WoolyAcres is our small farm here in south central PA where we raise and breed Corriedale sheep. Other occupants include a flock of White Orpington chickens and two nine Nubian cross goats.
We raise our sheep for wool and meat, the chickens for eggs, and I haven’t figured out what the goats are doing here yet. 🙂
Please subscribe to be kept updated on fleece and lamb sales, animal antics and all the fun pictures I *plan* to take!
I usually get peeps in the spring, but because our egg laying was way down I decided to try sooner with some fall peeps. They should be ready to lay in the spring. I got 4 each of 4 breeds (all brown egg layers), plus an exotic that Murray McMurray Hatchery throws in for free. All 17 survived the mail and here they are in all their glorious puffiness!
I don’t love mockingbirds, but a nest of babies is always exciting! Here they are in a very messy stick nest in my redbud tree.
I think there are two babies in there.
One summer I had a mockingbird that learned the sound of the UPS truck backing up {BEEP, BEEP, BEEP} and she would perch just outside of my open bedroom window and broadcast that noise for hours, starting around 2 am.
The mother of these babies has learned a different noise. It is the sound of my dog, Fraser, whining. He actually rarely whines, just to go out or to come back in. For the last week he has been whining constantly. I keep getting up to go let him out, only to find him lying on the floor by the screen door looking at me curiously with utterly no interest in going out. I began to accuse him of lying to me.
This morning the light bulb came on. As I stood there lecturing Fraser about calling me in on false pretenses (Crying Wolf and all), I heard the whine coming from behind me on the other side of the screen door. There on the fence post was a mockingbird. She was making the noise, even with a worm hanging out of her mouth!
I don’t know much more than that about the birds, and I have never noticed them nesting near us before. But there are two adults tending the nest, so I’m assuming it’s mommy and daddy. They don’t really mind me, the dog, or the chickens in close proximity, but when a cat is near they send out a really sharp chirp. My cats duck when they hear that noise. I haven’t witnessed it, but I suspect they have been dive-bombed before!
If you follow my blog with any regularity, you may have noticed a total dearth of posts about my garden this year. It has not gone well for a variety of reasons. But my one bright spot has been the carrot crop.
On May 26, little Hallelujah was born to Gretchen. (There is a graphic birth picture below the break)
The lighting on skirting day was terrible (ruler pictures) so I retook the pictures later. Just use ruler pics for size reference.
SOLD Gabriel
9 year-old ram. Cormo X. He has won many awards at Maryland Sheep and Wool over the years, including Grand Champion of show!
$18/lb…5 1/4+ lbs…. $95
Gabe
8 year-old ewe. Corriedale/Cormo.
$15/lb…5 1/4 lbs…$79
4 year-old wether. Cormo/Corriedale.
$15/lb…7 3/4 lbs…$116
Felicia
10 year-old Corriedale.
$12/lb…5 3/4 lbs…$69
All fleeces were covered. We did moderate skirting so little VM. But there is some tippiness that should wash out fine. All the darker yellow/orangey you see on the fleece is sweat and washes out.
Please contact me by email with questions or sales interest. PACEbooks@live.com. Don’t leave a message in the comments here.
I prefer pickup at the farm, but am willing to ship. I live in Dillsburg PA (roughly halfway between Harrisburg and York).
I take PayPal (pay as ‘friend’ to PACEbooks@live.com) or credit card (3% charge).
Shipping. Last year the shipping costs for these fleeces ran between $25 and $35 depending on distance and size of the box. Actual cost–no handling fee. I do have vacuum storage bags that I can use to shrink down the size to save on the over-size fee at the post office.
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Julie Helms
1. Gabe SOLD
Gabe is our eight-year-old ram who has won two grand championships for his fleece at Maryland Sheep and Wool, and many other awards along the way. He is a Cormo cross with a beautiful white fleece tending towards fine. 3″ long.
8 lbs…..$20/ lb. $160
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2. Heather
Heather is a bottle-raised seven-year-old Corriedale/Cormo ewe with a long creamy white fleece also tending towards fine. 5″ long. She was my ‘tippiest’ fleece so the ruler picture has an accurate sample of what that looks like.
6 1/4 lbs…..$18/lb. $112
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Unfortunately for the last two sheep, the pictures I took on skirting day did not come out because I got lanolin on the lens of the camera, making them all romantic and blurry looking… And useless.
3. Linus SOLD
Linus is a three-year-old bottle-raised Corriedale/Cormo wether. He has a long, medium-crimp fleece. 5″ long.
$15/lb…9 lbs. $135
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4. Felicia
Felicia is a nine-year-old Corriedale ewe with a long, medium-crimp creamy white fleece. She has twice won awards in the medium category at Maryland Sheep and Wool, but as an older lady her fleece is less fine than it used to be. 5″ long.
7 lbs…$12/lb. $84
All fleeces were covered. We did moderate skirting so little VM. But there is some tippiness that should wash out fine. All the darker yellow/orangey you see on the fleece is sweat and washes out.
Please contact me by email with questions or sales interest. PACEbooks@live.com. Don’t leave a message in the comments here.
I prefer pickup at the farm, but am willing to ship. I live in Dillsburg PA (roughly halfway between Harrisburg and York).
I take PayPal (pay as ‘friend’ to PACEbooks@live.com) or credit card (3% charge).
Shipping. I have no clue how to figure this out till I actually mail it so there will be a second charge for that. Actual cost–no handling fee. I do have vacuum storage bags that I can use to shrink down the size to save on the over-size fee at the post office.
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Julie Helms
***********************Earlier post from May 2013************************
What an exciting weekend we had at Maryland Sheep and Wool. I entered 4 fleeces for competition and 3 of them won ribbons. Gabriel, our new Cormo cross ram, swept the awards though. (For those following the saga of bottle-baby Heather, this is her daddy.)
Look what we did today!
Some of the fleece’s are posted. Click on the “Fleece” tab above or click here
Nonny skirts Colin’s fleece. Can you believe all that only weighs 7 lbs!
Had fun taking pictures on this pretty, sunny (but very cool and windy) Saturday.
Come here children, it is time for a story.
Here is a short video of me feeding the two little cuties, Heather and Cocoa.
Here are some images of recent babies from the past month….mostly the bottle babies. Cutie pies all of them! 🙂
Heather
One day old
Daphne died today from pregnancy toxemia.
Daphne is very wooly. We could tell here that something was wrong.
WoolyAcres 