Lambing season

This little lady is married to a Shepherd. Yep. We raise sheep. We don't raise just any ol' sheep, though. Nope. Ours are Katahdin hair sheep. What does that mean? It means we don't mess with the back breaking job of shearing wool that brings almost nothing unless it is the highest quality - we just raise sheep for eating. And yes, we sell these pretty little things knowing they are going to be Easter Sunday dinner.


The breed originated in Maine (how about that, Junyah). We chose this breed because they are hardy, have very little trouble lambing, and don't need to be sheared. I have bottle fed a few of the babies whose mama died in lamb birth. That is one of those good news, bad news stories. The good news is they become so tame that they follow you around like a little puppy. It is so sweet. You are their mama. The bad news is that during that first week you are literally up every couple of hours all night long. The other bad news is that ultimately you have to decide whether you have a pet or dinner for someone's table. I've gotten around that so far by selling them to other farmers for breeding. (whew) Fortunately we don't have any bottle fed lambs to take care of this year (so far).

What we do have is one very unusual lamb. We are scratching our heads on this. I took some quick snaps today while we were ear tagging them but will try to get some better shots later. This lamb is so unusual - I'm going to send a picture into the association. We've been raising/breedinig sheep for over 8 years and have never seen such an unusual lamb.

Usually our sheep are white or brown and sometimes a nice mix. The underbelly of this one is solid black. I think he is gorgeous!

Here is what the Katahdin's usually look like. We have been trying to breed more brown into the flock because they seem to be hardier. But it definitely didn't take on these little ones. Aren't they precious?

This is Black Belly's (that is what we named him) mama. MaryAnn is actually quite old for breeding. She is one of our original sheep and was a bottle fed lamb. I walk into the pen and she always comes over and wants me to pet her. She will die of old age on this farm. She has been my baby from day one.

This is dad. His name is Abe (we bought him from the Lincoln University Ag Farm). He's a pretty brown - but no black that I can see.

And who watches our sheep while we sleep? This is Radar. He is the best guard dog around. He is Anatolian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees mix. He is so protective of these sheep. I often wonder how he knows this is his job.