Ridgeway Farm

A sad time

2011-10-23T14:51:00.003-04:00

Well I apologize for not posting or being around recently but things are very busy. Hopefully they will settle down now that the horse showing season is over for me. I have had a very sad week with the sudden and unexpected loss of my ten year old Jack Russell.

I got Binson shortly arriving in the United States.

She was a wonderful dog to have and loved to cuddle next to me on the sofa. When the days got colder she could always be found under a blanket or soaking up a patch of sun.

Unfortunately on Monday she was diagnosed with a very large cancerous mass on her spleen. The vet was kind enough to call it a "ticking time bomb" and I knew we would only have hours or maybe days left with her. She was tired and uncomfortable so on Tuesday we decided to put her to sleep.

When my heart starts to feel a little better I will post a picture of my breeding group. The sheep are doing well with the lambs continuing to grow and mature and my new ram getting along well with his girls.

I've been busy

2011-08-15T12:24:00.012-04:00

Very busy. Showing sheep and my horse, etc etc.

This past weekend was the Bolton Fair. Our very local country fair. I took along my ram and my two ewe lambs to show. My new ram Rad (Horseradish) did wonderfully winning his Junior ram lamb class, and then going on to win Champion Shetland ram at the show.

Eleanor and Eliza entered the ring, forgot their halter training, and promptly threw themselves down on the ground. My poor son had a terrible time keeping Eleanor on her feet, although even with this she did manage to second, and the smaller Eliza did alright and came fifth. Overall very nice and promising for next year. They're not standing well in this picture, but at least they are on their feet.

I did manage to squeeze in some time to watch events. I saw some very cute animals.

Oh, and we added 3 animals to our ever growing family. My son purchased a very young guinea pig (no picture yet) that he has called Teddy Bear. And my partner and I finally bought rabbits. So this is my rabbit Julius.

And my partners rabbit Octavian. We seem to have a Roman theme going on. A proper cage is on it's way.

I also managed to take my horse Muppet to NEDA's fall schooling show. Here's one of the proofs from the event. We also got Reserve High Score with a 68.75 which made me so proud of my horse. Time to start learning the Training level tests.

After all of this, I feel a little like Marcus my puppy.

So what have you been up to?

We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave

2011-07-22T10:44:00.009-04:00

As I sit inside being blasted by a fan I thought I would post a quick update. We are suffering in a heat wave here in Massachusetts at 1oam it was already in the 90's. For my friends/family in England that translates at around 30+ degrees. Throw in some humidity and it's pretty yucky outside right now, and not much better inside with no A/C. In fact I am going to a movie theatre later today just to appreciate the cool for a few hours! The animals are doing ok, the fans are blasting in the sheep barn and there are buckets of water a plenty. The other night it was a little cooler (ok so there was a breeze), and I managed to get some halter work done on the lambs.

Eliza still isn't sure about it, but has started to eat animal crackers and I think this will help things progress.

Eleanor was even less unsure. But if a cookie happened to be dropped near her she might be tempted to eat it. Still a mommy's girl she has been the hardest to train, but still any progress is good right now (just realized the picture makes her look like she has 3 legs lol)

Rad is a delight to train. He has become friendly and curious about me and I can even play with his legs already.

My son Ian has taken over training and looking after our wether Vlad, the two of them get on very well, and I think it is sweet when Ian asks if we can "go and walk the lambs tonight?"

Fruit bushes are doing very well. We had so many strawberries this year that we made jam. I still have goosberries left to make jam from as well, when the weather cools down a little. Blueberries and raspberries have a little less fruit on them.

Wonder where the ripe berries have gone?

They are on the way to the pool, and might just get picked in passing on the way there and back again.

I also was busy doing another dressage show with my horse Muppet last weekend (sorry no pictures) and was so happy with him as we scored in the 60% in all 3 tests, he was also such a grown up and really listened.

That's all for now. I hope you (and your animals) are staying cool. Do you have any tips for how to beat the heat?

Meet the new guy

2011-07-11T13:37:00.006-04:00

Introducing my new ram Windswept Horseradish.

I picked Rad (Horseradish is not that catchy so Rad is his barn name lol) up from the Northeast Youth Sheep Show which was taking place at the Big E in Springfield. Windswept farm were showing there, very successfully. It was great because it gave me the opportunity to meet Heather and Mike (and their very nice children) and learnt a lot of things. I had a wonderful afternoon talking to them, and got to watch the Shetland show. What a great experience. Then we travelled home. Here we are on our arrival.

I'm excited to see what lambs Rad produces next year. He's a lovely lamb and we hope he'll fit in very well at Ridgeway Farm. I am also looking forward to showing him this summer a few times, and next year when he's a yearling.

Halter training and show preparation start very soon.

Happy 5th of July

2011-07-05T08:58:00.008-04:00

I know it should be the 4th but yesterday I was busy falling off my horse (ouch), so I am a day late. Thankfully it is all just bruises and a little whiplash in my neck, which should all heal quickly. Things have been busy, with changes taking place. All the lambs that were being sold have left for their new homes, and we also made the tough decision to sell some of our ewes to decrease the flock. I was very happy to find such wonderful homes for everyone though.

We decided to keep the following sheep; Jewel, Isabella, Eleanor, Eliza and Vlad as a wether (he has an appointment next week with the vet poor dear).

That gives us 2 ewes to breed this fall.

Isabella

And Jewel

And 2 ewe lambs for breeding next year.

We have a ram lamb on his way and I will be picking him up on Sunday. I am excited to get him and think he will fit in very nicely here. Pictures will follow as soon as he arrives. This means I need to do more halter work with everyone, before I add another one to the mix.

I wanted to show you our black eyed susan. It appeared last summer in a crack in the asphalt driveway by the barn. I think it's rather amazing that it is thriving and flowering so beautifully. I hope to be able to transplant it in fall, and hope it does just as well in the garden. Isn't nature wonderful? We also have sunflowers that have sprung up around the chicken coop and one in a pot on the deck that the birds must have scattered. Does anyone else have plants that have just appeared in strange locations?

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.

A summer day

2011-06-21T15:23:00.011-04:00

Happy first day of summer everyone! Still sunshine and warmth here in New England. The sheep are enjoying the pasture and love going out every morning onto grass. But look how lovely it is, I'd like to spend all day out there too.

All of the lambs that have been sold for the year have now left for their new homes. We have actually kept three lambs this year. The plan was to keep two, but Eliza has worked her way into our hearts. Who can say no to this face? And you should feel her fleece!

The chickens are also enjoying the sunshine in their run. They love the chance to go outside and scratch about in the grass.

Things are going well. We just got back from a vacation in the Berkshires. Very picturesque, although much of the landscape was lacking in livestock. A very lovely waterfall was found though. This is Bash Bish Falls.

We took Marcus and he had a lot of fun on his first vacation swimming in a lake. His life jacket came in handy with all the water around that area, and got a lot of use.

The garden is in bloom. Here's a selection...

That's all for now. Back to work.

Have you walked your lamb today?

2011-06-15T19:50:00.008-04:00

That could also possibly be rephrased as did you drag your lamb today? Yes halter training started today. We only have 4 lambs to train as 3 ram lambs left today for their new home.

It has been a super busy time here with worming taking place last week, ear tags being put in yesterday and then CDT vaccination number one taking place today. Throw halter training in on top of that and I was very please with how everyone did.

Vaughan (who leaves very soon too) after a shakey start really did very well and should make fast progress. His favorite part was all of the attention he got.

Vladamir really took to it and didn't throw himself on on the floor once. What a good boy.

The same could not be said for Eleanor who didn't so much walk, as leap about or just play dead on the ground. Should be fun to train her not to throw herself around in the show ring.

Eliza (who we have also decided to keep) was not really sure about it at first.

But slowly got the hang of it...a little.

How's halter training going where you are, or do you not halter train? I can't believe how fast the lambs are growing up. Where does the time go.

It's a dogs life

2011-06-04T16:01:00.010-04:00

My puppy is no longer a puppy. Marcus is over a year old and weighs in now at 13lbs.

He loves to dash about.

A lot

So much that sometimes I miss him altogether!

He also likes to play.

But sometimes he can be quiet and hang out with the other dogs.

Before having to be on the go again.

All the lambs are doing very well. Worming is due this weekend, and hooves may get trimmed too. I need to start my sales list though and get them sold lol. Anyone need a pet wether or a really nice mioget yuglet ewe? I have some mature ewes I would like to sell too.

Happy Memorial day

2011-05-30T19:54:00.005-04:00

Too tired for words after a very busy long weekend. Here's some of todays lamb pictures as the flock tolerated the sudden increase in heat and humidity.

I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend!

Soak up some sun

2011-05-21T12:24:00.006-04:00

We've had a lot of rain this week and so it was lovely to see some sunshine this morning and the sheep have been making the most of it. The youngest lambs are almost a month old and in a few weeks ear tags, vaccinations and worming will happen. I need to start advertising lambs (and some adults) to sell now that I have finished college for the summer.

I should do some halter training too.

Certain lambs are going to be wethered soon as well :)

And some lambs just lie around looking beautiful.

In unrelated news my horse show went very well.

My horse Muppet was tense but did relax a little by the second and third test. I was very happy with our first outing of the year.

Strike a pose

2011-05-06T09:47:00.013-04:00

This morning was so lovely and sunny that I decided to spend some time sitting out with the lambs. They in turn decided to amuse me no end with the poses they struck, and the stick antics they got up to. Here's a sampling of what I managed to photograph. Sorry it's so picture heavy :)

I had to include this picture as Vance is away from his mom.

Ok it didn't last long but he's a growing boy and needed to eat.

Valentine can go from this...

...to this in a matter of seconds.

Vladamir showed off his hind leg chewing skills.

He looked very impressed with himself for it too.

Vaughan started the stick craze.

Although tried to maintain his cool.

Eleanor looked interested in the craze, if only Eliza would let go of her stick.

Nope not going to happen.

She looked incredibly proud of herself for her stick chewing abilities though.

It's not a stick, but look at me stretch!

Did you see? Eleanor always looks proud of herself.

That's all for today. I have my first horse show of the year on Sunday where I will be hoping to ride three dressage tests. Hopefully we have more wonderful weather, and it all goes well. Have a good weekend everyone.

It's going to be a bright sunshiny day...

2011-04-24T10:20:00.014-04:00

Happy Easter everyone!

The sun is shining down upon us, and for today at least it feels like spring. What a wonderful day for the moms and babies to explore the middle pasture. This was the first time out here for Cammie's lambs Eliza and Vladamir, they are still small and stayed pretty close to their mom.

