Road Curves Ahead

Lots of changes going on here at Little FloxTail.  The family is going to be relocating to Mountain View California.  Sadly we won't be able to take any of the livestock or even pets since we'll be in the city. Even our dogs are just too country to make that change.  We're starting placement of everyone 6 months in advance so hopefully it'll go smoothly.  The biggest challenge will be our pair of ponies, mother and daughter.  Tess and Claire.

Tess was purchased about 5 years ago with her buddy April.  April was a yearling and Tess was a three year old.  They came from Nebraska, grade ponies (not purebred/papared). They were a grey pair and I had hoped that when the girls grew out of the ponies I could then train them to drive and we could keep them forever. There's always talk about how mean they can be sometimes and how much bad attitude they can have.  I hoped that I was getting them young enough that we could keep them nice and not treat them in ways that would make them mean. The minute they stepped off of their trailer I was in love.  I was quite surprised at how much I loved those two little things right away.  My paint mare Felicity seemed to like them as too and she isn't easily won over.

Tess in her add pic.

April's add pic.

Felcity, Tess and April at our barn

A few months later, just after the new year, I felt like Tess was a little fatter than she really ought to be coming out of winter. I contacted the seller I got them from and they assured me that the mare hadn't been exposed to any stallions.  In April, the day before we were expecting a pretty big spring snow storm, I woke up early and looked out the window.  I'd begun doing a peak to check to see if we would end up with a surprise baby sometime in march. By April I just did it as habit really not expecting much at all.  That morning though there was this tiny little paint foal out there! She'd been kicked out of the corral by my mare who wanted nothing to do with this intruder. My husband and I ran out to get the mare and foal back together and make sure everything was okay.  I frantically messaged a friend about what to do as I'd never had a baby on the place before and wanted to make sure we had all our bases covered. I also knew we didn't have adequate shelter for a brand new baby to ride out a spring storm.  That day I secured a ride and a place at my friend's barn for mom and baby to stay for the week. We would spend that week building the barn that we'd just started a couple days before surprise baby Claire was born.

First pic of mom and baby Claire

Mom and baby Claire less than 24 hours old

Baby Claire getting a ride to my friend's place

During that week of boarding at my friends house she spent a lot of time watching mom and baby and snapping pictures. Just before she was going to bring them home she mentioned that she thought maybe Claire was blind. She wasn't running into anything but, something didn't seem right.  So I scheduled an appointment for the vet to come out after they came back home. He did come out and after an examination of her eyes discovered that one eye was missing bits of her nerve basically causing a detached retina and blindness.  The other eye seemed to be affected by congenital glaucoma which would result in blindness in that eye as well.  A few weeks later we saw a different vet and he agreed with the findings of the first vet. I spoke to a few trusted friends about what we should do. 

Blind horses and ponies need quite a bit of support and it's a big commitment to hope to assure a quality of life for a blind horse. A companion horse or pony is best to establish early as well so that they have a friend who can be their eyes. We weren't sure if euthanasia should be on the table.  Both vets agreed that it was an option. They also both said that they've seen blind horses lead full happy lives when they were in the right situation. I discussed this all with my incredibly pragmatic husband expecting him to opt for euthanasia. I mean, he's a pragmatist, almost to a fault. His response to the option was to quote a movie he'd seen once: "You don't throw a whole life away just cuz it's banged up a little."   It's from Seabiscuit and it's probably on the list of top five quotes of every equestrian out there. We made the commitment to let this little surprise foal have a full life and to do whatever it took to give her a chance.

Claire about two or three days old

Claire a week old giving her mom trouble

Giving mom more trouble 

Week old Claire napping

I've been agonizing for about a month over this pair. I wasn't sure if I wanted to find them a home together with a private buyer who could handle their situation or if I wanted to go through a rescue, or if I wanted to try to find a reputable sanctuary. There are so many sketchy rescues and sanctuaries I first decided to try the private buyer option.  Every time I took a moment to even ponder the wording of an add of any kind I was just sick over the thought of giving them over to a private owner who may end up with "life" happening just like I did. And by then Claire may be fully blind and even harder to place. Right now Claire can see in the daylight but at night she doesn't leave the barn because she just can't see.

