27 February 2009

Calm Before the Storm

We are now in that last calm period of winter before the major storm of spring work hits.

We shear the flock on 28 March and that is the start of the busy season. After shearing we have to get our federal flock inspection done, all the sheep vaccinated, toes trimmed on any we missed over winter, and the irrigation and pastures ready for sheep. We could start lambing as early as 22 April and the ewes have to be out on pasture by then.

But for now the ewes are getting fat and sassy. The rams are fighting less and less and the yearlings are starting to look and act like adult sheep.

We hope for more snow or our water will be very short for the year. Right now though things are clear and nearly dry with most of the major mud gone.

21 February 2009

New Sheep Sign


We got the second part of our sign up today. Now people will know what we have for sale here.

We also have a sign up by the barn that is the UK Association Logo because we are also members of that association. I'll get pictures of it soon and will edit this post.



Edited to show our other sign up by the barn.

19 February 2009

RS Farwasabi 18 Feb 1989 - 18 Feb 2009

We lost our senior stallion yesterday due to a severe colic from a twisted gut.

RS Farwasabi was a grandson of both Abu Farwa and Khemosabi. He was trained in dressage, reining and pleasure and was always a gentleman to handle. He was the first purebred Arabian horse we ever bred.

He was also a SCID carrier. As soon as we found out we made that fact public. Since then we have never gotten any more breedings to any of our stallions nor did we sell another horse to an Arabian owner or breeder.

We still have two half relatives for sale, a mare DW Zardyna and a gelding DW Zadeyr out of his mother RW Dynasty.

Good bye my friend.

17 February 2009

Winnie and the Ewes

We moved Winnie in with one batch of pregnant ewes today in preparation for moving Becky in with the rams. All the ewes were concerned about the new dog.


This ewe, Desert Weyr Annwyl, was obviously elected to be the one to go up and check the dog out.



Winnie passed inspection and they are all doing fine so far.

13 February 2009

Etsy and Ravelry

Not many pictures lately.

I have been getting my on-line stuff organized.

We now have an Etsy shop as DesertWeyr . I only have a few things there for now. I'm going to see how it all goes before deciding whether to put more there or not.

I'm on Ravelry as Oogiem. I'm a yarnie on Ravelry for all of our Black Welsh and blended yarns.

All of our products can be purchased through our on-line store at our main website here. I've got the last of my 2008 fleeces up there. Once those are gone that will be it until shearing, currently scheduled for the end of March.

03 February 2009

Gates Up!

Larry got all the gates for the last section of elk fence save one up this week. We'll have to either add more dirt under them or an additional piece of wire. They are down on the ground as close as they can get but the ground slopes enough to make sheep size holes on the bottom in some places. They sure look nice though. The last gate will be added this summer. We need to have a brace pole put in the sheep pen to hang it from and we can't get in there to dig the posthole until we move the sheep out onto pasture. So Larry will be back to do that in the early spring.