Prints and Cards Now Available!

Posted by kenleighacres on February 6, 2009
Posted in: sheep. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

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“The Modest Sheep”

The original painting is acrylic on canvas and was painted by my brother – Brendan Soper. 

He writes “It was inspired by the quiet, yet powerful effect the sheep has had on society for millennia.  From providing warmth with their wool, to giving us nourishment from their meat and milk.  We can even make soap from their milk!  The sheep truly are modest in the most profound way.”

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I love the details in the fleece.

He has had prints and note cards made and they are now for sale on my website – Prints and Note cards

 

 

Catching up!

Posted by kenleighacres on February 4, 2009
Posted in: Farm Life, Felting, Fiber, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , . 8 Comments

There are just too many things to do on the ‘To Do’ list!  The overwhelming feeling is just under the surface ready to show it’s ugly face, but the joy that the lambs bring are helping – they are not helping me check things off the ‘To Do’ list however 😉  It is so easy to sit out in the barn just watching their carefree play.  I love the 2-4 week age the best.  They are just sure that the world revolves around them.  We have 7 new babies since the last post, 6 came in one night!  Introducing –

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Kenleigh’s Breeze – Junior x Aimee

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Kenleigh’s Create – Junior x Aimee

Both of these girls are lilac and so sweet.  Create was a little ambassador the other day when a few neighbors came by to visit the lambs.  She enjoyed being cuddled and didn’t squirm like the other lambs did. 

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Kenleigh’s Prosperity – Pilot x Darling

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Kenleigh’s Wisdom – Pilot x Darling

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Kenleigh’s Bounden – Junior x Veronica

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Kenleigh’s Dancer – Junior x Veronica

Bounden and Dancer earned their names 🙂  Within a couple hours of being born they had springs on their feet and were doing cirlces around their poor mother. 

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Kenleigh’s Imagine – Wrangler x Harley

I was REALLY hoping that he was a she because Harley is getting up there in age and she hasn’t had very many girls and the girls that she has had were very light in color.  Her boys are always loudly colored.  Oh well!  He is a cutey and he looks a lot like his dad when he was a lamb.

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Kenleigh’s Wrangler as a lamb.

We have 10 more ewes to lamb and the barn is starting to get very full!

I have been salivating over my felting books and trying to fit in a few projects as time allows.  Here is one that I finished yesterday.

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The really fun part for me is that all of the wool came from sheep that we raised. 

Awards – thank you!!!

Posted by kenleighacres on February 2, 2009
Posted in: Awards. Tagged: . 7 Comments

I am the proud recipient of a couple awards. 

My good friend Kristine over at ‘House of Cardis’ awarded me a ‘Lemonade Stand’ award–and now I’d like to take the opportunity to nominate a couple of my favorite blogs that show,  “gratitude or great attitude or both”.

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My first nominee is Kathy at ‘Cedar Pond’.  She always shows gratitude and truly is a glass half full type of person.  I love reading her stories and seeing the beautiful products that she makes with her fiber.

My next nominee is Michelle at ‘Boulderneigh‘.  She is another person that shows how truly blessed she is every day.  I love seeing pictures of her sheep and her lovely yarn! 

The second award is the ‘Your blog is fabulous’ from Claire at ‘Is this Heaven?  No, this is Iowa!’    I love reading Claire’s blog and finding out what new animal they have brought home from the local animal shelter.

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This award comes with the unusual requirement of listing 5 of your “favorite addictions”.  How fun!  So, here are my favorite addictions –

1.  Fiber and felting, especially my new felting book – ‘Uniquely Felt’.

2.  Candy – gummy worms, gummy bears, licorice, lifesavers – pretty much any kind of candy except chocolate (I know I’m weird!)

3.  Crafts – I LOVE learning new crafts.

4.  Sheep – talking sheep, researching sheep stuff, reading about sheep, etc.

5.  My camera and taking pictures.

And now, 5 blogs that I think should receive the “Your Blog is Fabulous” award!

