The Fellowsheep of the Fleece

A couple of days ago I teased the next blog post with pictures of lambs...well, it's time to announce that BFF is adding three more Icelandic sheep to the flock! I know you're all shocked...SHOCKED, I tell you!!! Okay, okay...you're probably not the least bit surprised as I seem to have this overwhelming desire to add more sheep to my wee flock. But let me explain...really, there's a very good reason for this!!

On my daughter's birthday in March we went to visit Lee and some of the lambs that had been born - this has become an annual fun thing we do on her birthday as she loves and adores the sheep and lambs as much as I do! We were able to see Shadow, a Suffolk ewe, who had had triplets (there really were three in there...it was very difficult to get a picture of all of them together!):

And we got to see WIC, an Icelandic ewe who also had triplets!

Again, I promise there were three! WIC gave birth to a tiny little ram (the brown one in his mama's grain pan), as well as another ram and a ewe, both gorgeous black! Lee said that the little brown boy would probably make a good wethered fiber pet - he was just so small, she didn't think he would make a good ram for breeding. Well, you know me...I hear the words "wether" and "fiber," and see this tiny little boy curled up in a pan...I kind of fell in love. A lot. And his sister? Look at this face!!!

I knew she just had to be a BFF critter, too...!!!

So over the next few weeks we kept visiting to see how things were going...by this point I had named them (Radagast the Brown and Rosie Cotton)...and yes, Lee had said I could buy them! Not having either brown or black fiber in my flock, I was pretty anxious to be able to add that into the mix - and both of these lambs will likely remain those colors. When a lamb is born with a dark coloring like that, you can oftentimes tell if they will remain that color simply by looking at their lips! If they have "sugar lips" - if their lips are a lighter color, sprinkled with gray or white - their fleece will lighten up over time. You can see that in Prima Donna's little ram lamb:

As opposed to Radagast's chin:

Both Radagast and Rosie are solid colored, from nose to tail - so I will have the most gorgeous moorit and black fleeces!!

Well, the weeks passed...we continued visiting our lambs...Elise got to hold a sweet little orphaned bottle baby named Beauty, and I got to snuggle my boy:

And I started thinking...and got to see more lambs born...and thought about two little lambs coming home by themselves to my big(gish) flock. Now, they won't be put together with the big sheep for several months - at least until after October shearing, possibly longer. But even if we waited until they were full grown, they're still going to be significantly smaller than the others...ESPECIALLY Daisy and Cupcake. And two versus six seems kind of scary...so my brain started whirring...and it occurred to me that having three against six might be a bit more fair.  Three is more of a true flock, and they will have already been bonding at Lee's...and and and and...

We're also getting Rohan (right)!!

She is the spitting image of all the lambs' daddy, Einarr:

And after seeing his amazing fall fleece, I really wanted to add those colors to the flock as well! Rohan is definitely a beauty - it will be so fun to watch her grow up and see what her colors do over time!

Nine companions. So be it. You shall be the Fellowsheep of the Fleece!

I'm sure's that's what Lord Elrond meant to say...

More soon, dear Readers!