Friday, March 27, 2009

Franjean is a papa again!

No suspense there, huh? I'm too tired for suspense, I guess, or even very organized thought. I checked on Inky last night at 11:30; she was the only one up and eating at that hour. Before falling into bed I decided to crack the window over my head; besides liking a cool room to sleep in, I thought I just might hear something if anything happened during the night. About 6:15 this morning I heard some bumping around in the sheepfold, so I got up to check things out. Inky was breathing fast and it looked like she'd been pawing around in the straw. After waiting a half hour for more daylight, I led the other sheep out to pasture and did chores, checking in on a laboring Inky often. About 7:45 she pushed out a beautiful moorit gulmoget ewe lamb and set to work cleaning her up. Within minutes the little girl was on her feet looking for breakfast. Then Inky had a few more contractions and pushed out a black gulmoget ram lamb! He was up and looking just as quickly as his sister; what a pair! Neither of them have the side flash that Bronwen was born with, but the ram has a spray of white/light hairs on the crown of his head. (He also has horn buds, so I didn't hit the polled jackpot with him.) Both have very consistent fleeces, the girl's is tightly crimped, the boy's is more curly. They are tucked in the "lamb suite" now, colostrum in their tummies and Inky-mom still working on cleaning them off completely. So without further ado, meet Boulderneigh Blackberry (ram) and Boulderneigh Bramble (ewe):(double-click on photos to biggify)

In a few days, Miss Bronwen will have friends to play with; she's started training for lamb races already!
Counting my blessings at . . .
at

31 comments:

  1. A :-)3/27/09, 10:43 AM

    Oh Michele - they are so darling :-) Please explain why gulmoget is so important. I looked it up and it appears to be the way the fleece marking are - is that correct? Is it more desireable than a solid colored lamb?

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  2. Michelle3/27/09, 10:50 AM

    Adrienne, gulmoget (or reverse badgerface) is one of the less common patterns found in Shetlands, and for that reason alone is desirable. Other than that, it is no more important than any other color, except that they sure are pretty. :-) And since I got to use the only half-poll gulmoget ram in the western U.S. that I know of last fall, of course I wanted some little gully poll carriers of my own!

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  3. ~~Sittin.n.Spinnin3/27/09, 10:57 AM

    Congratulations!

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  4. Nancy K.3/27/09, 11:11 AM

    I am very happy for you, Michelle. You must be thrilled! I love gulmogets and am happy to see the push for solid-sided animals. Since The pattern for gulmoget is dominant, I wouldn't think that it would be long before they are as common, in NA as Katmogets. They sure are beautiful!

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  5. Franna3/27/09, 11:13 AM

    Nice lambs! Way to go Inky! I'll give Franjean a little extra hay tonight for giving up all those At genes! I could see Blackberry coming to live with Papa. Franjean's half bro/cousin, Rool, didn't have the side flashes either. I'm not sure about the spot? Inky has spots behind her, I don't see where Franjean does. Maybe that lends credence to the theory of small (krunet) spots possible in the SSSs genotype.
    I see Inky is the grandmother to my Owl Hill Deepti (50% Gotland), too.
    - Franna

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  6. melanie3/27/09, 11:15 AM

    Congrats! That little boy is very handsome...even with horns...

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  7. Kara3/27/09, 11:19 AM

    OMG Michelle, it doesn't get much better than that! Congrats!

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  8. Anonymous3/27/09, 11:20 AM

    Blackberry is VERY handsome! I'm glad Inky didn't keep you waiting until next week :) Bronwen will be very happy to have friends to play with.

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  9. Rayna3/27/09, 11:22 AM

    Congrats! I'm so jealous! :)

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  10. MiniKat3/27/09, 11:48 AM

    Told you she was gonna have twins! ;-)

    They are too cute. I wish I had a place for a sheep or two. *sigh*

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  11. Kathy3/27/09, 12:04 PM

    Bless Inky's little heart! I am so happy for her and you, Michelle. Give her a "Ya done good, Girl." pat from me and a cookie.

