Talk About CUTE...

Zodiak's twin ewe lambs:

"Bluff Country Daisy"

and her twin sister:

"Bluff Country Clover"

When I went out to take pictures of Zodiak and her little dolls this afternoon, I found Angel in labor!

  More photos tomorrow...

;-)

I LOVE This Picture...

"Dream" dreamin'...

I had such a wonderful time with the sheep on my Birthday that I  thought I'd share more of the photos.

*As always, click on any image to enlarge*

Dazzle ~ for Katie W.

Zodiak

Flash Dance

Sable with Dazzle and Flash Dance...

Zodiac (again)

(she is SO photogenic!)

And Dazzle is just so darned CUTE!

Of course we can't leave out the flock Matriarch

(and keeper of my heart),

ALICE

I am so blessed.

DREAM says:

"Now,  THOSE  are some good looking  "chicks"!

That they are, my Dreamer .

You'll  get no argument from me about that!

Breeding Group...

I finally put my breeding group together! We had a major winter storm hit the area on Monday and into Tuesday so I had a couple of unexpected days at home. Monday I put my breeding group together.

Just one breeding group this year. Three of the ewes in the group no longer even belong to me. Those three are "Godiva" ~ fawn/mioget yearling out of Flash Flood and sired by Windswept Bravo (black & white, HST); Zodiak and Zest.

Those of you who know me, know that Zodiak and Zest are VERY special ewes to me. I didn't want to sell them. But the opportunity arose to place them in a home in which I knew that they would be loved, appreciated and cared for as much as they would be here. I had decided that there were only two couples in the world that I would entrust Zodiak and Zest to and one of them took me up on it.

This is my dear friend Linda Westover with Zodiak in 2005 (?)

Linda and her husband, Pete, drove all the way from Pennsylvania to purchase a ram lamb and a ewe lamb from me. During their one-day visit, a lifelong friendship was formed.

Pete & Zest
Oh yes, the sheep liked them too... ;-)

It's funny, the friendships that can be formed because of these incredible, little sheep. Linda and Pete have bought more sheep from me over the years. My Beautiful Baby Girl and I drove out to Pennsylvania, 2 years ago to deliver sheep, pick up Bella and visit with Linda and Pete. They have supported me through some of my darkest moments in my battle with depression. I truly love this wonderful couple. I feel good knowing that Zest and Zodiak will be spending the rest of their days with Linda and Pete. Plus, it means that we'll see each other again next summer! Zest and Zodiak will stay with me until arrangements can be made for Linda & Pete to pick them up sometime next summer. (no hurry!)

I will get to keep a lamb from Zest and Zodiak. I'm praying for an HST ewe lamb from Zest! I know that Zodiak will give me beautiful HST girls ~ she always does!

Godiva will also be staying on for a while in the Bluff Country. She is owned by my good friend Terry (the one I taught to spin ~ many years ago!) and Terry & her husband may have to put off retiring to their farm "up North" for another year or two because of the current economic conditions. Poor me ~ I'll have to suffer through another year or two of having this lovely little girl around....

I can't wait to see what she gives us for babies!!

That's it for now. I'm having trouble posting lately. I feel anxious and need to get away from the computer. I'll try to post pictures of the three of MY girls that are also in with Hunter since Monday. Soon.

It Was a Damp and Dreary Morning......

It's cold and SNOWING this morning. I worked until mid-night (volunteered for extra hours) last night and didn't get to bed until after one o'clock in the morning. Bella woke me up around 7 am because she wanted her breakfast. I figured I may as well go check on the girls and give them some hay since it was such a yucky morning. Then, I'd probably go back to bed.
NOT!
Bluff Country Zodiak (black/bleset/iset) was busy while I was sleeping!
I was stunned! All three lambs were cleaned off and had nursed! Zodiak (like all of my girls) is SUCH a great Mom!!

I gave Zodiak a ton of cookies and then dipped the babies' cords. All Three Are GIRLS!!! I could not believe it! I even checked twice!! Three little (or not so little ~ these are healthy sized triplets!) girls. TWO of whom are HSTs!

