Prairie Shepherdess

It’s rare these two both stand for photos together, so this one has become my new favourite.

I currently have two rams on farm, Rowan and Ragnar. These boys have been nothing but a pleasure to have here, and I couldn’t ask for better rams. They are both gentle and calm, very affectionate, they are very easy to manage, and a huge bonus is that they both produce such lovely lambs!

Rowan (left) is the sire to all the Navajo Churro and Navajo Churro x lambs born this spring, and Ragnar (right) is the sire to all the Icelandic lambs born this spring.

My rams have two roles here on the farm. To produce fleeces, and to make it possible for my girls to have lambs each spring. The boys spend 11 months of the year relaxing being rams, and when November comes around, they get 34 days with the girls doing their job and soon later, the girls welcome their sweet babies to earth side.

I couldn’t have lucked out with better boys, and I love them to pieces.❤️

Pre orders for spring 2025 whole lambs are now available!

Looking to add lamb to your freezer in the new year? I have a number of lambs headed to Forestburg for processing on April 15th, 2025.

I breed and raise a flock of triple purpose Navajo Churro and Icelandic sheep outside of Camrose, Alberta. The ewes are bred in the late fall to lamb in the early springtime and by the time the following winter-early spring comes around, the lambs are big enough to make their ultimate sacrifice to put meat on tables and nourish bodies.

To honour the lives of the lambs I have processed, I utilize as much as possible as well by getting back organs, as well as tan their hides. The hides are traditionally tanned right here on the farm by me with the use of egg yolks from our flock of chickens, and smoke to set the tan. In addition to your lamb, you have the option to also add a sheepskin to your deposit and will be able to choose the lamb you want based off of colour/breed/etc.

All processing is done at Forestburg meats in Forestburg, and takes about two weeks to process and prepare. Once the meat is ready to go, I will pickup your box at Forestburg, and contact you for further info to discuss pickup from the farm. You can expect about 30-40 pounds of meat for your freezer.

You can head to prairieshepherdess.ca for more info, or click my link in bio to shop 🙂

The first Icelandic lamb of the season has quickly grown up and is just over 3 months old now!

This guy is a Cecelia x Ragnar lamb, the first Ragnar lamb to ever be born. He was born April 4th as a single, and Cecelia did a wonderful job raising him and he grew well being a single. He’s already nearly as big as her, and is developing beautifully. I haven’t decided exactly what the plan is for this guy, but he’s either staying as a fibre wether or will be one of my meat lambs next year.

When I decided I wanted to bring in an new ram, I decided to work with Justin from Le Biscornu to ensure I was bringing in the best possible genetics for the future of my flock and my long term goals. Seeing Ragnar’s lambs and his features coming through with his lambs this year, especially this guy, is wonderful to see and I couldn’t be more excited for his future lambs and watching his lambs mature/develop.

Ragnar sired 7 lambs this year, and after thinking I wouldn’t have Ragnar lambs for another year, it’s amazing to see the 7 of them thriving.

Spring lambing couldn’t come any quicker!

This year I’m retaining four ewe lambs from this spring, with Helga being one of them.

Helga is an Icelandic lamb, daughter of Gwyneth x Ragnar, the first registered lamb out of Ragnar.

I brought home Helga’s mom in the fall of 2022, and she ended up being open and not lambing the following spring. As we headed into breeding last fall, I kept my fingers crossed and hoped she would be bred and get to become a mama again. Gwyneth has always been known for eating well and having a full stomach, so while I was sure she was pregnant, I didn’t know until shearing in April when I could see udder development. It was apparent she was very far along in her pregnancy, and that she would be due with Ragnar’s lambs in just a few weeks.

On April 21st, Gwyneth was showing signs of early labour very early in the day and by the time 7pm came around she welcomed a sweet baby girl to earth side, sweet Helga. From the second Helga entered the world, I was obsessed. She’s always been so friendly, has great temperament, and is everything I want in a ewe lamb. She has wonderful horns, fleece, body confirmation, and is growing into a lovely ewe at just a few months old.

