I am not truly processing the fleece, just sort and skirting and doing some in a suint (fermented) bath. After shearing the fleece was packed into two large grain totes. Then it rained for a week straight. Some of the fleece got damp, but that is fine as long as it does not stay damp. Finally the sun came out and fortunately it was windy too, and I began the arduous task of sorting and cleaning the fleece. 

There was no time to asses or skirt (take the bad stuff and poopy stuff off) when the shearing was done. Lots of help is required for that, not necessarily experienced or skilled, but quick and willing. There were only a few extra hands, just enough to get through the shearing, but not to pick the wool. After the rains, it was finally nice enough and there was time enough to do something with the wool. 

First the fleece was laid out on a grid to take a look at it closely. All but one of the Babydoll fleeces were too conatminated with hay and other vegetative matter to be of any use whatsoever, so they were discarded. That was sad. It costs money to raise the sheep and to shear the sheep and the little wool offers helps recoup a bit of the costs. Throwing wool out is throwing money out. The Babydolls are small sheep and the larger sheep tend to pull hay over their backs. It then works it way in and composts a little, making it stick tight in the wool. Babydoll is heavy grease wool too, which means it has a good lanolin content, but the grease holds dirt and debris very much so. Maybe the t shirt idea on the Babydolls is not so bad after all. I will have to revisit that thought. 

After the fleece is laid out and the poopy bits removed, it is shaken like a blanket to loosen and remove small fine bits. The wind is very helpful because it blows the fine bits and dust away as the fleece is shaken. The small second cuts, which result when the shearer has not cut close enough to the skin and goes over the sheep a second time, also blow away. Second cuts contaminate a good fleece and are to be avoided. The wool had a lot of second cuts this year for some reason. I think most were pretty well shaken and blown out. 

Once the fleece is skirted and shaken, then it is inspected for problems. In some sheep the centre line and neck line is also contaminated with too much hay and must be removed. Then the relatively clean fleece is again assessed as to whether or not it will be kept whole or divided into parts. The Karakul fleeces were kept whole for now, except Sharon's, which was so lovely, I parted it to include in the wool sampler packs I intend to offer spinners and weavers. The samplers will include various rare wools in small amounts. This will allow the artists to work with wool they are not familiar with and select it next year when it is offered by the pound or ounce. 

Several of the fleeces and parts of the large fleeces were put in laundry baskets and submerged in cold water in the livestock trough. This water will warm by the heat of the sun and create a fermentation of the organic matter in the water. It cleans the wool grease from the wool naturally, but does not remove hay or straw. The suint bath takes up to three weeks, depending on the temperature of the water. The trough is in the sun and is covered with windows to keep the heat in and the bugs out. After the suint fermentation the wool will be rinsed in many water changes until it comes out clear and then returned to the grids to air dry in the sunshine. Although the suint stinks unbelievable so, the wool, once completely dry, has no suint odor at all. Further washing is optional at that point but detergents woud no longer be necessary to remove any grease and grime. 

The remainder of the fleeces will be packed into large paper lawn bags, labeled and put in the wool shed until they are ready to offer for sale. The sample packs will be about a half pound of many of the fleeces put in vacuum sealed bags. I have a great vacuum cleaner and am going to try to seal the ziplock extra heavy freezer bags after removing all the air. Vacuum sealer units are pricey and if that works then it will save money. 

Next year the sheep will eat from hay nets. Supposedly they stay much cleaner. I am still thinking of putting t shirts on several of them. They have magnificent wool but it is always too contaminated to use. The t shirts might just keep them clean enough. 

I did about half the fleeces yesterday and will complete the rest shortly. It is another beautiful day, not too too hot, with a little breeze, not as nice a wind as yesterday, but better than still air. When all is done, the area will be cleaned up with the pitch fork into the wheel barrow. The Angora goats need to be shorn again in late September. I plan to do that myself. The rest of the flock hopefully will be shorn much earlier than this year, hopefully in April or even March, though it is still quite cold here then. They just tend to hide out in the shelters staying close to one another and sharing their body heat until a layer of wool grows out again. 

I do not truly enjoy the cleaning of the fleeces, but I love the clean wool. When I entered this business, I just had the idea I would ship the fleece to the mill, but the mills are a year behind their production. Selling raw fleece is the next best thing. I also have tried to process completely some of the wool myself, to sell it clean and in batts or picked and ready to card. That is extremely time consuming and almost thankless. For the amount of money wool sells for, and the time it takes, it definitely is not a lucrative occupation! And I did not love doing it. That is not say I never will, but to do the fleeces for sale would take hundreds of hours. That is not going to happen. 

So outside I go to finish the job! Want to come?

