The Sheep
Maisey
This pretty little lady is a Corriedale sheep and the matriarch of our herd. She has the last say about the rules that take place amongst the sheep. Her color started out black as a small lamb, then turned to a gorgeous reddish brown on the outside of her wool. This is called being, sun kissed. Now, she has a lot of white mixed in with the black and reddish brown. Her wool is wonderful to spin and work with. Maisey was one of the first lambs brought onto our farm. She has lived here 5 years. Maisey has had 1 lamb during our farms first lambing season. His name is Louie. Maisey was an incredible momma to her little boy. She produced delicious milk for him to drink and taught him the ins and outs on how to be a sheep.
Louie
Louie is the first and only lamb that came from Maisey so far. He is 50% Corriedale and 50% Valais Black Nose. I call him a Cor-Valais. Louie is the tallest sheep we have here. He definitely takes after the Valais Black Nose with most of his traits except the traditional coloring. Louie was solid black when he was born, but since then he takes after his momma as a chocolate corieadale coloring.
We decided to keep him as a wether because he has a beautiful long thick wool coat. And to be honest, we fell in love with him.
As a spinner and weaver of wool, I really wanted to see where his unique and beautiful type of wool can take us in our rug making. I measured some of his wool staples at 13 inches long. He is black but some white is streaking through. Just like his momma, he has a white spot on his nose. Louie is among the first batch of lambs born here at Wild Daisy Homestead. He was the #3 lamb born.
Penelope
She came to our farm from the same place Maisey did. They were both born in the Spring of 2020. Penelope was approx. 4 months old when she came to live with us. She is a Roma Dale cross. Her wool is also lovely with a lot of elasticity with a soft, silky type texture.
Her wool is mixed with other wool to bring that crimped spongy softness into the product and help it go further. Penelope has had 1 lambing season at the same time Maisey did. She had a set of tiny, twin ewes. Daisey Mae, who was the first born here on our homestead, and her sister Matilda Sue who was the second born 17 minutes later.
Penelope was a very attentive and loving mother to her babies. She kept them full of milk and was constantly trying to chase them down, keeping them close by. Many times we had to catch those babies and lock them inside their lambing pen to give mom a much needed break.
Daisey Mae
First born here at Wild Daisy Homestead. She was only 5 pounds, but was healthy and strong from the first moment. She is a Roma Dale and Valais Black Nose cross. She has grown to be taller than her momma and her wool has a lovely texture to it with elasticity of her mom and the length, coloring and thickness from her sire. She is white with light black markings. She and I made a very special connection right after her birth while momma also had to care for her second arrival 17 minutes later. As a result, Daisey trusts me and is always ready to do anything I ask of her. I have some fun videos of Daisy Mae leaping off of high platforms, climbing and jumping.
Matilda Sue
She was the second born of the twins. At 5 lbs and 5 ounces, she looks almost identical to her sister Daisy Mae with just a few black facial markings that differ so we can tell them apart. Both have little black heart shaped wool on their bottoms. Her wool is just like her sisters and is wonderful to work with.
She is of course a Roma Dale and Valais Black Nose cross and the length of her and Daisey Mae’s wool is crazy long as well. Her personality is not quite as connecting and open to me as Daisey’s but she is friendly and happy to come up for pats and treats. Anytime I work in their pasture she is sure to be right there investigating. She is a little too excited about dinner and has to be reminded by our Matriarch to wait her turn and where she needs to stand. She gets a little too pushy sometimes.
CheeZcake
CheeZcake….
Although I love all my sheep, this little fellow is the best pal I’ve ever had. CheeZcake was the first Valais Black Nose in the county, and on our homestead.. He is a wether and will never produce offspring, but he was the one that brought the Valais Black Nose into my life and into the very Northern tip of Cache County Utah. He is a 50% Valais Black Nose and 50% Babydoll sheep. His wool is insanely long and thick like a Valais, but the wool type and his body structure and appearance is just like the Baby Doll breed. He is very short and petite in height, but his weight makes up for it. He comes running when I call his name. He is always next to me when I’m working in their pasture. CheeZcake came to live with us at 5 weeks old. He was the third born of triplets and as such, he was the runt and a bottle baby. CheeZcake spent the first several nights inside with me sleeping in his crate with some soft straw and a warm blanket. I snuggled up on the floor with a sleeping bag next to him. He was fine if my fingers were touching him through the door of the crate, but if I took them out, he would wake up and begin to cry. During the days I would take him outside so he could safely yet slowly become introduced to the small herd of three ewes, now 1 year old. I earned money through baking and selling cheesecakes to purchase him. That is how he got his name.
Annie
Annie was the third little ewe lamb. She came with Maisey and Penelope as a baby approx. 4 months old. She spent every day of her life from that point forward here on our farm and we loved her so much. However, Annie ended up passing away when she was a little over 1 year old. Long story for another day. Oh, the tears that were shed over Annie as she was buried in a special spot in our pasture. I felt like a failure as a shepherdess and wondered if I had started something I couldn’t ever be successful with.
Would my sheep suffer because of me? I was so afraid I would lose all the other sheep because I didn't know what I was doing.
After laying Annie to rest in a special place in our pasture, I buried myself in the internet, books and consulted with fellow sheep owners about everything. Searching for knowledge about sheep has become a regular part of my life. Because of Annie, so many lessons were learned. Through her loss I discovered the importance of educating myself and becoming a better Shepherdess to my young flock. They needed more than just me loving them. Annie will never be forgotten and we still talk about her and miss her today.
Processing the wool
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Each fleece goes through the picking stage, which is removing all icky parts of the wool and as much of the vegetation matter, we can get out.
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The fleece is then ready for washing. It is carefully pressed down into a large plastic tub of special wool soap mixed in warm water.
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It is left to soak for an hour, gently pushing it down occasionally, to ensure the fleece is saturated and completely submerged.
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The fleece is then carefully dumped into a large tote to drain slightly as we refill the wash tub only this time, we’re using a special wool conditioner as we repeat step 3.
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Fleece is once again taken out of the rinse water and allowed to drain as we pick up armfuls of very heavy, soaking wet, sheep wool and place it on drying racks.Drying will take several days when we do large amounts at a time.