Helga won’t be bred this fall so she’ll get to spend the next while being a lamb and growing up, and then she’ll be bred in the fall of 2025 to have her own lambs and become a mama the following spring.

I’m so excited to see how she grows, and what the future holds for this girl as she joins the flock.❤️

After a weird breeding season last fall, I wasn’t sure if Ragnar was able to breed and have lambs of his own. After a vet appointment and following through with semen testing, we concluded that Ragnar was likely too young and still immature at breeding time so had struggles covering the ewes he was with. As he was very fertile for being so young, we were also left with the possibility that he did catch a few of the ewes and they would be expecting lambs from him. So, I kept watch on the ewes, and impatiently waited for March to come around when they’d be developing udders and getting ready for lambing to know who he bred.

Ragnar ended up being successful with 7 of the Icelandic ladies, and we ended lambing season with 7 beautiful Ragnar lambs, including Inrama’s ram lamb in the photo.

Ragnar’s lambs are all growing into such lovely lambs with wonderful horns, fleeces, body confirmation, and personality. They’re exactly what I was hoping for in traits for bringing in Ragnar as my herd sire, and I’m excited for what these next few years hold as he matures, his lambs mature, and more of his lambs are welcomed into the world.

While we’re just heading into summertime, I’m already planning out breeding plans and dreaming of lambing season next spring. My reservation list for 2025 lambs opens in just a few months in November, and you’ll be able to reserve unregistered Icelandic rams & ewes, as well as registered rams from Ragnar then!

My last ram lamb of the year is looking for new pastures!

This handsome guy is an unregistered Navajo Churro ram, born a single April 1st this spring out of Sunshine x Rowan, I have included photos of his parents at the end.

He’s been weaned & dewormed, and will be getting his first dose of tasvax this coming week. He’s growing into a beautiful young ram, and will produce lovely babies in the future. He carries genetics of multiple horns and has 4, although his other two are smaller and tucked beneath his bigger horns.

I’m located about 15 minutes from Camrose, with shipping available throughout Canada.

Don’t hesitate to send me a message if you have any questions or would like to chat about this guy 🙂

After two months of lambing, I’m happy to say Rue finished lambing 2024 yesterday morning with a lovely ewe lamb.

This year brought 29 lambs onto earth side. There were 16 ewe lambs, and 13 ram lambs. 8 set of twins, 13 sets of singles. A total of 7 Icelandic lambs, 8 Navajo Churro lambs, and 14 Navajo Churro x lambs. Of the 29 lambs, there was only one loss. Belle had twins but lost her ewe lamb due to constipation the following day, but adjusted well to a single and he’s doing wonderful and very quickly catching up to her in size.

I had to assist in a few lambing’s with a few coming out head first with one hoof, or too big of a head/horn buds. All the ewes accepted their lambs, had lots of milk, and I was left with no bottle babies. All the lambs are happy and healthy, and growing wonderful. The April born lambs will be weaned this weekend, and the June lambs will be weaned in August.

Here’s to a lovely lambing season and thriving babies! Already so excited for lambing next year and the future babies to come.

*Photo of Olive’s twins. One of my favourite sets of twins this year*

I’ve seen lots of new faces on here this past while, so I thought it was time for an introduction!

Hi! I’m Kamden Bartman. I’m a 17 year old fibre farmer, shepherdess, and hide tanner raising triple purpose Icelandic & Navajo Churro sheep outside of Camrose, Alberta:

My journey started in the fall of 2020. The previous spring my parents brought home a flock of 10 bred Navajo Churro ewes, and those ladies lambed the end of May-early June. During the spring-summer months we got to experience everything from lambing, vaccinating, rotational grazing, hoof trimming, and everything in between. It didn’t take me long to fall in love and when my parents decided they wanted to focus on the pork & beef side of things that fall, I couldn’t picture selling the sheep. So, they let me keep 2 of the mature ewes from the initial flock, and the 5 ewe lambs born that spring and it started there.

