Monday, June 28, 2010

A new addition

Today I drove over 500 miles to pick up my new ram. He actually had a much longer journey but a couple of people transported him a few places for me (thanks Tiff, and Sally). Unfortunately now I am too tired to get a picture of him here, but here are his baby pictures.

Introducing Windswept Griffin II


I think he's super handsome and the pictures don't actually do him justice.


Right now he's tucking into some hay and just chilling. Hopefully tomorrow I can put him in a paddock by himself and get some good pictures. Oh and just to tease, this is not the only trip I have to make this year. I have another equally long trip next week :)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Leaving lambs

2 sheep left yesterday and 2 more went today leaving the barn feeling quite empty. I still have my flock and 4 lambs that won't leave until August, and I have 2 lambs arriving in the next few weeks. Still it's sad to say goodbye to these faces. Sorry about the dark pictures we've been having a wet time of it so all of them were taken inside.

I made the hard decision to sell Daisy Mae as a pet. She looked like she would never make weight and I worried about keeping her with 2 rams around. I'll miss her sweet face and funny antics around the farm.


She left with Diana (another tiny tot) to go and live on 200+ acres of pasture with a few other sheep and some mini donkeys. Obviously a hard life.


And today Wilbur (the new wether) and Dixie left for their new home.


It made me happy how excited all of their new owners were as I know they all have great homes. Of course I am very excited to be getting my new sheep. I can't wait to show them off :) Anyway I am off to eat spaghetti and meatballs that my son made for dinner. Have a great night everyone.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Halter training (picture heavy)

This evening my partner and the kids took part in the ever fun halter training of the lambs. I try and get all of my lambs introduced to halter work before they leave, although I warn new owner that it is a work in progress, and something they will have to keep doing. This year I had quite a few leapers, although a couple of the boys also really behaved well which was nice.

This is Wilbur by far the best behaved of the bunch! He has what I suspect are small scurs which I thought was quite interesting.


And this is Winston another well behaved ram lamb who only assumed the napping position once on his walk.


Dixie did not like the experience at first....


although she got the hang of it eventually.


Diana thought that lying down and being petted was actually the aim of the game. Now if someone could bring her out her hard feed it wouldn't be a bad life.


Wallace threw himself around like a banshee until finally understanding life was better with 4 hooves on the ground.


Delia did pretty well and even tried some cookie.


Dakota didn't think much of the whole experience.


We even brought Jaqui out to show them how it is done. As a yearling I am hoping to show her this year. She is very solid, and has a beautiful fleece under that coat. On the plus side she also remembered her leading lessons from last year.


So that was this evenings fun. Now I'd quite like a nice glass of wine. All of the lambs will be leaving in the next few weeks. I will miss this group and their beautiful fleeces. I also have a couple of grown up sheep leaving for various reasons. But I have 2 new lambs joining my flock that I am very excited about. Now about that wine...

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Happy birthday Muppet

Well another year has passed and my horse Muppet turned 8 today. To celebrate I gave him a spa day treatment and then he got a massage. It took about 1/2 a bottle of blue shampoo to get him (especially his legs) this clean lol. The log was carved by Steve at the barn where I board and I think he did a great job.


Muppet's really doing well in everything right now. I am excited about this summer and hope that we can finally get to a show together. I would like to do a dressage class with him but it will be a first for both of us. This fall we are aiming to do a hunter pace too. For anyone new to my blog Muppet is a PMU gelding who I rescued as a 6-8 month old. I decided on June 1st to celebrate his birthday and every year I buy him a present, he's really rather spoiled. This year he got the lovely black and white halter he's modeling, it even has a spiffy silver nameplate.