More New Sheep

In the last post I mentioned the new sheep that I got from Puddleduck Farm in Oregon. But there were only two in those photos. There were actually nine sheep in the trailer. I had intended to get a ram and two yearling ewes. It's a long story but I ended up with 6 more ewes of various ages.   Puddleduck Amber Puddleduck Cassandra Puddleduck Celilo Puddleduck Cherry Puddleduck Page Here is the ram, Puddleduck Ringo.Sheep know their sheep friends. They are in the pasture with Ringo and about a dozen of my ewes, but these six stick together.While I'm introducing sheep this is Kenleigh's Isadora and her lamb, Isabelle, who was born at the fair and will be staying here.

The New Sheep

New sheep have joined the flock. Ingrid and Alan from Puddleduck Farm in Oregon delivered ewes and a ram. The two yearling ewes went in with my yearling ram, Alex.  The flock came to investigate. The two new girls are at the top in this photo. I'm not sure of their names. Ingrid is sending in registration papers and their names will be listed. After everyone else went about their own business Alex continued to follow them around.  They weren't too happy with Alex. "Maybe this guy is better."   "No, I guess not." "I guess we're stuck with this guy. At least he's in the grass." 

Five Months to Lambs

Monday was Sorting Day (but not like at Hogwarts, although I know that some of you could probably come up with some Harry Potter  analogies). It was also the first day of the Spinzilla competition. Spinners from Team Meridian Jacobs were going to gather here in the afternoon but some of the team members are also Farm Club members. Several of them came early to help with sorting ewes and rams into breeding groups.Faulkner, the BFL ram, was first to get his girls and they happy to meet him. I knew that Athena was ready because she had been hanging out next to the fence. But so were Delight, Delilah, and Shelby. Four of the seven ewes with Faulkner were bred yesterday. (The red on the ewes' rumps is the mark from the crayon in the ram harness.) Next up was Crosby, a lilac ram lamb. I wasn't going to use him this year because it's hard to split the flock into too many groups. But transport for the ram that I am buying is now delayed so I thought I'd give Crosby a shot.He just got back from Lambtown where he won Champion ram of the Primitive Breeds division. It was a small show, but a win is a win, right? The judge loved his fleece and so do I.The girls, however, were not as impressed. It seems that ribbons aren't everything.To Crosby's credit he tried hard... ...he didn't give up......but to no avail. None of the four ewes wanted much to do with him. I don't have a photo but I did see him finally lying down by the fence looking exhausted and dejected.Alex was ready for his ewes. He is a yearling ram whose fleece is beautiful. I didn't try to use him as a lamb last year because he had bluetongue in the fall. Even if he could have bred, he likely would have been sterile from the high fever.      Out of his group of 14 ewes, Alex found only one ewe who was interested.  Poor Celeste. With no one else interested in him, Celeste got all Alex's attention. Good thing that I moved Shearing Day to January. Hopefully rain will wash out some of this color.

The rest of the flock is waiting for a ram to show up in a few weeks. Lambing season will be a bit longer this year.

Family Resemblance

Fanny was one of my favorite sheep, not because of personality because she wasn't very friendly. But look at those horns. Striking horns for a ewe.Here is another photo of Fanny.This is Fanny's daughter, Fran. She is 6 years old now.Here is Fandango, Fran's daughter, now 2 years old. I hope her horns continue to grow as well as her mom's and grandmother's horns.  This is Fandango's daughter, born in March.

An August Morning

(Note: I don't know why the photos imported smaller and the spaces between text and photos are so large. I don't think I did anything different than usual. Sometimes this computer stuff drives me crazy.) I have plenty to do but when I take my camera with me life slows down.

View behind the barn in the morning.

Cattle egrets roosting at the edge of the pasture.

White-tailed kites in the tree at the other edge of the pasture. I've been hearing a lot of squawking out of them the last few days. The one on the left with the brown feathers is a juvenile...."Dad, pulleeze let me have the keys."

Views from the pasture.

This is the ewe lamb born last at the State Fair.

BFL cross ewes.

Hay truck whizzing by. Won't you stop here?

One of my favorite flowers because it is so good in the pasture. Birds foot trefoil.

Mockingbird behind the barn.

Phyllis is the oldest sheep here.

