Wrangler x April - Aster and Fleur

I also decided to go with a naming theme this year — most of the time I’ve stuck with old fashioned names but am running out of inspiration and names seem to be getting boring to me (never thought I’d see the day where this is a problem!).  When I told my Hubby what my theme was he said, “What!?”  I knew he’d think I had really lost it, but that’s okay.  It is inspired by a poster I once saw in the bathroom of a nursery (the garden type, not the kid type) — Shakespeare’s Garden.  Yep, names of plants (an inspiration from the plants) he has mentioned in all of his works.  Surprisingly, this is a pretty long list! 

So April’s twins are Fleur, the ewe lamb on the left; and Aster, the ram lamb on the right.

Lancelot x Edna - Chamomile and Columbine

 Edna’s little ewe lambs are so cute – I love both of them, but especially little Columbine, she’s the black and white on the right.  Chamomile is a pretty flashy little lilac ewe lamb and each of them have beautiful fleeces. 

Chamomile

April takes motherhood pretty seriously, so we don’t pick up her lambs much.  She certainly wouldn’t mind putting you in your place with a quick shove — Edna, however, doesn’t mind sharing so we pick up her lambs a lot. 

Columbine

 Columbine is Annie’s favorite too — it must be the pink nose. 

Lots of the other girls look like they could lamb any moment now so we’re keeping a close watch.  I have a feeling we’ll get a lot of lambs in a small amount of time.

Off to go check the flock again!

While this adorable little lamb is not lilac himself, he does carry the lilac gene and from a wholly different side of the country.  Prescott is sired by Patchwork Abraham who hails all the way from Patchwork Farms in Georgia.

Not only will Abraham bring the lilac coloring back to the Mud Ranch genetics through his son, but he also brings with him years of flock planning for beautiful fleeces and nice horns.  I’m excited to see these genetics inter-mingled with Mud Ranch.  And hopefully, when Prescott is bred to my lilacs and lilac carriers, we’ll have a rainbow of colors again in 2011.

Also coming to Mud Ranch is Kenleigh’s Paisley.  I am thrilled with bringing Paisley here to Mud Ranch, her contribution is the genetics of her very gorgeous sire, Greenwater Julian which includes excellent structure and beautiful fleeces.  Also, Paisley is the daughter of one of my very favorite ewes, Kenleigh’s Infinity.  Infinity is a very sweet ewe whom I met in person last year.  I had always admired her though, from her very first lamb pictures on Kenleigh Acre’s website.  Paisley is growing to be a very nice ewe lamb and I love how wide her horns are! 

That is what is in store for the Mud Ranch flock in the coming months.  Another exciting tid-bit is Mud Ranch’s genetics moving to Nebraska!  A young man has purchased Mud Ranch’s Tobias for his Jacob flock and Toby will be going with me to show at the Black Sheep Gathering next month (In 21 days!  Ack!) and then staying at Kenleigh Acres until his long drive home to Nebraska.  I am very happy about this arrangement and hope that he produces lambs beyond his new owner’s satisfaction.

Here’s to a blessed new year with your family and friends. 

~Everyone at Mud Ranch

I can hear you, you’re asking, “Why, why on earth is her new best friend a user’s manual for the Nikon D300?  Hasn’t she been shooting a D50 for about four years?”  Yes, yes my friends, I have been shooting with a D50 for about that long.  But things are starting to change around here since the arrival of my new toy — one I hope will grow to like me with time.

That’s right, I’ve just got myself a Big Girl Camera.  I’m super excited… I’ve been wanting to upgrade for quite some time but I’ve been patient, waiting for the right opportunity to come along.  I’ve done my research on it (I always do a ton of research on things that I am interested in… it runs in my blood.  Hi mom!)

The only problem is, she’s got buttons where my Little Girl Camera does not and I’m finding Miss D300 and I do not speak the same language.  I thought a Nikon would be a Nikon would be a Nikon… apparently I wasn’t as “Big Girl” as I thought I was.  I’ve even been shooting in manual lately!

Along with the camera came this absolutely gi-gungo lens.  It is completely made of metal, is fairly old, but I hear it takes great photos and they’re tack sharp.  I’m excited to try it out.

So where did I find my new beauty?  She was a back-up camera for a professional equine photographer out of San Diego.  I’ve been checking on the forums at the Equine Photographer’s Network for a used D300 but no one wants to sell them and they’re selling the D200′s and the D2′s.  Finally I found the D300, hardly ever used and been sitting on the shelf.  Her previous owner has a D700 and shoots FX or “Full Frame” compared to this one which is DX.  DX is what I have for lenses and since I wouldn’t be able to talk Hubby into replacing all my lenses to FX, I decided the D300 was the camera for me. 

Do you think that per-chance some of Melanie Snowhite’s talent will rub off of her camera and on to me?  I mean, we are like family now right?  To check out her amazing photography, visit her website at www.melaniesnowhite.com.  Meanwhile, I’ll be getting to know my new best friend.

First off, one of our City Girls had a couple of lambs today — both are very dark!  This is Hillside’s C.R. Boudicca (just did a search on her name and Boudicca is a Celtic warrior queen…) and her ram and ewe lamb, the ewe is standing.  They are sired by our ram Kenleigh’s Raider a very handsome four horned boy who is giving us very crimpy fleeces so far!

This is Kenleigh’s Kiara — also a City Girl who is actually a Country Girl turned City Girl turned Country Girl again.  Regardless, she has become one of my favorites.  She has such presence and really is a sweet girl — even though she took her lambs up the hill out of my reach.  Anyway, Kiara aka “Kiki” also had a ram and ewe on the 25th both sired by Raider.

Boudicca’s ram lamb snoozing in the afternoon sun

I was walking back from the pasture and saw a beautiful little patch of wild phlox growing on the hillside just below the ram’s pasture.

Then I noticed that Dub was above the phlox bathing in the afternoon sun also so decided to creep up and try to get a picture of the pink phlox with a sleeping ram just above it but at a shallow depth of field so the phlox would be the foreground and Dub would be the background.  Dub quickly decided that he would have no part in this photo…

…Frances didn’t mind so much.  He thinks he may actually look good with pink.

Female gold finches belly up to the bar

I also keep a couple of bird feeders out as I like attracting the little guys — especially blue birds, finches and orioles.  So far, I’ve got all three varieties — it’s just a matter of catching them on my camera.

I’ve noticed that the males and females tend to visit the feeders at different times in a matter of higher percentages.  I’m trying to get one of all the gorgeous boys fluttering around and will, it’s just a matter of time.

I usually set out an oriole feeder too with the orange nectar in it but haven’t done so yet this spring.  Mr. Oriole has decided to make a pig of himself at the seed feeder to my delight.  He did spend quite a lot of time there just pigging out but atleast I was able to catch Mr. Shy on camera (through the glass of my front door.)

Then this little beauty queen showed up do any of you know if this is the Missus?

Last, but certainly not least, is my house cat “Jack” turned out-door-adventure-kitty.  He’s really enjoying the bird feeders — but no worries, he weighs a ton and I guarantee there will be no harm to the cute little birdies while he’s on the prowl (he’s really not all that coordinated.)