We were parched and praying for rain. The farmers had no hay for the winter and the little there is, is selling at triple what it should be. I paid $150 a bale where as previous years it was $40--$50. Ouch! Some folks are forced to sell their livestock, while others are going to do a little bit of creative thinking, feeding straw and grain. But straw won't be plentiful either, so that plan may not work. 

Gardens are dry and folks who grow traditionally were forced to water daily and still had poor gardens. Fortunately for my straw bale garden design, my garden is great this year. 

So, after all the prayers the rain came. Three days ago it began and rained a lot. Then the clouds came back and have not left. It has poured off and on, more on than off constantly for the past 3 days. The ground is well soaked and there are puddles everywhere. The waterfowl are very much enjoying it. I have had to put my boots on again, but I don't mind the rain, not even the mud, this time. There may be some second cut hay available which will save the area somewhat. Many big farmers have stockpiles of hay for years like this. Little farmers like me do not, but I will try to remember this lesson and get more hay than I need at a reasonable price when it comes down. 

Duckies are playing! What fun, what fun! Thanks Creator for this blessing. 

No one I know enjoys cleaning the barns. The summer cleaning is winter's poop and hay that has begun to compost. In the old barn with a wooden plank floor, the manure sticks to the wood and becomes part of it. Getting it off when it is dry is nearly impossible. There are holes in the roof, great big ones, so the rain comes right in and the snow comes in during the winter. The only dry spot is the centre and that is where the sheep sleep on cold nights to get away from the winter wind. 

The goat barn was last used by about 30 ducklings and goslings. I ordered some Blue Swedish ducklings, Pekin ducklings and Swedish goslings from Berg Hatchery. They were in the livestock trough for a long time, then graduated to the barn, but they spent their days outside in the aisle. Then they were big enough to free range during the day, but I herded them back to the barn for the night. Then they graduated to the main yard. There are several coops there for them to take shelter in, however; ducks and geese tend to sleep outside in the open. 

Tomorrow the last barn, the small cow barn, now being used by the goats and sheep for the summer, will be cleaned. The goat barn and sheep barn will remain empty and unused to air them out. The sheep had keds and were treated with pour on Ivermectin which knocked them right out. When they were sheared there was no sign of keds at all. Still, the barn cleaning and the remaining time empty will reduce the chances of any surviving keds in the hay. The chickens will scratch through anything left in the barns and remove worm eggs and other tasty treats, if you are a chicken, that is. 

Travis helped with the sheep barn, which was really nice. Cleaning the barn is hard work. I am glad it is done and thankful for the help. Whew!

Yesterday I rendered the fat into lard that a friend gave to me from the home grown pig he butchered. He has 5 grown children and many grand children. He and his wife raise animals for meat for the whole family, so he is always butchering something. They have more lard than they can use at this time, so they are generous enough to share. I am grateful and fortunate. His pigs run around the farm and are able to root, plus were milk fed and grain fed. 

Today, I wanted to show you how to cook potatoe chips in the lard. I used the lard I scorched a little. When it was heating, it did have quite a "piggy" smell, but none of that came through in the chips. They were delicious and I ate way too many. I saved the rest of the yam bits for a soup for tomorrow, uncooked of course. 

People have rendering the fat of animals for as long as they have hunted. Rendering means melting down to clean fat. The lard comes from pigs,and  tallow comes from deer, sheep, bear and other animals. Lard makes exceptional pie crust and French fries. I can't wait to make sweet potatoe fries tomorrow. It is also great to make soap. Yesterday I rendered three bags of fat to produce three bags of lard. The last one was cooked a little too long on a higher temperature. I was out trying to get two sheep out of the bush and did not get in in time to turn the heat off so the last batch was scorched a little, not badly. You can see in the photo that the colour of the bag on top is slightly darker than the the bag below it. The scorched lard would be fine to do the fries in or make soap of, but might leave a bit of an off flavour in pie crust. That is what the pure white lard is for. 

There are many ways to render lard. Some folks cut up the fat into tiny pieces and put it in a pot on top of the stove on very low heat. Sometimes a little water is added to prevent scorching until the fat melts enough, while others don't. I don't cut the hunks of fat, not do I add water or cook it on the stove top. Those are way too labour intensive. Instead, I pack the fat into a large roaster and put that in the oven at the 175 F temperature mark for a long time. After I see clear fat in the pan, I ladle it out carefully. The ladled fat does not have to be strained. The method that requires the fat to be cut and then cooked requires straining. I like simple ways. 

