Jacob Sheep

All’s well that ends well!

Posted by kenleighacres on July 11, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: . 7 Comments

Remember the smiling girls?  They have lambs!  I was a little stressed about leaving last weekend to go camping because they were looking awfully close.  Luckily, they waited until I got home.  As soon as we pulled in I went to the barn to check on them and give them a little bit of food.  Rae-Ann came over and ate but Althea went in the opposite direction, to the corner of the barn – a pretty good indication that lambs are on their way.  Then nothing happened – not good!  I caught her up and evaluated the situation and decided to get my husband so that I could pull the lambs.  The first lamb was an adorable ewe lamb.  I went back to check for a second lamb and couldn’t find one, so I left her alone for a little while.  When I came back there was a very small, dead lamb and a big pile of goo.  It looks like this lamb died a few weeks ago and I am guessing that is what caused problems for the other lamb.  I am so glad that Althea and her ewe lamb are ok. 

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She is so cute…

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and so friendly.

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Her poor mother is not happy that she likes to be scratched and petted and loved on.  My son has named her Annie.

Shortly after helping Althea, Rae-Ann started pawing at the ground.  She continued to paw and paw and paw.  I checked on her through the night and still nothing was happening.  When she still hadn’t gone into labor the next day I caught her up and found that she had problems.  I couldn’t find the feet of the lamb anywhere and she wasn’t holding still for me to help her out.  So, I ran to the house and called a neighbor.  She arrived within minutes and assessed the situation with me.  Both lambs were trying to come out at the same time and both had their feet behind them!  She chose one to come out first and found the feet.  They were both big boys with very big heads. 

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Rae-Ann was relieved to have them on the ground and told us to go away 🙂

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Jacobs are supposed to have black patches around their eyes and they look a little funny when they are missing.  They are both growing on me though.

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Thanks for waiting for us to get home girls!

Black Sheep Gathering – Part II

Posted by kenleighacres on June 24, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , , , . 3 Comments

Black Sheep Gathering is full of fiber arts and inspiration!!! 

I started my Spinner’s Lead entry several months ago, but I was still working on it Thursday morning – just a few hours before leaving.

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As you can see, I had a lot of little helpers – too bad they couldn’t sew snaps on.  They were using the excuse of no thumbs… 

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Here is my finished jacket.  I entered it in the Fiber Arts division and it placed second in the felted division.

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My son entered his felted snake in the Pee Wee division and won 1st place and then went on to win Reserve Champion in the whole felted division… 

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right behind this entry.  I was in awe!  It was felted by a 14 year old that also raises Jacobs.

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Here is the back – I love the sea turtle.

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Thanks to a few good friends, I have some pictures of us in the Spinner’s Lead class.

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These pictures are from Joan at Mud Ranch.

While I was wet felting the fabric for my jacket, my son felted his scarf.  He very proudly told everyone that he wet felted it and that his sheep was a ram 🙂   

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This picture is a little blury, but you can see the different colors in my jacket.  The back is a beautiful hue of brown, the front is cream, and the sleeves are a brownish gray.  I used the fleece from Symphony and am walking Symphony’s sister, Infiniti.

They limited the Spinner’s Lead class to 20 this year, last year there were 30 entries!!!

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To see individual pictures of the entries, visit Michelle’s blog.

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This entry was the winner.  She knit it!!!  She copied the watercolor picture from her farm sign.  It was amazing.

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This piece is my inspiration for next year’s Spinner’s Lead class.  I best get started now.

 

Black Sheep Gathering – part I

Posted by kenleighacres on June 24, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , . 6 Comments

What a great weekend!!!  There is so much to share that I am going to do several posts.  This post is all about the jacob sheep show on Friday.  There were many beautiful representatives of the jacob breed and some of the classes were pretty big.

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Ram lamb class

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Yearling ram class

My son has been so excited to show his ram – Reno.  You have to see this ram in person to appreciate his temperament and I will preface these pictures with the comment that I don’t like friendly rams, they usually turn into mean rams and you always have to be careful around ALL rams.  That being said this ram is one of those odd ducks.  He doesn’t come up to us out in the pasture but once you put the halter on he becomes a big puppy dog.  He isn’t pushy and has always been respectful.  They are quite the pair!

