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Friday, June 5, 2009

Growing lambs

As promised, here is a lamb update. I am doing this mostly for Nancy, in Atlanta, who likes to watch the lambs grow from her apartment. This will be quick since I am blogging in between baking batches of cookies for Farmers' market tomorrow....let's hope I don't burn anything...I don't multi-task well anymore.
This is Magnus, Willow's ram lamb, this picture is of him as a newborn on April 20th.

And here he is just a month and a half later.
If you look very closely, you can see the hairs still attached to the tips of his horns from when they first sprouted....looks like some kind of crazy Shriner's hat with tassels. Magnus is becoming a nice solid, square ram with an awesome tiny tail. This is Callisto, one of Lovey's twin ewe lambs.
Calli growing up.
Calli is going to be musket (oatmeal color with dark legs and face). You can see how her fleece is lightening underneath.
Halley, Calli's twin sister.
Halley is a pretty gulmoget girl. I am not happy with her tail, but that will be something easily bred out in her offspring. She is staying. Below is Cassie. Cassie is, thus far, my favorite ewe lamb. She is very square, with beautiful fleece, awesome markings and a perfect tail. Cassie isn't going anywhere either!
This is Cassie's twin, Sagan.
Sagan is turning into a really nice ram lamb. Another nice, square boy with great fleece. So far his horns are looking good. His tail is decent, but it has a few long hairs at the tip that make it look longer than it is...........yes, I am a little picky, especially with rams, thank-you for noticing!Below is Titan as a newborn.
Titan wouldn't stop eating long enough to get a good picture of him, 'cause clearly he is starving!
Titan is the little tank of the flock. A bit smaller in stature than some of the other boys, but square, and solid to the extreme. Teeny tiny tail :).
Titan and Sagan...Titan is going to be grey, in case you couldn't tell.
Little baby Phoebe. Phoebs is a pretty girl and very sweet. Her fleece isn't particularly crimpy, but it is wonderfully soft and single coated. I am very glad that I found her a great home where she will be living with three other Crosswinds girls, but I will be sad to see her go.
Luna is Phoebe's twin.
Luna will be staying here :).
Below is Ariel with her dam.
Ariel was the last lamb born this season (May 6th), so she is only about a month old. Obviously she is ag/grey. She is another little tank.

Last, but most certainly not least, is Ferdinand. If you'll remember, I wasn't too sure about this guy when he was born. His ears were enormous and he was all legs, but as he has grown he is actually becoming quite a handsome boy...and has almost grown into his ears.
This guy has the most unbelievable crimpy, single coated fleece. I am still not too sure what his horns are going to do..they were small scurs when he was born that eventually fell off. Although they are now growing in and have the appearance of true horns, they are wiggly, so they are scurs as his dam carries polled genetics. Otherwise he is really well put together, he even has nice fleece on the poll. This guy has the most awesome temperament too. Not sure yet what I want to do with him...
OK, here we go with the tail again.... Ferdinand has great fluke shape to his tail, wool covering at the base and tapers to a hair covered tip......but I would like to see those hairs at the tip a little shorter! Yup, I said it before, I am picky!

The End......and I didn't even burn any cookies!

9 comments:

Miss Effie said...

Oh Thank God!!! Can't have burnt cookies!!!!!

They are still too adorable --- I need more land.

Christine said...

Awww, thank you I needed a lamb fix. I'm still waiting to bring ours home.

Rayna said...

Boy...he's still not completely grown into those ears yet, is he? LOL

Unknown said...

I love looking at everyone's lambs! Beautiful pictures:) Thank you for all the tail shots as I am still learning on what is and is not a good tail so your post was very helpful!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow - what a way to start my day - my name in your blog! Thank you for that, but especially for taking the time away from your cookie baking (hope they didn't burn!) to give us the update. Your lambs are all lovely. I never knew there was so much diversity in color and fleece types - I always thought - a sheep is a sheep is a sheep!!!

Thank you again!!!

Nancy in Atlanta

tbsomeday said...

halley is beautiful b/c of her unique coloring
and i really like the "calf" looking lambs
but ferdinand is my favorite--he's so cute because he's SO FRIENDLY!! :)
course, i don't know what makes a good sheep fanny
i do know what makes good cookies though...mmmm

Anonymous said...

I love the pictures of the lambs. Thanks for posting them. I've only seen kittens and chicks and it amazes me how quickly the chicks grow. It looks like the lambs are the same, growing so quickly.

Anonymous said...

I know, I've already been here, but I love looking at the lambs!!! And you get to do that every day.

Nancy in Atlanta

Michelle said...

I love seeing the "then and now" photos together. They do change fast! You have some beautiful lambs; I'm a bit jealous of the spots. :-)

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