Sweety…

Can you guess what Zayne’s been up to?

 

He’s sort of a little monkey…

Can you guess?

Can you see it all over my face?

But he sure is sweet!

It sure tasted Yummy!

 

He decided to help make ice cream for Grammy’s Birthday Party by getting in the new sugar bag I had to open.  He was sure proud of himself, how could you get mad at a face like that?

Advertisement

Milking Icelandics and more…

Lisa left this question the other day…

Enjoying your blog! I am interested to follow more about your sheep. Do you milk your ewes? I’ve had Saanen goats and an Ayershire milch cow, but never milked a sheep and am curious as to how much they produce.

I was interested in the Icelandics as we have Norwegian Fjord horses and I really enjoy the “Nordicness” of the breed. Their mindset is distinctly Scandinavian in a horse sort of way.

Lisa

Hi Lisa!  We do not currently milk our Icelandics.  My husband and I- or *me* more specifically have had the occasional thought to milk them.   More for the crafting part of it as I understand the soap is quite lovely!  But the closest we have gotten is this…

…milking a bit of colostrum to save just incase…or the occasional teat that needs to be stripped of it’s wax plug.  But I did send off an email for you and found out that, depending on the ewe they can give up to quart each side or about a half gallon when they are newly freshened.  It sounds like they drop off after that though.  One lady milks her ewes that are raising twins and receives a quart of milk from each ewe.   Not too bad!  However right now I don’t have enough time to milk several sheep for a family of 9! lol! But maybe one day and that is why we bought Butterscotch anyway ;0)

Butterscotch...

 

I was interested in the Icelandics as we have Norwegian Fjord horses and I really enjoy the “Nordicness” of the breed. Their mindset is distinctly Scandinavian in a horse sort of way.

I love this!  Icelandic Sheep are a very hardy breed.  The do very well in our Montana climate and others throughout the U.S. and Canada are successfully raising them too.  They have quite the personalities and are thouroughly entertaining!  To be truthful the first aspect that attracted us to Icelandic’s was their variable colors and patterns.  Not just another white sheep!  It is thought there are 189+ different color/pattern variations.  Then the list of positives kept growing..

• *They have a lighter lamb flavor than most traditional sheep.  Which was very appealing to me as I don’t care for the heavy lambiness flavor.
• *They can be raised on pasture and good hay alone.  We very seldom feed grain or extras with the exception of a good mineral.
• *Lambs are very hardy and vigorous.  We only lost one ram lamb this year that was born still and no other problems with our lambs.  We even had one ewe lamb have the tendon in leg severed while shearing.  She just kicked right at a bad time and the blade completely tore the tendon in two.  We could not sew it back together.  We thought we might have to put her down because she had such a hard time getting around, but within a months time she was using that leg and now you would never know unless you were watching closely.
• *Lambs are born with naturally short tails so there is no need to dock! Yippee!
• *Ewes and rams are early maturing and can be used in breeding their first year.
• *Variety in horns- Polled, scurred, or horned.
• *Beautiful dual wool coats.
• *The possibility of milking them ;0)

Thanks Lisa!

Breve- a polled moorit ewe lamb