thy enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.

Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; And unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Binding his foal to the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

His eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk."

Genesis 49:8-12

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

And his tail drew a third of the stars from heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand, thwo hundred and threescore days.

And there was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels.

And prevailed not; neither was there a place found anymore in heaven.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpant, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

AND THEY OVERCAME HIM WITH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, AND BY THE WORD OF HIS TESTIMONY; and the loved not their lives unto death.

Therefore, rejoice, ye heaven, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitors of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down to you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

And when the dragon saw that he was cast forth unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

And the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and a half a time, from the face of the serpant.

And the serpant cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to to be carried away of the flood.

And the earth heled the woman, and the earth opened up her mouth, and swalloed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

Revelation 12

May the Lord bless you and keep you, and make His face to shine upon you!

Jared +z

photo: My little (okay, enormous) Ingrid puppy keeping a watchful eye over her sheep.

A Sea of Fleece...

2009-12-06T10:38:00.000-08:00

I love this shot of wool across the backs of some Shetland ewes at the bunk.

Hereford Cattle Market!

2009-09-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

A pretty Welsh Mule from Jo Binns...

And her pen mates below who brought L65.

Welsh Mule Gimmers (above)

Suffolk Mule ewe lambs (below) Yes, Suffolk Mules!

Hi from Wales...

2009-09-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hi from Wales!

Swansea, to the West.

Photos of today's travel between Hereford and Port Talbot...

2009-09-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

Between Leicester and Melton Mowbray...

2009-09-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous countryside! Unfortunately our new cheapo camera batteries from the store across from the cattle market were no good, so there are no photos of the sheep, cattle and poultry that we saw and wonderful people we met.

We found some Duracell batteries at the store that worked and we snapped this shot and a few others along the way back to the hotel.

More photos, crossing the desert...

2009-09-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

Solitary places...

Streams in the desert...

Dwelling places...

Hinei ma tov!

A Ram Run to Flagstaff...

2009-09-01T21:48:00.001-07:00

My pal, Kathy LeFevre, and I traded rams... We'll blame it on the economy, but I think we just wanted to have an excuse to feel fleeces and eat fried apples and grits at the Cracker Barrel.

I thought you might enjoy some of the photos from the adventure.

And an adventure it was...

I took a load of first-cutting alfalfa to sell on the Rez along the way. I thought that might help out some folks there and pay for the fuel...

Great idea in concept, but entirely different in result...

(This first shot is between Moab and Monticello. I forget the name of the formation. Good shots for snapping them while I was driving...)

I neglected to take the whipping gusts of monsoon winds into account that ripped the top two layers of the stack, and left the cargo straps dragging along...

~Poof!~ Green clouds of alfalfa, now dust in the wind.

I met Bill and Donna from Indiana, riding their motorcycle across the Southwest for vacation. They stopped and helped me restack the remaining twenty-eight bales that weren't green dust making it's way back to Colorado in the wind. Awesome folks! Lord bless them!

Here's a shot from Monument Valley.

Had a blast at Ralph and Kathy's. Great folks! I wish I had taken time to stop and visit with Lois at Tuba City... I was in a hurry at that point and figured the admission staff would catch on that I was feigning a broken arm to talk about sheep with their radiologist. : D

Buttermilk's Lambs; Revisited.

2009-08-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

I like these lambs more and more. Their test will be in what they produce when bred back to the main flock. With four of the Minder sired lambs, we only managed to coarsen the innercoat.

The science behind it is this: there are primary and secondary follicles emerging from the same pore. In the Primitive staple, the primary follicles are producing a long, single, coarse fiber to several, shorter, very fine secondary fibers. Say 32-36/18-20 microns. (Primary/secondary, respectively.) The finer the better, but this isn't always the case. Often the outercoat is coarse enough that histograms will show a 30+ micron mean fiber diameter.

Generally, the intermediate /single-coated staple will look more like a medium-diameter primary follicle with several dozen medium/fine secondary follicles. We'll figure 24/23 microns. While they are certainly more uniform, with very stylish crimp, they staple should still taper and the primary follicles should form an attractive feathered tip. Should. Again, the finer the better.

I bred to Minder (single/intermediate) to see if I could improve density and develop an outcross line...

Charting out the breeding with Mendel's theory doesn't look promising. It was reflected accurately in the progeny.

I guess it's like Kathy LeFevre told me, "You pays yer nickle and you takes yer chance." We'll see how they work out in the flock. I'm not big on spots, period, so already I'm not looking for too big of an excuse to BBQ.

