I've had a very successful lambing season.

Hi everyone!
I'm so sorry that I haven't posted anything in a long time. I just haven't had the time to sit down and blog for 20 minutes! I've been soooo busy! Let me tell you all the things that have been happening around here since the last time posted anything.

I am done with lambing! Today I had my last lamb of the season. I am all done. This year I had 17 ewes that were going to lamb. All of them were pregnant exsept one. I have 15 ewe lambs and 9 ram lambs. all together I have 32 ewes. That's a lot! They are eatting a lot of hay and drinking a lot of water!

As much as I wish I could keep all of my sheep, I'm afraid I can't. We just can't keep all of them forever! I'm going to have to cull some. Mom and dad said that I need to keep my flock down to around 25 ewes. So I am going to have to call 7 ewes and the 9 ram lambs this year. I am going to try to sell some of them. I already know a few people who would like to buy some. And the remaining sheep that I can't sell we will eat. I never get sad when we have to eat them though. We give our animals the best life possible and when we have to eat them we do it in a nice way that doesn't hurt them.

To those out there who are new to my blog and who don't know about Jacob sheep, I will say more about them.

Jacob sheep can have 2, 4 or even 6 horns! They are black and white spoted and are very easy to take care of. Because of all the horns that they have on there head they some times will run out of room and they will get split eye lids. (This only happens with the ones that have 4 horns or 6.) They're horns can curve all around and some times grown into the head. Some times their horns can break off. I have a sheep who just broke off a horn yesturday. Often when their horns break off they will sometimes grow back. But if they do grow back it may be in a crooked way. Jacob sheep are a great sheep for people just starting out. They are a very hardy breed that can lamb on there own with little or no help. They do not need a lot of shots like other breeds. In the few years that I have had them I have never had to give them one shot. They also have a lot of wool. This wool is more valued by hand spiners. Because their wool is black and white it is rare to hand spinners. If you ever want to buy some of these Jacob sheep, I have a lot to sell and will gladly sell them. Next year I will have so many of them I won't know what to do! The freezer can only hold so much!

Let me list the traits that are desireable and the traits that are not desireable in my Jacob sheep.

Desireable: Horns that are not fuzed. Fuzed horns are horns that are stuck together and may grow into the head. I have some Jacob sheep that have fuzed horns. If a sheep has fuzed horns that trait will pass on to its off spring. Jacob sheep need to have black eye and nose patches on the face. Some of my sheep only have the eye patchs and others have both the eye and nose patchs. It is not commen for them to only have the nose patch. Some times they will only have one eye patch. ( I will post pictures of this) Jacob sheep also need to have nice colering. They look like they are white with black spots but really they are black with white spots. If a sheep as 60% black and 40% white, this is good coloring. (No two sheep are alike. Even the twins look different.)

Not Desireable: Fuzed horns that curve into the face. Split eye lids caused by horns that are not strait on the head. Many of my sheep have strait horns that have symmetry with each other. Missing eye and nose patchs on a Jacob sheep are not what a true Jacob sheep looks like. this trait also will follow to there off spring. I am going to call the ones that are missing these patches. Jacob sheep are not suppose to be one color. They are suppose to be black and white spotted. A Jacob sheep being one color is rare. I have a Jacob sheep that is 100% white. I am going to have to get ride of her. I was going to get rid of her but then she lambed! Her lambs looked like real Jacob sheep should look like! But still I am going to have to get rid of them. The white gene is in there blood. I think the reason the that she is white is because we must of inbreeded. When you breed a sheep to its half brother or a second cousin, things like this may happen.

I am sorry If I keep going on and on and on. I just really love my Jacob sheep. Anyway. This year I have had a really good year for lambing.I have had all my ewes lamb but one. I have had more ewes then rams and more twin births then singles. None of the lambs have died this year and they are all healthy! A really good thing about my jacob sheep is that they are able to lamb on their own with no problems. This year I didn't have to help my sheep with their lambing. I think Jacob sheep are a great breed of sheep for people who don't know anything about sheep. I had a lambing year that other sheep people dream about! If you ever want to get some of these really cool sheep, talk to me first.

