Finally the rain has stopped

We have had a whole lot of rain here in here in Massachusetts, although I was lucky enough to get a reasonably nicer day for my show last weekend, and today it was nice enough for everyone to be in the larger pasture again.

Ulric and Uther and growing up very nicely. I will start halter training in a few weeks now that I have finished college for the summer.

Ulric is the bigger of the two and has much more impressive horn buds for his age.

He also really takes after his sire in his facial markings. This is Horseradish, and Vladamir our wether who has actually been sold. We are brining in a new wether who I am very excited about. More on him at a later date.

Uther is the shyer of the two, although he is small there is something about him that is special. His horn buds are almost non-existent right now. He should make a nice flock sire if he keeps heading in this direction.

This made me chuckle.

Eliza was asleep in the hole that the lambs normally play in! Silly sheep.

And here is Muppet and I at our first show of the year. It went pretty well with for the first show, lots to work on though. It is nice that he is growing up, he will be 10 years old at the start of next month.

Baby chicks are coming next week. I must start on the new coop this weekend. Hopefully the rain stays away for a bit longer. Lots of change going on in the flock this year. Looking forward to hopefully selling some sheep and brining some new ones in.

Seeing spots

Well Isabella finally had her lambs Monday evening. Very adorable and flashy twin rams. They are both moorit, although the patches on their backs look dark enough to be almost black. Mom and babies are both doing wonderfully. Today was my first chance to get pictures because the weather in Massachusetts has been horrible for the last few days.

This is the only slightly older of the boys. His name is Ulric (to continue our U theme) he weighed in at 6lbs.

Uther arrived only minutes after his brother, also weighing in at 6lbs.

I was sort of hoping for a ewe lamb out of Isabella as I would have liked to keep it, maybe next year? But who could be unhappy with these two cuties, although they are both going to be for sale.

Faina and Usher are growing fast, and both thriving under their mothers care.

Usher even showed off how he could scratch his growing horn buds.

The chickens enjoyed their first chance in days to get out and scratch up anything to eat. In a few weeks I will start work on making them a new coop, as we have baby chicks arriving soon.

I am happy with the conclusion of our tiny lambing season. 4 lambs. 2 sets of twins. 3 rams and 1 ewe.

They're here!

The first lambs of the season have arrived at Ridgeway Farm. This morning Jewel gave birth to a lovely ewe and ram set of twins. This years letters are F for girls and U for boys. Both lambs are up, nursing and very lively. Jewel is being a wonderful mother.

The little girl (black and white) is called Faina and weighed in at 7lbs. She has a little white tail, but looks like her fleece will stay black.

And this is Usher who weighed in at 6lbs. He also has a little white tail, and quite the set of markings!

Spring is obviously here in Massachusetts with lambs, blossom on the trees

and bulbs flowering.

The chickens are enjoying lots of time out of the coop to range about looking for food and good places to dust bath.

The dogs are enjoying a lot of yard time to play.

Lily is growing up so fast.

We only have one other ewe left to lamb. Hopefully Jewel has inspired her lamb soon for us. I hope everyone else is having a wonderful spring, and a happy lambing season.

The good and the bad, but still here.

Sorry about my extreme lack of updates. I was very depressed over Binson's death and miss her terribly. Here's a list of things that have happened since then up to today.

Over Christmas we welcomed a new Jack Russell puppy into our family, we have called her Lily. She and Marcus get along like a house on fire which is great. Below is her a picture of her on the day we picked her up. I will dedicate a post to her soon. She has grown a lot!

Now the less than happy news...

We lost our other elderly dog Zorra in January. It wasn't sudden, and was almost a relief, but death is always sad.

We had to rehome our rabbits as my partner was having terrible allergic reactions to hay in the house all the time. They now both have great new homes and are very happy.

This week Eleanor (one of last years ewe lambs that we kept) became caught in the fencing overnight and was dead in the morning. Her pasture mate Eliza stayed by her side and wouldn't leave her side. It was all horrible and very upsetting for us and the flock. It does mean that this year I will be looking for gulmoget ewe lamb to add to my flock...and maybe a nice flecket.

Today everyone was sheared.

This is Vladamir our wether looking handsome.

And Horseradish our ram. I love him using his horns to scratch himself!

