Ben and Daniel

Ben and Daniel (aka Fuzz)

Daniel is a very adorable lamb! His little body is covered with long, beautiful wool! As you can see from the picture, Daniel has a very fuzzy face! We nicknamed him, Fuzz" and that seems to be an excellent fit!

Sheep Update!

Dove

Duncan and Dakota

Dudley

Dwight

Blossom

Dilly

Dixon

Carolyn loves to get  massages from her shepherds. She enjoys being with us, leaning on us, and getting hugs too! Carolyn is one of our most affectionate sheep!

Katelin's 2010 Coated Romney Fleece

Katelin's creamy-white fleece weighed in at 5 pounds after the final skirting! The locks in her fleece have a beautiful wavy crimp, as evident in the above photo.

The staple length of Katelin's fleece is fairly uniform at 5-6.5 inches.

Cute, Little Lambs !

Dora

Dixie

Autumn with Dove and Donovan

Daniel (aka. Fuzz)

Duncan

Darla

Brooke with Dasiy and Daffodil

(aka. The Flowers)

Recent Visitors!

Grace Valley Farms had visitors, recently! This flock of wild turkeys came strolling down our driveway early one morning; they decided not to join us for breakfast, however! We were content to see them through our windows and take pictures of them. The flock has 20+ members, including this fancy Tom. They've been residing in our neighborhood for over a year now, and can be seen routinely in the surrounding pastures and wooded areas. We enjoy the variety of wild animals with which God has blessed our area.

Carrie's 2010 Coated Romney Fleece

Carrie

Carrie grew a beautiful charcoal-gray fleece last year.

Her staple length is 4-6 inches, which was longer than we had predicted! The final weight of her fleece was 4.5 pounds.

Ben and Dove

Introducing the "2010 Cutest Lamb Contest"

Each year at our farm, we select the cutest lamb! The lamb maintains the title for that specific year. In previous years, our family has selected the winner; however, this year we would like to allow our readers to vote on the cutest lamb! The contest will run through April 30. It's okay to involve your friends and family in this contest for the cutest lamb!

When the winner has been selected, we will announce him/her and we'll also post the winners from the previous years.

The five nominees for the 2010 Cutest Lamb Contest are listed below.

Dilly

Donard

DonnaLisa

Dooley

Dora

Autumn's 2010 Fleece - Coated Romney Wool

Our full-blood Romney ewe, Autumn, produced this beautiful fleece. The color ranges from light gray (almost silver) to medium gray. Her wool is relatively fine and is softer than typical of many full-blooded Romney sheep, influenced by the excellent wool genetics of her father, Edison.

Staple length is 5-6 inches. Autumn's wool has maintained nice crimp.

Dooley

Ben and Dooley

Dooley continues to grow at a rapid rate! He is over 2 months old and probably weighs over 70 pounds!

Ben was trying to make Dooley stand like a show sheep. However, Dooley was not too interested in being a show sheep. He'd rather be running around, playing with his friends, than learning to stand all nice and straight. The youngster who buys Dooley for 4-H will train him to be a good show sheep!

Dudley

Annie gave birth to her first baby on March 8th. We named him Dudley and he weighed 9 lbs. 2 oz.

Annie loves her baby and pays very close attention to him!

Dixon Gets a Coat Too!

Blossom's little Dixon is not so little anymore! He is 27 days old and weighs over 40 pounds!

"I'm getting such a big boy face!"

Lamb, Lambs, Everywhere!

Delene and Davy

Dorothy

Dove and Davy

Bluebell with Dusty and Danielle

Doris

Darby

Deborah

More Feedback on Foreman's 2010 Romney Fleece

"Just wanted to send you a photo of what I've been playing with. This is Foreman's fleece (the shortest of what you had to sell).

I wanted to show you and your customers that even fine lace weight can be made from a great quality fleece even if it is shorter.

All of what you see was done on a drop spindle. I'm working toward enough for a scarf.

Thank you again for a great product, excellent communication, service, shipping and an excellent web site."

Introducing Cute Little DonnaLisa!

Sally holding DonnaLisa

Carmen gave birth to her first baby, DonnaLisa, on March 12th.

Carmen with a confused look on her face just after DonnaLisa was born.

For some first-time mothers, delivering a lamb can be confusing ... the ewe seems to be not quite sure what they should be doing. This was the case with Carmen. She was surprised at DonnaLisa and seemed to consider the lamb a threat. Carmen would stamp her feet and butt DonnaLisa hard enough to knock the lamb down. Carmen would not allow DonnaLisa to nurse or stand up.

We found it necessary to intervene until Carmen realized her lamb was not a threat. The answer is to use a device called a stanchion. The ewe's head is placed in the stanchion and locked in placed ... almost like the old-fashioned stocks for punishing criminals. The stanchion allows the ewe to eat and drink, but prevents her from butting the lamb or interfering with nursing. Typically, within a few days, the ewe gets over her confusion and readily accepts her lamb. This is what happened with Carmen and DonnaLisa; Carmen was released in three days and is acting like a mother should toward her lamb.

DonnaLisa is one of the important lambs for Grace Valley Farms. She has genetics from both Edison and Foreman. Her conformation and wool qualities are evident even though she is quite young, displaying relatively long, lustrous, and soft wool!

Dixie and Dolly Get Their First Coats!

Belvedere's twins, Dixie and Dolly, received their first coats last Saturday!

Our baby sheep coats are still a little big on them so the twins have little "dillys" of excess coat on their backs.

Standing in the hay trough!

Belvedere with Dixie and Dolly, grazing in our pasture

Now that the snow is melted and the temperatures are warming up, the grass and legumes in our pastures are starting to green up. The sheep love to eat the little shoots of new growth. Very soon, however, we will have to move them off the main pastures. This will allow the plants to mature so we can cut them for hay this summer. The hay (first and second cuttings) will become the primary food source for our flock for the winter of 2010/2011.