Hello sheep fans! This is Brie, your faithful scribe from Whitefish Bay Farm. The old bearded guy up at the B&B keeps talking about sharing the flock news, but it seems to have been a long time since he has followed through on his promises. Therefore, at the urging of the flock council, I have decided to fill you in on what is really going on here, instead of all this silliness of blooming flowers and bugs in trees.
The flock managed to make it through winter pretty well. It was colder than usual, but those shepherd folks kept us pretty comfortable. Sadly, we lost a few members of the flock this winter due to the complications of age. They are really missed by the rest of us. (I believe the shepherds also miss them too.) There are now 75 of us in the flock. We all got our hooves trimmed in December and January. At that time the old guy and the nice lady also got us changed into larger jackets. Some of us really needed a bit of breathing room. Of course that all changed in mid March, when we all got sheared. After that we all received clean, fresh jackets. Some of us have already put on some needed weight since shearing and produced enough wool to warrant a second jacket change. We were definitely ready for spring and grazing on fresh green grass, but somehow it just did not want to materialize like it usually does in May.
Finally it did start to look green looking out the barn doors and windows. We could tell that things were improving. The grumpy shepherd became grumpier because of all the repairs he had to make after the tough winter. But when we saw that he was taking the movable fence posts out of the barn we knew we were in luck.
On May 21st we finally made it out. It was a beautiful cool spring day with lots of sunshine. And here we were grazing for a first time in a long, long while!
We did remember to take Queso’s old camera with us, but we were too busy and happy eating that we did not get around to taking photos for a while. But eventual we decided it was time for pictures. Here is Ariel with a big mouth of grass and a smile on her face.Dorte took some time to just enjoy the sunshine and cool breezes.
Astrid, was her usual serious self and just kept on eating.
I forgot to tell you, but there are guests showing up at the B&B again and they of course are visiting. As you can see, that first day we were too busy to pay them much mind. But now we are also in our entertainment mode. We have had some good visits already. Now all we need is a string of days without heavy rain to keep us indoors! It was good to visit with all of you; we hope to see you soon!
Respectfully submitted by Brie
Brie, how heartwarming to read your news and the pix.
So glad we can count on you Brie to keep us up to date on the flock. Great pictures of all of you. Enjoyed the pictures of the blooming flowers too, tho.
So happy to see that the flock is able to be outside. Have a wonderful summer and enjoy every day! Thanks for the update.
This is such a great newsletter by Brie! My husband and can’t wait to visit with my sister Sandy and her husband Steve Nickel, they’ve told us soooo much about the flock and the lovely hard working Shepherds! Someday soon we will make the trip from Albuquerque to Door County, we miss Door and would love to visit and stay at the Farm and meet all the sheep, we love their names! Thank you for sharing! Linda & John Seabrooks
Hi Linda and John. We look forward to the possibility that you will visit us. Make sure you bring Sandy and Steve with you!
Always good to hear from you, Brie. Thank you for letting us visit this weekend. You all looked very happy out on the green pastures. And you’re doing a lovely job of growing another crop of lovely fleece. Hope today’s rain was just one day, and that you get to be out on the pasture again tomorrow. See you next year!