Homestead mailing list

[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Lynda wrote:

> Almost everyone up here are cattle oriented.  There are some folks with 
> Jacobs and some folks with Black Bellies.  I don't want any modern breeds. 
> They just taste too muttony for me even when lambs.  I like the meat from 
> the old breeds like the Icelandics, Shetland, Soay.
>
> We are kinda looking toward the hair breeds, though, due to the extreme heat 
> up here in the summers and the time and cost of shearing. However, the guy 
> down in the valley (we're at 3,000', on a private road that dips down into a 
> valley before heading back up and onto the highway) has Suffolks that he 
> hasn't sheared in about 5 or more years and they seem to survive the 110 
> degree summers.
>
>  
My site is ice cold.  We're on a north facing ridge.  We have to put a 
poolhouse around the new pool just to get up enough  inclination to go 
for a swim.  Habaneros and okra won't even grow, outside the 
greenhouse.  On the plus side, the lettuce goes on and on without 
turning bitter, snap peas grow well into the summer, and potatoes have 
no diseases.  Sunset magazine calls it the "English garden" climate.  
Sheep here would prefer to keep their coat even in summer, as cool as it 
is.  The gal I got them from told me that crossing two breeds of 
self-shedding sheep does not necessarily result in a sheep that's 
self-shedding.  So some do and some don't.  They shed so gradually that 
I don't even notice it.  In short, no worries.