A cow by any other name...

Ok, our big ol' holstein heifer needs a name. The criteria for the name are as follows:

1) Something that won't sound ridiculous when I'm calling her name in the middle of our pasture to get her into the barn
2) Something cute
3) Something the kids can pronounce and say, even with a lisp, that won't sound ridiculous, awful or lewd.

So, with that criteria here's what we came up with:

Me: Clementine
Hubby: Ethel
Dorothy: Honey
Nana: Alice

What does she look like to you?

How now Black & White cow?

So we've been trying to figure out if we should add a cow or more sheep to our little piece of paradise. Our three little Soay sheep aren't exactly knocking down the grass and clover as fast as we'd like, so I've been thinking maybe we need a few more sheep. Hubby was thinking a cow. It's been a pretty tough decision since we don't have a lot of space to work with, and basically need to make every square inch of this place count. On KSL Classifieds a few weeks ago I happened across a farm in Montana that had Cotswold sheep. Black cotswold sheep! Yeah, I began drooling over the idea of 20+ lbs of black, silky gorgeous wool, called up the lady and put a verbal reserve on 3 of her sheep at $250 a head. But then I still had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that it just wasn't right. Generally, I follow that hunch, but I was still lusting over the 60 lbs of wool I'd be getting every shearing. My husband put an end to my lusting when he said 'Nope, we need to make it count. What will they contribute?'. When all I could think of was eating our pasture down and making wool, well, it couldn't be justified. So...that knocked me off my wool-lust and back to reality. Cow it was. We'd just keep our little stinker Soay Sheep as pasture companions and get a dairy cow. Finding one was a little harder...

Do you have any idea how much a cow costs? Or even how hard it is to find a decent milking quality heifer (a heifer is a female how that has not yet given birth aka virgin cow)? It's difficult. And expensive. We could get 4 sheep for the price of one mature, in-milk, dairy cow. After much looking, and even less success after multiple inquiries on listed ads I found a couple of 7 month old heifers listed by a man in Elberta, Utah...more than 1 1/2 hours away from us. Since we lack a stock trailer (it's on the list of BIG things we need to get...) I figured it was a long shot that he'd even deliver, or it'd be so much that I'd have to say no to the cow. But...SUCCESS! He said he'd bring her up this Saturday and DA DA DA DAAAHHH!! for FREE. HOT DIGGITY!

Now the hard part...naming her.

Soay Sheep!

We have sheep - Soay Sheep! I love KSL Classifieds. I check them once in a while (ok, maybe I am completely addicted to checking them daily, multiple times a day...) and found that a local rancher had listed these little beauties for sale! Soay sheep are a very rare, heritage breed sheep from a small, uninhabited island in the northern UK, St. Kirta. It is thought that these sheep are relicts of the primitive, barely-improved sheep the ancient Europeans brought into the British Isles thousands of years ago. In fact, Soay sheep were already present and thriving when the Vikings began visiting the British Isles. The name Soay is actually derived from the name the Vikings gave their little island, Sauda-ey, which literally means Sheep Island. It's after these sheep that we named our farm. Sauda - Sheep, Fell - Mountain. Since we live in the mountains I figured it was a pretty cool name...it has a certain ring to it. But, back to the sheep - they're tiny little sheep, only about 50 lbs when mature that have naturally docked tails. They run like freekin' gazelles, are very thrifty with their eating habits/requirements and very hardy & parasite resistant. AND they produce a very fine, short stapled mahogany colored wool similar in fineness to cashmere or merino that naturally sheds! No shearing! I won't get much wool from them, but it'll be enough for me! Basically, they are the perfect sheep for us to have. Hard to get sick/kill, no shearing or docking, and easy to maintain. Oh boy, this will be interesting!