Fast forward almost 4 years, I have now taken over the flock and have grown to a flock of 35, with goals to expand once I move out in the next few years and have my own property. The ewes are bred in the late fall to lamb each spring and by the time summer comes, the lambs are weaned and sent to their new homes. I’m focused on producing triple purpose registered & unregistered breeding stock for farmers throughout Canada, however, I also keep back a few babies for myself to be raised as future breeding ewes to increase my flock size, or meat lambs to raise for tables.

My lambs are raised and processed in late fall-winter, and sold as half and whole lambs. To use as much of the animal as possible while honouring their lives, I get back their skulls as well as their hides. Their skulls will be cleaned, and their hides tanned. I do all the tanning myself, and traditionally tan with egg and smoke. Tanning has also led me to publish my own book for others looking to get into tanning, as well as offer custom tanning for other local farmers looking to honour their lambs.

More in the comments…

It’s very rare that I have to assist in a delivery, but on the rare occasion they decide to come out in a weird position or have too big of horn buds for mom to get out and I need to give her a little hand.

Sunna decided it was go time yesterday, and when I checked on her just after noon, she was in fact in labour but it was apparent baby was really stuck. He decided to come out head first with one hoof, and by the time I came out he was already past his shoulders and his face was swollen. Getting him out was hard for mom/baby and myself, but we got him out and alive and mom’s alive which is all that matters in the end.

When I got baby out, I thought he was gone. He was barely moving or breathing, which meant he made a trip to the house. After warming him up, rubbing him, cleaning out the birth fluids from his mouth and nose and some time, he perked up. I sent him back out to Sunna after he perked up, and was hopeful she would accept him even through the hard labour and being separated. After a few hours in the jug, baby finally started walking and nursing. Seeing him up on his feet and Sunna loving him is the best view, and I’m so happy this was the ending of the story.

It’s not everyday you can say you saved a life, but I’m so grateful I caught the birth in time and was able to get this little guy out safe and sound and Sunna is alive and well. Welcome to the world little buddy.❤️

A few ago when I went to the dentist for my checkup and cleaning, my dentist told me this year was finally the year for wisdom teeth removal. This had been something that’s been brought up the past few years, but my teeth haven’t been quite ready just yet, but this year was finally the year. So, he referred me to another dentist within the building who does wisdom teeth removal, and I got the check mark to follow through with the surgery. I got booked in two weeks later, and then I waited.

This marked my first surgery and my first time being put under so I wasn’t too sure what to expect and was feeling all the nerves leading up to my surgery date. I was very anxious and worried, but let me just say, good doctors go along ways. When they sat me down in the chair, started hooking me up to things, and talked me through the surgery again it calmed me right down. I was in such good hands, and had absolutely nothing to worry about. They do this on the daily, and make it as painless and forgetful as possible, which was exactly what would be the same for me.

The whole day was a bit of a blur looking back on it a few days later as I don’t remember allot from the pain and drugs, which I’m very thankful for. I remember everything leading up to getting my IV and drawing blood, and the rest was history. I woke up to gauze in my mouth, and my mom arriving shortly afterwards. The whole falling asleep part was what I was worried about most, but now that I’ve gone through it, I’ve realized there’s nothing to be worried about and you’re in such good hands.

I’m now on 4 days post surgery, and can finally say I’m starting to feel like myself again. After a few days of chipmunk cheeks and lots of swelling, my face is finally almost back to normal and I have started to eat with more ease. This weekend is looking like I’ll be able to get stuff done outside while taking it slow, which will be nice. As someone who likes to be outside, laying in bed relaxing has been the hardest part of surgery. My stitches will be removed Tuesday, as well as my antibiotics will be finished and I can say goodbye to pills for hopefully a long time.

