While I had a halter on Annabelle, I took fleece shots as requested. She is so consistent from front to back that I'm not positive that I've correctly identified her neck and last-rib pictures, but I think they are in order of neck, mid-side and hip below:
I am eager to see what this ewe gives me when bred to Barish, Blackberry and Blake; I think she'll cross well on ALL of them!After putting in the implants, I turned all the girls out together for the first time. (I've been keeping Annabelle in the corner pen at night so she can see and smell the other girls, and in the larger fold alone during the day.) Of course, Katie, Bronwen, Bramble - even arthritic old Inky - all had to be mean girls to the new ewe.
(I did put hay in the fenceline feeder as well, so Annabelle didn't have to try and fight this tight-shouldered crowd for food.)
That's it for now at . . .
6 comments:
Beautiful fleece!
Are you going to jacket her?
Wow! what beautiful fleece! Lots of crimp! I can't believe it is breeding season already.
Oh that wool looks so beautiful~! Not knowing anything about sheep can I ask a silly question.. Why do you put jackets on these sheep? I'm thinking it's to protect the wool..but not sure...
Yes, Laura, I will put a coat on her even though she has over half a season of collected VM already, but thought I'd wait until after breeding season. I do like her crimp, and am hoping to use her to build a flock with my ideal fleece - very soft and lustrous, with length (at least 4"), consistency and SOME crimp. I love the bounce and memory that crimp adds to a yarn, but it can be disorganized or organized, tiny or big and bold, or more of an open, wavy crimp - I can appreciate it all!
Tiggeriffic, coats keep out the vegetable matter that is the bane of handspinners! Since I feed hay much of the year and have a lot of trees and shrubs, it is a bigger problem here than for those who have plenty of open grassland.
Lovely fleece! Too bad there always has to be posturing - don't you wish they could just all get along??? It will be very interesting to see what you end up with, lamb-wise in the spring. I made the mistake of coating my Icelandic ewe and ended up with a nice, clean, felted batt!
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