Hockey season has begun for us in earnest. Both my kids play, but Jade's coach quit this year during the pre-season so Kelly, my husband, and another hockey dad got certified to coach up to PeeWee aged kids 11-12. This is Jade on team picture day, posing for her portrait.

This is another one of our Jacob ewe lambs. Snowflake is lilac but doesn't have a lot of color. She is otherwise a pretty nice looking Jacob otherwise with really well placed horns.

The Poultry go outside

We have had our adult tom turkey and 3 laying hens out in a portable fenced area for a while, but we finally let the baby poultry out this weekend, June 13. They were in their own "chicken chalet" for a while first within the fenced area. When we let them out, there was very little drama getting used to the adults. My red hen decided to peck a few chicks and chase them out of the chalet, but otherwise it was uneventful. They spend most of the first day inside, but then ventured out during the day and back in at night.

Our turkey hen, Pearl, was in with the chicks. She likes to be their mother, whether they are hers or not.

Fritz, an unusually marked lamb

This is Fritz. He was only 5 pounds at birth and we lost his tiny 3 pound brother. We think he's spotted moorit mouflon and he may also be gray. His face had more color on it before, but has really lightened up. See his picture in my blog from April. His mother, Andromeda, is especially friendly so he isn't very afraid of people. We probably have to wether him because he has started rubbing his head on us when we are out with the sheep. He has incredibly soft wool and would make a nice fiber wether.

I added the scratching picture to show his little colored tail. He really has neat markings.

The Frosted Mouflon ewe lambs

Our bossy ewe, Socks, had pretty frosted mouflon ewe lambs this year. We call them Cinnamon and Spice and they look a lot alike. Cinnamon has a bit more frosting on her face and a wider head and Spice got a small cut on her bottom lip when she was a day old and has a small scar, which you can see in her close-up. We are probably going to keep Cinnamon and sell Spice, but if we had room, we'd keep both. We already have one of Sock's daughters in our flock. The other lamb in the picture with the ewe lambs is Fritz, our small friendly ram lamb.

Bear, our black gray lamb

Bear is really large and well built. His fleece is

a beautiful color and he had lots of flashing at birth, which is still somewhat noticeable. His mother is polled, but has produced good horns for us in the past on her ram lambs.

Grizz and Max, the twin mouflon rams

These are my mouflon ram twins. We call the black one Max and he will be for sale. Grizz will probably be staying with us since his mother is less related to my flock and I can breed him to some of my other ewes. Their mother, Modi, has the best fleece in our flock and good meat conformation too. These two are both growing well and have nice lush fleeces.

I'm running out of time today, but I need to start getting some pictures of our Icelandic lambs. The black gray ewe is "Chloey". She was about 3 pounds at birth to a first time mother, but her mother was extremely attentive and Chloey has thrived, but she's still on the small side.

The Gray badger ram is out of my Rose, a badger/mouflon ewe. I just sent his brother off to Ellen Anderson and this guy isn't my best ram, but he's got nice fleece and pretty markings. His brother had wider horns and was a little bigger in size. He was black badger/mouflon like his mother. I love this little guys eyebrows though!!

I just had to add a picture of "Cotton". She is Flopsy's ewe lamb and has fused horns on one side. Her wool

is longer than most of mine and she's lilac. I plan to keep her, despite her horns. I love her mother's fleece and want Cotton to replace her eventually.

Here are pictures of some ram lambs. The one that's not 100% in focus is the one we plan to use this fall. He is from Ellen Anderson in Pennsylvania. She has one of my Icelandic ram lambs now. He has exceptionally soft wool. I thought mine were soft until I felt this guy. His mother is 4 horned so I hope to get a variety of lambs from him next spring. He has a pinkish look because it is dusk when the picture was taken and he also came from a farm with red clay.

