Category: Animals

Our original starter flock of sheep started with 15 Texel/Dorper crosses.  From there we began breeding up to full blooded Texels.  Along the way we acquire some Romanov ewe lambs from Mom and Dad and decided to add Romanovs to our premanent flock.  This year we used Romanov rams on our Dorper ewes and Texels ewes along with Texel rams on our Romanov ewes.  We are hoping this will give us not only multiple lambs (a Romanov trait) but also a faster growing, without as much grain lamb (a Texel trait).  We are now up to 80 ewes and 4 to 6 Romanov and Texels rams.

Yearling Romanov ewe

Two yearling Romanov ewes

Dorper ewe

See her squint anticipating the flash…and people say sheep are stupid.

Texel ewe…she was born our first lambing season and is actually only recorded at 50% Texel.

 She, however, acquired very “Texel” traits from her sire.

We plan to have Texel/Romanov and Dorper/Romanov lambs for sale in early summer.  We may also have a small starter flock of high percentage Texel ewes for sale with their recorded papers.

Have a great day!

Last winter we took on eleven of Mom and Dad’s bottle lambs.  They were mostly from Romanovs who had multiples, triplets and quadruplets, and unable to provide enough milk for all the babies.  One of the babies we acquired we lovingly named, Beltie, for the white belt around her tummy…like a belted cow.

Before she saw me.

The minute she saw me coming she was up and on her way to greet me.

She’s so sweet.

Most of the time.

The little cutie is so good to let me take her picture, but just gets a littlel too close.  I think she eventually got her feelings hurt from me pushing her back so I could get her in the picture.

Then she got bored with the camera and started digging in my pockets.

I had to catch her on the other side of the stock tank to get a decent picture of her.

That is Beltie in all her cuteness.

It is hard to believe he was the tamest kitten in the bunch when we first rescued 2 litters of kittens.  Now he is pretty wild and ill mannered.

The weather has been unseasonably warm here in Kansas and when a cold front was schedule to arrive one evening last week Pudgy decided to be difficult and not go in the pool house to be locked up that evening.  I tried several times to get him in.  Randy tried to get him in when he got home late from work that night.  He just wouldn’t go in and since we can’t catch him away from the food bowl he had to spend the night outside.

We hate leaving our cats outside, especially in the cold.  Pudgy left us no choice.

The next morning he greeted Randy at the front door meowing and chatting up a store.  He had made a bad decision and realized it too late.  Granted we have sheep sheds, hay sheds, and whatever else he can get in and by farm standards this is more than sufficient, but not for our little over privileged little kitty. He wanted in his insulated pool house with his 8 foot tall cat tower and cat beds galore.

He had misunderstood what, “Pudgy this is your last chance” meant.

 Funny, he was one of the first ones in the pool house the following night.

He was smart enough not to make the same mistake twice…or at least two nights in a row.  I’m sure he will do it again someday.

Have a wonderful day!

Just thought I would post a little update on Ruby.  She has come leaps and bounds since we picked her up along the highway on our vacation in August, but still has a long ways to go.  From a health standpoint she has made a full recovery.  Socially she still has a ways to go.  Her personality has really started to show the more comfortable she gets in our home.  She is great and appears most comfortable with the other dogs than with human interaction.  However, does better with male human interaction than female which leads us to believe it may have been a female who mistreated her in the passed.

This is Ruby when she first came to live with us:

By the way that is kombucha tea, not beer in the corner of this picture!

This is Ruby after being in our home for nearly five months:

 You can just see how much more comfortable she is, how much healthier her coat is, and how she has gotten to a healthy weight as well.

The little girl is improving everyday.  We are commited to helping her regain her health and her security with humans as much as we possibly can.

She is a new woman!  We love you Ruby and can’t imagine our lives without you.

After Crooked Neck had her last batch of babies, triplets, and it nearly ended her little life…Dad decided he wasn’t going to breed her again.  Well, boys are boys and Romanovs are fertile little sheep which leads us up to today.

You can barely see the little guy since it was starting to get dark.  She had a bouncing baby boy…3/4 Romanov.

It was pouring down rain in the night, but when mom and dad found her she have him tucked up underneath her.  She was standing over him trying to keep him as dry as she could.  She is such a good mama!  She is truly amazing!

They are both just as cute as they can be and both mama and baby are doing great!

CN is a miracle…this is her fourth or fifth time laming.  Her stats include two sets of twins, one set of triplets and one or two singles.  Most said she’d never live…”a day”…”a week”…”until next year”…”she’ll certainly never survive lambing.”  We’ve heard it all haven’t we CN.  At yet she has another notch on her belt and beautiful little guy she protects with a mama’s passion.

Here’s to every living creature out there who isn’t quite “perfect” in the eyes of man…remember we are all “perfect” in the eyes of God.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!