Baa Baa brown sheep

And today for your cuteness fix, we have Menemsha's lambs.

Menemsha had a ewe lamb, and a ram lamb this morning at 8 o'clock. Thank-you Menemsha for not going into labor in the middle of the night...although it wouldn't have mattered, because this crazy shepherd still got up at several god-forsaken hours of the night to poke around the barn anyway. 

The ewe lamb was first-born and is quite a bit larger than her twin, but both are healthy and thriving. Both lambs are mioget in color. 

This is the ewe lamb.

 Her birth-coat is nice, but not super- impressive right now. I have learned to be patient over the years though, because lambs change so much in their first year, and it is impossible to determine at this age how they will turn out in the long run.

This is the ram lamb. His birth-coat looks fantastic at this point.....time will tell.

It's really hard to get good photos of these little guys when they are still in the lambing jugs. They rarely stay still, and when they do it is usually because they are nursing.....in which case I get a lot of rear-end photos.

Laurel's boy. All dried off now and full of himself! He knows he's pretty.

I have a couple of ewes that I was SURE would lamb today. While I was tending to Menemsha this morning, there were two other girls grinding their teeth and pawing half-heartedly at the bedding as if they were starting early labor.

These are the two suspects. I am not sure WHY I think they should lamb soon.......

Holly's glamour shots

..Cause full-figured girls are pretty too!

 Holly was bred to Avyt, so I know she will have brown-based lambs, probably katmoget pattern, like herself. She carries spots, so paired with spotted Avyt there is a slight possibility that I may get something spotted...being that she looks like there are 14 lambs in there, I guess that would up the odds considerably.

Ewe #2.

Halley's glamour shots.....

 .....Sorry, Halley, no amount of rubbing on the gate is going to make that belly disappear!

Halley is bred to WhitePine Nessie's Monster Mash...yeah, we just call him M&M.

He is katmoget pattern, she is gulmoget, both possibly carry spots, she is brown-based, he is black based, so there are lots of wackadoodle combinations that could happen here....should be interesting!

Of course, since I pointed out these two girls, it will most certainly be someone all together different that lambs next...what do I know?

Forgive me if future posts are less coherent than my normal nonsensical babble.....I'm already over-tired and lambing has barely begun.

Stay tuned....

LAMB!

Lambing has finally started here at Crosswinds Farm!

Notice the post title was "Lamb" and not "Lambs"...cause there's just one.

I don't normally like to post newborn's pictures while they are still wet and shaky, but I am not sure how much free time I will have in the coming days. This little ram lamb was born to Crosswinds Mountain Laurel x Firth of Fifth Avyt ( repeat of last year's pairing) at 5 pm, and it looks like I have one or two other ewes that may decide to lamb within the next day or so......as per usual, I haven't come up with my theme for names yet...cause apparently 5 months is not a long enough period of time to decide such things.

Little rammy's birth-coat is super-crimpy from his head to his bum....we'll see what happens as he matures.

SQUEEEEEEE! 

I am charging my camera battery as we speak...errr....blog....whatever.

Waiting.......

Waiting....

 and waiting.....

 And waiting...

Patiently waiting....

and not-so-patiently waiting.....with an angry face......

A little over a week until lambie time!

Wiiiiindy Wednesday

It was a little bit windy here today.

Sometimes, having the wind at your back is not a good thing...

"Hey guys, look at the home improvement ad that blew onto the fence!"

" Heavy-duty steel siding is on sale. Heavy-duty siding? Bahahahahahahaha! That's funny! They must not have seen our previous work.".
Bring it!"

How Rooooooed

Well, this wacky 'Winter' weather, or lack thereof,  has become evident not only in the continued growth of many of the plants and trees in this area, but also in the ridiculously early - loosening fleece on some of my sheep. I had already decided to schedule shearing a bit earlier than usual this Spring, but some of the sheep won't be able to wait much longer without losing a good portion of their fleece.

How can I tell that the sheep are ready to roo, you might ask? What is rooing, you might ask? Why don't you just tell us, you might ask?

Well, when you look at the sheep you can tell which are starting to 'roo' ( shed their fleece), because they look like milkweed pods ready to release their seeds!
  If you are new to my blog, you might need to know that I have an over-active imagination...you'll get used to it after a while. I am kind of an acquired taste.

Milkweed....

...... and Avyt, the ram.

 Notice that there are clumps of fleece that stick up higher than the rest? Some of the primitive breeds of sheep will roo their fleece in this manner - as I find with many of my finer-fleeced Shetlands. Not all of them do this, but I have a few that do. This is what is referred to as "the rise", when a natural break occurs between the old growth from last year's fleece, and the new growth from the current season. Fleece that starts to loosen like this can be very easily plucked, or pulled off of the sheep rather than shearing in the conventional way, and rooing can be much less stressful for the sheep than shearing....and kind of fun too! For me anyway....I don't get out much.

So, after capturing Avyt, I haltered him and tied him to the fence so that he would stand nicely for me.

Little by little, bunch by bunch, the fleece came off. 

Clean and soft, and no second cuts like you get when you shear.

"Ummmmm... Dude, I don't mean to be rude, but I don't know if that's a good look for you."

After less than an hour, we were all finished.

 "What in the heck did she do to you anyway??"

There is just enough of the new growth left on the sheep to help keep him warm, and of course I stuffed their barn full of clean straw, just in case we get any cold weather.

And here are the fruits of my labor. A nice bag full of soft, clean, fine fleece without a single piece of VM. Absolutely gorgeous!

 "Are you SURE I look okay?"

Now, if you are more skillful than myself, like the ladies at Under The Son Farm in Indiana, you would be able to remove the fleece in one big roll as they demonstrate in this Rooing video . There is more info on this website as well.

Now I'll have to see if I can get a couple of the ewes rooed before the shearer comes to do the rest of the flock.