TWINS!!

We had our first twins!! Falerno, who we thought would have had triplets because she was so huge gave us beautiful black ewes!! They weighed in at 3 and 2 pounds! Mom and twin ewes are doing well and love being out in the community shelter.

Dam is Fibre Works Falerno, Sire is Fibre Works Isidor.

2/3 done lambing, 3 rams lambs, 2 ewes lambs and 2 ewes left to lamb!

Waiting for the last three to lamb

These are my three left to lamb. The two black ewes are 4 year olds and the mioget/flecket is a yearling and a first timer.





Now you would think this gal had mastitis, but, other than looks, she has no other signs or symptoms of it. She sure looks uncomfortable, but she hasn't changed anything in her normal routine.





This gal looks uncomfortable too! She sure has a rough time getting off the ground. My friends have bets on how many she'll actually deliver. There was some grunting coming from her during the afternoon, but nothing else has changed in her routine.


What do you think???

Ram Lamb number THREE!

I decided to put this ewe in a lambing jug last night because she just looked like she may be getting ready to lamb. I'm so happy I did because this morning I found her with a 3 pound ram lamb who was happily nursing!!

"Granny" hasn't lambed yet and went every where she could to find the new lad. I wonder if this is a normal thing or just isolated? It will be a glad day when she lambs herself.

Dam is Milehaus Britta and Sire is Willow Garden Rex Harrison.

Now to figure out the markings, afterall I'm new at this!!

I'm extremely happy that I've had no problems with the lambing yet. Is it always this easy?? Oops ... I probably just jinxed myself!!

100%, all rams (and singles), 1/2 done with lambing!!

Another Ram Lamb

Our second ram lamb was born this afternoon.

He was 2 pounds and is cute as can be. I'm not going to comment on his colour yet because, although he looks white with brown spots, I see a fawn patch that may or may not come out.

Dam is Milehaus Beatrix and Sire is Fibre Works Isidor. What a surprise, we weren't expecting her to lamb this soon!!

So we are at 100%, all rams and 1/3 done lambing!!

Our first lamb of the season

Our first lambing season and our first lamb.

A beautiful 4 pound lamb ram born this morning. Dam is Fibre Works ISP (nicknamed Issy) and Sire is Willow Garden Rex Harrison.

As you can see he's white with a few black spots, black around his eyes left eye and at the tip of his ears. (Yuglet, Ilget?)

Another mature ewe was trying to granny him at birth, but first time mom and lamb are in a jug bonding. The mature ewe is still looking & calling for him, so I think she'll be the next to lamb!

A little "boost" for the lamb and he seems to be doing fine. He's a little slow at finding the teat and she, being a new mom, is a little unsure. All in all, he is warm and his tummy feels full. I'll keep checking and see how it goes.

And still waiting for lambs

It's cold again and trying its hardest to snow. Still no lambs, but how much do you want to bet they will start coming during this little cold snap? I'm ready, more than impatient .... Perhaps later I'll be posting pictures. Oh, well, they will come when they are ready.

Carry on .....

Waiting for lambing gives one time for pondering things ..

We have had our flock since September 2007 and as I sit and wait for lambing to begin, I ponder what's next? What would I do differently? What should I keep the same?!

We are going to be fencing & planting more pasture for our Shetlands so we can have a larger amount of space for rotational grazing and to sustain a increasing flock.

Getting through our first shearing was fun, yet we now know what we need to do differently to make things easier for our flock as well as for our shearer. Good thing we only have a flock of 9 AND a wonderfully understanding shearer who is open to our lack of experience and is a great teacher.

I have to get some more portable panels put together, do some more fencing so we have a better handling system (that will save us time and the flock some stress).

We realize it is all a learning experience, but I wouldn't change a thing. I love my Shetland flock!! They are amazing little critters!

Carry on ...

April 9th - Shearing Day

This is the first time we've ever been through shearing, wow!! Not only a HUGE learning experience, but our shearer was superb! He's been doing this since he was 10 and really, shearing a flock of 9 doesn't take a large amount of his time, but he made quick work of it all. He taught us a lot and next year shearing will be easier on us all.

Now on to lambing, which should be starting in the next week or so.

Finally, a blog for the Farm

We started our Windy Grange last September 2007 by purchasing a starter flock of registered Shetland sheep. The group consisted of 1 lamb ewe, 1 yearling ewe, 2 mature ewes and 2 lamb rams.

In November, we purchased an additional 2 lamb ewes and 1 mature ram.

December brought us our first llama and to him we added 3 more this past March.

It's been nearly a year with tons of learning and plans for making things better and easier, but we wouldn't change our decision to start raising these magnificent little sheep.

Now on to shearing and lambing.