Friday, December 18, 2009

Winter Barn - Jen

Beautiful snowy morning in western NY.




The amish finished the barn addition in October, so it was too late to stain this year. Will make a nice spring project.




Andrew helped me decorate the barn for Christmas. It was a nice way to spend time with him










Thursday, December 10, 2009

Ewe A Day - Dahlia and Jasmine

Still trying to catch up with this, but it seems as if my "Ewe A Day" has turned into a "Ewe A Week". With that in mind, here's a daily double for today.

Here are two nearly identical yuglet sokket katmoget twins out of Cihat and V Creek Fantasia. These two were fantastic from the time they were born, and I still like them. There’s barely a difference in them. I will admit that I’m biased by their striking markings, but their fleeces are also gorgeous (like their mother’s). We really like Cihat and Fantasia, but they are very different sheep, with one being the result of heavy AI, and the other a product of pure domestic lines. So, these two ewes are quite interesting. They are about as identical as lambs can get though. I can tell them apart, but it’s not easy. I really didn’t see a need to keep three nearly identical sheep, but these two and their mother convinced me to give it a try this year. I doubt we’ll have that luxury next year. My motto is enjoy them while you have them, because you never know what next year will bring.

Disregard the white one in the background. She apparently wanted a glamour shot of her own.




















Thursday, December 3, 2009

Ewe A Day - Cor de Nuit

Sheltering Pines Cor de Nuit is outstanding! She has about everything I want in a Shetland. She’s stout, square, and has a gorgeous single-coated katmoget fleece with great density. I do think she would do very well in a shetland show, but then I think that about many of our ewes. But, if you go line-by-line through the standard, I don't think we have another ewe that is closer to the intent. She just has more frame than many of our ewes.

She’s out of Thelonius Monk (a Bartok son) and Justalit’l Lana (a Bramble Dixon daughter). She carries polled from Lana and spots from Thelonius, and is 43.75% UK.

She's one of those ewes that I like as much today as when we brought her in. She produced two outstanding rams this year. If only they had been ewes!