SHEEP FOR SALE - 2013

While we have still been breeding our sheep since my last sale listing in 2009, we have either been keeping the lambs or already had sales for them. However, this year I do have a very few ewe lambs for sale and since the 50/50 anticipated split between ewe lambs and ram lambs did not work out like that this spring, I have several ram lambs for sale, also two yearling rams from last year.

We have twin grandsons, Jean Luc and Jean Paul, so the very smallest ram lamb, white and the last to be born, who appears to be able to escape from anything, has duly been named 'Jean' since we couldn't favour one grandson's name over the other, and has become a great favourite and quite tame. We have three Ridley Bronze turkeys free ranging and Jean often joins them, which makes a really unusual picture! Also Misty, our Great Pyrenees, roams loose at night to keep the coyotes away and also keeps a close eye on Jean, as she did the other night when my husband forgot to put our Saddleback geese away for the night and came out to find them sitting beside Misty!

Please contact me if you are interested in any of the lambs/sheep for sale and I will be happy to provide photos.

Sheep and Sheep Fleece

2011 was a busy year again for our sheep. It's interesting that for so many years there was very little interest in sheep, in fact it was hard to give them away, and now in the last three or so years, interest has risen again. I sometimes wonder if it's because people have discovered that synthetic products don't have the same qualities as wool.

I discovered this in a very personal way. When I had hip replacement surgery, during the course of it my left foot was paralyzed and when I was due to go to physio, having done farm chores first, it took the physiotherapist half an hour to warm my foot sufficiently to be able to work with it. She finally asked me not to clean out the cows before I came! I had tried everything to warm it and nothing worked until I remembered I'd brought a pair of my old Clarks fur lined boots with me from England. Foot in them and in no time it was as warm as toast!

We had sales of mature ewes and ewe lambs to various places in B.C., also in Alberta. Part of the Alberta trip was a bit nerve wracking when I happened to turn round and see that the window of the canopy had shot up and the sheep were standing at the back door of the pickup looking out! - luckily not jumping out - so after the delivery of the first four ewes who were in the tack part of the horse trailer, we were very happy to transfer the remaining ones to the horse trailer!

Late in the year and just as the breeding season had started, we had a call from a friend in Larch Hills who had gone out to his sheep that morning and found his ram dead, so wondered if we had one. Our large and very beautiful grey ram was therefore soon on his way to Larch Hills, where Roland has one of the most beautiful old barns around. They also have a very interesting log home, all built with logs from their property and all the chinking was done with fleece!

It was a very busy year on the farm and I didn't get my fleece organized, however, it is now and we do have fleece for sale. For 2012 I plan to have the sheep sheared twice - at the end of March and the end of September, so should have quite a lot of fleece this year. Icelandic fleece is very good for felting, which is gaining in popularity.

We had a great treat on our return from Alberta when we stopped at the Custom Woolen Mill at Linden (fairly near Carstairs), Alberta. Unfortunately we were pressed for time because you can take a tour of the mill, which would have been very interesting to do, and their shop was like finding a little treasure house! Probably fortunate that we couldn't stay long! Am looking forward to getting some of my grey fleece back as yarn. Having come from a pre-television era, my mother and I spent many evenings knitting - not well received by my mother who did not care for the contintuous clicking of the needles!

Our most exciting sheep event was our visit to Audur and Ralph's farm to bring home a new Moorit ram and a beautiful Moorit ewe. We are looking forward to some very colourful lambs this year as I was down to one Moorit ewe and the colour of the Moorit fleece is one of the most popular. 

Please let me know if you are interested in any fleece and watch our website in the spring for lamb sale announcements. As our sheep have been selling so quickly please contact us if you wish to be placed on a waiting list.

I regret not getting pictures up on our website of the rams and ewes that we had for sale in 2008. I'm waiting for final confirmation, but believe that all our "For Sale" sheep are now spoken for.

We will be putting our grey ram in with our ewes at the end of October this year (2008), planning to have earlier lambing next year. Then we will use our ram from Audur in Alberta, who carries the moufflon gene, as our backup ram.

With earlier lambing next year (2009), we hope to be able to work in two shearings, one at the end of March and one at the end of September before winter sets in.

The dual coat of Icelandic sheep fleece is soft and lustrous, comes in white, oatmeal, several shades of brown and greys, and black. Icelandic sheep fleece also comes in many pattern combinations.

Pineridge Icelandics

1049 Hepburn Rd

Chase, B.C. Canada V0E 1M1

pineice@pineridgeicelandics.com

250-679-3540