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.

Sad day

Well there are no pictures today. Only tears. Last night Ji (our husky) had a massive seizure and we made the tough choice to put him down today. He was miserable and restless and would not have tolerated more medication. The vet was very nice, we hadn't seen her before. After assessing him and asking about his history she was actually convinced that he had a brain tumor, and there was nothing we could do for him. We stayed with him as he went to sleep, held him in our arms, and told him how much we love him.

Hopefully I'll be able to post a more uplifting post next week. 

Non sheep photos

Well the dogs were all out running around in the yard this weekend, and I got a few pictures so here is the pack. First of all we have Murphy. As far as we can tell he is a Miniature Pincher mix. He is a rescue and we have had him since he was a year old. He is also not the brightest dog in the planet and is more likely to sit if you say "peanut butter" than "sit".

Next we have Binson. She's a Jack Russell and absolutely thinks she is in charge....she's the smallest! Binson likes to sleep underneath the covers with her head on my pillow.

Next we have Zora. She's our old lady dog. No idea on her breeding (another rescue) but she's always reminded me of an Australian dingo.

And finally we have Ji our youngest. He's a Siberian Husky and is the problem child as he has recently become epileptic. So far he is doing a little better on the medications (and diet) so we are continuing to hope for the best.

Well that's the pack. All of these dogs and non of them work sheep lol!