flown by

january has been a blurr.

busy with life and taking down christmas...cleaning out junk...celebrating birthdays...reorganizing spaces...cooking like crazy...trying new things....doing research on the internet.

gardening in january is pretty nill but thoughts about what to do have

been at an all time high. it gets pretty ugly around here in january.

it makes you think about doing all kinds of things.

one of those things that have been going around in our heads for a few years is that we want to raise our own sheep. so i have been reading everything i can find online about being a shepherd. after much research and disscussions on which breed we thought best suited our needs....we have decided on, and this is a mouthful, olde english babydoll southdown miniature sheep.

i have found some great info online at sheep 101 ~ http://www.sheep101.info/index.html

• (Olde English) Babydoll Southdown
  
  The Olde English Babydoll Southdown is a miniature variety of the Southdown breed. The Southdown breed of sheep originated in the Southdown hills of Sussex County, England. It is one of the oldest purebred sheep breeds in the world. Southdowns were imported to the United States in the early 1800's. The 1960's saw increased importation of the larger New Zealand Southdown to upscale the American Southdown.
  
  Around 1990, small flocks of the original smaller Southdowns were rediscovered and labeled Olde English Babydoll Miniature Sheep to differentiate them from the larger modern breed. This miniature sheep is only 19 to 23 inches tall. Babydolls usually have off white wool with cinnamon or gray faces and legs. Currently people raise these docile sheep for their wool, as pets, and grass trimmers perfect for today's smaller acreage farms.

  Breed categories: medium wool, novelty, meat

my hubby and i wanted a rare breed, of good stock and hardy. there are a lot of breeds out there with many great qualities but this is the one we have decided on.

we are starting with one ram, two ewes and a whether(a neutered male).

the ewes we are getting haven't been born but are due in march and we will

get them in may sometime. i found a ram just born on january 15th that is available and so arrangements have been made to get "mc gruber."

we will pick him up in the middle of march from

sweetwater creek ranch

just outside of atlanta, ga.

he is quite adorable.

we are preparing for his arrival and are very happy to be adding

raising sheep to our little dash home farm.

this is both exciting and scary since we are new to this adventure.

so i will continue to read and discover how to raise sheep.

happy winter days.