Messin' on the web

So, poking around at Blogger, I came on this fun little quiz. How they can predict your accent from a text bunch of questions is a bit of a mystery. Here are my "results":

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English 10% Dixie 10% Upper Midwestern 5% Midwestern 5% Yankee

You, too, can take the quiz and see what they divine your accent is:
What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

That's all fer now y'all.
- Franna

Tagged, Updates and Ramblings

Tagged!
Michelle tagged me for the 5 random facts topic. As copied below, this topic requests each tagee to disclose 5 random facts about themselves:
**Here are the rules: Each person tagged gives 5 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs 5 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag 5 others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave a note in the comments of the blogs of those you plan on tagging so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog.**

First, though, it's been a while since I updated the blog at all. That isn't for lack of things to write about, fer sure! I think of suitable topics all the time - while driving to/from work, while feeding the sheep, while feeding the dogs, while feeding me (as I am now....), while spinning, while moving fences, while filling water tubs... you get the idea. When my blog is "quiet", life is just the opposite.

The last entry was before Butch had his splint removed. Since then:

• He and his sisters are now integrated into the rest of the "Scottie flock". That's a subject for a whole blog by itself.
• I went to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a week to give a paper at the North American Manufacturing Research Conference. While there I visited Stephen Rouse and Heather Ludlam's Shetland flocks. Hi Steve and Heather! ...material for another blog
• We hosted more farm visitors plus held a Memorial Day BBQ. The all homegrown meats were exquisitely barbequed by DH Dave.
• Etta, one of the SBF lambs, lost a horn in the evening feeding frenzy. - another blog subject, though we got no photos of the very bloody incident! For some reason, we weren't thinking of photos at the time.
• The local stores are out of later cutting hay from Eastern Washington, so we're feeding some lousy looking 2006 first cutting hay. At least the sheep like it.
• Finally decided that Stripes the cat isn't coming home. :-( She disappeared several weeks ago and we've found no trace of her. We decided to imagine her being picked up by a loving family and now enjoying her new home rather than the not-so-nice alternatives.
• Contacted a feral cat rescue organization and arranged to adopt a couple of feral cats for rat and rodent control. Since Stripes has been gone, we've noticed more and more new ratholes appearing.
• Today, my youngest niece, Alecia Lee Pitt, is having a graduation party. She's graduating both from High School and from Junior College with her AA degree. I'm so proud of her. :-)
• And of course, spent lots of time watching, stroking, and evaluating the many EverRanch 2007 lambs!

Soooo, while writing that list, I finished breakfast. Recently I've been eating Cascade brand Greek or Mediteranian plain yogurt mixed with fruit, nuts and uncooked rolled oats. This yogurt is really thick and creamy and tastes deliciously rich. There are lots of variations on the theme. This morning it was Greek style yogurt, rolled oats and chopped Braeburn apple topped with cinnamon and sugar. Another of my favorites is to use Bear Naked granola instead of rolled oats. Bananas, raisins, blueberries and apples are my favorite fruits to add. Walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts are my favorite nuts. YUM!

Well! On with the trivia... drum roll, please!

