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.

A summer day

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?

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.

Happy Memorial day

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

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

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.