Zodiak has given me many HST lambs (she is Dream's dam) and a vast majority of them have been girls. She also appears to be heterozygous for black. Which is nice now that I've got SO many brown factored sheep!

Unlike her mom, the little black, with a splash of white on her head, girl will carry brown ~ as well as HST genetics. Sheltering Pines Crescent Moon is the proud sire of this litter group of beautiful baby girls. I'll have to think up names that combine the "Moon" aspect, as well as the "Zodiak" (I know: I like it spelled with a K) influence of both parents when I select names for these girls. Of course, the new owners will have the final say on any name choices...

DREAM says...

"Three to go!"
Not to worry ~ Dreamer got LOTS of hugs and snuggles while I was out with Zodiak and her triplets this morning. She knows she's still my special girl!

Hand Shearing Zodiak & Zest...

It's that time of year again. Time for the annual hand shearing of my "swamp creatures". Zest and Zodiak almost always need to be re sheared during the summer as they have matted growth on the ends of their fleece from where they were sheared before the "rise". When the new fleece starts growing out, they truly do look like "swamp creatures"!If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see how the fleece along Zodiak's back is splitting off. You may notice how thrilled Zodiak is to be tied up so that I can hand shear her. "What are you looking at????"

Here you can see the smooth line between the fleece that I'm removing and the new coat, beneath it. I'm getting pretty darned GOOD at this!!

One down and one to go. You can see how thrilled Zodiak is to be finished. And ZEST is so anxious to have her turn that she's rubbing on the gate. Zest is an excellent example of what I mean when I say my girls look like SWAMP CREATURES! Isn't she gross????

Zest's beautiful daughter, "Bella Luna" keeps a close on on her mom... The clean area on Zest's back gives me a good place to start. The fleece comes off in large pieces but is fairly difficult to shear as the matted clumps really stick to the new growth. Zest does NOT like having her fleece hand sheared.

Fortunately, I'm getting fairly quick at it. I had both girls done in less than an hour. Don't they look better????

I have a little bit of "touching up" to do on Flash and Zaria but no one else that needs to be completely re sheared. I use the felted fleece that I removed as mulch, in my garden. It works great for keeping weeds down and holding in moisture!

DREAM says.... ..."Mom said I look beautiful and I don't even need a 'touch up!'. It's too bad those other girls aren't more like ME... "

Now, WHERE was I before I was so rudely interrupted? Oh yeah, Zodiak Lambing...

By this time, Zodiak had been pushing for quite a while. Although, I could see two toes, I could NOT see a nose and was getting concerned. I like to try to interfere as little as possible but decided it was time to take a closer look. Sure enough, I realized that the two feet I was seeing were HIND feet! With a gentle pull, Zodiak's second daughter slid to the ground and Mom started the clean up duties...

Big Sister, who has stayed VERY close to Zodiak throughout the whole ordeal offered her assistance...

Having babies is hard work! Zodiak takes a snack...

Lamb number one is working hard too! She needs a snack as well....

It's another GIRL!!!!

HAPPY FAMILY

I dipped the babies cords in iodine; gave Zodiak some de-wormer and water with molasses in it and tucked them safely into a jug with lots of fresh hay for the night.

I'll catch you up with Dream and Alice later today.... ;-)

ZODIAK'S TURN...

This is what greeted me when I got home from work this afternoon...

Last year, Zodiak gave me twin, HST ewe lambs. We're off to a good start again. This little beauty is a GIRL!

After a few minutes of mother-daughter bonding, Zodiak got back down to business...

"Is this a new game, Mom?"

"My Mom's working awfully hard! Here's a kiss..."

Between contractions, Zodiak grabbed a snack!

Back to work...

Still taking care of number one!

ONE-AND-A-HALF-LAMBS!!!

My girls are getting TIRED!

One last, supreme effort....
I don't know what's going on. Blogger won't let me upload the next picture. Oh well, I'm TIRED. And Don's home ~ bitching about me being on the computer ~ I'll finish this post ~ tomorrow...

DREAM says....
..."That's MEAN Mom!"