Patchwork Gideon enjoys a brief (very brief) period of sunshine.

Patchwork Madeleine has such pretty blue eyes.

Patchwork Wonder, the last lamb of the year, proves that some things are worth waiting for!

A sign of spring – snakes return. This handsome milk snake is one of the good guys.

Spring!!

Lambing came to a wonderful end on April 23. Tardy Twinky (AKA Patchwork Twinky), as she had planned, had the spotlight all to herself for the delivery of her son. Following this year’s themes based on the dam’s name,  he is named Wonder. And he is!

Wonder is a four horned lilac ram lamb sired by Kenleigh’s Casanova. He not only reinforces the discovery that Casanova carries lilac, he proves that Twinky does too.  It’s wonderful to see how Casanova put some facial markings on Twinky’s lamb.  She is a bit lacking in that area, with barely enough to pass registration.  She’s done a good job of producing nicely marked lambs with the right rams. Judging by the fleece on this boy, I’d say Casanova was the right ram in all ways.

It was a great and wonderful lambing season! 25 vigorous lambs, up and nursing quickly after birth.  One rather unusual experience that August will talk about later, but all is well.
12 ewes, 13 rams. 1 two horned, 24 four horned.  8 lilacs. Both Unzicker Abbott and Kenleigh’s Casanova turned out to be lilac carriers.  Pretty good year.

Time for a nap…

Mister bluebird on my shoulder
It’s the truth
It’s actual
Everything is satisfactual
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

Patchwork Fortune gave us the lovely Patchwork Favor, our first lamb sired by Kenleigh’s Casanova on April 3. She has some flash!

Patchwork Badger followed a few days later with twins by Casanova. Badger was so big

I thought she might have triplets. I was happy when she settled on twins on April 6. And especially pleased when one turned out to be a four horned lilac ram. I had hoped that Abbott or Casanova might carry lilac as they each have a parent that does. Finding out that both carry lilac made me giddy and jazzed. Since I could not find any good names based on Badger’s name…

Patchwork Gideon – lilac 4 horned ram

and his 4 horned twin sister, Patchwork Jazz

Jazz’s fleece makes me a little giddy

Broken O Melodie followed with twin ewes by Unzicker Abbott on April 7

Patchwork Jingle – a light melody.

Patchwork Tempo- 4 horned – and she lives up to her name. She’s got rhythm.

The next day Palmetto Acres Lucinda presented us with a striking blue eyed 4 horned ram by Casanova, Patchwork Beacon. Lucinda followed her usual method of tossing her lambs, which is a story in itself. As usual, all is well although it is rather unsettling to watch.

On April 9, the much anticipated cross of Blue Ewe Alicia and Moose Mtn Hawk arrived. A handsome 4 horned lilac ram. Alicia means noble and his name is August. He will have his own blog post soon. He had a bit of an adventure.

Patchwork Sasha presented a 4 horned Abbott son on 4/11
.

Sasha means defender and Diamond means bright defender. Or maybe bright fleece

We are at 24 lambs, 12 rams and 12 ewes. Twinky – it’s up to you to break the tie.

As expected, Nicollette lambed first with Moose Mtn Hawk’s first lambs for us on March 28. He dallied abit on the trip here from Colorado leaving a daughter in PA.

Going into Round Two with 6 ram lambs and 3 ewe lambs made Nicollette’s twin lilac ewes especially welcome.

Hello Praline!

Hi, Madeleine!

I’m using a naming theme this year based on the dam’s name. Sometimes the theme only makes sense to me Nicollette, daughter of Macaroon (daughter of Craft’s Praline), was called Snickerdoodle as a lamb. And her new girls sure are cute cookies.

Patchwork Lacey followed that night with her first set of twins, her first ewe lamb, and Unzicker Abbott’s first lambs. I think the cross worked quite well.

Patchwork Limerick

and her smiley faced lilac twin brother, Patchwork Dresden.
I was pleased to find that Abbott carries the gene for the lilac color as I’d hoped.

The naming theme for Lacey’s lambs is an easy one.

The next day started out with another set of Abbott twins from Springrock Stacia. I couldn’t be happier with the fleeces on these two.
Meet Merlot, Stacia’s ewe lamb

And her brother, Concord

Finding a naming theme for Stacia was rough. I found three meanings for the name “Stacia” – resurrection, to stand, and good grapes (really – I read it on the internet). Grapes it is.

Finishing the day with probably the most anticipated lamb of the season was Baby Elsa (Patchwork Elsa) presenting her own baby,  a lovely lilac ewe lamb by Moose Mtn. Hawk. Elsa is a triplet daughter of our foundation ewe, Craft’s Ruby’s Belle x Jacquee’s Junco. She left here in 2oo5 as a lamb and returned last fall.

We are happy to welcome Patchwork Joy

There is a naming theme here.  It is rather convoluted. I think without a naming theme, I’d still have named her Joy.

Patchwork Fortune is nearing the time to present us with our first lamb by Kenleigh’s Casanova. He dallied alot! on the way here from Oregon and has lambs in PA, NY, and NC. I’m anxious to see some in GA!

Patchwork Badger still has a week to go…

Twin brothers, Altair and Orion, don’t play fair, ganging up on younger Sundance..

Oops!

All is quickly forgiven..