I've may decide to use Minder Midbar on all of the ewe lambs. His triplet sisters will be exposed to Cap'n. Cap'n is impressing me with the width he is siring and the extreme lock formation that I look for in my primitives. I want to see thousands of pencil thin locks, feathered beautifully. Distinction between the two coats should be very obvious. They should seperate with the simple flick of the wrist, and be easily drafted and spun from the lock.

An excerpt from “The Reckoning,” by James Byron Huggins

2009-08-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

“So in ancient times men studied the Cosmos to find the bridge across the ocean of death. And he saw that the sun, in all its life creating power, was what gave the Earth continual sustenance. Therefore, to him, the Cosmos became the source that he might use to escape death, creating within himself the power to claim eternal life while at the same time possessing all that he loved, surrendering nothing... ..

Malachi glanced at them... ..

“A powerful temptation, if primitive. The Pharaoh was considered to be God because of his soul’s divine union to the sun. He was considered more than mere man, and more than Nature. He was the ultimate Sun-Man, or Man-God, in the most natural sense. He was one with the Cosmos, holding the keys of life by the power of his will and by the power of the sun. For his very will was his life, both for the here and the hereafter. Seemingly, it was the ultimate escape from death and from moral limitations... ..

“You see, evil did not exist, at least not the Man-God who found his freedom in the vast and infinite universe. For Nature itself, was neutral to good and evil. The only moral limitations that might be imposed on the Man-God were the limitations of his own, divine will. The end purpose of his existence became, therefore, the power to create that thing that was the object of his desire.. ..

“But at the emergence of the Hebrew God, the Man-God was confronted with his ultimate nemesis. An enemy that perfectly defied his deific claim. So Yahweh, the Ancient of Days, became the scorned and rejected scourge of the world, despised as an enemy of the ultimate free man. The ageless collision of forces. Man and God. An men who would not kneel accused the God of Israel of being the waste product of a condemning moral code propagated by foolish men who must create an imaginary God that is beyond themselves. And Yahweh was condemned in the old world as the foolish false creation of weak men who were simply unable to survive or rule the power of the Cosmos and by their own hand. A conflict of decision, of decided faith or non-faith. And it was on this ground of the unknowable that the battle first began... ..

Malachi cast Gage a frowning glance... ..

“I call it unknowable because this ground is ultimately the dominion of faith. Gage, where nothing can be completely understood empirically, and a man must decide for himself alone, to believe as he would believe,” he continued, solemn, “I am old, now, and I have forgotten much of what I knew. But I still recall all the questions of limitations of empirical thought. I recall all the questions of fundamental certainty that evaded Descartes, Augustine, Hegel, Pascal and Kant. So I do not claim to completely understand the ultimate truth, nor do I stand alone in my ignorance of it. I know that I can defend my faith as far as reason may ascend, in and discipline of thought, be it philosophy or theology or science or archaeology. And I am certain that I hold a perfectly and ultimately reasonable faith. But in the final plain of human reason, faith is faith and knowledge is knowledge. God always has been, and always shall remain, the ultimate mystery. Always there will be fundamental questions of uncertainty that only faith may bridge. And it is because of what I know if these fundamental questions, and faith itself, that I say with confidence that reason will never fully close the void between the known and unknowable. Faith alone, is forever the final step.” He paused. “It’s true, you know, that the secret things belong to God. Ant those who worship the Man-God, or this Sun-Man, from the very beginning, has regarded Yahweh’s very existence as a hated and mortal threat to his moral autonomy. And for certain, the very idea of an omnipotent and holy God is an attack upon the ground of what he holds most dear: Himself... ..

“It is nothing unique to the history of man,” Malachi sighed, continuing, “One side elects to believe that the Cosmos, or Nature, of the Superior Man himself, holds the keys to eternal life. They believe that man himself should be the ultimate measure of Good and Evil. While we believe that a holy and righteous God has given man the commandment that we must worship Him with all our heart, mind, soul and spirit, abide by His law, and claim no moral sovereignty over ourselves. One side claims that they themselves are God as Man, the ultimate expression of what is good and right and true. The other side simply chooses to worship and serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Moses, who proclaimed that we must worship no other God before Him... ..

Malachi paused, frowning... ..

Silence hung like a heavy cloak over the room... ..

