Yesterday the Man and I went down to Whidbey Island for a Livestock Adviser field trip to Gary and Lois Fisher’s place, Camelot Downs.
Gary and Lois have all “Colonial Livestock”, animal breeds that were brought over to the US from Britain and elsewhere during the colonial period.
They have a flock of Southdown sheep,
with a couple of Romney’s (can you find the Romney in the picture above?),
a Coopworth cross I didn’t get a photo of and and also a Lincoln wether thrown in (as company for one of the llamas).
Llamas act as flock guardians,
and Ginny ( a “Henny”- offspring of a male horse and a female donkey) patrols the borders of the place, keeping a lookout for coyotes and dogs.
and a little closer (she’s such a snugglebug)-
Lois processes most of the wool herself, as the Southdown fleece doesn’t lend itself to commercial preparation (staple length too short, I guess)- and showed us some of her drum carded batts and handspun yarns.
Occurs to me know that I should have gotten photos of that stuff as well. Oops!
But anyway, was always good to be in the company of other fiber-folk!
In knitting news, the back of the Oregon vest is complete and I’m moving on to the left front.
I must say, it does feel odd to be knitting a sweater in pieces. I feel like I have to keep comparing the new piece with the back to make sure the waist shaping is even and all that.
It’s much easier making adjustments to the pattern on the fly when you’re working on the garment as a whole. Just one more reason to knit in the round.
That’s about it for now. Have to go and spin up more of that Oregon vest wool…
Hmm, surely llamas didn’t come over on the Mayflower, did they? 🙂
Good Point! if I see him again, I’ll make sure to ask about it.
I do remember that, at one point in his talk, he said something about llamas originally being North American animals, and then that the ice age drove them south,,, but they really don’t fit with the “brought over with the colonists” theme, do they?!
Those southdowns are stocky little buggers aren’t they. I’m spoiled at the sweet faces of our Shetlands… 🙂 Looks like you’re having a great time with this class. T.
Yep. They remind me of Ewoks for some reason. Very blocky,and kind of teddy-bear-ish, but not especially friendly lookin’.
Shetlands so have much prettier faces.
The WSU Livestock Adviser class is really good. This past week we learned all about rodents and other pests, mice and rats to coyotes and bobcats. This coming week is pastures-