1. I was born and raised in the Seattle area. There have been many, many changes in those almost 55 years - some good, some not so good. The mountains and green, growing things are still good. The traffic and cost of living is terrible. Don't come here to live. ;-)
2. In 1996(?), my son discovered the online text RPG "Gemstone3". After watching him play a bit, I started in. We played for several years and became part of the online community as a result. My main character was Lady Rosamir Rockette, a Sylvan Wizard. We started online through e-World, then AOL and all its ups and downs, and finally to bare bones unlimited access internet servers. Wow! There have been a lot of changes along THAT path! (He's now playing WOW... I don't even want to go there.....)
3. In 1994, my son (again! what's with that kid???? ;-) said he wanted to ride the STP. This is a mass 2 day bicycle ride from Seattle to Portland and is approximately 200 miles long. At the time, we weren't riding bikes much... in fact, I wasn't riding at all! For many reasons, I agreed and we started training. We rode that year with about 9,500 others, and enjoyed it so much that we did it again for the next 4 years. The last year, 1999, I rode by myself. 1999 was a beautiful ride, perfect weather, I was in good shape and ahead of the pack for most of the ride. The final approach to the finish line went over the St. John's Bridge in Portland. Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams were all out in their white gowned splendor. It was wonderful and sad at the same time. I missed having company on the ride, yet it was so beautiful. I hope to ride again someday.
4. My first car was a powder blue 1968 VW Squareback. I went all through High School and partway through college without wheels of my own. I got married (at 19! waaaay too young) and my husband was stationed at Ft. Lewis in Washington. I needed a way to get around and we found the car in Tacoma. It had been stored for a couple of years, so was low mileage and cheap. Gas was less than $0.30/gallon and with the 10 gallon tank, I could fill up for $2 plus change and drive for hundreds of miles. I drove that car all over the state - to dog shows, camping, school (again!), work, moving several times. We finally sold it to get a pickup truck (bad decision) and I miss it even now.
5. I'm competitive. I want to win, but I want to win fair and square. I get more pleasure out of competing fairly and losing than even thinking about cheating and winning. If you compete fairly and beat me, I have a great deal of respect for you. I'm not tolerant of people who win at all costs. That said, I'm very proud of having owned, trained and handled the first AKC TDX Labrador Retriever and the first AKC JH Labrador Retriever in Washington State. translation - TDX = Tracking Dog Excellent, and JH = Junior Hunter. Tracking tests and hunt tests are part of American Kennel Club competitions that emphasize performance skills rather than good looks. Dogs are a big part of my life and have been since I first started reading Albert Payson Terhune books in grade school. My first dog was a Norwegian Elkhound. She was actually the family dog. The first dog of my own was a Rough Collie (remember APT?). Labrador Retrievers have been *my* breed since 1972, but I've also had a Shetland Sheepdog, several Rough Collies, a Welsh Springer Spaniel, and a German Shepherd (actually DH's dog).

Okay, there are 5 things about me. :-) Now for the other part of the rules - tagging 5 more people. Hmmmmm. That's the hard part for me. I read only a select few blogs, and looking back, all those folks have been tagged at least once for the trivia disclosure. This one will take some thought and more time.... Right now, the sheepies are calling and my niece's party is coming up ... then there's getting a place fixed to confine the new barn cats while they get used to their new home, websites for the Welsh Springer Spaniel Club and Gotland Sheep Association....

- Franna

ShepherdDoc Catering Service

Featured on today's menu are mixed fresh greens: Add a bowl of granola tossed with molasses and a side of sun baked orchard grass.

Delivery is included.

Some customers sample the variety.
Others dig right in.
This exclusive catering service serves "bedridden" and restricted patients (and their family members) who aren't allowed to enjoy harvesting the bountiful spring harvest by themselves.

The ShepherdDoc catering service expects to go out of business by June! :-)

-Franna

Hello to the World

Last night we put Emmie - EverRanch EMF - into a jug. There was just something about her... maybe it was the way the ram lambs wouldn't leave her alone, or that she wasn't quite as enthusiastic about eating, or her heavier breathing. Whatever it was, when I got up this morning and checked the Lamb Cam, she had this dark shadow with her!

There's not much question to this lamb's sex!! I'm thinking maybe Faraday would be a good name for him....
Thanks, Emmie!

This closes EverRanch Farm's 2007 lambing season. We have 40 healthy lambs bounding around. Four Scotties gave us 7 awesome lambs (3 rams, 4 ewes) from Scottish Genetics; 7 ewes gave us 15 half-Gotland lambs (10 rams, 5 ewes), all of whom are turning gorgeous, lustrous grey!; 7 Shetlands gave us 14 outstanding Shetland lambs (7 rams, 7 ewes); three others gave us 4 half-Finn market lambs (2 rams, 2 ewes). From 21 ewes - including 6 yearlings plus 2 other first time moms - that's almost a 200% lambing rate. We may have to bottle and sell the water. :-)

- Franna

Electra

This is Electra. She's one of our favorite Shetland sheep. I know you all have favorite sheep. They're usually the ones who don't meet your goals for the flock, but they're characters or best friends in sheep suits or something else that makes certain that they are forever flock members. Electra is one of those. Her wool is coarser than ideal and she isn't very productive but she's so friendly, has friendly lambs and is such a character that she's on our "A" list. That's the list of sheep that will stay on and be buried in the "back 40" when their time comes.



