Wednesday, October 05, 2022

As promised in the last post...

"52-card pickup" may have more moving pieces, but "12-sheep shuffle" takes more time, patience, thought . . . and noise tolerance. 🙄

Considering that Bette was bred on October 9 last year, I was anxious to get my breeding group set up. They will NOT be honeymooning together for months like they did last year; not only do I not care to stretch out lambing season until July 4th(!) again, a friend is planning to pick up Spot sometime in the second half of November to breed to her small flock. Bridget won't go into the breeding group until her lamb leaves October 16 and she was the one who took so long to settle last year, so I decided to add Bree (with Bette, Blaise, and Bernadette) to the breeding group in case Bridget doesn't settle. Last year I netted four (very nice) lambs from breeding four ewes; watch me end up with TEN lambs next spring. (SHHHH; don't mention that possibility to my husband!) 😳


Bree in front, with daughter Bette behind; strong resemblance!
I moved Sarai into Bing's vacated corner so she can eat her needed groceries in peace while awaiting the trip to her new home; then moved Boop in with her sisters while Bridget and Boomer shifted to the stall in the barn. Boomer is not yet castrated*, so that limits exposure to females he could impregnate. 


Upsetting the fruit basket like this unsettles everybody, not just the two lambs wondering where their dams went. Well, almost everybody; Sarai seems content in her protected corner and Spot is busy checking out the ladies.

I expected Berlin to be a butthead to Boop since she has a history of being one; to my surprise it was wee Bling who kept picking fights with her much bigger sister! Berlin and Broadway just tried to stay out of the fray; Broadway stayed very close to me while I hung out.

Bling butting Boop: she's tiny but thinks she's mighty!


These four Spot daughters – and their little brother – are impressive; so far Spot is proving prepotent for stunning fleeces and typey little tails among other excellent traits. Long may he serve!

Speaking of family relations, yesterday afternoon Poppy got a playdate with her littermate Penny. Oh, how they love to run and wrestle – usually too fast for me to follow with my iPhone, but yesterday I managed to catch a little:



Woofed!
*Rick came home this afternoon and did the dirty deed, so that's done.

That's it for now from . . .

7 comments:

Tim B. Inman said...

It doesn't make any difference how many times I see it: Sheep in 'dinner jackets' cracks me up! Thanks for the pics

Cheers

Michelle said...

Happy to provide a comedy sketch, Tim!

A :-) said...

So excited for babies again - I love watching how everything goes.

Hope the violets are hanging in :-)

Jeanne said...

Great pictures of your sheepies! And I love the ones of Poppy and Penny. The video is great fun to watch!

How did Boomer do with his "little" surgery?

Michelle said...

Let's all pray for a less dramatic lambing season next spring, A! The violets at the office are looking good.

Glad you enjoyed the photos and video, Jeanne. Boomer is doing fine.

Retired Knitter said...

I have been so behind on reading and writing lately ... it is embarrassing. And although Reader works fine for capturing blog posts, you actually have to VISIT Reader to get the. postings and I just never remember. It worked so well when they were dropped in my email box. Oh well.

Glad to see your sheep family is doing well. They are such a handsome group~!

Michelle said...

Elaine! So good to see you here, if not at your blog address. Sorry about the lack of email notifications; I'd fix it if I could.