The Games Continue with No Winner Yet!

The girls are getting bigger and bigger and have all been going to the beauty shop for their annual haircut, but no babies yet!

In the past, the rams have lived with the girls and I didn't know exactly when things happened, so due dates were hard to estimate. I thought I'd be smart this year and separate the ram out in August and put him back in at the end of November. Lambs are due April 21. That was easy enough. 

Apparently, our ram took his sweet time getting to everyone though. Peridot looks to go any moment now; seriously, I don't think she'll make it to tomorrow without babies. June seems to be about a week or so out. EmmyLou, Rose and Buttercup all seem to be even with smaller bags starting to develop--two weeks? Sparkles, though huge, doesn't have a bag at all! All that said, bagging up isn't an exact science, so they could be fooling me. But Sparkles is usually engorged just before she delivers. 

I'm throwing my hands up in the air in defeat . . . . it seems I have no idea when they're coming, and we'll be in lamb-watch mode for the next two weeks at least.

Here's an update of the "business" end of things:

The rump in the middle is Sparkles, with no udder at all, but she may be the widest ewe at the moment.

Here's June getting started. This is about where Peridot was 7 days ago.

EmmyLou is starting to "show." Side note: she was the easiest to shear; can you tell?!

Rose is hard to see because of her coloring, but by feel, she and EmmyLou are close. The part hanging down that you want to think is an udder is really just her belly.

And I've saved the best for last:

THAT's what a ready-to-deliver ewe should look like! Full bag, swollen girly bits and indentations on either side of her tail as the babies move into position. Any moment now, Peridot!

Buttercup is also due around the same time, but without a haircut yet, you really can't see anything. She's about equal to EmmyLou right now.

Violet and Lily were held back for another month before breeding, so they really don't have anything to show. They're due around May 18.

The Third Annual Lambing Games

It's that time of year, and I'm just about to kick off our third annual lambing games on Ravelry! If you're a member, make sure you check out my group and get in on the fun (there are prizes!!).

Take a look at who's pregnant this year! We're going to be blessed with a lot of lambs soon!

Happy Holidays Catch-Up!

Merry Christmas (late!) and a Happy New Year! It seems I've skipped fall all together here on the blog. It was one heck of a season. I had 2 fiber festivals, a stint of being a single mom as Mike went to Australia on business (how jealous was I?!), a bedroom make-over (including new paint!), a great farm visit from some city kids, 5 field trips, 4 school holiday parties, a few trips to various farms in the area, a full week of slaughtering rams (we slaughtered and butchered all by ourselves--Mike and I were very proud farmers), a women's retreat over a weekend, 3 classes that I taught, 1 finalized pattern that I designed for a magazine (yay!), Thanksgiving and finally the flu . . . which turned into bronchitis . . . which created lingering asthma issues.

Which brings us to Christmas! My parents came into town from Texas and we had a great visit. I got a snazzy new camera, and I can't wait to show it off!

Check out the action shot of Rose eating her hay! I can't get over how crisp everything is.

Rose and Wyeth posed nicely for me to show off the beautiful sweater that they're currently growing for me. Won't their colors be splendid together in a colorwork sweater? ("Splendid"? Mike has Top Gear UK on right now while I type)

After feeding all the animals, Kat and I took a little walk in the woods. This was really a secret mission of mine to see if I could finally capture Kat on film (disk?) without blurs. It's a well-accepted fact in our family that there are no clean pictures of her. She never stops moving.

Mission accomplished! I caught her mid-air!!!

And then the mission was over and we headed home.

Looking forward to more camera fun!

Wyeth

Our last lamb of the season, Wyeth, is growing up to be quite the looker. I'm so sad that his paternity wasn't 100%, otherwise, he'd be my top pick for a herd sire. Love his color, love his frame, love his face. I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope that Waylon can produce a copy for next year!

EDIT: I just scrolled down and realized I've already bragged about Wyeth with this picture! Well, what can I say, I really, really like him :)

What a Summer!

It's been so busy . . . Matthew leaving for college, a wonderful trip to my parents' house in Texas, getting the shop filled with some much-needed inventory, and then off again to North Carolina to soak up some sun!

Thankfully, we have a nice, boring rest of August planned. I've been away from the blog for a while, so I'm going to ease back into the swing of things with this short post and a few farm pictures!

Hickory is standing guard as Sparkles, Buttercup, Peridot and Rose munch away.

Chicken, Wyeth, EmmyLou and Aspen tending the grass.

I think Wyeth is simply perfect!