barn notes : it's a love shack

Barn Notes have fallen to the wayside these past two months, so I thought I'd take the time this morning to describe some of the recent events on our farm.

My mom put the rams in with the ewes about three weeks ago, which means none of us can go in with them. Our two rams, Hopps and Dutch, are extremely territorial.

Breeding season means our rams are fitted with a harness that holds a block of colored wax, this tells us which ram has bred which ewe and when. My dad was out fixing a fence over the weekend. He didn't watch his back and our chocolate-colored ram, Dutch, caught him off guard. A nice way of describing this is that my dad ended up covered in red wax. Dutch hadn't mistaken him for a ewe, rather he wanted my father out of his territory.

We all chuckled about this, because my dad wasn't injured, but it reminded me that not everything about sheep is fluffy and soft.

These are real animals and sometimes we have to take caution. A ram has the potential to cause injury, so I always try to be mindful about which fence I'm jumping over and what season it is.

Breeding season is not a good time to wander into the wrong paddock.


These mittens come from a batch of yarn that I got from Sandy of Winterwind Farm. As many of you know, Sandy also raises CVM romeldale sheep. Her yarn is wonderful. My design for these mittens was an attempt to understand how cables can weave together across the top of a mitten.

I especially like the cuffs. I bet you all will recognize the cable pattern. It seems to be a favorite of mine as of late.