Shetland Sheep - Constance

Constance will be 3 this year, she is mother to Adrianna and the owner of one of my favorite fleeces ever. I hate to part with her, but s she doesn't have what I am breeding for in the way of color. I want to keep either her or her mother, Colleen, or grandma Fiona , but I can't decide :-( so they are all for sale, and I'll keep the one that is left :-)

Connie's fleece is long, fine and curly, something I have heard described as "helical crimp", the picture shows a little of what I'm talking about :-) She actually sparkles in the sun after shearing because of the luster of her fleece :-) She is a true mioget, as well as a "grey" meaning that instead of brown and white fibers like your standard musket, she has white and GOLD :-) as a lamb she was this beautiful "yellow" brown, and then did the "Ag fade" :-) Genotype Ag/Aa Bb/Bb SS/S? modified it's possible that she carries spotting, as her parents do, but we have to do more breeding to find out. $300

Only by His grace - Marion

Shetland Sheep - Prelude

Prelude had decided we were NOT going to take her picture :-) My brother Sardis was pretty tickled that he finally got her to stand still. She is last year's lamb, out of Selah by Duncan , twin to Harmony. Her fleece is long and fine, in a color I can only describe as shaela, though it is "more" modified than any of the others I have. She may end up as an emsket, but it's not a "grey", with dark and white hairs, but a true grey, as the individual fibers are varying shades of black/pewter. Her genotype is Aa/Aa BB/Bb SS/S? modified. She may carry spots, as both her parents do, and her twin is spotted, but that remains to be seen. I plan on keeping her to see what she does :-) Not for Sale

Only by His grace - Marion

Shetland Sheep - Magdelene

Magdelene didn't want to stand still to get her picture taken, hence the look on her face :-) her fleece is med length, and extra fine, so fine that it tends to collect chaff :-( but beautiful none the less ;-) she keeps alot cleaner outside :-) Maggie is 2, and should be lambing for the first time this year. She was born black with a small head spot, which has shrunk, but is still there. She has since shown us that she is modified, Shaela actually, which doesn't surprise me, seeing that her mom's twin, and her dad's mom were both mioget :-) Genotype Aa/Aa BB/Bb Ss/Ss modified. I am only parting with this one because I have plenty of Shaelas. Otherwise I'd certainly keep her, as her fleece is gorgeous. :-) $300

Only by His grace - Marion

Shetland Sheep - Olivia

Olivia is a true black, though a dirty one :-) She is one of those that collects dirt, no matter what you do. Her fleece is very soft, and extra fine, just perfect for catching chaff ;-) She will be 2, and should be lambing for the first time this year. I'm excited to see what we get out if her :-) She was born with a small head spot, but it has since dissapeared, I'm not at all sure what that means..... Sooo... Tentative Genotype :-) Aa/Aa BB/Bb SS?/Ss I will be keeping this one, sorry :-) I might part with some of her babies though ;-)

Not for sale

Only by His grace - Marion

Shetland Sheep - Eclair

Eclair is 2, and should lamb for the first time this year. She had some body splashing as a lamb, but all that's visible anymore is her face spots. She is grey, but not a real light grey, more of a blue, and her fleece is soft and med-long. Genotype Ag/Aa BB/Bb Ss/Ss She may carry the modifier, as her mother and father have thrown mioget, and both of her grandmothers were mioget. Eclair is a beautiful ewe, and one I would love to keep. She would have alot to add to any flock. $400

Only by His grace - Marion

Shetland Sheep - Shadow

Shadow is 2, and should be lambing for the first time this year. The picture shows her as black, but in reality she is a dark shaela, like her mom, not just grey, but a modified black, with silver streaks. As she gets older there will be a little more silver, like an older colored lady's hair, beautiful! her fleece is shorter, and extremely fine, almost merino-like. Genotype Aa/Aa BB/B? Ss/Ss with the modifier :-) she has a small head spot, but carries the potential for HST (head/socks/tail) or "paint splatter" type spotting. Her daddy's horns were gorgeous too :-) Not For Sale

Only by His grace - Marion

Shetland Sheep - Adrianna

Adrianne, Out of Constance by Stuart. Yes, this was brother/sister, at least on daddy's side, but I was hoping for the solids, as her mom is Mioget, and we had lots of moorit in the background. what we got instead was a musket. She has a very long, beautiful fleece, as you can see, and it will probably end up light cream by the time she's grown. born 3/30/09 Genotype Ag/A? Bb/Bb SS/Ss? there are lots of spots in her background, her dad is a carrier, so she could be too, her mom is modified, and while I don't quite understand how that gene works yet, she probably carries that too :-) $200

Only by His grace - Marion

Shetland Sheep - Kermit

Our beautiful ram, Kermit. These are are not the best pictures, the light was not very good, but they'll have to do :-) he's a Moorit Katmoget, and has the most gorgeous fleece, and is bred to most of our ewes. He is NOT for sale :-)

Only by His grace - Marion

Tea Party and in memory of "Babycakes" ;-)

Shekinah found a toy snake the other day, it kept her pretty busy while the other girls had a ....

Tea Party!!

With cookies, and tea cups, saucers, and "mommy's tiny teapot", And their cute little pinkies sticking out! LOL!! ;-)

One of our first lambs this year was ignored by her mom (she had three) and got too cold. By the time Joseph found her, she looked dead, but he brought her in and we gave her a warm bath and got some milk into her. She perked right up, and the girls took turns holding her until she dried off. They called her "Babycakes" ;-)

She was even standing up by that evening, but sadly, didn't make it through the night :-( The best we could figure she had inhaled some fluid, and it was just too much for her little body to take. The girls were Soo sad :-( but we will treasure her memory, she made three little girls so happy while she was here.

