Good Fences

Breeding groups are finally all set up, and we are depending on our good fences to keep the rams on their best behavior.  We still have some hoof trimming to accomplish with Aragorn's ladies but we've got the breeding harness on him in the meantime.
We were blessed with a gofer full of unsaleable pumpkins by our friends at Vested Heirs Farm.  They provide some bright spots in the somewhat dreary pasture, and the flock is definitely enjoying the late autumn treat.
Joining The Run*A*Round Ranch Report for Good Fences

Ram Tough

As we mentioned earlier this week, all the breeding groups are broken up and the bred ewes are back in the barn pasture along with Liam and Fury, two of the rams.
Poseidon and Aragorn, the other two rams are now in the back pasture, where after a bit of a 'discussion' they have pretty much settled in.  Their job is done, and they will spend the next months putting weight back on that they lost during breeding season.  They are content, except for the time they spend walking the fence line looking for 'lost love'.

We're Here

Saturday afternoon was spent breaking up the breeding groups and moving all the ewes back to the barn paddock.  Despite the snow and the bitterly cold wind, it went much better than we expected.  Usually we put up a moving lane to facilitate the moving process, but we didn't this time because of the weather.  Instead we opened the paddocks one at a time and led each ram back to the barn.  All the ladies followed their guy... success!  We kept our old guy, Liam, and young Fury at the barn with the ewes.  Hopefully that will work out as well as it did last year with Strider.
And so, with a hearty round of the song "We're all together again... We're here... We're here" everyone is settling in nicely.

Friday's Fences

Maddie is doing her job, as Bella runs up the hill.  Poseidon's and Liam's breeding groups are waiting for the arrival of their morning hay.  Every morning is full of chores, but also so much beauty in the everyday.

joining Friday's Fences with Life According to Jan and Jer

Weekly Top Shot

Such a pretty girl... our Althea... always hanging around, looking for that photo op.

joining Madge at The View From Right Here for Weekly Top Shot

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

Checking In

The boys are checking in and are happy to report that the first breeding cycle ends today.  All the ewes are marked,  and the wax marking crayons get changed to a new color today.  The hope is that everyone is caught the first go round, and no one gets marked a second time.  If everything goes smoothly, we'll be able to get all the ewes moved to the barn pasture for the winter, hopefully before any more big snowstorms move through our area.

Friday's Fences

As usual, there is great interest in what is going on... on the other side of the fence. 
Poseidon's group is on the left and Liam and his ladies are on the right.

joining Life According to Jan and Jer for Friday's Fences

Aragorn's Companions

And finally, today brings us back to the barnyard and to Aragorn, our four-year-old Border Leicester ram.  He has great bloodlines and throws a wonderful lamb with a long top and beautiful wool.  Almost 75% of his offspring were twins last spring.

Four breeding groups this fall... excitement is in the air... and only about 147 days to go before the first lamb hits the ground this spring.   

Aragorn's companions:

604    Sweet Pea   Lincoln-Coopworth-Wensleydale

612    Princess   Border Leicester-Coopworth-Wensleydale

616    Rosey   Border Leicester-Coopworth-Wensleydale

716    Harmonia   Coopworth-Border Leicester-Wensleydale

720    Cassidy   Coopworth-Border Leicester-Cotswald-Wensleydale

801    Patience   Border Leicester-Coopworth-Wensleydale

817    Dierdre   Coopworth-Border Leicester-Blue-faced Leicester-Wensleydale

906    Lucy   Romney-Coopworth-Wensleydale

914    Bertha   Coopworth-Border Leicester-Cotswald-Wensleydale

919    Serenity   Border Leicester

1002  Maibh   Border Leicester-Coopworth-Wensleydale

1134  Branna   Coopworth-Blue-faced Leicester-Border Leicester-Cotswald

Liam's Ladies

Today brings us to the back pasture and Liam's lovely group of ladies.  Our gentle giant wethers, Moe and Larry, are hanging out back here also.  This group of ladies was kind enough to pose for individual shots.

613  Hebe   Coopworth-Border Leicester-Wensleydale

922  Funella   Coopworth-Border Leicester-Blue-faced Leicester

722  Jill   Romney-Coopworth-Wensleydale

711  Daisy   Lincoln-Coopworth-Wensleydale

1108  Kiera   Border Leicester-Coopworth-Wensleydale

Introducing Strider

We are very pleased to introduce you to Strider, the ram lamb formerly known as Mister 1225.  He is out of Serenity and Aragorn; a pure Border Leicester.  He has been wormed only once, at weaning, and has an exceptional health record.  He is a twin, and both he and his sister have an excellent growth rate. We have him in with four ewes, and we may sell him next summer as a proven ram. 

The lovely ladies in Strider's group are

41    Hera    Coopworth-Border Leicester

821  Siar     Border Leicester-Cotswald-Coopworth-Wensleydale

910  Julie    Coopworth-Border Leicester-Blue-faced Leicester

930  Havva  Coopworth-Border Leicester-Blue-faced Leicester-Wensleydale

Poseidon's Girls

After a marathon working weekend, we finally have all the breeding ewes' hooves trimmed, the temporary fencing up, the dogs moved, and the breeding groups in place.  Here's a little introduction to the first of the groups.  They spent most of the day over on top of the hill.  Only Petunia and her daughter, Poppy, even came down to the fence when we fed hay this morning. 