Sheep Portraits

The sheep bed down around the barn at night and this morning took their time about moving to the pasture.Here are some sheep who posed for portraits (and, for those of you who care, some ancestry info). 5-year old Moon (bide a wee Yuri x Hillside Luna's Harvest) Yearling, Sophia  (Kenleigh's Matrix x Meridian Jazz) Yearling, Cascade (Meridian Miller x Meridian Sierra) Yearling, Mae (Meridian Miller x Meridian Mary). She must have been looking in the mirror when she wrote the number on her tag? 5-month old BFL cross who I am keeping. No name yet. (Faulkner x Dazzle) 5-month old lamb who may stay here. (Meridian Miller x Meridian Vicki)  5-month old lamb who I want to keep (Meridian Hendrix x Meridian Alison) Someone is hiding behind the dallisgrass.  It's the wether, Jimmy...who I may just rename to Jake, because I tend to call all wethers Jake.This is two year old Onyx, a BFL cross.  This is one of the newest members of the flock. (Meridian Miller x Meridian Donna.) Six lambs were born in July at the State Fair. This is her brother. This is a gorgeous lilac ram lamb (Meridian Alex x Meridian Phyllis), just what I've been waiting for....except those horns on his right are growing together and his horn set will be horribly asymmetrical. He won't be registrable. Out to the pasture. "Mom!""MOM !!!"  

Sheep Grow Up

I didn't get around to registering most of the lambs that I kept last year. JSBA was in transition from me being the Registrar to having an outside organization handle it. So I waited. Why add more workload? Besides, the applications can now be submitted electronically (no more printing lots of photos for each sheep) and photos will show up on the registration certificates. Here are the sheep that I submitted, now yearlings. Meridian Santana = Puddleduck Sullivan x Genesis Farms Belinda Meridian Alex = Kenleigh's Matrix x Meridian Alexandria Meridian Lana = Meridian Fogerty x Meridian Loretta Meridian Raquel= Meridian Miller x Meridian Rosie Meridian Cascade = Meridian Miller x Meridian Sierra Meridian Mae = Meridian Miller x Meridian MaryMeridian Sophia = Kenleigh's Matrix x Meridian JazzThis is Marilyn who was registered last year so I didn't get a new photo of her. This photo is before shearing her as a lamb. Marilyn = Meridian Miller x Meridian Hot Lips.This is some of Marilyn's wool. I am spinning her fleece now during the Tour de France as part of Meridian Jacob's unofficial Tour de Fleece group on Ravelry. Join us! Who will the 2014 keepers be?This is one. Meridian Ginny = Meridian Hendrix x Mud Ranch's GinsengMaybe this one shown with her mom. Not named yet = Meridian Miller x Meridian Vicki. Meridian Miller x Meridian JaneMeridian Hendrix x Meridian Alison

Vacation Interlude - Back to Work

I'm on Day 4 of describing our wonderful vacation to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone last week, but I will insert a post of what I am doing now that I'm back home. This is the north fence of the pasture. This is AFTER grazing. The sheep don't venture in this far once the combination of dallisgrass and blackberries grow so thick. Access is hampered since there is an irrigation ditch just in front of this mess (the left part of the photo).  There is a fence under there.  This was yesterday morning's achievement.  I dumped the branches in the corral and the sheep were happy to work on defoliation when it was easier.However I'm not happy that the branches  get stuck in their wool. This morning's task was to finish the  job.    There are plenty of these still on what is left and they will be easier to get to. With my luck though they will all ripen just about the time that I go to Texas for the birth of my granddaughter. By the way, you'd think that I'd come up with another solution to this problem. See this post from just over a year ago. Maybe some strategic fencing to hold some sheep right at that fence line.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Yellowstone!

Meet the Sheep

Our annual spring open house on Saturday was a huge success. This event couldn't happen without the help of Farm Club members and, this year, the Davis Spinners' Guild (DSG). Farm Club members were here on Friday for set-up and showed up early Saturday for last minute touches.  There are a variety of sheep related displays.But the biggest attractions are the animals and the demos. Julie's 3-week old Angora bunnies were very popular... 

…as were the lambs. FC member, Mary held lambs for people all day (and suggested that next year we use smaller lambs!).

