Saturday, March 28, 2009

A blah kind of week

Ever had one of those weeks? I apologize in advance for my emo rant.

The ewes are getting larger and larger with still no lambs. Every morning I think this might be it and get disappointed when I am met with ewes just lying in a circle in their stable. Poor Jewel has so much milk in she can only waddle, so it has to be any day now. Right?

I have ordered baby chickens. I am super excited about this...and worried as I have never had chickens before. I also ordered a coop. Only problem is that the person I ordered the coop from keeps blowing off confirming any kind of delivery date. No money has changed hands but it's depressing to know that I may have wasted time on this, and now I really need to find a nice coop fast.

My horse Muppet has taken a huge leap backwards in his jumping. About four weeks ago I decided I'd walk him over a tarp as we were waiting for our lesson to start. No go. He would wear the tarp, you could drag the tarp, but he would not step near it. Since then he will no longer go over jumps, coops or even poles on the ground. He's continually looking for the hidden scary object. We did have a better lesson this week as he worked on free schooling through a chute, and at the end he could jump poles again. Now I have to see if he can do this under saddle. Still I feel like a bad horsey mommy for making him lose his confidence.

Oh and I bought Bolt to cheer myself up with and cried all the way through it as the dog reminded me of Ji.

All in all pretty miserable but I guess I will try hard to look at the silver lining. The lambs will be here eventually, as will the baby chicks and some sort of coop and Muppet will be braver now that he has faced some scary things and I'll be a better rider. 

In something completely unrelated. I chose the name Ridgeway Farm after an area in England that I grew up walking, riding and playing around on. Here's a link if you are interested in learning more.

www.nationaltrail.co.uk/Ridgeway

We called it the Downs. It's beautiful and on a clear day you can see about four different counties up there.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Time to take those coats off

It's naked sheep day.

Today my shearer came out to work. I have never used him before but he was recommended to me so I thought I should give him a try, and boy am I glad I did. He was wonderful. Very patient. Did feet, CDT shots and a fabulous job shearing with only 1 or 2 nicks on a big struggler. 

Here is Cammie trying to wonder where half (at least) of her body width has gone, and Colby sporting her new color.


Who knew Sunny was so handsome under that fleece? And his fleece is very nice too. Nice job Nadine. 


Dreamer believed if there was shearing there SHOULD be cookies, so here he is wondering how to get into the bag.


And this is Jewel and Gypsy looking very svelte in their new do...and very pregnant. Jewels' lambs liked the shearing and could be felt kicking.


Saturday, March 7, 2009

Is it March already?

Wow sorry I haven't been updating but I'll try and be back now more frequently. So todays' blog is dedicated to pregnant bellied sheep. Here are the girls' in all their fleecey (if that's a word I spelt it wrong) wide-load glory.

This is Sabrina. She had 2 beautiful lambs last year and was an excellent mom. She is breed to Sunny this year and I am expecting wonderful fleeces from this pairing. Poor Sabrina is huge and is only hopefully having twins!


Amelia is a first-time mom and is breed to Dreamer. She is looking huge I will probably lamb this month. 


Gypsy is a first-time-to-be mom. Here she is having a  good scratch. I thought she looked super cute. She is breed to Sunny so I should get some beautiful moorit fleeced lambs. I am very excited to see what she produces.


Jewel is enjoying the sunshine although wants to know when it is time to be sheared as it was 60 degrees today. I told her not to worry, knowing New England it'll be below freezing tomorrow. She is breed to Dreamer and I am expecting some wonderfully colorful lambs.


How are everyone else's ewes doing? Exciting for lambing season to begin again?