Lamb Pictures

2013 Lambs

116 Lambs on the ground. Here goes for the list. 

Sommarang Gilroy-black, fine fleeced, horned and spotted. I'm hoping his groups throws lots of spots and fine fleeces.

Early Spring-mioget (carrys spots.) Lambs: black ewe, black krunet (white spot on head) ewe
Elm-lt. grey (carrys spots) Lambs: black ram, black ewe
Ferndale-sheala F1 Gordon Lambs:-2 black ewes
Glitter-white Lambs: white ram, white ewe
Gardenia-grey gulmoget/katomget F2 Dillon Lambs: black gulmoget ewe, grey katmoget ewe
Goldenred-moiget/musket F2 Orion Lambs: black ram, black ewe
Grettle-white F2 Jings Lambs: 2 white rams
Gladys-white F2 Jings Lamb: white ram
Hollyhocks-moorit (carrys spots) F2 Jericho Lambs: black yuglet, 3 white socks lamb (spots!) ewe, moorit ram
Honeydew-fawn katmoget (may carry spots) F2 Jericho Lambs: grey katmoget ram, black ram
Sheepy Hollow Sienna-moorit horned ewe Lambs: moorit ewe, black ram
UnderTheSon Jelly Drop-emsket Lambs: 2 black ewes
Funzie-grey katmoget, horned ewe F1 Jings Lambs: black ram, grey katmoget ram


PS23 Fife-moorit, F1 Orion fine fleece and fully horned out of a horned ewe. Long and deep bodied.
Flourance-white F2 Skeld Lambs: white ram, moorit ram
Fairlie-fawn F1 Orion. This is a linebreeding, hpoing he make the lambs crimpier and she makes them silkier as she is not very crimpy, but very silky. Lambs: moorit ram, moorit ewe
Gloria-white F2 Jings Lamb: golden musket ram
Hyacinth-grey katmoget F2 Jericho Lamb: moorit ram
Heather-grey katmoget F2 Jericho Lambs: black ewe, dk. grey katmoget ewe
Hope-white F2 Jings Lambs: white ewe, moorit ram
Hummingbird-black F2 Jericho Lambs: black ewe, black ram
Hydrangea-white F1 Skeld Lambs: white ewe, (black ram-died)
Forsythia-lt grey F2 Greyling Lambs: musket ram, black ewe

PS23 Hector-white F1 Jings super fine fleece. Fine boned and small-my smallest ram, refined. (Not undersized, just by comparison to my other rams.) I was actually going to use Fairlight my other F1 Jings who is much more meaty and a flock book type, but decided to use him  at the last minute instead.
Under The Son Aran-sheala Lambs: black ewe, black ewe with small white spot on head
Under The Son Hopi-sheala/dk brown horned ewe F2 Skeld Lambs: black ram, white ewe
Hadassah-moorit horned ewe F2 Orion Lamb: moorit ewe
Harmony-fawn katmoget, horned ewe F2 Orion Lambs: black ram, (white ewe-died)

Gilroy's lambs: 12 rams, 13 ewes

Fife's lambs: 8 rams, 6 ewes

Hector's lambs: 2 rams, 5 ewes

All Shetlands together: 22 rams, 24 ewes

Coopworth X Shetland Lambs: All whites 12 rams, 16 ewes out of 15 ewes

IleDeFrance/Dorset sired Lambs: All whites 22 rams, 16 ewes out of 22 ewes

2 girls cycled around and will be late-one of the IleDeFrance's and one of Gilroy's-Eastwind a spotted emsket. Just when I thought what nice spotted lambs they would have. Oh well.  I have 9 does due to kid starting today. Then I will be done!

I should have several purebred ewe lambs for sale as well as a few purebred Shetland ram lambs. I also will have white Coopworth X Shetland ewes for sale. The Coopworth X Shetland have very nice silky and shiny fleeces and a med. sized ewe that is a great commercial ewe with a nice handspining quality fleece .