All the rest of the animals here are doing well. Nothing as really been happening with them. My moms cow did calf. But other then that they are fine and doing well. I am going to end this post with lots of pictures of all my Jacob sheep. I hope you liked this post! I can't wait until next year!

This is my little brother Josiah holding a lamb. I hope you liked this post! I will try to update my blog more often. My birthday is next week. I am going up to my grandpa's house for a week so I might not by able to blog until I get back. I get to Join Facebook and Twitter when I come back. You can follow me if you like. Until then. I will see you later! Wish us luck!

Timber Creek Kid.

I don't have a title.

All has been going well at the Mess Around Ranch since my last post.I have had two more sheep lamb.

Yesturday my brother Josiah's sheep had two twin girls. He is very happy. Each year I give my brothers there own sheep for helping me so much. We still have a lot of more sheep to lamb. There are ten lambs on the ground right now. I have had three sets of twins. (Twins are very common in Jacob sheep) All together I have had seven sheep that lambed so far. I do not have a picture of Josiah's new lamb yet. But I do have a picture of the new lamb we got this morning.

So cute! We just got him today. But I don't know if its a girl or a boy yet. I haven't even put them in a lambing pen yet. I can't catch the lamb! He won't let me get near him! He just starts to run around the hey feeder that we have in the pen. You put the new mothers and there lambs in the lambing pen for a few days so that they can get used to each other. I might not have to put this one in. I have seen it suck five times. Its up and about and doing fine. I have a lot of sheep!

This weekend is going to be busy. (Like most weekends are) Today Lilli has a 4-H clover work shop at 1:00. I don't know when it ends though. Dad's at the docter right now getting a check up. I don't know when he will be back. Tomorrow Me and Josiah have a 4-H work shop. We are going to be learning about editing pictures and stuff. I'm not quite sure what we will be doing. It should be fun. I like taking pictures, so it should be fun. All the pictures of the sheep that are on my blog were taken by me.

So far we have gotten are history done. History is our favorite thing to do! We all do it together in the family room. We do a lot of things as a family. My birth day is coming up in less then a month! I will be 13 years old. All the wonderful things I will be able to do when I'm 13. I will be able to join Facebook and Twitter and dad said he would take me to a Rodney Atkins consert. Speaking of dad, he just got back.

I'm sorry. Everybody is running around all over the place. When I blog, It sometimes takes me 30 minutes or more. I know how to spell and type. I just need the time to think. Sometimes I can't even hear my own thoughts.

I guess I should go. Mom prouble wants me to do more school work. Dad said something about running to town sometime and getting something I know nothing about. I'm going to go find out what he needs to get and why he has to drag me into it. See ya.

New lamb!

Guess what! Josiah just went out side a saw that a sheep lambed! It was one of my sheep. She had one lamb that is a cute little baby boy. This is this sheeps first time lambing. I really don't have anymore to say. I said everything I had to say in the post I made 30 minutes ago. So I will just put some pictures out. Here are three.

So Cute!

Mess Around Ranch Updates.

This is just a post to update all the animals with words and cute pictures.

My sheep have been doing very well. Since my last post, we haven't had any new lambs. But we should have some more soon. They all look so close to lambing. You can tell when they are close to lambing when there udders start to fill up. They will also start to act diffrent. They may go away from the rest of the flock or not eat when the others do. Its so cool to wake up in the morning and go out side a see a new baby lamb on the ground.

I remember the very first lamb I ever had. I was going out to do chores early in the morning just like I always do. I walked by to check on the sheep and there was a cute little white lamb on the ground. It was so cute! And very strange. Jacob sheep are black and white and can have 2,4,6 and sometimes 8 horns! But they are not suppose to be only one complete color. I named her cupcake cause she was white like a cupcake. This was two years ago. I still have her today. She is going to lamb soon. She wasn't suppose to lamb at all! Because of her being all white, the white gene could pass on to all her babies Then I all I would have would be white sheep. But she broke out of the pen and got in with a ram. We will most likely eat her lamb. Even if the lamb was black and white like a real Jacob sheep, she would still have the white gene. Here are some more pictures of my sheep. I can't wait for more lambs!

