Seeing spots

Well Isabella finally had her lambs Monday evening. Very adorable and flashy twin rams. They are both moorit, although the patches on their backs look dark enough to be almost black. Mom and babies are both doing wonderfully. Today was my first chance to get pictures because the weather in Massachusetts has been horrible for the last few days.

This is the only slightly older of the boys. His name is Ulric (to continue our U theme) he weighed in at 6lbs.

Uther arrived only minutes after his brother, also weighing in at 6lbs.

I was sort of hoping for a ewe lamb out of Isabella as I would have liked to keep it, maybe next year? But who could be unhappy with these two cuties, although they are both going to be for sale.

Faina and Usher are growing fast, and both thriving under their mothers care.

Usher even showed off how he could scratch his growing horn buds.

The chickens enjoyed their first chance in days to get out and scratch up anything to eat. In a few weeks I will start work on making them a new coop, as we have baby chicks arriving soon.

I am happy with the conclusion of our tiny lambing season. 4 lambs. 2 sets of twins. 3 rams and 1 ewe.

They're here!

The first lambs of the season have arrived at Ridgeway Farm. This morning Jewel gave birth to a lovely ewe and ram set of twins. This years letters are F for girls and U for boys. Both lambs are up, nursing and very lively. Jewel is being a wonderful mother.

The little girl (black and white) is called Faina and weighed in at 7lbs. She has a little white tail, but looks like her fleece will stay black.

And this is Usher who weighed in at 6lbs. He also has a little white tail, and quite the set of markings!

Spring is obviously here in Massachusetts with lambs, blossom on the trees

and bulbs flowering.

The chickens are enjoying lots of time out of the coop to range about looking for food and good places to dust bath.

The dogs are enjoying a lot of yard time to play.

Lily is growing up so fast.

We only have one other ewe left to lamb. Hopefully Jewel has inspired her lamb soon for us. I hope everyone else is having a wonderful spring, and a happy lambing season.

The good and the bad, but still here.

Sorry about my extreme lack of updates. I was very depressed over Binson's death and miss her terribly. Here's a list of things that have happened since then up to today.

Over Christmas we welcomed a new Jack Russell puppy into our family, we have called her Lily. She and Marcus get along like a house on fire which is great. Below is her a picture of her on the day we picked her up. I will dedicate a post to her soon. She has grown a lot!

Now the less than happy news...

We lost our other elderly dog Zorra in January. It wasn't sudden, and was almost a relief, but death is always sad.

We had to rehome our rabbits as my partner was having terrible allergic reactions to hay in the house all the time. They now both have great new homes and are very happy.

This week Eleanor (one of last years ewe lambs that we kept) became caught in the fencing overnight and was dead in the morning. Her pasture mate Eliza stayed by her side and wouldn't leave her side. It was all horrible and very upsetting for us and the flock. It does mean that this year I will be looking for gulmoget ewe lamb to add to my flock...and maybe a nice flecket.

Today everyone was sheared.

This is Vladamir our wether looking handsome.

And Horseradish our ram. I love him using his horns to scratch himself!

And never knew he had so many spots under his wool!

This is Eliza on the left, and Isabella on the right.

And a very pregnant Jewel, although my shearer thinks Isabella will lamb first. Any thoughts?

It is freakishly warm in New England at 68 degrees today where we are so I think everyone is enjoying their new haircuts and the sunshine. Here are some happy sheep pictures.

That's all. A mixed bag of ups and downs. But spring is here, and lambs will be here in a few more weeks. Happy spring everyone!

Happy 5th of July

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 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.

Snow day

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!

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.