Hard to believe this tiny baby is now a mother.
She was a bottle baby, rejected by her dam. Her dam is a ewe I sold and is from a very good line of mothers. Vivianne raised her first lamb fine, but didn’t do so well with twins the next year. Due to the work schedule of her breeder, Not Really An Orphan Annie came to live at Patchwork. Because I wanted her to be around sheep, but didn’t want her to be injured by ewes that might not like her anymore than her mother did, Annie spent her early days in the sheep carrier. She looked so small! She was with sheep, but couldn’t be hurt. During the first few weeks, she spent the nights in the house in a crate. I think bottle babies do best with small frequent feeding for the first few weeks and I am way too lazy to suit up and walk to the barn every two hours during the night!

Two years later (2/21), in the same spot, it was time to see what Annie could do.

I think she likes him! Hello Sundance! Four horned blue eyed ram.

Patchwork Bling followed soon after, lambing just before midnight on 2/22. She’s quite fond of her four horned son, Glamor.

Hillside Holly is an old hat at this lambing thing now. Saturday, with no fuss, she did her part to balance out our ram/ewe ratio by presenting twin ewes.

Tupelo (standing) and Poplar. One of these ewes will stay at Patchwork to bring Boyd’s lines into our lilacs.

Lambing round 1 is over until the end of March, when 12 more ewes will be lambing.

Maybe..

.

The lovely Loretta may yet surprise us.

Patchwork Marley – the first girl of the season!
Marley is the lilac daughter of Patchwork Quinn and Canoe Lake Comet.
Born in the early morning hours of February 15.
Marley is thinking of staying here with us at Patchwork – she is a cutie!

These first boys are sired by Canoe Lake Comet.

Sweetgrass Gavotte, polite enough to lamb according to my lambing calendar, produced two handsome four horned ram lambs yesterday morning. I checked sheep at 6:30. It was obvious that Gavotte was going to lamb that day, but she had not passed the cervical plug nor started any “I’m going to lamb RIGHT NOW” signs. What a treat to check in an hour and 1/2, after  coffee, to find two already cleaned pretty lambs just getting to their feet ready for breakfast.

Gavotte is a wonderful first time mother who can certainly count to two (and put a fleece on her lambs!!!)
Welcome to ..
Patchwork Charleston – four horned black/white ram

And..
Patchwork Calypso – four horned black/white ram

Gavotte, Charleston and Calypso.  There is a connection here

I had no idea when Vesta was bred, but it was obvious  yesterday morning that she was close. By last evening, it was even more obvious. She took abit more time and made abit more fuss than Gavotte. She managed to come in before midnight with two more pretty four horned black/white rams.
Hello to Patchwork Orion

And twin brother, Patchwork Altair

Vesta,  Comet, Altair, Orion … another theme.

We have four more ewes to lamb from the first breedings to Boyd and Comet. I think we’ll be finished by the end of next week with Holly coming in at the end (but these girls love to make me look silly, so someone might hang on a few days just for that)

After that a break until the end of March for the Hawk, Casanova, and Abbott lambs. Unless Loretta decides differently.

I love lambing!

But it won’t be long now. Our first breeding group of six ewes (bred to two rams) is due in February. The next group of 12 ewes will lamb in late March. Lambing could start anytime. I don’t expect lambs until around the 11th unless Vesta comes in a little earlier (and she might).

Thinking about lambs and about our “lambs” having their own lambs makes me feel old and young at the same time.

Patchwork Quinn (right) with her dam, Sweetgrass Heather and twin, Patchwork Brielle, is getting ready for her second lambing season.  Bred to Canoe Lake Comet again.

Patchwork Marabelle lambed as yearling – third season for her. Bred to Kenleigh’s Casanova. First season for Casanova. He left some bred ewes on his way from Oregon to Georgia.

Patchwork Lacey – third season for her.  First season for Unzicker Abbott.

Patchwork Nicollette – fourth lambing season for her. She’s done well! Bred to Moose Mtn Hawk for his first season.

Patchwork Sasha – fourth season for her. This ewe just doesn’t have bad lambs! Bred to Unzicker Abbott.

Patchwork Badger – sixth year lambing for her.  A consistent producer of quality lambs and my buddy.  Bred to Kenleigh’s Casanova

Patchwork Elsa- recently returned home to Patchwork after not being bred for a few years.  Will be her second lambing. Bred to Moose Mtn. Hawk.

1/2 sister to Elsa and Badger, Macaroon moved north last fall. I couldn’t resist adding her picture. She was full of spunk!

So now we wait. It’s always so exciting to see the new lambs. My first wish is that they be healthy. I like to let them just be cute for awhile before I start evaluating them.  But I admit to get excited to see what the new parents will produce – rams and ewes.

Three of the six ewes due in February are first time mothers.
Peck’s Annie, Patchwork Bling, and Sweetgrass Gavotte
Not long now.

Dorothy The Cat hates the rain. She screams at the door, I open it, she sees the rain, slaps my ankle, and struts away. She spends a rainy day following me around and slapping me on the ankle. I don’t know if I should be mad at her or flattered that she thinks I can control the rain. That’s what she does on day one. By day four, she has taken to sitting on top of the refrigerator (maybe I should get worried about just how much more rain we are going to get?) giving me evil look and screaming at me.

Dobie The Dopie Dog had nasty dental surgery on Tuesday (day two). He also hates the rain in addition to not feeling very well. He has finally mastered the trick of peeing off the porch. It’s a boy thing.

Nice day for a nap…