I looked in to a rescue or two but it was scary to think of that as well because it's hard to tell what rescues are reputable and which ones are simply hoarders.  I decided to reach out on a Blind Horses group on Facebook.  I got a response recommending a sanctuary that they'd taken their horse to. I looked them up and spent some days thinking on it. Or rather gathering the courage to contact them and to be ready for the let down. That they couldn't take the pair but could take Claire or that they couldn't take either.  Finally I sent an email explaining the situation. Then I waited. A day later I received an email from the sanctuary saying that they would be able to take BOTH ponies. 

Even now I'm heartbroken and relieved and overjoyed all at the same time. Details have not yet been finalized so I'm also a little guarded. I think the phone call tomorrow to discuss the specifics is going to be the hardest phone call I'll have to make so far. I'm hopeful that a road trip from Wyoming to California with a pair of ponies is on the horizon. Bittersweet couldn't possibly cover all of the feelings involved with this ongoing journey for me and this pair. From her first moments(ish) Claire (Claire Bear as have come to call her) has grown the last four years by the side of my youngest daughter. Tess has given all three of my girls their first pony rides and taught them all what it means to have patience and be tough at the end of a lead rope. Claire loves little girl kisses and hugs and trusts us humans implicitly. She knows her name and the sound of my voice. This is going to be quite the tough road ahead but we are all still committed to doing whatever it takes to make sure this pair has a chance at a really good quality of life, and a long life ahead.

Check back for updates on acceptance into the sanctuary and our journey to get there with these little ladies!

Nothing is Set in Stone Sheep part 3

We had a rough end to summer and beginning of fall.  This post was a hard one and will lack pictures.  One morning I went out to feed the animals and all was well with the tiny flock of sheep and the rest of the critters.  I had chores to run in town so took the littles, had lunch, grabbed groceries and came home.  It was about two on a particularly hot day, hotter than usual.  I went out to let the horses back out onto the pasture and noticed that we lost one of the black ewes.  Not lost as in ran away or stolen but she was laying there in the middle of the pen motionless...unnaturally fat. 

I was shocked and sad and panicked.  The rest of the sheep were fine, I checked and looked for injuries half hoping to find something but half terrified I would.  Nothing. No sign of a struggle.  Just death.  And she was my favorite ewe Rosie.  There's no way to really describe the situation. I was baffled and then immediately began to try to think about her body and what to do.  I was home alone, me and the two girls and this was a 120lb ewe at least.  I told my husband who commutes an hour each way to work.  He was sorry for my loss but, understandably, he was unable to do much.  It was all up to me, at least to drag her body out of the pen.  I still am not sure how I managed to muster the strength but got it done.

That evening we wrapped her up in bags and sent her to the dump. 

Moments like this create all kinds of internal struggles. Worry that it was an illness or toxicity that the rest of the flock may succumb to.  Shock that it happened at all, she was her healthy fine self that very morning. Then comes the self doubt, wondering if I did it because I'm just a bad shepherd, I let her down by missing something.  How could I have missed something?  

Once one processes the loss, one of the hardest ones with a favorite animal on the farm etc... it seems pretty normal to start to wonder and ask yourself.  Is it worth it?  Chores in the dead of winter when the wind chill is -20.  Fixing fence in the heat or cold.  Is it worth the worry that sits in my belly when I hear coyotes howling at night.  After all, it's not like I even get a good cuddle out of the deal.  They run away from me unless I give them treats and even then only get close enough to take it from my hand and then run away.  To medicate and worm and trim feet is a fiasco of a wrestling match.  We don't even have a tractor to dig a big enough hole for them to be buried in...  Is it worth it?  Thee were all the thoughts that went through my head all the rest of that afternoon while I waited for my husband to come home and help me with the rest of the job of disposing of my favorite ewe's body.

I'll spare you the details but I will say, disposing of the body of a farm animal who laid dead, exposed to the sun on a hot hot day is not an easy task.  It's smelly and frankly terrifying if you're like me and have seen the internet's coverage of a particular whale in Japan, in the summer.  It got done.  She was heavy, awkward, gross and loved.  She was ultimately wasted.  One fleece, maybe three "cuddles" and a few hours of joy at watching them on cool mornings run and jump around excited about feeding time. 