“The dream of the God-Man is to decide his own moral dominion, and by the freedom that he claims, extend that moral dominion over the Earth.” The old man said, distant eyes on flame. “It is a perversion of a solemn truth, for man was, indeed, created to have dominion over the Earth. But not by the might of his own hand. No, and not by the power of the sword, nor the strength of flames.” He shook his head. “No, it was by the mercy of God that man was born to subdue the Earth, remaining within the justice that God ordained... ..

“And is was against this dark dream of mortal cosmic dominion that Simon died resisting. Because he knew what the end of that, the holocaust of ancient empires who held the God-Man as a supreme being. He remembered the dynasties of Mesopotamia.. which worshipped the gods of the Earth; evil monarchies that forced the predatory will of the strongest upon the weak. For always the strongest rule where there is no dominion higher than man himself... ..

“We should learn from history; it reveals former things. In ancient worlds there were many religions that held man himself to be the all-embracing Absolute of good and evil, the decider of his own destiny by the strength of his arm. They rejected the concept of an invisible, omnipotent God who created man and then revealed Himself to man, a God who established moral codes of conduct that could not be altered in the fleshly domain. And even as it is now, it was a time of decision. A time to decide by an act of will to serve the God-Man or serve the Hebrew God that, alone, breathed life into the dust of to make flesh, and still retained the right to decide life or death for that flesh... ..

Malachi shifted, released a long breath. .. ..

“Measure a god by the sacrifice he seeks. Measure a man by the prey he selects. Is it revealing that the ancient empires who worshipped the free moral mind of a master race always selected the weak, the defenseless, or the poor? Is it a coincidence that all the past dynasties ruled by the God-Man, or the Sun-Man, mortared their alters with the same blood? And it’s true you know... ..

“From the Druids to the Massalians to the keepers of demonic Baal to Dagon to the priests of the Aztec’s Xipe Topec, the Sun-God, it was always the children and the weakest who were selected for death. Always the weakest. Never the strong, no. And why is that?” Malachi turned towards them, vivid and bright. “I’ll tell you why. It’s because man without an omnipotent God to restrict his actions will forever serve the beast that lives so strongly within, becoming a predator over a fallen world. And as Nature demands, the strongest men become the strongest predators. And as any predator, men will select easy prey before strong. And children are always among the weakest, the most defenseless.”.. ..

Stillness in the room was unnatural, the poise of the listeners afraid to move within the dark content of his words. .. ..

“Yes, Gage, predation is the final plateau of the God-Man concept. Not love, and not mercy. For a jungle does not recognize mercy; it only recognizes strength. The strong rule, and the strongest rule completely. And it is this cruel fate that has always been in the Cosmos or the Sun. Man as God. Nature as God. The Sun-Man. They cunningly devise whatever ideology that will allow them to justify their moral autonomy and their predatory lusts. A thousand faces for the same being. A thousand names to personify a god who is exactly what they want him to be. And they violently reject the unyielding moral code imposed upon man by Yahweh, a God who has always enforced a code of justice that would defend the weak, and punish the cruel.”.. ..

Gage noticed that Malachi’s face seemed tired. But he still needed some answers... ..

“And how does the manuscript work into this?”.. ..

“Our enemy believes that the manuscript reveals the names, the family lineage, and the place of birth of the ultimate God-Man, or Sun-Man.” Malachi answered steadily. “And he is the one they have waited for during the long centuries. They believe that this God-man, this superior being, will bring into reality the perfect kingdom, their kingdom, on the Earth. They believe that this ultimate being will conquer the world by the strength of his arm, and the universe by the superiority of his mind. They believe that he will drive the archaic concept of Yahweh from the entire world, rebuilding the Earth in the image of himself. We shall all be one, they say.” He shook his head. “Yes we shall all be servants of the God-Man, which is much better than simply being servants of God. Though it seems to me a petty jealousy. The God-Man would simply have us worship him, instead of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob... ..

“And this, they call enlightenment…”

Colorado State Fair and HR 2749

2009-08-18T22:01:00.000-07:00

Colorado State Fair now requires an NAIS premises identification assigment before you can exhibit livestock. We will neither participate nor support CSF... Socialism is as sneaky as it is morally indecent! Colorado is on a Blue-State Boulder Leftist roll. I am supporting Josh Penry for Colorado Governor!

Then there's this... CONTACT YOU SENATORS AND TELL THEM TO SHUT THIS BILL DOWN!!!

