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!

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.

Lamb update and my view

This is the view from our deck this morning. It's not a sunny day but the weather is nice and all of the sheep are enjoying the grass.

Sunny had to rub himself across the gate before I closed it. I know he's not a lamb but it's too cute not to share, although I wish I got the shot about 30 seconds later when the gate slide open and he fell sideways onto the grass!

I finally managed to get a good picture of Dakota (left) and Delia (right) both girls are dong very well and looking forward to going to their new home later this year.

Along with Winston who is very handsome and has some lovely looking horn buds so far.

Wilbur will also be leaving for a great new home as a pet wether. I think he'll enjoy all it (maybe not the wethering part lol) but he loves the attention, and is the friendliest of this years lambs.

He'll have his sister Dixie with him who is also very friendly and I am excited to follow their progress as they grow up. I love hearing from the owner with updates and pictures, and helping out where I can by answering any questions.

Wallace (left) also has a new home, isn't he beautiful? I love his fleece. So far William doesn't but I am sure he'll find one soon. Both boys look like horn buds are doing well.

Diana is the only other lamb remaining for sale. Until sold she is happy here and enjoying lamb races and grass.

Derry has been sold and is now living the high life on Beech Hill farm and ice cream stand in New Hampshire where she will be representing the Shetland sheep breed and getting a whole lot of attention. Daisy Mae says she's not going anywhere though. Even though it doesn't look like she'll reach the right size she's too much of a character to part with.

Finally Marcus is now 13 weeks old. He was photographed at SmartPak last weekend by their professional photographer and this is one of the pictures I got. He starts puppy class in a few weeks which will be fun.

I'm still working on my website http://ridgewayfarm.webs.com/ let me know what you think of it. I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Naked sheep

The sheep were sheared on Monday afternoon and unfortunately for them it got cold on Tuesday. Today it was sunny (but windy) so everyone went outside and got to show off their do's.

Sunny looks wonderful and the shearer remarked what a great fleece he had especially for a ram. He has kept a good weight over winter and breeding season.

Dreamer looks very good too and spent most of the day stretching out in the sun. Dreamer is leaving us in the summer to go to a new great home. I am on the look out (and wait list) for a ram lamb lol.

Daisy Mae looked taller with her fleece off. And still skinny but not as far off height wise from Jacqui as I thought. Hopefully the spring grass will do her some good and she'll look better by the summer. That's Jacqui in the background her fleece was awesome. Can't wait to skirt it.

Jewel is looking good but plump. She is not supposed to lamb this year, I guess I know who has been eating Daisy Mae's food!

Amelia and Derry are doing well although I hope more lambs arrive soon for Derry to socialize with.

Lambing game for the pregnant girls will go up tomorrow. I need to think of a prize :)

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.