Sheep, coming soon to our homestead!

We’ve been on our new, our FINAL, homestead now for a couple of weeks and things are going well. We’ve (mostly Graydon and the three youngest) have been working hard outside and in the barn (have I mentioned that I LOVE our barn?!) getting things ready for the arrival of Shaylah’s sheep! It’s been a dream of hers for a very long time to have her own sheep.

First it began with wanting ONE sheep for wool. Shaylah felts wool creations, so this made sense.

Then I felt she couldn’t really get just one sheep or it would be lonely, so we began looking for two sheep. Possibly a breeding pair. We were originally wanting Shetland Sheep, as we felt they were a nice size for a small homestead.

Well…then Shaylah fell in love with a certain sheep at our friends farm. She named him Wally.

Quite the character. He looks like he’s smiling here!

I wasn’t too worried about this love of Shaylah’s, since he wasn’t for sale!
In the meantime, we continued the hunt for Shetland sheep, with no luck!

Well… then our friends called one day and asked if Shaylah would like to have Wally. They were down sizing their farm and were not going to breed sheep any longer. And would we also consider 1, or even 2, of their favorite females to go along with Wally?

We pondered this. They were not the breed we originally wanted, BUT, emotional attachments are sometimes more important then particular breeds, and Shaylah already loved Wally so… ok.

So now 1 sheep became not just 2, but 3 sheep. Julia decided she would LOVE to have a sheep too, and since she’s a very hard worker and loves farm life, even though she already has a horse and a dog, we said ok! Now the girls can care for the sheep together.

So now we were at THREE sheep, or so we thought…
2 female sheep don’t come alone in the spring time…lol

We’ve gone from 1, to 2, easily to 3, and now to 3 sheep PLUS 2 lambs!

It’s pretty easy to say yes to lambs though. Plus, as much as it may be difficult when the time comes, the lambs are not here to stay. They will be sold in the fall and it will become a way for the girls to earn some funds for the care of their ‘pet’ sheep.

Shaylah has plans to use the wool for her felting business too. We’ll be learning how to shear, and turn the wool into fiber! Lots of great learning adventures to come!

And next spring, there will be even more lambs and the fun and learning will continue!