The sheep aren't the only ones who will be having babies this spring. My little brother Josiah has goats! They haven't had any babies yet, but hopfully they will have them soon! We are going to milk them for a few months. Are milking cow is taking a rest until she has her calf. Until then we will milk the goats. Josiah has to milking goats and one Piggmy goat. The Piggmy goat is the goat that got us into all of this. First a goat them a pig them sheep then bunnys and more goats! Here is a picture. Can't wait for them to kid. By the way, a baby goat is called a kid.

Elijah's pigs are doing great! Elijah is so happy! He named his pigs Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. (From the lord of the rings movie) The baby pigs are still about the same size and are getting nicer. I think Elijah will do a great job at the fair this year. I just wanted to put some quick picturers out there of them. Just so you could remember how cute they are.

I wish it was spring! So do the ducks. We all have our own breed of ducks. My breed of ducks are Khaki Campbells. They are brown ducks who are great egg layers. The ducks are fine as always. I'm just putting out a picture.

The puppys are doing great! They are getting so big now! Its hard to pick them up! Its just so much fun to go out in the mornings to let them out and play with them. They will be waiting by the gate wagging there tails and jumping up on the fence. You open the door and then there gone. Every dog loves to run! The other two dogs we have love to play with them. They always are having races around the house. Its a lot of fun to watch. Maybe I should show one of them this year at the fair. I should ask dad about that. Each year dad helps out with the dog show at the fair. Maybe he will know something about it. Anyway. Here's some pictures of them. This post is full of pictures!

Sorry. It was really hard to get a good picture! They just kept moving!

Today mom orderd baby chicks in the mail. They will get here March 22. We already have a lot of chickens, but we need a few more extra roosters for fair time. I will have something to post about then. Hopfully I will be done lambing by then. Its just one thing after the other here at the mess around ranch. To end this post, here is a picture of one of my chickens and my turkey Tom. Thanks for reading this post!

I forgot to say how the bunnys were doing! I will just say they are fine and put this picture out. I am going to check on the sheep. Thanks again for reading this post!

Sheep lambs

My sheep are lambing. We are just getting started. So far I have had four sheep that have had lambs. I have six lambs on the ground. My sheep are the kind of sheep that can have twins. I just wanted to post some pictures of them out to keep my blog updated. I still have 14 more to lamb. Each year my flock gets bigger! I have a feeling that there will be more lambs on the ground tomorrow. We are going to run out of pens! When a new lamb is born you put it in its own small pen with the mother away from the flock for a few days. Dad keeps thinking they are all going to lamb at once. But I don't think that is going to happen. I will put more pictures out as soon as I get more lambs. They are so cute!

First Lamb of the Year

Yesturday we got our first lamb of the year!

It was a nice warm Sunday at the Mess Around Ranch. We were able to sleep in because we went to church the night before. Josiah ( My little brother ) wakes up early every morning to go check on the sheep. And every time he comes back I will wake up and ask if any of the sheep lambed. Always he says no. But yesurday was diffrent. Josiah comes in yelling that his sheep lambed. Everybody jumps out of bed and runs outside to see the lamb. The first year I got my sheep I gave Josiah and Elijah there very own sheep for helping me take care of them. So Josiah and Elijah have there own small flock that grows a little each year. Josiah's sheep was the first sheep to lamb this year. He is very pleased. He had one girl lamb. It is very common for Jacob sheep to have twins and triplets. But Josiah only had one. But that's Ok. He still has another sheep to lamb. They all look so close to lambing, I'm worred they are all going to lamb at once! That would be bad because we would run out of places to put them. It would be nice if we just got one or two a day until they are all done. But I don't think that will happen. I can't wait for my sheep to lamb. Josiah got lucky having his lamb be the first one this year. That's a big thing around here. If one lambs then that is a sign that soon more will be coming.