And never knew he had so many spots under his wool!

This is Eliza on the left, and Isabella on the right.

And a very pregnant Jewel, although my shearer thinks Isabella will lamb first. Any thoughts?

It is freakishly warm in New England at 68 degrees today where we are so I think everyone is enjoying their new haircuts and the sunshine. Here are some happy sheep pictures.

That's all. A mixed bag of ups and downs. But spring is here, and lambs will be here in a few more weeks. Happy spring everyone!

A sad time

Well I apologize for not posting or being around recently but things are very busy. Hopefully they will settle down now that the horse showing season is over for me. I have had a very sad week with the sudden and unexpected loss of my ten year old Jack Russell.

I got Binson shortly arriving in the United States.

She was a wonderful dog to have and loved to cuddle next to me on the sofa. When the days got colder she could always be found under a blanket or soaking up a patch of sun.

Unfortunately on Monday she was diagnosed with a very large cancerous mass on her spleen. The vet was kind enough to call it a "ticking time bomb" and I knew we would only have hours or maybe days left with her. She was tired and uncomfortable so on Tuesday we decided to put her to sleep.

When my heart starts to feel a little better I will post a picture of my breeding group. The sheep are doing well with the lambs continuing to grow and mature and my new ram getting along well with his girls.

I've been busy

Very busy. Showing sheep and my horse, etc etc.

This past weekend was the Bolton Fair. Our very local country fair. I took along my ram and my two ewe lambs to show. My new ram Rad (Horseradish) did wonderfully winning his Junior ram lamb class, and then going on to win Champion Shetland ram at the show.

Eleanor and Eliza entered the ring, forgot their halter training, and promptly threw themselves down on the ground. My poor son had a terrible time keeping Eleanor on her feet, although even with this she did manage to second, and the smaller Eliza did alright and came fifth. Overall very nice and promising for next year. They're not standing well in this picture, but at least they are on their feet.

I did manage to squeeze in some time to watch events. I saw some very cute animals.

Oh, and we added 3 animals to our ever growing family. My son purchased a very young guinea pig (no picture yet) that he has called Teddy Bear. And my partner and I finally bought rabbits. So this is my rabbit Julius.

And my partners rabbit Octavian. We seem to have a Roman theme going on. A proper cage is on it's way.

I also managed to take my horse Muppet to NEDA's fall schooling show. Here's one of the proofs from the event. We also got Reserve High Score with a 68.75 which made me so proud of my horse. Time to start learning the Training level tests.

After all of this, I feel a little like Marcus my puppy.

So what have you been up to?

We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave

As I sit inside being blasted by a fan I thought I would post a quick update. We are suffering in a heat wave here in Massachusetts at 1oam it was already in the 90's. For my friends/family in England that translates at around 30+ degrees. Throw in some humidity and it's pretty yucky outside right now, and not much better inside with no A/C. In fact I am going to a movie theatre later today just to appreciate the cool for a few hours! The animals are doing ok, the fans are blasting in the sheep barn and there are buckets of water a plenty. The other night it was a little cooler (ok so there was a breeze), and I managed to get some halter work done on the lambs.

Eliza still isn't sure about it, but has started to eat animal crackers and I think this will help things progress.

Eleanor was even less unsure. But if a cookie happened to be dropped near her she might be tempted to eat it. Still a mommy's girl she has been the hardest to train, but still any progress is good right now (just realized the picture makes her look like she has 3 legs lol)

Rad is a delight to train. He has become friendly and curious about me and I can even play with his legs already.

My son Ian has taken over training and looking after our wether Vlad, the two of them get on very well, and I think it is sweet when Ian asks if we can "go and walk the lambs tonight?"

Fruit bushes are doing very well. We had so many strawberries this year that we made jam. I still have goosberries left to make jam from as well, when the weather cools down a little. Blueberries and raspberries have a little less fruit on them.

Wonder where the ripe berries have gone?

They are on the way to the pool, and might just get picked in passing on the way there and back again.

I also was busy doing another dressage show with my horse Muppet last weekend (sorry no pictures) and was so happy with him as we scored in the 60% in all 3 tests, he was also such a grown up and really listened.

That's all for now. I hope you (and your animals) are staying cool. Do you have any tips for how to beat the heat?