Another addition

Yesterday I drove a 650 mile round trip to pick up Twin Springs Dakotas Isabella, or just Isabella for short. It was a long, hot, and humid drive and I am glad it was the last long trip of the year for me.

She travelled very well, and is settling in with the lamb flock.

Griffin is also coming along very well. His halter lessons are going well and he comes over (respectfully) for attention now which is great.

Jaqui is a year old now, and is doing a wonderful job baby sitting the lambs. I need to work on some halter sessions with her as well before the fair in August.

Anyway that's all for now. I am still tired :) I hope everyone is staying cool we are in the 80's and 90's with around 70-80 percent humidity. Hope we get some rain soon.

Griffin update

Well Griffin is settling in very well.

He has just started going out with the moms and baby group. He dwarfs the other lambs and is a very big boy. The other lambs seem to like him a lot, following him around, and their moms were very curious smelling him too.

He is very curious of me. Doesn't run away but doesn't get too close either. I have managed to rub his head a few times. I am hoping to start halter training him now that the weather has cooled off for a few days in the hopes of showing him this summer. That should be some fun pictures!

In non-sheep related news Marcus is almost 5 months old :)

One week to go until there's another new addition at Ridgeway Farm. Now I need to go and cut down things growing up my fences.

A new addition

Today I drove over 500 miles to pick up my new ram. He actually had a much longer journey but a couple of people transported him a few places for me (thanks Tiff, and Sally). Unfortunately now I am too tired to get a picture of him here, but here are his baby pictures.

Introducing Windswept Griffin II

I think he's super handsome and the pictures don't actually do him justice.

Right now he's tucking into some hay and just chilling. Hopefully tomorrow I can put him in a paddock by himself and get some good pictures. Oh and just to tease, this is not the only trip I have to make this year. I have another equally long trip next week :)

Leaving lambs

2 sheep left yesterday and 2 more went today leaving the barn feeling quite empty. I still have my flock and 4 lambs that won't leave until August, and I have 2 lambs arriving in the next few weeks. Still it's sad to say goodbye to these faces. Sorry about the dark pictures we've been having a wet time of it so all of them were taken inside.

I made the hard decision to sell Daisy Mae as a pet. She looked like she would never make weight and I worried about keeping her with 2 rams around. I'll miss her sweet face and funny antics around the farm.

She left with Diana (another tiny tot) to go and live on 200+ acres of pasture with a few other sheep and some mini donkeys. Obviously a hard life.

And today Wilbur (the new wether) and Dixie left for their new home.

It made me happy how excited all of their new owners were as I know they all have great homes. Of course I am very excited to be getting my new sheep. I can't wait to show them off :) Anyway I am off to eat spaghetti and meatballs that my son made for dinner. Have a great night everyone.

Halter training (picture heavy)

This evening my partner and the kids took part in the ever fun halter training of the lambs. I try and get all of my lambs introduced to halter work before they leave, although I warn new owner that it is a work in progress, and something they will have to keep doing. This year I had quite a few leapers, although a couple of the boys also really behaved well which was nice.

This is Wilbur by far the best behaved of the bunch! He has what I suspect are small scurs which I thought was quite interesting.

And this is Winston another well behaved ram lamb who only assumed the napping position once on his walk.

Dixie did not like the experience at first....

although she got the hang of it eventually.

Diana thought that lying down and being petted was actually the aim of the game. Now if someone could bring her out her hard feed it wouldn't be a bad life.

Wallace threw himself around like a banshee until finally understanding life was better with 4 hooves on the ground.

Delia did pretty well and even tried some cookie.

Dakota didn't think much of the whole experience.

We even brought Jaqui out to show them how it is done. As a yearling I am hoping to show her this year. She is very solid, and has a beautiful fleece under that coat. On the plus side she also remembered her leading lessons from last year.

So that was this evenings fun. Now I'd quite like a nice glass of wine. All of the lambs will be leaving in the next few weeks. I will miss this group and their beautiful fleeces. I also have a couple of grown up sheep leaving for various reasons. But I have 2 new lambs joining my flock that I am very excited about. Now about that wine...

Happy birthday Muppet

Well another year has passed and my horse Muppet turned 8 today. To celebrate I gave him a spa day treatment and then he got a massage. It took about 1/2 a bottle of blue shampoo to get him (especially his legs) this clean lol. The log was carved by Steve at the barn where I board and I think he did a great job.

Muppet's really doing well in everything right now. I am excited about this summer and hope that we can finally get to a show together. I would like to do a dressage class with him but it will be a first for both of us. This fall we are aiming to do a hunter pace too. For anyone new to my blog Muppet is a PMU gelding who I rescued as a 6-8 month old. I decided on June 1st to celebrate his birthday and every year I buy him a present, he's really rather spoiled. This year he got the lovely black and white halter he's modeling, it even has a spiffy silver nameplate.

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.