MORE LAMBS!!!!!

Early this morning my final pregnant ewe gave birth. This time I was ready though. Unlike Izzy, Bea dropped and it was increadibly obvious! So I got up extra early to check and see what presents awaited me... twin ewe lambs. Which will make 4 ewes and no boys! Which is ironic because close friends who also have shetlands have had 12 ram lambs and 1 ewe lamb this year. That fifty fifty chance seems to be unefective. The names are tenitive HOWEVER, I am pretty sure that they will be Melody and Nova. (Nova is the one im not sure about. She might end up being Hamony). Melody is a brown\moorit gulmoget with a gorgous face just like Eloise. Nova\Harmony is black at the moment, not sure how that will turn out, with small white spots on her body, and facial markings. Both are sweet as can be!

Melody with mom Bea in the back

Melody on the left and Nova on the right

Nova trying to escape the picture. I have found that it is extremly hard to get them to stand still long enough for a good shot! Although Melody seems to pose more than Nova.

Nova taking a nap

Eloise has gotten so big! She couldn't stand not having part of the spotlight so she insisted that I get at least one good picture of her...

Eloise and Poppy nursing on a very complacent Izzy.

Eloise and Poppy have grown up fast. Eloise seems to be the most personable at the moment, her hobbies include chewing obsessivly on everything in her path(mostly me and any garmets I have on) and running around with a combination of boinking, hopping, and leapping. Poppy is quite happy with the ocasional running match and spends the rest of her time lazing in the sun.

LAMBS!

This sunday Izzy finally lambed. After months of waiting they were finally here. Two little girls who are perfect and adorable in everyway. Today is their first day playing with the rest of the sheep, as I let them out with my two other ewes and everyone seems to be getting along great. Both are gulmoget, but neither of them look to be black or shaela. I believe, looking at the minimal amount of wool they have that they will be either a gray or an emsket, somewhere inbetween mom and dad. Poppy has the blettet facial markings just like mom, but hers look like eyebrows. And Eloise has what I believe is a flecket facial marking. Up until this point I hadn't realized that gulmogets could have addtionial markings but I guess they do! Izzy has been being a great mother, and despite her irritation with Minnie, for existing, things have gone smothly.

The twins when we found them in the morning

Eloise on the left and Poppy on the right. Pooppy loves to sleep on that rock:)

Eloise behind Izzy

Poppy

Eloise is in the back and Poppy is up front. (Poppy is a great headrest)

Poppy dosn't like to pose for pictures, but were working on getting a good head shot...

Bea looks like she is getting ready to lamb, her colostrum is in her udder and I am really exited to see how her babies turn out. And I honestly think Minnie is super exited to have the babies around because now she will have someone to play with! They were chacing her earlier and she was having a great time.

Its been a while...

Sorry its been so long. Everything has been super busy. With sheep and school and everything else going on in life its been hard to keep up. Anyway, here is what has happened in the last few months...
Minnie:
My newest addition has continued to sprout and grow although she is still noticably smaller than the rest of my flock. Her short fleece has continued to grow and it looks wonderful. She is super soft and has slowly become very friendly. Her favorite scitching place is on her tummy\chest and she has started to allow me to pet her face. She was a little slower than the others to warm up to me, but her personality has bloomed into a sweet, sassy, and adorable little girl. Watching her in pen she enjoys bouncing and hopping, twirling in the air, and most of all attaching Izzy in an attempt to instigate some michivous fun.

Minnie, a little bit dirty

Minnie and Izzy hanging out in the snow.

Minnie on her first day in Bolton. She is in with the pen with two sheep who belong to some friends.

After a small scare, we have come to the relieving obersvation that she is indeed, not pregnant. She managed to get in with Vaughan a few times after Bea broke down the doors. Ugh.
The Shed:
Me and My dad spent every weekend from the end of summer to the end of october to complete my new shed. It is a wonderful thing, and something that I am enternally grateful for. Its nice and spacey, has two stalls that can potentially be broken up further and we will be putting an attic in this spring!!! Yay!!!

The Shed during building process

Another picture of it  being built.

Minnie and Izzy are in one stall, and then Vaughan and Bea are sharing the other. I wish that I could put them all together but I don't know what another Vaughan and Minnie encounter would entail... I guess they are happy as they are. Its just another water bucket I have to fill. (I also realized that i dont have any pictures of it together so I will work on that...)

Breeding:
Vaughan, that lucky boy, got to spend a month or so with some very pretty girls. Along with Izzy and Bea, our good friend Tay Tay Cole got to come party. After a shaky start, they were all as happy as clams. They were put together on Oct 15th and therefore lambing is due to begin the 7th of March. However, looking at their tummys and udder signs (get it... its a play on words) I believe that they will most likely be due in late March early April. I'm working on some names, and it turns out that my BattleStar Galactica theme may not work out, as I have decided that Honey Bee would be an adorable name if Bea has a little girl. Izzy looks as if she may thow a single, but Bea is a bit larger on her sides may give me a set of twins.

