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2006 PHOTOS (Click to view 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 photos) |
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Photo
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Winter
has arrived, with about 8 inches of snow falling in
the first week of December. Here, some of the
SkyLines flock heads uphill from the water tank to
the winter feeding area in the woods. They've just
heard me start up the four-wheeler and they all
know that means dinner is on its way! Angus
and Daisy's pups are six weeks old now, and
have just started leaving the security of the barn
to venture outside and hang out with mom, dad, and
the sheep. One by one, they're each getting
acquainted with the sheep and trying to help mom
and dad as they patrol the pasture. The
first of the original five pups left yesterday for
his new home in southern Idaho. The next pup that
was reserved, the boy with the dark face, will
leave for his home in far northern Idaho next week.
The remaining three pups will stay here for a while
and learn from mom and dad how to be the tough,
hard-working sheep guardian dogs they were bred to
be. In the meantime though, I'm sure enjoying these
cuties! November
20, 2006 The
new Great Pyrenees pups have been growing at an
amazing rate. Here they are at four weeks old.
They're now running (well, waddling), playing,
beginning to eat solid food, and barking their
little puppy barks at at me when I go out to visit
them in the barn. Good dogs - they're on their way
to being real LGD's!
After
two and a half long years of waiting for Daisy
to fully mature, we finally have our first litter
of Great Pyrenees pups! The babies were born in a
protected corner of the sheep barn and are only
four days old in these photos. Their eyes won't
open for another week or so. I'm
so looking forward to watching them evolve from the
chubby little sausages they are here to the
fabulous, hard-working livestock guardian dogs
their parents are! (Sorry, these pups are
all spoken for.) October
10, 2006 This
year's 71 SkyLines breeding ewes are all in with
their respective rams now, and the 19 keeper ewe
lambs have moved to the fall lamb pasture till
the end of breeding season. Come spring, these
sweet girls will either become permanent members of
the SkyLines flock or be offered for sale as
yearlings to other shepherds. October
8, 2006 The
newest member of the SkyLines family is a
pretty Quarter Horse mare named Root Beer Rosie
(shown here half-dozing with guard donkey Peaches
on a sunny afternoon). Rosie and Peaches quickly
became pals, but I wondered how she would get along
with the sheep since she'd never known any of these
wooly critters . . . .
. . Within a couple of days it was
obvious that Rosie had settled right in with her
new family!
August
has been hot and dry as usual, and everybody's
just taking it easy. Here, SkyLines Romney rams Max
(left) and Andy while away the afternoon under an
ancient Hawthorn bush.
The ewes and
lambs have all been out on pasture since April, and
heavy rains and high heat in May caused an
explosive growth of grass. Everybody's
reveling in the lush greenness and growing
incredibly fat. Here, a very well fed Romney ewe
named Summer lifts her head from the task at hand
for just a brief moment to see why I'm calling her
name. Needless to say, a photo opp isn't nearly as
fascinating as this smorgasboard! And it's not
just the ewes who are packing on the pounds.
This unidentified Romney ewe is doing an admirable
job of nursing her chunky lambs. At about two and a
half months old they're way ahead of the normal
growth curve around here. That's just fine with
me! Romney-Montadale
yearling ewe Dottie lounges in the cool grass
during a break from the pig-out. Actually, I'm
not too concerned about overweight sheep. I've
always kept my sheep well fed anyway, spring is
always flush with green grass, and this excess of
nutrition is great for the lambs and great for the
2007 fleeces. The ewes will start dropping the
extra weight as summer progresses, the rains slow
down, and the grass hardens off. In the meantime,
these are some sublimely happy sheep!
Ariel's
two-week-old lambs stick close to
mom. I think
Charlotte may be fed up with my photographing her
oh-so-darling lamb. A surprise
overnight snowstorm doesn't phase these ewes and
lambs. First-time mom
Frances cuddles her newborn
boy. Gina and her
sturdy twins. Another great
first-time mother, Hanna takes her job seriously
even as she sleeps. This lamb's not going anywhere
. . . !
Shearing
day is a major event around here, and it gets
more intense each year as the flock grows in size.
This year we sheared a total of 93 natural-colored
and white sheep. The crew of 10, including shearer
extraordinaire Martin Dibble, put in a long 11-hour
day carefully shearing and meticulously skirting
every single fleece as soon as it came off the
sheep. This is always a long day, but I think it's
well worth the effort when customers rave about
their incredibly clean SkyLines fleeces. In
this photo, some of the freshly shorn ewes are
eager to get back outside, even if it is going to
be cold without their warm winter coats!
Where's
winter?? The SkyLines flock normally spends
most of the winter in paddocks near the barns,
where I can more easily haul hay to them through
the deep snow. This year, however, a major thaw and
a solid week of rain in December washed all the
snow away and the pastures are bare again. So, the
expectant ewes are back out in one of the woods
pastures, enjoying the warm temperatures as they
spend their days hanging out among the
trees. The sheep
spend a good part of the winter months taking it
easy - hanging out or lounging comfortably on a bed
of soft hay, chewing their cud and waiting for me
to serve the next meal. It looks like a pretty easy
life but these girls are still busy, growing
luxurious, long-stapled fleeces and strong, healthy
babies at the same time. Here, Romney-Montadale ewe
Natalie models a typical SkyLines variegated fleece
about 6 weeks before shearing. The SkyLines
flock continues to grow! This past fall I chose
nearly 30 of the best 2005 ewe lambs to keep for
myself. About 3/4 of the sturdy new girls are
natural-colored beauties like these, ranging in
color from solid dark grey nearly black, to
variegated with shades of dark grey, soft pale
grey, and oatmeal. Their lamb fleeces are soft and
beautiful, and will be available in March 2006.
These girls will increase my total number of
available fleeces to about 90!
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