Tag Archives: Jacob sheep

Today on the Farm – February 21

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I know it will make me crazy to go back and do other photos out of order, but I’m ready now for today. So I’ll do it this way and include a couple from yesterday as well. Maybe I’ll get to others later because there are stories.

Yesterday Dan decided to take out part of the tree that we think used to stand straight. Ever since that super strong wind last week this tree has looked like it’s tipping more and we’ve known that part of it looks dead. If it went down it could not only take a person with it but it would lift up the corner of the fence. It’s easier to cut down a tree than to replace the fence.

This is one of Trista’s twins born five days ago. The first time he nursed he did it while lying down. Maybe he has decided that is just the way you do things. It works when the sheep has a low hanging udder.

I was in the barn a good part of the day yesterday. I skirted fleeces in between watching ewes lamb. I’ll try to get time to post these.

This morning I knew it was time to rearrange the furniture. As the ewes lamb and I move more ewe/lamb groups out of pens they go on one side. The pregnant ewes stay on the other. It’s the only way I can keep track of who’s next and who may be in labor. There were way too many sheep on one side. It’s mud on the outside of the barn and the pasture has standing water. Until we get some dry days and some more growth they won’t go out there.

Now the ewes and lambs have a much larger space in the barn and outside to the west.

The pregnant ewes (not in this photo) have the space to the left.

In the barn. I ran out of feeders that hang on the panels so Tamara has to share her meal as bedding.

The hens looked like they were dying, but I knew that they were just happy to spread out in the sun.

I moved Amara in last night thinking that she might lamb during the night. Today was the day.

I went to the house for breakfast and to get supplies so that I could work from the barn. I had to prepare for a Zoom meeting for which I didn’t have time last night. This is one of my favorite cups. I bought it at Black Sheep Gathering last year.

My new office set up.

My view from the office.

The result. The second was one of those that may have been just fine if I wasn’t there, but I don’t know. There have been plenty of lambs born with no one around and they are up and nursing when I find them. But so far there have been two that I found dead and had the membranes over the face, one of which was still half in the ewe. This one was born while the ewe was standing and paying attention to the first. It slipped out and landed with the body flopped over the head and fluid all around. I straightened it out and it came to life. I don’t know if it would have before the ewe discovered she had a second.

That’s the day so far. We have 54 lambs and I think I counted 19 ewes to go.

Today on the Farm – February 16

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Sunrise while I was in the pasture.

This is the opposite view. It looks as though there is a lot of grass but we have to be strategic about grazing right now. The ground is wet and I don’t want to cause compaction. And much of the pasture is not fresh grass, but still-dormant dallisgrass with only a little annual grass growing through. The bulk of the green grass right now is annual, not perennial. There are clovers in here too and we want to maximize their vigor by not overgrazing them.

We first set the net fence up along the lane so the sheep could graze that down before it became so tall all they would do is trample it. The grazed part is where I had the sheep yesterday using a short bit of net fence. This morning I switched to a longer section of net fence and gave them a bit more of the grass.

Ginny came to the barn eventually with a ball. Whose ball is this? Chicken or dog?

Trista was in last night because I thought she was next to lamb. I was right, but she sure took her time with it. It was a long time before this labor became anything that was visible.

Back at the Weaving House, one of the things on the list was to photograph the latest v-shawls to promote the class that I will teach at CNCH in April. There is still room!

On my many trips back and forth between the barn and the house I always admire my daffodils.

It was about 1 p.m. that Trista finally lambed. It took another hour before she had the seccond lamb. Look at the horns on this ram!

Back at the Weaving House. Jacob shawls are on the loom now. I hope to finish these tomorrow.

We have seen a skunk twice in the last week around the shop. It seems to be living under the shop. Ginny has confronted it. I There is a distinct “eau de skunk” in the air, even in the shop. There are many reasons why it’s not a good idea to have a skunk around. Fortunately it was not under the shop tonight we we could deal with it.

Back to the barn. This is Coco with the first of twins.

Jade came in tonight because…well, because she is Jade. She doesn’t look particularly ready but she sure looks as though she should be. She was due yesterday I think.

More Watching and Waiting…Who’s Next?

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I’ll start with pretty lamb pictures and then move on to sheep rears. She last night’s post for an explanation of that.

I just let the ewes and lambs onto green grass.

Janna and triplets born about a week ago.

These are in order of how they exported onto my list. This is Coco, due 2-17. Farm Club members have the list of due dates. These are mostly based on my observations during breeding season and then confirmed (sort of) by ultrasounds in late November.

Oh boy! I just learned how to put two photos side by side here. This is Pecan from front and rear. She is due 2/20.

