This is the first time that discounts have been given on good quality processed wool. I just sent off more fleece to be made into combed top and there is still a limited quantity  of both white Cormo and Natural colored Cormo crossbred top available in 1lb., 8oz., 5 oz. and 2.5 oz bags.

YOu may take 25% off if payment is received here by Tues, Dec. 29, 2012.

This is the first time that discounts have been given on good quality processed wool. I just sent off more fleece to be made into top and there is a limited quantity of top still available in 1 lb, 8 oz., 5 oz., and 2.5oz. bags. You may take 25% off  if payment is received here by Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2012. http://cormo.us/Roving/roving.htm

 Meet Garnet, a very lovely girl!

Yes, all of the fleeces have been sold including the special ones that have been posted here on the blog and even all of the small 5.5 oz bags of fleece.  I can’t have a blog post without pictures so here are a couple that Jane took when we were crutching the ewes. Jane likes the unique mark on 111′s nose and wants everyone to know that she is claiming her 2013 fleece. The 2013 fleeces will not be available until the Open Farm & Fleece Sale on May 25, 2013.

But we couldn’t help but tease you just a bitwith 146′s fleece  and show you what you have to look forward to.

5.5 oz bags Cormo Fleece

2012 Fleeces from Kay and Katy

Covered all year , 4.5 inch staple

$12/bag + $3.50 Shipping for 1-2 bags

Kay’s and Katy’s 2012 fleeces were portioned out into 5.4 oz bags to sell through the Fibershed Marketplace. 5.5 oz should yield about 4 oz of yarn or washed fiber.

This is a good opportunity to get a smaller amount of a quality Cormo fleece and still have enough for a small project.  To place an order send an email with your name, a phone # and mailing address.

If you would like a picture of a fleece donor to go with you project you may use this photo of Kay with her lamb that was taken  in April 2012.

Colored crossbred yearling ram #119 was recently shorn . It has been covered since his first shearing, but has only been growing for 8 months so is shorter  (3-3.5 inches) than most of our fleeces.

I still have trouble getting the color to look right in the photos so I’ve included photos of the sheep and the fleece with Joe for contrast.

And a scanned lock:

The fleece weighs 6.7 lbs.  is $20/ lb. for  a total of $134 plus shipping. Please send  an email with your name, shipping address and a phone # if you are interested in purchasing it. It probably will not be available for long.

Cormo Hogget 132

Some friends picked this fleece on shearing day but now have decided that … can you believe this? ….. they have enough stash!I told them that I could probably find a home for it pretty quickly since the hogget fleeces have been sold out for awhile. As usual, this hogget might have a bit more VM than my adult fleeces because the lambs have to grow enough to fit the coats. This never got put on the website so there is not a scanned lock picture but I think that the photos here show it pretty well.  The photos are also up with the photos of the show fleeces on the Picasa site and I think that you can enlarge them there.

https://picasaweb.google.com/111868782375847096898/ShowFleece2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCLXY75Oes-2d2QE#5780453784917865890

4.25 in staple, 3.67 lbs., $25/lb., $92

The fleece auction will be held on the last day of the Monterey County Fair, Labor Day Sept. 3, 2012.  In order to better support the  fiber event and be able to better serve my customers who are unable to attend the event the event chairperson has given me permission to bid for other people. The fleeces that are at the show and will be in the auction are listed on the colored and white 2012 fleece pages  of the website.  If you want to bid on one of the fleeces that will be auctioned on  Labor Day just tell me the maximum $ /lb. that you want to bid. I will  place incremental bids for you up to the maximum that you tell me to  bid.  Since I will have to pay the show for the fleece at the auction,  I will require a check made to Sue Reuser be in my hand by 8/30 for  the amount of the opening bid.  If you win the fleece I will figure  the shipping and adjusted auction price and send an invoice. If your highest bid is not the winning bid I will give you a full refund.

I don’t know if they will have the same auctioneer this year. In the  past the bids are usually raised at $0.25 /lb increments but they have  a lot of fleeces and keep the auction moving right along. Some fleeces  sell at the opening bid and there are always some that don’t sell  because there are no takers at the opening bid.

You can see the basic information about the fleeces on the web pages along with the pictures of the scanned locks.  I have put up more pictures of these fleeces on the Picasa site. I just put up several shots because as you can see it is next to impossible to get the true colors to come out right.

This fleece was marked sold the first day that it was posted on the website but the transaction was never completed.  When I skirted it the fleece came very close to going on the show shelf. I didn’t keep it for show because that just means more work for me.  After the sale was canceled, I thought maybe this means that it is supposed to be shown so it went on the show shelf. Now I’m feeling tired again so I decided that I would offer it for sale here on the blog but only for a few days. If I don’t have the payment for the fleece in my hand by Monday 7/30 it will go to the show.  I won’t change any of the information on the website but you can see the information about fleece #035 on the 2012 colored fleece page.  I’ll put a few more pictures up here. I took a lot of shots because it is so hard to get the color to look right on the computer. Even though this fleece is 7.3 pounds it can’t be split before purchase because of the time issue.

