Ewe lambs I am overwintering for evaluation

Grab some coffee or tea.....this is a long post!

For those that forgot, I did a second round of AI in the fall of 2009. I was much happier with the amount of ewe lambs I got and therefore have more to retain over the winter. I'm pretty blown away by this years' consistency overall for the lambs both from AI and ground breedings. Tails, feet and legs and overall structure and breed type are getting more 'set in stone' as much as they can for such a diverse breed.

Since I am striving for the SSS approved Shetlands that adhere to both the 1927 Standard and Appendix A, these ewe lambs I am quite hopeful would pass inspection both in structure and fleece, as well as breed type and their respective micron results. They are almost all consistent from front to rear with little britch wool.

Since I still don't have a camera I'll just have to describe the lambs :)

AI ewe lambs:

WhitePine Shakira - 62.5 % UK - fawn F1 Orion out of WhitePine Skor (shaela). She will have a longer staple length of 5-6" at shearing with some nice crimp coming in at the skin level.

WhitePine Auburn - 59% UK - moorit krunet F1 Orion out of FirthofFifth Ashanti. A very refined and feminine ewe lamb who is a lovely dark red at the skin level. Very consistent fleece with the typically perfect fluke shaped tail and breed type of the SSS type Shetlands.

WhitePine Adele - 59% UK - fawn F1 Orion out of FirthofFifth Ashanti. (twin to ewe lamb above). She is identical to her sister except in color.

WhitePine Rihanna - 65.5% UK - white mirkface F1 Jamie out of FirthofFifth Rahu. She is built like a brick house! Appropriate width of loin, perfectly straight hind quarters with the epitome of a perfect tail (IMHO!). Her fleece is a bit of a more bold crimp typical of the Bramble Connor lines and her build is very much a Bramble look, with of course much help coming from Jamie's perfect conformation. She's one of my bigger girls and I'm looking forward to putting her in with a clean up ram in a few weeks (call me crazy now and later please!). She was my last Jamie straw so she is very special to me!

WhitePine Cascada - 65.5% UK - Fawn Moget Face (Ag katmoget) F1 Minder out of Justalit'l Chloe. My only Minder ewe lamb! Her birth coat was not exciting, but she is getting a lovely crimp at the skin level. She had body spotting at birth.

WhitePine Blu Cantrell - 62.5% UK Gray katmoget smirslet F1 Jericho out of Justalit'l Black Lambo. Her fleece will be a longer 5-6" at shearing. She is a big girl out of a 9 year old ewe. She's very tame and I love her dark blue fleece.

WhitePine Aaliyah - 76.5% UK Gray Katmoget smirslet F1 Jericho out of FirthofFifth Ashegon. Aaliyah is very typical of the UK katmogets with the dark katmoget markings, the dark blue fleece and she carries moorit! AND has a huge black spot on her rear. She's very feminine and dainty like her mother was at this same age.

WhitePine Nivea - 68%UK Gray kagmoget bleset sokket F1 Jericho out of ShelteringPines Nirvana. I didn't try for spots but this ewe lamb sure got my attention as a lamb! Not only her spots but her fleece, her conformation (her dam is also spot on for this) and her breed type!

WhitePine Nina Sky - 68%UK gray katmoget F1 Jericho out of Nirvana too (twin to Nivea). She is identical to her sister minus the spots. She has a smirslet on her face but it has since faded away as she has aged. Both have lovely bright eyes that draw you in when you see them.

WhitePine Colby Caliagh - 79.5% UK - black F1 Timothy out of WhitePine Centennial. Cute as a button, breed type, perfect ear set and tail with less crimp which I've found is typical of the Timothy line. With her dam's pedigree she should throw some dynamite lambs herself.

Ground Bred lambs:

WhitePine Eiffel 65 - 61% UK gray katmoget smirslet flecket sokket F2 Jericho out of Jazz and Sommarang Emerald. Spots and spots galore! She is a vast improvement on her mother and i'm tickled to see how this Jazz daughter matures.