Switch out your chemical filled dryer sheets for non toxic wool dryer balls today!

I’ve got lots of lovely dryer balls currently available on my website and am working on many more lovely breeds and colours behind the scenes. Most of my wool is directly from my flock, and you can find each sheep that grew the wool by their name, or I’ve chosen wool grown by sheep throughout Alberta that would otherwise end up in the burn pile. All the wool is hand processed and felted by me, right here on the farm.

Why should you switch to 100% wool dryer balls?

-They are free of chemicals and toxins making them a safer option to use on your clothes and ultimately safer for your skin.

-They sneak in between your layers of clothing, and bounce around into the clothing which helps reduce your drying time by 25%!

-Unlike dryer sheets that have to be thrown away after each use, dryer balls can be reused in your dryer up to 1,000 times, sometimes even longer. We’ve had the same dryer balls for a few years now, and they still work wonderful!

For small loads I recommend 3-5 balls, for medium loads I recommend 5-7 balls, and for larger loads I recommend 7-9 balls.

All orders head out next Tuesday, shipping is available throughout Canada and into the US :)

Remy and Ronin, the not so tiny oops lambs!

Almost 9 months ago, my Navajo Churro ram Rowan escaped his summer pasture and managed to walk around the pond and make it all the way over to the ewes and push through one of my gates that wasn’t fully latched. By the time I arrived home that evening, the gate was pushed wide open and I knew exactly what happened. After walking to the ewes, it quickly became apparent Rosie was in heat and Rowan had already found himself a girlfriend while I was away for the afternoon. I sent Rowan back to his pen, and then waited for a few months later when I’d know for sure if the breeding was successful.

When we headed into December, Rosie had become significantly larger than the other ewes, and had just started to grow a teeny udder, so she was in fact bred by Rowan and would have oops lambs arriving by February 9th! While I was excited for the arrival of more lambs, I was nervous as February usually brought chilly weather being in Alberta, so kept my fingers crossed for beautiful weather as I don’t have a heated indoor space come lambing time.

By the time February 6th came around, I came out just after 1am and found two sweet babies up and nursing beside Rosie. One ram and one ewe, and the cutest little guys! The weather was beautiful, and the babies both did fantastic in the weather which I was very grateful for.

Rosie’s lambs were weaned about a month ago, and are growing like weeds! They are both becoming very friendly, curious babies, and have such fantastic horns and fleeces coming in already. I have decided to retain them both, and am excited to watch them mature. Remy will grow to be a future breeding ewe, and Ronin will stay as a fibre wether and produce lots of lovely fleeces in the future.

It always amazes me how fast they grow in just a few months!

Today marks 17 trips around the sun!

To say I’m 17 is scary. 17 is the in between age where I’m not quite an adult, but I’m not a young kid anymore. I remember when I was young and dreamed of being 17. I always thought of it as more year until I’m 18, and can live on my own and get to have a home of my own with my own independence. Now that I’m 17, things are getting real. I still feel so young, and it’s insane I’ll be graduated and ready to take on the world next year. Paying my own bills, maintaining my own house, not being able to walk out of my room and see my family, all the things. The saying time goes by when you’re having fun is true, and it’s scary as you get older. I feel like I just remember moving out to the farm celebrating my 10th birthday and here we are, celebrating 17 years!

When young Kamden thought of the person she’d be at 17, and who I’d grow up into, it was far from this. I never imagined I’d be living on a farm, building my dream of raising sheep and having a business. I’m so proud of how much I’ve accomplished in my 17 years, and I can’t wait for what the future has to hold as I pursue my passion with livestock after graduating, and move out onto my own property with my livestock and business.

I guess I’m no longer the 16 year old shepherdess!

4 years ago today was the beginning of my first lambing season, and the start of forever.