Although they did get adventurous. They are so much smaller than the other lambs who are over a week older than them.

And decided they wanted the opportunity for a close up. So here's Vlad

and Eliza

Amelia's boys are doing well.

Valiant is living up to his name and is by far the friendliest lamb we have. Always the first over for attention.

His brother Valentine is a little more shy.

Vance rarely leaves his mothers side except for the occasional lamb race. Jaqui is being a wonderful mother and he is growing like a weed.

And what can I say about Jewel? Wow after a year off last year she seems to have forgotten that she only wanted one lamb to feed, and is taking beautiful care of both of her lambs this year.

And they are both doing wonderfully in her care.

Vaughan is huge and looks like he will be shaela. His fleece is lovely and I am hoping he will become a flock sire for someone.

Eleanor is staying here her fleece is very soft like her brothers but much longer and with a different type of crimp all together.

It's so much fun watching them grow up. I hope everyone is having some lovely weather, and enjoying a nice relaxing weekend.

Last of the lambs

2011-04-20T15:57:00.006-04:00

Cammie finally had her lambs last night. A lovely large (7 lb) ram lamb who we are calling Vladamir, or Vlad for short, although there is not much short about him! She also gave us our second ewe lamb of the year, the tiny (5 lb) RF Eliza who is cute as a button and very full of herself. She was bouncing around like popcorn before she was even nursing. Mom and babies are both doing well.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get many pictures of them as my camera battery ran out. But they are both adorable. Here's Vlad again, he is bigger and a darker brown than his sister.

So that concludes lambing here at Ridgeway Farm. 4 Ewes had 7 lambs. They consisted off 5 ram lambs and 2 ewe lambs. We are planning to keep RF Eleanor and Vladamir as our wether, everyone else will be for sale. The lambs are growing so fast, I need to get more pictures of them, and as lamb races are well underway here I might try and get some video too. I hope everyone else has had/are having a successful lambing season. I am very happy with the 2011 lamb crop.

More arrivals

2011-04-10T17:03:00.006-04:00

It must be spring.

Jaqui surprised us with a ram lamb today. A surprise because it turns out Jaqui is black (tiny black spot on back of one ear) with one huge white spot, and also because we didn't think she would lamb second. Here is RF Vance weighing in at a hefty 7 1/2 lbs. He's a cutie pie.

And our next surprises occurred a few hours later when Jewel gave birth two a ram lamb, here's RF Vaughan an incredibly handsome fellow and weighing it at 6 1/2 lbs.

And then our first ewe lamb of the year. Introducing RF Eleanor (ewe lambs are E's this year) who will be staying here. She weighed in at 6 lbs. I was getting worried we would have all rams and I would have a hard time coming up with that many V's!

Valiant and Valentine are doing wonderfully. Here's Valiant in mid spring. Amelia is being a very good mother.

Only Cammie is left to lamb. She's looking like a wide load and has at least twins. I'm actually hoping for a ram and a ewe out of her but would be happy with two ewe lambs. Just crossing my fingers they aren't both rams.

Finally!

2011-04-07T12:39:00.008-04:00

After all the waiting the first lambs of the season have arrived!

Amelia gave birth to twin ram lambs this morning. Most of the family was there to watch the births, and the pregnant ewes looked on through the stable doorway. Ram lambs this year will be named starting with the letter V (ewes will be E). So without further ado here is RF Valiant.

He's more of a lover than a fighter right now (hopefully it stays that way) he is the oldest by about 10 minutes and weighed in at six and a half pounds.

And here's his twin brother RF Valentine.

A little more shy but with a wonderfully soft fleece. He weighed in at six pounds.

Mother and babies are doing well. I think Jewel will be next and she could be very soon.

A lovely spring day

2011-03-17T16:42:00.011-04:00

Today was one of those days weather wise where spring feels like it is in the air here in New England. The mom's to be were enjoying the sunshine and nice warm temperatures after all of the rain and snow we have been having, and I think maybe it feels like fresh green grass is just right around the corner finally.

Amelia looks like she is carrying twins at least.

Jewel always gets very large.

Even Sunny looked on sporting his wonderful ram shield and soaking up the rays. He's all alone now and doing very well with it. Hopefully grass will arrive soon and he can go back out with the non-bred ewes.

The garden is also showing signs of spring with buds on the trees.

And the start of bulbs emerging.

Oh yes, and the flooding of the back pasture. What we affectionately call Lake McCann. If you look closely you can see Miss Kitty one of our barn cats sitting at the waters edge.

Although with the water beaded on the bush it sure looked pretty this morning.

I hope everyone is having wonderful spring like weather where they are. We of course will probably get rain tomorrow, but for today at least all of the sheep got to sunbathe.

Shearing day

2011-03-13T18:15:00.007-04:00

Today was shearing day. The weather co-operated and the sheep seemed happy to get their fleeces removed.

It's always so much fun to see how the sheep look underneath all that wool, and have a feel of the fleeces. I forget how small Shetlands actually are underneath that amazing coat.

Everything went very well with only one nick to Sunny on his ear when he put up some ram like resistance. Everyone else, even Isabella who had her first shearing experience behaved.

The four bred girls don't look due for a few weeks more at least. They are large and happy though so I can be patient because lambs will be here before I know it. Jewel looks the largest, but only because Amelia hides behind everyone else.

I know I haven't been blogging, it has been a hard month or so on all fronts. Ending the other day with the decision to send Griffin to market. I am also still considering how to decrease my flock and will have Sunny and several ewes for sale this year (as well as lambs) so it should be an interesting year.

More snow, and more sheep (photos)

2011-01-27T13:42:00.008-05:00

Well we got another 10+ inches of snow here last night, and after several hours of digging we now have a driveway and some walkways to the barns and chickens again. If we get more snow we will have to think hard about where to put it! The snowbanks already reach the top of the deck in the backyard which is around 10ft and most snowbanks are over 5ft here.

Anyway as promised here is the wonderful Isabella who is certainly living up to her name. She is from Twin Springs and it's hard to tell with the coat on, but she is a grey katmoget. She's also a HST with white markings on her head, legs, and tail. I'm looking forward to skirting her fleece in March as it feels so soft, and very excited to see her lambs next year.

Griffin just wanted to show you how deep the snow is (even though I shoveled paths for the sheep).

It's about this deep.

I'm not sure Sabrina thinks a lot of all this snow :)

At least it's not bitterly cold right now too. I hope everyone is staying warm and thinking Spring-like thoughts :) Lambs will be here before we know it.

Gypsy V's snow

2011-01-22T14:58:00.007-05:00

A belated Happy New year to all.

It's been a bad start to 2011 for us here at Ridgeway farm. We lost one of our dogs very suddenly a couple of weeks ago. He was only 8 and we are still none the wiser as to what went wrong. We have also had 2 relatives on my partners side die. Oh and New England has pummeled us with snow! 20 inches one day, 8 inches and an inch of ice another day that week, and then 6 inches yesterday. Now it looks like we are expecting a nice cold spell (yuck) and probably even more snow. The rams are getting very restless and the ewes with them are being tightly controlled. However my 3 single ladies are living it up! Gypsy especially. So without further ado this is what I spent 20 minutes watching this morning, it did make me smile and laugh a few times.

Coming soon Isabella and her photo shot :)

Snow day

2010-12-22T15:28:00.011-05:00

To anyone that's reading this blog still Merry Christmas.

We have some snow today at Ridgeway Farm. In fact it is still coming down but so far hasn't amounted to more than a pretty covering. Perfect for some pictures though.

Isabella had never seen snow before. She was very curious.

And decided it looked rather tasty so proceeded to eat it from Sabrina's back.

I'm not sure Sabrina was impressed by her antics.

Griffin is another snow first timer. He also declared it quite yummy.

And if you look closely you can see his Santa Claus impression as he has snow stuck on his chin.

Jewel is very taken with Griffin and they are actually quite inseperable. Very cute.

Sunny loves the snow and in the past week has become the perfect gentleman again. He likes to look after his ladies is happier standing guard at night over them now we leave his door open. I think I will try and find him a new home where he can live outside. Come lambing I don't want to leave the barn open at night.

I'm actually going to cut down my small flock by a few sheep more, and think that I will sell Gypsy this year too. I'd like to go down to 3-4 ewes, a ram and a wether for company. We'll see though lol.

Have a wonderful holiday to all my sheepy (and non-sheepy) friends, and enjoy this festive season!

Is it November already?

2010-11-14T09:26:00.008-05:00

Where did the time go? I've been very busy going to the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, then sick for quite a while, then better, then my first Hunter Pace, oh and midterms, term papers and general busyness (is that a word lol?) etc.

Anyway here's some flock pictures for the update. The single lady group is doing very well.

Isabella is becoming quite the beauty, it's fun to watch her grow up.

Jaqui and Cammie get along very well together, they seem to be doing very well too.

They are in Sunny's group.

Griffin is also growing up and looking very handsome. His fleece feels lovely and horns look good, and behavior is wonderful. I'm very happy with him and excited to see what he manages to produce in spring.

The two ewes in his group Amelia and Jewel and doing very well and seem to be charmed by him too.

Anyway sorry for the huge delay in posting. It really has been a crazy time for me, but hopefully things will calm down now and more we'll get back to our regular programing of frequent updates :)

Finally an update

2010-09-06T11:43:00.010-04:00

It's been very busy here with lambs all leaving to go to their new homes and the flock finally getting back to normal. So of course I'm beginning to think of breeding groups.

This is Sunny he's a 2 year old ram and from Painted Knoll farm in New Hampshire.

He will be bred to Cammie a 2 year old ewe lamb who had twin ram lambs this year I'm hoping for twin ewe lambs this year lol.

And Jacqui this Fall. Jacqui is yearling and this is her first breeding.

Griffin is a April ram lamb from Windswept farm in Michigan and I am very excited to see what he produces this year.

He will be bred to Amelia a home bred 3 year old who had a single ewe lamb last year and a ewe and ram lamb the year before.

And Jewel a 3 year old from Bluff Country who had a single ram lamb and then twin ewe lambs. She had last year off as a break and I am looking forward to seeing this breeding combination.

Groups will be formed probably by the end of this month before I fly to Kentucky for the World Equestrian Games. Although I am hoping that lambs won't be born until March/April. Our back pasture was mowed yesterday and all of the flock are enjoying going back there to graze. We have had very little rain this summer so it's not as green here in Massachusetts as the sheep would like.