1.  Mud Ranch – I have a feeling PhotoShop is going to be in your list!  I love what you do with your photos.

2.  House of Cardis – Yes, I am making you spill about your dog crate addiction 🙂

3.  Color & Texture – I love seeing pictures of her super cute blue Cardi.

4.  Rocking Dog Ranch – I love reading about her journey with her Border Collies!

5.  Wrensong Farm – She has the funnest pictures of her many birds!

 

Lamb updates and new lambs

Posted by kenleighacres on January 30, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , . 6 Comments

I’m drowning in lambs and I am having a hard time getting anything done because they are just too cute and I find myself sitting out in the barn just watching them 🙂  The older lambs’ personalities are starting to come out and…

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this little guy has enough attitude for 10 lambs!  He is the ring leader and loves to initiate the lamb races.

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This is Journey and he has the prettiest blue eyes.  Once he went outside I was able to tell that he is black and white.

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and his sister, Demure, is one of my favorites so far.

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This is Venture and he likes to pose for the camera!

The last couple of days have been really busy and we have a bunch of new lambs…

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‘Regal’ – Wrangler x Tess (who you have seen before, but this is a better picture)

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A clean ‘Charm’ – Junior x Elsie

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‘Dreamer’ – Pilot x Holly

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‘Chance’ – Pilot x Eclipse

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‘Reason’ – Pilot x Eclipse

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This is Amber with her brand new lambs – a ewe and a ram.

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This picture is for Lora 🙂  He is a big help and he has decided that all of the boy lambs are his!

For those of you that would like to see all of the lambs in one place, I have updated the 2009 lambs page on our website.

There were a few more ewes looking close at breakfast this morning…

 

 

Meet Smudge!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 29, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , . 7 Comments

Smudge was born a couple days ago, but he was just too special to lump in with the rest of the lambs yesterday.

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No, he isn’t registerable and yes, he has WAY to much black on his body, but I love the smile on his face.  He had a sister, but she was born dead.  I’m not sure what happened and I hate it when that happens, but I feel very fortunate that her brother was ok. 

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He made quite the impression out in the pasture today and Liberty wasn’t sure what to think of him.

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At one point, he got a little lost and was sure Magoo was his mama.

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Luckily his mom came to the rescue and I’m sure Magoo was relieved that he wasn’t going to have babysitting duties for long term.

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I ran across the name – Smudge – when I was doing some fiber research the other day and I knew that I would know the lamb it belonged to as soon as they were born.  Poor guy – all of his spots were smeared together!  His cute face makes up for it and look at all of that black fiber 🙂

The flood gates have opened…

Posted by kenleighacres on January 28, 2009
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. 7 Comments

It started with Sahara really early this morning.  I checked on the ewes at 2:30 this morning and she had a lovely ewe lamb next to her.

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She is a wildly marked girl and looks a lot like her mom.  Sahara is a first time mom and she is doing a great job. 

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Next it was Frodo’s turn.  She was in the middle of having her lambs when I went out to do morning chores.  She had two more girls.  It was very chilly last night, so they are wearing coats to stay warm and cozy. 

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Her little ewe lamb, Peace, has such a sweet face.

I was expecting a few other ewes to lamb this afternoon, but they aren’t ready quite yet – I’m sure they are waiting for the cold, dark hours of the early morning.

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However, Tess and Elsie surprised me this afternoon with lambs.  Tess’ ram lamb was all cleaned up and running around.  Tess always has the cleanest lambs.  He is a silly lamb and is already jumping up on his mom.  Elsie had a ewe lamb and you will have to wait for pictures because she was not clean 🙂  She is a very big girl with lots of leg.  As I was leaving the barn Holly and Darling were fighting over the lambing corner, so I’m sure there will be more lambs to post about tomorrow. 

Morning treasures!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 24, 2009
Posted in: Call Ducks, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

On morning rounds, I found a couple treasures!  My ducks usually start laying eggs in January and I hadn’t checked their nest boxes in a few days.

