HomesteaderWife's Crafting & Sawmilling Adventures

[baymule]

These!

Spotty lambs 2020

7 days, 20 lambs, 0 sleep Everyone is doing well at around a week old though! Ten rams and ten ewes. I have a handful more that I bought late that will be lambing next month but this is most of them. Forgive the cell phone pictures, I figured blurry pictures were better than no pictures. I live...

www.backyardherds.com

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug - I’ve actually got some sawmills pieces that were uneven trim offs I saved specifically for my first attempts at spoon making. I have a wood carving set on the Christmas wish list LOL!
...

stirrers can be flat and are much easier, not much carving involved. spoons are a step up. when i was contemplating woodworking and furniture restoration as a hobby i always thought about doing bowls, spoons and stirrers as the basics that everyone likes and can use and don't have to take a huge amount of time (ok, well bowls can be a time sink too)...

we have some stirrers here that are great, most of them are at least 30yrs old, we use them almost every time we cook. the wooden spoons we have are decorative only. i've never used one. i'm not sure why, probably just habit...

 

[tortoise]

If you send in wool on sheepskin for commercial processing, its like $200 each, and it has been a while since I looked at prices. I want a sheepskin on my couch, but I cant justify the cost and I'm not physically able to tan a sheepskin. Bummer. I'm not sure you would get more for hide and skull than selling lambs. It would depend on climate and pasture, I think. You would have to grow them out to 1 - 2 years old, so feeding hay and grain would make it tough to profit even with selling skull mounts $500. You could sell a grassfed, ewe-raised ram lamb at 6 to 8 months old for $120 - $250 with little labor/feed expense. But feed it out over winter, house it for an extra year, butcher, prep the skull mount and ship it... for only $250 extra? Sheepskins go for up to $400, but it labor intensive or expensive to send them out for processing.

Maybe if a farm has tons of space, good pasture, existing fence, auto waterers, mild winter. In my climate and farm (20 acres pasture, no auto waterers, harsh winter requiring hay feeding, it wouldnt work out to raise them for skull mounts/skins. (But it works out to raise grassfed lambs for auction)

However, if you have a flock, you'll probably need a new ram every 2 years, and mature horns would be more than selling the animal at meat auction. More of a waste product.

Dont let me talk you out of sheep. Just work out the business plan with your land and inputs. It might work on your land?

 

[tortoise]

I love flat "spoons". No hollow for batter to get stuck in! Its one item that I will buy at a craft show. Theres a vendor here who makes the most beautiful butcherblock and striped cutting boards. Theyre out of my price range (my kids put everything in the dishwasher - it would be ruined), but so beatiful!! Someday!!

When you make some, please post in the buy/sell part of the forum!!

 

[Fuchsia]

The things you made are amazing!