Sheep photos

It's been so long since I've posted pictures of sheep, it might seem as though we don't have sheep anymore! It's been hard to get out to get pics of them, and I had forgot how much time I used to spend trying to get good pictures. You can tell by these pictures, that this was a very quick photo session. We have 39 sheep right now, with possibly a few more on the way this spring.


above: Sweet Carlie.
Below: Lil friend.
Little Brown ewe. She doesn't have a name.. there are a few lambs that were sold, but never left here, so they didn't get named. I guess we need to come up with names for these gals -since they've been here nearly a year now. They deserve names.


This little lambs name is "carlies lamb"


Girlie:

These are the two new ewes we bought last fall. Daphne is in the corner with part of her face chopped off in the photo (great photography, huh?) And the other gal - well she's really one of my favorite ewes but I just can't remember what we named her! I'll get her a "HELLO, MY NAME IS_____" tag if I can come up with the name. My mind really is shot these days. I'm hoping it's just the lack of sleep.

This is another little ewe i didn't anticipate being here this winter, so she is lacking a name as well. I am going to have to get creative with naming sheep here.. or maybe buy a baby names book. Wow, that will get the family talking.


And Petey... he was going to leave us in the fall (to visit the butcher) but it's just been bad timing on our part.. when we were ready to take him, it was deer season - and lately, there's just been other things coming up. I was worried he would lose weight when the grass declined and we started feeding hay full time - yet, from the photo, he's either eating ok, or bloated. Maybe it's my camera? I sure don't remember him looking this wide, and one would think that would be noticeable?? Note to self, just in case it's the camera, I sure don't want to have my picture taken with it!

The Sheep and the how they're dealing with the heat..

Well this is how they're beating the heat -- they have an area in their lot that is low lying and it catches the breeze if there is any.
Considering the extreme heat we've been having - and the number of days it's been here, they're doing fairly well.
Our mouflon ram lamb has had a spell with it, but he seems to be pulling thru. I've said if he survived the treatment, he'll do well. He had quite a few shots - mostly vitamins, iron, but along with worming, I gave him a copper drench. He also seemed to be getting summer pneumonia, he had a bit of a rattle in his cough, so he got a few shots for that as well. I'm not a big believer in giving everything you got in the cabinet - but he was pretty bad, and felt the situation called for it! It's been a week, and he's still eating, and getting around, so I think he'll be fine.

The other lambs have been holding up pretty good.

Here's a couple of lamb pics: This is Iced Mocha, ram lamb


and Le Ann's ewe lamb

Sweet Miss Ellie

and our lil friend

While we're all coping with the heat, a break in the weather would be welcomed!

I'm Out Of Wool!

Well, not exactly. I don't think the wool well will ever run dry. What I'm actually out of is washed wool to card. It is the goal for the winter to wash up and card all of the fleeces. (yes, it would be so much more practical to send it out, but for now, I'm enjoying processing it here) SO.... with wool drying on the shelf, and having stated my excuse for not carding wool today, I experimented with clay instead.

(i say experiment, because so many times, i have no idea what I'm doing, but I had in mind to try a sculpture today)

I have been adding pages to our website, and when I came across this picture the other day of Carlie it reminded me of how sweet she is and how much i would enjoy sitting out in the field with her. She was sweet from the time she was born, so it is just in her personality. Many times I would go out to check on the sheep and sit down in the field for a minute and here comes Carlie. She would sit down right next to me and put her head on my leg and close her eyes. She is a 1/2 sister to Ziggy, Didi, and Roxy - who also seem to have a "sweet gene."

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So thinking back on summer days and hanging out with Carlie, this is what came out of the clay.

This is what I love about clay - this looks like just a lump of clay, but Carlie was in there all along! I just had to find her.

The piece still needs a lot of work, and who knows if it will ever make it to the kiln, but it was a fun experiment.

A few naked ladies...

No doubt, if this post comes up as a result of an on-line search for 'naked ladies' the viewer will be somewhat disappointed.



I had been asked what Lambie looks like without her wool, so here she is. She thought this angle made her look a little pudgy,



so we tried for a better angle--



Much better Lambie. I noticed she wasn't as quick to pose without her wool.. and her stance was much different. I'm thinking she's still a little self conscious about the new look. ?





