More pasture work

Actually, we are planning to pick up 3-4 this Sunday and 2 more next Sunday. That's why I've been cranking so hard to get things ready. Pretty much as soon as we get everyone here, we will have to separate 2 of the ewes to breed with the ram. Icelandics are very seasonal breeders and now is the time it starts. If all goes well, we should have lambsin late April/early May.??? Fingers crossed.

 

You are an animal! I see the firewood work, scroll down see the tractor kicking butt and taking names, scroll down further and see the framing! Nice work

 

Good luck. Lots of folks get into the wool products thing. Seems they do fairly well at the fairs and craft shows. Some have their items in unique shops. Wife and I don't eat sheep, goat, or veal products. I know some folks who keep sheep. As far as I know, it is for their wool.

 

I love lamb meat, but wife doesn't like the taste of red meat. She eats seafood and a little bit of poultry, so we don't have alot of demand for red meat in our household, especially if I am lucky enough to shoot 1-2 deer each Fall. Wife has said that she least try the lamb meat with an open mind, since we are raising them. However, if all goes well, we will have plenty of extra lamb and mutton here, so we plan to sell it to friends and neighbors. FHC friends included!

As for wool, we are just a couple of miles from Mt. Gretna, the PA Chautauqua and other specialty artists and craftspeople, so yes, we hope to market high-quality, naturally-colored wool to them.

Ultimately, we are acquiring stock with "milky" lineage (lot of Dancing Lamb stock) , in order to produce milk and cheese products.

Apparently, once a sheep is "gone" (culled or natural), the tanned pelts of Icelandics are also worth a pretty penny.

So, in summary, this is our first venture into a "commercial" animal husbandry. Our dogs, bees and poultry have always been for pure entertainment. In contrast, wife says "these have to give something back."

 

, I really love and respect working farms. It isn't easy. You are tied down, sick or not you have to work. Might as well get something back for your efforts. Do you have children that will be involved with this project?

 

Thanks man. We don't have any "human" kids, so that liberates a lot of time and money to pursue other adventures. I often say that I would not be in my current job if we had kids. My current position allows me to freely exchange cash-money income vs. time for myself and family. I tend to lean towards the time for myself and family vs. working harder for more money. If we had kids, I would have taken one of the many opportunities I have had to work harder and make more money to give them a better life.

 

Cool! Icelandic wool is pretty awesome, and it comes in MANY different colors. For those who respect this, I'm sure they are willing to pay a premium price. Just a matter of getting our product out to the right audience. Hopefully, the internet will help us spread the word.

 

Would any of you believe that for my "real" career I'm a Pathologist who runs a lab diagnosing and evaluating blood, bone marrow and lymph node speciemens, mostly for cancers of the blood, bone marrow and lymph nodes (leukemia and lymphoma) at a large university medical center? Actually, I spend 8-12 hrs a day providing state-of-the-art diagnostic services for my hospital system and patients in our community. This is mostly "desk jockey" work involving a microscope, lab testing and a whole lot of "brain work" to put it all together for each of my patients. However, when I get home from the office, I just want to relax. For me, this means woodworking, firewood making, home improvements and raising farm animals. Thank goodness, I have a wife who totally "gets" this and also loves hard work and self-sufficiency. We complement each other quite nicely.

 

Amen to that. We raised 4 children. All adults now with kids of their own. Some of those kids are now adults! I worked every available hour I could get, plus has a second job. Wife also worked. All I can say is with the grace of God, we managed and all of us has survived. I locked into some good retirements so we are OK in our senior years. My kids saw what we all went through. They each limited their number of children to two each. I thought college, cars, the orthodontist, and sports was going to drive us into bankruptcy. These kids move at a very fast pace. Society demands a lot from them. Just a dress for my daughter's prom cost more than any clothing my wife or I owned. I know, I am rambling. Good luck with the sheep and please post pictures of them.