Sandie doesn’t count for the contest. Notice what’s behind her. But it does show what I mean when I talk about the lambs dropping and leaving a sunken area in front of the hips. Compare her to her sister, Pecan in the photos above. She has lambed between me taking these photos this morning and getting to the house to do this post.

Quartz is due 2/17.

Anise was due 2/14.

Eilwen is due 2/27.

Hallie on the left, due 2/22, and Lavender on the right, due 2/20.

Jade from the side and rear. She is due tomorrow, 2/16.

Trista is due 2/17.

There are plenty of others that I could photograph but these are the sheep that posed properly for photos.

Watching and Waiting

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This is probably the kind of photo you expect to see when people are sharing pictures of sheep. But it’s the other end that I’m watching to try and figure out who is next to lamb. The ewe facing me is Sandie due 2/15 (tomorrow). I took lots of photos earlier to bring back the Lambing Game for Farm Club. That’s where I share photos of sheep (mostly rear ends) and Farm Club members can choose the next to lamb. There may be a prize or the prize may just be bragging rights. But I kept taking photos and either not being able to positively identify the sheep from the wrong end, or that sheep lambed before I had a chance to post photos.

Tranquility was one of those I was going to post. She lambed the morning after I took this photo.

Addy was also on the list. She lambed late in the afternoon after I took this photo, the same day as Tranquility.

I think this is Eilwen because the spots match the last photo here.

The ewe on the right is Foxy who lambed this morning. The photo was taken three days before.

Jade is in the middle. Everyone who has been here knows Jade. She is due 2/16.

At 12 years, Sonata is the oldest ewe here, due on 2/16.

Trista and Eilwen. Trista is due 2/17. Eilwen is due 2/27.

If I have time I may take a new set of photos tomorrow. They should all be taken at the same time to make this game fair.

Bright Colors and Lambs

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I taught a rigid heddle weaving class this morning and the one participant chose these brilliant colors for her scarf. I think it turned out great!

Dan and I went to the barn to put up a new barn camera and saw this out back. I had put these ewe in last night because she didn’t follow the others in to eat. But I put her back out this morning because nothing had happened and she wasn’t due for another five days. This is Rose, Kirby’s ewe. She is in the photo below just before shearing.

When they are in full fleece, looks are deceiving.

The ultrasound results showed triplets, but there are only twins here. These are dark lilac lambs. Horatio is the sire.

This is Bessie, the ewe that lambed January 29, too early for the “real” breeding season. These lambs are sired by a random ram lamb. They are sure nice looking ewes. One is black and white and one is lilac.

Meridian Bessie

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Two ewes have lambed early this year. The dates finally made sense when I realized (thanks to a Farm Club member who keeps track of these things) that some of the ram lambs got in with the ewes September 2. Those lambs would have been 4-1/2 to 6 months old at that time. As another friend said, “where there’s a ram, there’s a way!”

I saw one of the rams breed a ewe, but it wasn’t one of these two who have now lambed. Bessie lambed on Monday and in looking up some info, I thought I would feature her in a blog post.

Bessie was born 3/10/2019. She was a week old when this photo was taken. You can see that she is a lilac–the facial markings are definitely gray, not black and the fleece color follows. I love to see a lamb fleece like this. It’s all tight little curls and, in my experience, a fleece like this will be very nice. Also notice the level of the britch wool. That is the coarser wool on the back leg. It doesn’t spread very far up the leg.

Here she is 10 days later.

This photo was taken at about 7 months old.

Here she is three years later.

In 2023 Bessie lambed with twin rams. I kept this one, now named Blizzard.

This is Bessie, not quite a month ago. She is in full fleece and full of lambs.

These two ewe lambs were born on Monday, 1/29. The one on the right is lilac like her mom. They have the same curly fleece and low britch wool that Bessie had in her lamb photo.

Surprise Lamb!

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I was expecting the first lambs in about two weeks so it was a surprise when I saw a ewe who looked as though she was in labor tonight. I put her in a lambing pen and the more I watched the more I knew that she would lamb. I was a bit worried though because lambs can be considered premature and at risk if they are born even ten days before their due date. I put most ewes with rams on September 16 which makes first lambs due February 11. There were two ewes with a ram 6 days earlier which gives us a lambing date of February 5.

All is OK. I went to the house for dinner and pulled up the barn camera feed on my phone.The ewe was definitely in labor. By the time I went back to the barn the lamb was mostly out. The ewe was standing. One more push and the lamb was out.

This is a single ewe lamb out of a 7-year-old ewe, Meridian Dilly.

She was on her feet in about 20 minutes…

…and nursing within a half hour.

So how did we get such a vigorous healthy lamb that much sooner than expected? I sent an email to Farm Club to announce the lamb. One of the members reminded me of an email I had sent in early September in which I said three ram lambs had gone through the fence to where the ewes were. That timing makes sense. One of those is the sire.

