Enjoying the break…

Posted by kenleighacres on January 29, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments

in lambing and from the rain.

The weather has been delightful and the sheep are enjoying the grass.  They haven’t been very happy with me for the last couple of months because I have locked them off the good pastures, but they are happy now!

These boys would love it if I opened a couple of gates for them as well.

The young girls, like bide a wee Shana and

Ruby Peak Penstemon are looking very cute to them.

The lambs are all growing, but still sticking close to mom.

Some are more obsessed  in love with their moms, than others.

Bronwen and Delight are just the opposite, their lambs are quite independent and it drives them crazy!  They are always chasing them down and scolding them.  The poor lambs are usually just taking a nap 😉

The break in lambing hasn’t been 100%, this little beauty was born during the night.  Her name is Pizzazz, it fit her flashy coloring!

The rain is supposed to start again this afternoon, but the break in lambing is supposed to continue for another 6 days.  We’ll see if the girls agree with that forecast!

Ready, Set, Go!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 26, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 9 Comments

I think this is what the girls said to each other because it has been absolutely crazy here!  Since Elan was born on the 20th, we have had 15 new lambs.  This brings the total to 30, with 11 more girls left to lamb.

Here is a quick recap of the new babies and their names…

Delight’s ram lamb, Gallivanter – to go about in search of amusement.  He is such a cute little guy.

Amber’s lambs – Brouhaha, a noisy commotion or uproar, and his little sister Banshee, feminine spirit in Irish mythology.  The last week has been a noisy commotion for sure!

Celeste surprised me with this ewe lamb, Bountiful.  She is a big, chunky girl and Bountiful just fit 🙂

Veronica’s ram lamb, Gusto – hearty or keen enjoyment.

and her ewe lamb, Hoopla – joyous celebration.

Sahara had two more ewe lambs (lots of girls here this year, not really a good thing when you want boys).  Enigma – puzzling occurrence.

Quandary – a state of perplexity.

Girandole – spinning firework/showy composition, and Maelstrom – powerful whirlpool that sucks you in.  These are Savana’s ram lambs and they are keeping her very busy!

Canby had two adorable little girls.  She is a first time mom and gets an A+ from me.

Her girls are Persnickity – fussy about small details…

 and Panache – flamboyant.

Pacifica’s ram lamb, Rambler – one that rambles.

and her other ram lamb, Jester – joker, prankster, provides general entertainment.

Another one of my son’s ewes, Petunia, had a blue-eyed beauty.  He hasn’t come up with a name for her yet.  I can’t wait to see what he comes up with 🙂

Lamb races are just around the corner and I am enjoying this little break before the rest of the girls start lambing.

Meet Elan!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 22, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments

The lambs are keeping me busy, but I wanted to introduce you to Elan!

I am thankful she was born in the barn because this girl was born running.  Elan means vigor, enthusiasm, full of confidence and this girl fits all of those categories!

You could also say she is full of herself…

‘I don’t want my picture taken!’

‘Well…maybe just one.’

‘Ok, go ahead, snap away.  I am pretty cute, aren’t I?’

We had 3 more lambs today, bringing the count to 18.

You can see pictures and information on our Jacob Lamb page.

A whole lot of excitement!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 20, 2012
Posted in: Chickens, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, Photography, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 4 Comments

Between the rain and the lambs and the flooding…yesterday was a crazy day!

It started at 3:00 when Wren had her lamb…

She was very proud of her new baby.

 

Her name is Zesty and it matches her lively personality!

My next trip to the barn was for Queenie…she finally lambed!  She has looked like she was about ready to lamb for days now!  She had two beautiful, little ewe lambs.

Fanfare – A loud flourish of brass music.

Ballyhoo – flamboyance.

Queenie has a bit of flamboyance and has a royal air about her, so these names seemed very fitting for her girls.

 My third trip to the barn was for morning feeding and to check on Liberty, what I found was a bit of a shock…water in the barn!  The snow we had at the beginning of the week melted and our area has been pounded with rain since.

The ditch in the pasture was over flowing into the ditch next to the barn which was over flowing into the barn.

The water was quickly headed towards our hay, so I grabbed what I could and diverted it until we could do something about the ditch along the barn.

I knew there was a reason why I hadn’t taken the trash wool to the dump yet!  Along with a couple straw bales it did the trick and gave me some time to call for help.  My brother headed over and we cleaned out the ditch and dug it a little deeper in places.  It started flowing along the barn and headed to the creek…most importantly it stopped flowing through the barn!

While we were digging trenches and getting soaking wet, Liberty went about having her lamb…

Here they are shortly after birth.

Poor mama, he was born with BIG horn buds!

His name is Bodacious – remarkable, noteworthy.

Along with the rain, came high wind and we lost the tree in our ram’s pasture.  The boys really loved sitting under it, they are going to miss it.

This morning is much calmer and the chickens are very happy to get out!  I was a little leery to let them out during the heavy rain because they really are bird brains and stand out in it and get soaked.  My husband had to rescue one of them from the creek a couple weeks ago!

Feels good to shake off the dust after being cooped up for a couple of days!

When it rains…it pours!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 17, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, Photography, sheep. Tagged: , , . 3 Comments

It has been exciting around here since yesterday afternoon!  The weather has turned nasty, it has warmed up a little and turned our pretty snow into a slushy mess.  The wind has picked up and now it is raining.  They are forecasting a few inches of rain in the next day or two.  This change in weather, must have been felt by the ewes because lambing started with a flurry!