The decision was easy after the work of disposing of her body.  No more.  I love the fiber but not enough to keep the sheep that average 120lbs. who run away from me at first glance.  Not enough to spend $40 a head to have them shorn so I can show the wool because they're too big for me to shear myself.  I wanted Shetland sheep to begin with, the smaller breed but because they are generally dual coated it's a big investment to get into the sheep that are fine fleeced and/or guaranteed to be.  It was worth it for me.  Mostly worth it. 

At the urging of a good friend of mine I waited a week or so before I listed what was left of my flock for sale.  I visited a local Shetland breeder who registers her sheep and does micron tests for all of her breeding stock yearly.  I met her sheep, spun some of the wool and knew what I'd known to begin with.  These guys are for me. 

I listed the three remaining sheep and got a few leads but transport was a problem.  Three weeks, maybe four, later I did my morning chores.  It was the morning after an early freeze. The day before that it was 78 degrees.  So, I checked everyone two hours later to make sure they were handling the crazy weather okay.  There was Purl, Rosie's twin.  She was laying motionless and unnaturally fat in their pen.  JUST like her sister.  I did some research and found that bloat can occur due to weather stress.  I also found that it's widely believed that genetics play a role.  Some sheep just have genes that make them more prone to stress bloat.  The instances of stress bloat were exactly like mine.  I had a culprit for why this happened to these sheep.  I also now only have two sheep in their pen.  A very precarious number considering sheep NEED a flock so one loss could be disasterous.  

Back to the Drawing board.

Check back soon.  BIG changes for the fiber farm looking ahead.

Washing Locks

While the wind howls outside, the garage work is on hold and I play hooky from house work. I decided it was a perfect time to sit down with some coffee and get this lock washing blog knocked out.

I love working with locks and recently learned that this is often the way they have done in the past when there wasn't a whole lot of equipment for processing.  Since I prefer to live on a budget and I don't like a lot of steps between me and my wool at the spinning wheel I wanted to look into the process of spinning from the lock even for shorter staples and fine wool like Merino etc...  I tried to simply wash my wool and then pull the locks out as I'd seen a video of that process on youtube and with that process it still took a long time to pull the locks apart and half or so of it needed some hand carding.  I injured my shoulder a couple years ago and hand carding aggravates it so I don't really even want to have to hand card my fiber if I can help it.

First thing to do is gather supplies.  I use a roasting pan and a large piece of rayon silk type fabric I got in the remnants section at Walmart.  You can use a pillow case cut open as well, I just didn't have any laying around and it was easier to grab a remnant than find a single pillow case at the store. Lay the fabric centered in your pan, unfolded.  Next unpackage your fleece.  If it's a whole fleece it's easiest to go ahead and unroll the whole thing cut side down.  For this blog I was washing a few ounces of the superior Rambouillet fleece from the Wyoming State Fair.  The fleece should have pretty pronounced "chunks" of locks here and there.  Some will be easier than others and if it's jumbled up like mine teasing it gently to get it to unfold without pulling very hard will get the locks to kind of organize themselves. Separate or pull out the lock sections gently to keep the rest of the locks around it intact. You can grab the locks by the tip if you've laid a whole fleece out with the cut side down.  For this blog I did both since the jumble of locks was all over the place.

tip end of the lock

cut end of the locks

Lay the locks in your pan on top of the fabric.  You'll want to make sure the ends toward the center are the same, either cut ends in or tips in with the cut ends out. This is a good time to remove any second cuts you find or loose vm.  Fill your pan up with locks like this.  I filled mine to the top with this batch but I think I would keep it maybe a quarter inch from the top to allow more water for it to sit in.

second cuts

Locks cut ends in laying in my pan

Now you fold your fabric over the locks into a lock burrito.  Once your fabric is folded over you add room temperature water.  Let that sit and soak for an hour or so.  Not less than an hour though so you can soak as much of the dirt and other yuck out of the fleece before you add the soap and the heat.  I like to weigh the burrito down to make sure all of the wool is under water.  After it's been soaking awhile dump that water off gently.  I dump all my water outside, it's so gross I don't want it in my drains.  You can roll up the lock burrito to dump it or I use the grate that came with the roasting pan to hold it into place before I roll it up and give it a little squeeze.  A LITTLE squeeze, no wringing.  Wool hates wringing and will felt on you if you try to wring it out.  This water will be pretty dirty and many people use gloves.  There won't be any grease in this water as well so it won't have the same look as the water that will come off next.

