Rainy today-- quiet, restful--we slept a little late and now we are picking up and reorganizing. We had a wonderful Farm to Table Dinner with close friends Sharon and Craig Voldberg hosting and providing their farm products as well (apple and pumpkin pies, grass-fed red Angus Sirloin tip roast, home-made bread, local cheeses and wine, etc.) , and some good friends attending our "pilot dinner"--our first attempt at this, a fun group! For our farm's contribution Russ grilled an herbed, butterflied leg of lamb outside, and I sauteed some Mutton Loin Korabiak inside, plus baked a "Free" Pumpkin pie (gluten,…

GT Mirabelle, Reserve Champion Ewe for Second Time, First Place Senior Ewe, Second place Best Small Flock with Scottish Judge Andrew Bain GT Lefse, spotted Ag gray patterned ram lamb, wins Sue Russo Memorial Trophy, 2nd place ram lamb, 5th place pair of ram lambs under Judge Andrew Bain We showed 9 sheep in all classes, placed in all classes, and 3 of our sheep qualified championship classes, with GT Mirabelle earning Reserve Champion Ewe for the Second time--she had also won it as a lamb.  We cannot keep all these lovely sheep as our space over winter is limited. …

Sizes on labels correspond to men's and women's shoe sizes Boot length, left, compared to Ankle length, right Our socks have arrived from the mill!  They are made of gray yarnthat is 50% our Traditional 1927 ® FFSSA Shetland wool, 20% local Crossbred wool hand-selected by me from our neighbors' crossbred flock (Shetland, Coopworth, Tunis, Rambouillet crosses), and 20% nylon for washability and durability.  Conveniently machine wash (cold), dry flat or on a rack.   These American-made socks are very high quality, with 80% wool in the yarn which means, warm, wicking, and odorless.  They are for summer as well as…

People sometimes ask us, "Why not add lamb to the pig roast for Glen Flora Days the last weekend in July?" The main reason is, they are still too young, too small to make enough carcass weight to compensate for the cost of slaughtering, and too young to evaluate for slaughter. Although we are potentially able to slaughter them ourselves, we have no time, limited cooling space this time of year, and we are too busy organizing and working for our community event, Glen Flora Days. We need to keep lambs longer--6 months to a year to properly evaluate potential…

Left to right, Lori Scharlau of Allen Creek Shetlands, Reserve Champion, Judge Nic Hill, Devon, U.K., and I with Glen Tamarack Bilbo's Grand Champion Fleece

We just slearned from our Vet today that UW Vet Diagnostic Lab have completed Johne's Disease testing on our flock with the most advanced and accurate Direct PCR tests and our entire flock from age 1 on up is negative for Johne's Disease. They were negative for both Johne's and OPP a year ago as well. See spring issue of Sheep! magazine for a reader-contributed article I wrote in cooperation with our local vet and one of our state experts on Johne's Disease Testing recent advances in testing for Johne's Disease.