Barley

We have a little house on 5 acres, which is basically a paddock full of grass. Now, my hubby is a little sick of mowing it all, because even with the ride-on it takes several hot hours. So he did a little fencing and bought one of those automatic, no-petrol mowers from one of our neighbors. Less than $50. Bargain.


Her name is Barley. Baaaaaaarley. hehe. Isn't she cute?





Look at all that wool! We don't have to shear her for quite a while, but when we do I'm keen to have a go at spinning a bit of homegrown fleece. I don't know the first thing about spinning. I don't have any equipment. But my hubby is almost as keen as I am to try and get something knitted from her, and he's even thinking about building me the equipment. Hehe.



I wonder how much yarn I could get from her woolly butt each year?

Here she is arriving, and making my happy little boy's day!

Now he's wishing he could get that close to her. He has a fenced in corner of yard (about 7x7m) and she won't come anywhere near him. hehe. But we're counting on her fondness for oats to help us tame her up a little. The neighbors who used to own her would shake the oat bucket, and the sheep would come running. Byron thought that was fantastic! He tried offering her gravel, but she's not interested.



She's about 7 months old, and baa'ed for her mama quite a bit at first, but now she's a happy little vegemite. And soon she'll be our fat, contented, tamed, wool-growing, automatic mower. The complete package, as far as pets go.



I feel like such a farmer! A farmer with no veges in the vege patch, whose only other "stock" are a guinea pig and a galah! Oh well...


Anyway, one of her girlfriends should be coming to join her, soon, so we'll have a flock Ü