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My little gray call duck hen has quite the nest built, but no eggs yet.

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My snowy hens on the otherhand have 3 eggs in their nest. 

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Ellie had these cuties at some point during the night. 

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The little girl is so petite.  She is a lilac and her name is Demure.  I love her face 🙂  The boy is much bigger and I can’t tell if he is lilac or not? 

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The color on his lips definitely isn’t black, but around his eyes it is much darker.  I will have to take him outside today and see if I can tell for sure.  His name is Journey.

My ewes are being so nice!!!  They are taking turns in the favorite lambing spot every 12 hours or so.  I’m sure it will be different next week, but I am really appreciating it for now.

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This is Venture and he was born Thursday afternoon.

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His mom is Painted Rock Jeslyn and Wrangler is his dad.

Pretty soon the pastures are going to be hopping with little spotted lambs!

There’s nothing cuter…

Posted by kenleighacres on January 22, 2009
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , . 6 Comments

then baby lambs with little polka dots on their noses.

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These are Maverick Marloe’s lambs by Kenleigh’s Douglas.

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The ewe lamb’s name is Bliss.

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and the ram lamb’s name is Hopscotch.  My son was so happy that he was a boy.  He really wanted to name the first boy.  We were there to see the little girl be born.  Marloe didn’t have to push very hard and I was shocked when I weighed them because the ram lamb was 10 lbs. and the ewe lamb was 9 lbs.  Marloe always has big, strapping babies.

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This is Grace.  She was born yesterday morning.  Her mama is Kenleigh’s Aurora and her dad is Kenleigh’s Dawson.  She has a very sweet personality, just like her mama.

Here are some updated, less slimy pictures of Hope and Joy.

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My son loves the babies and has to pick up and love on each one.

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The flood gates are starting to leak, but I can feel the big break is coming soon.  You may tire of seeing little jacob lambs soon 🙂 

Finally!!!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 20, 2009
Posted in: Farm Life, Felting, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , . 10 Comments

Yep, we have lambs 🙂  Here are pictures shortly after being born.

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This little girl is Hope

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and her sister is Joy.

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Their very proud mama is Maybelline.  They were both 8 lbs. at birth and are healthy, flashy girls.  I just love little lambs!  I also love our Jacob sheep – I fed at 7:00 this morning and Maybelline was in a corner by herself but came over and ate her alfalfa.  I went back out at 10:00 and she had them most of the way cleaned up and fed. 

The other girls that I have been waiting on kind of had a look on their face like – “OOOOHHHHH, that’s what we are supposed to be doing.” 🙂  We’ll see if this opens the flood gates.   

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Dolly was thoroughly enjoying the back rub from my brother and son!  She is such a funny girl.

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While waiting for the lambs to start arriving, I got my valances done for my studio.  They are a brown felt with a sheet of our jacob felt felted on the front with the burgandy design.

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My brother drew out a design example for me on a piece of paper and it translated to felt well.

I also made a logo and labels for my products. 

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It is amazing what you can do with a cloud, 2 rectangles, and 2 ovals in Microsoft Word 😉 

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Off to check for more lambs 🙂

What’s up?

Posted by kenleighacres on January 19, 2009
Posted in: Lambing. 6 Comments

Still no lambs 🙂 but on one of my many trips to the barn this weekend I got to thinking that very rarely are the lambs born when my husband is home on the weekends.  So, I sat down with a calendar and figured out the percentage of weekday lambings and weekend lambings (I didn’t have anything better to do anyways).  It turns out that over 6 years – 75% of the lambs are born during the week with only 25% born on the weekend – very weird.  Last year it was – 90% during the week!!!  I accused him of putting something in their water over the weekend.  The even stranger thing is that I was talking to my mom and only one of us kids was born over the weekend – I am the oldest of six!  Is this common?  Are most babies born during the week?  What is different?  Why does this happen?  Oh well, there is your little piece of statistical, doesn’t mean anything, bit of information for the day 🙂