Jacob Sheep

Sure signs of Spring!

Posted by kenleighacres on April 5, 2011
Posted in: Felting, Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , , , , , . 5 Comments

I’m so excited…Spring is awakening! 

Dandelions and a ladybug!  Dandelions aren’t my favorite, but you can’t help but feel cheery when you see the bright yellow. 

The frogs are singing their chorus…

and if you look in the right place, you can find their little treasures.

and speaking of eggs and babies, my rock sitting hen is still sitting on the eggs I bought her.  She only has 2 days before they are due to hatch!  I can’t wait!!!

The other babies here on the farm are getting very BIG!  I need to do a post with updated pictures, they have changed so much!

The birds are singing their songs and busily building their nests.  I love how the spot on this guy’s head blends in and camoflauges him with the bush he lives in.

My favorite part of Spring is when the swallows return.  They are such happy little birds 🙂

In the shop, I have been felting bunnies and flowers.

I hope Spring is showing up at your house as well!

Veronica makes it look easy

Posted by kenleighacres on March 25, 2011
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: , , , . 17 Comments

Veronica had triplets on March 2nd and she has made the entire event look very easy.  

I am not a fan of triplets because they can lead to a lot of extra work.  The chance of having a difficult labor is increased, making sure they all have enough to eat is usually a concern, making sure mom has enough food to keep up with the extra demands is another concern, and they usually end up being smaller than other lambs the same age.  None of the above is true for Veronica and her babies.

I have always had a lot of respect for her mothering style, but she is really impressing me this year.  She makes sure they each get a turn eating and when it comes time for her to eat, she takes them to a corner of the barn, tells them to stay and returns for them when she is done.  She does this every year with her lambs, but I wasn’t sure how she was going to get 3 lambs to follow directions so obediently.  Once again, she has done it and is making it look simple.

And as far as the lambs…they are looking fabulous! 

  For more stories from the farm, check out Farm Friend Friday hosted by Verde Farm

A special boy

Posted by kenleighacres on March 10, 2011
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , , . 25 Comments

He may not meet the Jacob breed standard, and his horns may be a little funky…but he is a very special boy!

This is Ector with his mom, Holly.

Holly had a rough go shortly after lambing.  She presented with symptoms of polio.  After consulting with my vet, we believe she had low calcium levels, which caused her to have polio.  He explained that polio was usually a secondary illness to another problem.  Polio is the easy to say term for Polioencephalomalacia.  Polio is caused by an inadequacy or depletion of thiamine.  The symptoms are neurological abnormalities with a sudden onset.  These may include incoordination such as a staggered walk, bumping into objects, and some will wander randomly, often in circles.  Sudden vision loss may also happen.  Unfortunately, this is what happened to Holly.  In the morning she seemed fine, but by afternoon she had obvious problems.  If left untreated, the animal can go down very quickly.  The vet had me give her Thiamine twice a day along with oral calcium.  She seemed better after a week of treatment, but her vision did not return.  I have kept her in the barn in a pen that she is familiar with along with her lambs, but I hate keeping the sheep locked inside – nothing is better than fresh air and green grass!  I experimented with turning them out and watching her to make sure she could navigate through the gates and pastures.  She had a hard time for the first couple of days, but then I noticed something amazing.  Her ram lamb never left her side and would call to her when she was lost!   

He is always by her side, which is very different compared to before she had the problems.  I used to call him, his sister, and Duchess the ‘Three Amigos’ because they were always together and never with their mothers.  Quite the independent little buggers.  His sister is still very independent, but he has become a momma’s boy…in a good way 🙂

I have been watching the relationship with fascination and I thought it was maybe just a fluke, until yesterday evening.  I went out to bring the sheep in from the pasture and Holly got left behind the big group.  Ector got caught up in the moment and ran to the barn with everyone else, I thought I was going to have to help Holly in, but then Ector stopped.  He turned around and called and called for her.  She could hear him, but was too far away to figure out what direction he was calling from.  He tried one more time, then he ran over to her and started walking with her to the barn. 

What an amazing thing to witness!     

I noticed that she has some eyesight tonight and I am hoping it returns 100%.  The vet wasn’t sure if it would after this long, but he suggested that weaning her lambs early may be a good idea.  After seeing how much her ram lamb helps her, I know this would be a bad idea.  He is her own seeing eye lamb 🙂

Be sure to check out all of the other Farm Friend Friday posts!

The answer is 11!

Posted by kenleighacres on March 5, 2011
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , , . 14 Comments

Lambing season is all wrapped up!  The last 5 girls had 11 lambs and 7 of those lambs came within a 1-hour time frame! 

Jonquil was the first to lamb with a healthy set of twins…

her ram lamb, Lionel

and her ewe lamb, Amelia.

The next 3 girls decided to stir it up some!  This is the scene that greeted me after I picked my son up from school on Wednesday…

unfortunately, it wasn’t so organized 😉  There were 7 lambs being mothered by 3 ewes.  A little chaotic! 

I was able to sort them by size and markings and fleece and everyone seemed happy except for Veronica.  She really wanted Sahara’s ram lamb in addition to her 3.  I told her that she needed to be happy with what she had and not be greedy!

