Happy Easter!

Be Still and Know that I Am God....

Sneak peek of who arrived yesterday....

Hope you all have a Happy Easter.

She's Here!

The first lamb to be born at Fairlight in two years! I forgot how stinkin' cute they are. She is sired by Fairlight Jasper and out of Fairlight Rosetta.

This little gal seems to be doing great so far. Rosetta, her mom was due today, and had just commenced secluding herself in the barn when I had to leave for work. I was able to get the rest of the sheep out on the pasture so that Rosetta could have some peace while she lambed. My Mom would check on her a couple of times during the day for me, and keep me informed, but it's always hard to leave them. Rosetta had her little girl sometime between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and she was dry and up bouncing around when Mom did her second check of the day. This ewe is a 'first timer' and a year older (becuase I didn't have any lambs last year)than I like them to be before having their first lambs, but she did just fine.

She looks pretty big in the pictures, but she is just a little mite, with delicate features...except those ears! She'll take awhile to grow into those!

I think there will be only four at the most ewes lambing this year. Five were bred, but I'm sure one didn't take. Won't really know on the other three until a little closer in. While lambing has commenced the only unfortunate thing is that the rest of the lambs aren't due for another two weeks...so this little girl is going to have to be her own playmate for awhile.

Have a great week. I'll probably be busy lamb watching in my spare time.

The Rest of the Lambs

A couple of days ago I posted the story of Chickie's two little wethers (Pictured here). Since then they have been sold and will go to their new home after weaning sometime later this month. The lucky little boys will be joining a wether (Cam) that I sold last year (and a few other pasture buddies) at Kati's. I'm very happy for them.

Also later this month, Luna's twins --an ewe and a wether will be leaving to go to their new home at Tabitha's.

Jasper the first lamb born here, went with his mother to Jama's a month or so ago. So out of a lamb crop this year of eight, three lambs will be staying here. It's hard to believe they are almost to weaning age and ready to go off to their new homes. Here are pictures of the three that are staying:

Fairlight Stella
(Fairlight Jackdaw x Locksfield Willow)
Musket flecket--This is a nice little solid ewe, with a nice top line, square fore and aft and a nice little tail--she will have a longish, wavy intermediate fleece

The other two lambs are wethers, both spotted yuglet fleckets. The first one is a moorit and his brother is black and white. I haven't named these two little boys yet. Any suggestions? The moorit and white wether has an overly long tail and is cow hocked, which made the decision to wether him easy. His fleece feels soft and should turn out nicely.

His brother is a big strapping boy and has really nice conformation and a lovely soft fleece. He would have made a nice ram in a different situation. He is a very friendly sweet little boy. I love that face.

And summer marches quickly on!

A Tale of Two Wethers....

Here we have the two dollar and fifty cent wether....

and then there is his brother, the seventy five dollar wether.....

But I'm worth it right? You betcha little feller, you sure are.

By now, those that read my blog have figured out I'm not the 'sensible' everything has to pay it's own way around here type hobby farmer. When I started out in sheep nine years ago, I got plenty of advice from my commercial sheep breeder friends. I also got 'made fun of' quite a bit, because of some of the decisions I made. For awhile it bothered me, but then I came to several conclusions. 1) It's my sheep, sheep farm, my decisions. End of discussion. If I want to raise them for their wool and place my wethers in pet/fiber homes that was okay. 2) I would not be able to keep wethers as pets, or every ewe that hit the ground either. Some of them would have to be sold. 3) I would try my hardest to find homes for them that would treat them humanely and give them a decent life.

Over the years I've been told many things---one being that it was better for wethers to be slaughtered or sold to slaughter than to go into pet/fiber homes, because they could end up neglected. I chose not to follow that advice and have placed many wethers in fiber homes where they live out their lives happily. Realizing early on that they didn't have to be wethers to suffer abuse or neglect I try very very hard to place my sheep with consideration and forethought. Offering followup advice and help has always been my motto as far as sales go. After all, if someone doesn't know that a sheep needs shearing once a year or foot trims or vaccinations and inadvertently neglects... then isn't that the sellers fault as well?

Not keeping every sweet wether that comes along has been difficult at times, because invariably the friendliest lambs are the little wethers. I've done really well on this one over the years, making exceptions to keep one wether each for the rams to have companions. One year I folded and kept sweet little Ringo, but he died suddenly that fall. This year, I am making exceptions. I plan on keeping a couple of wethers. Spotted wethers. I have reasons. Firstly my ewes refuse to give me any spotted ewe lambs, which I think is pretty selfish, and secondly I plan not to breed the ewes this fall. 2011 will be the first year without lambs since Spring 2002. Since I will be skipping a year without lambs, and I have several elderly flock members, I think I can squeeze in a couple of wethers.