I did manage to grow 2 sunflowers this year. The tallest easily tops 10 feet! They are starting to form their seed heads now and droop but still look wonderful.

Hopefully it won't be so long between updates again.

show report (NSR)

2010-08-13T20:19:00.004-04:00

Muppet and I attended our first dressage show hosted by NEDA with my friend Alex and her horse Mikey.

We did the Intro test A and B which are basically the first tests and are all walk and trot. It was a fun show and we cleaned up well for it. Here we are warming up to go in the ring (it was very dusty).

Unfortunately Muppet was scared by the judges in the horse trailer at one end of the ring, and took until the end of the second test to calm down . We did improve in marks in our tests coming 6th and then 5th respectfully. I was proud of my horse and look forward to going to another show soon.

In sheep and lamb news the vet and myself are leaning towards chronic heat stress in the lambs. Temps are out of normal range when the weather is hot and hasn't cooled off overnight. Temps go down to normal on the cool mornings. Still no other signs and blood work was all clean. I am hoping for cooler weather soon as it has been a terribly hot, humid and rainless summer. Anyone else ready for Fall?

A picture free update

2010-08-05T08:55:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of pictures but I thought people would like an update. The group of lambs still has a fever, and no other symptoms. The vet came out yesterday and drew blood from several of them for testing. We also changed antibiotics as no noticeable change has been perceived from what they were on. Hope to see some temperature drop Friday. Unfortunately (isn't it always the case) the weather has been very hot and humid these past few days with little relief at night. The fans are going and plenty of shade and cold water is available. The vet said that if we weren't taking their temperatures we would never even know they were sick. I'm trying to hold onto this as a good thing and hope that all of their temperatures will drop into the normal range soon.

Thank you everyone for your support. It has been a very difficult week that would have been much harder without your kind words and ideas.

A very depressing day (unfortunately sheep related)

2010-08-02T12:42:00.002-04:00

No pictures today. My heart isn't in it.

Last night when I went to bring in the sheep Winston one of this years rams lambs was ill. He was lethargic, had difficulty breathing, was dragging his hind feet and couldn't bah. He would occasionally cough. I separated him and took his temperature (a whopping 108 degrees). Respirations were painful to listen too. Unfortunately I got the emergency vet who was very reluctant to come out, kept telling me that if I really wanted him to live I should take him to the hospital (nearest one is over an hour away) I said I wanted her opinion. Meanwhile he peed a few times and just lay down. He looked bloated.

Vet arrived within 30 minutes at 7.30pm. Didn't believe his temperature and retook it. Informed me "I've never seen that temperature conducive to life". Upon my request (I said he looked bloated) she tubed him and got 50cc of air out. He stood up. She gave him banamine and an antibiotic. She basically also informed me that she had her children in the car because I had made it sound so urgent on the phone, but that he looked "quite perky" to her. She left me with banamine and more antibiotic and told me to just put him back in with the other lambs "because if they're going to get it that would have it already".

At 9pm I checked on him. He was acting strange. Getting up and walking a few feet before collapsing. I put him on my lap. At 9.15pm he started having seizures. At 9.30pm he was dead. He had seemed fine that morning.

I called my regular vet today and informed her he had died. To make it worse 2 other lambs have temperatures. One is 104.6 and one is 104.3. Both are eating, chewing cud and running around. No-one seems to know what is causing the fevers. I am open to ideas. Let's hope everyone else can pull through.

May Winston rest peacefully in grass filled fields.

Sheep Sunday

2010-07-25T10:51:00.004-04:00

I spent a very productive morning cleaning out the chickens and then putting up some fencing for the lamb (and Jaqui) group. We have had such warm weather here that the grass is not happy. Luckily for us the past week has seen a few thunderstorms, and the rain has made for some better grass outside of the paddocks anyway.

Popular consensus is that grass is delicious.

Griffin and Isabella are doing great in their halter training and are very friendly now.

Sorry for not posting for a while. Life is busy. Hopefully it won't be so long between future posts. I hope everyone is having a great summer.

Another addition

2010-07-09T09:32:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I drove a 650 mile round trip to pick up Twin Springs Dakotas Isabella, or just Isabella for short. It was a long, hot, and humid drive and I am glad it was the last long trip of the year for me.

She travelled very well, and is settling in with the lamb flock.

Griffin is also coming along very well. His halter lessons are going well and he comes over (respectfully) for attention now which is great.

Jaqui is a year old now, and is doing a wonderful job baby sitting the lambs. I need to work on some halter sessions with her as well before the fair in August.

Anyway that's all for now. I am still tired :) I hope everyone is staying cool we are in the 80's and 90's with around 70-80 percent humidity. Hope we get some rain soon.

Griffin update

2010-07-01T10:02:00.006-04:00

Well Griffin is settling in very well.

He has just started going out with the moms and baby group. He dwarfs the other lambs and is a very big boy. The other lambs seem to like him a lot, following him around, and their moms were very curious smelling him too.

He is very curious of me. Doesn't run away but doesn't get too close either. I have managed to rub his head a few times. I am hoping to start halter training him now that the weather has cooled off for a few days in the hopes of showing him this summer. That should be some fun pictures!

In non-sheep related news Marcus is almost 5 months old :)

One week to go until there's another new addition at Ridgeway Farm. Now I need to go and cut down things growing up my fences.

A new addition

2010-06-28T16:31:00.004-04:00

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 :)

Leaving lambs

2010-06-16T17:14:00.004-04:00

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.

Halter training (picture heavy)

2010-06-08T18:46:00.011-04:00

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...

Happy birthday Muppet

2010-06-01T14:38:00.004-04:00

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.

Lamb update and my view

2010-05-23T11:48:00.012-04:00

This is the view from our deck this morning. It's not a sunny day but the weather is nice and all of the sheep are enjoying the grass.

Sunny had to rub himself across the gate before I closed it. I know he's not a lamb but it's too cute not to share, although I wish I got the shot about 30 seconds later when the gate slide open and he fell sideways onto the grass!

I finally managed to get a good picture of Dakota (left) and Delia (right) both girls are dong very well and looking forward to going to their new home later this year.

Along with Winston who is very handsome and has some lovely looking horn buds so far.

Wilbur will also be leaving for a great new home as a pet wether. I think he'll enjoy all it (maybe not the wethering part lol) but he loves the attention, and is the friendliest of this years lambs.

He'll have his sister Dixie with him who is also very friendly and I am excited to follow their progress as they grow up. I love hearing from the owner with updates and pictures, and helping out where I can by answering any questions.

Wallace (left) also has a new home, isn't he beautiful? I love his fleece. So far William doesn't but I am sure he'll find one soon. Both boys look like horn buds are doing well.

Diana is the only other lamb remaining for sale. Until sold she is happy here and enjoying lamb races and grass.

Derry has been sold and is now living the high life on Beech Hill farm and ice cream stand in New Hampshire where she will be representing the Shetland sheep breed and getting a whole lot of attention. Daisy Mae says she's not going anywhere though. Even though it doesn't look like she'll reach the right size she's too much of a character to part with.

Finally Marcus is now 13 weeks old. He was photographed at SmartPak last weekend by their professional photographer and this is one of the pictures I got. He starts puppy class in a few weeks which will be fun.

I'm still working on my website http://ridgewayfarm.webs.com/ let me know what you think of it. I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

A work in progress

2010-05-11T09:49:00.006-04:00

I made a website today which can be seen here

http://ridgewayfarm.webs.com/

If you could take a look and tell me what you think I'd be grateful. It was easy to use and hopefully will help with lamb sales in the long term. I also obviously have too much free time.

For something lamb related here is the very handsome William. His fleece is just amazing and he has a wonderful tail, even his little horn buds look great. He is for sale and I think he'll make a wonderful flock sire. Doesn't he look like his mom? His brother Wallace looks exactly like his dad did when he was a lamb.

This is the very long legged Delia enjoying the sun. I think she might be fawn. She's very pretty and a leader in the lamb races.

And the cute Dixie who reminds me a lot (in personality and looks) of Cheyenne from last year. Her markings make her look like she has eyebrows lol. Her fleece has a lovely regular crimp to it. I must get fleece pictures of everyone.

Sorry I'm not up to more pictures. Yesterday when I was riding I felt something pop in my lower back. I'm now unable to move much and off to the doctors later for what I hope are some good drugs. Hopefully I will be back on my feet in no time at all.

Happy Mothers' day

2010-05-09T08:59:00.011-04:00

It's been a very hectic time here but I was able to get some pictures this morning of the lambs and moms in the paddock.

The boys were not to be missed out of course looking handsome.

Little Diana is doing much better, the vet thinks she was just squished up from being a triplet and after a few days she straightened out and is running around with the best of them. She's quite a beauty and the only moorit ewe lamb I have still for sale.

Derry is so much bigger than the others being those few weeks older.

This is Winston smelling something good. He's a fun guy and very handsome. His fleece is lovely and soft.

As is his brother Wilburs', however Wilbur does not seem to be growing any horns. He is the same size as his brother who has horn buds but this is what his look like. Maybe half polled? I'm not sure, time will tell. He is a very nice ram wither way and will make a nice flock sire for someone.

And finally this is Marcus now 11 weeks old and some of his toys.

More lamb pictures in the next few days. I have finished college for the summer and am now on vacation! I'm off to the NH sheep and wool festival for the day. Should be fun.

Even more fun, end of lambing.

2010-04-17T11:10:00.012-04:00

Gypsy had her lambs on Thursday evening. Triplet ewe lambs. That brings the closing tally to 5 ewes and 4 rams. Here's the happy family group today I like this picture.

This is Dakota she weighed in at 5lbs and looks like she might be fawn.

This is the best picture picture I have of Diana in the back on the right who was a breach and weighed in at 4lbs. Her legs are still straightening out but she's doing well and has a very soft fleece probably moorit.

And this is Delia who was quite the surprise. She weighed in at 5lbs too and is so tall!

Here are some better pictures of Sabrina's triplets. This is the very handsome Winston.

The ever so cute Wilbur (he has little sideburns which I love).

And the tiny but perfect Dixie.

And just to show love to the other lambs here are William and Wallace who make me want to keep more rams. I just love both of these boys and their wonderful fleeces.

And Derry the lamb who started it all and looks like she will be modified like her mom and not black I think light grey. She is a very nice square girl.

Finally this is Marcus who is 8 weeks old today. He loves to play on his back and have his tummy rubbed, my partner calls him Cujo puppy when he looks like this lol.

