The good, the bad, and the obese

Let's get the bad over with first.
I have 7 older chickens that have free range of the property all the time, not because I am showing any kind of favoritism to them, the truth is they are the barnyard bitties and can not get along with any of the other chickens well enough to be confined with them without dire consequences. They are all part of White Chicken's posse and they strike fear in the hearts of any other chicken that crosses their path.
This morning when I went out to do chores, I noticed something towards the front of the property and upon investigating was sickened to find a pile of feathers from my Golden laced Wyandotte (Doozy).....a lot of feathers, and then later discovered that something had gotten her either last evening after we came in, or very early this morning. Even though she was a crabby old hen, I still had kind of a soft spot for the old girl. She was one of the chicks that my daughter, Nicole, picked out the first time we ordered chicks, and I must say she was probably my prettiest hen. I am now very worried that whatever tried to make off with her last night will come back looking for another easy target. So for now, White Chicken and her posse will have a much more restricted run of the place, and sadly, I will have one less pretty chicken in the barnyard.
The llamas are in with the sheep and are very protective of them, so I am not as concerned about the lambs, but I am going to keep a close eye on everyone until I can figure out what did away with our little friend.

Let's move on to happier subject matter. Some of my flowers are finally in bloom.

Dianthus
Variegated Jacobs Ladder

Chives
Columbine
In sheepy news,

Some of you may be wondering..hey, wasn't there one more ewe that was due to lamb?

The answer to that was, yes, yes there was. Sage was to be my last expectant mother. She literally was bred the morning that I was taking rent-a-ram out of the pasture to bring him back to Wisconsin, I guess one last fling before he headed home. I wasn't sure if she had settled or not, but she seemed to be progressing along and would be due a month later than the rest of the girls. I noticed a couple of weeks before her due date of May 31st, that she didn't seem to have any signs of getting closer to delivering, except for her ever burgeoning girth. A week before her due date there was still no bag, no other indications. By now I was getting pretty suspicious that something was amiss. Her due date came, no swelling, no bag, just one enormous belly!

It was all becoming clear to me. Sage had certainly been eating for 3 (cows), she is one of my biggest ewes and has always been pushy at feeding time. I have been giving the girls all extra grain in a community feed pan while they are nursing their lambs and Sage has been taking full advantage of the situation. It would seem as though Sage has been dominating the feed pan, taking her share, and then some, and then some more, and scavenging every little crumb that might be left behind.

This picture might explain where my confusion came in.

Oh, yes, she is now on grain restriction!

Not the most flattering picture, but I am a little angry with her right now!

Quick chicken updates before the new ones come

The chicks are now 7 weeks old and are starting to look more like chickens, at least most of them do.

This is one of the Araucana/ameraucana/easter egger..whatever name you prefer since they aren't true Araucanas. We like to call this one Chicken hawk. I love the two toned coloring.

And who couldn't love this face?

This is one of the Blue laced Red Wyandottes.

Salmon Faverolle
Barred Rock
I wasn't able to get pictures of everyone.

Last, but certainly not least, is another Araucana. This one is just plain white........

Except for..........

These lovely green legs.

Attempts at lamb updates

My plan for today was to get some good photo updates on the lambs that I have decided to sell. Unfortunately, most of the lambs had other plans. Between elusive lambies and the wicked weather that we have been graced with as of late, I have only been able to get a few photos of some of the lambs. They grow at such an alarming rate that if I get a good picture one day, by the time I get around to posting it a few days later, it is already outdated.

This is Daisy's ewe lamb, Aleena, she and her twin, Broderick, are the youngest of the lambs right now. I will be keeping Aleena. I will be interested to see what her color does, she had a few lighter hairs around her ears when she was born, so I was expecting her to be musket. But, so far, no "sugar lips" or any signs of fading. She is still very dark all the way to her skin. Her dam is modified so perhaps Aleena will do something interesting with her color. I posted the second picture just to show how crazy crimpy this girl's fleece is.

This is Aleena's twin, Broderick.....well, his name is Broderick, however, my children have taken to calling him Spartacus.......I must admit he does rather look like he has a roman gladiator helmet.....or at least half a helmet. He, Broderick/Spartacus, will be staying here too.
He knows that he is completely adorable, but he does want to be taken seriously as a potential breeding ram, so this is his "I AM SPARTACUS" pose.

The picture below is Oliver...not a celtic name, I know, but Oliver won't be registered. I will be selling Oliver as a wether (castrated ram) for a ram companion or fiber pet. When he was born, I fully expected him to be ag grey (fading from black to grey) like his dam. But.. no sugar lips, not as much as a grey hair on his scrotum (no, my non-sheepy friends, I am not trying to be funny, that is one of the first parts to fade if he is going to fade....that's pretty much just with sheep though...as far as I know). Oliver has wonderful, soft fleece that will have a longer staple length like his dams.

