Random shearing and cute pictures

Shearing in April at Painted Shadow Farm, Marlow, NH. I am sitting in the goat yard with the babies. You can see Jerry and Bonny in the first picture, near the van, shearing one of her alpacas. http://paintedshadowfarm.blogspot.com/

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One of Jerry's customers 'up North' has a llama, therefore the chute, but does not have electric in her barn and so the generator was also loaded. It is nice to know that my van, which the state of NH WILL NOT classify as agricultural, can haul all this comfortably.

The last 2 pictures are for my family. http://www.thebealhouseinn.com/BH/Welcome.html
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Wonderfall farm in April. Yes, you can shear a llama laying down. She just would not go in the chute and simply cushed in front of it. She did stand up when Jerry was done and let him do her belly and feet without a fight.

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Shearing at Shari's in May. The butterflies were all over the llama/alpaca poop pile.


This is the very nice person to whom the chute belongs. She allows us to store it at our house and use when & where we need it. Thank you Shari!! She also taught Jerry how to shear a llama and alpaca. At least where they get sheared, and where they do not.

After they were sheared and released, the first thing they all did was go out and roll in the sand pile. Now they are cool and comfy. Notice the butterfly flying up at me when I was photographing the happy alpaca. They were everywhere!

Fainting goats and kids at Wonderfall Farm

Click on the title to go to Wonderfall Farm's website.

If you are fortunate enough when you arrive at the farm, you may be greeted by Snowman. Check out his eyes.

Every 8 weeks or so, we journey 2+ hours north to Easton, NH to trim hooves. And to check out the goats and llamas.

2 different hens and their various colored babies.

Collecting the bucks and the other llama.

Trimming buck feet. 'What are you doing?'

Marla and Tom's bucks are very friendly.

The newest contributors to the Wool n' Ewe line

We had an opportunity to buy 4 more Registered Horned Dorsets from fellow Christians who were looking to downsize. We love our Dorsets and look forward to seeing what comes out of these girls with Cornelius. They, along with Roxanne and Olivia (the 2 polled Dorsets that came from our divorcing friend), are quite a bit taller than the rest of the Dorsets. These 4 girls came from Christi and Marilyn Racine. You can see Marilyn here- http://extension.unh.edu/Counties/Hillsboro/Docs/JulyAug09NLX.pdf -showing one of her lambs.

Callie and Hope are the 2 year olds. They did not want to venture from the safety of the barn the first day. Unlike Gracie above. She is the friendliest of the 4, having been born at the Racines.

Tina ventures off on her own. Here you can see her with Rachael in the background.

Gracie and Roxanne. As you can see they are the same height.

Full barn. Hopefully the lambs will be going this next week. We've not held on to lambs this long before, but no one is buying. They will be going to the butcher as soon as he has the space to take them.

The uncoated ewes, except the Dorsets, are going to auction as soon as the driver has a few more animals going. Please pray for good sales in this, and that they may go to other farms and not the 'meat man'. We are removing the ewes who were responsible for the small lambs and we are going to concentrate the farm on the Dorsets and the Romneys, as well as my Dorset/Romney and Border Leicester/Romney crosses.

This will get us down to a total of 24 sheep. That includes the retired old sheep who have been with us since they were lambs and will stay until their deaths. They are still producing wonderful fleeces. They just don't need to be bred anymore.

Someday when we have more pasture, we will add more sheep... Until then, we will continue with the best of the flock.

The Dorsets are now wearing coats. They were not sheared until late this year, and will be sheared in January before lambing, so their fleeces will not be for sale this coming year as they will be too short. I will probably send them out to become quilt batts.

Edited: The sheep that were supposed to ship weren't, and the ewes are most likely bred at this time. Their fleeces have so much hay from the Dorsets eating over the top of them, that they will also most likely be quilt batts...