WhitePine Ciara - 58% UK - white out of WhitePine Roman (F1 Orion) x WhitePine CastleRock (F2 Jericho). She is a knock out ewe lamb and am happy I have a white F2 Orion ewe with Jericho genetics. Her mom was highly improveable and I should have held on to her instead of selling her.

WhitePine Beyonce - fawn 62.5% UK - double F2 Orion (White Pine Ephraim x WhitePine Bethany). The best UK fleece ewe lamb I have seen yet. Gorgeous fawn color like her mother she is just as nice as her mother is and I'm excited to breed her to the Jamie line of moorits to tease out that lovely dark moorit color of his.

WhitePine Sarai - 53%UK gray katmoget F2 Jamie F3 Jericho (WhitePine Levi x WhitePine Sedalia). Gorgeous crimp, perfect conformation, possible poll carrier. I'm glad Michelle decided NOT to take her.....she's pretty awesome :)

WhitePine Norah Jones - 62%UK gray katmoget F2 Jamie F3 Jericho (WhitePine Levi x WhitePine Neriah). I'd say she is very much like Sarai but more refined. her katmoget fleece is nearly black at the skin when parted she is so dark! I'm in love with this girl too.

WhitePine Dido - 50% UK gray katmoget by WhitePine Levi out of Sommarang Eva. Gorgeous blue fleece that is really crimpy. Structurally correct and just as nice as her twin sister below.

WhitePine Des'ree - 50%UK black smislet twin to above ewe lamb. Non fading black with excellent structure and very crimpy fleece. I'm excited to see how these twins produce.

WhitePine Robyn - 67.5% UK white out of Jazz by WhitePine Rush (F2 Orion). A different kind of crimp, not as tightly crimped but from a wonderful pedigree. She may be sold to a newer family who bought her half sister and aunt (its confusing yes). If she doesn't go, she will make a great addition to my flock.

Black Forest Tokhara - fawn out of Ephraim and FirthofFifth Towanda. She has a slightly longer staple with nice crimp at the skin. Lovely breed type and structure.

Black Forest Tersk - fawn gulmoget to Tokhara. Same kind of fleece and structure. I'm tickled to have a gullie of the moorit persuasion :)

Black Forest Andalusian - EMSKET smirslet out of Ephraim and FirthofFifth Anki. Longer fleece staple with amazing conformation. I'm excited she's emsket!

Black Forest Azteca - Emsket out of Ephraim and FirthofFifth Agio. Shorter fleece than her half sister but ever so nice. A bit more refined but has the lovely bluish color that I've been after in an emsket.

FirthofFifth Basotho - gray katmoget out of Ephraim and FirthofFifth Blottir. A nice big girl who again has a slightly longer fleece with lovely crimp at the skin. She is Forrest/Orion bloodline and is very unrelated to the katmogets of the Jericho line that I have so that is also a bonus.

Now I"ll be quizzing you in the next blog so please make sure you studied up :)

More sheep photos

While I was out obsessing over poop (see previous post) I took some more lamb photos. I swear the same 10 sheep surround me when I have a camera. When I turn it off and put it away, the entire flock comes and lays down around me (something I think is so awesome that they trust me so much!) To be around their prescense, their calm, trusting nature...it gives me goosebumps...and complete stress reliever!


Well here she is! WSR Alisa is a light badgerface ewe. She's also moorit based. She is NOT katmoget although its very similiar. She's born katmoget but her belly and neck stripes fade. Its similiar to APPEARANCE to an Ag Katmoget (moget face) but its genetically different. This ewe is Alb/Aa so she'll produce solid lambs and light badgerface. If she were Ag Katmoget she's only be Ag/Ab and could not produce solid lambs. Confused yet? :)

Below are my Shirehill Minder yearling rams out of Underhill Ulla. Ulla is Aa/Aa and Minder is Ab/Ag. So below....Uphaz is on our left. He's musket (Ag/Aa) and smirslet/sokket. Also note his odd growing horns. Fatal horns or poll carrier? Ulam is on the right. Note he APPEARS to be moget face (Ag/Ab) but he genetically cannot be. I believe he is also light badger face like Alisa above. He genetically should be Alb/Aa (Aa from his mother Ulla remember!). He'll get three Aa/Aa ewes this fall to prove my theory correct. IF that is the case...most of the katmogets from Minder are not katmoget, but actually light badger face. Note his neck stripe is missing. He had one as lamb! His horns are also much nice than his brothers. Uphaz will be going to the butcher wtih 5 other rams (yes he's F1!)