On August 3, 2009 HR 2749, The Food Safety Enhancement Act was submitted to the US Senate, the Senate referred this bill to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions for recommendations. HR 2749 was passed by the House with little to no public review or input. Your help is needed to prevent this bill from being passed by the Senate into law. Below is a very brief summary of HR 2749.

HR 2749 targets without reference to size or scope of farms "devoted to the growing and harvesting of crops, the raising of animals... or both" including an operation that manufactures grains or other feed stuffs that are grown and harvested on such farm .. For consumption as food by humans or animals" harvesting also includes "washing, trimming of outer leaves of, and cooling produce."

The bill will require a unique FDA identifier for that facility, it will allow the FDA to inspect the facility and audit books. It will mandate a $500 yearly fee that will be annually "adjusted to reflect the greater of; the percentage change that occurred in the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumer" or "the total percentage change for the previous fiscal year in basic pay for Federal employees stationed in the District of Columbia" or "The average annual change in the cost, per full-time equivalent position of the FDA of all personnel compensation and benefits paid with respect to such positions for the first 5 years of the preceding 6 fiscal years." Registration fees will be due on December 31 of each year. Fees will be used to defray the cost of food safety activities in order to solicit the views of the regulated industry, consumers and other interested stakeholders.

This bill will require the owner, operator or agent of a facility to conduct a hazard analysis, implement effective preventive controls...maintain records of monitoring, corrective action and verifications records and identify "hazards that is reasonably likely to occur". It also requires a food safety plan and a food defense plan.

HR2749 also allows for the establishment by "regulation scientific and risk-based food safety standards for the growing, harvesting, procession, packing, sorting, transporting and hold of those types of raw agricultural commodities..that are fruit, vegetable, nut, or fungus: and for which the Secretary has determined that such standards are reasonable necessary.." It may also include standards addressing manure use, water quality and animal control...as determined by the Secretary."

The bill does have one paragraph that proclaims; "shall take into consideration,..impact on small-scale and diversified farms, wildlife habitat...and organic production methods."

Civil penalties under this bill start at $20,000 and can go as high at $7,500,000. This bill was introduced into the House of Representative on June 8, 2009 and passed by the House on July 30, 2009. This bill is being "fast tracked" through our US Congress.

As a result of this passing by the US House, my farm insurance premiums have gone up, I sell at the Farmer's Market and to various restaurants. If this passes in the US Senate, and I hope it doesn't, it will put me out of business, one that I have built up over the last five year and thousands of dollars worth of investment, just as you have done.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2749

For a Current Version of the bill

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-2749

To contact you state senators go to this web site;

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Trevor McLean's Ram Lamb

2009-08-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

This is my first choice on the four-forned Shetlands to collect.

Not just a pretty face!

Mama's boy!

Good fore width...
That'll do.

Nice chompers.

Reminder to Yankee investors: A share is $250, and guarantees ownership in ten straws of semen, and an additional 10% discount on market value when semen enters the USA.

Write me if you are interested in a share... jklpyrenees@aol.com

www.bflrevolution.com

Deep in the Jungle...

2009-08-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd share a few photos that I took while herding along the creek. The quality isn't great because I snapped them with my phone...

This first shot was early morning, after a little rain the night before. This little group of Bluefaced ewes had gone to the neighbors to terrorize their garden...

It's a very pretty cross-section of Bitterroot and Starkey ewes and Ward sired yearlings with a silver crossbred ewe and her lamb.

You my have seen my Facebook posts about the ursine raids. I am literally loaded for bear. We got one small, black boar, but there is another HUGE boar around that has been eating Shetlands. Fortunately, he hasn't been around since we had the hounds on the smaller bear. Knowing where an easy food source is, I think he'll be back, and when he does...

I brought a couple of cans of Coors with my lunch of burritos, and of course Pearl and 158 had to enjoy a sip. One ewe lamb was nibbling bits of tortilla while I was pushing the ewes away from my beer and the rifle.

There is always something to laugh at on this funny farm.

Here is a shot of some lambs sired by Carryhouse 281/R1. (In case you are confused by names of BFL's from the UK... In addition to a flock name, registered flocks are assigned a number by the registry. In this case, Martyn Archer's Carryhhouse flock is 281. 'R1' is this ram's number. 'R' is code for the year he was born and he was the first lamb that year registered in the flock. So, 281/R1.)

The lamb in the background is really ugly, I think. So just pretend it isn't there... This little gal in the foreground though, she's quite a lamb, though a little light in the butt end. I'll breed her to a Blackmoor (Beeston 3138/T70) sired lamb out of Bitterroot Mattie to put some Quarter Horse hips on her lambs.

