The Wait is Over!

In October I had 6 ewes artificially inseminated with new genetics from the UK. Unfortunately due to the Murphy's Law that haunts my life, most of the ewes rejected the procedure.Waiting for everything to go right over the winter was stressful but today I got twin rams from the Mossvale Masterplan aka Scotty semen. Right now they are wet and very newborn looking but in the next few days I hope they start looking like their "dear old dad." BELIEVE as my sister-in-law always tells me, and it will happen. The other ewe that also conceived with the Scotty semen is due any time now too. Maybe a girl or two this time? BELIEVE

2011 Bluefaced Leicester Lambs

2011 lambs for sale

I'm really happy with this year's lambs. My goal of straighter legs and wider chests is achieved in a lot of these little guys.

Time Away

Poor Tim is shepherd in charge while I travel to North Carolina with Molly for Grad school interviews. All the BFL ewes were supposed to be lambed by now (except the AI girls)... they're NOT. Tim not only has to feed but is on lamb patrol.

Since the Shetlands are sheared they are digging their individual craters in the bedding at night to keep warm. I warned Tim about walking through these holes (some quite deep) while feeding since I have taken a few falls only to be trampled by the starving masses, too impatient to wait for me to get up! Tim fed this AM very early and in the dark. He couldn't find the light switch in the second pen so he thought he'd just carefully walk through the sleeping flock. Wellll...these are Shetlands remember so with each step another panicked ewe shot into the air until he felt like he was in the midst of whack a mole with ewes popping up all around him. He likened it to walking through exploding land mines. He called to say thanks for the warning while laughing. Tim likes my Shetlands so they can do no wrong.

Down here in North Carolina it's so much warmer than home and I have seen some flowering shrubs. Spring really is coming and it feels oh so good.

29 Lambs

The lambs are coming slowly but I couldn't be happier with how they look. 7 natural colored ewe lambs. I really looks funny to see so many dark sheep running in the lamb races at night. They charge in a line through the barnyard, out around the tree in the pasture then run back to check in with mom. Watching them never gets old. Molly and I watched for a long time the other night just laughing. It's good to have her home to help me.

Thanks For Waiting For Daylight

A new set of Bluefaced Leicester ewe lambs born at noon today in the sunshine! Thank you momma! She'll get extra grain for that daylight delivery.

Non Stop For 24 Hours

Yesterday was sheraing day for the Shetlands... 24 of the fiestiest little sheep ever. Not the "eat out of your hand" pet flock. My wonderful shearer,Nathan, sings the alleluia chorus when the job is done and yesterday was no exception. Cold and damp, sticky fleeces that clogged the shearing teeth but Nathan his usual exceptional job and I have a pile of beautiful fleeces that I can't wait to sort through. On the plus side, no one lambed mid shearing like last year but we did notice that many of the Shetland ewes are not bred. That's fine with me since last year we had too many of the little imps cavorting around stopping traffic on the road with their antics. A few less would be a good thing. For those of you that wonder why shear now, the Shetlands were happy to be rid if the year's growth and when the snow started last night I found many of the flock lying out catching flakes.
Exhausted and hungry, I got into the house long enough to warm and eat when the monitor to the barn announced that BFL lambs had arrived. Back out to the barn with snowflakes swirling, I found twins out of my BFL/Shetland ewe Jamie wandering around. The boy was all BFL while the little black ewe was all Shetland wandering all over the barn in true shetland fashion, full of milk. All I had to do was gather them up ,dip navels and put them in a pen with hay for momma.I laughed as I left hearing the little ewe smack her lips sucking more milk. Back in the house for two hours when the barn monitor announced more lambs. Now the snow was to my ankles. This time I found 2 of the most beautiful BFL babies ever!Perfect pigmentation, lively and healthy. They were set up in the pen next to Jamie, whose little ewe was still smacking her lips. Such a good sound to a shepherd. Maybe I can sleep now?????
NOT..... back to the barn for Wensleydale/BFL twins boys. Now my 3 pens were full with little lip smackers and cooing moms. BUT we weren't finished. A first time BFL momma was pushing in a corner. I just had time to divide one of the already occupied pens and set up for a new family. 8 lambs in 7 hours after a day of shearing was more than I expected but I'm so glad the have healthy babies on the ground with little more than a few walks to the barn for me and a few hours of sleep lost. 20 lambs total now..... finally. Here's a bad picture of my beautiful ram lamb.