Gratitude acres
Living outside the box
The quest for purebred Valais Blacknose Sheep!
Let’s not pretend. The Valais Blacknose Sheep are the M&M’s of the sheep world. You can’t just get one. You want perfection on 4 legs of incredible cuteness. You constantly want to breed up to get as close to 100% as possible. Which now is completely possible due to us being allowed to import embryos from NZ. We did take the plunge and bought 2 embryos. One took, and we now have our own purebred ram. It’s a great feeling to have reached a point in our breeding program where we do not HAVE to buy frozen semen but can use our own ram. Yay! Check out the difference a little more than 4 months can make!
Our big question for this breeding season is not about our ram but instead; Do we buy another embryo and cross our fingers that it’s a) a successful embryo transfer and b) a girl? Or do we wait another season? Depending on which day- or even hour- you ask me you will get a different answer. I can make a case for either. Deciding and choosing makes me nervous. I get anxious. I want it to be “right”. I want to be successful in what I do. Truthfully, I want it all. And I want it now. Preferably with a guarantee not to lose money, time or effort. So maybe now is a good time to look at what I HAVE and take a minute to remind myself of all I have to be grateful for.
We got our purebred Ram. We got 7 more lambs this year. All our ewes, lambs, pigs, piglets and chickens are doing great. Freja’s presence have halted the fox in his pursuits of our chickens, and she’s also a great nanny to the lambs -as you can see below. We are bringing home 2 Sila Shepherds from Italy in the fall and will eventually breed them (and at least one litter of Colorado Mountain Dogs). Pictured below is Scott with our new Sila male. There’s also Freja and Desmond and our new female Sila puppy Calabria. She will be much bigger by the time she comes home (All this waiting hopefully will bring me some much-needed patience). Scott and I are good, kids and family too. We all miss my dad and Scott’s mom but know they are at peace and in a much better place. That’s a LOT to be thankful for.
The hardest choices in life are not the ones between good and bad. It’s a lot harder to choose between good, better and best. The difference between good and bad is usually pretty clear. I find picking the best option out of several good ones nerve wracking. If they are all good, can then one still be wrong if another option is better? I think so. It may be wiser to just stay the course and evaluate where you are in order to get a clearer sense of your future path. I’ve never had much patience for waiting. I will research genetics and breeding and then choose. Either way, it’s a good problem to have. This fall we will breed our ewes again. If all goes according to plan, this spring we will welcome our first F3’s along with other happy little lambs, some sired by our own ram. And maybe also another little purebred Valais Blacknose lamb. Maybe. Life really is pretty wonderful here at Gratitude Acres!
Gratitude acres 
Aww Valais Blacknose lambs are just soo cute!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tjohoo så härlig läsning!! Lovely problemas 🙂
LikeLike