Marilla

These were taken a few weeks ago.  Marilla is my bottle baby and a bit of a clown.  She loves attention (can you tell?) and will go to great lengths to make sure I notice her.  She gets along just fine with the rest of the ewe lambs, but if I'm around the barn or where she can see me, she puts on this face and "talks" to me, until I come over to give her some scratches and a little sweet talk.  She's not the prettiest baby I've ever raised, but what she lacks in looks, she makes up for in personality and her fleece is gorgeous.

It's been so hot and dry, the ewe lambs spend a major portion of each afternoon lying under the shed on the side of the barn, which means they are so, so dirty.   They've got such bright white, lustrous fleeces,  it makes me cringe when I see them look like she does here.  In fact, a few nights ago, I haltered the white ones and brought them into the barn aisle for a little spray shower to get the worst of the dust off.   I know it won't last long, but for a few days they will look like the sheep you read about in nursery rhymes ..... "white as snow".

If we ever have cool weather again, I'll put the girls coats on to protect those pretty fleeces through the winter.  I'm already looking forward to shearing next year, so I can play with what they're growing now.  (I know ......  it's a sickness with me, but there are plenty worse things to be obsessed with than sheep fleeces.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)