Gulmoget

Here is a picture of one of my gulmoget ewes, sheared. The most important characteristics of the pattern, IMHO, are ...

• light belly, with the light extending up under the tail. The line between dark and light is truly a line, with the skin under each colour being a coresponding colour.
• light inside the ears, which doesn't show in this picture, but it is like the reverse ear marking to a katmoget.
• light under the chin that extends to the throat, and sometimes down the chest to the belly.
• the legs also have 'pattern', very much like the katmoget.
• eye fleshes vary greatly on my gulmogets, and also seem to change during the year. It is important that they be there, but several of mine are only noticeable when the sun is right ... :-)
• The true test for gulmoget would be breeding as the pattern is co-dominant to katmoget and grey, recessive to white, but dominant over Aa, so that 50% of the lambs from a gulmoget will also be gulmoget.

I have about 15 gulmoget ewes at the moment, and several gulmoget rams. What I am seeing is the same variations that I see between katmogets. As to 'Burrit', Sue Russo, in the UK, told me that they don't use that as a recognized marking any more. Not sure why.

When we were at the Dailley Farm for the AGM, there was a gulmoget/musket ewe lamb! Linda Doane looked at my gulmogets and said that they are the exact same pattern that she had seen in the sheep she registered as gulmoget. I have a Dailley ram that sired a gulmoget ewe.

As soon as the border opens up, I'd like to bring in a Dillon Gulmoget and do some test breeding with him. I'm wondering if there isn't a 'light gulmoget face' (Alt) ... like there is a 'light babger face' (Alb). That would be something interesting to look into.

Speaking of Dogs ...

The two dogs here at Willow Garden that work the hardest have been feeling left out these days ... so ... here they are ... Kayla, always alert and attentive ... and Nick, always watching, but only out of the corner of one eye ... :-)

I couldn't do this without them and love them both to bits!

Willow Garden Dragon Fruit

This is a ram lamb out of Willow Garden Dorethy Lamour, a moorit/mioget yuglet flecket sokket ewe, and Great Plains William the Conqueror, my F1 Greyling ram purchased from Carol Arthur. This guy is pretty darned cool, and will be instrumental in bringing Carol's exquisite fleeces into my spotted flock.

Would you say that this guy is spotted? ... or is his facial marking within the normal katmoget range?

Sure has an even and soft fleece this little guy!

Dinah Shore's Fleece

Not much else to say here ... This is Dinah Shore's fleece. It makes me gasp when I touch it ... it is SOOO soft. I have two ewe lambs from her this year, out of a Dailley polled ram. That ram is so polled that he doesn't even have a visible, or noticeable to touch spot where horns might be.

I love this ewe ... not quite as much as Iris though ... hehehe

Hang On!

Hang on everyone! I am in a real rambling mood this morning ... so don't expect anything too coherent ... hehehe

First off ... while exploring files last night I came across this photograph from Carole Dailley. The ram ... is the one and only S0555. This ram appears in many of our spotted pedigrees. I also think that he looks a lot like Stephen Rouse's Darious, in terms of size and structure.



I spent much of the weekend fencing with the kid across the road, Matt helping me. I don't know what I would do without Matt. He is 15 years old, loves my sheep, learns quickly, and thinks that $7.50 an hour is a LOT of money ... hehehe. I have told him that I will do what I can to be sure he fails a grade or two ... so that it is longer until he goes off to college ... LOL. Unfortunately, he is a good student, so I may loose him in a couple of years ... *sigh*.

Anyway ... the perimeter is fenced and now we are working on interior fencing to create five 3 to 4 acres pastures to rotate the ewes through over the summer.

Our constant companion as we work in the fields ... is Kayla, one of my Livestock Guardian Dogs. Nick, who weighs in at a little over 200 pounds will sometimes 'gallomp' out to see what is going on, but he does have a much more laid back approach to life.
And ... Jessie, the wonder dog, who wants to work the sheep, but doesn't know how because her master (me) has not taken the time to train her ... is never far away.

Norah, our black and white Newfoundland Landseer 'pup', is much more like Nick, and rarely has the desire to walk waaayyy to the back of the farm ... especially since there are shade trees and dirt holes ... right outside the back door!



Here is my final ramble ... another picture from Carole Dailley ... from the early years. Not sure which ewe this is, but she sure looks to have a katmoget lamb at her side! The lamb also looks to be very well marked and dark ... perhaps proving that all Dailley katmogets were not actually Alb, but might have truly been Ab. Oh how I wish I had known Carole 25 years ago!!

Clean-up Ram

I thought that I might show you the ram lamb that I used for clean-up. This is Wind Water Sean O'Sullivan, a smirslet, flecket, katmoget ram lamb out of Willow Garden Magda Gabor and Woolly Clyde. I bought this ram from Shauna Grey, and this is her photograph. This ram has a very soft and evenly crimped fleece. His lambs could start to arrive sometime toward the end of next week. It looks like at least 12 of the 14 ewes that he could have bred, settled. I am expecting some interesting spots and patterns from this last group!