Electra decided recently that she doesn't like drinking out of the buckets and tubs we supply with fresh water twice a day. She wants to get it right from the source as we're filling said buckets and tubs. Of course, the hose leaks just enough for her to get a good drink by licking right at the faucet connection.

Mom once had a cat named "Spook" (who wasn't spooky at all, and was calico colored at that) who decided she'd get her drinks by licking the bathtub faucet. Spook was catered to by letting the bathtub faucet slowly drip all day long. I used to cat-sit for Mom when she'd go traveling, and of course, had to leave the bathtub faucet drip for Spook. Those memories all came back to me watching Electra lick the hose at the leaking faucet connection.

Thanks, Electra. :-)

- Franna

Broken Leg update and What's Next

Several weeks ago, Butch, one of our Scottish Blackface ram lambs broke his leg. He was only 4 days old, and a result of insemination using (real) Scottish semen. As a potentially valuable breeding ram, we chose to have the vet set his leg. He then spent the next 4 weeks in an enlarged jug and creep with his two sisters and his mom. Last Monday, at long last, the splint was removed!!! His leg has a pretty good callus forming, even if it's not quite straight. Being immobilized at such a young age, though, his leg hasn't developed a lot of calcification, and the joints are fairly stiff.
Butch is shown below in my arms on his arrival home after the splint was removed.

A close up shows the difference between the newly released, injured right leg and the good left leg.

We put him back in the pen with Mom and sisters to stay confined while he learns to use it again and it regains some strength. He's shown below with mom "EweOne".

He's started out putting only a little weight on his leg when he was standing, and dragging it along when he was moving. Now, almost a week later, he's using it to walk with more and putting his toes out front more often when he's standing. Progress is slow and steady. I've been cutting grass every morning to feed Ewe One and her triplets in the hope that they'll be somewhat accustomed to eating grass by the time they get to go OUT.

Butch is shown above just 6 days after his splint was removed. It's amazing the difference a week makes. Notice how his hock and ankle are bent to a more normal position and his foot even looks more substantial. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he recovers plenty of function in that leg so he's able to easily breed ewes and pass on his superior genetics!

__________________

A while back, Kathy L. asked what we had in mind "next"... after winning Best Shetland Ram Fleece, Best Shetland Lamb Fleece and Champion Shetland Fleece at the Shepherds' Extravaganza. Kathy, I've thought a lot about your question.

What's next? Isn't that always a good question to ask yourself? There are lots of categories to think about. Some years ago, I decided to go back to school to serve as an example to my daughter and to keep my mind busy. "What's next?" in that vein became a Masters Degree in Engineering in 2000, then a PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2005.

When we bought our current 5 acres for the primary purpose of having space to practice dog agility "what's next?" became the sheep farm. "What's next?" for the sheep farm is to move to our 20 acres on Whidbey Island. That should come to pass by 2010, hopefully, even sooner! In agility "what's next?" became the impetus for both Dave and I to pass the test and become agility judges. Now both of us judge AKC agility trials several weekends per year. "What's next" for the sheep is to continue to breed for fine - mid 20's micron - fleeces in the Shetlands, increasingly pure bloodlines for the Gotlands, and improve the gene pool in Scottish Blackface sheep with imported genetics from Scotland.

This year's "what's next" for the farm is to exhibit the sheep and their fleeces at three or more competitions. The first was Shepherds' Extravaganza. We just evaluated our time commitments and maturity of the lambs and decided that Black Sheep Gathering just isn't one for us this year, disappointing but realistic. The Skagit County Fair will be our next sheep competition. I'll be sending fleeces to Fibre Week at Olds College in Alberta before then. After that, we'll exhibit at our "local" fair - the mega-sheep show at the Puyallup Fair. The up and coming Gotland Association is planning to exhibit at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in late September. We're tentatively planning to take some of our 50% Gotland sheep there.

