After a difficult winter and some soul searching, my husband and I have decided to sell our farm and retire from sheep farming. He is going on his pension this summer and would like to have the freedom to do some traveling, as do I.
We put the farm up for sale in February and by April it was sold. I also talked to a few people about my Bluefaced Leicester flock being for sale and they are also sold. They will be going East to Saskatchewan in August. Tara McLachlan and Kirsten Tittemore have bought them. Tara and her husband have a grain farm and about 300 head of commercial North Country Cheviots ewes in the Eyebrow area. Kirsten is new to sheep farming, but is eager to learn and with Tara's help, I expect she will do well. Both ladies have young families which also means lots of willing help.
Kirsten is very interested in moving forward with my fibre business. I will be giving her my contact list, and all the help that I can give. All of you that have bought fleeces from me in the past can expect to hear from Kirsten. I hope that you will give both Tara and Kirsten the support and good will that you have extended to me. I think they will be taking over my blog and farm name as well as the flock.
On that note, I would like to say that I have very much enjoyed working with all of you. The fibre business has been very good to me and I've taken a great deal of pleasure in working with my fleeces and sending them to people that appreciated them. I've made a lot of good friends over the last several years. I plan to continue to work with fibre and carry on learning to weave. Only now I'll be in the same boat as the rest of you. I'll have to buy my fleeces!! I expect to have a good supply with Tara and Kirsten though.
Possession date on the sale of our farm is September 2nd, so we have the whole summer to get our plans in order. I lambed out our ewes this spring and I will have the lamb crop from both the BFLs and my commercial girls. We will sell them after weaning in August.
We bred all of our BFLs and the commercial ewes that I had intended to keep replacements from to Xact. There are some very nice ewe and ram lambs coming up this year. I'll get pictures posted ASAP. So anyone that has thought about buying a BFL ram or ewe lamb from me, this is the time to do it.
Please follow the link to my fleece page for an update on my 2014 fleeces.
