Lambsicle?!?

 It was around 12 degrees (lower with windchill) when I went out to check the sheep on pasture today, so cold the truck wouldn’t start and the tractor barely started. When I got there nothing seemed out of the ordinary – the ewes came up for their grain and I began to put it out for them, then I heard a ewe down at the bottom of the hill and I looked up and there was Artemis with a new lamb! We were NOT expecting lambs for another couple months, so this was very out  of the ordinary. The new lamb was still damp (and her coat was frozen in places) when I got there, but was running around and had obviously eaten. I looked everywhere to make sure there was not another lambsicle frozen to the ground, with this weather it is to be expected. But I only found the one big healthy baby 🙂

She has a very fuzzy face (its cold out!)

The new lamb is a little ewe, her sire is Chase. She has a very primitive hair “halo” which keeps her warm and safe from the weather, but underneath she has supersoft fleecy curls.

I am very proud to have such hardy girls that they can get away with lambing on pasture with no shelter in the middle of January and still have healthy lambs. Artemis had lambed at the bottom of a hill, where the wind wasn’t so intense. She evidently got the lamb cleaned up and mostly dry before it froze, and she had most of the placenta eaten before I got there. What wasn’t eaten was frozen to the ground – it was so cold it didn’t take long for that to happen. Artemis preformed like a feral ewe would – the placenta eaten to keep predators away and the lamb dry, up and fed despite sub zero temperatures – just how I like my Jacobs 🙂

She is the poster child for Jacob hardiness 🙂 Her coat is covered in icicles, but she is nice and warm anyway.

Artemis had to walk all the way home next to the tractor because it was too cold for the truck to start. She followed her lamb for over a mile down the road. She is such a good momma!

Gabrielle

Gabrielle is a short, stout, 2 horned ewe from New Jersey – the Brink-May flock, specifically. Her full name is Brink-May Lady Gabrielle.

 

Gabrielle was donated by Bob May to the youth conservationist program that is held at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival every year. Each year several rare breeds of ewe lambs are donated by various breeders, these ewe lambs are awarded to the youth whose essays are selected by the breeders. The youth must promise to show the ewe at least twice and to breed the ewe to a registered ram that fall. My essay was selected by Bob May and in 2004 at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival I was presented with Gabrielle. Someday, I’d like to return the favor and donate a Jacob ewe back to the program…

While at the festival, I also purchased a ram lamb named Timber (his horns ended up being too forward and was later culled) to keep Gabrielle company on the way home (he also later sired Gabrielle’s first lamb). After the festival, we stayed over for one more night at our friend Ann’s house with the sheep. Ann graciously offered up her home, lawn and shed for us and our sheep, they were quite a sight in the middle of a suburban neighborhood! We didn’t know Ann before the trip, but I’m so glad we met and I look forward to staying with her and her family every year. Ann and my mother were la leche league leaders together and knew each other over the internet, when Ann heard we needed a place to stay near her, she offered.

Gabrielle had a large single ram lamb by Timber the following spring – he was an overly large ram lamb with huge horn buds and Gabrielle needed a little help. Since then Gabrielle has had many lambs for me and has proven to be a wonderful mother. She is also a very friendly, easygoing ewe, often one of the first to come say “Hi”.

A pair of Gabby’s twins

Her first twin ewe lambs were named Eleanor and Iona, after Ann’s two daughters. Bellow is Iona, one of the twins.

Gabrielle’s body type is more short and squat than you usually see in a primitive type Jacob, but she is an extremely hardy ewe, raising healthy twins on pasture alone while maintaining weight and not needing wormings – in my book that is Jacob-y enough 🙂

Gabrielle this winter – plump on winter pasture at 10 years old

Vanessa

This is Vanessa –

she got her name from the person who gave me my first Jacob sheep.

We got Vanessa in the summer of 2004 in a trade for a ram lamb, along with her sister, Georgia and Georgia’s daughter, Myra. I had seen an ad listing 3 Jacob ewes for sale or trade on the local feed store “For Sale” board – I took the number down and contacted them, thinking that I could trade Victoria’s ram lamb, William (who was too dark to register), for one of their Jacob ewes – if they appeared to meet the breed standard. We went out and looked at the ewes – the 2 older ewes (Vanessa and Georgia) were both 2 horned and appeared to be twin sisters (the owners thought they were, but weren’t sure, as they had bought them from someone else), they also met the breed standard. The third younger ewe (Myra, Georgia’s grown daughter) was almost all black, with 2 strong horns and 2 scurs – she appeared to shed as well. The current owners told me that they would really like to sell of these ewes as they were trying to reduce their numbers, so they offered me all 3 ewes for William, my ram.

Vanessa – the year after we got her.

Georgia, Vanessa’s twin sister (?)

Both Georgia and Vanessa went on to produce many beautiful offspring, all of which fit the breed standard. Myra produced a couple lambs (including a ewe lamb born during hurricane Katrina in the fall), before we lost her to pneumonia. Georgia died of old age a few years ago, but Vanessa is still producing lambs – we estimate her age to be around 14 years old (the previous owners weren’t sure on her age, she was at least 4 when we got her though).

For the past couple years, I’ve tried to keep her from getting bred, and every year she keeps surprising me with yet another lamb…

Vanessa and her 2011 ewe lamb, Anastasia

Vanessa has several daughters and a granddaughter in the flock currently – I hope Vanessa passes on her hardiness, longevity and primitive traits!

Pictured below is one of Vanessa’s daughters, Anastasia, and her daughter (Vanessa’s granddaughter), Kennedy.