Valley View is coming up and I don't want to miss that! Last week we didn't go because the roads were to bad. Now they aren't great but are able to drive on. Here's a picture of Josiah's sheep. It's so cute! I will put more pictures out when we get more lambs. Wish us luck!

Busted, with Garaffes and Elephants.

It happens to everyone! Your keeping a deep dark secret that you don't want anyone to know about and then bam! Somebody knows about it. I wasin't keeping a deep dark secret that I didn't want anyone to know about. I was just keeping a secret that I didn't want mom to know about.

We all keep secrets right? Of course we do! Everybody has there own little secrets that they keep to themselfs or share with a friend. It could be buying a soda with out asking your parents or breaking a lamp and hiding it under the bed hoping nobody will see it. Me, Josiah and Elijah all love playing poker. We're boys, Its in our nature! For the past couple weeks we have been having late night poker games. Last night we we're going in to our club house in our room to play when mom came in and busted us. Now, the reason that we didn't want mom to know was because we were playing with real money. Now, come on, were brothers! We don't like to cheat each other. We only play with pennys and nickles. Maybe I dime every now and then, when you have a good hand and you really think you are going to win. We don't always play poker in the middle of the night. We like to play in the day time when we can. But its hard when you have sibblings who like to be there with you. Sibblings that want to play like there big brothers! But now that we're busted we won't be playing any more poker in the middle of the night, or with money. Money just makes the game more interesting! what's the point if there's no reward in winning. And we never lose that much. Most of the time we give everybody's money back. But mom doesn't like it non the less.

Our animals are daring! They want to make the most of life, be daring, live live on the edge! For example, our chickens, they love to ride my dad's bull all around the pen!

This morning I get up, get dressed, and get ready to go do chores. The side door was iced shut and wouldn't open, so we had to use the other door. ( Mom hates it when we use this door. ) But we had no other choise. Anyway, we go out side to do chores and there I see, in the bull pen, at least 6 chickens riding the bull. They we're on his back as he was standing up and moving around! Now chickens are born being great at balancing. They have really good grip in there feet.

When people hear the words: They get along like cats and dogs! They think, they must not get along very well! Not at the Mess Around Ranch! Our animals get along like Peanut butter and honey! They dogs will go over to the hay and take a nap, and then the cats will come to join them! They cats will get right up the our dog Marry and lie down right on her! And Marry will just lay there and do nothing.

We have so many animals here at the Mess Around Ranch. But why do we have so many animals? Where did they all come from? What started it? The answer, is Josiah's piggmy goat.

For over 2 years my little brother wanted to get a goat. Mom and dad didn't really know anything about goats and they thought that Josiah would change his mind and not want goats. They were wrong. Josiah waited 2 years learning about goats and asking mom and dad when he was going to get a goat. This was before we had sheep or the pig or bunnys or turkeys or even ducks! All we had was one milk cow and a few chickens. They day we got Marry goat is a day I will never forget! After that Elijah wanted a animal of his own. His own species. He wanted a pig, and he got his wish! Then I wanted to get a species of my own! Sheep. I waited a long time. I didn't just want any kind of sheep, I wanted a special kind of  breed of sheep. After looking for a long time I came down to two breeds of sheep. Of the two I chose Jacob sheep. But the closest sheep for sale was all the way out on the west coast! I could see it was going to be a long time until I would get my sheep. But them one day we found a someone who was selling all her Jacob sheep for cheap! They were only about 4 hours away. I talked to mom and dad. ( Mainly dad cause he has the money. ) And they said yes! So we all went up to get the sheep.

I have had my Jacob sheep for two years! In one month they will lamb. After I got my sheep then we got bunnys for Matthas and Lilli. And then we got more and more cows. And then just last year dad came across three milking cows for a great price! As you can see, this really is the one and only Mess Around Ranch. It all started with a boy and a little piggmy goat. Who knows what will come next?! Will it will be next? Will it be Giraffes, or Elephants?