Lambing

I have over 110 lambs and down to four more ewes to lamb and nine does to kid. I have a bunch of pictures, but can't get them on the computer right now (it has been updated and does not want to upload any pictures.)

I found this picture of a Finn ewe with seven lambs. ( http://www.kitsapsun.com/photos/2012/apr/13/288959/#axzz2PgqWXIuK )
I'm sure glad mine don't have 7 each or I'd have over 450 lambs!!!!

Ducks On The Pond

I have started lambing in full swing, up to over 40 babies. I need to get some pictures up.

In the mean time I found this video of an all women shearing team who donated a day's shearing for cancer research. They are great! I love the pink shearing singlets too. :)

http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2013/s3717388.htm

Shearing Before and After

Before: Pen full of crossbred girls. (28 in all)

 After: Happy bald sheep! They all ate their dinners and settled down to ruminate. As you can see they are quite pregnant, 1 week off from lambing.

I was going to wait until after lambing for these girls, but changed my mind for several reasons. 1. less barn space needed 2. It is easier to shear before lambing on non-primitive sheep 3. I wanted to practice more!

It took me two days to do them. The first day I did 12, and had to stop early as a neighbor was coming to clean out the barn. The second day I did the rest, 16. I am slower than I hoped to be, but definitely faster than shearing with the sheep standing up, and these girls were hard as they have such big bellies. This brings my tally to 39 sheep since the class and I did about 12 there. Someday I'll be faster!

Lots of wool to skirt! I have my work cut off   out for me.

Shetland girls in the rain. I rarely have my Shetlands and the crosses in two groups. It's kind of nice to see them as two groups. They have all been crutched (back ends and lower bellies sheared) so they don't get as messy, and so the lambs can find the milk bar easier. They will be sheared after lambing,  in April/May depending on when they get the rise.

Everyone has been vaccinated and dewormed, I just need to buy some hog panels for lambing jugs (I foolishly let the ones I had get frozen in the deep snow/ice, well I need more anyways.) I also need to rearrange a few animals to free up the new sheds I built for lambing.) Then let the good times  sleepless times roll!

Zeilinger Woolen Mill

Well, I'm finally getting around to getting the post on Zeilinger up. I got to visit Zeilingers when I did the shearing class, we got to go there for a tour. Winter set in and I'm just milking cows, feeding sheep, doing some exercises (to get in better shape for shearing), washing wool and dyeing wool. I also have been spinning occasionally.

Note: Kristen Rosser took some of these pictures as well as myself. Some I'm not sure who took. She took the pictures of the lake and the town.



The dehairing machine. It works by humidity and blowing air. The coarser fiber fall to the bottom and the fine stuff makes it to the end. I asked the guy who was running the machine (it had Pygora) how much loss there was. I was shocked that the Pygora LOOSES 75%, alpaca and llama are not nearly as bad. In my opinion, why raise a Pygora?  One looses so much during processing and then it costs a lot to process. Angora goats can have amazingly fine fleeces and the only loss is grease. They are also easier to shear, I would think. (I've never shearer a Pygora, but did shear 2 Alpine/Angora crosses once.)



The coming machine. It runs carded roving through all the fine teeth and combs it removing all hay and noils. It is the machine that performs magic, in my opinion, turning icky hay filled neck wool into dream fiber.






Spinning frame





Carding machines


Bath tubs to wash wool in


Knitting machines-Z Wool does fantastic socks.



This was a cool picture of a halfway shorn Merino ewe that Z Wool had.


The shop


Frankenmouth



I don't know what lake this is, but it was pretty!

A Treet!

My goaties loved their (Christmas) "treet", it was devoured within 2 days! The sheep daintily nibbling their 2 "treets", so I gave one to the goats and it was gone by morning! (The trees are Christmas trees that I "rescued" for a good purpose from our local town as I was going through.)