So, what does this have to do with this post? Not much really, except there would have been a day when I might have felt foolish to spend 75.00 to have a lamb wethered, but that day is long past. I do about 99 percent of my own sheep vet work, but if I think there is a chance in you know where that the vet can save a life or offer positive treatment, then I will certainly go that route if I can and it is a viable option.

Which brings me to this cute little pair of twins..both, you guessed it wethers! These little boys were slightly preemie, and I realized early on we might have a problem with the little black fellow. He only had one testicle descended. Never a good thing. The problem in a nutshell, uh, so to speak, is that if you were to wether him by removing the one descended testicle it still leaves the one lurking somewhere in his body. This can cause lots of problems down the road. The main one being that the wether would still think he was a ram, and while the chances of being fertile are about nil, he would still exhibit aggressive ram behavior. The compounded problem for this little guy is that he was born friendly. Friendly little rams can become very dangerous and obnoxious adult rams. So he wouldn't be a ram, but he would be.

I let them grow out to about six weeks before I loaded him and his brother up to go to the vet's to see if there could be a miracle. This vet has pulled off some good things, but this time even he couldn't locate the missing piece. Meanwhile the little grey twin was castrated in less than five minutes and stowed back in the crate. After consulting his books and discussing options the vet was game to try and wether the black lamb. This would be under general anesthesia (similar to a dog neuter), which can be difficult on sheep sometimes. There was a good chance the little lamb wouldn't pull out of it. An appointment was made for the next week. However before I left, the vet lowered his voice and said...you know I'll have to charge allot more for this one, don't you? Oh yeah, I knew that.

The day of the operation it was typical for taking any 'pet' in to be neutered. No food or water for 12 hours prior. Have you ever thought about the logistics for keeping a lamb off food/water and mommy for 12 hours? The night before I stuffed him and his twin into a big plastic dog crate with a sheet to lay on at one end. There was much mourning in the night and by the next morning the crate was filthy. The lamb was dropped off at the vet's at 8:30 a.m. I was able to bring him home at 3:00 p.m. after he woke up completely from the anesthesia. It was a long day. While the surgery went well, it was intensive as the missing part was hard to locate. When I went to pick him up, the receptionist went out to get him. The next thing I knew he came walking out on the end of a leash looking all bright eyed and interested, like he regularly took walks on a leash. His recovery time consisted of one evening in a stall with his mom and brother. Two weeks later he seems fine. And still very friendly despite all he has been through.

And to one of those tough decisions--yes he and his brother are for-sale. They would love to go to the same home as they 'stick like glue' to each other. The little black lamb is super friendly and will follow you anywhere. His brother is more shy and relies on his brother to lead the way. He is not wild though, and will soon warm up to being a fiber pet. If you are interested let me know. Only a special sweet home for these little boys, please! If they don't get placed, I'm not sweating it. Frankly I'm not sweating about too much of anything this year, except the hot weather. That's wEATHER not wETHER. ;-)

Oh Yeah, Lambs!

I finally got some updated photos of the lambs--seems like they are grown already. Here is the 2010 Crew---all eight of them!

Beautiful Fairlight Stella
(Jackdaw x Willow)--musket flecket
She is staying

Rosemary's boys (by Jackdaw)--the glue brothers (as in stick like...)
They will be staying (as wethers)

Here is the bigger boy--he is a black and white yuglet

Here is the littler turkey--he is a moorit and white yuglet flecket

Jasper--grey/white flecket
(Jeffery x Lark)
He and his mom will be going to their new home next Friday

Black and White smirslet/flecket/sokket

(Jackdaw x Luna)
Big solid boy will be going with his sister (as a wether) to his new home in June

Moorit Ewe Lamb
(Jackdaw x Luna)
Nice little ewe, will be going with her brother above to new home in June

Ultra cute Grey soon to be wether
(Jeffery x Chickie)

(Enlarged to reveal the big B. (as in Brat) keeping a close eye on things)



Solid Black twin to above ram--he is usually so close I can't take a picture. He and his brother will be listed for-sale soon.

Colors of spring....

Willow Lambs...Lambing is Done!

