Olive

In his spare time, Orrin enjoys scanning Kijiji want ads for various things, including livestock. We've collected quite a menagerie here now, in part through his Kijiji addiction, so when he said to me a few days ago, “What do you think about getting another sheep?” I immediately dismissed the idea. We don't need to spend the money, and we've already got three of them, so no need. But then, because he knows me so well (and clearly wanted another sheep), he appealed to the knitty side of me, the part of me that can't wait to learn how to card and spin wool so that I can use the wool off of our own sheep to spin into yarn and knit myself, or sell as one of the products from our farm. He said, “This is a Shetland sheep. The wool is supposed to be pretty soft.” Oh, man. More wool options? And soft, fine Shetland wool? I was doomed. So what did we do today? Drove out past Digby to pick up Olive, a 4-year old Shetland ewe, who is bred and probably due in February. And she IS very soft. Time for me to learn how to spin wool!

Welcome to the farm, Olive!