Luna

Luna is the next one my list. Luna was given to me as a gift along with a ram lamb named Patrick by Nedra Darnell of Fibre Folds farm. I’m not sure if Nedra still raises Jacobs or not, but I am forever grateful to her for helping me start my Jacob flock.

Luna is a rather odd looking ewe

Luna was added along with Patrick to my breeding program shortly after I lost Athena’s sister, Victoria (that’s another story). I had been looking for another ewe and a ram to add to my flock, and found Nedra – we emailed back and forth for several weeks until I eventually decided on two lambs, a 6 horns ewe lamb named Eanna (Luna) and a ram lamb, Eslan (Patrick). Nedra was so pleased with all of the publicity I was getting Jacob sheep that decided to give the two lambs to me to help me grow my flock. Nedra delivered my lambs, as well as some lambs for Steve and Trish Barrows  (another Jacob breeder in the area) a few weeks later.

Luna got her name because the way her horns were shaped reminded me of a Luna moth’s wings. She has always been a very curious and unafraid ewe – she is the first to come stomping up to the dog to investigate or to ask for food. (her big eye patches remind me of saucer-like spectacles, which seems to fit her curiosity).

 Most of Luna’s lambs have her huge eye patches that almost touch in the middle – just like her.

 

Luna will be 10 this spring – she has been showing gray for awhile now – but she is still in perfect (plump) health and is expecting a lamb(s?) this spring.

Athena, and the Story of the Jacob Sheep

I’ve decided to try and “formally introduce” all of my ewe flock here as time permits (it makes for a great blog filler between lambings!). A lot of my ewes seem to get lost in the flock, and I thought I’d make a point of getting everyone into the spotlight (the lambs usually steal the spotlight – it isn’t fair!), at least for a moment. I think I’m going to work my way through them as they are listed in my flock book, just so I can easily keep track of whose next, even if a long time passes between introduction posts. The first one up is a given – Spot Hollow Athena, my very first sheep, the reason for the rest.

To introduce Athena, I really need to start at the beginning, and to do that I need to explain how I got into Jacobs in the first place…

When I was 12 years old, I had an allergy to cow’s milk, and had wanted to get dairy goats because of this (as well as the fact as it seemed like a good ploy for getting my parents to agree to livestock). Someone over heard this conversation between my mother and I, and offered me some Jacob sheep. At the time I didn’t know what they were, but after many hours of research, I knew I definitely wanted those sheep. The sheep given to me were twin ewe lambs, Athena and Victoria, and a ram lamb, Zach. They were kept at a friends house for their first lambing, as we didn’t have our fences set up yet. The following summer the sheep came home. And the rest is history.

Athena and her twins from 2012

Back to Athena – Athena was my showmanship ewe for many years in 4-H, I spent hours training her (she was NOT a naturally friendly ewe, she was one of those wild broncos), but she has turned into the most wonderful ewe ever. She went to many, many 4-H events for public education, she went to schools and parades, she was used in round robin competitions and as a cloverbud learning tool. She is extremely intelligent, and usually could sense that she should be gentle with children – even on days she was acting up for me, when the children came out, she would calm right down and let them pet her.

In addition to being the most wonderful publicity sheep there ever was, Athena is an outstanding producer and mother as well – usually having large twins with excellent horns, markings and conformation. She is a very protective mother – she once pinned our German Shepard to the tractor for coming NEAR her lamb (20 feet away…).

Athena back in the day (as a yearling)

Almost all of Athena’s daughters are still in the flock as well as one of the only sons she’s ever had (she mostly has ewe lambs). To this date, she has 5 daughters, 1 son and 4 grand babies in the flock. Athena will be 11 this spring and is still going strong – she isn’t showing her age like some of my other older ewes are. Some might look at Athena and think she is too dark, but I find myself comparing all others to her, because she was my first sheep and thus set my “ideal” look. Maybe that’s why the majority of my sheep are darker, have 4 horns and leg spots 🙂

Athena a few weeks ago (almost 11)

This last picture is of Atalanta, a grand daughter of Athena – something about her face reminds me so much of Athena, not necessarily the markings either, maybe its the golden eyes she shares with her grandmother…

As Good a Start As Any!

Recently, we added a new ovine addition to our farm – Katahdin hair sheep. This breed of sheep seems to fit in pretty well with our Jacobs, as they both are very hardy and low maintenance breeds (and they are both often mistaken for goats!). The idea behind this new project is to create a small flock of “out of season” lambing hair ewes (to lamb in June, then January, etc) to produce market lambs year round. They will be bred to Jacob rams, produce meat lambs and won’t need to be sheared (the main reason for my choosing to get these, instead of just keeping more Jacob ewes – in addition to the fact that they are slightly meatier).

 And so I’d like to introduce Gloria,

and the very burdock-y, Kelly.

They are half sister Katahdin ewe lambs from a commercial (unregistered) flock in New York. So far, they are proving to be an interesting addition to the farm – they are unlike “plain white sheep” as well as Jacobs in temperament. Gloria is very curious and already enjoys ear scratches – Kelly is still a little standoff-ish. In addition to their odd behavior, their hair coats are quite a change from my Jacob fleeces – unlike any animal I’ve ever felt, so dense!

Whether this project works as well in my head as it does in real life is still undecided, but I do look forward to comparing them to my Jacobs (as well as having lambs more than once a year!).

More pictures of these new girls, and plenty of other Spot Hollow critters can be seen at our facebook (link at the top right).