Amelia's lambs

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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.