More arrivals

It must be spring.

Jaqui surprised us with a ram lamb today. A surprise because it turns out Jaqui is black (tiny black spot on back of one ear) with one huge white spot, and also because we didn't think she would lamb second. Here is RF Vance weighing in at a hefty 7 1/2 lbs. He's a cutie pie.

And our next surprises occurred a few hours later when Jewel gave birth two a ram lamb, here's RF Vaughan an incredibly handsome fellow and weighing it at 6 1/2 lbs.

And then our first ewe lamb of the year. Introducing RF Eleanor (ewe lambs are E's this year) who will be staying here. She weighed in at 6 lbs. I was getting worried we would have all rams and I would have a hard time coming up with that many V's!

Valiant and Valentine are doing wonderfully. Here's Valiant in mid spring. Amelia is being a very good mother.

Only Cammie is left to lamb. She's looking like a wide load and has at least twins. I'm actually hoping for a ram and a ewe out of her but would be happy with two ewe lambs. Just crossing my fingers they aren't both rams.

Finally!

After all the waiting the first lambs of the season have arrived!

Amelia gave birth to twin ram lambs this morning. Most of the family was there to watch the births, and the pregnant ewes looked on through the stable doorway. Ram lambs this year will be named starting with the letter V (ewes will be E). So without further ado here is RF Valiant.

He's more of a lover than a fighter right now (hopefully it stays that way) he is the oldest by about 10 minutes and weighed in at six and a half pounds.

And here's his twin brother RF Valentine.

A little more shy but with a wonderfully soft fleece. He weighed in at six pounds.

Mother and babies are doing well. I think Jewel will be next and she could be very soon.

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.

Shearing day

Today was shearing day. The weather co-operated and the sheep seemed happy to get their fleeces removed.

It's always so much fun to see how the sheep look underneath all that wool, and have a feel of the fleeces. I forget how small Shetlands actually are underneath that amazing coat.

Everything went very well with only one nick to Sunny on his ear when he put up some ram like resistance. Everyone else, even Isabella who had her first shearing experience behaved.

The four bred girls don't look due for a few weeks more at least. They are large and happy though so I can be patient because lambs will be here before I know it. Jewel looks the largest, but only because Amelia hides behind everyone else.

I know I haven't been blogging, it has been a hard month or so on all fronts. Ending the other day with the decision to send Griffin to market. I am also still considering how to decrease my flock and will have Sunny and several ewes for sale this year (as well as lambs) so it should be an interesting year.

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!