Probably the very most exciting "what's next" for me in 2007 is my impending RETIREMENT!!! After 40 years in the work force, most of it in full time employment, I'll be retiring on my 55th birthday - June 30th. I'm so excited that it's hard to concentrate on my last few weeks at work. :-) :-) :-) After July 1st, all those things I talked about above, will be so much more do-able. Plus I'll see my Mom more often, visit my daughter and husband in their new home, go to Albuquerque to visit my son along with about a thousand other things that are "next".

Kathy, thanks for asking. :-)

-Franna

Farm Visitors and Sheep Moving Day

Today was the first weekend we had "free" in quite a while. It was wonderful to spend the whole weekend on the "farm" :-)
Saturday, we sheared two sheep that we'd sold to some friends. Tina and Jim bought one of our first Scottish Blackface lambs, Lucy, then last fall bought Shetland "Ovaltina" just before she won Grand Champion Shetland Ewe at the Puyallup fair sheep show! Both Lucy and Tina had nice, clean fleeces, and are living the good life as Pasture Pets. I then attended an 80th Birthday bash for a longtime family friend, then went by the feed store for supplies (they know me by name). We also got ready for showing folks around the farm and for sheep moving day.

We rotate the sheep through the pastures, letting each pasture rest and regrow in turn. When we get the timing right, the grass is still in its vegetative state (no shorter than 4") when we move the sheep out, and it grows quickly. We try to size each pasture so that the sheep are in for about a week. Then we do the moving on weekends.

The first to move were the rams. Here is what they got moved into. This is our backyard. Other people mow their backyards. We graze sheep in our backyard. The boys were very happy to move into this grassy jungle. The white Shetland is Winter, the black Shetland is Willie and the (sunbleached) Finnsheep is Eino. Buddy the Shetland, and our 4th ram, was just out of the photo.
Below is the "upper" group of Shetland and Finn ewes with their lambs. They are impatiently waiting to get their new grass! Niblet the Finnsheep is in the back baaaa'ing very loudly about her displeasure at having to wait. They really aren't as packed in as they look. When I came up with the camera, they all crowded to the front trying to be first out. Silly sheep.

This morning (Sunday), Michelle McMillen of Boulderneigh fame came visiting with her Dad. Her excuse was to pick up fleeces from the Shepherds' Extravaganza, but I know she was looking for a "lamb fix". I had a great time providing said "fix". We looked at lambs, and talked about lambs, and caught and felt lambs, compared birth coats and how they felt, and of course had to pet the adults as they crowded around.

It was wonderful to talk about Shetlands and wool types and tails and conformation :-) Thanks, Michelle! Later we got to meet son Brian, Michelle's husband, Rick, and her Mom. Brian (hi, Brian!) was more interested in our Labrador Retriever, Thomas, than all the wooly sheep. It was mutual. Thomas was much more interested in Bryan than a bunch of silly sheep.

We spent a lot of time looking at the gulmoget ram lambs, Franjean and Rool. I've been watching their "horns", earlier noticing that Franjean's nubs were loosely attached, but Rool's seemed to be firmly attached. Today it was obvious that both boys have loosely attached scurs. Franjean is shown below with his small nubs.

Then Rool's larger nubs are shown in the photo below. Also noticeable is the difference in color - Rool is very dark brown, and Franjean is considerably lighter - and wool character - Rool's birthcoat is very dense and straight, I call it "plush", and Franjean has a slight wave that is also softer feeling.

Of Bessie's triplets, Sorsha is the softest feeling. If we didn't already have two fawn katmoget ewes, she'd be on the potential keeper list! She has a shorter head like her mom, Bessie.

