Our summer loaner

Since our two old girls presented us with mostly freezer lamb, we were one 4H lamb short. It has worked out beautifully. We have had a VERY generous offer; Bill Stearman, of WillowGarden Shetlands (www.willowgardenshetlands.com), that morphed into an insanely generous offer due to Bill's e-mail not functioning properly. Basically, he offered us a nice ewe and ewe lamb, we took him up on the offer and sent a couple of e-mails which he never got, and he sold the sheep yesterday. Last night the e-mail problems were discovered.

He has instead offered us the use of this lovely pair over the summer (we feed them, and Claire gets use of the ewe lamb for 4H. We do have the option to buy in the fall.) The ewe is WillowGarden Billie Holiday, a moorit smirslet gulmoget two year old ewe (likely the first smirslet gulmoget in North America ... ;-) with her mioget gulmoget ewe lamb, WillowGarden Kivu.

The words like "moorit", "smirslet" etc. are Scottish terms for colour and pattern of fleece in Shetland sheep. So Billie Holiday is a moorit (brown or rich fawn-coloured), smirslet (with white on face) gulmoget (with a pattern like a doberman; dark body with lighter points and eye flashes). Gulmogets are quite rare still in North America. The lamb is still unknown; she will be either moorit, like her mom, or mioget ( a lovely golden colour), and also is the gulmoget pattern. Lambs exhibiting the gulmoget pattern look like dobermans!

And last but not least, Kevin and I have passed a milestone ...

As of April 11, we are now the proud parents of a teenager. Yes, Alison turned 13 on April 11!

How did that happen?

Wasn't she just recently an adorable little toddler getting into everything? A preschooler, who with wind in ears, would race away and "get lost" in large department stores, scaring her parents to death? A school-age little one who attempted to do a flying somersault between two twin beds, and who was not quite successful but desperately wanted to get it right and try again? (Mom, doctoring the concussion, said "no"). She's 13 now; a nurturing soul who loves children and animals, reading, pushing herself in sports of different kinds, fibre arts, creative writing, and the list goes on.

What a neat adventure, watching these really neat kids grow up, stage by stage. I was terrified of teens when I was one, and even as I got older. But I'm having such a great time with my own, and with their friends.

We're anticipating this next stage even more!

An afterthought ...

D0es anyone know why my posts are coming up as posted by "Lionfish"? This is my son's blogger name.

Hmmm, that's what you get when your children get on the computer! He has started his own blog on aquarium fish, and somehow, something has been confused :).

Let me know if you can fix my problem!

Karen

Life and Death and Easter ...

One of our lambs died last week. Butterfly, the weakest little guy. It came to the point where there was nothing we could do but make him comfortable. He came into the house, and was held and patted and sung to by the four of us at home.

Something about the death of the lamb so close to Easter brought it all home again ... as we wept for him, how much greater would the weeping of those who had known and loved Jesus on earth.

Although our little lamb couldn't resurrect himself, we're thankful for the lesson we learned from him all the same.

A joyous and thoughtful (but belated) Easter to you all.

Karen

Just for fun ...

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The latest in lambie fashion :)

Pretty cute, huh?

This is Jasmine, in her elegant (not!) 100% wool cowl-necked fashion statement. Thanks to Kev for donating his car blanket to this effort.

Yikes! Temperatures dropping to -5 in the next couple of days

so I'm busy making 4 wool lamb coats for our new little ones. I'm particularly unsure how the smallest little guy is going to do.

Pics taken yesterday:

Photo no. 1 is Latifah's first born, the ram lamb. He's gorgeous, and has quite an attitude.







Here is Latifah's ewe lamb. These two were 6 days old when the photos were taken. She's quite nice, although not set up well here. You can't see, but she came out with brown knees and freckles are starting to appear on her legs, ears and nose. She's very sweet, but crazy curious (like her mother!)









Here is Elizabeth's bigger ram lamb. He's also quite adventurous and appears to have decent conformation (legs may not be entirely straight but not sure yet). He's 36 hours old in this photo.











And last, but not least, is Elizabeth's little guy. He was almost 2 pounds lighter than his bro at birth. Very gentle, and sweet, but sleeping a lot. We were watching him like a hawk yesterday, and he's definitely coming in to his own now. He has a funky brown patch on his right ear; otherwise I believe he's white.

Watching these four careen about the outside pens, doing Lipizanner caprioles, bucking, climbing and racing each other is such fun! They will be frustrated that they are "in" today. Rain, then temperatures dropping, are dangerous conditions for newborn lambs. One or the other is fine, but wet lambs getting cold is a problem. Also supposed to be tagging and tailing today, however we're waiting for a break in the rain.

I am woman; hear me roar.

Yes, tonight I did something that never in a million years I would have considered doing previously. (Grammar police, easy ... I am somewhat unslept.)

Because life is about trying new things, right?

Doing things that terrify you, but in doing them you are made stronger. And you become just a little more competent that you started out.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, tonight I did an internal exam on a ewe.

Our second ewe may be having problems, and I had to check to see if her cervix was open or closed. (For the record, it was closed. Good news for sleeping tonight; not so great news for our Geography Fair tomorrow :) ... I have a significant case of competing time demands. And did I mention the the opening of "Cross Purposes" is also tomorrow? Heh, heh, heh.)

Which brings me to another observation. I like large animal vets. Small animal vets are like doctors; "Sorry, you need to bring Fido in". Generally to the tune of $168.00. But our doctor's appointments are covered and generally, the vet is not. Large animal vets? They talk you through things. They don't come out unless it's urgent. They would rather be home eating supper than standing in your cold, muddy field slathered in soapy iodine. They assume you have the ability to learn new things, and that you will know when you need help. It is refreshing.

A small request though ... we may have a lamb obstructing the birth of another lamb. We will now not know this until tomorrow. Our lamb outcome may not be so successful this time. And we need to be prepared for this. Those of you who pray, please pray that despite a full and uncertain day tomorrow, that our focus would be on the important things and that I would be able to do One Thing at a Time without worrying about everything else. Thank you.

And for those of you on high speed (I presume it's necessary, but I'm not positive) and a desire to see very graphic photos of the birth of Prince Souvlaki and Princess No Name Yet, please click on the link below. This will take you to a Photobucket account I've set up. We had front row seats, so things are quite ... uh, detailed.

Latifah's Labour and Delivery

Great Highway Signs!

If you click on the image, you will be taken to the animated version of this sign.

These were up and running when we lived in NJ ... all the way down the major highway into Philly these huge signs kept us focused on the important Thing :). No offense intended to those of you who don't subscribe to the Creator thing.

My favourite? "Loved the Wedding; invite me to the marriage." How true! As one who doesn't think it's humanly possibly to stay married without the Lord in the middle of it, I heartily endorse this.

Bed head :)

Latifah, looking less than glamorous ... but back to her healthy, gluttonous, silly self :). Apparently we caught her starting to go down with "something"; pregnancy toxemia, perhaps? But she has completely rallied and is as goofy as ever.

Being a novice shepherd is quite emotionally exhausting -- we're quite paranoid now :). No sign of babies yet. And believe me, we're checking constantly!