The Flock

Every year I put together a Flock List for the Farm Club members. This includes photos and a little information about each sheep (and dog and other characters) on the farm. I like to get current photos of each sheep and I'll share a few here. Shearing Day is in just a month so they are in almost full fleece. I'll have to get before and after shots of them as well.  Zoey.

Alexandria.

Sonata.

Ears.

Cascade.

Jean.

Two almost 2-year-olds, Honey and Zinnia.

Marilla, a 2016 lamb, and her mother, Marilyn.

This photo was taking during the summer of two of the sheep I bought from flocks in Oregon. That is Kenleigh's Sheena on the left and Shadow Mountain Shelby on the right. I found this photo while I was looking for another. It is a good example showing a lilac ewe (right) and a black and white ewe.

Most sheep eyes.

Some of the lilac sheep have striking blue eyes

Sheep

Every year at this time I create a Cast of Characters for the Farm Club members. So I took sheep photos today. Here are some of them:

I started before chore time in the morning and had to chase all the sheep out of the barn. They weren't too happy about missing breakfast.

And they don't like the deep mud so they all stayed on the cement that Dan poured behind the barn this summer.

This is Janis.

Mud Ranch's Foxglove. She is a lilac ewe.

Alice.

One of the 2016 lambs, Virginia.

Another lamb, Cindy.

This is Windy Acres Bronagh, another lilac ewe.

Bide a wee Buster, and March ram lamb.

Ears.

While I was taking photos, my DIL was throwing the ball for the puppies, Sawyer and Finn..

Ginny ended up with their ball.

Sheep on the Road

This is a blog post that I meant to write a few months ago following our summer Road Trip to Colorado. While traveling I took photos of sheep I saw along the way. I forgot about this until I was going through photos tonight for another project.

This was a band of sheep on the way to Bodie, a ghost town in Mono County, California. There are more photos of them in the post that is linked above.

So not all hardly any of the sheep I saw were alive. That doesn't mean they weren't impressive however.

A bighorn ram outside the visitor center at Arches National Park.

Another ram inside the gift store.

Petroglyphs seen on one of our hikes in the park...

...and  a license plate in the parking lot (not a sheep, but I thought a mountain goat was cool anyway).

After hiking all day in the park we stopped at the visitor center to fill up our water jugs and spent a little time with this ewe and lamb.

Maybe it is a stretch but this is a photo of Sheep Mountain on the way to Leadville, Colorado.

One of the old buildings in Leadville. OK, so it's not sheep, but it's fiber related, right?

Also on a street in Leadville.

In the restaurant where we had lunch (another mountain goat)...

...and in one of the old hotels on the main street.

I'd sure love to have brought home this ram...

...but that price tag on his leg says $2900 (marked down from $4770).

This print was on the wall of our motel room in Leadville.

Somewhere on the road after leaving Leadville.

On the way home we saw sheep and some other fiber animals in a few places but I was always too late with the camera. I barely caught these yaks. With the exception of the first day, this was not a sheep-watching trip (at least not live sheep). The last sheep photo I got was one that Dan pointed out to me:

An anticlimactic photo of sheep on the road.

Shearing at Other Farms

A few weeks ago two of my friends did their fall shearing. Since I didn't have to do any work I just visited and took photos.

I don't know which is which but this is one of Jackie's Herdwick sheep, either Heddy or Hazel.

I do know this ewe because she lived here for many years. This is Diamond who is now almost 17 years old.

Lucy is Diamond's granddaughter. She is almost 10. 

Camelids are not my favorite animals but they can be photogenic. Jackie's llama is named Peridot...

...and her alpaca is Evangeline.

Jackie's flock after shearing. Jackie shears twice a year because many of her sheep are long-wools and benefit from twice/year shearing. The Jacob sheep will be shorn in the spring.

The next shearing location was Colleen's place. 

This is Colleen's older ram, Razor,...

...and her younger ram, Thor.

When doing anything with the rams at Colleen's farm you have to deal with the Goose. (Thanks, Dona for this photo.) The Goose is bonded with and protective of Razor (as if he needs protecting) but has a sincere dislike of Thor. Thor usually has to live separately to keep the goose from continually harassing him.

Razor is about as big as John, the shearer, and probably weighs more.

Velvet, the cat, enjoying the sun and the smell of lanolin.

Colleen raises Romeldale and CVM sheep that have very fine wool...

...and the unique "badger" face pattern.

After shearing we enjoyed surprise birthday cupcakes (mine--yes, I chose to spend my birthday watching sheep shearing) at Colleen's outdoor table. Velvet joined us.

