Update: August 24, 2008

A recent question for 21 Acres:
I'd like to know what the  lambs and the goat are used for?

Response from Lila Chapman, Leader
Sammamish Valley 4-H Club:

The young ewes and Peter, our wether, at 21 Acres are raised for their wool fleeces and demonstrational grazing.  Our farm, BarnPlace, is working cooperatively with 21 Acres to demonstrate how goats and sheep can graze the land, remove brush and blackberries while fertilizing the property.  It takes two to three years to demonstrate the full effects of rotational grazing.  The first year the animals eat the unwanted plants to near dirt.  Then the existing pasture grass is top seeded to produce a better pasture for the second year.  Any re-growth of blackberries are continued to be eaten by the animals.  By the third year, with best management practices, we strive to create a pasture that animals can rotational graze without the use of a lawn mower.  They are the lawn mower, without the use of gas and emitting toxic fumes into the air.

Our farm sponsors the Sammamish Valley 4-H Club with the assistance of the Sammamish Valley Grange.  As a Club, we raise livestock in a foster animals program.  Youth ages five to 18 are allowed to work with the animals learning about their care and maintenance.  They do not have to own the animals.  Children can be involved even if they live in apartments.  Some youth are involved for one year, others are involved for many years.  The benefits the young people receive through their work with the animals is immense.  They learn how intelligent animals are and how animals possess many natural instincts that we humans have to be taught by going to school.   Sheep are raised for both their wool and meat in our program.  Goats are raised to clear the land of brush.  At this time, we do not raise goats and sheep for their milk.  That may happen in the future.

We have a young ewe named Shylah who is what would be consider, "night blind".  While she has trouble seeing dark colors or lack of color - black, dark brown and grey, she has developed a keen sense of hearing and has learned to graze along side a member of her flock so not to bump into the fence and posts.  In the beginning, it took a great deal of effort on our part as shepherds to make sure she was able to return to her nighttime quarters.  Now, she quite often leads the other sheep back in the evening.

On September 6th and October 4th  from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. members of our Club will be at 21 Acres to tell about their experiences of working with animals and allow the public the opportunity to be up and close, even pet the animals.  Little Peter thinks he is a dog.  He was raised in our house and bottle fed for four months after his mother rejected him because he developed teeth at birth.

Update June 26, 2008

Sammamish Valley 4-H members, Matthew & Jocelyn Wang, brought nine ewes to the farm this week. They helped with the pen set-up and the moving of the sheep.
 
Below is a brief description of the ewes and Peter who will be joining them later this week. 

 Sister Charity, Miracle and Surprise are triplets.  However, Surprise was born 21 days, to the hour, after her sisters were born.  This is a very rare static in birthing of lambs.   A children's book is being written about their story.
 
Faith (white) and Hope (natural color) are sisters and also from a set of triplets.  Their brother, Buster Brown, lives at BarnPlace (the Chapman's homestead) and will be one of our breeder rams.  Their papa is a natural Romney and their mama is a white Targee.  Their mother, Brooke, delivered two natural lambs and one white lamb.  All three took blue ribbons at the Evergreen State Fair in 2007 and Faith took Best of Breed as a crossbred white ewe.
 
Precious is the smallest white ewe.  Her brother Peter who is a wether will be joining the nine ewes later this week.  Wether means a neutered ram.  Both Precious and Peter took blue ribbons at fair.  Peter and Miracle were in the Woodinville All Fool's Day Parade in 2006 and 2007.
 
Gazelle, Little Fig and Shylah round out the remaining ewes.   Little Fig and Shylah have the same ewe mother, Licorice.  Gazelle was given her name because she runs fast, has very long legs and can jump high like antelopes.
 
The 4-H Club will be posting storyboards with photos about each of the sheep for the public viewing.
 
The nine ewes and Peter will be demonstrating rotational grazing.  The public will have an opportunity to pet the sheep and learn about their care, intelligence and abilities while present at 21 Acres.