Such a loyal companion, always by my side no matter what I was doing.
He is greatly missed and our hearts ache for him.
Monday, April 12, 2021
Sunday, April 4, 2021
Spring; New life and rebirth
The sweetest, tiny-ist shetland lambs I think I've every seen.
I weighed these twins, black, white ram and brown, white ewe when they were 24 hours old.
So they had already nursed well from their mother. the ewe lamb weighed 13ounces, the ram 17 ounces.
They are thriving and doing very well.
I imagine that these are what the shetland breed was all about being island sheep.
Before we, people began breeding for larger, bigger, heavier shetlands.
Our lambing was the earliest that we have ever had. Beginning March 3rd and finishing March 28th, we had 55 lambs born. Fourteen crossbred (8ewes/6rams) and 41 Shetlands (22ewes/19rams).
The oldest lambs are now a month old and eating hay and grain, becoming "teenagers" already.
These photos are some of the xbred bred lambs, Border Cheviot / Shetlands.
This is a beautiful day to take in some Sunshine.
The above moorit shetland ram above is already sprouting his
horns, hopefully to be a nice display.
Lastly, this morning as I finished my barn chores I decided to do a quick first wash on the sheep coast that have been sitting since we sheared in early March.
What a mess!
These will need several more washes, some will need repaired and in a few months will be put back on the sheep to keep those fleeces clean.
As I worked on cleaning these coats, I couldn't help but think about
all the extra time that we put into keeping our fleeces clean for
hand spinners.
I really don't think the average spinner has any idea of the work involved to grow healthy fleeces and have clean wool.
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