There have been a lot of people interested in my colored fleeces. I’m anxious to see if people are actually looking at this blog. If you are interested in this fleece please send an email directly to me. wool@cormo.us

Sat. May 26

10 AM  – 4 PM

Cormo Sheep & Wool Farm, Orland, CA (email or call for directions)

Purchase fleeces before they go up on the website.

Processed Cormo wool; top, roving, yarns and sheepskins will also be available.

Meet the sheep and the 101 new lambs.

Bring your spinning, knitting, crocheting or ?? projects and sit and enjoy the company of other fiber artists.  We may even have some live musical entertainment!

Bring a picnic lunch. Lemonade will be provided.

Come alone, with your family or with a group. Children are welcome.

No dogs please. It is the job of the  3 livestock guardian dogs to protect all the critters from other dogs.

RSVP would be appreciated but not required.

530-514-0910   wool@cormo.us

   Fleeces will be sold by appointment also on Monday for those who might be traveling. We are less than 10 minutes from I-5.

The new boy

Yes, I’m here and keeping my eye on 100 new lambs.  This is and will be my all time record.  There is one more ewe waiting to deliver. They came fast and close together this year which made for some crazy days and nights.  Thank you for your patience. I love the personal contact with my customers but it is impossible for me to respond consistently and promptly between shearing, during lambing and until the fleeces are prepared for sale.  I’m experimenting with the best ways to get updates out to my friends, customers and new inquirers with the newsletters, website and blog. It all takes time and as you will see from a few pictures these lambs have a very powerful draw.

We had nice dry days for shearing but we all rejoiced when it started to rain in March.  It seemed like the lambs were sprouting faster than the new green grass.  It made it a bit more work to make sure everyone had a place to come in and dry off when they wanted. At one point the lamb jugs (don’t know why but they call a small pen where a ewe and her lambs can get acquainted for a day or 2 a jug) were getting full and more days of rain were predicted.

Communal jug with 3 ewes and 5 lambs

These ewes had decided to give birth in this area of the barn so I just moved the fence a little and gave each a corner. They seemed to understand the situation and respected each others space. The day after I took this photo another ewe came in and gave birth to twins in the fourth corner. It’s too bad that I didn’t get a picture of the other side of the barn with the moms and babies in their individual jugs.

There is nothing prettier a field of ewes and lambs under fluffy clouds in BLUE sky after days of rain.

Those who have bought parts of Kay’s 2011 fleece through “Fibershed”  may use this photo of Kay and her lamb to put with their finished wool products.

Note the ewe laying down in back of “Kay” is due any day and the ewe grazing on the other side of the fence is not due of over a week.

Note the neighbor’s prune trees in full bloom in the back.  A glorious day!

As the lambing season starts to wind down,  the last of the “ladies in waiting” come into my yard to mow the grass.  A couple of the open ewes, Farrah and Fella came in too  since there is so much grass. Everyone who comes to the farm meets Farrah, the official greeter of the flock. She is the one on the left with the mouth full of chard. Thanks Farrah, for pruning my overgrown chard.  There is not one leaf left. They also worked on the ivy … (yes little lambs and big lambs love ivy), roses, redwoods and potted flowers. I planted some sweet peas for the first time and they are gone but so far they haven’t found the sugar snaps I stashed on the porch.  I’ve been eating them one at a time as soon as I see them just in case. Delicious!

Unfortunately, there are always some heartaches that go along with the blessings. This lamb was Hour’s second born twin. The birthing and both lambs appeared to be normal but when I went back to check to see if the second lamb had nursed yet I found her laying on her side and she was getting a little cold. Here she is in my oven where she hung out until her temp was slowly brought up to normal. Mom was milked for some colostrum and she was tube fed that and a little sheep Nutra drench for a little extra boost.  She just did not respond well and died at about 24 hours old.

This ewe was keeping watch over the new mom who was cleaning her baby just after giving birth. She did not seem to appreciate me coming up to snap a picture.

Fleeces

I know that there are a lot of people waiting for the 2012 fleeces to go up for sale. They are all still safely in the shop waiting to be re-skirted. I’ll be sending out a newsletter shortly with more information about fleece sales. I’m also looking into the possibility of having an open farm to show off the the lambs and fleece sale in May. Please let me know if you would be interested in attending.

Even though the ewes are done (almost) giving birth there are plenty of chores to do. Here a group of lambs are getting a weight check and their first vaccination.

Sheep

It’s time to start planning if you are interested in buying sheep. There will be some traveling to NAILE in KY in Nov. I’ll try to snap more photos of these lambs and show the variations of the colored ones. There are some really cute ones.