Michelle you were the closet with your guess so can you email me your address puff614@yahoo.com so I can send you the sheep detective story :) Congratulations. I'm off to rest lol. Have a great weekend everyone.

Triple the fun

2010-04-11T08:22:00.006-04:00

Sabrina had triplets last night 2 rams and a ewe.

Here's Winston the largest of the three weighing in at 5lbs.

This is Wilbur who was just around 4lbs soaking wet. He already loves attention and I think I caught him mid-stretch so he is blurry.

And last but not least this is Dixie. She also weighed in at 4lbs but is having the hardest time feeding. I supplemented her with a bottle this morning and that seemed to give her a little more of a clue on how to nurse.

Hopefully all three will be bouncing around by this afternoon. This is the first set of triplets we have had here so it is a little nerve wracking. Only Gypsy left to lamb and I am crossing fingers and hoping for girls! This year I will have a lot of rams to sell lol contact me if you are interested in anyone you see, all lambs are for sale :) Everyone else is doing well and Marcus (the puppy) is only waking us up twice a night to go outside.

Grand day out

2010-04-10T13:54:00.007-04:00

The weather is nicer and pastures are drying up after the flooding. Today all of the girls and babies got to go and eat nice green grass. Of course the lambs made the most of the opportunity.

And they're off. Derry is so pleased to have other lambs to run with!

Here are some better pictures of Cammie's twins. They are both growing nicely and are very nice rams.

William is quite shy and still the bigger of the two he is a handsome guy though.

And I still can't get over how much Wallace looks like Sunny did when he was born. He's going to be an awesome ram. Can't wait to watch him grow more.

Sabrina chose to stay inside today so I think more lambs are on their way :) Have a great weekend everyone.

Guess who's home?

2010-04-06T18:53:00.004-04:00

Well a week early but Marcus is home. His breeder said he was doing so well she thought he could leave. So on Saturday we went to collect him. He's only 6 weeks old and weighs in at 2lbs and 9oz.

He likes to play and nap and that's about it lol.

He's adorable and takes up all my time (plus I have been sick with a cold) so I promise better pictures of the very handsome William and Wallace soon. I'd type more but he's asleep on my lap right now which pretty much sums it up.

Ain't no foolin' about

2010-04-01T16:17:00.005-04:00

Quite the day.

After all of the rain we have had our basement has flooded (again) so we spent time the other night family bonding and using wet/dry vacs to get rid of some of the water. I think that helped me get a stinker of a cold. So today I feel rough and have college etc...great timing for Cammie to lamb. She is a first time mom and looked uncomfortable this morning so we closed her off from everyone else, threw down extra straw and I arranged to come home in-between classes

to check on her. My partner was also checking every hour and would call me if something

happened. In my break I came home and noticed that she had one small hoof visible with some bag. I watched. And waited. And waited. 30 mins later still nothing so now I am worried and call my vet. I find gloves, lube, and lambing supplies and while on speakerphone to the vet feel what leg it is. Front. And a chin. With the vet over an hour away I feel around for the other front leg. I think this encouraged her to finally push seriously and within a minute with my assistance we had a ram lamb.

Introducing William weighing in at 5lbs.

All seemed well and I was pretty convinced that was it, Cammie wasn't that large. Sometimes nature likes to prove us wrong though and literally within 15 minutes hooves and a face appeared and another lamb hit the ground.

Introducing Wallace weighing in at just about 4 1/2lbs and looking like his daddy.

Cammie was wonderful drying them up and getting them to nurse. Both were up and eating within 10 minutes of being born. Everything seems to be going well. What a day to come home sick! Sorry the pictures aren't the best they were very young here and will look much better tomorrow or the next day when they can go outside and are all dry.

Who, what, and when? Competition.

2010-03-25T17:08:00.007-04:00

So the remaining girls due to lamb this year were sheared on Monday too. I managed to get side and front shots of almost all 3 of them yesterday. To enter to win the prize (more about that at the bottom of the post) you need to guess the order they are going to lamb and what they are going to have example Sabrina first twins both rams and then the next sheep. Easy right? :)

This is Sabrina. 3 year old ewe who has had twins on each previous lambing.

Back view of Sabrina.

This is Gypsy. 2 year old ewe who last year had twins.

Back view of Gypsy.

And finally this is a back/side view of Cammie. 1 year old who is having her first lamb/s this year.

The most accurate guess will win a copy of the wonderfully comical sheep detective story called 'Three bags full' by Leonie Swann, it's written from the sheep's perspective and is a fun read.

Closing date is Sunday at 5pm. Obviously I won't know the winner till the lambs arrive but I am hoping that won't be long. I am happy to mail the book internationally as well.

Naked sheep

2010-03-24T16:45:00.007-04:00

The sheep were sheared on Monday afternoon and unfortunately for them it got cold on Tuesday. Today it was sunny (but windy) so everyone went outside and got to show off their do's.

Sunny looks wonderful and the shearer remarked what a great fleece he had especially for a ram. He has kept a good weight over winter and breeding season.

Dreamer looks very good too and spent most of the day stretching out in the sun. Dreamer is leaving us in the summer to go to a new great home. I am on the look out (and wait list) for a ram lamb lol.

Daisy Mae looked taller with her fleece off. And still skinny but not as far off height wise from Jacqui as I thought. Hopefully the spring grass will do her some good and she'll look better by the summer. That's Jacqui in the background her fleece was awesome. Can't wait to skirt it.

Jewel is looking good but plump. She is not supposed to lamb this year, I guess I know who has been eating Daisy Mae's food!

Amelia and Derry are doing well although I hope more lambs arrive soon for Derry to socialize with.

Lambing game for the pregnant girls will go up tomorrow. I need to think of a prize :)

A very fun day

2010-03-20T18:51:00.006-04:00

Today we went to go and see our new puppy. We decided to get another dog almost 6 months ago and took a while to decide on the breed. I finally decided I love the Jack Russell terrier that I have (Binson) so we looked at a breeder in our area. After being on the waitlist for a few months our puppy finally arrived.

His name is Marcus and he shares his birthday with mine, although I didn't find that out until today.

He gets to come home in 3 weeks just after Easter and we are very excited to have this addition to our family.

I can hardly wait :) I wonder what Marcus will think of the sheep?

Day outside

2010-03-20T08:38:00.004-04:00

Yesterday Derry spent her first day outside with her mom. The weather here was beautiful and she had a great time jumping and running around. Fortunately she was still enough a few times to get a couple of pictures.

She's a cutie.

The chickens also went outside in the garden yesterday prepping the ground for spring planting. They had a great time scratching in the dirt and eating grass, and bugs.

Today is an exciting day. But more on that later :)

A nice surprise

2010-03-17T18:23:00.003-04:00

Well this morning Amelia surprised me with the first lamb of the season here at Ridgeway Farm. A little ewe lamb that we have finally decided to call Derry (all girls are D's this year and boys will be W's) as she is a St. Patrick's day baby. I checked all the girls last night ironically and thought I was safe from lambs until the shearer arrives on Monday. Amelia didn't feel like she had very much milk so I am wondering if Derry is a little premature. My dates have her a week early.

Anyway mother and baby are doing very well. I am interested by the number of single lambs people are getting this year. Amelia had twins last year her first time out so I was expecting 2. That being said I am very happy with one little girl.

Better pictures will be taken in a few days when they can go outside.

Eck what a delay

2010-03-16T10:14:00.006-04:00

Sorry readers for the delay. February got away from me, and March has been busy. We are just recovering from 5 and 1/2 inches of rain in the past 3 days. This is what my middle and back pasture look like today.

As you can see we are waterfront property right now. The Assabet river doesn't normally start until past the fence in the back pasture lol. We were told the pastures "got a little damp" when we bought the property.

My shearer is due to come on Monday afternoon (finally) and the girls and boys are looking forward to having last years fleece removed. The weather is supposed to be lovely in the next few days so they should have plenty of chance to dry out.

Still no sign of lambs :( I am hoping they will arrive soon, and should have a better idea for due dates after they are sheared.

That's all for now. I am off to go and practice trailer loading with Muppet.

30 minutes well spent

2010-01-31T10:16:00.014-05:00

It is very cold here today (again) and so the chickens got oatmeal for breakfast. I decided while they were eating that I would go and spend some time with the sheep.

The 4 girls' who have been bred were enjoying their morning hay in the sunshine. Cammie has grown such a long fleece that even going up 2 sizes in coat she is still growing out of this one. Her coat underneath looks amazing though and I can't wait to see what they are all like after they are sheared this year.

Amelia is by far my biggest looking ewe. She might very well lamb first, hopefully around the start of March.

I liked this shot of Sabrina, Cammie and Amelia all eating.

The boys are getting along well with each other and rarely butt heads these days.

Sunny has grown up to be a complete sweetheart.

And Dreamer too, although he can be a bit of a clown at times.

Daisy Mae finally fits into the smallest sheep coat I own (a size c). She is still putting on weight and growing well and I am interested to see her progression over the summer. I think it might take her until she is 2 to reach her full size and really judge her.

Jaqui is becoming very friendly and has an amazingly soft fleece. She has discovered the wonder of animal crackers and now seeks out attention.

Her and Daisy Mae get on very well. They are actually only a day apart in age even though this is hard to tell by the size difference.

I liked this picture of Jewel, Daisy Mae and Jacqui.

Of course the whole time I was being watched :)

I have been busy ordering my lambing supplies. I made sure I have milk replacer on hand, although I hope to not need it, and some other essentials that I was getting low on. I'm going to spend the rest of the day relaxing. A good book and warm fire sound like heaven.

Rest well Annabelle

2010-01-23T11:12:00.006-05:00

It was a sad morning. When I went out to the coop today I found Annabelle had passed away sometime in the night. She/he had been a little funny yesterday stuck in a corner, but was eating and drinking ok.

Annabelle has never been well. She arrived as a tiny chick who would only stand on one leg.

We tried making a boot for her but her foot was always horribly twisted.

She/he had good days in the summer and would come over to us, sit in our hands and allow us to move her to be with the other chickens.

Despite her bad leg and often strange behavior, the other chickens never picked on her. We never found out if she was a rooster, although we did hear her crow a few times.

This winter was hard on her and she spent more days inside in the shavings, not doing well with the cold and the snow. Her good leg started to curl too. I guess today was God doing what we couldn't. RIP Annabelle and enjoy running around heaven on your 2 good legs. I bet you look beautiful. It feels silly crying about a chicken that you know is in a better place, but we miss her anyway.

