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| April 15 Fiona's Pet decided this year was the year she'd have rams... unfortunately the 10 lb. ram was presented with his head turned backward and I had a terrible time getting him presented correctly and unfortunately, lost him. I pulled the 2nd ram lamb immediately and he was only 5 lbs.... I don't understand such a size difference. The 2nd guy was a fighter and he decided to take a breath after I convinced him he might as well live. He's doing great and Pet came through the ordeal just fine. The sire is Mjaldurson so this ram lamb combines Mjaldur and Flotti genetics.These Icelandic ewes are amazing tough and withstand some extraordinary things sometimes and don't give up. I really admire my girls' strength. |
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| April 15 Luthien also gave birth this evening, and she delivered twin lambs unassisted and in record time. They are out of the Skumurson and both are moorit grey... very vigorous and beautiful. There is a ram and a ewe! Hooray for Luthien! |
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| April 17 Lovely yearling Rosey delivered a wonderful black/grey ewe lamb unassisted out of the Skumurson today. The lamb was a perfect 6 1/2 lbs. and this little yearling earns a "star" for doing such a great job. She immediately took to being a mommy and she and the lamb instantly bonded. Rosey is Papa's bottle lamb from last year (her older dam had gotten mastitis at weaning time the year before and with the twins she had that year, we decided one needed supplemented). Well, needless to say, Papa "Willie" has fretted over this birth and was delighted that Rosey lambed by herself and had a lovely daughter. Willie's best friends, Kenny & Doris passed away this winter, and so I named this lamb "Dorie" after Doris and she will be Papa's ewe to keep. |
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| April 18 I love the ewes that read the "Sheep" books and follow the rules of lambing. Our awesomely built Wynona delivered twin rams (what else?) this lovely warm morning and they are wonderful rams. One is black mouflon and one is white (what else?). But who can fault a ewe that delivers 9 & 8 lb. boys and goes back to eating her breakfast after she makes sure they are both nursing well. Their sire is Hokan and these should be very well built, meaty rams. |
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| April 21 Like Mother, like Daughter. Silfra, a one winter ewe, delivered her twin ram lambs early this morning, just as her dam did many years ago. Her sons are out of the Tyrson, so we are very pleased to have some lambs from him (he was only with two of our ewes because we were doing the VAI). One ram weighed 7 lbs, the other was 6 lbs. Perfect! I am so pleased with this ewe, who not only had hands-down the best lamb fleece last fall, but has grown into a nicely built ewe, who is now proving to be independently productive. I used this blurry photo to show how protective she was. She did not want me to take photos of her lambs and kept turning in front of them, and calling them to her. That's the spirit we love about Icelandic sheep! |
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| April 22 Oh boy! Boys. Yes, two more rams. Josephima has a lovely black badgerface and black mouflon ram. They weighed 7 1/2 and 7 lbs. respectively, nice weights for a 2 year old ewe. The sire is our very nicely built badgerface ram LF241T. |
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