Last Saturday I transported one of my ram lambs on the first leg of his journey to the UP to his new home with Barb Reiter's flock. My dear friend, Terry, agreed to drive from Princeton, IL the night before, stay over night and then go on my trip the following day. You see, Terry is a quilter, a very good quilter and I have bullied her into making me a queen sized quilt. I am going to give her some of my wool batts to use instead of man-made fiber fill batting, so it will extra special. You can see Terry's works of art at
Quilt Crazie.
So the story goes......
Pearl Jam, my little polled ram, took a trip to Beaver Dam (Dr Suess, eat your heart out) We arrived at the Beaver Dam McDonald's, our predetermined meeting place and met, Sandy, another animal lover and fellow Shetland breeder. Sandy had made arrangements with Barb to meet the following week and she was to get a ram from Barb and deliver my ram.
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This picture of Pearl Jam and I was stolen from Terry's blog and was taken in the parking lot of McDonald's, Beaver Dam, WI. I have no idea what the people at these meeting places think of us and our transferring of sheep from car to car (SUV, Truck or Van) We sure get some goofy looks. |
Sandy mentioned that she had arrived a little early and decided to attend a little Bantam and Pigeon show just 2 miles down the road. Well......nooooowwww, she had my attention and I had her promptly show me to her car and the carrier containing her new acquisitions. She had the nicest little group of bantams and among them were my favs, little Partridge Cochin Bantams. Ok, that did it, we were headed to the show, because you can't go home with an empty crate......right? Terry just laughed at me and shook her head.
We raced to the fairgrounds, located the show, located the chickens, then the owner and I picked out 3 pullets and we loaded them in the Malibu and hit the road.
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My new "Spice Girls" |
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I sure hope she doesn't expect us to sing. |
Terry was sufficiently impressed with how quickly that all took place, but I knew what I wanted and we HAD to get to
JJ Stitches in Sun Praire to get my fabric for my quilt!!! This quilt shop specializes in Civil War reproduction fabrics and I loved it there. The gal that runs the shop was invaluable in getting the colors and tones just right and when she was done laying all the shades of dark blue together, I didn't change a single one.
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A few of the lovely fabrics we had to choose from at JJ Stitches.
None of the samples above are for my quilt, just a random shot of the fabrics she carries in her shop. | | | | |
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Our flowering pear tree in full fall color!! |
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Breeding groups go together this weekend, and I've decided to keep my crossbred ewes for another year despite the hay situation. I am not going to give my girls away and I honestly think that there is going to be people looking for some meat sheep this next year. Seems like everyone is taking entire flocks to the sale barn, so not many "extras" will be floating around next year. The processors are so busy they won't give you an appointment for months to get any sheep in for freezer meat, and the price of feeder lambs has plummeted to about $86 per hundred weight due to the large numbers of sheep hitting the sale barn. Same thing with beef and hogs......so if you want meat in your freezer, now is the time to purchase it, because next year you will be paying a premium for it. All the flock and herd dispersal's are going to drive prices up next year or the year after because there won't be enough supply for the demand. I only have 4 crossbred ewes, but I think I've now located enough hay to get me through even if I keep the extra girls. So they will be put into the groups with the purebred girls again this fall.
Happy Friday Everyone.
Around here it's not so bad, but some guys who raise steers aren't buying calves. The calf price is still pretty good so some must still be buying. About 4 or 5 years ago they were killed 95 head of baby calves that didn't sell at one sale alone. I haven't heard of that happening yet at least. I'm actually breeding more ewes this fall than last and should have more lambs next year.
ReplyDeleteThe bad lamb price is not only because of the drought, but manipulation. The big guys out west have over 100 thousand "lambs" from last year. They didn't want to sell them and hoped to drive the price up more last year, but instead it is causing this years price to go down. They predicted that the price would bottom out in
Feb./Mar. already.
I hear you on the hay though. I thought I had enough, but the big bales that I'm getting are a lot lighter than I thought. I do know a guy with a couple hundred big squares for sale, but is is pretty junky stuff as it was rained on and then there is figuring out how to bring it home. (The guy I get from delivers and I pick up from the other one.)I would have enough hay if I get gid of my mkt lambs now, but I don't want .86 a #! I'm hoping the price goes up and/or I can direct market more of them!
I have standards as well, and my old blue rooster is really showing his age. Not sure I will replace him until his time has come to leave us by natural means. Thanks for the offer, keep me posted on what you have and when they will be ready, I might consider one.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done any McDonalds ram deliveries yet but I have been aparty to a few roadside poultry deals and bees too. I'm sure people were intrigued and entertained a little.
ReplyDelete