Here are Poseidon's Girls

811     Petunia   Lincoln-Coopworth-Wensleydale-Border Leicester

1008   Poppy     Lincoln-Coopworth-Wensleydale-Border Leicester

1025   Nettie      Border Leicester

1119   Joannie   Romney-Coopworth-Wensleydale-Border Leicester

1140   Faith       Border Leicester

1141   Grace      Border Leicester

Belle and Liam

Breeding season is beginning a little early this year.  Belle, one of last year's market lambs, has been moved into the back paddock with Liam.  This is an experiment, of sorts, to see what kind of lambs we get from crossing a meat breed ewe with one of our Border Leicester rams.  We are curious to see how fast it grows, its rate of gain, and if it reaches show weight by the time the Buckwheat Festival rolls around next year.

We usually don't begin this early because we like to lamb in the warmer early spring weather and after the pasture grass begins to grow.  The rest of the ewes will be brought in early to mid-November.  For now, Liam gets the early nod.  He is equipped with a marking harness, so we will be able to calculate the approximate birth date.  Already we're curious... what will the lambs look like... what will their wool be like... dozens of questions floating through our minds.  We'll see what answers very, early spring brings!

Meeting Boaz

Rebecca and Tim from Crossed Arrows Homestead chose their ram lamb yesterday.  Choosing from what we felt was a great group of four, they picked 1221.

Born on April 26th, out of Princess and Aragorn, he is a Border Leicester - Coopworth - Wensleydale cross.  He weighed 13 lbs 11 ozs when he was born and a whopping 90 lbs at weaning.

He has a wonderful health record, having only been wormed one time, and that at weaning.  He has a beautiful fleece and great conformation.  We are so excited to be involved in the beginnings of their new flock.  He is joining their ewes, Esther, Ruth, Naomi and all the other animals at Crossed Arrows Homestead.

Ladies and gentleman... meet Boaz!

Searching for Boaz

All summer long, we have been on a quest to find the perfect candidates for Crossed Arrows Homestead.  We have been searching for Boaz, Rebecca's new ram.  We watched as the ram lambs grew and developed.  Finally, we feel we have identified a wonderful group of ram lambs for her to choose from... very healthy, fast growing, great loin length and beautiful wool.  Here they are...

1219 ~ out of Rosey Posey and Aragorn, Border Leicester cross (2nd in line)

1221 ~ out of Princess and Aragorn, Border Leicester cross (far left)

1222 ~ out of Poppy and Poseidon, long wool cross, color factored

1212 ~ out of Bertha and Aragorn, Border Leicester cross, color factored

We are really excited to see which ram lamb Rebecca chooses!  How about you?  Which one do you think she'll pick?

Before the Snow

Before the snow, we broke up the breeding groups and moved all the ewes back to the granddaddy green paddock at the barn.  This will make morning chores much easier througout the winter.  We penned Poseidon and Aragorn in a small space in the barn for about 24 hours and then moved them to the paddock behind the house.  We've done this for several years and it seems to significantly lessen their aggressive behavior once they are removed from the ewes.  We left the older ram, Liam, in with the group at the barn so that we can  sneak him a little grain and carrots. 

Everything went really well until we opened one of the gates and as a group of ewes came through we noticed an extra black ewe marked with the blue breeding wax.  Blackberry, who was retired last year, had managed to weasel her way through two temporary fences and had a romantic rendezvous with Liam sometime during the day.  She was promptly removed and taken back to re-join the ewe lambs; fences were re-built and strengthened with some extra poles.  A minor mishap... fingers crossed that if she did get caught that she won't have any problems this time around.

So happy to have the ewes all together back at the barn!





{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week.
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

Aragorn's Companions

Aragron is our three-year-old registered Border Leicester ram.  He has great bloodlines and throws a wonderful lamb with a long top and beautiful wool.  He is still kind of the wild, young thing but has settled down a lot this past year.  Three breeding groups this fall... we are so excited... only about 147 days to go before the first lamb hits the ground this spring.

604 -  Sweet Pea   Lincoln - Coopworth - Wensleydale

612 -  Princess   Border Leicester - Coopworth - Wensleydale

616 -  Rosey   Border Leicester - Coopworth - Wensleydale

720 -  Cassidy   Cotswald - Border Leicester - Coopworth - Wensleydale

721 -  Hannah   Border Leicester

722 -  Jill   Romney - Coopworth - Wensleydale

811 -  Petunia   Lincoln - Border Leicester - Coopworth - Wensleydale

815 -  Aibreann   Border Leicester

906 -  Lucy   Romney - Coopworth - Wensleydale

914 -  Bertha   Cotswald - Border Leicester - Coopworth - Wensleydale

919 -  Serenity   Border Leicester

922 -  Funella   Coopworth - Blue-faced Leicester - Cotswald - Wensleydale

929 -  Juliet   Border Leicester

1002 - Maibh   Border Leicester - Coopworth - Wensleydale

1056 - Hermione   Coopworth - Border Leicester - Cotswald - Wensleydale