Athena lambed ahead of schedule. Unfortunately the biggest twin (12.2 lbs) was dead when I went out this morning. Although it looks as though it was born alive (or at least was full term) there was something wrong with it. It’s belly was full of fluid so I think there was probably a congenital problem with it and it never could have survived.
This lamb is 8 pounds.
It’s obvious who the dad is:
Lambs will be here at the end of February and I have been thinking about how fast they grow. Here are some of the 2013 favorite lambs as they grew up.
This is Marilyn with her mom, Hot Lips.
2 1/2 weeks old.
First in her class at Black Sheep Gathering, 4 months old.
Marilyn at 8 months old. Isn’t she pretty? 
Santana at 10 days old. 
About a month old.
Not quite two months old. 
5 1/2 months old with a great horn spread.
Santana with his ewes 7 1/2 months old. 
That’s Alex on the right at about 10 days old. Not much color on that side. Fortunately he has more on the other.
About 4 months old.
About 8 months old.
Alex after shearing, 9 months.
This is Cascade at 10 days old.
Two months old.
Here she is at 7 1/2 months.
The sheep follow me, always hopeful that I’ll switch them to a new paddock.
They are in luck this morning.
The young lambs don’t always figure out going around the post.
Now they’re going the right way. 
Sheep aren’t the only thing in the pasture.
Can you tell what I’m looking at?
The mosquitoes haven’t been too bad this year, but that has changed now. The pasture mosquitoes are out in force. I don’t go out in the pasture without my long sleeved “mosquito shirt”.
From a management standpoint having new lambs in July is not very smart. It’s like managing two separate flocks. On the other hand, it’s always fun to see new lambs. More importantly I like to support the efforts of UCD and the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in presenting the Livestock Nursery at the CA State Fair. It is a major attraction and helps to provide much-needed education to the public.
This year I took five pregnant ewes to the fair, and I visited the fair yesterday.
Dona has twins. I bred some of the ewes to Faulkner, the BFL, as well as to a Jacob ram. It was more important to have lambs, any lambs, than to have purebred Jacob lambs. I decided that in breeding out of season using two rams would be safer than counting on just one and that by using Faulkner I’d be able to tell which ram sired the lambs. I think that I have one of each here. The lambs are quite different looking.
Phyllis had a single ram and Clover had twins, all sired by Faulkner. 
Isadora was bred to a Jacob ram and has a nice single ram lamb. I had a phone call today that Foxglove has also lambed with a single ram. 
Here is a view of the nursery first thing in the morning. When I left at noon the place was packed.
I wandered around the fair for a little while before I left. I thought I’d check out a few of my favorite spots. I won’t get much time to do that once I get there with the other sheep at the end of next week.
There is a memorial to September 11. In the background is a steel beam from one of the towers and in the foreground is a sphere on which is inscribed the names of all the victims of that horrendous tragedy. It floats and spins gently on a cushion of water.
I breezed through the art show. This caught my eye. That is plastic bottles (400 of them) pouring out of a culvert.
Here is a sculpture made of nails.
In the California Living exhibit I saw a crocheted bicycle…or I guess it is a bicycle with crochet touches.
Lots of beautiful quilts.
Solano County always prides itself on winning awards for the exhibit in the County Building. This year’s display was a bit different. It not only included the rich agricultural diversity of the county, but told the story of Travis Air Force Base. 
My last stop was The Forest, a relatively quiet and cool spot in the busy, sun-drenched fairgrounds. This time, with the AZ tragedy still fresh in my mind and my fire-fighter sons both working now, I took notice of this memorial.
Typical Jacob lamb:
Blue-faced Leicester x Jacob lamb: 
Here is Dad, below. Do you see a resemblance?
This is Onyx, one of last year’s BFL x Jacob ewes, all grown up:
Of course, if you really want to see ears, look no farther than here: 
Eight lambs today brought us to 22 lambs in five days since lambing began. It was hectic today. I had a Lambtown Fiber Committee meeting scheduled here from 1 to 3. One ewe (Delilah) lambed with twins and I put another ewe (Belinda) in a lambing pen just before the meeting started. One of the participants in the meeting brought her kids and the kids needed something to do. They were charged with the task of telling us if Belinda started having a lamb. About half way through the meeting the kids told us that a different ewe had just had a lamb. That was Terraza and I brought her into the barn. By the time the meeting was over there were 5 more lambs (2 for Terraza, 2 for Belinda, and 1 more for Delilah, giving her triplets). 
The morning began with finding Summer’s lambs. Unfortunately one was dead. (This is not a very good photo but it is of the live lamb.)
The third of Delilah’s triplets. Look at those horns.
This is Belinda. It’s no wonder that lambs and ewes get mixed up when lambing in a confined area. Belinda was desperate to have a lamb, any lamb.
Delilah and her triplets.
Terraza and twins.
