Shearing Sheep

As I mentioned in my last post, we bought 3 sheep a few months ago.  I went vaguely through the process of slaughtering and butchering and tanning the sheepskin from our wether Lamb Chop.  But what about the other two?

Miss Eight offering Nibbles some treats.

When we got them, they all needed dagging and shearing, so I went and bought a pair of dagging shears.  Fortunately for us, Nibbles was hand-raised and if you go into her paddock with a bucket, she thinks you have treats (pig nuts) for her and will come over to see you and can be quite easily caught.  Unfortunately, while we were shown how to flip a sheep over, we obviously missed bits of the technique and struggled to do it ourselves.  I got half a leg dagged before she started to kick and then we couldn’t catch her again.  A timely visit from friends with plenty of experience meant we were able to get Nibbles at least dagged.  It was a very rough job, but it was done.  He also told us about the guys who will go out to lifestyle blocks like ours with a fully mobile set up and shear a small number of sheep, although it might work out to be quite expensive for our tiny flock.

Dagging Nibbles with some help from a friend.

I started to ask around various friends with small flocks and I was told to check out the Hotline - our local small newsletter that is mostly local service advertising.  I found an ad for a mobile setup shearer.  He was really apologetic about having to charge their minimum rate for fully shearing only two sheep and dagging another, but given that he came in the evening in his own time, when his wife was only weeks away from having their first baby and was here for an hour, I thought that $50 wasn’t bad at all.

We tried to drive them into the sheep yards in the corner of the front paddock.  The run, as you can see in the photo is in a state of disrepair.  This was caused in part by poorly thought out construction, and partly by a steer who got in and couldn’t get out so he kicked the end gate to pieces before we were able to rescue him from it.  The yards themselves are okay, but the gate is not a practical design.  The bottom board rests on the ground, so if the grass has grown up in front of it, it’s nearly impossible to open.  The wooden frame work is getting a bit old and not really up to the whole weight of the gate either.

Trying to drive a hand-raised sheep and two lambs is not an easy thing either.  Being hand-raised means that she isn’t particularly worried about us, she’ll duck through a gap that other sheep wouldn’t try.  Even with five of us, we couldn’t do it and gave up after a couple of hours of frustration and swearing.  The shearer wasn’t too worried, the paddock narrows down to little more than a lane at the other end and he thought he could catch them there.  He was right.

I could no longer tell which of the lambs was which, so I asked him to only dag Lamb Chop the wether as I was planning to use his skin with the fleece.  He was quite tickled by the idea, he’s more used to seeing lifestyle farmers who aren’t quite so resourceful with all the leftover bits of their animals.  He caught one of the lambs first.  Miss Eight was sure he had Lamb Chop and told him so, he stopped and checked and quite frankly said to her “No, there’s no penis, this is the girl one.”  Miss Eight set off into a fit of giggles but accepted his wisdom.

We were rather impressed by his mobile gear.  He had a battery charged clipper unit that he simply tucked into an apron/wide tool belt.  It clips slower than a full power unit, so he takes his time but  did a lovely job.

Two feed sacks full of wool (a bit daggy in places but will be sorted later and we were astounded at how much smaller Nibbles and Sheepy-sheepy (long story) looked in comparison to Lamb Chop.  The shearer also commented that they were the healthiest small flock he’d seen on a lifestyle block.  No sign of fly-strike, feet all good and he’d be really shocked if they did just turn their toes up as we’d been told sheep do.  Hubby passed that on to his boss (who we’d bought the sheep from) who put it down to giving them treats of pig nuts.

Lamb!

Around October, Hubby came home and asked if we wanted sheep.  This inspired a 'look' from me.

We've talked about sheep but have been a little afraid of them.  We keep hearing things from the local sheep farmers like "If you have one, you might as well have a hundred" - because they're a lot of work and "they have this tendency to just die for no apparent reason, the trick is to try and keep them alive for long enough to make a few bob off them."