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I was there the whole time, but he did a great job by himself.

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He was thrilled when he got a ribbon…

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and gave Reno a big smooth 🙂  I sure hope Reno keeps this mellow attitude.  My son has already picked out a few ewes to breed him to.

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Three great ladies – Cathie from Swallow Lane, Karen from bide a wee, and Joan from Mud Ranch.

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This big boy is Windy Acres Cisnero and was Champion ram.

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bide a wee Winsome was Champion ewe and is a beautiful girl.

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bide a wee Gerald was Reserve Champion ram.

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bide a wee Tucker

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Windy Acres ewe lambs with my girl, Flirt, in the background.

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Mud Ranch Hudson reminds me a LOT of Reno – a laid back, mellow dude.

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I love this girls face – a bide a wee ewe lamb.

There were 28 Jacobs in attendance from 5 different breeders.  We all had a great time and enjoyed each other’s company.

They are smiling about something

Posted by kenleighacres on June 11, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , . 7 Comments

Meet Althea and Rae-Ann…

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I picked them up a couple weeks ago from Sue at Rolling Hills.  I am really excited about both of them, but especially Rae-Ann.  We inquired about buying her as a lamb, but Sue had already made arrangements to buy her.  She has matured into a beautiful ewe and has a great temperament.  

Aren’t they pretty?  That is what I thought too, until I noticed their smirks smiles.  They knew something I didn’t 😉 

They both had small udders when they arrived here but I didn’t think anything of it since they are mature ewes and Sue didn’t say anything about them being bred.  Then I noticed this last night…(caution sheep rear ends)

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what in the world!!!

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Althea in particular looks suspiciously pregnant!

I called Sue and asked if there was any way they could be pregnant.  At first she said no, but then she remembered her very handsome ram – Sundance – made a break for it and obviously had a couple romantic interludes 🙂 

What a bizarre lambing season we have had this year – started in January and ended in ??? with lambs in every month inbetween.  I separated the ewes with weaned lambs and left the ewes with lambs or lambs coming in the pasture that is connected to the barn so I can keep an eye on them and feed them a little extra.  Even though they are unplanned and expected in the middle of summer I am still excited – I think 😉  

Jester

Posted by kenleighacres on May 21, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , . 7 Comments

Some lambs are just born with a lot of character and this little guy is one of those lambs.

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He earned the name Jester and it is his goal to live up to the name.

I went out after dinner to take pictures of some of the lambs and I caught him in a solo act up on the compost pile.

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He was jumping…

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and leaping…

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and playing.

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He did not want to share and was head butting anyone that came close to his playground…

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but he had to take a little break.

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Snack time!

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When he came back he was showing off for Flirt and was ramming the compost pile – such a tough guy!

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“Mom says it’s bed time, so I’ll see you tomorrow!”

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Shipping Sheep

Posted by kenleighacres on May 15, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , . 8 Comments

This week has been really busy with sheep coming and going.  Luckily, the majority have been going!  Ron Keener arrived yesterday to pick up 9 sheep that are headed to Indiana. 

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His trailer is custom made and very cool.  My son had a million questions about it!

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It is a double decker and the panels can be moved to make different sized pens and accomodate a large number of animals.

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We were one of his first stops on his cross country trip, so he only had one goat in the trailer so far.  He was a very big, very sweet boy!

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He had a couple buddies keeping him company in the truck.  This is a Great Pyrenees puppy that is headed to her new home – so cute 🙂

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and this is Tina, one of Ron’s corgis.

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Here’s our babies, that aren’t really babies anymore.

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They loaded up into the trailer very easily and had a lot of room.  They should arrive in Indiana next week.

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Be good guys!

While I was outside loading the sheep up, Linda was trying to reach me from the Greenville, SC airport because there were issues with the flight arrangements we had made for shipping one of her lambs to me.  We both spoke to several people at American Airlines and she called the day before to verify everything and we didn’t foresee any problems – maybe that was our problem 😉   The short version is that the American Airline employees at Greenville informed her that they couldn’t ship live animals from there.  So, she found another flight with another airline.  I can’t even imagine the anxiety she was feeling!!!  Good news is that he arrived safe and sound and I am really pleased!