My parents had brought home a flock of bred Navajo Churro ewes in April of 2020, and the ewes started lambing shortly after the end of May. Blackie started lambing with our first babies arriving on May 16th. She welcomed a set of Navajo Churro twins, Rosie & Joker. They were the cutest little lambs. They both had black eye patches, spots, and so much personality. It didn’t take them long to become fond of humans, love scratches & attention, and me to fall in love.

Fast forward 4 years later, Rosie is celebrating her 4th birthday today. She’s all grown up now, and has become of my breeding ewes in the flock. She’s grown to be a wonderful ewe and has produced such beautiful lambs and fleeces. I have a few of her daughters and granddaughters in the flock, and love them to pieces. As for her brother Joker, he was one of my meat lambs and was able to nourish bodies, as well as I kept back his sheepskin for myself and it now gets to stay with me forever.

Rosie is always going to hold a special place in my heart as she was my first baby to ever be born on the farm, and I’m so grateful to call her mine.

Happy Birthday, Rosie!

*Photo of Rosie and her 2024 twins, Remy & Ronin. They’re both staying with me.*

A few weeks ago on April 12th, the flock was sheared and we finished the day with 29 gorgeous fleeces to work our way through.

I am excited to say I’ve finally finished the job of skirting the fleeces, and now comes the fun part of deciding what I’m going to keep for myself to felt, what I’ll offer you guys for all your creations, and what I’ll be sending to the mill! I’ve decided to set aside/start setting aside a few of my fleeces to get enough poundage for the mill, so I can get back yarn. I’ve been thinking about yarn these last few shearings, but I’ve never jumped on it just yet. After this spring and having lots of wool, I decided this was the perfect time to sit down and figure out what I’ll keep back to turn into yarn.

I’ll be sending my wool to Alex at and I am so excited to see her wonderful work turning my dreams into a reality! I’ll be sending out 20.49 pounds of my wool from this springs shearing to be processed. 8.01 pounds is white Navajo Churro from Magenta & Snow, 6.80 pounds is moorit Icelandic from Annie, Lacey, Gwyneth, and Inrama, and 5.68 pounds is grey Navajo Churro from Honey & Rosie.

This is just the start of the yarn to come, and I’m so excited to be able to share it with you all very soon. To add to these fleeces, this fall I’m hoping to send off black Icelandic, moorit gray Icelandic, white Icelandic, as well as Rowan’s spring & fall fleeces to be processed into yarn as well. My goal right now is to have a whole array of all the colours of my flock spun up. This will offer a nice variety of breeds & colours for all of you, and a great way for me to showcase all the colours of the flock.

This is huge for me on the fibre side of things, and I can’t wait to make this dream come true very shortly and be able to share it with all of you.❤️

Come check out the market in Round Hill from 5-7 tonight! Me and my mom will be there with our products as well as other lovely vendors. We’d love to see you there.🤗

Tomorrows the day! Come see me and all the lovely vendors from 9-4 tomorrow :)

Tomorrow morning the fun starts! We hope you will come and join us at the very first Foothills Fibre Festival. Come and greet the alpacas and chat with our vendors everything fibre related. Find us in the white Hall on the East side of the grounds. The mud is gone and the Millarville Spring Market is also taking place. It's going to be blue skies, a beautiful day for drive to the the foothills with a view of the rockies. It's Spring in Alberta. Let's celebrate!
All Wound Up
The Bear & Bee Yarn Co.
BK'S BLING and BAGS
blackcatweavingstudio
Brine Dyeworks
Cindymariecreates
Crafty That Way
Danware Artistic Woodturning


Her Leather Co
Imagine Yarn
Little Barn Studio
Mary Margaret Fibres


Naturally For Ewe
Poppy Yarn and Fibre
Prairie Shepherdess
Prairie Witch Fibre
Qiviut Inc.
Rosebud River Fibre Mill
Sew Shannon

Smiling Sheep Fine Yarns
The General Bean
Twisted Sisters & Company Fibre Mill and Store

Vicki Myers Artist

WHITEDOGDesign Fibrearts

Meet Harlow, one of the four ewe lambs I’m retaining this year.

