Like a walk through the country side living on a small farm is full of daily surprises, sometimes wonderful and amazing, and other times puzzling and sad. I hope you will walk with me as I live out my dream of living on this tiny farm. You will come to know the dogs, cats, Shetland sheep and chickens that make up this farm and what goes into keeping them happy and healthy. Come and join the journey with me.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Fairlight Orion

Fairlight Orion
(Locksfield Griffen x Fairlight Luna)


There is good news and bad news about this lovely little fellow.

Good news: He is developing very nicely conformation wise, with nice straight rear legs and good bone. Overall he is a gorgeous little fellow, who carries himself like a little king. Look at that wonderful crimpy fleece. I'm sure its very soft. (ha--see below) His mother, grandmother, and grandsire all have very nice fleeces. I'm very impressed with this little guy. Being my first yuglet, of course he always catches my eye!

Bad news: He is wilder than a March hare. Or maybe I should rephrase that. He is very scared of everything. Especially me. He clings to his mommy all the time. She clings to him. They very much stay to their selves. I think once he is weaned and in with the other lambs, he will gain some much needed confidence. Also his tail is a bit 'stringy'. It's actually shaping up a little nicer than I expected. The length seems to be acceptable, he just has some long whitish hairs that distort the looks of the tail at the end. I'm a little concerned about horns, although he has some good horn genes in there somewhere. However his grandsire had very slow growing (but now very wide massive horns) as a lamb. They seem to be set rather low on his head, so I worry a bit about the 'turn'. His grandsire also has low set horns, with the 'sweep' or turn to the front, so they may be fine. Time will tell. Lastly--if you haven't noticed by now, my lovely little yuglet boy has the dreaded tale-tell lightening around the eyes, that brands him as a musket, which means he will fade. Aw...well. He is still gorgeous. Allena has plans to perhaps use him on a ewe or two this fall, if horns continue to grow correctly. He will be 'grown out' over the winter at her place and then we shall see how he turns out.

Fairlight Luna
(Minwawe Redford x Locksfield Willow)

Here is Orion's dam as a lamb. I think she gets the award for cutest lamb ever born here. She is what is considered an 'Ag Flecket'.

3 comments:

Kathy said...

He's still a charming looking fellow, Tammy. Maybe he won't fade very much (hope upon hope). :)

I hope all of you there are doing OK re: storms. We've heard about all the ones through OK, IA, MO, etc.

Kathy said...

Maybe he needs to live in AZ. :)

Tammy said...

Hi Kathy,
So far, so good on the storms and flooding. The biggest problem around here right now, is the farmers can't get into the fields to cut hay. I think Orion would love to live in Arizona---but Skittles and all Mini-Me Skittles might give him nightmares! ha...
Tammy