Buttermilk Triplets

2009-06-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

I went to get pic's of the Shetland ram lambs for Kathy today and notice that most of the ewes were gone... Fortunately they were still on our property when I found them.

Buttermilk and the two of her 2009 lambs that I let her raise were the only ones posing for me.

The feed up here is so much healthier, much less the air. The Buzzard Creek bottom is so stagnant on hot days. I can't blame the gals for wanting to get up on the breezy Peninsula. The fescue had no competition when Smalley washed and that white alkaline clay killed all of the orchardgrass, brome and part of the bluegrass a few years ago. The wheatgrasses, brome and snacky forbs are a welcome alternative to their largely boring palate in the low pastures. We'll try to sweeten that up with the perennial ryegrass mixes from SucraSeed.

So, here is Buttermilk introducing her AI lambs by Shirehill Minder.

~Minder Masada 9039. Spotted Musket Katmoget Ram.
~Minder Kate Mara 9040. Spotted Black Katmoget Ewe.
~Minder Geisha 9041. Musket Katmoget, Krunet Ewe. (Bummer lamb. Below, right.)

There is no prettier sight than livestock in the sagebrush. Does a cowboy good to see that.

I'm very happy that these lambs are dual-coated. That was my major concern with this AI experiment. Minder complimented both ewes that I bred him to. The outer-coat is noticeably finer, and he seems to produce a nice, consistent crimp in the inner-coat. Good luster, very nice handle. We'll see how they do for staple length.

Their locks are distinct and seperability of the two coats should be outstanding. I'm liking the finer outer-coat, because I was noticing more and more outer-coat medullation the last couple of years. Good density.

The other set of Minder twins produce a dual-coated moorit katmoget ram and a single/intermediate musket brockle-faced ram.

Horns are also looking good... I wasn't too keen to find out that Minder carried polled genetics, otherwise I would have looked for another ram. But I'm liking what he produced.

I need to save up and get a few rams from Foula collected privately or jointly with a few friends.

9003, Big Plans for a Junior Sire Prospect!

2009-05-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

It takes a lot for a ram to impress me... Seriously. Lamb tastes way too good to proliferate inferior stock.

I'm impressed... Introducing 9003. (Who is difficult, at best, to photograph.)

He's a Carryhouse R1 son, via AI, out of Starkey 192, a sharp little blue ewe. She's got a gorgeous udder and ample milk, scoring at (Milk) 8. She's maintained body condition well, BCS scored today at 5, and has kept good pink eyelids... She has a fine, pretty fleece. Clean lines, good bone and much better capacity than most of what I see from 281/V2 influenced stock... She's pictured above, with some scars on her sides, courtesy of the dog attack on the heavily pregnant ewes. (Praise God for the healing, and thank you, amigos, for the thoughts and prayers!)

This ram lamb has his grand-sire's (281/P5) lines, but with his sire's massive body. His loin is a tad short for what I'd like to see, but it is certainly appreciable. His considerable width is what draws me to him most. Look at the front end on him!

A single, born at an ideal eleven pounds (for singles, I like twins between eight and nine pounds.) Lambing Ease score; (LE) 1. Neonatal Vigor score; (LV) 1. He weighed in at an even sixty pounds today for his sixty day weight. He is enrolled in NSIP.

My plan is to use him on a sizeable group of ewes this fall, and Lord willing, also have semen collected and offered for sale commercially this fall. I'll have semen packaged in VAI straws.

Talk about counting chicks before they hatch... I'm already making plans for his daughters. I'd love to AI them to Mossvale Masterplan or Elian Z3. Yowza, what a match!

(If you get a chance, Barbara Webb has written about the advantages of utilizing VAI in a breeding program on her website: http://www.jager-icelandics.com/ )

So, how do I market him as an AI sire? He needs to be in the public eye and earn some credentials. The logical process is to exhibit him at major shows where Bluefaced are making a name for themselves; Black Sheep Gathering, Wisconsin Sheep and Wool and Rhinebeck... Genotype, a loin eye scan and fiber testing are also data that I'd like to collect.

But I'm going to have to find another job soon in order to get caught up enough to make a show season of promoting this lamb like he deserves.

More on 9003 and other outstanding lambs later... More work to be done...

Lord richly bless you!

Jared +z

Indio, mi amigo...