Here is Veronica with her triplets. 

Roland – ram lamb

Catherine – ewe lamb

Second ram lamb – Chaucer

  

Veronica is quite proud of herself and her brood, as she rightly shoud be!  I checked the girls at 2:00 before I left and she didn’t look close, I returned at 3:00 to triplets.  They aren’t exactly small triplets either – 8, 9, and 10 lbs.! 

This is Sahara’s ram lamb – Windsor

and her ewe lamb – Jasmine.

The other girl that lambed with them is Amber.  This is her ram lamb, Galahad. 

These are the first lambs by Blue Ewe’s Ringoes Albus ‘Ringo’. 

Here is Amber’s little ewe lamb – Arabella.  She is so petite and cute and pretty…

I just want to hug her and snuggle her and carry her everywhere. 

She is not a snuggly lamb though.  She wants to be with HER MOM!  A very oppinionated little thing 🙂

The last girl to lamb was Star.  She kept me waiting and waiting!  Finally she lambed yesterday afternoon.  She had twins!  It was apparent at birth that the ewe lamb had some issues.  The lower half of her face appearred to be deformed.  She had to be put down and once again lambing season has reminded me of how precious life is.  There will be an educational post coming.  The lamb had what is called ‘Monkey Faced Lamb Syndrome’ and it is caused by the ewe eating a poisonous plant early in gestation.  You can always count on lambing season to further your education!

 

Here is Star’s ram lamb.  I am so thankful she has a lamb to care for!  This is Ringoes other set of lambs.  The fleeces look very promising.

Thanks to all who participated in our little lambing contest!  6 of you guessed 11.  We have a winner……..

Tisha!  I know you are off having fun in California, but I will send you an e-mail and find out what you would like.

A little teaser…

Posted by kenleighacres on March 2, 2011
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , . 6 Comments

The lambs are starting to arrive…

a nose…

a pretty fleece…

and a spotted leg.

That is all you get until all 5 girls have lambed 😉 

The contest will stay open until then.  If you want to play along, visit this blog post.

Amber was busy this afternoon, dressing up for the arrival of her lambs.  I hope they appreciate her effort when they get here 🙂

Poor Veronica – I think she still has a day or two to go…ugh!

Seeing the new lambs makes me realize how big the older lambs are getting…horns and all!

How many lambs…A little contest!

Posted by kenleighacres on February 27, 2011
Posted in: Farm Life, Felting, Jacob Sheep, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , , . 33 Comments

At the start of lambing season, I thought it would be fun to have a lambing contest.  Unfortunately, with the number of ewes we have, it seemed a little overwhelming and I couldn’t figure out the logistics.  We are down to 5 ewes left to lamb and they are due within the next couple of days…perfect number and time for a little contest!

Here are the girls in all of their pregnant glory…

Sahara

Jonquil

Star

Amber

and Veronica

Veronica says that I am going to owe them some pretty good treats after posting the above photos 🙂

If you would like to play along, leave a comment here with how many lambs you think these girls are going to have.  The cut off will be when they have all lambed.  Jonquil and Star are due today and the other three are due on the 1st of March.  I will have my son draw names from a hat of all the people that guess the right number.  There will be two winners! 

Now to the important stuff…the prizes 😉

The first prize is one of my needle felting kits to make a little sheep…

 

The second prize is one of my wet felted soap kits to make your own felted soap…

If you aren’t the crafty type, no worries…I will be happy to send you an already made felted sheep or felted soap!

Farm Friend Friday – Snow Day!

Posted by kenleighacres on February 25, 2011
Posted in: family, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Snow. Tagged: , , . 5 Comments

Ok, all of you that have spent all winter in the snow…get ready to laugh 😉

This much snow gave us a snow day – that’s right…no school 🙂

We took advantage of the snow and made a little friend…his name is Jo Jo. 

Thankfully my son is finally feeling better and was able to enjoy the snow day home from school.

I love that the snow covers up the mud 🙂  I took some pictures of the yearling girls, they are now beginning to look like young ladies instead of lambs.  This is Allegany and Mollala.

It really hit me when I was taking pictures of  Bronwen and Wren.  Bronwen is one of our bigger girls and look at little Wren, she isn’t so little anymore.

They were using each other as scratching posts…

but this picture makes it look like Wren was trying to strangle her!

The lambs enjoyed their first snow day. 

Here is Delight with her ewe lamb, Gloriana.  This picture makes me so happy because Delight was a first time mom that wasn’t sure if she wanted to be a mom.  I had to threaten sweetly tell her that taking care of her lamb would be a VERY good idea 😉  Within the hour of having her lamb, the hormones  kicked in and she has been an excellent mother ever since. 

Veronica would really like to get her lambs on the ground…only a couple more days!

See more Farm Friend Friday posts at Verde Farm! 

Lamb updates!

Posted by kenleighacres on February 11, 2011
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: , , . 19 Comments

You could say that my life has gone to the lambs!

We have been busy here and everyone is excited about the new arrivals…

especially Magoo.  He loves his sheep.

