See what I mean? LOL

How we raise our sheep

We raise Icelandic sheep in Portland, Or and Estacada, Or. Our sheep spend the summer in  Estacada where they grow and thrive on plenty of fresh grass and black berries. In the fall we bring them home to set up our breeding groups. After breeding the rams go back to Estacada and the girls stay in Portland to lamb. The Portland place actually belongs to a friend just down the road from my house. It's only about 3 minutes away so we can spend alot of time there with the sheep. The Estacada place also belongs to a friend. It's a lot farther from home but in the summer grazing period we don't need to be around as often. We do go out once or twice a week just to visit with them and check on their condition. My friends who live there also help keep an eye on them. I couldn't do it without either friend. We are looking for our own property to move to but in the mean time this set up works well for all concerned. I get free grass and they get help with keeping down the grass and blackberries. Seems to be a win win situation.

Lambs 2010

I just couldn't resist another picture of my favorite. This is "the bandit" He's huge and built like a brick ---house. Wonderful soft profuse fleece. His only draw backs are he seems to be scurred and he is part of my unregistered flock. Darn. I may use him for breeding this fall with the unregistered girls and see what he throws. To be fair to my other lambs he is a single but there is no denying his great attributes. He looks even better from the rear! LOL

Lambs 2010

These two are Beaulah's boys. The morrit is both better built and calmer.

Lambs 2010

These are Olga's boys. The one in back takes after his mom! See the mouth set? Very nice well built lambs with beautiful fleeces.

Olga the Big

This is Olga. Doesn't she look tough? This is a big beautiful ewe with a great udder! She has a great depth of chest and shoulder. She's long and deep throughout. We called her Bossy for a long time before I caught this look on her face. Olga is big and she knows it! She also loves a good scratch!

And this is Olga's Morrit Mouflan Badgerface lamb.

This is Beaulah's Morrit mouflan lamb.

Onions and such.

These onions are about 12 to 18 inches tall. I put them in the ground in Feb. The peas are planted along the fence right behind the onions. I have very limited space in my yard so I have to take advantage of every little area.

Update on broiler chickens & Muscovies

Just wanted to fill you in on the end results of the broiler chickens. We butchered 10 cornish-x
chickens. They all butchered out between 4.5 and 6.5 lbs. The majority were in the 5-5.5lb range.
We butchered at 9 weeks. Next time I will butcher one or two weeks earlier because I think plucking will be easier and we lost 4 in the last two weeks due to leg and heart problems. We still have 4 dark
cornish and 3 naked necks in the chicken tractor. These we will let grow for about 4 weeks longer
as they seriously do not grow as fast as the broilers. The ducks should start hatching about the time
we butcher the rest of the chickens. Then they will take up residence in the chicken tractor. Muskovy duck is the all around best eating duck there is! And so easy to raise. I can't wait to get some in the freezer. Until next time.
Tamera