One more ...

Today, Willow Garden Aelwyn gave us a beautiful ewe lamb. The eveness of her fleece is amazing! Look at that lovely pink nose! :)

Hold on to your hats ...

Hold on to your hats folks, today has been a whirlwind!! It's rained on and off all day, but the certainly hasn't interfered with lambing.Two more sets of twins this evening with another (or 2) in some stage of labour (not hard labour but ...)!!

This big boy is going to be special!! Very even crimp throughout ... mmmmmm...
His mom, Nier Lakes 315405977 AI aka "Baker" (because she is originally one of Kathy Baker's)
and his Sire is our very first born lamb, Windy Grange Apollo.

This little guy loves to play "peek a boo" under his mom!! He is much smaller than the
first and where in the world did the Katmoget markings come from?? My only Katmoget
ram was tightly put away from all the ewes until WAY after breeding season!! Can they breed through plywood?? Could it be possible to have the Katmoget gene from the rams background "pop" out at any time??? Must I do DNA testing?? Very confused with the genetics at this point.

These two are from Whoopi, my Gotland/Finn/Shetland ewe. I love this X-breed's wool (~6" staple with a lovely loose crimp) !! The black is a ram and the moorit is a ewe.

Thus the lamb count is 12, 5 rams and 7 ewe lambs. Come on gals, we need more ewe lambs!!!

Good Morning, two sets of twins .....

Good Morning Wednesday!! Today was the day that "Bob", the butcher, came to visit at our farm. When we awoke to make ready for "Bob", I discovered not one but TWO sets of twins!! The twins were sharing moms for feeding, which was confusing to the moms and to us. Luckily, I could tell one set was "older" than the others (already dry compared to very wet), so I separated the older twin and mom and everyone is bonding well.

This is the older set of twin from Fibre Works Easter, two ewe lambs!

These two are from Fibre Works Falerno, one ram lamb (black, left) and one ewe lamb (moorit, right).

Lamb count for Windy Grange is 8 lambs from 3 ewes, 6 ewe lambs and 2 ram lambs! Could this be the year of the ewe??? {{fingers crossed}}

Quadruplets!

More pictures of our quadruplets! Fibre Works Fiat and her lovely 3 ewe and 1 ram lambs.

This little ewe lamb has droopy ears, but that is all that is wrong with this little fighter. She was probably one of the weakest (we had 2 larger and 2 smaller lambs) ewe lambs, but certainly not to be under estimated. Once she warmed up under the heat lamp (thus the reddish tint to the pictures) and got her fill of colostrum, she is every bit as feisty as her siblings. Her only brother is a cutie! Lovely and soft as corn starch wool and his colouring is so adorable. He is one of the larger lambs.

Here the brown/white "droopy" eared ewe lamb decides to explore the jug with her sister.

Another ewe lamb from the same group. Where did she come from?? Her sire is black/white. This gal is a looker, also one of the smaller of the 4 lambs, but just as rambunctious as the rest!

"Are you talking about me??
I know I'm a looker, just wait until I'm older!"

Oh, never mind, I just need another drink ... so thirsty!!!

Fibre Works Fiat is an excellent mom. She raised triplets last year and surprised us with the quads this year. She is not impressed that I try to bring supplemental bottles to her lambs. She consistently makes sure all 4 of her lambs get their time to feed.

I still introduce the bottles to the lambs ... just in case ....

Lambing 2010 has begun!!!

When it rains, it pours - but today the flood gates are wide open!! Lambing has begun at the Windy Grange today with Fibre Works Fiat (Nier Lakes Emmet) blessing us with QUADS!! Yes, 3 ewe lambs and 1 ram lamb!! Our first set of quads!! What a way to start!!

Three of the quads - 2 ewes & 1 ram lamb

This little gal was 3rd born, but seems to be the smallest. Her ears are a bit droopy and she was chilled. She wasn't sucking well, so we drenched with mom's colostrum and put here, her siblings, and mom into a large sized jug with a heat lamp for warmth. Her ears are still droopy, but I've seen her nurse since she had the colostrum. She is lying under the heat lamp on her own, but I have seen her "frolic" and follow her siblings to mom. I will keep an eye on her, I just hope I am not missing anything.

Well, there it is. We started 2010 lambing with a BANG!!

Fleeces, Shearing, and dogs - but NO lambs.

Shearing day has come and gone, it was a whirlwind of a day. Many thanks to my friends who came over to lend a hand since my husband was not able to be home to help. New shearers (there were two going at the same time!) this year who sheared 44 Shetlands, 3 Gotland/Finn/Shetlands, 1 Suffolk mix, 2 Romney mix and two llamas! WOW!

I was going to start skirting my fleeces this past Wednesday, which was my day off of work (I am a dental assistant working extra hours to cover for a co-worker who had surgery) BUT the wind had another idea for me. I like to skirt outside, much tidier that way AND it gives me the opportunity to sit with my pregnant ewes to observe and give them much love during the day.

My dog, Bear, a lovely lab/Pyrenees mix, earned his keep yet again! He laid chase to a sneaky fox who was either investigating the sheep pens OR looking for the barn cats. Regardless, Bear is keeping an eye on such matters!!

This is Floppy, a young female llama who joined our flock (herd) last fall. She is named for her ridiculous ears that have not developed properly and "flop" all the time. She is mighty happy that she was not one of the chosen llamas for shearing this year.

Well, time for work at "work". Perhaps this weekend there will be skirting, and maybe lambs!??!?!?!?! Here is to hoping anyhow.

Waiting ....

Waiting for 2010 lambs ... and waiting ... and waiting!! Actually, only one small breeding group is due anytime now, the rest another week or so ... but still waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting .... *le sigh*