Shetland Sheep: Rich in History, Rich in Textiles

Shetland Sheep: Rich in History, Rich in Textiles! Our farm mission is to enjoy and promote the wonderful diversity of the Shetland breed by fully utilizing to the best of our ability all they have to offer historically. We believe the best preservation and management of this breed includes it's full spectrum of history. We encourage old and new shepherds alike to join in the fun by engaging in fiber arts, especially spinning and knitting, as this breed is so intimately linked with those aspects of the arts.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Awwww...puppies!

What a cutie!
Puppies and this time of year just go together, don't they?  

Wheely Wooly Farm is a very busy place and things are changing all the time, faster than we could ever blog about!  As with so many sheep farms, we too have dogs to help us with the sheep, but we are not very good at blogging about them.  The training of the dogs brings hours of fun and even more hours of giggles.  We don't know what we'd do without our helpers!

In our travels with our booth, we get asked a lot of questions on if we have dogs.  Dogs just might be one of the most popular things on this planet, and we've discovered that stories about our dogs seem to be relished.  Over the years we've cracked up many a customer and their friends with our silly short dog stories, as so many people can relate to the silly antics of dogs.  Living on a sheep farm gives you ample stories to tell!  We consider the dogs as farm employees with health plans, as they have been brought here to fulfill a specific purpose.  And none of us know how we would manage our daily work here without them.  We could say with confidence that the dogs provide 98 percent good work, with a wee bit of chaos from time to time! (like say scaring the sheep half to death trying to run in the barn door with a five foot tree branch in their mouth after a storm...and getting stuck, or by sitting on top of the hay as if it's a mountain, peacefully overseeing the flock but leaving us dumb humans to wonder how on earth we'll get them safely down!)

More puppies!
Fluffy, poofy, super soft little balls of mischief!

Other stories aren't on the funny side, such as once after cull day, one dog howled for weeks, breaking our hearts!  And it's not real funny when a rambunctious puppy dives into the fresh clean water you just put in the stock tank, or gives you a huge beautiful paw print on your clean shirt just as you need to leave the farm, giving you a new kind of farm style.

So this is the most common time of year we have acquired puppies over the last nearly two and a half decades, which always brings our thoughts back around to those special years when a new puppy came home, as we reminisce about training, progress and funny stories.

With that, here is a picture of a baby corgi puppy!  The new owners were having a ball socializing their new pup, until nap time came.  So cute!
 Does this photo remind you of anyone?

Happy holidays everyone, and we hope you have a safe and joyful season of peace and festivities!