Jacob Sheep

All posts tagged Jacob Sheep

How is it that time of year again?

Posted by kenleighacres on August 20, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep. Tagged: . 6 Comments

Breeding season has snuck up on me this year!  We are using 5 rams…

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Kenleigh’s Wrangler

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Magic Moon Junior

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Greenwater Julian

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Patchwork Abraham

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and Theron is starting his little flock this year by breeding a few ewes to Kenleigh’s Reno.

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Now I just have to figure out who is going with who 🙂

Breeding Jacobs can be rather difficult at times and I sometimes think that just opening the gate and sorting off 6 ewes to go with each ram would create better results than agonizing over the combinations.  I think my son has the best plan – when I asked him what 3 ewes he wanted to breed to Reno, he very quickly said Dolly because he loves her and she is very friendly, the second one was Lulu because she was talking to him and he thinks she is cute, and the third was Petunia because she was standing there looking at him!  I can’t wait to see those results.

The ewes are going with the rams next week and I will post pictures and breeding groups once I have them sorted. 

Despite the fact that I don’t know who is going with who yet,  am very excited about lambs next year!  You know you are still passionate about your breed when your excitement increases each year 🙂

Taking a moment…

Posted by kenleighacres on August 12, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , . 3 Comments

to enjoy the wildflowers. 

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The dandelions are always cheerful.

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I don’t know what this little flower is, but it grows REALLY tall – there are some that are a foot over my head!  The flower is a very small daisy.

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We have wild morning glory everywhere and it is one of the plants that is still green.  All of our grass is very brown at the moment.

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I don’t know what this one is either, but it is by far my favorite!  It looks very exotic.

I was also taking a moment to admire the following lambs.

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This is Chance – isn’t she pretty?  Her horns just get better and better.  My favorites are the really wide 2-horn girls.  Poor thing I thought she was a boy for the first couple days of her life.  She had such big horn buds that I didn’t even bother looking, it wasn’t until a couple days later that I saw her peeing like a girl 🙂

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This is her brother Reason.  He is also a really wide 2-horn.  Their mom was the narrowest ewe I had.  Her horns pointed straight back and their dad wasn’t very wide either.  I think their horns trace back to their grandpa…

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Jaq –  here he is as a yearling!!!  He was so handsome, unfortunately he didn’t have a very nice personality. 

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Flirt is still my favorite lamb from this year. 

Have a great day!

The Chosen Ones

Posted by kenleighacres on August 1, 2009
Posted in: Farm Life, Herding, Jacob Sheep. Tagged: , , , . 5 Comments

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These are the lucky lambs, even though they may not agree 🙂  In most jacob flocks they would be considered culls and they will never be used for breeding here, but they serve a very important purpose…

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they are used for herding lessons. 

They would normally be headed to the freezer this fall (some may still end up there) but for now they are earning their keep.  Kate helped me dog break them and they are working out great for lessons.  Dog broke sheep are accustomed to being worked by dogs and are a must have for teaching beginning dogs.  The sheep tend to stay next to the person and your focus can be on the dog and not the sheep.  Jacob sheep aren’t usually used but they have worked well for us and it gives these guys a job.  

There are a lot of criteria that a jacob sheep has to meet to be registered, plus I have certain flock goals, which means we have a lot of lambs that aren’t sold as breeding stock.  They have to have the right coloring, correct structure, good horns, nice fleece, and an acceptable temperament.    

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This guy is missing black around his one eye and his horns on the left have issues.

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This girl is a little dark in color and her side horns aren’t as strong as I would like.

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This boys major draw back is that he is a 2-horn.  There isn’t a very big market for 2-horn jacob rams, everybody likes the impressive 4-horns.  So unless there is something really special about the 2-horn boys, I wether them.  This guy’s horns took a funny dip when I wethered him and it makes him look a little silly.

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Here is another one with silly horns.  I think she actually has 6-horns with the top ones fused together.  She is also missing the black around her right eye.

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This girl was originally sold as breeding stock, but her horns started tipping forward.  I wasn’t sure how bad they would end up being, so I replaced her with another lamb.  I’ll wait to see how she looks as a yearling.

The rest are mainly 2-horn boys.  In addition to being used for herding lessons they will also provide some really nice fleeces.

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This is Teia – a blue merle australian shepherd – owned by Tammy.  She is just over a year old and is learning how to be a sheep dog.

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She has a great sense of humor…

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that I don’t think the sheep appreciate 🙂

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!