The other picture, taken last fall, is of Moonstruck Pluto. He is the father of all my 2009 Jacob lambs. He came from a flock of sheep owned by Rafael Rodriguez, but I registered him. Rafael buys registered sheep, but does not register. He has some of my ewes, but Pluto is not related to my sheep, at least within 3 or 4 generations. I really liked Pluto because of his majestic carriage and size. He has really strong horns and nice markings. His wool is good and he behaved well. and only missed breeding one ewe once he was put out with them. I sold him after using him to Vikki Ely, near Mount Vernon, OH. I was happy with his lambs overall. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he carries lilac as well.

In the picture you can see that he's almost as tall as an adult ewe - Moonstruck Flopsy.

This is Sweet Pea's other lamb - a lilac ram. He seemed to be coming out very nice and I had considered keeping him, but his horns are too close on the right side so I doubt he will be registerable with JSBA.

Our other 4 horned ewe lamb is "Sara." We had tried to bottle feed her a little as her mother is old and has a problem udder and we lost Sarah's sister Amelia. Sarah's Mother is Moonstruck Thistle and is pictured. She is lilac and blue-eyed and very sweet, but is a high maintenance mother now that she's older - She's 9 this year.

Here are some pictures of Sweet Pea's ewe lamb. She is one of the best 4 horned ewe lambs we have this year. Sweet Pea is in the picture with the lamb grazing. Sweet Pea has the strongest side horns in my flock and a large ewe who has been a very reliable mother. I really like the markings on this ewe lamb and her top horns are going back nicely and are well-spaced.

This is Moonstruck Orchid. This year she ended up having a Jacob/Icelandic cross lamb. Last year she had triplets.

Here is Hazel's other lamb. She is a lot like her brother in that she has nice wool and is two-horned.

Here are some pictures of our two-horned ram lamb. He is wet in these pictures so it makes his wool look a little funny. His mother is Moonstruck Hazel, who has excellent fleece and is and very dependable ewe. She has 4 horns, but this year she had two 2-horned lambs.

This is another view of our black 4-horned ram lamb, grazing alongside his mother, Moonstruck Marilyn.

I took a lot of pictures tonight. It was after a rain, but the light seemed good and the sheep were calm. I'll try to get a selection of our lambs up over the next few days.

We have several nice Jacob lambs that will be for sale. As of today, the best looking four-horned ram lamb is our black lamb out of Moonstruck Marilyn. He broke the tip off on the left side but it's growing back well. He's very well marked and comes from a line of reliable mothers. His grandmother is my most productive ewe, Hazel. His mother and grandmother also have soft fleeces for spinning.

Jacob ewe lambs

We have several nice Jacob ewe lambs this year. One is the sister to the lilac ram lamb and another is a twin out of our oldest lilac ewe,Thistle.

The ewe with her head up in the pictures is Sarah, Thistle's lamb. The other ewe has not been named yet.

Introducing the 4 horned Jacob ram lambs

This year we have two nice 4 horned Jacob rams lambs. One is lilac out of my ewe with the best horns and the other is black out of a ewe with really nice wool. So far, both of their horns are coming in well. The lilac lamb is a bit slighter in build and in the above picture, he is grazing with his mother, Sweet Pea.

Icelandic lambs 2009

Here at Moonstruck Farm, we raise Jacob sheep and Icelandic sheep. This year we have 6 Jacob ewe lambs and 3 rams. Our Icelandics gave us 6 rams and 2 ewes. Most of our lambs will be for sale but we may keep a few to replace some older ewes.

Our youngest and last to be born (April 21, 2009) is an Icelandic ram lamb from our yearling Andromeda (CBI EWE M2SH 12U). I think he is moorit spotted with both mouflon and gray patterns. He is marked somewhat like a Siamese cat. It will be interesting to see how he develops.

Some other interestingly colored lambs are Sock's (PAV B45H 346P) twin ewe lambs. They are both frosted mouflons. One has a tiny spot on top of her head. They were born April 17 and were almost 9 pounds each at birth. We will probably keep one of them. Socks is a bossy ewe, but she is an excellent mother.