Willow was the one ewe I knew for sure that I didn't know when she would lamb. However, I suspected it would have been earlier on, near the time her daughter, Luna lambed. Nope. Then I figured it'd be the next week. Nope. I went ahead and trimmed around her bottom and udder 'just in case' before shearing, because I was sure she'd lamb before then. Nope.

Shearing came and went and still no lambs. I was sure shearing would bring on lambs soon--I mean it worked for Rosemary, right? Nope.

A week after shearing on Monday and still no lambs. I was home sick with a springsummer cold. Although I digress, my whole weekend was consumed with that stinking cold. Anyway. It was a very warm day, and when I went out about 10:30 a.m. to do a head count of lambs and ewes, I noticed Willow was secluded in the barn. Aha--finally! Wow, this was going to work out great, since I was home anyway. Suffice it to say there followed a day of frequent barn checks, watching Willow watch me. Watching Willow stand up and stretch, watching Willow waddle around, watching Willow dig into and snack on hay. I was worried (of course) as that old story about the ewe-that-goes-into labor-but-never-really-goes-into-labor-,-and-ends-up-with-dead-lambs-inside-and-dies-herself twirled around in my tired brain. Again, I stray off topic, but that is one thing I really liked about the Dorsets--when they got ready to lamb, they just went up to the barn a few minutes before and plopped them out--none of this days ahead thinking about it stuff the Shetland's pull on me. Anyways. Surely she would have them by night. Nope.

I checked at 9:30 p.m., and she was in the Shetland barn by herself. Uh-huh. At 3:45 a.m she was back in the main barn with the other sheep. Oh, for crying out loud. At 5:15 a.m when I went out to feed the sheep, she had a lamb. Oh yes she did! I was so thankful. I was just sure 'something' was wrong. I had planned to get up around 2:00 a.m. but I didn't manage it--I did manage to lay there half asleep/half awake most the night worst case scenario-ing.

At feeding time, I shut the gate across the barn and fed 'the big girls' (which includes Lanny Wilson the wether)in an unfamiliar spot. Once they screamed and panicked and dashed around in disbelief they settled down to eat at their 'picnic'. I was then able to go see 'what we got'. I was pretty sure she would be popping out a second lamb there anytime. What we got was this monstrous 'little' lamb with all kinds of swirly baby wool and color. I tentatively tapped horn buds (none). I dared not hope, so I tried to peek at critical areas. Key boy parts seemed to be missing, and then hope turned to reality when she --yes SHE---tinkled for the first time! WOOOOT. An ewe lamb.

A very frisky little ewe lamb who was hopping about her mommy while still damp and drippy. Finding the udder was no problem for this little girlie.

Meanwhile I was still waitin' for that second lamb. And waitin'. Finally I had to go to work, and came to the conclusion that she was done, and all that was coming out next was afterbirth. So into a lambing jug they went, navel dipped, despite Willow trying to side swipe me. Fresh water, hay and a handful of cookies to sooth the troubled waters.

The little lamb seems to be doing fine now. She is having trouble with a 'pasty butt' (for want of a better term), which often happens with single lambs that have access to all that rich milk and no one to share it with. She is a big thing---all tall and lanky besides. I have no idea what color she is..really. I know she is an Ag flecket (well, I think I know that much). Her head spotting is very brown, with the typical lighter rings around the eyes that usually differentiate the brown based lambs from the black ones. Her tongue looks brownish and pink. (spotted) However her body spotting looks black to me. I'm having the same trouble with one of Rosemary's rams. He certainly looks brown about the head, but the body spots look black. Now last night, I shone the flashlight on both and in that light they both look brownish. So, it's a puzzle, one I've never had to this extreme before. (Well, a few days later it's easy to tell she is brown based, even though she still has 'black' spots on her back--I'm still confused a bit on Rosemary's ram though, but I expect time will reveal his true color).

And so lambing is done. Stats up on the next post, I hope. So far everyone seems to be thriving, and even if they are all shapes and sizes, lamb races have commenced. This year many of the older ewes and yearlings are joining in and it's quite a funny sight to see.

Have a good week!

Rosemary's Babies

(Sorry this took so long to get posted..it's been a hectic week)

Rosmary's twin rams--only a few hours old

Re-scheduled shearing was on the 5th and Rosemary was due on the 7th. No one in their right mind wants to shear that close to lambing, but unfortunately that is how things worked out. Rosemary and Willow were the first two 'out of the gate' to be sheared in order to keep the stress time as short as possible. She was sheared about 10:00 a.m and turned on to pasture.

This little guy has more black on him and is a perfect little yuglet--he is also the one I thought at first might be a moorit.

