And then it was quiet

This morning at choretime, I noticed that Bunker was treating Bramble very differently than the other two ewes in his breeding group. He was shadowing her like a cutting horse, blocking her every effort to try and be with the other ewes. Then he'd butt her, and would gladly have taken her head on but she wouldn't face him. So then he'd resort to side-bashing her like he would another ram. He stopped for a little while when I put out new hay, but then went back to hazing her. Concerned for her safety, I managed to get her out of the lot and put her in the fold with Inky and the lambs. Once that was done, both she and her niece Bonny stopped their yelling, and peace once again descended upon Boulderneigh. (insert sigh of relief here)

The circumstantial evidence (Bunker's actions, last year's failure to settle) leads me to believe that Bramble is not breedable. She doesn't act like a ram in any way, so I do not think she is a hermaphrodite; perhaps she is messed up because of the in utero hormonal influence of her male twin. I know, I know; some people don't believe "freemartins" occur in sheep. However, a quick Google search on the topic brought up a scientific article which states, "The biology of freemartin sheep has recently been studied in detail, and the condition may be increasing in prevalence with the introduction of high fecundity genes into flocks." I remember reading with surprise some time ago that historically, twinning was not a desirable trait on the Shetland Isles. Something to think about when we select for lines known to produce multiples over those that single!

In other non-news, my homespun two-color scarf is off the needles but still needs to be blocked. I have patterns and yarn for two other projects at the ready; I just need to pull out the appropriate needles so I have something to work on during my free period at our homeschool co-op and during Brian's weekly science class.

Speaking of the homeschool co-op, last week I was racking my brain over a class to teach. Parents are responsible for teaching at least two classes per three-term year; this term, like I did last spring, I am facilitating a WWII Living History class for the high-schoolers. I've taught Figure Drawing to high-schoolers three times, so feel like that needs a time-out for a year or two. The Hippology class I taught was fun, but I taught that to grades 3-6 and need to wait another year to have two suitable classes (grades 3 & 4) again (I won't teach it to Brian's class because he'll try to take over). I've toyed with teaching something related to fiber, but have been too intimidated to tackle that. Well, after discussing it with a couple other moms and sketching out the barest of outlines in my mind, I signed up for a winter term class for the 6th graders. EEEK! I plan to approach it with a short history on textiles, followed by a simple, hands-on "sheep to shawl" type of thing - taking them through the steps wool goes through from raw wool to end product. I don't know how involved to make it; I have access to fleece, of course, and have hand cards, combs (that belong to Laura), a drum-carder, a crockpot for dyeing with Kool-Aid, and figured I can make CD spindles for the kids and end up with them finger-knitting and/or finger-crocheting a trivet/potholder (and use Brian's simple peg loom to demonstrate weaving). The logistics scare me, though. I know it will take a lot of time and effort to haul the various materials and tools back and forth from home to class and back each week. How much time will it take to explain and demonstrate each step? Will the students have adequate time each week to practice what they learned? We have eight classes of 50 minutes each to do this. If you have any experience and/or great ideas, please save tell me!!!

That's it for today from . . .