Aphrodite

Aphrodite was born on Valentine’s day, to my first Jacob ewe, Athena. All of Athena’s lambs are named after Greek mythological figures, and since “Aphrodite” is the name of the Greek goddess of love, it made an obvious name choice for a lamb born on Valentine’s day.

  Aphrodite has a very beautiful face, which is also befitting of her name 🙂

This is a picture of the day Aphrodite was born – it was my third lambing (second at my farm), I was almost 14 years old at the time.

Fibre Folds Patrick, Aphrodite’s sire (and my first ram)

Aphrodite was born with a hair type coat (still Jacob-y, just mostly wavy hair), which she outgrew after her first shearing. Almost all of Aphrodite’s lambs have had this very primitive hair type birth fleece and later shed out. I believe Aphrodite got this primitive trait from her sire, as he had a very primitive fleece type – shedding out belly wool partially when left too long and developing a ram beard/mane in the fall.

Aphrodite at one week old – she’s come a long way!

Aphrodite is a very brave and affectionate ewe, often coming right up to see the sheepdog or to ask for ear scratches from me (especially when she is pregnant) – the other day Aphrodite and Kymy the goat were fighting over who got to have their chin scratched first. Aphrodite is also the only ewe on the farm who will jump up like a goat to get the grain bucket. After she jumps up, she hooks her horns into the bucket, and when she falls back down, she takes the bucket (and usually me!) with her. To avoid this, I have learned to carry the bucket over my head when Aphrodite is around 😉

Aphrodite can be quite unladylike at times (feeding time in particular…)

 Aphrodite nursing her twin ewes from 2013 – she is such a good mamma!

Aphrodite is the oldest of Athena’s daughters (there was a single ram and a single ewe before her). Aphrodite turned 8 years old today (Happy Birthday Aphrodite!!!). She is an excellent mother, usually having twins and raising them well on pasture alone.

This year Aphrodite had twin ewe lambs by Kenleigh’s Callaghan:

Eris,

and Atalanta.

They take after their beautiful mother 😉

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…