This gray katmoget is ShelteringPines Veni Vedi Vici. He is twin to Rich's Blues Clues and is out of Winterime Blues (Jazz's twin brother) and V Creek Guinevere. Guinevere is such a producer! This boy is available for lease this fall as I refuse to use another katmoget this fall :) He looks a lot like his sire, Blues. He COULD be homozygous katmoget, but we haven't used him yet so can't say.

This doll face is a WhitePine Levi (F1 Jamie) out of WhitePine Neriah (Blues x Nirvana). This girl has one of my blue-ist fleeces in my flock. She also has large leathery patches on her head (yes she IS a ewe!). She's definitely a keeper!

Below is my white girl RYL Rachildas. (She's for sale) She's Awt/Ag but man she produces lovely stuff! The spotted/horned girl is WhitePine Salome (Jazz x S.P. Snow Cloud). The yearlings really are growing fast on the rich pastures (the pasture in the photos is their evening and winter paddock so it doesn't get a chance to grow much). Salome is not my finest ewe, but she is black (Aa/Aa) and spotted and horned. I really appreciate horned ewes!

Below is Owl Hill Miss Lilly (F1 Holly F2 Orion amongst others) and her Orion Son. He's going to be scurred.....and he's a gorgeous crimpy mioget with a krunet! His name is White Pine Maxwell.

Here are my two fawn katmoget ram lambs. The one on the left is going back to Oregon to Wally's flock. He traded me Alisa for a moorit based katmoget that doesn't fade (Ab). His ram is also homozygous katmoget and is F1/F3 Minder. Beautiful horns and crimp is really coming in now (see that birth coat just was teasing me!) The ram on the right is Booto's boy again. Note the horn difference.

Here are the boys again...with the youngest lamb in the flock! Look at the Minder boy's rear and tail in the foreground! I think Wally will really like him!

This black ram is out of Campaign Timothy and RiverOaks Eliza. Theresa...is this a good enough rear shot? He's so black its hard to get a good photo of him...especially in the shade....standing....

FirthofFifth Ashegon (Blues x Ashanti) and her Jericho daughter White Pine Aliyah. Ashegon is an extremely feminine ewe, most of my yearlings are already bigger than her, but Ashegon has produced this lovely ewe. She's also unrelated to my Orion moorits so she'll be a nice outcross!

A Favorite Ewe Lamb...

A favorite ewe lamb of mine....she is 79.5% out of Campaign Timothy and WhitePine Centennial (Jazz x Chloe, also twin to Castle Rock). Centennial has really decided now (at two) to be extremely friendly like her mother Chloe. This ewe lamb runs up to me and stares at me, but won't let me scratch her, but she sure gives me the once over (or 100 times over) every time she see's me.

Centennial was my favorite lamb from 2008, and still remains one of my favorite ewes..both in structure, and fleece. I think her girl is a stunner too.

Thoughts?
In this photo Momma Centennial is getting rooed. I sheared early this year in hopes of having longer fleeces for the shows, but most of the ewes (no rams) all went through the rise late May/early June. *sigh*

White Pine Levi

I took these photos back in May and never got around to posting them.

Levi is a black krunet F1 Willowcroft Jamie yearling ram. He rooed entirely back a few months ago. He is silky soft with lots of luster (for a black!!) and I could use his fleece to stuff a pillow case with and sleep on its so soft. He was used as a clean up ram last fall and I am really pleased with his get. He'll be used more heavily this fall along with his half brother.
He wouldn't stand still for a photo, but his legs are pefectly square on flat surface. He's an easy keeper, a very respectful, friendly ram.
His half brother (both are out of Becky's RiverOaks Lucy) is out of Greenholme Holly and is a smirslet moorit. I love my modified lambs but I believe he'll stay a nice dark red moorit and that is what i need right now. he's also smooth polled and has the same consistent and crimpy fleece of his 1/2 brother. I also plan to use him a lot this fall.