Sheepy post

2010-01-12T11:03:00.007-05:00

The girls are all doing very well. Hopefully in a few months or even weeks lambs will be on the ground.

Sabrina is getting to be an old hand at this being my oldest sheep in the flock. She's just happy that she gets animal crackers every other night when I sit with the girls as Daisy Mae eats.

Amelia is becoming a lot like her mom Hermione and comes over for attention now instead of trying to run away.

The single girls are doing well too. Daisy Mae has put on another 2lbs, and although she still looks smaller than Jacqui she is continuing to grow nicely. Any ideas on how to put extra weight on her though would be good.

Dreamer just wanted to make sure I paid attention to him to, he's such an attention seeker and loves it all.

I go back to college this week. But I need to spend some time coming up soon pulling hay out of everyone's fleeces and trimming hooves. Almost time to contact the sheep shearer :)

Pictures from England

2010-01-07T17:53:00.008-05:00

There were a a few pictures that we downloaded of my mums that were not taken in the States that I thought I would share. These are from a walk at Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittenham_Clumps, a walk I took many times when I lived in England. I love the view from the clumps as well.

From there she walked down to Dorchester-on Thames and around the Abbey. I like the stone work.

You can see all the paintings on the wall, apparently even more impressive in real life, and some great stained glass.

Then the walk back along the Thames river and up the clumps.

All of this with her 2 (soon to be 3) toy poodles Ashley, and Rowan (the doggles are to help her eyes) no doubt, although this is them at the park a few days later in the snow.

Wish I could have been there. I feel quite nostalgic for England and miss it sometimes. Might need to try some fish and chips tomorrow for dinner.

Parents visit part 2

2010-01-06T13:52:00.009-05:00

So one of the places my parents wanted to visit was the barn where I board my horse Muppet. We managed to make two trips out there for a lesson and just a visit. Both of my parents were impressed with how lovely Muppet is, they hadn't seen him for 2 years and he has grown up very nicely.

Here he is posing for the camera with us.

This is the barn owners 2 dogs Cat and Pie.

And one of the barn workers (Steve's) new malamute puppy Malachi.

This is Muppet and I in our lesson.

Another thing we had to do was make the most of the snow and go sledding. It ended up just being Ian, my mum and myself. Ian did have fun though.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'll hopefully put up some of the final pictures my mum took when she was here. I hope everyone is enjoying them :)

Parents visit part 1

2010-01-05T09:24:00.010-05:00

A belated happy new year to everyone.

My parents flew back to England yesterday after spending a lovely week here in Massachusetts with us. We celebrated Christmas (again), and New Year, and generally had a great time. Here are some of the pictures my mum took when she was here.

The sheep in the snow.

A few of our breakfast guests that ate while we enjoyed their variety and color.

All of us after a walk on New Years day.

More pictures in the next part. Hopefully up tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-19T13:19:00.005-05:00

It's been a long time (again) since I posted and updated you all on life at Ridgeway Farm. I have been busy finishing up with college for the semester. I also got the very sad news the other night that my grandmother in England died. Finally I have been busy with Christmas preparations. My parents are flying out on the 28th of December, and we have been getting everything ready here for that.

Here is the Christmas card we took for 2009. Left to right is Fiona and Annabelle, Sandra and Binson, Ian and Jubjub, and me and Daisy Mae. Thank goodness it was her as I never would have been able to lug Jacquith through the snow.

We have a winter storm warning ready to hit tonight, hopefully I can make the best out of it and get some good pictures tomorrow of everyone in the snow. I broke up the breeding groups at the start of December and everyone has settled back into their groups and are doing very well. I am of course hoping for lots of ewe lambs this spring.

Here is my blast from the past for you to look at. Muppet wasn't my first horse. This is Jack my first horse. He was a 5 year old OTTB who I owned for just over a year.

As you can see Muppet followed along pretty quick.

I don't know what it is about grey horses lol. That's a lot of bathing.

That's all for today. I hope everyone is getting ready for the holiday's, only 6 days to go.

Catching up

2009-11-20T14:55:00.008-05:00

It's been a weird sort of month so far. First of all thank you everyone for the condolences for Mighty Mouse. The following Sunday our son lost one of his guinea pigs which was very sad too, and ou yard now looks like the start of pet cemetery.

Then I attended Equine Affaire in Springfield with my friend Alex, it is a huge horse event and we had a blast shopping, watching a clinic and collecting freebies. The next day I had a medical conference in Boston which was also good and I got even more free things. My son (been a bad month for him) also had H1N1, but so far everyone else in the house is well. He is better now and back at school thankfully. Oh and somewhere in that week I had time to break a finger and hyperflex a thumb on the same hand lol. However life is finally getting back to normal and I am looking forward to catching up on all the blogs I follow. So here are some pictures for you all.

A glorious sunrise from the start of November.

Christina the very broody silkie.

The brown breeding group of Sunnys. For some reason they all grouped into the shade.

Cammie looking like she is about the burst out of her sheep coat.

Sabrina taking in the sun.

Jacqui also enjoying the rare sunshine.

And the best picture I could get of Jewel who is sad not to be in a breeding group, and now insists on trying to be a close as possible to me.

Thanks again for your patience, I will try and update sometime soon. My daughters birthday party is the weekend and I have too bake a cake tomorrow for it before I take her to see "New Moon'.

Sad note

2009-11-01T16:16:00.002-05:00

Mighty Mouse died today. It was very sudden and we don't know why. He played most of yesterday running around the outside of his wheel (which was what he liked) and was so much fun to watch. Anyway we buried him in our yard with a small bowel of food and the socks he liked to sleep inside.

Hopefully happier news soon.

A little bit of everything almost.

2009-10-26T18:45:00.013-04:00

Today was very nice here at Ridgeway Farm, although I actually spent a lot of it at Muppet's barn clipping him. No pictures of that as I haven't done it before really and it didn't look great lol. Poor guy has to wait for his hair to grow in. Anyway I did take random pictures around the farm.

Here's a before

and after shot.

This is what I spent my Sunday doing. I still need to finish off the white trim but I think it looks quite nice. I have also insulated the inside so it looks like a shiny silver rocket lol.

My Grey's Anatomy inspired silkies Meredith,

Izzie,

and Christina are looking all grown up and are laying little pink/creamy eggs.

Jaquith is wearing the latest fall fashion accessory. Hay. All the sheep are predicted to be wearing it this winter. You read it here first.

Daisy Mae got weighed in today at 30lbs! That's a weight gain of 2lbs in the last 2 weeks. Very nice progress and she does look much better.

In non-farm news my mum back in England is getting a new puppy who was born on Sunday morning. Her name is Martha and she's one of the little bundles of joy below.

Phew I'm pictured out!

A wee nip in the air

2009-10-15T07:43:00.005-04:00

Yesterday and today saw us waking up to quite the frost here in Massachusetts (they even say it might snow this weekend). I didn't have time for pictures yesterday but here's todays snaps.

Still waiting for the sun to rise more at 7am.

Frosty mums.

Dreamer's thinking today might be the day lol. I am not sure Amelia is convinced yet.

Daisy Mae is enjoying her morning snack. I am letting her eat grain and hay in the barn with me in the mornings while I muck out. She's increased her body weight by 17+% and is growing nicely.

Jaqui is looking really good in her coat. She actually went up a size last week, I wish I'd gotten pictures of her fleece. It is so soft.

Well that's all for now. I did get some pictures of the other group but they all came out looking a little possessed with the flash or something lol. I'm off to Provincetown on the Cape for the weekend after my midterm tomorrow. I might try to find a sweater for Binson my Jack Russell, she is really feeling the cold this year and it's only October.

Stay warm everyone.

Cats and mice...well mouse technically

2009-10-11T15:22:00.005-04:00

Here's the long awaited update for Might Mouse. He's doing great and eating solid food. He has more than doubled in size and only gets a small handwarmer at nighttime now. Here he is with one of his favorite foods, a raisin.

He's still pretty tiny and not heavy enough to move his wheel or ball around yet, we're not sure how much bigger he is going to get.

Obviously the house cats Puff (ginger) and Spuckie (grey) are not overly stressed about a mouse being in their house though :)

The breeding groups are going very well. Everyone seems very content with each other and the boys are still behaving nicely still. I need to go out and buy pumpkins for everyone soon. I hope everyone else is enjoying this very nice Fall.

Let the fun begin

2009-10-05T07:51:00.009-04:00

The leaves are changing here at Ridgeway Farm, which means breeding season is upon us. On Saturday I put all of the sheep in their groups. The weather was horrible, so there weren't many picture opportunities.

Group 1 is Dreamer with Amelia. She had 2 lovely black lambs last year and was a wonderful mom.

Group 2 is Sunny with Sabrina, Gypsy and Cammie. Sunny has more because I loved the lambs from Sabrina and Gyspy with him last year, and breeding Cammie to him just makes good sense.

I'm very excited to see what lambs are produced this year. Last year we had a wonderful group of lambs, and so my hopes are high.

Jewel says "I seem to have been overlooked."

Yes, Jewel has a year off (I hope lol) and so is playing baby sitter to Jaqui

and Daisy Mae. Neither one is old enough to breed this year. Daisy Mae has gained 17% of her body weight in 7 weeks and is doing great, as you can see she is a bit of a loner.

Here's wishing all of my sheepy friends a successful breeding season :)

Vegetables, fruit, and eggs

2009-09-25T10:57:00.007-04:00

Well it's that time in the year when all the fall fruit is ready on the trees. Our pear tree is overflowing this year. None of the fruit will win a medal for beauty, but the taste is wonderful.

This was our first ever pumpkin.

The spaghetti squash was quite the over-achiever this year with it's harvest. This is half of them. The sheep have already eaten a lot.

The bell pepper plant on the deck gave us 2 peppers that are ready to be picked.

And here is a sample of the egg variety we are having. From left to right we have the mammoth egg by the mystery layer, pale green, pale pink and pale blue are the easter eggers, Rosalie's brown egg is next and finally we think this might be Annabelle's first egg as it seems to be bantam sized. We are still waiting for the silkies to get laying :) I believe their eggs are a creamy color.

Fall has arrived here and I am starting to look at breeding groups for the sheep in the next week. Let the fun begin.

Our newest house guest

2009-09-22T07:58:00.007-04:00

On Saturday my partner asked me if I saw the mouse that one of our barn cats Miss Kitty had killed that morning. There was a tiny baby beside it. We didn't think the baby was alive at first. It was very cold and barely breathing. She put it in the sun with some hay to warm up while we mucked out and I think we both expected to find it dead when we had finished. But no he's a fighter (we think he's a he lol).