And this is Carlie.. a drastic change from "the mushroom sheep" !

and pretty Josie. I tried to get more pics, but these were the only ones that weren't being harassed by the ram yesterday.. the others were on the run. Not exactly a day to write on the calendar yet, but maybe in a few days we'll have lambing dates to look forward to.

Sheep and Wool after a nice rain

Well I still haven't started the shearing.. just been really exhausted lately. It seems that mid October is the standard time for shearing the Icelandics, but I thought I had better get a head start since it will be slow going for me this year. They are calling for rain most all of this next week, so we'll see how it goes. Otherwise, mid-October it will be!

It poured Friday morning, and then turned out to be a nice day. The sun came out and the wool soon dried - i couldn't help but to take a few pictures.

Wool was 'sparkingly' clean. (come to think of it, is that even a word? sparkingly? maybe it's sparkly? it's late.. i'm tired..lol) Maybe I should just say 'shimmering' .. that's easier to spell.

This is from little Leroy -

Delilah

And Carlie- it's not very often that i can get a picture of her standing up that she's not eating! Generally, the pics of her are laying down and eating, and standing up and eating.. she has a very healthy appetite! (If you remember Moose-black ewe, from pics in the spring, she is her daughter!) She is a yearling and we look forward to her first lambing next spring!

her wool-

Cheyenne - a 2 yr old ewe, also out of Moose.


and one of our non-wool creatures, Tanna.

(who is currently seeking a new home!) Poor Tanna, nice goat - but not always so nice to the sheep. Think we're going to have to try to sell her and her buddy Hank. I'm afraid that she's going to hurt the sheep with her horns --- i might just try moving her and Hank to another field or keeping them with the rams. However, if anyone out there is in need of a couple of efficient weedeaters....

hope everyone had a great weekend!

A few sheep pictures...

I had the opportunity to take a few photos this morning... I am going to start shearing here soon (doesn't mean that i'll be "finished" shearing soon.. just starting..) But thought i should get a few pics before they're bare! It ended up being a bit of a contest to see who was the most photogenic... Delilah won.

But Lambie came in a close 2nd...

She seems to enjoy having her picture taken.. and once she realized what was going on, she relocated to another location and started posing...

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And Andy.. .not sure how photogenic he is

Handsome Joe...

Joe Again..



And Cody. Nice pose Cody.

Sick day ...

Despite fighting this allergy / cold stuff and sleeping half the day away.. it was a great day.

(the rest did wonders!)

My new camera came in last week, and had a chance to take a few pictures / videos. The "no photo available" post didn't go over so well- so, I'm glad to have a camera again. lol.


I sheared (rooed?) the ever-shedding Andy today. He started his shedding in late November and had been roaming around half dressed ever since. After his cut, we finished up with a pedicure. He's looking fine again. He is a great fella with such a gentle personality.

I put up a temporary fence today in the yard for the sheep to mow. (we live in a barn, so it only makes sense for the sheep to mow the yard, right?) Actually, I feel guilty mowing with the sheep watching.. so sometimes I just let them do it :)

Moose - the black ewe in the far right - i don't show she's due until May, but she is sure showing! I might have to go back and recalculate those dates.

I pulled weeds in the iris bed today.. funny how that can be enjoyable, but it was.

I noticed that we don't have anything blooming in our yard.. so I snuck over to the neighbors (lol)

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Ended the day with a brush fire... trying to clean up the new pastures so they'll be ready when we can get to fencing! (i had just started using the video function on my camera a few days before it broke.. so going to try to get more use out of this function on the new camera!) I took this video for the background noise.. I have missed those frogs !

It turned out to be a great sick day.

When Ewe Are Smiling ...

I have a camera on the way!

But meanwhile, here are more old and silly sheep photos.



When ewe are smiling...


and when they shouldn't... (just kidding, you have a great smile lambie)




when they are singing...



Joe's watching his girl on the other side of the fence... (i did mention we had to separate him from our goat, didn't i? )

And back to .. when they're smiling!