My New Sheep

First, the photos. And then the story.Saturday morning, July 4th, the new Bluefaced Leicesters at Zephyr Sheep Farm celebrate freedom by entering a new pasture. Black Pearl is in front, followed Abysinnia, and then Corsica. Bringing up the rear is my new ram, Cragganmore.

Look, Nancy K. My BFL's don't all look alike any more!
Pearl by the fence with Aby and Corsica.
Pearl is with her yearling daughter, Abysinnia.
Aby is such a lovely young ewe.
Corsica is also a yearling. She is Sloan's daughter. I bought her mother last December.


So, originally, I thought I would keep my 4 mature ewes: Alystyne, Sloan, Leslie, and Lace. And I thought I would keep the 4 BFL ewe lambs born this year. I thought I would buy a new unrelated ram, and next year I would breed only BFL sheep.

So, I planned a trip to Michigan to go ram shopping at Brenda Lelli's place. She sent me pedigrees to look at, and they all sounded marvelous. I know I would have found a good ram among the group she has available.

But, I thought it might be nice to have a second set of eyes to look at these ram lambs with me. So, I invited Stephen Rouse to come with me to Brenda's place.

That was when I found out that Stephen is selling off his BFL flock. He plans to focus on a small group of Shetland sheep. He calls the Shetlands his "first love." And I told him that I was selling off my Shetlands because I felt like the BFL's were my "true love."

A "heavenly" sheep deal came together as a result of our complementary passions.

Cragganmore was champion colored ram at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last year. How could I not want to add this wonderful ram to my flock? And the photos of the ewes sort of speak for themselves. These are beautiful, elegant ladies.

Having added these sheep to my flock means that I will definitely be selling my cross bred ewe lambs. There are 5 crossbred ewe lambs of various colors. The crossbred ewes have beautiful fleeces, and all of the hearty "bounce" of Shetland ewes. I have reserved space at the Michigan Fiber Festival for 4 show sheep and 4 sale only sheep. I am asking $150 each for the crossbred ewe lambs.

I may be selling some BFL ewe lambs, but I need to think that through before I say which ones are available.

I will spare you most of the drama of the road trip, but there were detours and holiday traffic. It normally takes 4 hours to drive from my place to Stephen's. It took over 5 hours to get there. The return trip was better. That took only 4 1/2 hours.

So now, I am done buying sheep... for this year. ;)