Topsfield Fair

Its been two weeks of jam packed activities since Topsfield, which is why this post comes so late. Topsfield was a wonderful occasion for two reasons. 1) We had an excellent show! Bea managed to snag champion ewe away from Izzy, who came in second place. Bea and I also made it into second place for our entertaining efforts in the obstacle course. Izzy and I received second place for lead line, and I am entirely exited to begin planning next years outfit. Vaughan did quite well and he got first place ram lamb but lost to an absolutely beautiful yearling.
Our last fair of the season was probably my favorite. I hung out in the cow ring with 4-H friends, saw massive pumpkins, scratched a Clydesdale, walked through the vendors, and ate a magnificent turkey/cranberry sauce gobbler (like a thanksgiving leftover sandwich).
We ended up outside in a tent for the two night we stayed over, and conveniently it poured both nights and soaked the beds and everything else. Luckily my clothing was in a waterproof sports bag! But really, I enjoyed every last bit of it and eagerly await next show season. Next year, hopefully, we will add a few more shows onto our schedule including Cheshire fair.
The next bit of exiting news is the newest addition to my flock. Minnie (registered Hermione, ironically named after another Shakespearean character), is an adorable gulmoget ewe lamb born on may 6th. She is alone right now as the others are in for breeding season, but doesn't seem to care as long as she may have as much hay as she wants(which isn't a long because she is so tiny). Her facial markings aren't as striking and bold as Vaughan's however the patterning is just as gorgeous. She has tiny little scurs which I love on Shetlands, and a very very soft, dense wool, with a fine crimp. I can't wait to see how Minnie does next year in show, we got her from an awesome breeder with champions lines from Indiana, and she should do well! Also I'm very exited to see how her fleece turns out, and what her babies will look like when bred to my gulmoget ram! That will be next year though because she is to young right now.
I don't have any pictures because of time limits, but I should be able to put some up soon! I hope everyone is enjoying the fall!

Shetlands

Shetland Sheep are an undomesticated or feral breed. Basically this means that they were left alone in the wild and allowed to fend for themselves, which makes them one of the few breeds of sheep left that are exactly the same as their wild counterparts. The deeper meaning of this is that they have very few problems. They are wonderful mothers who hardly ever have trouble lambing (they generally have twins but can have quadruplets!). They shed naturally and are very hardy during the winter months.
So many sheep like Shetland are hazardously endangered and not much is holding them from extinction. Luckily through much effort the Shetland breed has come back from a rare status and its population is now on the incline. Sadly, this can not be said for many of the other breeds. Why would Shetlands ever be endangered? Well, despite their adorable appearance and their charming personalities Shetlands are very small. This size makes them less profitable in the meat market. When looking at Shetland meat several observations can be made: there is much less of it than the larger commercial breeds that are breed specifically for meat, and its undomesticated background has left the meat with lots of taste and appeal for those who eat it. What happened was that Shetlands and the other smaller sheep were not raised for meat because they couldn't compete so the population dropped with new domesticated sheep. Their wool, which is wonderful but on a totally different level than most other breeds was not favored, somewhat because they lack consistency throughout the wool. Again allowing other breeds to stand in front of them and take the profit. However, Shetlands have a beautiful fleece that creates wonderful products, the best known is the fair isle patterns, and can pull in quite a profit.
In the current times, many people are starting to pay attention to the smaller breeds that hold historical value and still have the wonderful flavor that many meats today lack. People have started to focus on and breed for the heritage breeds and some(defiantly not all) are making a comeback into the world. This does not relate to only sheep. Many chickens that were previously endangered have become more popular with the growth of backyard flocks, as well as cows, horses, pigs, etc.
Hopefully the people of the world will continue to promote the more remote breeds and bring them back into the mainstream of things.

Sterling Fair

Sterling fair was a huge sucsess today! Everyone did really well and the apple crisp was delicious. We started of the day when Katie came over with sheep transportation. From there we loaded all three of my sheep in with the four of hers. To say the least, getting Shetlands into a truck that is three feet off the ground is not easy. Vaughan is easy enough to pick up and throw into the truck bed, however when it comes time to get the two ewes in, the fun begins. Finally after much protesting and manuvering everyone was in and on their way to a fair.
Once there we claimed pens and did a last cleaning. Shetlands keep a lot of wool on them for show, which means that I have to get all the vegitative matter out of the wool. Because this is a very tedious activity, a blower is sometimes used to get most of the hay out. Half way through blowing Izzy out, because she decided to stick her butt in some hay, the blower(and the rest of the power) went out. Ignoring the blower, I began to hand pick, Izzy until all of a sudden it came back alive. I jumped and watched the ground around the blower become an explosion of dirt and grass. This event only took a few seconds but I thought it deserved to be mentioned.
As for show results:
Reserve Champion Fitting and Showmanship(after taking 1st place in intermiediate F&S) with Izzy
Champion Shetland Ewe with Izzy
Reserve Champion Ram with Vaughan
1st place yearling ewe with Izzy
2nd place yearling ewe with Bea
1st place pair with Izzy and Bea
1st place with Vaughan

Izzy with her Champion Ewe ribbon

Izzy in the Grand Champion drive

I was a little bit tiered and Izzy didn't seem to mind being a pillow...

As I said, it was a very sussesful day.

Vaughan

Vaughan is my ram lamb who I bought from a local breeder this spring. He is just a puppy dog and will literally just follow me around and ask for scratches. His coloring is called Shaela Gulmoget. Basically that means that he is color very close to black but has highlights of white or gray, which I call his old lady affect. Gulmoget means that he is darker on top than he is underneath(his belly is white). As sweet as he is at home he panics at fairs. Trying to get him to stand still in the show ring is always an adventure! He is going to be breed this fall to my two yearling ewes and a friend's Shetlands. I'm really looking forward to his lambs in the spring, hopefully I will get some fun patterns from him!

Vaughan's baby picture from Ridgeway Farm! Isn't he so cute!