So inside he came to get warmed up. He drank pedialyte for a day before starting on soy milk baby formula. He needs to drink from a piece of rag as everything else is too big for him.

He weighs less than an ounce. And for now he goes by the name Mighty Mouse. I'm happy to say he is doing very well...even if he does get his formula all over himself. His eyes are even beginning to open.

I guess we need to buy him a little cage with a wheel :) Hopefully he continues to be healthy and grow strong.

Finally sheep

2009-09-19T10:18:00.011-04:00

I know I promised a sheep post a week or more ago but life went rather busy on me. Anyway it is a lovely day today, so I spent some time with the girls' in one of the small paddocks as the boys' enjoyed the pasture.

Can you spot the sheep?

There she is.

This paddock needs mowing as the weeds are taking over the grass. Not that Sabrina is complaining.

Or Jewel.

Or any of the other girls' for that matter.

All of the girls' are doing great. I need to change a few coats for the next size up. I'd also like to get hooves trimmed this month. It's not long before I start breeding groups, which is always a fun time (trying to keep girls' away if they are not breeding). Oh and don't tell the sheep, but we have our first easter egger eggs this week. Aren't they pretty? Rosalie is still laying about 6 eggs a week too.

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Busy weekend

2009-09-08T08:07:00.005-04:00

I apologize in advance for another chicken post. I promise the next one will be sheep related. Our labor day weekend was spent building a chicken pen that can be moved onto a fresh area of grass every day.

It's 8ft by 8ft and the girls' seemed to really like it.

They already have the hang of waiting by the coop and pen door and then running to the new pen for their grass. Annabelle has to be carried over, but she/he? still moves around just fine, and isn't getting picked on.

Rosalie is still our only egg layer so far and has given us 5 eggs in 6 days. I'm sure the others will start this month now they are 5 months old.

The cats like the pen too and are really enjoying 'chick TV' :) This is Sugar our abandoned barn cat. She's a sweetheart, hence the name.

Anyway that's all for today. I have college now and won't get to be home until it is dark. It's going to be a long day. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

What eggcellent surprise

2009-09-03T07:48:00.005-04:00

Yeah it's a cheesy title I know. But today we got our first egg!

It is small but perfectly formed, and great for a first attempt. My powers of deduction lead me to believe that it is from Rosalie our Buff Orpington.

I know what I am having for lunch today :)

What a nice day

2009-09-01T15:00:00.013-04:00

The weather is lovely here in Massachusetts today. Not hot or humid, and not cold or rainy. If I was Goldilocks I would think it was just right. The geese are migrating, and in the evening they fly over the house calling each other.

The chickens run to the front of their pen every morning (or time I walk past) to see what I will drop in for them.

Miss Kitty (one of the barn cats) caught me a mouse today and then sat in the shade after she had eaten it...she was kind enough to leave the head on the barn floor.

The sheep are happy enjoying the grass. After all the rain we had last month everything sort of exploded and grew. Amelia is mid-ear wag.

Daisy Mae is doing well and growing. She still feels thin but is getting better.

Jacqui is also growing very well, and has settled in great.

I don't have pictures but I have been riding again. I had my third ride back today and worked on getting Muppet in front of my leg. So far he has been super, and we are both having a good time getting back into work. Unfortunately college starts back on Friday so my summer vacation is over. I hope everyone had a great summer though.

Bolton fair report

2009-08-17T08:42:00.003-04:00

Wow what a weekend!

The Bolton fair went from Thursday to Sunday this year, a new 4 day idea. I had to be there Saturday, and Sunday with my sheep staying overnight. Saturday I was by myself and that was the main Shetland show day and featured breed demonstration. Sunday was other breeds and the best in show classes.

On Saturday I loaded up Sunny, Cammie, Jacqui, and Daisy Mae (who was just going to watch), and drove the 20 minutes to the fairgrounds. I managed to get 2 pens that were in the shade, although the temperatures were in the high 80's and low 90's both days, and settled everyone in. I met fellow competitors and sheep fans, and found out the breed featured class was at 1pm with the show classes taking place after that.

There were over 50 Shetlands at the show which was really great. The breed feature went really well, there were 6 or 7 breeders (myself included) and we all did a part of the talk. We covered breed history, conformation, colors and markings. I talked about conformation, and we had several sheep in the ring that people could come up and feel so they understood what to look for. We managed to represent 11 of the colors and quite a few markings. People really seemed to enjoy the chance to pet our sheep. I was so impressed with how the sheep behaved as they were in and out of the ring for much of the hour. Sunny still managed to wag his tail everytime he was petted. I think serious consideration should be given to a Shetland with the waggiest tail class lol!

After the demonstration/featured class, the actual show began. There was a large yearling ram class which I am proud to say Sunny won. We did not win champion ram, but I was happy to win the yearling ram class with him.

Then Cammie was in a huge yearling ewe class of maybe 16 other sheep which she won, she then went on to win Champion ewe.

Jacqui placed a very respectable 3rd in another large junior ewe lamb class, the judge said she liked her fleece a lot but also said that white does not do as well against the colors. I was still very happy with her and think she will do well next year.

Outside of the ring I had managed to get Gypsy's fleece skirted for the wool show. I entered natural color and won. The fleece also went on to win best in show. Wow.

Sunday started hot. The sheep all got admired throughout the day. I encouraged young children to pet the sheep and feel Sunny's horns, and give out the occasional animal cracker. He was such a good boy and always had a little wag of his tail. Daisy Mae spent the weekend with her head in the hay bag lol, but did get admired a lot in the featured breed class where she showed off her flecket markings.

Cammie competed in best in show but did not win. It is hard for shetlands to compete against meat breeds, but I think the judging over the 2 days I was there was very good, and the shetland judge on Saturday was excellent.

Overall it was an amazing weekend. I met some really nice people. Got helped a lot on Saturday by some great 4H er's and really couldn't be happier. Below is a picture of what I bought home from Bolton. It's actually missing the best in show fleece rosette (I couldn't find it Sunday). Still I think it's impressive. Nadine (at Painted Knoll) you can be proud too as you bred them :)

Now I need to unpack everything and relax. Thank goodness it is Monday lol.

My busy day

2009-08-13T16:36:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I spent 12+ hours on the road with my friend Alex as she was kind enough to drive me to Pennsylvania and most of the way back. Our mission was to pick up the last ewe I am buying for a while hopefully.

This is Twin Springs Daisy Mae.

She is beautiful, but rather tiny at the moment (as you can see when she is next to Jacqi). It was lovely to meet Sandy and her husband who were kind enough to meet us halfway. On the 6 hour drive home she didn't make a sound. We are all hoping that in my small flock she'll face no real competition for food. She spent all of today with her head either in a hay bag, in a grain tub or in grass lol so it is going well. I will take weekly weights to assess her progress but she does have nice long cannon bones to grow into.

Who can resist such a sweet face?

Daisy Mae already comes over for pets a little, and Jacqi seems to have really taken to her. I think she is a wonderful addition to my flock and hopefully will make just as good an addition to my breeding program eventually.

Sheep spa day

2009-08-08T14:39:00.018-04:00

Today it was the turn of the sheep to be hosed off for the show. They still have a mild shampoo (for faces etc) and hoof trimming on either Tuesday or Thursday but this was just to get off the dirt. Sunny stood like a pro and actually seemed to enjoy it. He's been butting heads with Dreamer though, and has managed to chip part of his horn. Hopefully that's ok.

Cammie was not happy about it, but I was so happy with her leading and standing that I didn't mind.

Jacqi looked like drowned rat until she had a good shake.

I also thought people might like chicken pictures. So here is Annabelle the rooster, he got out of the coop this morning all by himself. He was supposed to be a hen but has done a few funny crow things and has a very red wattles and comb. The name Annabelle has stuck though.

And Rosalie our alpha chicken.

And a few of the girls' enjoying some corn from the cob.

This is the spaghetti squash plant that is taking over everything.

All-in-all a beautiful day.

It finally feels like summer.

Horsey spa day

2009-08-06T16:55:00.011-04:00

I have been very busy recently with the teaching the sheep to halter train, looking after the chickens (especially Annabelle the rooster with the gimpy leg), physical therapy for my shoulder etc. But today has been planned for weeks. My friend Alex and I arranged a spa day for our horses at the barn where we board. Bridle and ears paths were trimmed, muzzles, shaved, ears and legs were clipped. Horse boy parts were cleaned (sheath cleaning for the horsey amongst us) and then the boys were shampooed and conditioned. When they were dry they were groomed and polished, and finally pictures were taken.

Here's Alex's horse Mikey looking all shiny.

And handsome.

And Muppet my horse Muppet who really liked everything.

Except for losing grass eating time.

Hopefully the weather here stays nice because this weekend is spa day for the Bolton sheep!

More halter training

2009-07-29T09:17:00.006-04:00

The other evening we did more halter training with the 3 sheep going to the show. Just some walking up and down the driveway. Everyone stayed on their hooves this time.

Sunny was very good. He needs more work standing square but we'll keep practicing that.

Cammie is becoming more affectionate and walks very nicely now in her halter.

Jaquith walked followed the other sheep very nicely, and is getting more used to being made a fuss of.

Luckily we have 2 more weeks of halter training to go before the show...oh and baths. Should be fun! We also finally have sunshine here so the vegetable garden is exploding, it should be a good harvest.

Edited to ask if anyone knows a place to buy paper twine? I am entering a few fleeces in the show and they can only be tied in that. Thanks if you do, I have looked everywhere.

Lazy day (and something for a friend)

2009-07-27T13:26:00.006-04:00

It was finally a sunny day when I went to the barn so I took a few pictures of my boy Muppet. He's had about 7 weeks off now and is getting a little bored.

But today he was very happy to be out on the pasture with his best buddy Basil. They are like the Bert and Ernie of the barn and have their own special whinnies to each other...super cute.

And here's a picture for my friend Alex.

Mikey sends you big kisses.

Hopefully this evening we can do some more halter training at Ridgeway Farm of the sheep showing at the Bolton Fair. I'll try and get some pictures of that too.

I'm back

2009-07-20T18:58:00.007-04:00

Well just about. Surgery went very well and the doctor discovered the source of the problem was in her own words "a huge bone spur, and more bursitis than I'd ever seen before." Today I had my second session of physical therapy and can get a full range of movement (as long as someone else moves my arm), and there is less swelling there now than before the surgery. Unfortunately I can't really use my arm much and am forbidden to pick up anything heavier than a dinner plate in it for a few more weeks. I just want to know when I can start riding again and mucking out.

