More snow, and more sheep (photos)

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

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

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?

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

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)

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

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.