I'm not 'going polled' but will welcome the diversity in my flock, just as I have horned ewes, all the patterns and colors and the array of spotting gene patterns too :)

update on some lambs

Its been eons since I've posted lamb photos.

Although I consider all of you readers friends (except for one who slanders me), I realize this debate with the Shetland people is really stressing everyone's emotions. Hopefully there will be a resolution that will make all parties happy. And we can get back to all being friends :)

For what those of us who are in favor of guidelines with maximums and minimums in fleece length go to Juliann's blog to see just what we are talking about. I'll say it again. I'm not opposed to double coated sheep. They just have to be fine. And nothing like Juli posted photos of!

I have plenty of micron reports and fleece samples to prove that none of the ones i had were soft. Heck some of my single coats weren't soft either. When I find the time, I'll post them.

In the mean time let's look at lambs.

Let's see. This is WhitePine Skor (shaela) with her Heights Orion twins. The black ram looks as though he'll be shaela like his mother (also head spotting). The moorit ewe lamb looks like she'll be fawn at least, if not mioget. Also notice the spotted e we in the back. She's a yearling and over the winter decided to grow horns. Crazy huh? Lambs' names are Santana and Sarai.
Below is my very first white ewe of the season Jazz x Rachildas. Her name is Regina Spektor (in keeping with the musical artists theme). She is everything I dream of in a Shetland. Very typey, classic wool and head features. She isn't standing perfect so you can't see her amazing legs, but I guarantee they are there.
Below is ShetleringPines Nirvana's twin ewe lambs out of Todhill Jericho. Nivea is the spotted one and Nina Sky is the less spotted on the left (born with white on head).
Below is Justalit'l Black Lambo and her Todhill Jericho daughter. I wasn't crazy about her birth fleece but wow is it pretty nice now! Lambo is 9 yrs old so give her condition a little bit of slack. Her lamb is massive and growthy. Super happy with her. Her name is Blu Cantrell (she is quite blue no?)
FirthofFifth Evidence of Autumn with her twin natural colored (and spotted!) Mule ewe lambs! I'm really pleased with the mules growth.
Texel sired lambs with their moms. The one of the right is Shetland Mule, the butt of the other is the Shetland-Cheviot dam. Their growth is nearly identical, but fleece slightly different.
Another Shetland-Cheviot ewe with her lamb. The mother's are only yearlings and they all singled, but the lambs are just muy impressivo ahora!
Another photo of the texel sired lamb. The fawn katmoget is homozygous for katmoget and is F1 Minder. He is available for sale. His fleece is coming in wonderful now after giving me heart palpitations with his birth coat ;) The mioget in the front is Karen Valleys's F1/F2 Orion ram lamb. He's a stunner. The gray kat ram is my F1 Lightning. he appears to have very slow growing horns. So slow in fact I'm not sure what they'll look like as they mature. I don't believe he carries polled.

Sales List

I have transport available to BSG with these ewes/rams.

RYL Rachildas white ewe. Awt/Ag, BB/B?, SS/Ss. I've talked about her enough. She's super fantastic! 4" inch fleece. larger crimp. 13% UK (Lightning)

Sommarang Emerald black flecket ewe, Aa/Aa, BB/B?, Ss/Ss. Big girl, really milks for her babes. Growthy lambs. 4" crimpy fleece. Lots of Minder behind her.

Minwawe RedBud - shaela ewe. 100% domestic. Aa/Aa BB/Bb, SS/Ss, Mm/Mm. Small ewe but her lambs have been really nice. 6" fleece.

WhitePine Columbine - black iset ewe - to be sold with no papers. Aa/Aa, BB/B?, SS/Ss. Could sell now with lamb at side (black smirslet ewe lamb). Could register the lamb.

Justalit'l Chloe - 31% UK Mostly Minder. Ab/Ab, Bb/Bb, SS/Ss We all know how i feel about her :)

Minwawe SeaBreeze. moorit smirslet sokket. 100% domestic. Short 2 " fleece with no definintion to it. Produces very stunning lambs when bred to high % UK rams. Aa/Aa Bb/Bb, Ss/Ss, MM/Mm.