And a longer fleece than Franjean or Elora with even more wave to it. She didn't even object too much to being fawned over.
All too soon, Michelle had to pack up the fleeces and leave for the long drive back to Oregon. (Michelle took pictures - my camera was charging....) . I wish we lived closer together :-)

Our second set of visitors were Dave's coworker, Ron, his wife, Deb and daughter Hannah. Hannah was thrilled to meet Thomas, as well. Must be something about those big brown eyes and that wildly wagging tail.... We walked around and met the sheepie groups, then sat Hannah down with the "Hilton" group and just let the lambs come around. The Gotland-Finn lambs surrounded her and Bossie laid down and snoozed between her feet. What a deal for an animal loving young lady. We finished the tour with a demonstration of the spinning wheel where I'm spinning up some gaudy bright orange, yellow and hot pink Romney. Spinning had a lot more appeal for Deb; Hannah's heart was still in the lamb pen.

I got the Romney at Shepherds' Extravaganza from Lin Schwider of The Pines Farm. All four days I could see it on the shelf across the room from our sheep pens. It called to me, and kept calling until I gave in and bought it. It's garish, it's wild, it's *not Shetland* and I'm having fun spinning it. See, Michelle, I do get some time to spin. :-)

Also at SE, Dave found this lime green kid mohair with his name written all over it. He wants socks made from this so he can wear them with his Birkies in the wintertime. I'm going to card it with some white SHETLAND wool to add resilience. If it mutes the green too much, Lin offered me some electric yellow dye to enhance the white wool.

My name is Franna and I'm a fiber addict. This beautiful gray Cotswold fleece followed me home from SE. (This was the day after one of Linda Wendleboe's charcoal Shetland fleeces jumped into my arms - more on this fleece in a future blog!) The house is full of fleeces and roving and locks and yarn. Did I need more? Nooooooo. I haven't spun Cotswold though, and it is such a pretty color. Just look at how it shines with luster. Our Gotland sheeps' wool should be similar in color and luster and considerably softer.

Another weekend gone into history. The sheep and lambs are all on new pasture eating their favorite bits (dandelions and clover). By next weekend, they'll be eating the less favorite greens (fescue and seed stalks) and eagerly looking for us to move them again. Michelle and Ron and families, we hope you enjoyed your visit; we sure enjoyed having you here. Y'all come back now, y'hear! ... I think I'll spin a little more brilliant orange Romney before bed.

- Franna

Scottish Blackface Lambs

I took these photos a week or so ago, and they've been simmering in my computer. Now they want out! All of our Scottish Blackface lambs are a result of artificial insemination with semen collected in Scotland from real Scottish - Scottish Blackface rams. We used one of the rams last year, and two others this year. The little beauty below is "Bonnie's Girl" by ram #3631. We hope she develops mom's lovely flowing, long fleece along with dad's superb conformation. These two boys are out of our nicest fleeced ewe, Luna. Luna also has wonderful, wide, sweeping horns. In our very small flock, within this low NA population breed, Luna is the least related to our other ewes. We bred her to the "third" imported semen line (#4236) hoping for a ram lamb. She gave us Wicket and Teebo. Thank you, Luna!
The left hand lamb in the photo below is our 75% Scottish lines ewe lamb. She's the daughter of the first Scottish Blackface born in North America of Scottish semen, EverRanch Genesis. She deserves a name, but for now is "Jennie's Girl". She's a half sister to Wicket, shown behind her, and half-first-cousin-once-removed to Bonnie's girl at right. Ram 4236 (sire of Wicket, Teebo and Jennie's girl) gave us more substance and darker color than Ram 3631 (sire of Bonnie's girl and EweOne's triplets). The 4th lamb in this photo is Bubba, single son of our BFLxBL Hortense and Gotland ram "Denzel". Bubba is the biggest lamb we've had at EverRanch.

