Getting ready for winter

12 Katahdin wethers went to the auction at Mt Hope today.  The remaining 14 are in the small barn eating hay and grain and growing into nice lambchops.  Between my regular customers and the farm market, I will need them this winter.  I also have 3 BFL ram lambs that are not breeding quality that still need to put on a little more size before they are ready.  Several others have already entered the food chain.  :^)
We had fun on the trip to Mt Hope.  After we unloaded the lambs, we stopped by Lams restaurant and had a wonderful Thai buffet.   Then a stop at Yaggi's cheese shop for some sharp swiss, farmers cheese, and some smoked cheddar/bacon.  
We have 2+ inches of snow, and its cold, cold, cold.   A snow/rain storm is predicted for the weekend, and then colder again for next week.  
Soon the BFL breeding groups will be combined, and the rams moved back into their batchelor groups.  It will be good to have fewer groups of sheep to check on  - but soon we'll have to begin feeding hay to the adult BFLs. 

The calendar may not say it, but winter has arrived.

For Sale - bred Katahdin Ewes $150 each - 40+ available

Some of the 63 Katahdin lambs

They started arriving on May 13th. I think we have 3 more ewes to lamb. Lots of interesting spots and markings on them this year. My favorite is a brown ewe with white sox and tail.

Katahdin rams

This is #17 and #24. Kat rams have a much different look than BFLs, don't they!

Katahdin Ram

This is one of the Kat rams. Don't know which one - they are named #17 and #24. Chuck is not as creative as I. :^) They are both pure white, and are 3 now, so in their prime. They are both sleek and fat off the summer of lazing in the shade, grazing. I don't think either have needed to be wormed since they arrived here as 6 month olds.
Yes, he has a mane, and the area over his shoulders has his longer wooly winter coat coming in, so it looks odd in the picture. The rams are brothers, and have been together since birth. We turn both out into the ewe flock at once, and they seem to get along and get the job done.

Who's gonna pull us in this?

How come the BFL lambs get that cool merry-go-round, and we just get this dumb wagon no one will pull us in?

These are the yearling Katahdin replacement ewes.

Right on Schedule

The Katahdins were due to start lambing today, and these arrived right on schedule. We had a single red ewe lamb this morning, and these twin rams were born just about the time I got home from work. There are 40 Kat ewes that will lamb in the next 2 weeks. These are hairsheep. They get thick, short underwool in the winter, which sheds out to a sleek coarse hair coat in the summer. They are shedding now, and so look raggedy. We notice a lot of birds nests lined with the shed wool.