2009-03-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

I'm going to use this post to honor my main primitive Shetland stud, now in semi-retirement. He's pictured at left as a yearling.

Jehovah's Indio Jack, S20729. He's a twin fawn katmoget. (Moorit + dilute + katmoget pattern + grey pattern. That's how I call 'em anyway.)

When I used him as a yearling, I became convinced that the Lord had a purpose for him in my flock, but not so much before his first lamb crop hit the ground. I had a moorit katmoget ram lamb who was slated for the junior sire position, and was of course injured in a ram fight.

I'll surely get flack for this, but Indio's mature histogram measured mean 30.2 microns. Why keep a ram this coarse, you ask? Well, analyzing the graphs and in seperation of his inner and outer coat, we're looking at an @22 micron inner coat. His coats are distinct and seperate easily. His fleece is open with good density. Handle is creamy soft, and crimp structure is nice. Staple; inner 5.5-6 inches, outer 8-9 inches. So, 5.5-6 inch staple at 22 microns, I'm not seeing that as very undesirable...

(This yearling Mioget Katmoget ewe with her first ewe lamb is a long-stapled intermediate-fleeced dandy.)Indio had dinky little horns as a lamb (go figure, they bloomed from his head as a yearling), and I had only saved him because his dam had the most stunning udder and her lambing record was shaping up nicely at 1,2,2. She was nabbed by the lion in the nightpen along with her black katmoget ewe lamb the next fall. A terrible loss.

So Indio got the position by default. In all truth, I was less than impressed with his rather unprepossessing lamb fleece. The fleece style and character on his progeny however, while finer diameter wasn't as consistently improved over their dams, knocked my socks off! But also importantly, he has just produced a nice, balanced daughter that has the genetics and mechanics to produce good lambs and wool. The moorit ewe lamb to the right is an Indio daughter by Fletcher Vanna. Jehovah's Veronica Lake S26334. (She's got a really stacked black ram lamb this year, by the way... subtly hinting.) You can see the consistency of her fleece from fore to rear. Her locks are distinct, and pencil fine. Even her breechwool is a decent product. Libby walked in front of the camera of course, but you can still see the deep hock, soft flank and clean fore that Indio puts under his progeny. Much less, the topline. Yeah buddy! One beef I have though, is that they seem to be producing singles as second and a few third lambers. I'd certainly prefer to see them twinning as second lambers. The yearling ewes will be put to Bluefaced Leicester rams to produce Mules, and twins are a sure shot for unassisted lambing. Singles scare me a little because of the larger birthweight. Apart from one malpresentation of a Mule ram lamb with a shoulder back, the only other hybrid lamb that I've had to assist delivery (or nursing) with was a large single from an accidental breeding of a ewe lamb, but I digress...

Boring fleece? Not here. These Indio lambs grow fleece that you want to rub all over your face! You should see what Cap'n produces out of Indio's daughters... Yowza! Style, style, style!

His daughters are superb for sure, but then there are his sons...

His primitives have nicer fleeces. The intermediate's histograms reflect that they aren't much finer in mean fiber diameter than the primitives. (Which doesn't bode well for them as career breeding animals, but rather gives me fine lamb with which to experiment new recipes.) Like I am often saying, I rather have a 27-30 micron dual-coated fleece than a 25 micron intermediate/single. Those 30 micron fleeces are still generally going to yield a 20-22 micron inner coat. The finer stock at 18-20 microns.

Indio's finest-fleeced lamb produced so far was a tangerine musket 2006 ram lamb out of Fletcher Content. He was extremely primitive in lock structure and tested at 21.9 microns at Yo-Mc. I can't find a photo of him on my laptop... I'll post one later from the other computer so you can see that he has the good feathering and lock formation that is very indicative of finer fiber. I should have used him as a junior sire, but he was a complete fruitloop when you corralled the flock. He sprouted wings and flew over gates and fences, and frankly that is grounds for a pink slip, I don't care if he had a 14 micron fleece and laid golden eggs.

It's a pound of feathers versus pound of lead kind of issue, but... Isn't two pounds of 18-20 micron wool with no sunbleaching or fried tips, with a little extra work at combing (or, seperate the coats as you just spin it raw from the lock) better than three pounds of 24 micron single coated wool that is really comparable with what would be considered coarse CVM, Columbia or Rambouillet?

That's just a dig at my friends who give me a hard time about my primitives. Gotta give them a hard time just keep our generally friendly banter rolling! \; )