Isla

This is Isla, she was the tiny triplet, the third out, first unfortunately didn't make it out alive, second Isla's brother was twice her size & then little Isla. She was ok to start with until her mother Ellie developed mastitis, her big brother is doing well but Isla began to look at little thin so we started to bottle feed her last week. It has taken all week but now when we go into the shed & hold up the bottle she comes running instead of us running round & round the shed trying to catch her! She even came up to Martin today looking for her bottle when he went in to fill up the trough with creep feed.

Our new additions

We have been to Melton Market today & bought some more sheep! Not Lincoln Longwools this time. We have bought 36 'in lamb sheep' due to give birth after 8th April. Thought we had finished lambing for this year but now we have more lambs to look forward to & probably more sleepless nights! Here is a photo of them all eating their way around their new field.

A Butterfly in the snow

Been meaning to post this photo of Butterfly all week, it was taken last Sunday in the snow. She is so sweet, her nickname is squeaky, when she was born & her mum Orch hummed to her she didn't hum back she made little squeaky noises & sometimes still does.

Lex's Fleece Rosette

Just come back from an afternoon at the British Alpaca Futurity Show. We are quite used to showing alpacas or rather Martin, James & Jess are but we have never shown a fleece before. This year we decided to have a go & show Lex's fleece. Absolutely delighted to see that we had been given a 2nd Rosette.

First alpaca show of the season & it's great to see all the alpacas in the ring again, can't wait for the Heart of England Alpaca Fiesta at the end of April, when we will be showing.

Isabelle

There will be no stopping me now I have learnt how to post photos on my blog. After spending an hour the other night pressing the image button & nothing happening I asked on the craftsforum for help. Everyone on there is so helpful so we tried again & it worked, think the computer was on a go slow.

Above is a photo of Isabelle, our prettiest & whitest lamb, she gets her looks from her mother Acacia who is adorable, we did expect at least twin lambs as Acacia was huge (think it's all fleece) but instead we have this beautiful litttle poppet.

My Lincoln Longwool lambs

Oh dear how long is it since I bloggged.

Been so busy with the lambs just didn't get round to it, so here's an update of what we had & some photos.

This year the longwool herd letter is I.

Nell, Grace, Snowdrop,Ruby, Indigo1, Fulmeania, Daphne2 & Nikki all had single ram lambs, Indigo2, Gigi & Alder had twin boys. Alder had twin boys she's my favourite, so friendly always comes to be fussed, they're beautiful & in the photo above snuggled up to their mum.

Eve had Iona, Ellie had Isla & a boy, Edith had Iola & a boy, Gwyneth did so well & had 2 beautiful girls Isadora & Imelda & proved to be the perfect first time mum ever. Acacia had the prettiest girl Isabelle, Flocci had Ianthe, Daphne had Inaya & a boy & last but not least Goldie who we fought to keep alive 2 years ago had a beautiful girl Imogen, twice the size she was.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year.

Today our shed is ready for some new arrivals & tomorrow our Lincoln Longwool sheep are coming back to the yard for lambing. Very excited about this, Nell is due on Monday, she is the first of 22 sheep we have this year to lamb. It snowed today so I can't wait to get the girls in the dry & warm. Some late nights over the next few weeks I think, sheep are not as considerate as alpacas & normally find the most inconvenient time to lamb! Nell has had 2 ram lambs Gideon & Frederick so I'm really hoping for a girl or twin girls would be even better. The Lincoln Longwool prefix letter is I for this year & we have a few names for consideration.