Althea was the first to lamb with two ewe lambs.

Folly – an act of silliness.

Fleury – to be fanciful.

These two girls are very alike in coloring and I am going to have a heck of a time telling them apart, so I thought it would be fun to have names that were similar.

While I was filling water buckets and getting the new lambs situated, I looked towards the back of the barn and saw Sublimity looking a little funny.  I snooped around and found her ram lamb under the feeder she was guarding.  She is being an excellent first time mama.

Dapper Dan – A very swanky, neatly groomed man.

He is a swanky little dude 🙂

After dropping my son off at school, I headed out to the barn to check on the new lambs and feed the girls.  I was greeted by Flirt talking very animatedly and in obvious labor.

   Here she is with the first lamb born, a little ram.  Dapperling – A little dapper fellow…neat, trim, smart.

The stripe down his tail is pretty cute.

Flirt’s little ewe lamb, Felice – Happy!

Tranquillity was the calm before the storm.  She has such a funny personality, so calm and sure of herself.  Her mom was quite distraught when I put her on the other side of the panel and Tranquillity started playfully head butting her!

I’ll leave you with a little cuteness from Fleury.

I have a feeling we may have more lambs before this day is done!

Tranquillity

Posted by kenleighacres on January 16, 2012
Posted in: Dogs, family, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep, Snow. Tagged: , , , , , . 18 Comments

The state of being tranquil; calmness; serenity.

The name of our new ewe lamb and what we woke up to this morning…

Snow!!!

It has a magical way of making everything look clean and new and refreshed.

 We rarely get snow, so it is fun when it shows up…especially since it only lasts a day or two 🙂

Not everyone shares my feelings though…

these two would love to have snow all winter!

I’m not sure our sheep would like that though.

I love how the snow sits on their horns and wool.

Ironside and Ringo seemed very relaxed  and had no problem sleeping in the snow.

Hector, Mac, and Aragon were happy to see us coming with their breakfast.

 

He loves it when it snows and can use his sled to deliver the hay.

The lambs weren’t sure what to make of the funny white stuff on the ground.

 Loving this day of snow!

Good grief!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 14, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 6 Comments

If these girls could talk, I think they would be saying ‘good grief, can’t we be done with this’.

Poor Savana is hanging a little low these days.

Delight is looking a little lop-sided.

Lulu says that she still looks great!

Veronica is just BIG!  She has one more week to go.

Here is a picture of her from last year, a week before she lambed…she had triplets.

Here is what Amber thinks of me taking these pictures 🙂  Only one more week girls.

Althea, Bronwen, and Queenie are in line before you.

Checking for calves

Posted by kenleighacres on January 12, 2012
Posted in: family, Farm Life, Photography. Tagged: , , , , , . 8 Comments

No, we don’t have cows, but since we still have a few more days until anymore lambs are born, we thought it would be fun to go with my brother and check for calves at the ranch he manages.

The really fun part…

 is we got to check for them from horseback!

The big moose on the right, is the one I got to ride.

I told my son that he would probably have to ride with me because I didn’t think my brother had enough horses for all of us.  Even though he has only been on a horse once before, he was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to ride by himself.  Much to his delight, there were 4 horses in the trailer and there were 4 of us.

Here he is on sweet Mae.  They were a great team!

There were 4 horses, but unfortunately there were only 3 saddles.

  

Luckily my brother said ‘no problem’.  His mare, Nelly, had never been ridden bareback, but she handled it like a pro.

My saddle was nice and comfy 🙂

My brother’s son has been riding since he could walk and his horse, Cowboy, is a cool dude.  He looks pretty good for being 32 years old.

My brother wanted to check on the first calf born.  Can you see it hidden in the blackberry bushes?  It is a couple of days old and mama was up on the hill eating while the baby stayed hidden.

So cute!  Mama trained it well and it didn’t even bat an eye when we rode up to it.

Next, we headed up the hill to see if there were any new calves.

I love the look of this cow, but she wasn’t what we were looking for.

Here is what we were looking for!

A new calf with a protective mama.  My brother rode up to check on them and all looked good.

Beautiful country to take an afternoon ride in!

The boys weren’t quite ready to stop, so they headed out for one more loop around the pasture.

Sorting through a mountain of fleeces!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 10, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Fiber, Jacob Sheep, shearing, sheep. Tagged: , , , , . 5 Comments

How many fleeces can you pile on a full-sized bed?

42 fleeces, weighing about  101 lbs.

This is the bed in my studio and the thought of sorting through the fleeces was a little overwhelming, but it HAD to be done!

I headed out last night to decide what fleeces were for sale, what fleeces I wanted to have processed, and what fleeces I wanted to keep for myself.  Zeilinger Wool is having their annual processing special through the end of January and I would like to take advantage of the 23% off discount.

I have never weighed all of the fleeces at once and it was interesting.  The average weight was 2 lbs. 4 oz. after being skirted.  I also have 8 lbs. of britch wool that I am going to have processed for felting projects.

Here are some of the fleeces I have for sale…

 

Canby

Bronwen

Emeline

More fleeces and pictures can be seen on our Fleeces for sale page on our website and they can be purchased through our LocalHarvest site.