A little after noon, I went around to the paddock to open gates so the sheep could come in and get a drink if they needed to. As I was opening the gate I looked up in the pasture and saw... a little white lamb. Now wait a minute. I don't have any white lambs! Then the little tableau registered with me, and I realized it was Rosemary, standing with not one, but two wet little lambs.

Same lamb, a few days later.

She had lambed near the same area she had last year (most of the ewes head back to the barn, but not Rosemary). The day was very warm, and mostly sunny, so it was an ideal day to lamb outdoors. I went and crawled through the fence opening (sheep height only) to check things out. Both lambs were still damp, but were up and nursing. Both were good sized and very vigorous. Both were wildly spotted black and white yuglet/fleckets. And both were RAMS. Sigh.

This is the twin that is mostly white--a 'few spot' ;-) if you will. He also is a yuglet, although his eye patches are larger, they are distinct.

I kept tabs on them throughout the rest of shearing. Rosemary passed her afterbirth, the boys nursed and then nested in a bed of leaves. The rest of the sheep kept their distance after a few sniffs.

Whoa, Mom! Slow down....

Once every one left later in the afternoon, I went and fetched the twins and Rosemary. After dipping navels I moved them into a jug, where Rosemary got fed and watered. She seemed quite relieved to be moved into the lambing suite.

Last year Rosemary had her lambs while I was at work, while she also had a full fleece. The lambs were small and weak, and very nearly died. I made an emergency run home after my Mom called and after furiously working with them for awhile was able to get colostrum in them and get them up and going. Rosemary is an excellent mother and after their rough start they thrived and became very sweet friendly little lambs. Both of those lambs were solid moorit with some minimal head splashing. Their sire was Just Jack--remember him? The splashy moorit and white ramling that visited here the fall before. Rosemary's sire is Minwawe Redford,a fawn/white smirslet sokket, and Just Jack had lots and lots of splash so I was a wee bit disappointed that they didn't click and produce at least some head spotting. So, fast forward to this year. The ram I used on Rosemary was Jackdaw---Just Jack's son in fact. If you'll remember Jackdaw is a flashy black and white smirslet flecket ram.

Out in the big world for the first time the brothers console each other

Not sure what caused the sudden and violent outburst of color, but am very happy about it. The difference in the bloodlines came from the Jackdaw's dam's side and there is some distant sharing of Stone Ridge Harris and Shandrew Rouen bloodlines there with Rosemary.

The lamb with the most spotting on him has confused me a bit. In certain light he looks brownish around the head and eyes. But his body spotting is definitely black--I think. I've about come to the conclusion that he is black and white but has some phaeo brown on the head. I think. Ha...

Rosemary is in a hurry, and the little guys stay close and run fast!

I do know one thing--they are cute as the dickens and friendly as all get out! And..if there are no keeper ewes this year, at least one of these little guys may be staying.

One ewe, Willow, still left to go. She is as big as a house, but lambing doesn't seem imminent. I looked up records last night to see when I took the ram out and what her last possible due date could be. By my calculations she could go as long as April 27th! Yikes, I certainly hope not. Lambing season has already drug on much longer than it should have. The size of the lambs is all over the charts--from tiny to almost half grown.

Uh, oh, someone isn't paying attention...

Now my attention turns towards getting the girls out on grass--there is plenty of it and it's growing fast! Oh..and maybe some attention is turned to those silly little lambs playing in the pasture.

Tuckered little lambs after their first big day out.

For my non-Shetland readers---yuglet, flecket, sokket and smirslet are all color patterns (i.e. patches around eyes etc.). Moorit is a brown color. Phaeo is short for phaeomelanin which usually manifests as brownish coloring on young lambs (more often in lighter colored lambs and fades with time).

Oh, What a Day....

Tabitha becomes a grandma (again), and models the newest in Spring fashion accessories---as well as a sleek new look.

Twenty sheep are sheared for another year

Post shearing Rosemary surprises!

We're all exhausted..

More at 10:00!

Chickie Lambs....

New born grey ram

New born black ram

A little late getting these posted, but Chickie lambed on Wednesday. Two more ewes to go, anytime, I expect. Chickie is a first time mom, the only first-timer this year. She had been acting fishy (a lambing technical term...) Tuesday evening, but at mid-night--not necessarily MID-night, but in the middle of the night--barn checks she was just hanging out, chewing cud. She wasn't due until Sunday so I felt we still had time.