So, the fat was put in whole big chunks in a slow oven and forgotten. As long as I was not out chasing sheep in the bush, I was able to ladle out the clean melted fat. I put it in a pot, but a temperature proof bowl or any container really would be fine. It is HOT and not to be fooled with. Spilled fat on skin burns very deeply. Due care and caution is very necessary. I ladled the fat out in two lots and put the last on while I chased the sheep. Fortunately it did not burn. 

Today the dogs got the left over fat that was cooked. They loved it. I tried some and it was fine, but it is not like crackling skin, which is the skin with the lard that puffs up when it is deep fried in the fat as it renders. That is tasty stuff. Cooked fat, me, not so much. I finished the last of the fat the next day and will save the bits for the dogs tomorrow. Too much and they will get the runs. 

The fat will be used until it is gone. It was a gift from a friend who butchered a pig that he raised, so it could not be more local. The pig is free range, running around doing what piggies do and was mostly milk fed with some grain. Although I did not get to taste the meat, I am sure it was delicious and the lard will be great for the fries tomorrow and the soap in the winter. That is one hobby that is good for the long winter days. 

It is not difficult to render lard at all and I highly recommend it. If you know some one who butchers his own meat, if the fat is available, no matter what the animal, ask politely for it and then melt it down for later use. Lard is too soft for candles, but beef tallow is very good for candles and was used for centuries. Both fats make excellent lye soap using only the fat, lye and water. Isn't nature grand? Would you like to try rendering your own lard?

She is an incredible escape artist. Even with Robbie, the border collie and the two livestock guardian dogs looking for her, plus my son and I, we were not able to locate her and her lamb. The past two nights she was out long after she should have been. This is not a safe area for a sheep and lamb to be out in the night. Travis heard her around midnight and sure enough, she was there with her lamb. I got her back to safety with the other sheep in the pen. Then last night, I thought I had accounted for all the sheep and at 2 pm, heard a baa where there should not have been one. You know, when one has livestock, it is like when one is a young mother. Any sound out of place wakes the instinct. 

Sure enough, at 2 am last night, she was there with her lamb again. It was a very good thing that she was fine. The night is not the worst. It would be early in the morning light when the predators wake up and are hungry. She and her lamb were safe again, but I got eaten alive by mosquitos 2 nights in a row getting her to safety. 

Tonight I was not about to let her out of my sight. Travis, the dogs and I were out to find her and there she was with a group of lambs. The group was moved to the pen by the border collie, Robbie and I assumed she was with them, but no, when I looked for her and the lamb, she was not in the pen. The dogs and Travis and I hunted for her and could not find her. I put the dogs in and went out again and there she was! 

So, braving those mosquitos one more time, I chased the pair into the pen and closed the gate, then into the night pen and whew, she was safe and it was only 10 pm, not 2 am. I will watch her more closely tomorrow so I do not get eaten alive by the mosquitos later while rescuing her. Silly ewe!

Last year I bought 2 Nubian does and a buckling from a goat dairy that was forced to close due to family problems. The goats were not very well, but were extremey friendly and good natured and I  really liked them. Unfortunately the episode turned into a very sad drama with the previous goat owner and all the Nubian kids, 11 of them died over the next few months. The vet was unable to help. It turned out they had worms so badly and they were not treated with something that was effective. They became too anemic and died. I cried for days. 

But the adults were stronger although they were deficient. Dory's coat was copper coloured and should have been black.Matty was not in as bad of shape. She is older, the grandmother of Dory as a matter of fact, but she has had a harder time gaining ground becuase of her age. It has taken an entire year and a lot of dedication to help these girls recover. Finally, Dory's coat is returning to her normal colour and the fishtails they had are growing hair again, both signs of recovery. Matty still has more needs, but they are out on bush forage for the rest of the summer and should be able to acquire the missing nutrients they neec. 

My aim is to breed them in the fall if they have recovered fully and to have two milk goats next year. They are trained to milk and will stand with no problem. Matty, the grandmother is much better than Dory, having had several years more practice. I love these goats and have worked hard to get them back to health. And they love me too. 

My only daughter is in Australia, which is a day ahead of where I am in Alberta. Her birthday is July 12, the same day as my father and she was a gift to him. They remained very close for much of her life, that is until he had a massive stroke and lived the remaining 5 years of his life in extended care. My father was my hero, but my daughter is not far behind. She is a great young woman who is not afriad to follow her desires. When she graduated from high school at age 17, she said she wanted to go to China to teach English. I encouraged her to do so, despite the great critisism from others for allowing her to go so far at such a young age. She was going with a friend, not alone and if by that age, I had not provided her with enough tools to make her way in the world, then the fault was only mine. As it was, she had those tools and skills to survive abroad and she departed. 

