No rain, no rainbow.
Kris schulenburg wrote:How is your search for dairy sheep going? I had someone back out of buying a ram lamb and was wondering if you would be interested in him. I would trade him for help holding holding 12 sheep while I trim feet. Looks like you are less than 3 hours away.
His mom gives 1 gallon a day. His dad is Icelandic from milking lines. He is a triplet.
No rain, no rainbow.
Kris schulenburg wrote:I’m in no hurry. He is a nice ram and I would like for him to have a good home.
You probably know they are vulnerable to dogs and coyotes as you are planning your fence. Good luck with the fence. Lmk if you want to know anything else about him.
No rain, no rainbow.
Ryan Hobbs wrote:
Kris schulenburg wrote:Would electric sheep netting be good enough for this year and build the permanent fence next spring when I buy ewes?
Kris schulenburg wrote:If it’s too soon for sheep, I may still have him in the spring or chance are good there will be more lambs next year. It’s better to take your time and make sure it’s a good experience.
No rain, no rainbow.
Kris schulenburg wrote:Yes. They will need their feet trimmed this spring also. Or I was asking $150 for him. Which ever works.
No rain, no rainbow.
Kris schulenburg wrote:Icelandic ‘s best fleece is in the fall so I will be shearing some in early October. If you want to come down and see Ragnar and get some hands on sheep experience that would be great. Or the spring works. With only a few sheep you can shear with a good pair of scissors.
Got a couple of pictures yesterday.
No rain, no rainbow.
No rain, no rainbow.
Ryan Hobbs wrote:I got the fence posts half put up. 15 t posts driven today. I feel the burn. I have another 5 to do tomorrow. I need another 2 bundles of t posts, the wood corner posts, and the wire. I can only carry so much in my 4 door sedan. LOL
The wood posts are going to be interesting.
No rain, no rainbow.
"God commands you to pray but forbids you to worry."
Amanda Parker
Magnolia Knoll Farms
English and French Angoras, Heritage poultry, fiber tools, and handcrafts!
Check out @magnoliaknollfarms on Facebook!
Located in Nelson, VA
Amanda Parker wrote: I wouldn't go back to goats for anything.
"God commands you to pray but forbids you to worry."
Some places need to be wild
Eric Hanson wrote:Ryan,
I love the idea of dairy sheep. I think they would be a great small holder all purpose animal. I really don’t know, is an acre enough for two sheep and their lambs? I like your idea of rotating in half acre sections. Would you use any of your remaining acre for growing hay, feed, straw, etc?
I am just spitballing here, but if you bought in some hay you could create a lot of manure to increase your total fertility. Could you occasionally, say in fall, let your animals graze on your garden area just to let them dung and urinate the beds?
Again, I think that you have a great idea, I am really curious to see where it goes.
Eric
No rain, no rainbow.
Some places need to be wild
Eric Hanson wrote:Ryan,
Sorry to hear about your illness. Dare I ask what happened? Not try to pry and if I am being too pushy, just say so.
It’s too bad, I was really curious as to how your mini herd was going to work out.
Eric
No rain, no rainbow.
Some places need to be wild
Eric Hanson wrote:Ryan,
Really sorry to hear man. I have a background in psychology so I know a bit about schizoaffective disorder, and I am sure that the stressors put you in a bind that few understand.
And a shame for the sheep too! What you were planning really sounded like a unique idea and I would have loved to see it in action.
Take care of yourself. I have my own burden: insomnia. I feel like I can do anything with sleep but nothing without. My sleepless episodes can really knock me on my ear, to tbh, it put me into disability which I am struggling to overcome.
Again, take care man. You can’t help anyone else until you help yourself first. Get well. Contact as you feel the need.
Eric
No rain, no rainbow.
Some places need to be wild
Eric Hanson wrote:Intriguing! So far I am game, I guess the first puzzle would be to figure out a puzzle?
Eric
No rain, no rainbow.
Some places need to be wild
Some places need to be wild
Eric Hanson wrote:Ryan,
Ok, I am up early, have coffee so my brain is working again!
I say we start off fairly simple just to test the ground rules so to speak.
So my thought for starters is let’s go fairly primitive. How about a 1 acre homestead (that is 1 acre of land, this does not include buildings, driveway etc.). So maybe 1.25 acres total. Very rural, no utility hookups. Midwestern, zone 5-6. Clay-loam soil. Good rainfall, but summer droughts happen every 5-10 years (BTW, my personal metric for drought is the drought starts on the 3rd week without any significant rain during times of high heat. My reasoning is that it seems to take this long for vegetation to start looking yellow and stunted. So what do you think?).
Lets also assume no buildings whatsoever so we build the house using bale construction, of course equip it with a RMH, and go off- grid electric. A/C is possible but optional. We also will have to dig a well. The property is 90% clear, but has a living hedge fence line around 3 borders and s few respectable hardwoods along the back. Let’s assume that the initial budget is pretty tight so we will build everything using materials on hand or build with outside materials using our own labor unless we absolutely need someone else. Fortunately, we don’t really desire much that money can buy.
Ok with this in mind (Sorry if this is confusing, I will try to get a better format), with only an acre of land and minimal woody vegetation and not much money we need to produce most everything on site. I say that we make 1/2 an acre as a huge intensely managed market garden and the other half as a small pasture for a small number of ruminants such as a couple goats, sheep, or s jersey cow. Let’s go from there.
Eric
No rain, no rainbow.
Some places need to be wild
Some places need to be wild
Some places need to be wild
Some places need to be wild
No rain, no rainbow.
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