Grey ram--three days old

At feeding Wednesday morning, she was wouldn't come down, and stayed up in the main barn. At that point, I hadn't a clue when she would actually lamb, but I knew she needed to be crutched (wool trimmed away from rear and udder) before I headed off to work--just in case. So back to the house for scissors, and a quick barber job on her. I went ahead and got ready for work, knowing that many in this family line will 'think about it' for two days or more ahead of time. Unless active labor is evident, I couldn't justify staying home from work, although it's the hardest thing to leave knowing they could lamb anytime.

Hi there, cutie!

After I got ready for work, I went out back to do another quick visual check of the situation before I left. Chickie was way out in the pasture, being tailed by a couple of the juvenile delinquent yearlings. I continued to watch, and Chickie was going into the corner by the pond, and it looked like she was digging. About then she turned and I thought I saw a water bag hanging down. Back in the house I went, quickly changed clothes, gathered supplies, and called my co-worker to tell her I was going to be late, hopefully not too late though. If she was presenting a water bag, it shouldn't be more than a half hour to an hour before things were done.

So out to the field I went. I was very concerned with her being out trying to lamb near the pond with the young ewes hassling her. When I got out there, I wasn't very amused to see that the 'water bag' was actually a large leaf dangling from a strategic area. For crying out loud.... I knew I couldn't leave her there, and she wasn't about to let me near her (especially after the whole haircut ordeal earlier). Luckily she still responded with the rest when I called them in. I was able to get her into the Shetland pen and then into a stall. I decided I'd wait two hours and if she hadn't went into active labor by then, I'd head on to work. The other sheep were ushered out of the Shetland pen, and I let Chickie loose in there to 'work on things'. She definitely wanted me out of there.

Black ram--three days old

Back into the house, for some coffee and breakfast. When I went out to check her about a half hour later, she really did have water bags showing. Hurrah,now things are really happening. I went back in the house, and busied myself with this and that. I spied on her from afar. Then I went back for a closer look and saw two hooves presented, and everything looking good. Each time I bothered her, she seemed to cease labor, so I 'went away' again (around the corner). About then she lay down and did some squalling with some serious contractions. I headed back up there as the baby slipped out. Chickie was standing with her head in the corner, oblivious to what had happened. I'm sure she was like--whew! I quickly wiped the babies nose and about then Chickie turned around, 'oh hey! what's this?' and her mothering instincts kicked in. As she worked on her little grey son, I worked at bringing some panels up to build a roomy lambing jug for them. I pretty much thought she would single, as first timers often do. In less than ten minutes (the time it took to go and get a couple of panels), she had another lamb. This little guy must have been on the fast track out, because one minute there was no indication of a second lamb and the next there he was. She had them between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m.

Three days old and he thinks he is a big boy now!

Chickie was an excellent first time mother, and showed equal concern for her tiny sons. At first I was convinced that the little black lamb was an ewe. I hate to interfere too much in those first critical moments, so that mother and lambs bond, so I only checked for horn buds when I swiped his nose. There were none. I finally discovered the truth when I sprayed their navels.

Black ram--three days old

After giving both lambs a bit of nutri drench, checking Chickie to make sure she had milk and watching both lambs finally nurse, I headed off to work. Both lambs were very small, but especially the little black one.

When I got home the black one was pretty lethargic--I had never seen a lamb 'sleep' so deeply as he was, and every time I would get him up, he would soon lay back down and sleep. His tummy felt full and his mouth warm so it appeared he was eating. I tried to console myself that there are going to be losses at times, but it didn't make me feel any better.

Finally I decided to give him another dose of nutri drench to see if that helped. In the meantime the little grey ram had been hopping around in a more typical new born fashion. Once I dosed the black ram, the little grey one lay down and just sacked out---totally gone to the world. The little black ram started playing around normally and when that sugar hit his system went into overdrive! Poor guy. Evidently the twins were just on different play cycles and were fine.

However I do believe that these guys are slightly preemie. They continue to sleep much more deeply and more often than the other lambs did, but they also get up and run and hop around and play. They seem less developed with regards to horns and size. Chickie was about five days early, but with her excellent mothering the little beasties are thriving.

Twin rams

With twin ram lambs, there goes my last hope of an ewe lamb out of Jeffery for this year. He has presented me with three little boys! The last two ewe's to lamb were bred to Jackdaw. I had also hoped for spots from Chickie as her dam has produced spots (Jackdaw is her son) and her sire was a black smirslet/sokket. However, I'm happy the little tykes are here safely and they sure are cute little buggers.

Chickie the fierce mother and her little boys