When you have hundreds (or in some case thousands) of sheep, losing the odd one is probably not much of an issue.  For us, losing one is losing a fairly big investment comparatively.  So I've been a bit wary.

Hubby's boss had a ewe and two lambs he needed to sell and offered them to us for $240.  He told us she was an escape artist and she was teaching her lambs all the tricks.  I asked him if he was setting us up for failure - if she's escaping from his place, why should our place be any better?

He has the five strand cattle fencing, we have the netted sheep and deer fencing, we should be okay.

We managed to squeeze Nibbles and her lambs into the back of my tribute (although it was a long, smelly and occasionally noisy drive) and brought them to their new home where they settled in quite quickly.

One of the lambs was a wether, so it was decided that he'd be Christmas dinner.  Our local homekill man won't come out for just one lamb though.  We could slaughter it ourselves and drop it in to him to process but if we'd done that part, we might as well do the rest.

I started doing my research and thought I had it fairly well sussed, but we both worried a bit about the possibility of botching the actual kill.  Not only would my poor animal suffer needlessly if I did it wrong, but it would also make the meat tough.  After some discussion, we called the neighbour who was quite happy to come over and take us through it with our first one.

I told Hubby he needed to be there for it.  I've been present for all our homekills, I feel I owe it as a mark of respect to the animal I've raised to witness this but also it's something I believe to be missing from modern society.  People are removed from where their food comes from and this is just as important a part of the process as everything else.

Miss Eight (she's had a birthday not so long ago) was keen to be there too.  I did warn her that it might be a bit frightening or gross but she was not worried so she came along too.  The neighbour tied the front two legs and one of the back ones together.  He explained that many people are injured because they just don't expect the kicking and thrashing that just slaughtered animals do.  I'd seen it before with the pigs - I saw them shot and dropped, but when they're bleeding out there are all the muscle and nerve twitches that go on.  One of my pigs looked like he was trying to stand and the other turned full somersaults.  They were dead and not suffering, but it is a bit unnerving the first time you see it.

Both Hubby and Miss Eight didn't think it was all that bad, I still maintain that this was because the legs were tied and the thrashing wasn't too noticeable.

The neighbour kept explaining things to Hubby - this is fairly standard, they all do that - until he realised that I was the one getting my hands dirty helping him skin and gut and sort through the bits for what we were going to keep.

I kept the skin, heart, liver and kidneys.  I was going to clean out the intestines for sausage casing but Hubby thought I had enough to do with this lamb and didn't need the extra work.  Being me, I'm quite proud that all the waste fitted inside one 20 litre paint bucket.

Butchering the next day was an eye opener for Hubby.  As he wrapped one of the legs, he asked how much I would have paid for that in the supermarket.  At least $50 - it was a full leg of at least 3kg.  He didn't believe me at first.  I told him that lamb averages about $25/kg (which he later verified).  Then he did all the maths - our 20+kg lamb would have cost $500 in the supermarket!  When are we getting more lambs?

Hubby wanted his lamb's fry, but never got around to cooking it, so that went with the rest into the dog food.  I chopped the offal into cubes and put it in the slow cooker (on an extension cord outside on the deck) with 2kg of mince and plenty of oats and rice for several hours.

I washed and trimmed the skin and tanned it.  We recently got a wonderful book (below hopefully if I can get the code to work) that includes several recipes for tanning skins.  I used the one made from baking soda and kerosene.  The problem was that it didn't tell you how you know when the skin is done.  I figured when I was scraping it all off the next day and getting damp kerosene out of the skin that it was a pretty good sign.  I left it stretched to allow the last of the kerosene to evaporate and it's looking perfect.  The skin is going to be slippers for me and we'll see what I do with the left over bits.  I'm already getting orders from everyone :)

Skin fairly fresh and new.

Skin after about a week of 'processing'.

Gorse Flower Wine

I've said before that we seem to be farming gorse and I'm always looking for a way to do something useful with it - why waste a resource?