My locks soaking

With your locks rolled up in their burrito set them aside so you can fill your pan up again with room temperature water and add soap this time.  I use Dawn original dish soap, probably about two or three tablespoons worth and a couple drops of my laundry soap. Work the water around so that the soap is evenly distributed before you put your locks into the water. Now you put your pan of water and lock burrito onto the stove, take a deep breath and turn the stove on *gasp*. Keep the stove on low heat and babysit.  I usually clean up the kitchen, listen to a pod cast...checking on the pan of locks often.  Don't let them boil but you want them to steam.  If you're like me and need a goal in mind use a thermometer and watch for the temperature to get to 150 degrees fahrenheit.  Let it soak like that for 30 minutes to an hour making sure it doesn't boil!

locks cooking on the stove

lock babysitting selfie

Turn off the heat and pour off the water CAREFULLY so you don't burn yourself.  This water will be a milky kind of dirty because of all the grease coming off of the fleece.  If you want to wash but leave some grease in your locks you can heat the water but not as hot and for a shorter period of time. 

dirty soap water

Let the whole business cool for a bit and then refill your pan with HOT tap water, as hot as you can get it.  Wool really hates temperature changes so you need to make sure the water is as hot as the wool is.  Repeat the cooking process but no more soap!  This is the first rinse.  You repeat this rinse step as many times as you need to till the water runs clear.  It should only take two times, maybe three if you got carried away with the soap.

Filling my pan with HOT rinse water keeping my burrito out of the direct stream

Once you have clear water you can let your locks cool.  Roll them up in their burrito and give them a squeeze or two.  I roll them up in a towel at this point and press on the towel to "ring" them out as much as I can without making the wool mad.  Now you can open your lock package and lay them out to dry!  I laid this particular batch on the top of my outdoor rabbit cages in the afternoon sun.  Some people use the sweater drying racks. I like to use a hanging mesh toy storage thing when I dry in the house which is usually the case. Otherwise the wind would blow my wool to Nebraska.


The last thing to do is to prep your locks for spinning once they are dry.  For this fine fiber I used a dog brush.  There are flick carders but I'm too cheap to get one yet ha ha.  For less fine fleece I use a hand carder or if I messed up and ended up with some felting.  Take a few locks at a time in your hand and give them a twist in the middle.  Sometimes I do more than one twist if I can.  Hold the twist tight in one hand and use the brush or carder to get the ends organized.  Both ends need this, the cut ends and the tips.  Usually the tips need more work than the cut ends unless you have a bit of felting.  On this batch I kept poking around moving the water around etc... and had some felting.  It was my first time working with fine fleece.  Once both ends have been carded/brushed out nice you can untwist the middle and give it a good tug.  SOMETIMES if the fleece isn't too dirty you can just tug it and not do any flick carding at all.  A couple of tugs should get that middle bit straight and separated enough to spin with.

Clean dry locks ready to card

twisted in the center to card the ends

Holding the twist for brushing

Brushing ends

Ready for a few tugs to sort out the middle

Locks ready for spinning

 Once you are ready and have enough fiber to spin you can either spin from the fold or simply hold a few locks upright between thumb and forefinger drafting toward the crook of your hand.

There's the lock prep that is my favorite way to spin.  Not much carding etc... involved and while there is babysitting involved it's not something that requires much elbow grease at all through the entire process.  Nor does it require much in terms of equipment which is a big bonus for me.  Hope you enjoy this process as much as I do and happy spinning!!!

Coming up: Sheep part 3

Fleece!! Sheep pt.2

Before we get to the picture heavy portion of the shearing day excitement I thought I'd go back to the beginning BEFORE I unloaded the sheep in the snow.

