I didn’t know you lived in Woodinville. Cool.

I read your note on “Living with Sheep.” Sheep are wonderful if you spend time being with them every day for about 15-20 minutes per sheep (to check their hooves, for parasites, any other problems with fox grass in their eyes or ears and stuff like that. They’re actually easier to take care of than a dog or cat, but they’re milder than both dogs or cats and friendlier in a different way.

And if they’re bottle fed lambs (or bummers, but I hate that name-comes from Bum Steers which are orphaned calves grown up), they’re friendlier yet and much easier to handle. I had 3 bottle fed lambs and they were so tame a small child could pet them without any problems at all, and they wanted attention too. When I got depressed, I’d go out to the pasture and be with the 3 of them, and they’d come over and lean against me and nibble my fingers to let me know they loved me. It was so sweet. Unfortunately, you cannot housebreak a lamb…they poo and pee indiscriminately no matter where they are unless you put a diaper on them. I kept the lambs in my mud room for the first 3 weeks until they were large enough to hold their own, then I put them in the creep (which is a fenced area in the pasture or barn where they can escape the adult sheep) with a door in it–just like a dog or cat door without the door part…like a hole in the fence.

I’m a city girl myself, so getting used to all this was quite interesting, but I don’t want to live without my animals ever again. It’s a pain in the behind that the National Animal Identification System is causing so many problems for us small farmers/ranchers. I’ve been fighting it But I love talking fashion federally and locally.

I have chickens also…Auracanas because each hen lays a different colored egg so when I have more than I need, I sell them to my friends who have kids…the kids tell their folks that they want Easter Eggs for breakfast. The chickens are great because they eat all the pests (mosquitos, ticks, flies, etc.) that tend to be around animals anyway, so they’re nice to have around.

Slaughtering is something I couldn’t do…though I thought about it. The first year, I was bound and determined to slaughter my own chickens too and that’s when I realized I didn’t have the heart to do that to my animals. I found out who slaughtered peoples sheep and cattle around Walla Walla and I use them. I’m sure your area has people who’ll slaughter any of your spare sheep. It’s not really expensive, but you’ll be eating the healthiest, lean meat you could hope to have in yoru freezer.

Finn, Shetlands, Spelsau, and Icelandic sheep are short-tailed sheep so you do not have to dock the tails. They’re also not your regular domesticated sheep–they’re not feral or wild, just don’t have to be taken care of that the domesticated sheep have to be taken care of, except the Finns. The Shetlands, Spelsau and Icelandics are put into spring/summer pastures and pretty much take care of themselves, although a herding/guard dog is a good idea just in case. I watch my Icelandic sheep, the ewes and the rams, scare off several feral dogs with the weaker ewes and lambs in the middle of the flock. My alpacas also helped keep the dogs off the sheep. It was quite amazing. So, guard/herding dogs, alpacas or llamas will help take good care of the sheep–they’re family after they’ve been together for a while.

I think even though I’ve been raising sheep for 5 years now and I bought the books I could find out there, I will buy Chuck Wooster’s book too. It’s never a bad thing to have more than you need. The best thing is to make sure you have a good Veterinarian who takes care of sheep and pets.

I looked at the Oklahoma State University Veterinary site (http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/) when I wanted to figure out what sheep I wanted to raise. It gives descriptions of the sheep as well as other information. It’s how I decided to raise Icelandics with the Finns happening when I couldn’t find any local shepherd selling Icelandics. So, I got two Finns. Lovely fiber and when I crossed the ewes with my Icelandic ram, the fiber was terrific.

I have got to check this book out…thanks for mentioning it.

Jet