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Patchwork Abraham – 4horn lilac ram lamb

Patchwork Belvedere x Sweetgrass Heather 2

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His fleece is nicer than I expected – always a good thing!  It is very soft and has nice character to it.

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I have nicknamed him the ‘Georgia Gentleman’.  He has a great temperment.

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I think he was a bit surprised to have to wade through the grass – welcome to Oregon!

   

A Sunday morning on the farm

Posted by kenleighacres on May 10, 2009
Posted in: Call Ducks, Ducklings, Ducks, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , , . 5 Comments

The sun has come out and it was a beautiful morning to go out and take pictures while I was doing chores.

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Eclipse was one of the first girls to greet me.  Almost everybody is weaned now. 

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These boys must have had a party last night!  Actually they had to work for a living yesterday.  They are older wethers and have a pretty easy life here.  The only requirement is that they grow a nice fleece – except yesterday I used them for a couple herding lessons and it looks like it wore them out.   

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The lush green grass is having a nice effect on everyone.  Reno is maturing nicely.

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Next it was time to turn all the lambs out.  There are a few ewes with lambs still and some yearlings, but the rest are lambs. 

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Nothing like having lambs 4 months apart!  The lamb in front is Venture and the one in back is Kizmet. 

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The little guys are almost getting lost in the grass!  The new lambs finally have names and I got some good pictures of them today – introducing…

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Jester

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Dignity

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Kizmet

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Magoo had to check them out. 

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They were having a great time playing outside. 

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My boy – Wrangler.

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We had 13 more ducklings hatch on Wednesday – 4 white and 9 gray (mallard colored).

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So, the teenagers moved outside.  They still have a light to stay warm at night and seem to be doing well.  You can see their feathers starting to come out. 

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Last, but certainly not least is Major.  He turns 15 soon and still takes his position as farm manager seriously.  He has delegated the security detail to Kate now because his eye sight and hearing aren’t what they used to be. 

Enjoy your Sunday and Happy Mother’s Day!

That one is not an option

Posted by kenleighacres on May 9, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , . 5 Comments

The first of our lambs left for their new homes this week.  Our little guy going to Canada, arrived there safely yesterday and today new Jacob owners left with their little flock.  They are very nice people that recently moved to Oregon from Alaska.  They visited a few months ago and picked out a few lambs, a yearling ewe, and an older ewe.  As I was moving lambs earlier this week, I realized that the wether they picked out was very flighty (crazed) and was probably not the best option for new sheep owners.  My son helped me catch up their sheep this morning before they got here and I put Little Lucky in the pen as well.  He made the comment that he was very soft and was wondering if the people were going to buy him too.  I explained to him that I was going to give them the option because Lucky was very friendly and the other lamb wasn’t.  He took this in and processed it like he does with everything. 

The couple showed up shortly after this and we showed them the new lambs from yesterday (yes more lambs – finally the last ones).

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Here is Pacifica with her twin ram lambs. 

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He especially likes this one and this is the one that I picked up for the people to hold.  They were oohing and aahing over the lamb and without skipping a beat my son tells them that ‘that one is not an option’ 😉  He quickly showed them their sheep!  They did choose Lucky – lucky him 🙂

 

The colors of a fleece

Posted by kenleighacres on May 7, 2009
Posted in: Felting, Fiber, Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , . 2 Comments

Ok, I may be a little biased – but Jacob fleeces are awesome 😉  I have been working on my Black Sheep Gathering Spinner’s Lead entry and I chose to work with Symphony’s fleece. 

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She has beautiful hues of dark brown and it is so soft!   

I split the fleece into 3 different colors…

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here are the carded batts.

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After carding the fleece, I felted the different colors into pieces of fabric.  The plan is to turn the fabric into a jacket!  I’ll post more pictures and details, but I just had to show you all of the pretty colors in a jacob fleece!