So when I saw Gorse Wine on an episode of River Cottage, I was intrigued.  The timing was great too, all the gorse was in flower.

I found the recipe on River Cottage's website and went off foraging.

Three hours later, I hadn't picked anywhere near enough flowers for this recipe, my fingers were bleeding and sore from all the prickles I'd gotten from the gorse and it was time for me to head inside and start thinking about cooking dinner for the family.  So I adapted the recipe to suit the volume of flowers I had.  Mine ended up as:

Gorse Flower Wine



4 pints gorse flowers - approx 2 litres measured with a half-litre jug.
6 litres of water
680g raw sugar
Juice of 2 lemons - my lemons are rather small this year

Gorse flowers heating in pot.

5g sachet of white wine yeast - I had this in the fridge from a previous wine making expedition

Place flowers and water into a stock pot, bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 mins.  Add sugar and stir until dissolved.  Move into a large bucket or brewing barrel and add lemon juice.  When cooled to just above room temperature, add yeast.  Cover with cloth and leave to stand for 3 days.  Strain and pour into demijohn or brewing barrel with airlock.  Bottle when fermentations stops - roughly two weeks.

I'm glad I used a much reduced recipe - this small amount almost filled my stock pot, I wouldn't have had the capacity to do much more.  It smelled like freshly mown grass while it was sitting for those first three days.

Six bottles of Gorse wine on the bench

I make a habit of regularly having a wee taste while my wines are fermenting, I find it interesting to notice how much the flavour can change in even two weeks.  The bottled product tastes to me like a dry white wine, I'm not noticing the coconutty flavours that many people have talked about with this wine - but then again, I'm not a big fan of white wines.

Granny Squares - Snowflake Style

I always seem to end up with partial balls of yarn.  I've been given bags filled with them by people who see them as rubbish.

Granny squares are easy and a good way to use up left-over bits and pieces.

The simple and plain snowflake pattern squares are probably the most common, as well as being a good starting place for making squares.

A guide to the abbreviations I use (US abbreviations and stitch names) can be found here.

Snowflake Granny Squares:

Snowflake Granny Square in one colour

1st Round: ch 6, slst into 1st ch to form foundation ring.
2nd Round: 3ch (to form first tr of pattern) 2tr, 2ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 2ch, slst into first st, then sl st to 2ch gap.
3rd Round: 3ch (to form first tr of pattern) 2tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 1ch, slst into first st, then sl st to 2ch gap.
4th Round:  3ch (to form first tr of pattern) 2tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, slst into first st, then sl st to 2ch gap.
5th Round: 3ch (to form first tr of pattern) 2tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 2ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, 3tr, 1ch, slst into first st.

Lots of small Granny Squares made into a blanket.

Most of mine will stop at four rounds if I'm making basic squares, or you can continue in this manner until you reach the size you want.

I have made entire blankets as one 'square' that I've just continued until it was bed sized.

You can change colours for each round if you like.  In that case, after the slip stitch to complete the round, fasten off that colour and start your new colour in the corner 2 chain gap.

Blanket made from Granny Squares including big squares.

In one of the boxes of Grandma's stuff that Mum recently gave me there is a huge amount of old magazines and pattern books, several of them contain different types of Granny Squares, as well as different uses for them.

There are cushions, made the obvious way, but also so that the joined squares make an X in the middle of both sides of the cushion.  Baby blocks made from six squares joined in a cube and stuffed.  There are Granny Squares made out of heavy yarn and turned into coffee mug coasters, hot pot stands and pot mitts.

In a Woman's Day Super Special from 1983 - titled Granny Squares & Needlework there are several patterns to make jerseys and cardigans from Granny Squares - one is made up of several Granny Squares of varying sizes joined for the body of the garment.  Another is one large Granny Square as the front and another for the back.  The sleeves are ordinary crochet.

