Invasion of the little ones.

Indeed they have arrived; all within a two week window. Lisa had her twins and five days later Artemesia had hers; within a day Nez Perce, then Vera Lyn a couple hours after that. I'm sure at this point the ladies are all talking amongst themselves saying "whew - we made it through his rookie year- glad thats over with." And you know what I didn't do so bad.
There were the perfect births, where everything went to plan. Ewe shows signs of early labor and a few hours later she is licking and cleaning and feeding. There were a few that didn't go as smoothly, but that is to be expected. I learned from that and about assisting in deliveries on top of all the other learning experiences like 2am barn checks, getting home from work and heading right into the barn (shirt/tie and all) to look for surprises (aka new lambs). I learned how to tag and dock tails, then I learned how to do it efficiently. I also learned about how amazing a new life is, and to watch it all unfold right before your eyes is an experience I will never take for granted. As I look to finish my first full year as a new shepherd, I am amazed at everything that has come my way, and now lambing is another expreience I can say, yup, done that.

There is quite the variety of lambs running around the paddock now. Out of the 11 lambs, 7 of them are ram lambs. Not exactly your 50/50, but the quality is amazing. It's quite the melting pot of grays, moorits and whites; the color varies quite a bit, even for a smaller flock of 10 errrr I mean 21. The science teacher in me follows the genetics closely. Some matings were easy to predict, a recessive Moorit with a recessive Moorit is going to give me a (you guessed it) recessive Morrit. Other pairings were to maintain the registered Corriedale line where White is the color and larger, taller lambs will prevail. Still a few were going to leave a 25% of something, where going to the barn is like Christmas 'cause I wasn't sure what I was going to get (potentially gray, brown or white, male or female- all from one mating). Still even when I think I have it figured out, there was one real surprise. Alaina is our black ewe, and she was bred to Ahgosa our moorit. The black was something I knew was a possibility; on the other hand, white came out of no where and by white I mean black and white on the same lamb! This is a genetic variance a shepherd doesn't exactly wish for, and it is that of an unexpected "chance" mutation. However, what went from a puzzling disappointment, quickly become a crowd favorite. This black and white little guy has the personality of a charmer and no doubt will become the ambassador of someone's farm. His wool quality is still top notch, and will spin black and white together to create a natural colored tweed and suddenly this odd ball becomes quite unique and desireable. He surely is the first thing people notice when they visit. A farm jester is born.

Some of the other highlights include Rutherford, our new gray ram lamb and Rosalyn our beautiful Morrit ewe lamb seen playing in the hay feeder here, (her twin is Abagail). Then there is Abraham (tallest president) our Corriedale ram lamb who was born weighting 18.5 pounds! That's heavier than the lambs that were already a week old. Despite being the youngest he is already head and shoulders above his peers; he is one big boy. So the first lambing season, and we all lived to tell about it. The chickens had a few births of there own while all this was going on. Not to be out done, the chickens laid and raised their own 7 peepers. Windy Knob eggs continue to sell out every week, the wool was sold out in just a few weeks, and now begins the next stage of developing the Windy Knob Farm label for lambs and breeding stock. Please contact us with any questions, as these lambs will make a great addition of new genetics to your flock, perhaps giving you that natural color that you have been trying to incorporate into your flock, or even if you are looking to start a new flock of your own. Look for more information and details in mid April at http://www.windyknobfarms.com/.