Anyway the show must go on. So halter training began today for the sheep going to the Bolton Fair. This years fair is a big deal, the featured sheep is the Shetland and I have been asked to talk about conformation. I'm using the NASSA site but any more information would be gratefully received.

Here's Jacquith showing her pose for the ring. It's only her first time being lead and she actually got the hang of it near the end.

Cammie is a pro, but needs work on standing still in position.

Sunny was a little rambunctious, but again got the hang of it and managed well.

Oh, and the chickens are growing wonderfully. Here's Christina one of my silkies looking adorable.

Tomorrow I am visiting Muppet. If the weather is nice I'll take my camera.

And introducing

2009-06-27T15:55:00.005-04:00

Well with the rest of the lambs leaving today it was lovely to actually get a lamb to join the flock. I have wanted a white lamb for a year or two, and was very excited when Nadine at Painted Knoll showed my pictures of this girl.

So here is Painted Knoll Jacquith, Jackie or Jac for short.

Super cute.

The pasture looks rather empty now (empty but not quiet lol). Xander and Colby left for their new home with Donna in NH, Cinnamon and Cheyenne left for their home in CT with Penny, and Cara went to Nan at Hythe farm in MA. I am sad to see them all leave but so happy that they all found really good homes. I should be going into winter with 9 sheep, which means I have 1 more arriving :)

Just a small update

2009-06-24T19:44:00.003-04:00

No pictures sorry, you can blame the wonderful New England weather which has been rainy for several days. It is supposed to get nice tomorrow so maybe I can get some then?

I just wanted to update because Crystal and Xavier left today for their new home in Vermont *waves to new owner and hopes to see a blog from her soon* they were fun to load up as Crystal is just a hoot. However it was sad to see them both leave and on Saturday the other babies all go to their new homes :( Luckily for me I get a little something at that time.

I just wanted to warn everyone that after next week I might not be posting for a while. I am due to have surgery on my shoulder on Tuesday and until the surgeon knows how bad the repair is I don't know what my recovery time will be. Could only be a week in a sling, might be 6. I'm just hoping it takes the pain away, and means I can use my shoulder properly for the first time in over a year.

I'll work on those pictures soon.

Walk, leap or lie down?

2009-06-15T07:49:00.011-04:00

Yes it does sound like a the name of a game show, but it's actually the big decision every lamb has to make when he, or she starts their halter training. Our lambs began theirs on Saturday and here are the rather comedic outcomes.

Cheyenne was the best at walking straight away with her halter. She only had a few moments of lying down but she did very well.

Cinnamon lay down a lot before she understood.

Xavier did the best leaping.

Before her got it.

It was all too much for Crystal though who just lay down.

Xander played dead. We did manage to coax him into a more upright position later on.

Colby half got it. Sometimes she lay down and sometimes she walked ok.

It really was a shame not to catch some of the more put out facial expressions. But hopefully you have a taste of how halter training went. Right now they are a work in progress.

Muppet the early years

2009-06-06T16:29:00.019-04:00

So I totally missed blogging about my wonderful horse turning 7 on the 1st of June. I even didn't get any pictures of him as my shoulder has been acting up, and my friend Alex got hurt that day too. But to make up for it here's early Muppet.

I got Muppet from The United Pegasus Foundation (http://www.unitedpegasus.com) he is a PMU baby. That stands for a Premarin baby. The drug Premarin being made from pregnant mares urine, the consequence being that each year hundred of foals (the unwanted by product) are sent for slaughter. I was told he was a quarter horse paint mix and this was the picture I saw of him.

Some nice people shipped him to the barn I was boarding at in California for free, and here is what he looked like the day her arrived. Completely wild and ungroomed lol. He was not used to people and no-one could touch him.

He quickly grew to be quite a looker and here he is at a year old.

Here's my first wonderful attempt at clipping him. Luckily even though both of us didn't know what we were dong he felt cooler and happier at the end at that was the main thing.

When he turned 2 he filled out more and you can really see the horse he's going to be around this age a little more.

This is the first time he wore a saddle at 3 and a bit, just before we moved from CA to MA.

Stretching the legs at home in MA.

And this was his first winter at home in MA before he decided to jump the pasture fence and have to be boarded out.

At 5 years old my mum and dad got to finally meet him when they came over on a visit from England. This is one of my favorite pictures of him that my mum took.

Sadly I have not been as good about documenting the last few years, something I will do better at, and this is the last picture of him I took this winter at his new barn with one of his friends.

Hopefully I will do better about documenting year 7 of his life with me.

In non-Muppet news. Chloe and Celebration left today for their new home with Holly. I think they are going to have a very happy life together.

A big treat

2009-06-04T13:55:00.008-04:00

For the chickens today as they got to enjoy watermelon in the sunshine. This is the end of their first week outside and they are doing really well.

Almost all of them go into the coop at night by themselves, except for Annabelle and her bad leg who wait for someone to pick her up and put her inside. They can all go outside by themselves in the morning.

The watermelon was a success.

I love my chickens. They are so cute.

Lambs, rams, and grass

2009-06-03T15:51:00.012-04:00

My partner and I finally got the middle pasture fenced in with PermaNet this weekend so the flock can get locked out there. It take 5 rolls so there is plenty of space for everyone, and the boys and girls are happy to get along together.

The only problem is that some of the babies lose their moms in the long grass. How many babies and moms are out here?

Here's Cinnamon wondering the same thing.

The boys think it's nice to be out of their paddocks and are being perfect gentleman so far.

The babies are growing so fast.

Chloe and little Celebration leave Saturday for their new home. They are going a few weeks early as they have an event to attend. I'll miss their little faces.

Here comes the sun (picture heavy)

2009-05-21T09:54:00.015-04:00

Plenty of opportunity to get the promised pictures of the babies sunbathing and munching on the spring grass.

This is the best picture I could get of Crystal. She is so friendly that I think I'll need to get someone to take the pictures of her for me. Anyway this is her following me around the paddock.

Here's Xander enjoying the grass I really like how he is put together, he is super solid and an all around nice ram.

Cheyenne has become a real fan of attention and I always enjoy stroking her very soft fleece. I love the little white markings on the inside of her legs.

Celebration and Chloe are enjoying the same patch of grass.

Here is Cinnamon in a rare moment of not trying to sit in my lap.

Xavier is such a friendly guy and who could resist this face? His fleece is wonderfully soft and his little horns are so cute.

This is Cara enjoying the shade.

Hopefully we can stay cool today.

Picture day

2009-05-12T14:53:00.016-04:00

Ugly chicken phase

2009-05-07T19:39:00.011-04:00

My chicks are four weeks old now and really um blossoming.

Here's Rosalie out Buff Orpington looking like she's part dinosaur.

Amber the Buff Chantecler who is a beautiful color.

Poor little Annabelle the bantam Buff Brahma with the gimpy leg. All the other chicks are super nice to her. We thought maybe it was splayed leg and tried to treat it but she won't put the leg down. She's a cutie anyway.

And the 3 silkies, Meredith, Izzie and Christina, who look like they have been shocked. They are so cute.

I love the chicks. They have grown so much already. I miss the fuzzy stage. That being said, I can't wait until they can move out to the coop. I just have to finish painting the coop lol.

In shoulder news it's all quite confusing with first MRI saying there's a tear and will need surgery. The second MRI showing no tear and a cortisone shot should fix it just fine. I got the shot. Still waiting for it to feel better, but I do have a nifty click now every time I move my arm. Now I am seeking a second opinion.

Let the races begin

2009-04-29T12:08:00.010-04:00

Today I actually remembered to take my camera out in the morning when the lambs are first let out to try and get shots of race day.

So here they are off down the hill.

Even Celebration is joining in now for half of the circuit.

Cheyenne gets some real height and twist.

Everyone is fascinated by the hole of dirt.

Xavier thinks it is all too much.

That's all for now. I love spring.

How to cheer myself up

2009-04-28T16:44:00.012-04:00

So my shoulder MRI did not go well and I needed to cheer myself up. What better way than to go and watch the lambs being silly?

Here's Chloe fighting a stick...and loosing. Unfortunately I missed the next part when she fell over trying to wrestle it out of the way.

Cinnamon playing with the ball.

Xander just being silly. He loves his attention, but is being very respectful. Plus his face is so cute and cheeky, or should I say handsome? Xander has been sold and I thought his new mommy would appreciate this picture.

Celebration proving a lamb is a much faster learner than a baby. Let's see a thirteen day old baby do this. Celebration has also been sold and is going to a wonderful home with Chloe too (Hi Holly *waves*)

And Cara having a dig in the dirt. She is my youngest lamb and I think she's wonderful, her fleece is so soft and silky.

In shoulder news I have actually torn my rotator cuff and need surgery soon. I have a contrast MRI tomorrow, which involves dye being injected into the shoulder joint and then a 45-60 minute MRI. I am told the injection hurts rather a lot. Oh and on the last MRI I got rather claustrophobic *sigh* not something I am looking forward to. The surgery will ruin my whole summer that I had planned to show Muppet and the sheep during...oh and learn to surf. Better luck next year I guess :(

Fun in the sun

2009-04-24T16:26:00.008-04:00

It's a warm day in Massachusetts and I made the most of it by sitting out with the lambs lol. It is actually supposed to be nice all weekend so I am sure there will be another blog post in the next few days too.

Anyway here is Xander (the lamb previously known as Xeno) in a rare moment of stillness. I think it lasted almost 30 seconds. He is my first lamb to be sold, and is so incredibly friendly it's hard to get good pictures of him.

And another terrible picture of Cheyenne - who yes Michelle does look like she has sugar lips - so is modified. I just have no idea what color she will go, and am completely fascinated by her little silver belly still. I'm open to ideas.

Crystal is doing really well and is such a pretty girl. She spent quite a long time jumping over my back in the pasture when I was lying down.

The sunshine and games were too much for Cara and she had to take a nap in the shade.

And of course I needed to include a picture of Celebration who is checking out the toys in the new paddock.

All-in-all a beautiful day.

Last lambs of the season

2009-04-18T16:30:00.005-04:00

Sabrina had her lambs this morning. I thought she would lamb last night so I moved her to her own stall. Of course she had to wait until I gave up and put her back in with the others. Anyway they are two girls! After having only 1 ewe lamb last year I made up for it this year with 6 ewes and 2 rams.

This is RF Cara. It's a bad picture, but she is solid and a very dark moorit right now with a beautiful crimpy fleece. She weighed in at 6lbs.