See the pretty (??) jersey made from Granny Squares on the cover

There are other styles of Granny Square and other shapes - round ones and hexagonal ones.  Some have flowers, some are still square, but are done as corner patterns.

And then there are the wealth of books filled with many different types of Granny Squares.  See below for a selection - there were nearly 900 returns on a search on Granny Squares.


UPDATE:

One of the things that I've always struggled with somewhat is joining the Granny Squares.  Today I found a fantastic website that has links to 10 different tutorials each showing different ways to join the squares - most are fairly invisible.

That link? Knot Your Nana's Crochet

Crochet Abbreviations and Stitches

I think it's worth noting that in this blog, with the crochet patterns that I post, I use US abbreviations.  I find them more sensible than UK abbreviations and many of the patterns that I am finding and adapting are from the US.

Abbreviation	US	UK Equivalent
Ch	Chain Stitch	Chain Stitch
Sc	Single crochet	Double crochet
Dc	Double crochet	Treble crochet
Tr	Treble crochet	Double treble crochet
Hdc	Half double crochet	Half treble crochet
htr	Half treble crochet	Half double treble crochet
slst	Slip stitch	Slip stitch

What Those Stitches Mean

Here, I've not only described what those stitches mean, but there are also simple instructions on how to crochet.


Chain Stitch - hook through loop and pull a loop through.

Chain Stitch complete

Chain Stitch beginning

Single Crochet - hook through stitch and pull a loop through.  There should be two loops on the hook.  Pull another loop through both loops on the hook.

Single Crochet beginning

Single Crochet half done

Single Crochet complete

Double Crochet - wrap the yarn around the hook before pushing the hook through the next stitch.  Pull a loop through the stitch on your work, three loops on the hook.  Pull a loop through the first two loops on the hook.  Pull a loop through the last two loops on the hook.

Double Crochet beginning

Double Crochet, pull first loop through

Double Crochet, pull loop through first two loops

Double Crochet, pull loop through remaining two loops

Treble Crochet - wrap the yarn around the hook twice before pushing the hook through the next stitch.  Pull a loop through the stitch on your work, four loops on the hook.  Pull a loop through the first two loops on the hook.  Now there will be three loops on the hook.  Pull a loop through the next two loops on the hook.  Pull a loop through the last two loops on the hook.

Treble Crochet, yarn twice around hook before pushing hook through work

Treble Crochet, pull loop through stitch

Treble Crochet, pull loop through first two loops

Treble Crochet Complete

 

Treble Crochet, pull loop through next two loops

Half Double Crochet - wrap the yarn around the hook before pushing the hook through the next stitch.  Pull a loop through the stitch on your work, three loops on the hook.  Pull a loop through all loops on the hook.  This differs from a double crochet as you don't pull the loop through two loops at a time - it's all done in the one loop.

Half Double Crochet, yarn around hook before pushing hook through work

Half Double Crochet, pull loop through stitch

Half Double Crochet Complete

Half Treble Crochet - wrap the yarn around the hook twice before pushing the hook through the next stitch.  Pull a loop through the stitch on your work, four loops on the hook.  Pull a loop through all stitches on the hook. This differs from a treble crochet as you don't pull the loop through two loops at a time - it's all done in the one loop.

Half Treble Crochet, yarn around hook twice before pushing through work

Half Treble Crochet, pull loop through stitch

Half Treble completed.

Slip Stitch - push the hook through the stitch on your work.  Pull a loop through and through the loop on the hook.

Slip Stitch complete

Slip Stitch beginning

More Piglets

Darla - Photo Copyright 2013 Tee Marie Photography. All rights reserved.

Just after Darla had her previous litter of piglets (like the next day) we saw our boar on her making more.  Doing the maths meant our next litter of piglets was due mid-August.  We were going to try to make sure that this lot wouldn't be abandoned by their mother so we decided to build a farrowing shed and as is typical for us, we only really started work on it about two weeks before we thought she was due.

Some of the stuff we pulled out of the truck canopy.

