Limerick Link

October has been very busy and also very productive.  Working out the details of the purchase of the Washington and Ontario sheep was very exciting but also time consuming.  The Washington sheep had to go through a number of vet inspections and get special health certificates before they could be imported. The general construction on the barn and the machine shed are now finished.  We are doing a bit of land contouring to establish new drainage patterns and then hope to do some fencing before freeze up.   There is a definite nip in the air and we have had a bit of snow here and there but all in all, October has been a very gentle month, weather wise.

Fibre Works Alpacas: Shelly, Moonshine and the others are all doing well.  I think they appreciate the slightly cooler fall weather.  We gelded Gaucho this month as his fibre and teeth are not quite top notch, as required for a breeding male.  We had kept him intact as he is a rich colour with reasonable fleece coverage, has nice conformation and temperament.  However, as we now have access to other, high quality bloodlines, we will no longer keep him for potential breeding.  He will remain in our fibre herd as a gelding.

Fibre Works Shetlands: We have had a few requests for information about how we halter train our lambs.  If you are interested in this topic, please visit the sheep training page.  We gave all of the lambs their boosters shots of eight way vaccine this month.  We also did a second vaccination of the ewes due to concerns about the potency of the vaccine we used last March.  We are still in the flushing stage of our feeding program, preparing the ewes for breeding.  This means we will continue to increase nutrition/feed prior to breeding to encourage the ewes to release more than one ovum.  The increased feed program will be continued all through breeding to help the ewes maintain more than one fetus.   It seems to work as we had a lambing rate of over 200% last year.  Astor was wethered due to poor horn development.  As he is a very charming lamb with beautiful black fibre, he will not be sent to slaughter but will be kept as a pet/fibre producer.   If you are interested in purchasing Astor or receiving information on any of our other sale stock, please email shetlands@fibreworksfarm.com.   We picked up our new sheep from Washington this month.    Primolana Gayla is a very pretty, black yearling ewe.  She appears to be non-fading and we hope that she will contribute that trait to our breeding program.  Mtn. Niche Serenade is a very dark moorit ewe lamb with a single coated, crimpier fleece style.  Again, we hope that she will be non-fading and will keep her very rich colour.  Shetland Shadows Gail is a mature black iset/ shaela ewe with a fleece tending towards single coatedness.  She is a total outcross to our other lines.  Mtn. Niche Auric is a golden caramel coloured ram lamb, maybe mioget,  with impressive horns and a beautiful hand to his fibre.  He brings us new bloodlines, many of which carry mioget colouring, something a little rarer in the moorit. The Ontario sheep purchased by the Bakers will be arriving in the next few days.   Once they get home, we will finalize the breeding groups and put them together.

Fibre, Yarn and the Fibre Works Gallery:  The shelves are getting a little bare as we have shipped out a number of pre-Christmas supply orders and we do not yet have many of our new yarns back from the mills. We do still have quite a stock of rug  and other heavy duty yarns.  We will post updates as the new yarns come in.

Bergen Norwegian Buhunds: Treva and I finished our Novice Polishing obedience class.  She continues to work with enthusiasm and energy and was a star.  She is a little softer in temperament than Tjalfi so needs a gentle hand for corrections.  We also did our vaccinations and annual vet checks and all are healthy and vigorous.  Still planing to breed Treva and Tjalfi on Treva's next heat (January).  If you are interested in getting a puppy from this litter, please email soon as the waiting list is getting longer.

Farm Stuff:  The machine shed was a late addition to our building plans.  My father needed a place to store his antique farm equipment and we will need a machine shed in the next few years.   We decided to go ahead with this building, using a pole type construction as well as the same board and batten siding and metal roofing that is used on the barn.  That way, it will fit in well with the whole farm site.  We have finished the preliminary wiring and plumbing in the barn.  Once we get the workshops in the barn insulated, we will have the heating unit hooked up for the in floor heating system.  Everyone is looking forward to heated workshops, a "first" for us. Now we can start looking for barn cats to add to the menagerie.