This is RF Cheyenne and she is the strangest color we've ever had. She has a silver looking patch on her belly and I just love her facial markings. Very dark moorit right now like her sister. She also weighed in at 6lbs.

Unlike the very leggy Xavier who looks like he might go fawn like his momma

and Cinnamon

I'm incredibly happy with this years lambs. Now the fun of playing with them and watching them grow begins. Have a good weekend everybody.

Lambs, and flowers, and chicks oh my

2009-04-17T16:49:00.011-04:00

Another day is coming to a close and it was definitely spring like here in Massachusetts. So what better way than to spend my afternoon, than to spend it in the barn.

Celebration is getting up and about better, and even went to college today where she got to sleep through Nursing Research. I wish I was that lucky. She follows me around everywhere, and I feel terrible when I have to leave her in the barn. I keep telling myself she needs to be with other lambs. *Sigh* I am not sure how I will sell her, I am thinking of letting her go as a pet.

Crystal is growing like a weed. She looks taller every hour, and hardly leaves her mothers side.

The adventurous twins Xeno and Chloe are trying to look innocent...and not like they were caught eating the dirt.

And Xavier is too comfy to go outside in the sun (Cinnamon was sleeping too).

The flowers are finally coming out. Leaves will be next.

And the chickens are growing their feathers. They think they can fly now and are getting quite exciting to clean out.

Tomorrow is the start of the long weekend, but I get to wake up early for my MRI. Lucky me.

I'm seeing spots everywhere

2009-04-16T09:39:00.008-04:00

Gypsy had her lambs at around 4am this morning when I was out feeding Celebration. 1 ram and 1 ewe, and wow their fleeces are stunning. Sonny (Painted Knoll Suncook) is their sire. Here's RF Xavier who weighed in at a very leggy 6 1/2lbs .

And his sister RF Cinnamon who weighed in at 6lbs on the dot.

Mother and babies are doing great.

Jewel is being a wonderful mother to Crystal who is very friendly and curious (and tall).

And the terrible twins Xeno and Chloe are taking an interest in Celebration (who is doing very well). They want to know when she can join the lamb races.

Now I need to nap lol. Oh and the chicks have decided they can fly! I need to get pictures of them as they grow up so fast.

Lambs born and help needed!

2009-04-15T09:31:00.004-04:00

Well Nancy was right and Jewel had her lambs this morning. Twin HST girls' with plenty of flash. The only issue being that she has completely rejected the youngest and violently butts her away. We tried tying her up short so the little one would feed but she would just lie down on her. So we have taken her in and started bottle feeding her.

Here's where the help is needed. I've only bottle fed once, a few years ago, and can't remember much. How much and how often should I feed? I have dried colostrum that I am feeding now and will have milk replacer by the end of the day.

Anyway here is RF Celebration in her lamb warmer. Who could reject this face? She weighed in at 7 1/2lbs.

And RF Crystal who weighed in just over 7lbs and is doing very well with her momma.

Who's first? You tell me

2009-04-14T18:48:00.012-04:00

Because I thought Jewel would be first but Amelia has beaten her already. So feel free to guess who's first, when and what they will have :) So here's some backside views.

Jewel. Well the important bits anyway lol.

Sabrina.

And Gypsy.

In other news I opened up part of the middle pasture and now the boys and non-pregnant ewes are enjoying the grass. This is Ian (my son) and my incredibly wonderful mellow ram Dreamer enjoying the sunshine, I swear he's smiling.

And getting belly rubs from Fiona (my daughter).

And Sunny just because he's super handsome too.

Still no more lambs at Ridgeway Farm but hopefully not long to go. How many will there be? I've no idea.

Outside time, and oh my is that a blimp?

2009-04-09T16:23:00.006-04:00

It was a nice sunny day today so after work and my riding lesson I could let the lambs out for their first time when I got home.

The other 3 ewes ignored Amelia and the babies who stuck pretty close to their mamma.

I think Chloe could almost smile for the camera.

After finally looking away from the babies I notice exactly how large the other ewes have become. I swear Jewel's milk looks ready to explode, she reminds me of the Hindenburg disaster.

Gypsy is looking big for a first timer.

And Sabrina is quickly catching up.

Hopefully this means someone will lamb soon....or I will have to start renting out advertising space on their bellies and letting them film sports events :)

They're like popcorn

2009-04-08T09:50:00.010-04:00

Today Amelia and her lambs moved out of the jug and into the stable. I don't think Chloe or Xeno stopped bouncing the whole time I was there unless they were drinking.

Here's the best picture I could get of Chloe so far. She was 5lbs at birth which is small in my mind but full of energy now. Here she is bouncing as her mother looks on. Obviously future sheep gymnastic star.

And here's Xeno sporting the latest fashion accessory, soon all of this years lambs will be wearing them. He weighed a very respectable 5 and 3/4lbs and is very cute despite his unfortunate name (all of this years rams have to start with an X).

Here they are getting ready for take off and mid-bounce. Their poor momma has her hands (or hooves) full with these two but is doing great.

The other sheep are so far not following Amelia's fine example. But they are getting very large. I expect twins out of Sabrina and Jewel but maybe only a large single out of Gypsy as it is her first year. Hermione is a few months behind (baaaad girl) and not due until the middle of May.

All of the chicks are doing well. The cats and dogs are interested in the brooder - which is a baby play pen - but at least listen when we tell them to leave the chicks alone. Watching chicks is almost better than TV.

Hopefully more lambs will grace this blog soon. Until then have a great day.

The chicks arrived!

2009-04-07T14:35:00.013-04:00

Well after yesterdays surprise lambs my day old baby chicks arrived today. I ordered from My Pet chicken as you could have a smaller order and they put in heat packs instead of packing peanut roos. Oh and they sex bantams.

So I ordered 2 Buff chateclers but only 1 arrived.

1 buff brahma bantam who is very tired from the trip.

1 buff orpington caught mid-poop.

3 Easter eggers, but only 2 arrived.

And 3 silkie bantams of various colors. They should be black, buff and blue but the blue looks more white. They are tiny compared to the Buff Orpington.

Right now my coop is being finished and looking very nice. The chicks have all eaten, had some water and taken a poop. I'm a little disappointed that 2 chicks didn't arrive but at least so far everyone is healthy and the ones that arrived will have more room in the coop.

Xeno and Chloe are doing very well and hopefully the weather will get warmer and drier so they can go outside and I can get some good pictures. They are both so cute. That's all for today unless more surprises greet me later :)

Amelia's lambs

2009-04-06T18:39:00.007-04:00

Well this was a very pleasant shock. I went out to the barn to bring the sheep in from the rain and found two little lambs just born. If I was a betting woman I would have lost money because I thought Jewel would be first.

Instead let me introduce RF Chloe.

And RF Xeno.

Both babies and momma are doing well. Both are black for now but could be any shade of grey. They are out of Amelia who is light grey and Dream Weaver who is black. They should both carry spots although the markings will most likely fade. Hopefully I'll be able to get better pictures in a few days, and maybe the other ewes will feel inspired now to lamb lol. Oh and if that's not enough excitement chicks are due tomorrow or Wednesday and my coop is almost finished. Things are looking up at Ridgeway Farm!

A blah kind of week

2009-03-28T17:06:00.002-04:00

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.

Time to take those coats off

2009-03-13T18:18:00.014-04:00

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.

Is it March already?

2009-03-07T16:45:00.008-05:00

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?

Horse related

2009-01-23T20:01:00.005-05:00

I'm sure I've talked about my wonderful horse Muppet, he moved to a lovely new boarding barn a few months ago and has really settled in. Here he is with one of his buddies Emir.

He's really growing up and maturing a lot in lessons. We even started learning to jump this week after concentrating on dressage for the last few months. In fact we will be showing this year and beginning to school cross country which is scary but cool at the same time.

Oh and this picture is me attempting to be artistic. The picture is taken in daylight and I thought it was quite pretty through the clouds. Anyway sheep pictures will follow in the next few days. Or that's the plan anyway.

One of the groups

2009-01-10T15:55:00.008-05:00

So I thought I'd put up a few pictures of one of the groups for this year. This is Painted Knoll Suncook with his two girls Hythe Sabrina and Bluff Country Gypsy. I am really looking forward to seeing what happens with this group.

I am expecting some lovely shades of the brown spectrum and hopefully some flashy markings lol. The fleeces in this group should be wonderful as well.

This is the first year breeding for both Sunny and Gypsy and the second year for Sabrina who had twins last year (Bella and Yates). I am of course hoping for ewe lambs...I'd consider dancing around the paddocks if I thought it would do any good! This groups lambs should be here around the start to middle of March if my math is correct.

Sheep chores for the month are a little more halter work and some hoof trimming. I need to contact my shearer and arrange for them to come out in March as ell. This way my fleeces will be skirted and ready for the MA sheep and wool festival in May and maybe even CT and NH too. Oh and send in my NASSA dues.

We are expecting more snow tonight. Hopefully I can get some snowy pictures of my second group. I also need to get some good pictures of Hermione and Colby as I think I am going to sell them this year to make room for the color lambs I want to join my flock.

That's all and I hope everyone had a happy new year.

A belated thanks

2008-12-27T18:24:00.003-05:00

Sorry it took me so long to post my thanks to you all. It has been a hard few weeks and I keep getting very depressed. The other 3 dogs are trying to take help. Christmas eve (which I normally adore) felt so depressing though that I didn't even go and ride Muppet. I did make up for it on Boxing day though with extra grooming, treats and a lesson.

Today I separated my groups so now I have the 2 rams and my wether together, 4 bred (hopefully) ewes and 3 open ewes. The boys had a little tussle but are in a small space and I threw in straw bales to break it up even further. I also made a sort of ram shield out of a cut up baseball hat for Dreamer as he is so much bigger than Sunny. Hopefully I can get some pictures tomorrow if our weather improves.

I hope everyone had a happy holiday season. Sorry for the lack of pictures but I'll work on that. I just wanted to post my thanks.

Sad day

2008-12-06T19:47:00.003-05:00

Well there are no pictures today. Only tears. Last night Ji (our husky) had a massive seizure and we made the tough choice to put him down today. He was miserable and restless and would not have tolerated more medication. The vet was very nice, we hadn't seen her before. After assessing him and asking about his history she was actually convinced that he had a brain tumor, and there was nothing we could do for him. We stayed with him as he went to sleep, held him in our arms, and told him how much we love him.

Hopefully I'll be able to post a more uplifting post next week.