The Scottie triplets are still confined in the oversized jug in the barn. "Butch" had his splint changed on Monday - it's now a bright red. The good new is that his leg appears to be healing well, and just possibly they'll remove his splint next Monday! We'll keep them in the pen maybe another week, just to have him get used to walking on it, then have to introduce all 4 of them gradually to the pasture. Whew.
- Franna

Penultimate Lambing for 2007

Fancy had her lambs this morning. She'd been hanging away from the other ewes and generally looking suspicious, but not enough to stay up with her. This morning on the lamb cam, she had a little black lump with her in the far corner of the Hilton. When I went out to take care of them, though, the lump diverged! There were two "black" lumps. Let the other ewes and lambs out, dip navels, get weights - just under 6 lb and just over 6 lb, nice sized girls for a first time mom - then put them in the waiting jug. Motherhood brings such a pleasant change over these girls. They become more calm and trusting of their shepherd and seem to gain patience overnight. The last two who've lambed, Fancy and Tori, have been known to jump fences when we're trying to pen them - not good - but with their lambs, they're settling down and only giving me a wary eye when I get close.

Twins. That puts a crimp in my colostrum saving efforts. Not that I'm complaining! I decided not to "steal" colostrum from moms with twins or triplets, or yearling moms. That left only two mature ewes with singles. Hortense donated about 3 cups, and Lindy lambed during the Shepherd's Extravaganza, when there was essentially no time to milk her within that first 12 hours or so.

Total lambs at EverRanch is 39. Thirty nine! A lot of other farms routinely have more lambs than that. I'm overwhelmed, thrilled and looking for ways to extend our pastures and protect the younguns from infections, parasites, and predators.

Thank you, Fancy. Emmie is now the only one left to lamb and we're thinking her due date is still a couple of weeks out. C'mon Emmie! Photos at 11 ;-)

-Franna

Destressing at the Hilton

There often isn't enough time during the week for work, taking care of the farm, eating and sleeping. Sleep is usually the one that gets shorted.

It was getting quite late last night and the last thing we had to do was put down some clean straw in the Hilton. I wrestled the bale through the gate and could feel little bodies clustering around my feet. Shuffling slowly and letting the bale down carefully, I was just ready to cut the strings when it was discovered! Discovered by multitudes of black and white bodies (and one brown body).

The Lambs at the Hilton were not ready to go to sleep, no, not at all. They commandeered the hay bale as the center of their impromptu playground and played king of the mountain - up and down, up and down, leap and spring! It was just too great for us to spoil their fun right away, so we stood there and felt their fiber, looked at color, socialized and played with the lambs.

And eventually, what do adults do? Well, we spoil the kids fun, of course. ;-) We opened the bale of straw and spread it out - leaving a couple of mini-piles for late(r) night fun. Bed felt even better after destressing with the lambs, and I'm sure sleep came faster than usual.

- Franna

Just have to Brag

We have 4 awesome Shetland ram lambs in our group this year (so far!)! Two are 62% UK bloodlines through Drum Ram, Drum Jings and Keir Gordon, one black and one white. Blizzard is pictured below.
This little ram has presence, evenly crimpy birth coat, lovely head and tail, and rock solid rear. He's standing with his equally nice sister, Midnight, below. These two are for sale at this time.
Blizzard's black half brother/cousin is just one day old but already has that same presence, four square stance and evenly crimpy birth coat that Blizzard does. "Daisy's Black Boy" will be for sale if we don't keep him here.

Both of our moorit gulmoget ram lambs, Franjean and Rool, are for sale. We're keeping Franjean's moorit gulmoget sister, Elora, and so retaining that pattern in our flock. I'm really impressed by the solid bodies on these boys. They should be soft and somewhat intermediate in fleece character. Rool is pictured below.
Both boys are sired by Sheltering Pines Octavian, a double F2 black gulmoget polled ram owned by Juliann Budde in Illinois. Franjean's dam is Bitterroot Bessie, and Rool's dam is Bessie's daughter, Little Country Val.

More to brag about - Fleeces!!!
The Shepherds' Extravaganza is the first major sheep and fiber event in the Pacific Northwest. This year (at my suggestion!) the handspinning fleece show featured Shetland Sheep fleeces. Well, since it was my suggestion, I felt I had to enter as many fleeces as I could to support the show. The limit was 10... whew! I got just 10 sheared and skirted in time to enter the show. There was a total Shetland fleece entry of 39 - excellent support from as far away as Oregon and Alberta!
Imagine my surprise when one of our fleeces won Best Shetland Ram fleece!!!

