chrisdolley ([info]chrisdolley) wrote,
@ 2008-04-02 13:12:00
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Entry tags:animals, baby, cute, lambs, sheep, suffolk

Triple Triplets!
Lambing officially finished at eleven this morning with ... yet another set of triplets. That's three out of four giving a grand total of eleven lambs this year - enough for a football team (or soccer, if you're from the left side of the pond)

Here's one of the latest arrivals - barely two hours old - learning the joys of a good nuzzle.


Here's one of the older triplets demonstrating how useful mother's are - especially when the hay net is just out of reach.


It doesn't take lambs long to realise that the warmest, most comfortable bed is their mother's fleece. In a month's time most of our ewes are going to have lamb hair:)

And finally we have a lamb demonstrating what the best dressed lambs are wearing this year - thigh high brown boots with matching eye and nose markings.


For the interested, the lambs are Suffolk crosses - a Suffolk ram crossed with a 'sheep of the region'.




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[info]pacific12th
2008-04-02 01:46 pm UTC (link)
SO SOSOCUTE!!!! lambie!

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[info]oakwind
2008-04-02 02:01 pm UTC (link)
Just out of curiosity why are you raising sheep -- wool, meat? I read everyone's response of how cute they are and indeed they are but it makes me want to go out and buy a lamb roast.

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[info]chrisdolley
2008-04-02 02:33 pm UTC (link)
We went into smallholding many years ago with the dream of growing our own food and making some money by selling rare breed animals for breeding. But the market just wasn't there. The same for wool. We throw away practically all our fleeces. We have spun some ourselves - and I have the jumpers to prove it - but no one seems to want fleeces. So now we've cut down on our sheep and keep enough for meat and sell as many as we can for breeding.

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[info]oakwind
2008-04-02 02:45 pm UTC (link)
I am sorry I just can't believe it. I know weavers who would be interested in wool (that probably isn't enough for a full business, I realize that) but fleeces are incredible. I would love to have fleeces. I would sleep under them, carpet my floor well at least where I sit and put my feet with them, I would use them to make vests. Of course, I can't actually afford them but the idea of just getting rid of them that is hard to swallow. I suppose the fact that I can't afford them sort of related to it not working as a business.

Hmmm have you considered signing them and offering them for sale on your website -- you know fleece raised and signed by the author :)

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[info]chrisdolley
2008-04-02 03:30 pm UTC (link)
It's the usual story - if you want a fleece they're difficult to find, if you want to sell a fleece there are no buyers.

The big buyers - wool marketing board etc - usually can't be bothered with small numbers and don't like coloured fleeces or fleeces with the odd bit of plant in them. So commercial wool flocks are white sheep who don't roll on the ground too much:) Ours are neither:)

We're happy to give fleeces away. Postage and packing though might be a problem. The average fleece weighs about 3kg and fills a 25kg sack of feed.

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[info]featheredfrog
2008-04-03 12:24 am UTC (link)
Get in touch with a local chapter of your nearest medieval recreation organization - the spinners in these groups are always interested in more material.

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[info]fynoda
2008-04-05 06:49 am UTC (link)
The SCA in America is a great place to start.

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[info]qness
2008-04-02 04:14 pm UTC (link)
Oh my, more adorableness! Lovely lilttle lambs!

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