A few of my favorite sheep

The weather continues to be wonderful here, and I've had a really nice break. I think this has been an even better time than vacation was! :-) I still have a long list of 'to-do' stuff before winter hits, but I'm getting there. I'm also in the midst of re-doing my closet (much more on that later, when I get the after photos! What a mess---it took my very helpful neice pitching in to help me, to get me even motivated to start!), so I'm working on that some too.

Anyway, I was able to get some photos of some of the girls yesterday, and even spend some really nice time with them, giving them scratches and attention. Now some of them will pester you to death for a good scratching session, some will just lean against you and sigh, others will check and see if you have cookies--if no cookies they don't bother to hang around. Then you have Gracie....Gracie loves cookies, she loves to be scratched, and she loves to lean... in fact her world would be pretty complete if I just hung out with the sheep all day long! She gave a plaintive baa when I finally left them.....'aw...come on...stay out here with us!".

And now for some of the girls.....




Gracie says please, just one more cracker? A scratch? Just hang out for awhile?
Gracie is one of my very first sheep and my favorite--she is a demanding, spoiled, but very sweet Dorset Ewe.





Hope--this is Gracie's daughter from this year--born with much difficulty and near loss of her and her mom's life. Hope has a problem----she can't SEE anything with all that wool around her eyes! I plan to get the scissors after her and trim some of it away. In this picture she is trying her best to position her head 'just so' so she can see what I'm up to! Hope's dad is a big Merino ram, and she has the wooliest face of any of the offspring produced around here!





This is Tabitha--she is a moorit shetland ewe, and loves crackers and scratches under the chin. She is a peaceful little soul, and one of the smallest ewes I have.




Duckie on the move! She loves crackers, but she loves attention and scratches more. Duckie is a black 2005 ewe and will hopefully have her first lambs this Spring. She is a kind and gentle girl, the only ewe I have from Callum before he was wethered.




Willow and Luna her ewe lamb from this year. Its funny how, even after six weeks or more, as soon as the girls were all reunited the babies stuck themselves back to mom. I even caught Luna checking out the milk bar! Willow quickly squelched that. Willow is a grey ewe who had wild flecket markings as a lamb and Luna is a musket flecket. Lovely girls with lovely fleeces. Willow is the first Shetland ewe I picked out and bought, she isn't very trusting of me, but loves a cracker and will come up for those.



This is Rouen a very smart and sassy Black iset shetland ewe. She has a lovely fleece even though it is shot through with iset. Once it was figured out that she has a long primitive double coat, it was easier to sell her fleece--usually one of the first to go! Rouen is very sentimental, and loves scratches and is quite bossy about getting them all!


This is Rocky--he isn't a girl, but he is a wether that lives with the ewe flock. Rocky was born crippled--his front shoulder wasn't formed properly, so he has a permenant front leg deformity. His mom didn't want him, so I raised him on a bottle. Rocky works harder than most sheep, and I give him special eats to help him out, but he is a gutsy guy and doesn't let anything slow him down. Its amazing how fast he can run, if he takes a notion. He is 'Uncle' to all the newborn lambs and will join in the lamb's races--he can't run alot, so he positions himself strategically in the middle of the lamb race path, so he can join them on part of the loop! He is a funny and stubborn little guy--and he has beautiful eyes! :-)

These are just a few of my favorite sheep---hope you enjoy them too!