Thursday, March 12, 2009

Join the CVM/Romeldale Lamb Pool!

I am so excited to share this post with you. Let's have some fun!

Last year Betsy MacIssac of Crooked Fence Farm, Putney, VT (site is under construction so check back) contacted me to get together as she had just purchased her first CVM/Romeldales and was interested in getting together to discuss our shared interest. She had heard we had a fine flock of CVM/Romeldales that we began developing in 2002. Our encounter has blossomed into a great friendship.....Sister Farms bounding the Connecticut River in NH and VT. As the crow flies we are 4 miles apart, our farm nestled in the hills on the East side of the river and her family's farm set on the west side of the river in VT. We have joked many a time that if we had a boat that we could anchor on the NH side, I could be at her farm for a visit in 15 minutes! As it is however, we need to adhere to the roads which is a 25 minute trek.

In the history book of the Town of Westmoreland is many a tale of the ferries that ran from our town to the Putney/Dummerston, VT area as early as 1752. By 1812 a bridge was constructed from Westmoreland to Putney, later known as Britton's Ferry. The following winter the bridge was swept away in the ice flows come spring. Again, in 1814, the bridge was rebuilt and there was a toll booth on the NH side. As a side note, to this day, NH owns the CT River and perhaps NH felt they had rights to charge for travel across it. That bridge continued to serve the people for 12 more years accounting only one catastrophe. In 1820, a circus, traveling across the river, was transporting an elephant whose weight proved too much for the bridge and the poor elephant crashed through the floor and into the river below. The elephant did not survive but the bridge was repaired and continued to thrive until a series of rainstorms and repeated rebuilding discouraged further attempts to span the river at this location.

Betsy and I are both pleased and excited to be so near to each other and able to share not only shepherding help but also breeding our flock's combined genetics and getting together to work on projects with CVM/Romeldale fiber. It's a great opportunity combined with a genuine friendship.

Here ye, here ye! Crooked Fence Farm is about to have their first lambs! And we want to have a lamb pool for due date and time of day! Here is the first lamb pool.

This is the ram, Neville, a CVM. An extremely handsome boy and also a love. He is the proud sire to be.

This is Georgia, a CVM, the expectant dam to be.

Clue #1: This will be Georgia's first lambing. On a side note, both Betsy and I agree it is better to not breed ewes their first year but rather to let them develop and mature and start the breeding cycle in their second year.

Clue #2: Georgia began her breeding days with Neville October 12th and she remained in his adoring reach until November 16th, 35 days and two estrus cycles which is ideal.

Clue #3: Her due date, based on gestation tables will be from March 6th to April 10th. Look at her closely....it's not far off!

Time to place your bets for the date (month/day) and the time of day. The person coming the closest to the actual lambing date will win 4 ounces of Long Ridge Farm's
roving from our very dark and very dear Trinity, a natural colored Romeldale!

Check back for the results when the lambing is official. I will post the heading as Lamb Pool Results and the winner's name will be posted. Of course your entries will also be visible here under comments.

Good luck!

10 comments:

  1. Neville is a hottie!

    I'm betting on March 18th, which is my nephew/godson's b'day.

    What a fun pool!

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  2. Oops--forgot the time. I'm going to say 12:38 in the afternoon.

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  3. What sweet faces! I'm happy to add more of Trinity to my stash if I win. My guess will be March 22, in the wee hours maybe 4am?

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  4. Anonymous8:25 AM

    .... I'll go w/ "the Ides of March" this Sunday the 15th ...about 6:00 a.m. ~ Maryann

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  5. Anonymous12:02 PM

    I'm going to guess March 28th at 5:45am. Because there's nothing like being woken up early on a Saturday.

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  6. I'll go with 6am on March 17th (St. Patricks day) & my 1/2 birthday

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  7. March 26th at 2 am- you'll have a surprise during your early morning barn check. Unless of course you have a baby monitor and are woken up by audible restlessness in the barn. I am also guessing since she is one of triplets that her wide girth maybe hiding twins in there. :-)

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  8. I'll say March 16, 0500 ~Mary

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  9. March 20th at 4:30 pm - totally pulled out of thin air, no scientific reason why! :o)

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  10. I'm going with March 25th at 5:30 a.m. (This guess based on totally unrelated horse-birth preferences around the dark of the moon and at dawn!)

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