Saturday, October 18, 2008

New Sheep!

While I've been steadily dispersing my horse herd for the past year, I've been increasing my sheep flock.

When I heard that my friend Monica a Small Meadow farm had decided to disperse her Icelandic sheep flock, I jumped at the chance to buy her top 9 ewes. That's a big investment for a farm where finances are as tight as ours have been, but luckily for me, Monica is a friend and is willing to take payments.

That gave her the ability to be finished with her flock dispersal quickly, and gave me the chance to get some really great sheep that have already been proven to be heat and parasite resistant on Monica's farm in Georgia.

I'm EXTREMELY happy with the quality of the sheep I got. There are some real beauties here and I think they are going to produce some fabulous lambs for us in the spring!

Introducing...

Stella. Doesn't she have the most beautiful face ever? She's a large, well-built ewe with a superb horn set. Her mother carries the Thoka gene for extra-prolificacy in lambing, so we're hoping that Stella carries it too.


Tara. She's Stella's half sister, so she also has a good chance of carrying the Thoka gene. Tara is extremely tame and friendly, and has followed me up onto the back porch and right into the kitchen on more than one occasion!


Sapphire. Just and big and beautiful as Stella, but in black!


Tsarina:

Titania:


Tessa. She had a very late (July!) lamb this year, which in the Georgia heat stressed her system enough to give her wool break, so her wool doesn't look that great right now. But underneath, her wool and her build are both really nice, so as soon as she's sheared, she's going to be looking mighty fine.


Rowena. Half sister to my best fleece ewe Rhonwen. Her fleece is not quite as soft as Rhonwen's but she has a much better meat build. Excellent ewe!



Secret: Although I've been trying to sell off all my polled sheep so that I can concentrate just on the horned variety, I made and exception and agreed to buy Secret because (1) she had exceptional heat and parasite resistance, (2) she's from a bloodline that I particularly like, and (3) according to Monica, when Secret is bred to a horned ram, she produces fully horned lambs, not ones with the stubby, ugly scurs that often happen when you cross the horned and polled bloodlines. That's good enough for me!


Uleda. Rowena's lamb from this year. Tons of fleece and a real cutie!


A big welcome to all the new sheep!

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