Minwawe Flopsy - moorit. Aa/Aa Bb/Bb, SS/Ss. In a lot of the domestic lines. Produces and then some. Good size and conformation. eight year old lady with a lot of life left in her. Always throws really spotted lambs. Her lamb from last year AFD micron was 20.0!

Sheltering Pines Myra - fawn katmoget. Ab/Aa, MM/Mm, Bb/Bb, SS/Ss. Has produced two singles the past two years. Gorgeous rams (Matthias from last year). Slightly longer tail, however still proportionate wool/hair and is fluked. I can't keep all these katmogets!

lambs:

Moorit smirslet ram (will be fawn) out WhitePine Ephraim (F1 Orion) and Minwawe RedBud. Nearly the size of his dam already at 8 weeks of age. nice horns, tail, bite etc.

Mioget ram - gorgeous horns and fleece. Ephraim xMyra.

Moorit gulmoget smirslet ram - Ephraim x WinterTime Galina (Forrest x SheltringPines Holy Grail)

Fawn ram - Ephraim x Ulla. Classic wool and poll and cheeks.

modified black ram with smirslet - Heights Orion x WhitePine Skor. He will be shaela for sure, if not emsket!


Adult rams:

Shelterings Pines Pumpernickel Pogo - gray katmoget flecket, smirslet, sokket. Proven sire. Amazing horns, carries moorit. He is a barn basher, so would need to be put out away from buildings and used just this year and sold/butchered. Lovely UK crimp.

WhitePine Caiphas - F1 holly - gray katmoget, huge horns. AFD 21. Amazing UK crimp.

WhitePine Uphaz - F1 minder - musket smirslet sokket. AFD 24. Larger crimp.

Thoughts on lambs

I am just tickled with this year's lamb crop!

I moved the sheep to another spring pasture....since we were SO dry, and cold, that the grass wasn't growing and it still can't keep up with their needs. Three of their paddocks are already exhausted, and they need rest, and not sure how much rest I'll be able to give them. *sigh*

Anyway, as I was out moving the fences and watching the lambs, I was amazed at my Texel sired lambs! They are just fantastic. I want to get more mules to breed to champ. I am sold on the Texel as a producer, and I can't wait to taste them this fall and see if they stand up to their fame of being so tender! mmmmmmm!

Breaking down the colors:

FOUR white ewe lambs

4 gray kat rams, 10 gray kat ewes (most are spotted)

2 fawn kat rams, 1 fawn kat/moget ewe (all head spotting)

8 moorit rams, 7 moorit ewes (most of these lambs are modified)

3 black rams, 3 black ewes

1 moorit gulmoget ram

1 black gulmoget ram, 2 black gulmoget ewes

1 musket ewe

gosh most lambs ARE spotted. at least smirslet or krunet on the heads. That's fine with me!

Most of the lambs I'm really tickled with. And since i had such a ram year last year, it will be nice to hold over so many ewe lambs to see how they mature in their first fleece. So much to learn yet, but every day is so much fun :)

more lambs

FirthofFifth Rahu (Wintertime Black Forrest x RYL Rachildas) was bred to Willowcroft Jamie. She produced a 7# 5oz ewe lamb that is WHITE and lots of phaeo, just like her momma. Cute huh?

another shot of her fleece....yummy...
Minwawe Flopsy was bred to my BFL Burma. These are Natural Colored English Blue (Aeb/Aa) and carry moorit. Both rams :( They are for sale with their mother at a package deal.
Below is a Shetland-Cheviot ewe with her Texel sired EWE lamb. That's three ewes out of the Texel and ram lamb. These one has a more Cheviot type fleece than the other two, out of the Shetland Mules. I also had a Shetland Mule lamb out a Texel cross ewe lamb. Both of these were 7 pounds on the mark.

I still have two ewe to lamb via AI. (day 152 today) and seven more bred naturally that are all over due the same amount. Naturally all five ewes that could produce gulmogets are still holding out. Naturally I'd like a moorit gulmoget ewe. I guess I keep waiting. I still have one Shetland-Cheviot ewe to lamb also and then in another week and a half the clean up ram gets to see his babies. Looks like three of the F1 yearlings are bred, and then 5 to the BFL!

