Thursday, August 18, 2011

Where did the summer go?


Seriously. Where has the summer gone? I can't believe it's August 18th already. Fall is in the air. Nights are getting cooler, lambs are getting big and my "to do" list is still as long as ever. I've been spending some time on our sales / keeper list of late and I've got some difficult decisions ahead! We had a lovely crop of purebred Shetlands this year and there are so many that I want to keep. Unfortunately, I promised DH that the flock size would not get any bigger so that means, one baby in, one ewe out. I've got a few photos and will work on getting more over the next few weeks as I make some decisions. I thought I'd share pics of some of the keepers as well as some of the sale animals I have now. Message me, if there's anything of interest to you. The more critters you buy, the better the price will be. :-)

This is one of a set of twin ewe lambs by WillowGarden Wedge, out of Valley Road Sarah. Both girls are lovely and I'll be keeping one of them for sure. The other will likely be for sale. Sarah isn't holding her weight as well as she used to so we likely won't breed her again. Hence, why I'm keeping one of her daughters.


This is Daisy. She is a keeper. She is by V Creek Leo, out of Sheltering Pines Hope. At first, I thought she was grey but now I haven't a clue how to register her colour and pattern. The ligther part of her coat is more of a cream colour and her "spots" are brown (almost a dark moorit). Any colour experts out there wanna give this a go? Mom is grey (Ag) and dad was black gulmoget.

This is Daisy's brother. He hasn't got a name yet but he will soon as he is likely a keeper to replace Leo, whom we lost over the winter. He is a lovely solid moorit colour. Yes, he tore his ear tag out of his ear. Silly baby...

This is Petunia (our theme this year for the girls is "flowers"). She is by WillowGarden Wedge, out of Valley Road Sierra. She was a bottle baby as for some reason, Sierra rejected her at birth. Petunia is a light moorit, gulmoget, and spotted - you can see a bit of the sokket on the back legs if you look closely.

I tried to get a photo of Rose, one of our other "keeper" ewes this year but she was feeling camera shy. Rose is another Wedge daughter - can you tell I love his daughters? - moorit, some spotting and a fleece that is absolutely to die for! She is by Ewenique Bella. Bella is a fawn katmoget ewe who is now for sale. I'll be sure to get a photo of Bella in the coming days.

This is Mochaccino. He is for sale. He is by FirthofFifth Aman, out of WillowGarden Chocolantini. This boy is absolutely lovely and already a good size. His full brother, Frappaccino is at Windeyer Farm and plans are that Frap will be their future flock sire.

This is one of two ram lambs out of RuisDair Elwyn. Note the telltale "sugar lips" on him. No doubt in my mind that he is Ag (as is his dam). His twin is a dark grey (may be shaela). Both of these boys are for sale. Ellie is not. :-)


This is a set of our twin girls. Sorry, I haven't got my list in front of me so I'm not sure who their dam is. From the looks of them, I'd say that they're Wedge babies.


This is WillowGarden Twist (pre-shearing). He is for sale as I have too many rams. He is white and carries moorit. I could put together a nice starter flock for someone with him and a few of our ewes. He's a nice tempered boy, very respectful of his shepherds and easy to handle.


Another one of the ram lambs we have for sale. At first I thought he was moorit, but now I'm starting to think he may be musket. I'll have to take a closer look on the weekend. His tag number is 25 so I'll look up his parents. Given his colouring, he is likely an Aman baby. And yes, he is for sale.

I have another incredible Aman son for sale. He is mioget, lovely even fleece, nice and correct so far, horns included. He's got his sire's presence. He didn't feel like standing to have his picture taken yesterday but I'll be sure to get a shot of him this weekend. His tag number is 22 and he is as yet, unnamed.

That's everything for now. Well, almost everything...

I'm very excited about the new 4-legged addition that will be arriving in September. We've just bought a second Bluefaced Leicester ram from Windblest Farm (Amadeus' breeder). His name is Byron and he is a "natural" coloured BFL ram. He is unrelated to Amadeus and we are really looking forward to breeding him to Amadeus' yearling mule ewe daughters this year. And maybe a Shetland or two... :-)

5 comments:

  1. Hi from Minnesota! Saw your blog on the yahoo group, figured I'd give my opinion on your little girl. I think Daisy will go solid grey, and will unfortunately lose all that spotting when the grey takes over. I would consider her an Ag (grey) yuglet (dark patches around her eyes, that's all you'll see after she greys out) blaget (resembling snow covered ground, so people know she IS VERY spotted :) )ewe lamb. Very pretty lambs!

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  2. At birth, I thought she was grey as well. Coat was more white and spots were black. But her colour has changed quite a bit. I'm actually looking forward to seeing what she looks like as an adult. :-)

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  3. Your sheep are gorgeous! I'd really like to come out and have a chat with you about sheep, we are wanting to get some for next year and I love the Shetlands but need to know more about what's involved.

    Gorgeous sheepies!

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  4. @95acresofsky - you are welcome to come out anytime! We love having visitors and talking sheep. Come out sooner rather than later and you'll still have time to get set up to bring some sheep home with you this Fall. I could put a really nice little starter flock together for you right now. And Shetlands are nice and low maintenance. :-)

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  5. You sheepy temptress you! I've emailed you about maybe popping over this week if you have time : )

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