This is Willie's second shearing. His is a very "modern" UK type fleece with shorter crimpy black wool and no white fibers at 2 years of age. Willie is for sale this year as we have some very nice offspring of his to carry on.

I was also (less pleasantly) surprised to find out that I'd missed finding some tender fleece in one of our entries, and it was "awarded" a white ribbon. oops!

The surprises kept coming, though ... another of our entries won Best Shetland Lamb fleece, and then in the final competition - won the Champion Shetland Fleece. I was stunned. Happily stunned. :-)

This fleece is a very, very black soft primitive style fleece that was sheared in September, so it was also extremely clean. I can't take all the credit for this one. It came from a ram lamb we bought from Kim Kerley of Mountain Niche farm in Chehalis. We were filling out our show string, and only needed him through September. Who'd have thought??!

- Franna

Hilton Photos at last!

Presenting the OVINE HILTON at EverRanch!

The Hilton was finished the first part of the month and that was when our "lamb storm" began. I finally got some photos to put up. Including photos with sheep inside! Notice the creep pen at lower right, and the lambing jug (occupied!) in the center right.

In the top photo, look carefully and you can see the deluxe lamb cam. It's shown below in closeup. This device is a life saver. We've seen ewes in labor, ewes trying to steal lambs, lambs climbing out of jugs, lots of things. It's worth it's weight in gold just to avoid multiple barn trips in the middle of the night... and day. Of course, it doesn't eliminate all barn trips, why would we want to do that? After all, we have sheep because we like being with the sheep!
Here's the view of the Hilton that we see from the Lamb Cam:
The latest lambs are in the jug with Daisy. She had triplets on Sunday ... no, make that Monday morning - early. We came home from the Shepherds' Extravaganza and found her in labor. Only a bit later it became obvious that the lamb was not in position to be born and I had to reposition it! This was my first time sorting out and moving an unborn lamb and it was a bit scary. All turned out well, though, after number 1 was moved, numbers 2 and 3 followed in quick succession. They're shown below.

They are 2 rams and 1 ewe, bringing our lamb total for 2007 to 35. The lambs now outnumber adults with 3, maybe 4 more to lamb.

Below is Daisy's ewe lamb. She has an interesting marking on her front leg, brown and black like a splash of katmoget. She also has a small black spot between her tail and right hip. Interesting.

- Franna

Lambs R Us

About this time, I'm wondering... What were we thinking???? last year when we bred so many ewes! We have lambs in the barn, lambs in the front pasture, lambs in the side pasture and lambs in the Hilton. We have Scottish Blackface Lambs, we have Shetland lambs, we have Gotland cross lambs - and - we still have 9 more ewes to go! At least these should spread out over the next several weeks instead of coming all at once.

The count is 26, and it's been exciting. Bessie, of course, started things out with her 3 near the end of March. They're growing very nicely. Sorcha is the grey katmoget ewe on the left, Elora is the moorit gulmoget ewe in the center and Franjean is the moorit gulmoget on the right. What a handsome group!

Next to deliver were the AI girls. Interestingly enough, they delivered **by breed**. The Finns (bred with Gotland semen) went first on April 2 and 3 with two sets of twins and two sets of quads. One of the quads was stillborn, so the total is 7 rams - 6 black with white and 1 white, and 4 ewes - 3 black with white and 1 white. Tucker is below with her troop of 4.

Niblet's white twins are completely different looking than their relatives. They are very long boned with close, extremely curled fleece. Just look at this boy's legs!

After about a week they've filled out some, but still look quite different from the rest. Kibbles is on the left and sister, Bits, is on the right.

The other 50% Gotlands look more like this sweet ewe. Freckles is her Finn mom.
Next to lamb were the Scottish Blackface. In 2006, we had the first North American Scottie born from imported Scottish semen. This year we have 7!!! One of which is a second generation, 75% imported bloodline. Below is EverRanch Genesis' 75% UK ewe lamb in her first day of life.Ewe One, my partner in the Ladies Lead photo at the top of the blog, gifted us with triplets this year - a ram and two ewes. They're shown below.

