Hi, I'm not a Red Wattle owner, but I am the webmaster for this site. So I thought I should still introduce myself.
My wife and I started raising sheep in about 1992 when we bought two bred Shetland ewes from a farm in Michigan and had them flown to us in dog crates to our small acreage in Oregon. We expanded our flock of Shetlands for several years while my wife learned to spin, knit and weave. She eventually decided that she liked weaving rugs and so we got a few Navajo-Churro sheep since their wool was much better suited for the rugs than Shetland. In 1996 we both worked in high tech (computers) and the company we worked for transferred the group I was in to Duppont Washington. So we moved ourselves and our animals north to a small acreage in Tenino WA. At that time we had about 80 sheep, mostly Shetlands and the rest Navajo-Churros. Since then we have both "retired" from our high-tech jobs to devote our time to rural living. We've cut back some on our sheep and right now we have only 4 Shetland ewes left along with about 50 Navajo-Churro ewes and 20 Navajo-Churro rams. And in 2000 we moved to a nicer acreage near Chehalis WA, which is about halfway between Seattle and Portland, OR.
Here are a few pictures of our Navajo-Churros:
After I retired from my regular high-tech job several years ago, I started developing web sites. My interest is primarily server-side scripting and web database programming, for which I use the PHP scripting language and the MySQL database management system. Two of my web development projects were online pedigree sites for the North American Shetland Sheepbreeders Association (NASSA) and the Purebred Dexter Cattle Association (PDCA). If you look at those sites you will notice similarities between them and the Red Wattle Project site, since I reused many of my code segments from those sites.
I hope you all find the site useful, and I wish you all the best with your Red Wattle herds.
Doug Meyer
Mountain Niche Farm &
Mountain Niche Design Services