Shearing early & Lambing has begun

We planned to shear at our normal time which would be early March but with the mild winter weather that we have had this year our shearer suggested shearing earlier.

  We Sheared our flock on February 9th.  Which is really early for us, but surprisingly I'm really glad that we did.  Hoping to get the fleeces off before the Shetlands would be "in the rise".

As they were shorn just about eight of our black shetland ewes were "in the rise".  Interesting how it was only those with the darker fleeces that were affected by our weather change.

We didn't have much time to notify our "helpers", area spinners but fortunately some where able to stop by and help on this day and had first pick of many beautiful fleeces.

Pictured above, our ram, Stephanite Silver is the ram we put to several shetland ewes last fall.

So we hope to have some very nice lambs from him.  I just love the variation of color in his fleece.  He has the Katmoget pattern, very dark grey and black in the neck and shoulder area, then changes to a bit lighter grey, yet still a very dark grey.  He does have a couple of white spots on him, which show in his fleece.  He also have a nice wide horn set, which cannot be seen in the photo....I was too busy trying to get a great shot of that fleece!

Lambing Begins!

#241 Serafina delivered the single ewe lamb March 6th, Sire is Stephanite Silver.

She is a pretty little girl!

Dave's ewe #191 delivered this single, beautiful black ram lamb on March 8th, Sire is Stephanie Silver.

This little guy has a beautiful black color and will most likely be available after weaning.

Cleopatra my Cormo ewe was bred to my crossbred ram #191, a 50% Shetland, 50% Border Cheviot.

This pairing gave us this adorable ram lamb - my what BIG ears you have!

(he got his mama's ears) 

All those wrinkles in his skin come from the Dam's lineage.

The Cormo breed was developed in Australia by crossing Corriedale rams with superfine Saxon Merino ewes.

(This little guy may already be spoken for)

We have downsized our flock a bit and are trying to continue to downsize.

This past fall we bred some, but not all the ewes, trying to make less work for myself.

So many of the lambs and possibly adults will be available after weaning, sometime in June and after.