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  12. susan3/27/09, 12:13 PM

    Way to go Inky! I'm so glad she gave you lambs from franjean.

    The photo of the ewe lamb has a sparkle in her eye!

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  13. Kanisha3/27/09, 12:27 PM

    congratulations! they are all gorgeous; Miss Bronwen too. I am hugely jealous of all the patterns you get to play with,and am glad to see the result was everything you hoped for.

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  14. Juliann3/27/09, 12:31 PM

    Michelle they are SO precious! I'll bet you are thrilled!

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  15. A :-)3/27/09, 12:36 PM

    Michelle - thanks for that explanation - that makes perfect sense :-) And OMG - how could little Bronwen be so big and sturdy alreaady?! She's like what, a day old?!

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  16. Michelle3/27/09, 12:40 PM

    I know, Adrienne; isn't it crazy? Once those lambs get to unfold their tiny bodies and use their muscles, they change -- and grow -- fast!

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  17. Karen3/27/09, 1:30 PM

    I'm lovin' the gulmogets, congratulations!

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  18. Claire MW3/27/09, 1:58 PM

    Oh Wow! Adorable! Both of them! Makes me so excited about our lambing season. Still a month to wait here...

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  19. Terri D.3/27/09, 3:07 PM

    Congrats Michelle! They are all fabulous! Keep me in mind if you want to sell any. We also have one month to wait. Aargh!

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  20. Michelle3/27/09, 4:06 PM

    Terri, some will definitely be for sale; I'm keeping a list now of who has expressed interest in whom first. If you want something specific, let me know and I'll add you. No commitment at this point, except first right of refusal.

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  21. white_lilly3/27/09, 4:50 PM

    They are gorgeous, congratulations
    Michelle. You are a wonderful overseer (mum) :)

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  22. Becky Utecht3/27/09, 5:56 PM

    Wow, TWO moorit gulmoget ewe lambs and a handsome black gulmoget ram lamb. Way to go!

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  23. Wendy3/27/09, 7:34 PM

    OMG!! I want to come to your place with my camera in hand!! What beautiful babies - Congratulations!

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  24. Sharon3/27/09, 9:02 PM

    Baby lambs are absolutely precious. You can see why they're perfect for the Biblical analogy of innocence.

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  25. Anonymous3/27/09, 9:17 PM

    Congratulations Michelle! I like Inky, she's a pretty mama and made such nice babies for you too! I also really like the names you picked, I've toyed with both those names before... They're on my list, just not used yet. Maybe next year...

    Bronwen is growing so fast! I think she's cuter now that she's "fluffed out" a bit more. Looking forward to following all your lambs growth!

    ~Joan

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  26. ~TigereyeSal~3/27/09, 9:30 PM

    Fantastic looking babies, all of them- way to go!

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  27. Tammy W.3/28/09, 9:13 AM

    Congratulations Michelle - they are absolutely adorable! We won't be lambing here until Mid June.

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  28. Tammy3/28/09, 9:46 AM

    Talk about Jackpot! You hit it girl! What a beautiful trio of babes you have. Now, if there was a little moorit gulmoget ram, maybe you could come visit again and we could make a ram buy right there in Panera Bread's parking lot! ha...Oh...and last night I dreamed I had two little gulmoget moorit lambs (ram and ewe)--I remember somewhere in that dream I wondered how that could be but blithely chose to ignore the impossibility of it. I also really liked that barn I had in the dream! ha...
    Tammy

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  29. Anonymous3/28/09, 2:38 PM

    What a beautiful bunch of lambs-
    Way to go, Franjean!

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  30. Anonymous3/29/09, 9:46 AM

    Love your new "babies", reminds me of all the plastic beasties you played with--instead of doll! MomJ

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  31. Michelle3/29/09, 10:41 AM

    My MOM left a comment - my MOM left a comment!!! Woo hoo!

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