Shearing Day 2024 – More Photos

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I shared the first batch of photos from Shearing Day last night. Here are more.

John has been shearing for us for years. He is an excellent shearer and a nice person.

I recorded some of the sheep being shorn which I’ll share when I have time. When I record I can pay attention to time. Some of them are right at 2 minutes or maybe even a little faster.

There is no blood. The sheep are in good shape and the fleeces look great! What more can you ask for?

Farm Club members kept up with getting the sheep to John. I got outside and started to take photos of the sheep after shearing. This ewe is Sandie.

They sure look clean now! That won’t last.

Kathleen weighed all the fleeces.

We had two skirting tables available so that fleeces could be skirted before purchase.

This is just a portion of the fleeces that I need to skirt and put out for sale. Give me a little time to get to that. The sooner the better though.

Distraction…there was a lamb born tonight! Surprise! I guess the next post will be about lambing.

Shearing Day 2024

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Shearing Day was Sunday, January 21. Rain was predicted all weekend. We need to shear dry sheep. For several years I have used the wool from my friend’s Jacob sheep. It’s easier to shear them here and we can be sure they’ll be dry. So I pay for that shearing and we bring her sheep here the day before.

This year we brought them two days ahead of time due to the weather and because of my Saturday activities. I had two extra stalls there was plenty of room when we split the group.

There were 16 ewes and one ram lamb.

We sheared those sheep first. This is the ram, first sheep of the day to be shorn.

John’s dog, Oakley, found a comfy place to settle down.

As soon as the neighbor’s sheep were shorn we loaded them in the trailer and Dan drove them home. They fit in the trailer much better after shearing than before.

First up for me was Peyton, the BFL ram. The BFL’s seem to gain weight very easily. He and the two crossbred ewes I have are probably a bit too heavy.

The Jacob rams were next. This is the ram lamb (almost yearling) Typhoon.

Here is the lilac ram, Horatio. Look at all that luscious fiber!

Ewes followed. I took recorded lots of video but haven’t had time to do anything with it yet.

Shaggy looking sheep.

This is the view of the main sheep area looking into the lambing area where there are pens, and beyond to shearing.

Shearing Day wouldn’t go as smoothly without all the Farm Club help. We crowd the sheep into the main barn with panels and move them through to the shearing area.

I’m grateful that so many Farm Club members have been here enough that they can just jump in and take over. There were several new members as well who are well on their way to learning about sheep handling.

Sheep in the lambing area moving to the pen on the top left near the shearer. That’s a goat on the right. The goat has to go in a pen or she gets in the way.

She got plenty of attention there.

Two or three people bring a few sheep at a time into this pen where they are moved through the gate to John.

Kathleen took her regular job of weighing fleeces.

Thanks to everyone! There will be another post.

Shearing Day…for One Sheep

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Sunrise with gray clouds above green grass.

Shearing Day was scheduled for January 21, but this was the day before. I was up before sunrise again (necessary if you want to get enough done in the day in the winter) and it’s nice when there is color to go with it.

Five women sitting in a circle, each spinning on a different type of spinning wheel.

I had a spinning class scheduled for the morning. Five people from five different cities came to learn about spinning. Most had a little bit of experience or at least an introduction to spinning so we started right in after I explained the different wheels and some basic terminology. They all had a chance to ply their yarns by the time we finished a little after noon.

Just as we were finishing Siobhan and Ivar got here. Siobhan is a Farm Club member who has been here often, either teaching a class or to farm sit, besides our regular Farm Days. She and her husband spent a few weeks in England on a belated honeymoon last year. While there they took a lesson on blade shearing and bought hand shears. Siobhan asked if she could shear a sheep for her Farm Club fleece for this year. I said “sure”.

She chose Harry, the offspring of one of our pet sheep, Hazel, who died last year). I had wethered Harry because he had become such a pet to Siobhan and my granddaughter, Kirby. Ivar did the actual shearing while Siobhan helped with sheep control.

I can’t believe that I didn’t get photos between the start and the finish. I was doing some other barn clean up but also helping with a bit of sheep management. In fact I took this photo while Ivar was finishing his last strokes from the front of the sheep where I had one hand (or maybe my knee at this point) on Harry’s head. Siobhan however has a great time-lapse video of the whole process.

I’ll bet it felt like longer to Ivar, but when I looked at the time on my photos I saw that between the first and last photo there was about 55 minutes. I’d say that’s pretty good for your first sheep and doing it with handshears…and the sheep has horns, which only adds to the difficulty.

The fleece looks good too and I can’t wait to see what Siobhan does with it. Great job, Ivar and Siobhan!

The next day we sheared 77 sheep, but John uses electric shears! Stay tuned for another post.