She traveled to South America at a later date with another friend and has gone on to become an accomplished young woman I am very proud of. She is doula, or birth coach and is pursuing a career in midwifery in Australia now, after completing an Bachelor of Arts degree previously in Vancouver. The love of her life is in Australia for moral support and because he cannot bear to be apart from her for so long, so all is well. 

I miss her terribly and am waiting for the day she will be home again so I can hug her and hold her and tell her how much I love her. I wrote this for her today:

That first day, the day I held you in my arms in our brown house, with the wisteria fragrance wafting thorugh the open windows, that day was the most magical day of my life. You were my first born, my miracle, my baby, flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone. I gazed on your peaceful slumbering face and to me, there was nothing more beautiful in the entire world and nothing would ever match that moment. I loved you more than life itself and sat rocking in that chair, gazing at you and marveling at your existence. My baby, my Brianna. 

And this day, this day so many years from then, you are still the same beautiful child in my eyes, my marvel, my wonder and my treasure. Through the years you have matured to become a woman that would make any mother proud. You are a friend that is loyal and reliable to your friends, a partner that is strong and passionate about life, and a daughter that is truly remarkable, always considerate and caring and concerned. You are the big sister who pays attention to her little brothers, whether they appreciate it or not and you are always to be counted on when you give your word. 

For this year I wish you success in school and with your determination and drive, I know that you will make that happen. I wish you peace in your living space and love in your relationship with your treasured man, Sav. I wish you all your heart desires, my daughter, for like that very first day when I held you in my arms, I see nothing except my beautiful child with shining big brown eyes full lof mischief and adoration. I love you. Happy Birthday. 

Love
Mom

The Fat Ewe Farm has some Muscovy ducks. The origin of the name is uncertain, and they are also called Barbary ducks when they are spoken of for cuisine. The Muscovy is a duck with much dark meat. The males can reach 14 pounds or more and the females are 10 to 12 pounds. Some male Muscovy ducks have been recorded as much as 18 pounds but the females do not reach that weight. They are prized for their tasty meat. 

But Muscovy ducks are from Mexico, Central and South America and they do not withstand the cold the same as the Mallard derived breeds in North America. They can adapt well, but cold winter winds can be very hard on them and their feet will freeze if they do not have adequate bedding to insulate them from the cold. So, here on the farm, the Muscovy ducks sleep with the chickens in the insulated coops. The rest of the ducks and geese sleep in an uninsulated but wind protected coop. Both coops have deep bedding to protect the birds from the cold coming from the bottom. The North American breed ducks tuck their feet under their wings and rest on their down breasts, seemingly impermeable to the cold, however; the Muscovy ducks do not tuch their feet in. 

I have not yet eaten the flesh of a Muscovy duck, but it is purported to be delectable and succulent and the most delicious of all duck breeds. The hens lay very large eggs that are almost the size of small goose eggs. Now, those I have enjoyed many times! One feature of the male Muscovy ducks is his mating capabilities. The male penis on a Muscovy duck is about 7 to 8 inches long and can achieve erection in a fraction of a second. Hmmm. The thing is, the male takes a long time to position the female, dancing on her back and holding her head down with his bill, certainly not comfortable for the female. Her cloaca spirals the opposite direction of the spiralling penis, so she can reject a suitor if she so chooses. Interesting!

The offspring take a very long time to mature, grow slowly and are not fully adult for over a year. North American ducks, on the contrary are mature in about 20 weeks for some breeds and a little longer for others. They do not tend to breed their first year though.  This year, The Fat Ewe Farm, has 6 new Muscovy ducklings so far. Though the ducks will become broody, they tend to fight over nests too and the result is often nonviable eggs that have gotten cold too often. I just removed Jemimah from a nest that she sat on for a month and a half. The eggs were so rotten they were stinking through the shell and one exploded when I touched it. She moved to another spot and was still trying to hatch a single egg she found there, which I removed. When the ducks sit too long, it invites parasites such as lice and mites that thrive on the moist warm environment. Gross!

The Muscovy drake that is on the farm was hatched on the farm. It is hard to sex the ducklings, well, for me it is, until they are more mature. The males are a lot larger and both sexes grow red wart like skin, called caruncles, around their bills and faces. The bumps on the caruncles can freeze and the duck suffer or die from the complications. The very best feature of Muscovy ducks though, is that they eat tons of flies and are excellent fly catchers. The fly population in the farm yard is greatly minimized due to the copious amount of flies the ducks eat, thank goodness. Many farms are ridden with hoards of flies, but they don't have ducks. 

Muscovy ducks are a great addition to the farm, even though they require a little extra care and consideration in the winter and good protection from the winds year round. I am pleased to have them here at the Fat Ewe Farm!