Oh my. What a surprise to see that I've not posted to the farm blog this year at all! And with 23 lovely Jacob lambs born last spring -- how could I have failed to post pics?
I do know the answer to that... We are living at our new farm and still busy completing it when not working away from home. And the sheep are at our old farm, cared for by our wonderful tenants. So sometimes it's true: out of sight, out of mind.
We sold some lambs as pets this year, and have many promised for meat. We are keeping at least one ewe lamb -- a remarkable tri-color lamb! I was waiting to see if the third color was hair only and would grow out as the ewe matured. Some of her spots were hair only, but some are generated from different colored spots on her skin. I've run into very little information about tricolored Jacobs but will casually keep searching. Meanwhile, she's a keeper for her unusual coloring as well as her nice build and good genetics.
Some of her spots are visible in this baby picture - on her back, the tip of her ear:
We have never brought outside ewes into our flock. They all go back to the original small flock of Lasseau Jacobs. Every few years we're replace the ram.
We have one ram lamb we did not wether because he's a nicely marked son of our oldest ewe. We kept her last ewe lamb, now a 3 year old with lovely fleece like her momma, and of course the nostalgia factor impacts my decisions. Each year we wonder how long Fine Fettle Granny Z will last, and she's still with us.
Although it will present new management challenges, we are thinking about keeping the ram lamb until he sells to some breeders who want our bloodlines. His poppa, Unzicker Captain, brought fantastic fleece quality to our flock, passing along his fleece to every single lamb he sired.
We sold some yearling ewes this year to a breeding farm in PA. I'm very pleased to do this and probably could sell more breeding stock if I put my attention into taking pictures, posting them, and getting the word out to come look at our Jacob sheep for sale.
But, but, but... been busy doing other things...
Our new farm has more bear and moose than sheep, but probably next year that will change and the flock will come reside here with us. I love visiting them and they do have some plentiful fields of greenery there that they wouldn't have here yet.
We brought some chickens and geese here and left the peacocks and other chickens and geese and guineas at the old farm. I missed the guineas so much I've purchased some keets and we have them hear. Listening to their quiet vocalizations is a high point of my evening rounds to check all the animals.
The horses have been here with us since January. I moved a couple back to the old farm to help mow down the pastures and reduce the amount of hay I was feeding here. I miss them at the same time as I don't miss them. What I mean is I miss each of those horses but I don't miss the added work of keeping them fed here. The four still here are ones I ride.
And now for another picture... day old twins...
