New Faces at the Farm

Say hello to our new Moorit lambs!

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Last Friday Holly and I drove to Foxhill Farm in Lee, MA, home to Alice Field and her flock of lovely Cormo and Merino-cross Moorits. I had spoken with Alice a month ago about adding a Moorit lamb to bring color to my flock (Moorit is not a breed, but a recessive color gene for a true brown sheep). I surprised myself by coming home with not one, but a flock of four in the back of my Toyota Highlander. I found them all irresistible, their colors amazing. 

So let me introduce you. The pretty ewe in the photo above is "Cognac". Her color is a warm golden russet and she is the calmest of the ewe lambs.

In the photo below, "Chai", the ram, approaches for a closer look at my camera. His fleece is velvety-chocolate and he's the most confident of the group. I love the white badger markings, like teardrops beneath his eyes. At 12 weeks old, he's already developing a big, wrinkly ram nose.

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"Latte" (left) and "Bailey" (right) are twins, a wether and ewe, in the photo below. Latte is named for his au lait coloration and the swirl of white on his muzzle. Bailey's fleece reminds me of Bailey's Irish creme. She's the smallest and shyest of the four, but also has the finest wool.

Although I surprised myself by being a bit impulsive, I suppose this move reflects optimism now that our fences are repaired and faith that we'll have adequate hay this winter, now that first cutting is off the fields. As you know, I've  been aching to add natural colored fine wool to the flock and to take our breeding in a new direction. 

This will be fun. I can't wait for shearing day next spring, and to see what future lambings bring. . .

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We had another first last Friday. While Holly and I were trucking lambs from Lee, Mike had his hands full helping poor Zephyr, who somehow managed to get a face full of porcupine quills. Ouch. We've not seen much sign of porcupine at the farm, so this discovery was startling for Mike when he went to fill water buckets.

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I was impressed. Not only was Mike able to catch him single-handedly, but he also managed to  pull half a dozen quills with his bare hands before Zephyr broke away. Not bad! It was reassuring to have Mike handle this crisis solo, since Holly and I had our hands full getting the new lambs comfortable in the carriage barn.

Mike observed that Zephyr was able to graze and to chew his cud – which was a good thing because we weren't able to pull the rest of the quills until Saturday when Andy showed up to lend a hand. 

Zephyr is doing well, no signs of swelling or infection. And no more visits from our prickly friend.

While on the topic of wildlife visitors, I should also mention that I spied our doe and fawn sprinting away from the driveway when I returned home last night, the first sighting since last week. It seems that the fawn's leg is better and had perhaps he had only been suffering from a sprain. Thank you to everyone who offered leads and suggestions for wildlife rehab – I'm keeping that info for future reference.

We're back to clouds and drizzle this week. On the plus side, I haven't had to water my veggies much at all this summer. Andy and I used another rainy Tuesday for trimming hooves and worming 93 sheep, 2 goats and a llama. My shoulders are still sore, but we're caught up on herd health – everyone's lookin' good.

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