Crosswinds Fallon (Sheepy Hollow Lovey x Sommarang Effrem)

Fallon is a pretty black/krunet ewe with good conformation, nice fleece, and a wide, stocky build. Fallon is VERY friendly and sweet. Fallon will be for sale at weaning since I am keeping her twin.

Crosswinds Duncan (Sheepy Hollow Red Trillium x Sommarang Effrem)

Handsome rammy lamby with great conformation, crimpy, soft fleece and a tiny little tail....ooops, and mud in his nose in this picture. Duncan will be for sale at weaning, without the mud.
I am hoping to try to wrangle the rest of the lambs for some more pictures tomorrow.

After much agonising, I have also decided to sell Duncan's dam, Sheepy Hollow Red Trillium. I have to reduce my flock since I will be keeping some of the ewe lambs, I will add photos of her as well.

Alpaca and internet friends

I finally got to meet my friend Sheri (whom I had never actually met in person), at her Sunset Hill Alpaca Farm. We "met" last fall through a mutual spinner friend, who thought that Sheri and I might be able to share information with each other, since we both raise fiber animals. We kept in touch with email and a phone call or two through the winter. Yesterday, I finally got to go out and see her farm and meet all of her gorgeous babies. Upon meeting Sheri, it was interesting to find out that she had imagined me as being overweight with dark hair, hmmmm, I must have a chubby voice. I guess maybe I should add a photo to my profile.
Sheri and one of her boys.These are some more of the boys, or "Thorns" as Sheri refers to them. She has a female alpaca named Rose and for the last 3 years she has hoped for a female cria (baby alpaca) out of Rose. Instead of a pretty rose bud, all she has gotten are thorns! Although I must say, these boys are pretty darn handsome.

Finally this year she had her little Rose Bud.
Four day old Rose Bud and Mama Rose.
"Hey, I'm pretty cute too.....I think....I can't see very well through all of this hair".

If you like spinning Alpaca fiber, you have to get some of her fiber. Clean, clean, clean and soft. And extremely reasonably priced. She also has some mill spun yarn.

This is some roving that I picked up for my niece who just got her first spinning wheel, perhaps this will inspire her to update her blog (hint).

Isn't the Internet wonderful? I think about how lucky I have been to have met so many interesting, enjoyable people through my sheep and this silly computer.

I do, however, sometimes question my judgement at traveling halfway across the country to pick up sheep, sometimes in the middle of nowhere, from someone that I have never actually met, without giving it a second thought ( hmmm....sounds like stuff that I warned my children not to do...although, I don't think that they are inclined to pick up sheep...more so the not meeting strangers on the Internet thing). Most of the time my sister, Marie, accompanies me on these excursions....well, now there's a lot of protection. My husband doesn't really worry about me when I go on these sheep procurement expeditions though, he is fairly confident that if some ill intentioned person was to snatch up Marie and I, the perpetrator would be the one calling him, in tears, begging, "PLEEAASSE, come and get them, I can't take it anymore".

Spring loaded lambs

One of my favorite things about having a pasture full of lambs is watching the lamb races every evening. I think the object of the game is to try to see who can jump the highest while contorting themselves into various positions.

I have been trying to get current photos (I say current because these little guys change by the moment) of the lambs to post. It is so difficult to get a good photo of them standing still since they are either doing their aerobatic routine or sleeping soundly cuddled with their twin.

I do actually have names for them now. We went with names of Celtic origin this year. Here are some of the lambs that I was able to capture a photo of.
Crosswinds Dillon (Thistle Keep Teleus Longtail X Sommarang Effrem)
Dillon is an absolutely gorgeous black ram lamb. He has awesome square conformation, a tiny, fluke tail, and has wonderful soft, soft, soft, crimpy fleece from neck to breech. I might have to take him to the Jefferson show if I don't have him sold by then ;).

Crosswinds Duncan ( Sheepy Hollow Red Trillium x Sommarang Effrem)
Another really great ram lamb. Dark moorit, krunet with great conformation, soft, crimpy fleece and a tiny fluke tail.

Crosswinds Fiona (Sommarang Edrea x Sommarang Effrem) Princess Fiona will be staying here. Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled.
Crosswinds Briannah (Sheepy Hollow Red Trillium x Sommarang Effrem)

Pretty ewe lamb with wonderful conformation, fleece and tail. Briannah will be for sale. It has been really tough to decide which of the lambs to keep this year, especially the ewes. I have 3 ewe lambs that are very similar to each other as far as color, conformation and fleece type. So I have been spending a lot of time considering what genetics I want to keep and continue here, and which I am willing to part with.....my mind changes as quickly as the lambs do. The longer I look at each one, I see some new quality that I hadn't noticed before and then I have to reconsider my decisions. I will try to add more photos tomorrow of the lambs that I couldn't photograph today (if they will stand still).