I just submitted registration applications for another eight lambs. I can’t keep them all but hope that I’ll be able to sell some at the JSBA AGM that we will be hosting in a month. 
Meridian Sharon (Meridian Catalyst x Shadow Mountain Shelby).
Meridian Ruthie (Meridian Cayenne x Meridian Ruth
Meridian Soprano (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Sonata). 
Meridian Fauna (Meridian Catalyst x Mud Ranch’s Foxglove)
Here is Meridian Sharon on the left and Meridian Shirley on the right. (Meridian Catalyst x Shadow Mountain Shelby)
This is the yearling ram, Cayenne. He is not for sale.
Yearling ram, Gotham, is for sale.
Ewe lamb (Meridian Catalyst x Shadow Mountain Shelby).
Ewe lamb (Meridian Catalyst x Meridian Delight).
Ewe lamb (bide a wee Buster x bide a wee Hallie).
Ram lamb (Meridian Catalyst x Meridian Ava).
Six-horn ewe lamb not for sale (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Jade). 
Four-horn ewe lamb, Janna, not for sale (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Janis)
Oops! For sale, but not for breeding. Ugly-horned ram lamb. If you’re interested in lambs for meat see 
What better place to entertain an 18-month old than a gravel pile with tractors? 
These trucks and tractors have been in the garage for 25+ years
Hose off the spiders and they’re as good as new.
Watching kids can be exhausting. Notice what Ginny is looking at–that’s her ball right next to Dan.
Kasen found the ball-thrower.
That kept Ginny entertained even though Kasen wasn’t able to throw the ball very well. 
See 
The kids have aprons and they get badges for all the projects they complete.
This month’s project was a wooden car. Dan started the nails for Kirby and she finished the pounding.
There are kids lined up all along the “tables” made of boards and buckets.
Katie said that Kirby often likes the painting part more than the building part. 
Pink was not one of the colors that was offered but we all know what you get when you mix red and white.
Kirby was through enough to want to paint the bottom of the car too.
This activity goes on all morning. While we waited for the paint on Kirby’s car to dry we walked around the garden part of the store and looked at flowers.
Kirby came back for her badge.
Then it was time to put the wheels and the stickers on the car.
Project finished!
While Katie was still working on the barn during her visit…
…I supervised Kirby…
…and Kasen.
I think that Uncle Chris was a lot more fun than me.
Notice the dog ball in Kirby’s left hand and two dogs waiting for it.
Back to the wagon.
On this day I didn’t need to put the carseat in it for Kasen to fall asleep. 
Someone else was worn out too.
There was plenty of room to run.
Plenty of room to chase bubbles.
Plenty of room for drawing with chalk. Notice who is just outside the barn door painting. The kids didn’t know that and I kept them distracted inside. 
Someone else needed entertaining too. 
I taught Kirby about hopscotch.
Aunt Meryl came to the barn to play. While all the names of all the other aunts are are pronounced “aunt” like the 6-legged ant, Kirby says Aunt Meryl with the “au” part as in Australia. We have no idea why because no one else says it that way.
I hid balls under the rubber tubs and then Kasen just started pushing them around the barn.
Naptime.
I had planned to have the prep work done ahead of time, but I didn’t to that so Katie spent the first day power-washing. 
Uncle Chris gives the best shoulder rides. 
The kids got plenty of exercise outside and definitely needed naps each day.
Before I got into the routine of putting Kasen down for his nap the carseat seemed to be an easy way to get him to sleep. One lap with the carseat in the wagon and he was out.
Then it was time to go to the house with Kirby to work on a project. 
She helped to warp the rigid heddle loom with a project in her favorite color.
Back to the barn after nap time.
Katie admitted that she got carried away with the power washer on the inside of the barn. It looked great because she and Meryl (DIL) moved all the clutter out of the alleyway. (I still have to figure out where to put all that stuff that was moved.)
The puddles were irresistible for Kasen.
I asked for this green wagon for Christmas because I knew that I could use it during lambing season. It sure came in handy during this time with the kids here. I found that I could even drag the wheelbarrow and the wagon at the same time. 
..with this sheep ?
Here she is not too long ago. Staples were still in but ready to come out.
The end result.
I love the expressions on this kid’s face.
The hay feeders are a little high for Kirby to reach without the hay falling all over her.
Kirby told me she was making a nest for the other chickens.
First I sort and start narrowing down choices. This is two-horn rams.
More two-horn rams. 
Four-horn rams (except for the one I liked best who broke his horn this morning and I put him out so he would hopefully not keep knocking it on others). I bred to two two-horn rams and one four-horn ram last year. There are more two horn lambs than four. Some ram lambs are missing from these groups because I had already castrated those that I knew right away would not be candidates for registration (too much or too little color or horns that were too close). Time to narrow these into groups.
These are rams who will be on the cull list. It doesn’t take much for a ram to be moved to that list. In this case two of these lambs (on the right) have wide spacing between the upper and lower horns. That seems like it would be a good thing, but usually those upper horns tip forward and sometimes there are other issues with them. I’ll report back with more photos as they keep growing. The lamb facing the photo on the left doesn’t have enough spacing between horns. His right side horns are already touching at the base leaving no room for growth. The other two both have a lot of freckling, although it’s hard to see without parting the fleece and one is scrawny.
Three of the potential 4-horn breeding rams. Nice horn spacing and shape so far. No sign of freckling. Color % OK. Nice looking fleeces. Britch wool not too high on back leg. 
Out of two pens of ram lambs I pulled these four out as potential at this point. That is mostly due to the wide horn growth. There may be others in the pens but I won’t guarantee the horn spread yet. Of course, they all have to meet the other criteria mentioned above as well.
Here they are from the rear.
Another from the front showing the ram with the best horn spread so far.
These are the 4-horn ewes. I will be less picky about the ewe lambs than the rams. The breed standard isn’t so stringent and each ewe doesn’t play as large a part in the flock as the ram. Keeping a variety of ewe lambs is a good way to maintain some genetic diversity (although that is a good reason to buy some lambs from other people in August).
The 2-horn ewe lambs.
Another view of the pen on the right. Notice the two lambs (sisters) in the upper left corner. Compare their horn growth to the others. All these lambs are about the same age. Those two are showing minimal horn growth compared to the rest. I don’t know if that is temporary and their horns will be just fine when they are mature or if those are scurs. This is another reason to look at the lambs in a group. All of the rest of these lambs look fine to me so it will be hard to narrow this down to only a few to keep.
These are some of my 4-horn choices. Preliminary selection is based on wool and lack of freckling in the lamb and the dam.
The same group from the rear. I don’t fault the sheep for their rear leg position, but from this photo it would be the lamb on the left that I’d take to a show.
Two horn lambs that I like.
From the rear.