Consolidating Breeding Groups

For almost four weeks I've had sheep in five different breeding groups plus a non-breeding group. It doesn't take long before I'm tired of dealing with that. By last Friday all the ewes were marked and very few were being re-marked so it was time to pull out a few rams.

Dragon, this 4-horn ram, went back to his farm up the rad from here. Buster went with him to finish up the job there. Joker went back to the ram pen with Marv (after spending a couple of days in the "buddy-up" pen, or "jail" as I also think of it.

Faulkner was a lucky ram who got to stay out with his ewes for another month or so. However, he knew that something was going on in the barn and thought that maybe he should really have a few more ewes on his side of the gate.

All the rest of the ewes were consolidated into one group and spent some time meeting and greeting.

"How are you Fran? Did you hear what happened to...?"

"What is that scent you're wearing?...Who have you been hanging around?"

Catalyst is the Jacob ram who stayed out with the ewes. He spent some time introducing himself to the ewes who had been in the other groups but they all ignored him.

Here is he after another couple of ewes were turned into the field.

Happy boy even though he's not seeing any action.

Hug a Sheep Day

Hug a Sheep Day originated a few years ago at Punkin's Patch and we think its a great idea! We were a little concerned with the forecast (rain from midnight through noon, then clearing). We went ahead with plans and didn't see rain all day.  In fact the sun came out and the welcome rain from the previous week had cleared the sky, washed away the dust, and started the grass growing. Beautiful!

Farm Club friends came early and helped set up pens and find the huggable sheep. Jade will follow you anywhere for a chin scratch.

Jazz likes those scratches too.

This is Jade and Jazz both lined up for attention.

Jazz is probably the most huggable sheep here.

Spinners enjoyed the wonderful weather and the camaraderie.

Alison is wearing her handspun 4-ply Jacob vest. Notice the very cool felt Christmas stocking in the background. Jackie was here with her Sheep-to-Shop booth but I didn't get good photos of that.

Claire is a friend I've known since we were in college in Davis in the 70's.

I kind of like this photo because it shows a lot about the marketing of a small sheep farm. Alison and Stephany are both Farm Club members, Alison is wearing yarn from the fleece she bought several years ago, Stephany is knitting more yarn, and she bought a skull, and of course there is the sheep ready to be shorn again in a few months.

At the end of the day we decided there should be a group hug, although I realize now that this was more of a group picture than a group hug.

Next year we'll make sure we all get in on the hug part.

The Lucky Ones

As you must know when there are almost 80 lambs born in the spring I can't keep them all. How many sheep would I have in 5 years? Who can do the math? My sheep capacity is about 55-65 adults. That includes a few wethers, more rams than I probably need, and the ewe lambs that I choose to keep. Someone has to go and a handful get to stay. I just sent registration applications in for the lambs who are staying here. I was going to share their photos and then I thought that it would be fun to see their baby photos as well. For those of you who pay attention to who the sheep are I have included the (sire x dam).

This one is Sylvia and the photo below was taken last week. (Rotor x Sonata)

Here is Marilla (named in a contest for her mother, Marilyn, and because she was our Spinzilla ravatar) in March and below in September. This is a good pair of photos that show that even when a sheep is black and white, the wool may look brown due to sun bleaching. The markings on the face and legs will indicate the true color, at least in Jacob sheep.

This is Marilla's brother, Marv. He is one of only two ram lambs that I kept this year. He was champion Jacob ram at Black Sheep Gathering and his dad, Rotor, was Supreme Champion at the CA State Fair. The photo below shows the difference in rate of horn growth between ewes (Marilla) and rams (Marv). (Rotor x Marilyn)

This is Stacy as a newborn lamb and below at 7 months. (Crosby x Estelle)

More newborn photos. This is Jean with twins. I kept both of these lambs. The ewe lamb, trying to stand, is Cindy, below. The lamb nursing is the ram, Joker, in the photo below Cindy. (Nash x Jean)

Joker has a group of ewes and is wearing a marking harness with a red marker.

 This is Vanessa with her lambs. Vanna , on the right, was 5.2 pounds when she was born, but you wouldn't know that now. (Rotor x Vanessa)

Vixen is the only lilac lamb I kept. Her markings are a brown/gray instead of black. That shows up better in the photo above than below. (Nash x Foxglove)

This lamb is Virginia (Rotor x Ventura).

This is bide a wee Trista, the one lamb that I purchased, so I didn't take a baby photo. But I just looked and, yes there is one on the bide a wee farm website. Here is Trista as a little lamb.

Vixen, Virginia, Cindy, Vanna.

Fall Colors