Here are all of the new lambs…

Legacy had twins – Thea and Rowan – by Reno

Fenwick – Wrangler x Liberty

Adelaide – Abraham x Azera

and her brother, Merlin.

Tristan with his pretty blue eyes – Reno x Rae-Ann

and his sister Bess.

Abraham and Infiniti produced this little doll – Guinevere.

My son’s ewe, Lulu, had a ram lamb and…

a ewe lamb by Abraham. 

He has named the boy Abraham Jr. and the girl Morgan.  He has been a great help with all of the lambs – bottle feeding, pen cleaning, docking tails, and giving shots.

Delight had a ewe lamb by Abraham – Gloriana.

and Flirt had a set of twins last night.  A 4-horn ram lamb, Caliburn, and…

a ewe lamb, Juliana – by Abraham.

Abbey, the bottle lamb, is doing really well.  If I sneak up really quiet, I can catch her sleeping with her mom and sister. 

We have 5 more ewes due at the end of February.  I’m sure Veronica can’t wait! 

For more farm stories and fun click on the link and you’ll go to Amy’s “Verde Farm” blog.  She is hosting Farm Friend Friday.  There are a whole bunch of fun, farm blogs just waiting to have you stop in and say hi!
Check them out.
You’ll be glad you did!

Little Abbey

Posted by kenleighacres on January 31, 2011
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: , . 9 Comments

Abbey has become a special girl. 

She was born with a lot of flash and she has the personality to match.  Unfortunately, she spent too much time baaaaing and carrying on and not nursing like she should have.  For some reason she couldn’t figure it out???  Now to be fair, her mom is a little different, she only has half an udder.  She had a terrible thing happen to her by a shearer before she came to live here – you can read her whole story here.  Abbey is determined to nurse on the side that doesn’t have anything to nurse on.  I tried helping but Aimee wasn’t very cooperative.  All of Aimee’s twins in the past have figured out sharing the one side, so I left them alone and hoped they would figure it out.  Unfortunately that didn’t happen.  Early the next morning I went out to check on everyone and little Abbey was screaming her head off and after an inspection of her tummy, I could tell that she still hadn’t nursed!  I was very thankful that she was still vigorous and she quickly took the bottle I offered.  The poor girl used up all of her fat reserves and I noticed her having a hard time maintaining her body temperature, so she got a jacket.

      I’m not a big fan of bottle lambs…there really isn’t anything like mom, but it is nice that she still has a mom and sister to hang out with.  She has moments of confusion though…

do I stay with them…

or do I come to you?

In the end the bottle wins 🙂

She is doing really well and doesn’t need her jacket anymore.  I love seeing her kicking up her heels out in the pasture!

It is a far shot, but I am still hoping she may catch on from her sister and figure it out 😉  Until then, I will continue my late night and early morning feedings!

A t-shirt…really?

Posted by kenleighacres on January 24, 2011
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , . 10 Comments

Yep, I did afternoon chores in a t-shirt!  We are having a stretch of spring like weather…the birds are singing and all of the farm animals were soaking up the rays.

Wren took it to another level though…

she started rolling around and…

scratching her back just like a horse.  I’m not sure I have ever seen one of our sheep do this.  She was in heaven!

She was having so much fun, Bliss had to come see what she was doing and see if she needed to do it too 🙂

In the sunshine you can see this boy’s blue eyes and look at the little spot developing on his nose!  By the time he is a couple months old, all of the pink should be pigmented black.

Veronica was content to just stand in the sunshine and chew her cud.  She looked quite content!

I haven’t posted many pictures of the young boys this winter – they have mostly looked like drowned rats.  Not today…here is a picture of Durham and Ringo.  I LOVE their horns!  Ringo is such a nice boy – he has the temperament I wish all rams could have…calm, non-combative with his fellow rams, a good amount of respect for humans, and nice to his girls.

The ewes also thought it was a great day to have lambs…7 new lambs in total!

Ellyn and Lancelot – these beauties are Patchwork Abraham x Bide a wee Althea.  Althea had a ewe lamb and a ram lamb, both are lilacs and I think they are both 4-horn.

Walter – a 4-horn ram lamb – Kenleigh’s Wrangler x Kenleigh’s Celeste.  Celeste had twins, but the 2nd lamb didn’t make it.  A sad and unfortunately, unavoidable part of being a shepherd.  I know there was nothing I could have done to help this lamb, but it is still hard.  I am very happy that Celeste has a healthy lamb to dote on.

Dolly had twin ram lambs.  My son is thrilled!!!  Dolly is his ewe and he really wanted boys – I don’t know why, he just did 🙂  These lambs are Kenleigh’s Reno x Bide a wee Dolly.  This one is a 4-horn…

and this one is a 2-horn.  It was close to bedtime, so they don’t have names yet.

Abbey, a black & white ewe lamb and Avalon, a lilac ewe lamb – Kenleigh’s Reno x Kenleigh’s Aimee

At the same time Dolly was having her lambs, so did Aimee.  They were one big happy family when I found them!  The lambs thought it was great to have two moms.  Luckily, it was easy to sort out who belonged to who 🙂 

I love Avalon’s face markings!

Time to go to bed and prepare for the possibility of more lambs tomorrow!