Umm...Michelle....(and other lamb photos too!)

Ok I'm going to wait and keep Michelle in suspense until the end (don't skip ahead either Michelle!)


OK so the first three photos are of the F1 Lightning boy again out of the F1 Jericho ewe Koosi that I am borrowing from Cynthia. p.s. how in the heck do people get photos of their sheep standing with their head up in a profile pose? I sit there for what feels like hours and they never stand still.

What a sweet face! He's 83% UK. His fleece is ok too ;)


These next two are out of my very last Holly straw. I am in love with this years' Holly boys. Dam is ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis. Yummy fleece!
And he is spotted too :) 72% UK
This moorit ewe lamb is Ashanti x Orion again. Still not a great photo, but better than that last terrible one!

FirthofFifth Ashegon (Wintertime Blues x FirthofFifth Ashanti) was bred back to Jericho (grand daughter x grand father line breeding) and gave me THIS gorgeous girl :D
Spotted face, big black spot on back (what's up with THAT) and she is 79.5% UK. All three girls bred to Jericho gave me only ewe lambs this year!
Ok Michelle. You can officially be upset.

Owl Hill Butter (F2 Greyling, F2/F3 Orion) was bred to Shirehill Minder. This gorgeous musket smirslet EWE lamb was happily nursing when I went outside this morning. Her fleece is incredibly crimpy and soft. Dynamite! She is 86% UK.

Since Minder is Ag/Ab and Butter is Ag/Aa, this girl HAS to be Ag/Aa just like Uphaz from last year was. I like this lamb the best so far out of my Minder lambs of either year. A lot has to do with the quality of the ewe too. So thanks Michelle for letting me purchase her. Who knew she carried spots??!!
After two terrible days of getting back to work, and lots of stress and money being thrown at the mowers and business, these lambs make me smile, which is so very important, when I'm so stressed out like I've been!

PHOTOS of lambs! And some for Juliann!

First off is the Lucy x Holly boy. For Juliann (well the photos anyway) He has a white chin strap from one ear, along his jaw, under his neck and up to the other ear. Its not quite a bielset. Shoot. This boy and the Orion x Lilly boys are my favorite so far this year out of AI. Knock out conformation and crimp down the tail. Very consistent with little 'halo'. I think this boy will stay moorit, while Lilly's will be modified.

Head shot for Juli.
Maybe a little further out?

Here is a terrible photo of Ashanti's solid moorit ewe lamb. I need to go take a new one.
Here is Ashanti's krunet girl. Her fleece is amazing.
These are the Minder x Chloe kids below. The first is the fawn katmoget ram lamb. He is homozygous katmoget.
His spotted Moget-Face (Ag katmoget) sister. I'm praying these birth coats go away! What's with the 'swirls'? I have never had fleeces like this. 65% UK, F1/F3 Minder.
Ok this is another favorite of mine. He was born today while I was out at work. This is the F1 Lightning, F2 Jericho (Lightning x Koosi). Koosi was also borrowed from Cynthia. Koosi is a Jericho x Chloe daughter. Lightning was white and I was hoping for a white ewe lamb. Seriously. Since Koosi is homozygous katmoget, if the lamb were white, it would also carry for katmoget. Since this lamb is kat, he will carry Aa from his daddy. This fleece is yummy too. And cute white tips on the ears too :) Face photo tomorrow. or soon.
Jericho x Black Lambo. She weighed over 8 pounds at birth. Not bad for a 9 year old momma :) Notice the smirslet. Stephen hate me all you want! :)
These two are out of Owl Hill Pranilla and Campaign Timothy. The ewe is very dark moorit, the ram is jet black. These are the hairy birthcoats that Pranilla has thrown before, but the lambs did come in crimpy. Pranilla is F1 Greyling, so these are F1 Timothy, F2 Greyling and 87.5% UK.
Here is my Texel x Shetland Mule ewe lamb! Doesn't the face look like Texel?? :) Crimpy until her shoulder and then the Texel fleece takes over. Having never seen that in a lamb, it looks kinda crazy!
F1 Timothy boy out of Eliza. He's all hunka hunka burnin' love. LOL. He was nearly 10 pounds and had to be pulled. He's doing lamb races today :)

Today's lambs

Sorry still no photos. I promise to get them up to you soon!

