Last of the lambs

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

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.

A lovely spring day

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.

Finally an update

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.

Ain't no foolin' about

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.

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.

Catching up

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'.

Sheep spa day

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.

More halter training

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.