Only by His grace - Marion

We are Open ;-)

Sorry these pics are in backwards ;-)

This is the store shortly before our inspection. we still had to put the cooler in the center for cheese and eggs. We did get an A+ on the inspection ;-) I'm sooo proud of my Hubby ;-)

The flooring almost done. Joseph working on the floor. He did a great job, you can't even see the seam unless you know where to look ;-)

Our eggs, from Rhode Island Red, Americana, Wellsummer, and Blue Andalusian ;-)

Only by His grace - Marion

The Shepherd's Market

I am soo excited!! it's going up! Joseph working on drywall note the dust in the air ;-) the blue thing is the front door.

Another veiw, looking through the "honey room" door into the store.

My new root cellar!! Ain't it purty?? ;-)

Studs before the drywall went up

Christmas

The three girls with their dolls from Great-Grandma Omma and chocolates from Grandma Babbos this morning ;-) Kinah was lovin the paper too!

Only by His grace - Marion

Summer Pics

Shekinah tormenting Uncle John ;-) " hey Mom! his head is fuzzy!" ;-)

Shekinah really liked Gram's Cinderella doll, she was getting her first teeth and chewing on everything.

Canning beets this summer, Kinah was loving the colors!

Our three girls ;-) Aren't they cute?

Shekinah met a friend's mini poodle in October, she couldn't get over the silky curls, and kept running her fingers through them and smiling ;-)

Relinda dancing with her shadow in the sunshine one summer afternoon, the sun came right in the window, Deborah wouldn't dance, she was afraid she would miss something ;-)

We Have Highspeed! and Relinda's birthday ;-)

We just got high speed internet! This means that I can now upload pics in less than an hour! yippee! ;-) This is a few pics of the girls on Relinda's birthday, November 24th, she turned 4 ;-) What a big girl! ;-) notice how often she changed her clothes ;-) They get a real kick out of "getting dressed" ;-) They especially enjoyed the "food" that Omma sent -Only by His grace - Marion

Sunset at The Shepherd's Fold

The other day I went outside around sunset, it was so pretty I had to share ;-)

Only by His grace - Marion

Life goes on ;-)

Here we are a week after our new baby ;-) The older girls can't get enough of her, and fight over who gets to bring me diapers ;-) I need to talk Daddy into letting me get a picture of him with his girls. He's a bit camera-shy ;-) He takes good care of us though. With the help of friends and neighbors (not to mention family) he managed to pull off the June chicken dressing and our second CSA pick-up without letting me do much of anything ;-) We had a heavy rain last night, so he took the day off today to go inspect the bees in Medina county. Joseph is a farmer first, and an Apiary Inspector for 3 counties in his "spare" time ;-) We had a late calf born last week, and got another batch of chicks in, but other than that it's been pretty quiet around here, compared to normal I mean ;-) well, I'd better get off the computer, my phone has been ringing off the hook today ;-) God Bless!! Only by His grace - Marion

It's a girl!!!

Shekinah Rose was born at home at 4:35 AM on

June 15th (Father's Day ;-)) She was 19 1/2 inches long

and weighed 8 pounds even.

Welcome to the world little one!

Only by His grace - Marion

Long time no post ;-)

Yikes, sorry folks, but first my camera wouldn't cooperate, then for some strange reason Blogger decided I didn't exist. ;-) that's OK though, I didn't really have time to post anyway ;-) We've been getting ready for CSA shares to start, which they did today, finally! We opened the season with rhubarb, spinach, onions, radishes, lettuce, spearmint, and peonys, with a loaf of fresh wheat bread for good measure;-) I hope you all enjoy your baskets! With the crazy weather we've been getting ( frost the last of may!) things weren't growing as fast as we would have liked. then today we had almost 95! whatever ;-) since the heat hit, everything, including the weeds, has been growing like, well, weeds. The problem has been that the garden is too wet to be out there pulling them ;-) we'll catch up as soon as it dries off though ;-) In the meantime we are anticipating the arrival of our third child ;-) Hoping we go any day now, due monday. the girls are bubbling with excitement, Relinda talks of nothing else, and Deborah, who is just getting this talking thing, walks around commenting "noo beebee" every time she catches sight of my belly ;-) the first thing they do when they get up is "give the baby a hug" ;-) Too cute! will post pics when we have them ;-) Everything else is going as planned, the chickens are growing, and selling out , fast. The first batch is already gone, and we are about sold out through September. ;-) We have a beef going in in late July if any of you are needing meat, he is not all sold yet. We found a new place that can do hotdogs, bologna, beef sticks, jerky, and even beef bacon all without nitrates or MSG. Too cool! We also got a batch of pullet chicks, old fasioned breeds, to sell as pullets, as well as selling eggs. We got Rhode Island Reds, an dependable old breed, and Black Australorps, known for laying well even in hot weather. We then ordered a few just for fun ;-) Americanas, which lay green eggs, Blue Andalusians, a silver-colored white egg layer, and Wellsummers, who lay eggs that are a dark chocolate color ;-) What fun! Well, I'd best be going, I'm about done for the day ;-) That extra weight wears on you after a while ;-) the girls are about ready for bed too ;-) See ya later!

Only by His grace - Marion