I've known since I began knitting that I wanted my own sheep one day.  I decided to take a wool spinning class to see if I'd like that part of the process.  I wasn't surprised at all when I found that I really enjoyed spinning.  For a few years off and on I would use a drop spindle to spin singles of my dog's hair.  I hadn't gotten to the plying portion of the class and life happened so I just kinda played around waiting for the day that I'd get my own wheel.  Once I did get my wheel I was terrified and didn't touch it for a year after an initial attempt at spinning the free fiber sample that came with it. 

BlueLips in her coat

Purl and Rosie coated

Once I spun up a bunch of free fiber I got from a local knitting shop that had to close it's doors I was hooked.  I watched youtube and learned to ply it and set the twist etc...  I made my first skein of yarn and never looked back. 

It took a few years to get to a place where I could keep sheep financially and to have the barn and fencing to do it.  During that time I learned a bit about different breeds, and wool.  I spun the wool that came from the breeds I was interested in that would do well in the climate here in Wyoming and decided that for the first sheep I got I wanted fine wool and that I would not worry about whether or not they were purebred or registered.  I found three local sheep, two black CVM x Merino cross yearling ewe twins that I named Purl and Rosie and in order to keep them on an even keel I picked out a strong smart 4 year old long wool cross Ewe. BlueLips was the name her shepherd gave her.  It stuck, her lips are "blue" (basically like she ate some grey lipstick). 

I learned that if you coat your sheep the fleece stays clear of vm or vegetable matter (hay, burs etc...) which can make processing the wool for spinning harder.  This in turn gives the fleece a better value in general, higher prices.  I purchased a few coats as the ones that were given to me with the sheep by that time had already become too small for the wool they were growing underneath.  I changed coats for them a total of three times and each time I'd sneak a glimpse of what they were growing underneath.  Even those little glimpses was nothing compared to what they were like once they were shorn and the fleece could be seen as a whole.  WHAT BEAUTY!!!

Shearing was super interesting!  The pure white of BlueLips fleece was shocking as was the rich dark black of Rosie and Purl's fleeces.  They were shorn last, at sunset and very carefully to keep from getting dirt and wool from other animals in their fleece and of course to keep them from being injured. The shearer did a great job keeping the fleece clean and in one piece and being gentle with my girls!  We traveled to the shearer, he was shearing alpaca at a friend's place.  I helped handle the alpaca and gather wool and clean up between animals while the kids played in the farm yard. We were all quite surprised at how different our sheep looked after shearing.  It was as though I brought different, BIGGER, sheep and took home a load of little lambs. My girls looked sooooo much smaller!  My kiddos were exhausted by the end of the night as well.

Sunset shearing

Tired Kiddos

I watched a few videos about how to skirt a fleece and as soon as I had time and a calm day came along I skirted the fleeces.  I could not wait to get my hands on them! 


BlueLips:

Rolled lengthwise ready to be rolled up and bagged

Purl:

Showing Crimp.  The color was hard to get this close up

Rosie:

All rolled up ready to be bagged!

Shearing was in May, the county fair wasn't until August so I had to put the wool away and basically pretend it didn't exist till the end of July!  It was a little torturous.  To show your fleece it must be skirted (all the dirty edges, second cuts and shorter areas like the neck etc... removed) and then you take the fleece and fold the edges in toward the center, folded in thirds and roll it up and place it in a clear plastic bag.  Each show is a little different in presentation as far as bag color goes but the skirting and folding/rolling of the fleece is the same for all shorn fleeces.  To my great surprise and even greater delight BlueLips took Grand Champion at the County fair.  I didn't think she'd do too great because she really is a heinze 57 of breeds.  She doesn't have coarse wool but it's long, 8"-10" and without a tight crimp or curl to it.  There's also a good bit of sheen, really lovely for a hand spinner that likes to work with the more medium type wool.  They really loved her wool though.  Purl got Second for colored wool and Rosie's fleece took first and reserve champion colored fleece.  All very respectable showings for my first year keeping sheep etc...  I was certainly pleased.  I sent BlueLips and Rosie's fleeces to state fair they got third and fourth ribbons respectively.

All of my Fiber arts and wool fair entries tagged and ready to go

Fair entries after county and state fair

Quite an exciting year it has been!




Coming up: Wool Prep to keep the lock intact.