We miss our Thor boy, he was a gentle, loving ram and he was delightful to interact with! Thor was with us for only one breeding season. As he grew beyond lambhood he developed some physical traits that made him not as stunning as we thought he would be: his jaw had an underbite, and his backlegs were not as straight and strong as could be desired. As we approached his next breeding season, we started asking ourselves which ewes we could put him with who had the strength to overcome his weaknesses and who could benefit from his strengths: grey coloring, great horns, fun flashing, great fleece. Then Thor took the issue out of our hands. We headed out to pasture one morning and found him laying down while others were happily eating away in the new pasture we'd opened up. Not normal! We took him back to the barn with us for specialized care, but he passed away a few days later. We have learned over time to accept the natural culling that occurs in a fold, painful though it is, and Thor's passing was no exception. We do have a number of his lambs in our fold who have inherited his strengths and not his weaknesses so the Thor's flash will continue. 

Kopur was one of our first two rams and was part of our very first breeding season. He taught us a lot about ram management, including when it's time to retire a ram for aggressive ramming behavior. His second breeding season, he developed an aggressive attitude toward everyone and everything. Not fun! It was convenient that we had our gentleman Glacier to compare him against so that we knew aggressive behavior wasn't "normal" or "acceptable." His genetics are still in our fold today so his dense, fine thel carries on, but thankfully he kept his cranky attitude to himself. His son William is actually one of our most gentle rams. Go figure.