Tag Archives: Jacob sheep

They’re still coming

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It has finally stopped raining for awhile.  So I was after some action shots.

Wheee!

Wheee!

Triplets and three sets of twins today. That makes 48 lambs since last Tuesday!
Meridian Suzanne and her twins

Meridian Suzanne and her twins

Meridian Doris and triplets--up and nursing when I went back to the barn.

Meridian Doris and triplets--up and nursing when I went back to the barn.

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Broken arm update–The cast is replaced with a removeable brace, but the doctor says it will take 3 months for the bone to heal. Right now its held together by the screws. He gave me permission to pick up something the weight of a kleenex. Good thing my flock is easy to handle one-handed.

 

38 lambs

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These are twins born last night to Meridian Paulette,

These are twins born last night to Meridian Paulette.

This is how my barn looks from above. I've been moving ewes and lambs out of the jugs quickly.

This is how my barn looks from above. I've been moving ewes and lambs out of the jugs quickly.

Here is the other side of the barn with the ewes still waiting to lamb.

Here is the other side of the barn with the ewes still waiting to lamb.

Just as I was going to take this photo of 4 lambs the chicken walked in front.

Just as I was going to take this photo of 4 lambs the chicken walked in front.

Here is the photo I was trying for.

Here is the photo I was trying for.

17 lambs !

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Yes, 17! That’s since Tuesday.  Started with Dot’s triplets and a single. Yesterday there were 2 sets of twins. Today there have been 3 sets of twins and triplets. Everything was going smoothly until the triplets came along. All lambs born with no problem and nursing OK. Paula and Jan were both starting to lamb so I put them in pens and hung around–beautiful warm afternoon–pleasant in the barn. Paula had the tiniest lamb I’ve ever seen, so I got out the scale. This little ewe is only 2.5 lbs!

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I weighed the 4 lambs born earlier today–6.7-10.2–they look like my normal lambs. So I waited around for quite awhile to see how many lambs there would be. I finally decided it had been too long and I pulled 2 ram lambs–8.4 and 8.9 lbs! These aren’t great photos but you can see the size of the lambs.

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The boys were up and trying to nurse while the little one was still barely standing. She tries to nurse but I haven’t see her stay on the teat  so I’ve given her a few ounces in a bottle. Will go back out with more later.

One of the first triplets born-- climbing on mom

One of the first triplets born-- climbing on mom

Baby pictures

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I had the opportunity to have my flock ultrasounded last week. The senior students had a chance to practice sheep ultrasound and I found out who was pregnant. A win-win situation. As I expected all the sheep were pregnant (except for 3 I held back to breed for State Fair lambs next year). Most sheep except for the 2008 lambs, have twins. That was also expected.

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Can you see the lamb?

Can you see the lamb?

By the time we were finished I could even pick out the lambs, although I can’t tell on this photo. It is fascinating to see the little rib cages and see the little feet moving around. 

Rams and lambs

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I had my camera with me this morning in the barn. I meant to take pictures of the fog. You know those postcards that are black and say “Hawaii at night”? So I can have something that is gray–“Sheep in the fog”, “Sheep herding in the fog”. This time of year fog is common in the Central Valley. Thick fog. Wet fog. Cold fog. People that live in the foothills look down on the top of the fog in the valley. There are days when the high and low temperatures only very by 2 or 3 degrees because of the fog. Fortunately we are at the edge of the valley and somedays don’t have fog at all when there is a thick blanket of it less than 1/2 mile away.
These photos are some I took–but not of the fog. This is Meridian Moonshine. He is one of two ram lambs that I kept from this spring’s lambs.
Moonshine, ram lamb

Moonshine, ram lamb

Here is Meridian Ranger, who will be 2 in February. He still has a great personality and has never shown any aggression (although I still don’t turn my back).
Ranger

Ranger

 Chicory Lane Houdini, below, is another story. He has nice fleece, horns, etc, but his personality leaves something to be desired. He can’t be trusted at all. 

Houdini

Houdini

 All three of these rams will have lambs here in March. That seems a long way off. Usually I am getting ready for lambs in late January.

Shearing Day

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Shearing Day was a week ago now. What a great day! The sun was out and a lot of people came to watch and buy fleeces. I sold 28 of the 60 fleeces we sheared! I started to worry that I wouldn’t have enough left for me!

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Here is a photo of Judd shearing Houdini.

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Judd doesn’t mind a crowd of people watching.

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A couple of friends (Joan in purple and Toni in black) helped all day at the skirting table.

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Freshly shorn ewes.

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Donkey, Amaryllis, is now out with the sheep full-time.

More about the pasture

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This photo is of the same field that is in the last post, but it’s taken in the other direction. See that tower on top of the barn? That’s where I was when I took the other photo. This 5-acre pasture is divided into 8 vertical strips with high-tensile electric wire. I subdivide those strips with electric net fence and it’s that fence that I move when I put the sheep on fresh feed every day or two. In the photo below the sheep see me on the other side of the fence and they are waiting for me to let them in. In the photo you can’t really see the green grass and clover because the dry grass is taller, but it’s there.

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This is a not-so-flattering photo of Ranger waiting with the ewes.

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As I open up the net fence the sheep go rushing through.

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I spend time just watching sheep eat! I like to see what they go for first.

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Amaryllis arrives

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No, I don’t mean the flower, Amaryllis. This Amaryllis is a spotted donkey. She arrived on Saturday. She was foaled in a sheep pen in Iowa and has lived with Jacob sheep all her life. She will continue duty as a guard donkey here, but also as my equine buddy.

Amaryllis

Amaryllis

 

Sheep investigating Amaryllis

Sheep investigating Amaryllis

 

Zena is a favorite yearling and this is how she came in from the pasture this morning.
Zena

Zena

Power ram?

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I took this photo of Houdini and told my husband that I thought he looked like an evil cartoon character.

Dan replied that he looked like one of the Power Rangers, which he just happened to see on Saturday morning. (I guess it came on after This Old House.) Now that it has rained and the sheep are walking around in tall wet grass a lot of the color from the marking harness has come off of Houdini, but in the first few days of breeding season I was ready to call him Alien Ram because he had a green tinge all over his wool.

When I’m not dealing with sheep, hay, classes, etc, I’m supposed to be weaving. I finally got a huge job finished. These are 4 queen size blankets and one double blanket that I just shipped on Friday. They are woven from wool grown by the customer’s family and she wanted blankets for her family members. They don’t look too impressive in the photo, but it was a lot of time.

Now the fun stuff (while my computer is still letting me download photos–don’t know what happened overnight). I like making these V-shawls and here are some friends helping to model them.

And this is my son making his escape after I made him take these photos.

Below is a striking shawl made by one of my students in the last v-shawl class I taught. This is her 2nd weaving!