The last two nights Rick has been kind enough to torture the lambs for me. Sunday night he gave them their second CD&T shots; last night he installed ear tags (yes, I'm an accessory to the crimes; I hold them). I don't willingly put holes in my own body, so I'm squeemish about having to do it to the lambs. But I was surprised at the lack of head-shaking or any other reaction after the initial poke.By the way, both lambs are officially musket; it says so on the registration form winging its way to NASSA. Of course, my ewe lamb's obviously brown-factored dam is registered as a marlit emsket.... I guess "official" and "accurate" aren't necessarily synonyms! (I know. Duh.) Here is a photo of my sweet Valentine for a comparison of face color; she's much darker. (I know it's not the best "sheep portrait," but I love the obvious bliss on her face!)
Yesterday afternoon Brian and I picked blueberries at a big commercial operation owned by one of Rick's clients. Rick is lovingly tending his young blueberry plants at home, but they will probably never provide the quantity that we like to have in the freezer for use throughout the year. Brian is getting big enough to be a real help now; he picked two and a half of the 13+ pounds we brought home!
That's it for now at . . .
7 comments:
I love the look on Val's face - how sweet and loving :-)
Nice blueberries - isn't it fun to have them in the freezer for treats all thru the year? T.
Such a great photo of the blissful face. Love your blog!
I have to third the kudos for the blissful faced Val. What an expression!
It must be nice to have a built-in vet at home. Rick gives a whole new meaning to house calls, huh?
All the sheep look great; just love them and don't worry about their official classification. Iy will just change anyway! ;-)
Wow your lambs are quite adorable!! Musket huh? I never would have guessed it on that ewe lamb, but whatever color she is she is a gorgeous shade of it! :)
Enjoy your blog, and I can't wait to see lamb photos in the spring!!
Is musket one of the nine (or whatever) colors that Shetlands are classed in? I know they are second in natural colors only to alpaca, and since alpaca aren't sheep, now that I stop to think about it, that makes them first.
Yes, musket is one of the 11 "official" colors in Shetlands, although now with the work being done on modified colors, there are more possibilities. Anyway, musket is the you get with an Agouti (fading) gene on the A locus operating on a brown sheep, just like grey is the color you get when you have the Agouti gene in a black sheep. The Agouti gene leaves tell-tale signs, like "sugarlips" and white hairs in the ears, to tell you an otherwise brown or black lamb is going to fade. The speed and degree of fading can vary widely. The ram lamb's fleece is coming in cream and I suspect he will have very little color left on the tips by the time he's sheared next spring. The ewe lamb has the tell-tale white hairs in her ears and light-colored tongue and gums, but her fleece is not yet changing color. Like other sheep from her breeder, I think she will be slow to fade and retain some color when she does.
I am having the vet out on the 11th to do the eartags this year. Ralph said he really would prefer holding the sheep - and he's been so good about everything else that I must defer to his wishes on this one.
And we both know what a Ham Val is, don't we? She's like Skit - when he sees a camera, he comes running! ;) You can tell she's so under-loved and under-fed! LOL!
Beeyootifull Blueberries! You should see what we have in the stores here...you'd laugh yourself silly! I need to move to the Pacific NW!
Post a Comment