Tomorrow I start my spring clean ups in earnest. Yes. The day the AI girls are officially due. I still have 7 of 18 that were bred due, so under half. But I still have a lot of ewes left to lamb. i pulled the Shetland rams the day I did AI so all the girls should have a due date no later than tomorrow. So naturally while I'm off working, they'll all be lambing. Joy.

Eliza's boy has pulled through and is jumping and running around his mom in the jug and nursing well. Phew!

FirthofFifth Ashanti (A Forrest daughter) is being borrowed from my good friend Cynthia. Ashanti is 31% UK and was bred to Heights Orion for some moorit based lambs. JACKPOT.

TWIN ewe lambs! The larger 6 pound lamb is solid moorit, the 5 pound sister is a solid moorit with the most stunning krunet I've seen. It reminds me of the white spot on black headed Holstein calf. I promise photos. Their fleeces are quite nice. I think this cross was a huge success. And both girls! I am so happy. Thank you Cynthia for letting me borrow her :)

Justalit'l Black Lambo (Bramble Dixen daughter, poll carrier ewe) is 9 years old. She has remained in great condition, pushing her way around at the feeder and aside from a more pendulous udder from 8 years of lambs, she is in great shape.

I fretted over her all afternoon as I was sure she would lamb last night. Uncomfortable and stirring up her jug bedding as if she were part chicken, she really was a sight. I knew something was wrong. Several contractions were so strong they actually knocked her to her knees, or off of her feet. No water bag. no feet. No lamb.

I feared the worst. Was it backwards? Were there two pushing around, jockeying for position? I went to the house to call Stephen. He didn't answer. Hmmm...do I keep waiting? She didn't really SEEM in distress, but she was pawing a lot and getting up and down. And those contractions were really close together.

I gloved and lubed up and palpated her. I couldn't feel anything. No lamb. No water bag. I was up to the pelvic ridge and nothing. I was somewhat relieved I didn't find a tail or something.

I went back to the house to clean up and when I got back outside, no less than 5 minutes, she had an enormous smirslet gray katmoget EWE lamb! Its the bluest katmoget I've ever raised! And big! I could tell that with the size of this lamb, she was done having babes, but what a beautiful lamb!

This puts me at 10 ram lambs and 14 ewe lambs for the purebred Shetlands.

If we are just talking AI lambs, I have 7 rams from AI and 9 ewes. So far. Last year I had only 17 lambs from AI and 14 of them were rams. Yes FOURTEEN. So don't hate on me for all the ewes this year :) I'm glad it is balancing out. I can move forward a lot faster with ewes than I can rams. I'm glad I hung on to the lambs from last year (well most of them) in case this very scenario played out. I should be really set for the next few years.

Photos . Yes. Soon.

Back to the barn and then a quick nap

Still coming......we are on a roll now!

Photos sometime. I promise.

I must check the spreadsheet to see what happened today. Before we get to the fun part of lambs....

I ended up cleaning the leans, liming, bedding and moving all the ewes from the jugs to the new pen. PANDEMONIUM ensued. Lambs and ewes acted blind and couldn't find each other in the large pen. As is typical, after a few moments everyone found who they needed and everyone nestled in.

Bright and early at 6am Owl Hill Pranilla (F1 Greyling) gave me a black krunet ram lamb out of Campaign Timothy. I went in to take a nap and when I returned there was a moorit ewe lamb out there as well. They both have 'dog coats' but following what Pranilla had last year for Susan, I have full confidence that these birth coats will shed and change to crimp. These lambs are 87.5% UK.