Uh oh. What's that on the ram's leg??? I found him on Monday morning with toes pointing 90 degrees out. Sometime in the early morning, he got stepped on, or? and broke his lower leg, both tibia and fibula. Well, off to the vet we go and they splinted him from toe to groin with instructions to keep him "quiet" for 4 weeks! At first we had him by himself, and brought him out to mom for nursing, plus tried to train him to the bottle. Then after hearing Gail Former's (of Underhill Shetland fame) solution, we put him in a jug with his two sisters and Mom in the adjacent jug. This week we've put them to Mom every 4 hours for nursing. He's getting around better, and when we're worrying less about him getting caught and reinjured, we'll open a creep gate into Mom's jug. Below he shows his nursing form.

Hortense, the BFLx, was next to lamb, with Bubba - a 14.5lb monster white boy. He's also 50% Gotland. After Hortense, Electra and Asa gave birth to their twins and single 50% Gotlands. Electra's twin boys keep her jumping and Asa's girl, born on Easter afternoon, was christened "Bunny" by the assembled family. Val topped off the week with a single ram lamb - moorit gulmoget - immediately named "Rool" to go with half brother/uncle "Franjean". Those photos are "somewhere", so here's Elora with Franjean and Sorcha to anchor this post. Mom's taking very good care of these three!

April Fools!

...or don't fool with Mother Nature.

Mother Nature is playing tricks on us in Western Washington. Through peeks of sunshine, she pelted us with hail and "chunky" rain yesterday. It looks to be continuing through today.

The Ovine Hilton is habitable!!! The roof is complete and wow! it's everything we thought it would be and more. As we were fastening the last panels, the hail came down in earnest. No leaks! Yeaaaa! Now some hog panels, canvas sides and straw, and it'll be ready for the ewes.

The lamb calendar says the AI ewes are at day 141, within the birthing window especially for Finnsheep, and at SBF EweOne's 2006 gestation. The Sylvania lamb cam is set up and running next to my computer monitor. What a great tool for "ewe watching" ... any time, girls!

- Franna

Farewell to March, 2007

March was a busy month with shearing over half the flock, construction, judging agility trials, our farm business class, and starting lambing along with maintaining our off farm jobs. This last day of March was spent mostly working on the Ovine Hilton. The roof is over half complete!

We now need a couple days of rain to wash the end panel. It was on top of the stack and the dogs had fun running over it with dusty and muddy feet!
We're now within our "lambing window" for the ewes who were artificially inseminated in November. They are looking very uncomfortable. The Finns make this funny noise that is between a groan and a hum.

Above are Finnsheep Bibb and Tucker (with Lindy snoozing behind). Tucker has lamb bulges on both sides. It won't be long!

Little Country Val is shown above. We suspect she'll be next to lamb. She has the possibility of producing polled rams since her sire is polled and she was bred to a polled ram.

Daisy and Electra are very heavy with lambs. They have a long standing feud that started up again yesterday. They carried on all over the pasture and in the barn, bashing heads, backing each other up, posturing and carrying on until they were both exhausted. Here they look peaceful, but they're still eyeballing each other.

Bessie and her triplets seem to be doing fine. They all love the game of jump on Mom. Bessie doesn't seem to mind.

Here's the gulmoget ram lamb. We've named him Franjean. Anyone remember where this name is from??? He has interesting faintly light patches on his sides. Is this common in gulmogets?

I bought a new toy! It's the Udderly EZ Milker and is supposed to make getting some extra colostrum or milk from ewes easier than hand milking. It reminds me of the breast pump I used when my son was born. ;-) I was hoping to steal some colostrum from Bess. Then she had triplets! When they had a good start, I tried anyhow, just to see. She wasn't very cooperative and the lambs had just nursed, but I did find out that the inserts fit Shetland nipples - yeaa! - and that it is pretty easy to work... also that I need to halter and tie the ewe. (...duh....) Here's the milker -

and the little bit of milky colostrum that Bessie donated. Thanks, Bess!

Busy day, the last of March. Welcome April with more daylight, warmer temperatures, more rain... and more lambs!

- Franna