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Friday, August 10, 2012

Lamb update, sort of..

Look at that! I'm back again already!

Well, my whining about the weather in my last post paid off; the day after I  posted, we finally got rain! Clearly I have just not been complaining enough and need to do so more often!

And not just a smidgen of rain, mind you, we got nearly 2 inches!

Of course 2 inches of  rain is not going to undo all of the damage that the drought has done, but it is a start, and it made me positively giddy! Things are even starting to turn green!

So, you are probably wondering what happened to all of the lambs from this year? Well, some have already left for new homes.....and, as you may have guessed, a few are staying here. I still have a few ram lambs that I am evaluating- it has been a slow process this year. Without green pastures to munch on all day they don't seem to be growing as quickly this year. Another challenge has been trying to keep the animals free from internal  parasites. The sheep are trying to graze on pastures that are already eaten down to the ground, and because they are eating so close to where they...well....poop...I have also had to be vigilant about checking to see if they need deworming to ensure that they are not continuously picking up worm eggs. All in all they are doing very well and have been pretty worm-resistant.

First some of my 'keepers'.
This little modified Gulmoget/katmoget is out of  Crosswinds Halley, and Whitepine Nessie's Monster Mash ( M&M).
Her name is Mandalay- Mandy for short.
I am sure you can tell right away why I wanted to keep this one..who wouldn't want to keep a lamb that freaks you out every time you walk in the barn because she looks like she's dead?
This is her baby picture.

She has matured very nicely.

Okay, so she's not totally mature and refined....just the way I like them!


Another keeper is Crosswinds Palisade (Sadie) Luna x Avyt
Lamb photo.

Here is Sadie all grown up.


Odessa ( Dessa) ....or as my husband calls her, "Fence Neck"...we have had to rescue her twice having her head firmly stuck in fences, one wood, one wire...she's not picky.  
Dessa is out of Crosswinds Menemsha x Avyt


And Crosswinds Rio
(Out of Crosswinds Natale Holly x Avyt). 
Baby Rio


 It's hard to get a good photo of her since she is usually in my lap.....she also likes to put her neck through the fence ( Note the missing fleece).





 Here are a few of the remaining lambs. I was going to post all of them, but I will do a few today, and the rest n my next post. I do have a waiting list for rams, but sometimes after evaluation,  lambs don't necessarily always match up with the traits that people on the waiting list were interested in, so some may still be available to good homes.

Firth of Fifth Avyt x Crosswinds Ashumet
Colfax, as a lamb.

...and now.

Love this guy! Colfax is a solid black ( possibly modified) ram with great conformation and fleece. Full horns that look really good so far. Carries moorit and spots.


If this guy wasn't related to every ewe I own I would be keeping him.


Remember these little spotted Gulmoget boys?
Crosswinds San Diego (Diego) and Crosswinds Dakota


I am thinking about keeping one of these boys, but I change my mind about which one every other day. I am watching their horn development and how their fleece is looking. Initially they had almost no crimp in their fleece, but now they both have very nice crimp coming in....very different from each other, but both nice.
Diego has more of a 'purled' type fleece. It is very soft.


 Dakota has more defined crimp coming in at the skin level....I'll be interested to see how both rams turn out. I will likely be sending fleece samples for micron testing next week. I know, it's just lamb fleece so the results won't tell me a whole lot, but it will give me a baseline for now.


More next time. Tomorrow is market day and I still have nut rolls to make!
Have a great weekend!

9 comments:

Michelle said...

Wow, lots of drool-worthy lambs! I don't remember seeing those last two boys before; what flashy fellows. I like that "purled" fleece....

Jared Lloyd said...

Good to hear about the rain! If I hadn't bought Shady Oaks Wylie at BSG, I might be interested in Diego.

We got those good rains and instantly had weeds and new grass coming on. It's like everything was just waiting for a drink. The crunchy pastures are green again (some of them), and the trees aren't so shriveled and weepy. Praise the Lord!

We're not out of the woods yet either. There is almost no hay to be had.

Karen Anne said...

They're adorable, but Sadie is amazing.

I see blogger must have figured out that it was only taking people 4 or 5 tries at the capthca to post, so they decided to amp it up a bit.

Kelly said...

Yum, yum, yum......love your black ram lamb, he's fab.
And those ewe lambs are going to be hard to beat at WSWF this year. Super duper job Corinne.
And PTL for the rain, glad you got something, we get little bits here and there now, and the weeds are loving it. :)

Tombstone Livestock said...

Great group of lambs and fantastic fleeces, love the colors.

erica said...

I love those spotted guls!

Shula said...

I'd take the black ram lamb in a heartbeat if you were closer. What a handsome chap.

Donna said...

Gorgeous, gorgeous lambs.....

Kathy Shea Mormino, The Chicken Chick said...


I'd like to invite you to join me at the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week! http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/11/clever-chicks-blog-hop-8-and-rural.html

I hope to see you there!
Cheers!
Kathy Shea Mormino
The Chicken Chick

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