Habetrot

YaaaaaaaaaaY!

HAPPY SPRING!

It's a Lampede!

(click for big lambs)

This happy photo comes from here on Flickr. Thanks, Baalands!

 

New York City

New York City, Central Park.

From an 1869 print.

(click for bigness)

Wouldn't it be amazing if someone brought sheep back to New York City? 

Happy New Year

Happy Holidays and my best wishes to you all for a very Happy New Year

It has been a fine year here at Habetrot, and I thank you all for coming by.

Click for some sheepish seasonal music.

With thanks to http://www.golakes.co.uk/ .

Sheep, Eh?

I pulled this image out of my archives recently for my friend Dianna who lives in Saskatchewan, Canada, and I thought y'all would enjoy it, too.

(click for bigger)







"Ranching in the Canadian West. Flock of Sheep."

This postcard is from the early 20th century, probably around 1910.  Nice flock, eh?

Festivals

Last month around Rhinebeck time I was telling a new co-worker about my fondness for attending sheep and wool festivals.  He responded, "What?!  Did you say 'Sheep and wolf festivals?"  I'm still laughing about it.

Not as crazy as it sounds, though.  Here's one now:

(click for big)

And so they will forever be Sheep & Wolf Festivals for me.  Thanks, Gerry!

 

Interspecies Cuteness

I came across this over at Cute Overload, of all places. 

". . .when it's time to move sheep and lambs to a new grazing field, a donkeh helps out with the moving process. The lamb-o-pack ensures no lamb is left behind... LOL."  I think that about says it all.

(click for bigness)

And before you can ask, my best guess of the breed of sheep, based on those extraordinary ears, the head, and the tails on the adults would be the Bergamasca (scroll down to third entry) from Italy or one of the similar members of the Alpine Lop-Eared Group.

Here are some lambies all grown up. Still pretty darn cute, eh?

Truth is WAY Stranger

Or is it?  From the internet:

A young pig in Esquina, Corrientes, Argentina, has fleece like a sheep according to a certain news outlet.*  Although the story appears in a few different places on the net, they all seem to point back to the linked story.

In the interest of preserving the story against internet flux, I quote the main part of it here:

"Meet the world’s first sheep-hog — a pig with its own fleece. Scientists are baffled by the strange swine — which they say is a pig “at heart” but with a woolly hide.
The one-year-old is being raised on a ranch near the town of Esquina, 400 miles north of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
It is a pig but has a thick fleece which needs shearing in summer with the other sheep because it suffers in the heat. Other pigs do not trust it."

I've heard of a wolf in sheep's clothing, but this is a porcine of a different color entirely.  Perhaps it envies the camelids?  Or perhaps its mother spent way too much time watching a certain video.

*And, yes, I know to consider the source.  I especially enjoy the bassackward headline on the story.  :D

Suburban Shepherdess

Far more unusual than the Turkish shepherdess of the previous entry is the Suburban Shepherdess.  (Click to biggify)

My thanks to sender-inner Zinlizzie for making the sighting and for identifying the sheep breed as being Ovis aries frontlawnii.  It would have taken me a long time to track that one down as it is quite rare and does not yet appear in most of the sheep breed references.

 

This breed of sheep is most often seen in the US, which is where I believe it was first developed.  The setting is almost always suburbia, as shown here, as the breed does not fare well in more rural settings.

There have been occasional sightings in Canada and even in a few European settings, but those are quite unusual. 

Even more rare than a sighting of these sheep, is a sighting of them with their attendant shepherdess.  Well done, Zinlizzie.

WooHoo!

It's my first Blogiversary!

I wasn't sure I wanted to get into this whole weird blogging thing, and I knew I didn't want to do a personal blog.  I was "Marcy, Blogless" for years.  But when I thought of sharing my collections of images of fiberish and sheepy things I thought I'd give it a try.

My original conception was to just put up images and let them speak for themselves.  But I was soon prevailed upon by wiser heads to also do some writing.  I'm very glad they spoke up.  I've done a lot of research and learning in the process of writing up a lot of these blog entries in the last year.  And from the feedback I've gotten from you, dear readers, it would appear that you've been enjoying it here, too.

So, wow, it's been a fun year, and thanks for coming around.  I hope to keep this up for a long time to come.  I figure I have about 20 years worth at this rate.  :D

Shepherds of Morocco

Shepherd of Morocco in northwest Africa.

The lambs he is holding are probably Sardi, one of the principal sheep breeds of Morocco.  You can read a bit about the breed here (in French).  They are spectacled, very white, the rams are heavily horned, and the ewes are polled (hornless).  They have a long, thin tail and produce a fine wool

(click all images for big)

Another shepherd with his mixed flock.

And another shepherd in the mountains of Morocco.

(make sure to click this one for big)