Thursday, November 1, 2007

Lover's Meeting

Sheep breeding season began today, which meant that Ken and I spent part of the morning rearranging all the sheep into their separate breeding paddocks, where they'll stay until the end of December.

For all of you who voted in The Dating Game for Sheep, to decide which ram our ewe Moriah would be paired with this year: The votes are in!

Our senior ram Nicholai would like to thank you for your support, which allowed him to win the lovely Moriah by a landslide of 62% of the votes. He received far more votes than the other four rams on the ballot put together!

But their story isn't over yet! Click here for a funny video of what happened when the happy couple finally got to meet.

Taj and Tut, the runner-up rams, were not too dismayed, however, because---like Nicholai---they each got a small group of ewes for their very own today.

Nicholai's son, Titan, will be used as our "clean-up" ram this year, which means he'll be turned loose with all the ewes at the end of breeding season, just in case one of the other rams for some reason was unable to do the job.

Because our ewe Peri, who was bitten by a rattlesnake this summer (see Peri's Reprieve, Not For the Faint of Heart, Getting Used to the Maggots, Peri's Progress, and A Peg Leg for Peri? for more of her story), still has limited mobility due to her injured leg, we decided not to put her back with the rest of the flock for breeding season. She will be allowed to roam free in the yard, getting spoiled by her people, and when she comes into heat, we will allow her to breed with Titan.

For all of the commotion of moving everyone to their breeding pens, none of the ewes were in heat today, so no actual breeding took place. Most of them will probably start coming into heat in the next couple of weeks.

Lambs should start arriving in late March or early April.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The poor girl - she wanted wooing and he just had one thing on his mind LOL.

Can't wait to see the lamb in the spring.

Anonymous said...

Nancy: Your video/screenplay/editorial comments are absolutely charming! I loved the video!!! I laughed out loud several times! Thank you for starting my day with lots of giggles! I will share this w/ more of our friends too! What letter do names begin with next year? I will begin to think of names for the love child(ren)/lambs! Thanks again!
peace,
heather

Nancy Chase said...

Whew... I'm glad the video makes other people laugh too. When I was making it, I was worried that I've simply been warped by spending too long with the animals, and no one else would think the video was funny!

Heather: Next year all the lamb names begin with "U". That should be a challenge to think of 30 or so "U" names in the spring. Uma... Uthur... Unity... Ulysses...

Yes, the lambs haven't even been conceived yet, and I'm already thinking of names.

Definitely spending too much time with the animals! :-)

--Nancy

Meggie said...

Nancy: Moriah is merely playing "hard to get." Cute narrating on the video. I enjoyed it immensely! Can't wait to see the lambs.

Anonymous said...

Nancy: expanding on your names list...tho I know you have baby name books @ your house, I found these at www.thenewparentsguide.com/baby-names-u.htm.
Useless & Underdog: from me
from the website:Uriah, Uriel, Ursula, Uzma, Uta, Upendo, Umberto
Ulric (means wolf-now that's funny!), Uday
This will be a fun naming year!
peace,
heather

Nancy Chase said...

Hmmm... now there's a marketing plan:

"Shopping for sheep? This lamb is the finest lamb in all my flock."

"Really? What's its name?"

"Useless."

Poor little lambie! What kind of future will he have with a name like that?

I've got one... suitable for a lamb who will grow up to be a big, tough ram: Uruk-hai!

:-)

Anonymous said...

The name "Useless" came from a BBC dramedy show called "Monarch of the Glen" and it was the name of the springer spaniel dog. He would never fetch and then one day he did with dire consequences (the dog lived).
I like Uruk-hai: that should be the name of Moriah & Nicholai's ram lamb! hee hee
:-)