Jazz, mom of the triplets that were out for people to pet, made herself just as popular, calling to people to come back and continue petting.

As popular as the animals, were the demonstrations scheduled throughout the day.This is Farm Club (and DSG) member, Alison, showing her passion for...cleaning fleece with a fermented suint vat.   Vera, of the Davis Spinners' Guild, demonstrated use of the blending board...

...and spindle spinning. 

Kathleen, FC and DSC member wove with an audience all day.Many people brought their wheels and spent the day spinning.

FC member, Lisa, always has a carrot for Amaryllis.    She and Dona (who took some of these photos) demonstrated needle felting.

Dona, Jackie,and Colleen offered items for sale.   

Of course my shop was open and there were even sheep inside! 

There was much more going on and many more people helping then I have in photos here. Thanks to all of them. There are no photos of Rusty in this post but he wrote his own and you can find out what he thought of the day here.

Cute Lambs

Lambing is over and I have 76 lambs. Here are some cuties.

Moms and Babies on a Spring Morning

 Sweetie  Alison Mud Ranch's Ginseng Kreutzer Farms Kyra Lulu with triplets Mary EarsSonata Some of these ewes are for sale. You can see details on the website.

Photographic Challenges

This is the year that I am determined to get those perfect jumping lamb photos. I have posted some others here and in other posts. I welcome any advice from you photographers out there. My lens info is at the end of this post.  Too darn many lambs in the way.The lambs are most active in the evening when there is lower light. I am shooting with a larger aperture and therefore more shallow depth of field. Notice the lamb in focus is not the one that is jumping. In addition, those black lambs are hard to photograph in detail.  More lambs in the way. Lambs in the way AND depth of field issues. Same problems. And more lambs in the way. Focal length issues again. Lambs facing the wrong way. Focal length and shutter speed issues. I think I got this one on depth of field. Too bad the lamb is facing the wrong way. Sort of OK but needs a faster shutter speed to really get it. Also the black one lying down is distracting. This photo probably has the fewest issues.The running lamb photos have similar challenges. These photos were all taken with my Nikon 40 mm f 2/8 lens to take advantage of the larger aperture but that gives me the more shallow depth of field. My other lens is the 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6. Any recommendations?

Fifty Lambs So Far

I talked to a friend of mine today and she asked what has happened since I wrote about Marilyn's fleece in the post about a week ago. Hmmm. I guess it's been about 40 more lambs here for a total of 50. I think there are about a dozen still to lamb. Here are some photos and you can go to YouTube for videos of lambing and lambs playing. Meridian Loretta x Meridian Hendrix Meridian Jane x Meridian Miller Twin to the last one.Meridian Jazz with triplets sired by Meridian Miller.I'm not sure what happened here. This is less than half a lamb at 3.8 pounds. This lamb was up and nursing when I found it and hasn't needed any help. It's the smallest lamb I've ever had here.   These are 5 of the 6 yearlings that I kept from last year's lamb crop. They sure look different than a year ago.

Marilyn's Fleece

Marilyn is one of seven lambs that I kept from the 2013 lambing season.Here she is with her mom, Hot Lips. Marilyn was my choice to take to Black Sheep Gathering last year where she won her class. (Hot Lips was Champion Jacob Ewe at BSG when I took her there!)Here she is at 9 months old last fall. When Farm Club members chose their fleeces "on the hoof" I put my name on Marilyn's.Shearing Day. Marilyn's fleece looks brown, but those are sunbleached tips. This is what her fleece looks like from the cut side. Isn't it gorgeous? Detail of the staples. Last week I carded Marilyn's fleece on my Clemes & Clemes electric drum carder.   Here are the batts ready to spin. Hopefully there will be a post before too long in which I'll have photos of finished yarn and a project. To be continued...

Loretta's lambs

  This lamb is missing his Jacob facial markings, but I still like these photos. He was on his feet and walking in less than 10 minutes. The twin has all the right spots. You can watch their birth in this video.

Mary Had a Little Lamb…and then Another

I have been anxiously awaiting lambs. Athena started us off early by lambing last week, but there has been nothing since. Mary was calling for lambs all morning and she finally got her wish. Others came to investigate.  I moved Mary and her ewe lamb inside where she had her second lamb, a big ram. It will be a busy few weeks.