Dona came for the meeting and she took some photos. I like to weigh the lambs so I have an answer when people ask me “how much do they weigh when they are born?”
Here are the official Lamb Watchers of the day.
This is one of Eliza’s lambs, born a couple of days ago.
Hot Lips and one of her lambs.
The Lambing Board.
Lambs were due on Thursday, 148 days after the first breeding date. I’ve started watching for early arrivals. Last night I went out at about 12:30 a.m. (after finishing bookkeeping for the night) and found two ewes with four lambs. I brought them into the lambing pen area and tried to sort out moms and babies. I finally assigned two lambs to each ewe and they all seemed happy. In the light of day I realize that the sets of twins are split up. But that’s OK as long as each lamb has a happy mom.
This is a beautifully marked ram lamb. Meridian Celeste x Kenleigh’s Matrix. The two parents are both lilac (the color of this lamb) and they should have lilac offspring. 
This is his adopted twin, but he is black so I think belongs to the other mom. (Meridian Zoey x Meridian Fogerty)
Here is a lilac ewe lamb (although in the photo she looks black) so this is the twin to the first one. 
Meridian Loretta lambed with twins in the middle of the day. I put Loretta in a pen and came back an hour later. No muss, no fuss. Twins clean and nursing. This is a ewe lamb. Meridian Loretta x Kenleigh’s Matrix.
Here is that first lamb again. I usually just number the lambs and let buyers give them names. This lamb is tempting me to name all my lambs. I don’t have his name yet, but I’ll think of one. 
Lambing season has started.
During the winter the sheep are mostly in the barn and corral area. The pasture doesn’t drain well and I don’t want it to be a trampled mess. I’m also waiting for there to be more growth there. It’s been dry enough the last few weeks that I opened the gate to the small paddocks near the barn. The sheep were thrilled to get out to that grass.
This is Summer (the sheep, not the season). 
This is Spring (also, not the season).
Here is Eliza. They are all looking a little heavy, but that is because they are due to lamb in about a month. 
Stephanie, the old goat, is so stiff in the cold weather we’ve been having. I walked her out here to enjoy the grass. Most of the sheep kept their heads down eating. But Kyra just wanted to play. 
Happy sheep! 
I still have the new lens on the camera. It is a 40 mm lens and I wasn’t that close to the action. I’m surprised that I was able to crop the photos to this degree and still have them relatively sharp.
This is Ebony, a black and white Jacob ewe.
This is Hudson, a lilac Jacob ram.
Here is one of their lambs at almost 2 months old. He is lilac like Dad.
This is the other lamb at about a month old…
… and here he is at just over 2 months. He has been marked with a cull tag because of a severe split eyelid, but also, do you see how his horns are growing?
Both lambs today, at 3 1/2 months old:
I love the horns, the color, and the fleece on this lilac ram, but (as in the discussion over on Facebook) I sure wish that I could combine these lambs into one and keep just the parts I like. Look at those pretty blue eyes on the black and white ram…
…and he has nicely marked feet also.
Speaking of rams, here are a few more photos:
The photo above is of Meridian Clapton at about 6 months…
and here he is as a yearling. Look at the photo below for horn detail on his right side.
The first thing that is unusual is how his horns go behind his neck instead of under, but there is also a fifth horn there.
Meet Puddleduck Sullivan, a 2-horn yearling ram. But is he really a 2-horned ram? I see a seam in those horns that could mean that he is a fused 4-horn. And he also has another horn on this side. People talk about 6-horn Jacob sheep, but I haven’t seen any in which the 5th and 6th horns weren’t scurs or some how compromised by the larger horns. After all, where would you put another full set of horns?
This is Meridian Fogerty, a another 2-horn yearling ram. I had so many rams last year that I didn’t use him, but he will be in this fall’s ram line-up. His horns are closer to his face than I’d like, but still OK.
One more ram. Sweetgrass Clint is Clapton’s sire and here he is (above) at 6 months old.
This is Clint last fall as an adult.
Bottom line–you don’t necessarily get the perfect lamb by breeding two “perfect” parents and you can’t predict how the lamb will look as an adult when you buy it at 4 months old.
For more photos of how rams’ horns change see my website photo gallery . By the way, Ebony, who is at the beginning of this post, stars in her own video over on YouTube. Click here and find her video to see her having those ram lambs.
I took a whole batch of photos yesterday morning before I went to two days of Nikon photography classes in Sacramento. I intended to write a blog post about ewes and their lambs and I took photos of family groups. After the class I’m looking at these photos and thinking…delete…delete…delete. I couldn’t bring myself to delete all of them, but I did delete most. And I’m tempted to go back through the last year i-photo and do a big cleansing.
So here are a few photos that I kept and some of them aren’t all that great but I like the sheep.
Summer and her triplets
Hot Lips and twins
Dazzle and twins
Lola and daughter
Faulkner
Ebony
Fogerty
Meridian Jacobs' Blog 