Last Call

I have a number of photos to gather and present for our buyers back east. It's kind of a big job, and this past week I've gotten behind! Thankfully, my son took these photos today for me.

Sunday, May 29th brought the last lamb of the 2011 season to Greener Pastures Farm. Not only did every ewe produce at least one lamb, but the season ended with quite a flourish! This is Greener Pastures Last Call; a single ram lamb born to black triplet Camellia. Her two brothers were born badgerfaced; Alder went to Minnesota and Balsam stayed here with us. Balsam will be utilized for breeding this coming autumn.



Back to Last Call. These colors and markings are a first for us, and I think we will enjoy them while we see them, because they will fade within a few months. His sire is a blonde ram in the Alpha bloodline, and while Camellia was born black (and still is, despite the brown fleece that is sun bleached), she comes from a long line of blonde or badgerfaced ewes and rams.



He is a pretty big boy; she seems to have "baked" him long and well. And here he is, showing just how he feels about this busy day. Can you just take that camera away and let me catch a snooze?



Ronda, tickled pink at Greener Pastures Farm

Blessed are they...

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves...

... for they shall never cease to be amused.

I don't know who said that, but I've carried it around in my head and posted it on the fridge and even began a cross stitch sampler with it once. And I just now shared it with a farming friend. (Hi friend!)

~ Ronda

Funny Face

He does look a bit of a clown, doesn't he?

Greener Pastures Firethorn and his twin sister, Forget-Me-Not have some fascinating markings on their faces that were inherited from their Icelandic dam. Her face was just like this!

With his nice conformation and good horn width, we utilized Firethorn for breeding in the fall of 2009. Two of his daughters inherited his facial markings to some extent; Greener Pastures Katzenjammer and Greener Pastures Kia. And Kia's 2011 daughter did as well. But Firethorn's other daughter looked the typical mouflon pattern. So it was a nice surprise to see Keester produce a ewe lamb that looks a bit like its grandpa, though cuter.



Greener Pastures La Vie En Rose is shown the day she was born, while still wet behind the ears and pretty much everywhere else, too! Gotta love those white bobbie socks.



Here she is the following day, with her cute pink nose. She took her grandpa's funny face and made it glamorous.

Our 28th lamb of this year was born yesterday, and we have two pregnant ewes to finish up this year's lambing season. Due to the higher number of ewe lambs born this year, we unexpectedly will have a Starter Flock available for sale; a group of very nice experienced adult ewes and rams that I had planned to keep for myself. See our website for further information.

~ Ronda

Testing. Testing.

I've had this camera for.... maybe 8 years? And today was the first time I used the video option. My first videos were of leaping lambs, but I didn't get close enough and it was too fuzzy. Thus begins the Learning Curve!

Here's my babies. Yes, I really do talk to them all the time. This chatter wasn't for you, but for the babies and me. I want them to be accustomed to the sound of my voice, and I always talk to the sheep when I enter the pasture, so that they know it's me and there's no need to worry or protect the babies, etc.



Next time I'll try to get closer to the leaping lambs! : D

~ Ronda

No More Bottles!

I've been let off the hook. And in so doing, the ewe with a strike against her is likely getting a reprieve.


She's nursing. And she's not only nursing her own lamb, but my other bottle lamb, too! I'd seen her kick both of them away in this past week, but last night she seemed to turn a corner. Both lambs had full bellies last night when I brought their night time bottles. And again today when I brought their morning bottles. And their lunch bottles. And then I got the above photo this afternoon.


The lambs still clamor for attention. Lollipop comes a running!


They both sniff and nibble my clothing.


Lexie was nibbling at my phone.


And my pocket.

Lollipop was pawing at my leg for some petting. Actually, they both do that.

I think I'll continue to bring bottles out once a day, with just a small amount of milk, so that we keep these babies tame.

Though having a full grown ewe pawing at my leg might not be such a fun enterprise! : D


But how can I resist Lexie's eyes half closed with contentment as I scratch her chin?

~ Ronda

Mother's Day

I made a mistake on Wednesday's post. I speculated that Belladonna would have her lambs by Thursday morning.

She didn't.

She had them Thursday afternoon. And aren't these two little girls cute? Lisette and Lavinia have brown skin and will likely look just like their mother.



Happy Mother's Day. Kick up your heels a little bit.

~ Ronda

More Cascade Farmstead Lambs!

The countdown continues. We are currently at 15 ewe lambs and 10 ram lambs on the ground and 5 ewes that have not lambed yet. We have not had to assist with any lambings, which is the norm, and actually did not see any of them born! They've been very secretive this year.

Above are Greener Pastures Lucille and Laverne with their dam. They are 8 days old in this photo taken yesterday.


And here is part of our flock of Cascade Farmstead ewes and lambs as of yesterday. Not everybody is in this photo... they like to spread out, and as I recall, there was a new mother inside the barn behind me with her handsome and still wet ram lamb. His name is Greener Pastures Lionheart. It's the "L" year, you know.

~ Ronda

Lambing Update

We had 5 lambs born today. Twins from my fabulous Honeysuckle, and singles from 3 yearling ewes. This brings us to 21 lambs thus far, with 8 ewes left to go. For those of you keeping track, we've had 8 ram lambs and 13 ewe lambs this year!

This photo shows a few of this years' lambs. You should be able to click on this photo to see a larger version. Our most recent lambs are show on the left; Honeysuckle's Legend and Lucia. The oldest lambs are shown in the background; Living Daylights and Lacey. Center shows my babies; Lollipop and Lexis. Lorelei is on the compost heap, and I have some pretty cool pics of her testing the bonds of gravity and the bounce in her legs. I'll get those up tomorrow.

I suspect Belladonna will have lambs by morning, but I've been saying that about Honeysuckle for days, so we will see. : )