Harlow is a Navajo Churro ewe lamb born a twin, out of Honey x Rowan.

This year marked her dam’s third lambing, and also another year without assistance. Honey has always lambed on her own, and has never had a problem accepting her lambs. She always has lots of milk, and her babies are quick to stand and nurse. She’s super hardy, has good hooves, grows a gorgeous fleece, is a fantastic mama, and always raises such beautiful babies. I’m really hoping she passes these traits forward to Harlow, and she carries Honey’s traits forward as she matures.

From the day Harlow was born, I knew I wanted to retain her. Harlow has a beautiful build, a friendly, calm personality, and already has a beautiful fleece with so much colour!

I’m already dreaming of her future fleeces and lambs, but for now she’ll get to relax until she’s bred in the fall of 2025 to have her first lambs in 2026. These guys will be the next generation of Navajo Churro lambs which will be exciting for me and my flock!

Welcome to the flock, Harlow.❤️

After many months of growing and raising my market animals, yesterday was our district show and sale, and I’m happy to say we came home with an empty trailer. Both my animals were sold, and will become wonderful meat for tables.

This year was my first year raising market animals, so this was all new for me. Everything from picking my animal, choosing the right feeds, making up a feed guide for poundage per day, halter training, and everything in between. This year has been such a wonderful learning experience, and I’m so grateful I decided to jump into this side of 4H.

There were many tears shed yesterday from heading into the ring to show them one last time, heading in to auction them off, coming out of the ring knowing they’re no longer mine, and then loading them onto the trailer. I thought I would be better about it, but it was truly much harder than I thought. I hugged both my animals so hard for one last time before I got off the trailer with them. Loading them was one of the hardest things I’ve done, but I know they’ve lived the best life from start to finish, and it’s only one bad day.

Today is butcher day, and I will be headed off to the butcher to pickup hides later today. This will be my first time tanning a cow hide, so I’m very nervous but excited. I’m so happy that I’m able to get back both Knox and Maverick’s hides, and I can’t wait to keep a piece of them near to me forever.

Thank you boys for such a wonderful year, I’m so grateful for each moment I had with you. You’ve taught me so much, and I’ve loved every second of it. Thank you for being the best boys anyone could ever ask for.❤️

Here’s to a wonderful 4H year, and trying new things!

One of the questions I get asked frequently is how do I do it? How am I able to raise my lambs from birth and end up processing them for meat and tan their hides?

No matter how many times I load lambs and drop them off at the butcher, it’s always hard on the heart and I feel all the emotions. To know you’ll never see that animal again, hear them baa again, bounce and play again, and you won’t be able to scratch them again really tears at the heart.

While I feel many emotions come butcher time, I can’t help but feel proud. Proud of my lambs growing well, proud of them producing such gorgeous sheepskins, and proud of them producing great meat for tables. To know I have such a wonderful community around me that have trust in me raising meat for their table is everything, and being able to get back their sheepskins and honour them in such a beautiful way is all worth it and makes me so grateful this is the life I get to live. While some days are hard, I wouldn’t change it for anything.

To be able to get back a piece of them that usually gets tossed in the trash and turn it into something beautiful is my favourite part of processing lambs. To go from a fatty, bloody, gross hide and turn into to a fluffy, clean, hide brings me so much joy. I love that I’m able to honour the animal this way, and keep a piece of them forever. While the lamb may be gone, a piece of them lives forever, and it’s a beautiful way to remember the lamb and I feel endless thanks in them giving their biggest sacrifice to nourish bodies.❤️

P.S - there will be a hide restock in the next few months with four of my hides from my lambs processed this spring. There will be a mix of white and black/white, with breeds of Icelandic x, and Navajo Churro. I have a few gorgeous finished sheepskins on my website to shop from as well, all orders head out on Tuesday.