Our first big issue was a shed.  We had an old garden shed, kindly donated by Hubby's parents when they left their red-zoned house in Christchurch.  It was in a paddock but didn't cope with the winds there and tried to fly more than once.  It's now in pieces behind the big shed and Hubby didn't think it would be worth trying to use it.

Floor in and pen started.

We decided on an old truck canopy that was being used for storing all kinds of crap - actually, we've been through it, but haven't added anything to it, this was all left behind by the previous owners!  This is just one of three sheds that were chock-filled with might-be-kinda-useful-one-day type of stuff.  It didn't take long to empty it and sort out the contents.  Finding a new home for them is going to be interesting though.

Patched holes in the roof.

Pallets make useful pens.

Add a creeper rail to give piglets a safe space.

So our first job was that it needed a floor.  As it sat on a slope between two trees this was a bit of a challenge, but propped up to roughly level pallets on the downhill part and plywood over top fixed that.

So next the walls.  I found two pallets that were in pretty good condition and roughly the right size to be walls for the pen.  At my direction, Hubby made a creeper rail and the gate.

I got the wiring all ready to go, just needed the last few fittings and to be connected up to the power.  We were also worried about the potential for leaks dripping on heatlamps and wiring (and piglets).

It was nearly there, but I was sure she was due to drop them any day now.  I spent several hours most nights figuring out what I'd do if she delivered them before we were ready - as a result, I spent a week exhausted and running on about two hours sleep each night.  It was not the safest time for me to be up a ladder riveting the roof patches on, or cutting the last piece of plywood for the floor, or really doing anything much.

Mid August came and went.  No sign of piglets.  Darla's udder swelled up and her nipples were pointing out sideways, but semi-regular checks showed no piglets yet.  The urgency to finish the shed waned.  Then we had the big storm which put many things on hold while we cleaned up that mess.

We dithered and added a little bit here and there, it was nearly but not quite finished for the next six weeks.  I kept looking at my sow and asking her when those babies were coming.  She'd just grunt sweetly at me and flop down on her side for a belly scratch.

In the little hut all three big pigs normally share - about an hour after the last one was born.

Just over a week ago, we had visitors.  Our friend came to visit with his lovely Philipino fiancee.  She adores the pigs and came out to help Miss Seven feed them.  I noticed a smear of blood and mucous around Darla's nether regions.  Right, we have piglets on the way.  None yet that we could see - I'd interrupted her with food.

Hubby and I rushed to finish the shed, while she dropped a piglet in the paddock and then took herself off to the little house that all the pigs share.  I picked up the little white piglet and followed her.  My friend (who'd ended up nursing the previous litter) stayed and kept an eye on things while we worked on getting the farrowing shed finished.

In the new farrowing shed.

We ended up with just five piglets, but this time, Darla was a very good, patient and attentive Mum.  I watched piglets climb all over her, bite her face, and wander all around her.  She'd lift a leg and let them past or just tolerate being a jungle gym.  She lies down slowly, giving them plenty of time to get out from under her, and checks on them constantly if she's outside and feeding.

Under the heatlamp

We've got them moved to the new farrowing shed and the piglets are growing well.  She even took them outside and had them out in the sun over the weekend. :)

For those who are interested in such things they were born in this order:
White, female - named Wilbur (Miss Seven is Charlotte's Web obsessed).
Black, female - named Lims-Kragma (Master Fifteen is a fan of Raymond Feist).
Spotted, female - named Perdita (would have been Pongo if male).
Black, male - named Stefano (actually seems to be stripes - not sure on the source of this name, Miss Seventeen chose it).

Out in the sun.

White, female - named Ghost (she went missing the morning after they were born, she disappeared in daylight but turned up in the paddock - no idea how she got out of the hut - 3 hours later perfectly fine and warm).

Five one week old piglets, sleeping in the sun.

Yes, that's right, four girls and one boy.  Order of birth: White, black, spotted, black, white.

We thought that was pretty cool.