I've kept the yearlings in a separate paddock all winter. this included the BFL, crosses, mules and shetlands. This morning in that pen were two ewes with single lambs out of the Texel, Champ. The BFL mule had an 8 pound ewe lamb that is probably the cutest thing to have graced this earth. I am unbiased :) One of the Shetland-Cheviot girls gave me a 5 pound ram lamb. He was expired when I found him, so I'm not sure what happened. It doesn't look like he was alive when he was born, according to his position in the straw. He looked kind of preemie so not sure if she was really due today or not. A bummer, but I can't kick myself. I've been so diligent these past few weeks...er...months..of watching and waiting...things like this happen...or are bound to.

After moving the new lambs and moms to clean jugs, I saw that River Oaks Eliza had her water break. Moving her in to a waiting jug, she started to push. And push. And push. There were two legs and a nose. The lamb was BREATHING through the nose and was choking from all the fluid coming out of her vulva. She was not progressing and I ended up pulling a massive MASSIVE huge ram lamb. I haven't weighed him yet but guess he is over 10 pounds. He is also a Campaign Timothy lamb. Jet black. As has been typical of the Timothy lambs, they seem to also have this 'dog coat' that I hope sheds out. This ram has the largest horn buds of the year so far. He's been slow to get going, in part to the traumatic start he got. I've also found in cattle the largest calves have a harder time getting up on their feet and nursing. Eliza is being a constant eye and enabler.

After their evening meal, Justalit'l Chloe was acting 'fishy' and I jugged her and sat down. Sure enough, her water bag passed and she produced me a fawn moget-face ewe and a fawn katmoget ram. For those wondering 'moget-faced' means Ag Katmoget. Chloe was bred to her Grandfather, Shirehill Minder for a linebreeding. Their birth coats to me seem funky. I'm not sure how i feel about them. I had originally wanted to breed her to Orion, but since she is homozygous katmoget I would only get katmogets. This made sense to do a line breeding and since I have loved everything else she has produced I'm going to wait and see what these kids turn out like. I haven't had an Ag katmoget since my beloved Jasmine Phoenix and I told Chloe I wanted another moget face. I'm so glad she listened.

That's five today. I still have 9 ewes bred to AI that are due on or around April 5th. I have five 'close' ewes that could go from ground breedings at any time. That's 16 that are due for sure before the middle of next week, oh plus a few of the crosses. It looks as though I'll have 9-10 ewes that were caught by the clean up rams, due in two weeks. I'm tired thinking about it.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate. My day will be spent playing trumpet at church in the morning, lunch with the extended family and lots of lamb watch. I have several that look like they'll greet me in the morning with lambs :)

Last 24 hours of lambs and a markings question

I can't remember where I left off :)

Let's see....FirthofFifth Booto, an F1 Timothy, fawn katmoget gave me a 7 pound smirslet fawn katmoget ram lamb out of my F1 Orion boy, WhitePine Ephraim. Goregous color and markings. As you will see, his smirslet is only on his right side of his face, except for a tiny patch on his left cheek. Its kind of hard to see the white with the flash, and I'm sure most of it will fade as he grows up, but I know he will produce spots at least :)

RiverOaks Lucy (A Sheltering Pines Bombarde daughter) was AI'ed to Greenholme Holly. She produced a smooth polled moorit ram with krunet and bielset markings. The Bielset is extremely thin and it follows the jaw line around and up over his ears. He has amazing crimp to rival his half brother Levi, from last year who was out of Willowcroft Jamie. Last year I hoped for a moorit. I got him this year ;) Since Holly is a poll carrier and so is Lucy, he "COULD" be a full polled ram! I'm excited to see what he will produce this fall. spots, crimp (and soft) and polled! He is the darkest moorit ram I've had born here....which is what I like! His crimp rivals Lilly's ram lamb out of Orion. More photos of him tomorrow!

ShelteringPinjes Nirvana was bred to Todhill Jericho. She gave me TWIN EWE lambs! The first is a very light gray katmoget ewe lamb with super crimp, and smirslet marking like booto's boy.
Ok here is her twin sister...ahem....





This white that goes through the nose also goes under to her chin and down her throat slightly.

Is this a bleset? She also has three white socks and a fourth with a white spot above the hoof.

Since I don't breed specifically for spots in most of my breedings, I don't know what to call the marking. I haven't seen another like her.

Thoughts?