The main flock with lambs.....
And a pretty yellow dog.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
And They're Off!
Being turned out to pasture each morning is still exciting to the flock. They graze all day, coming in and out of the barn for water and shade, and in the evening we make sure they are all inside and shut the gates. No sense tempting predators in the lonesome dark when there is plenty of room in the barn and bunk for lounging. Later in summer when they've been over every inch of ground and they know there are no more fresh yummy patches of clover to discover - just plain boring grass - they'll leave the barn in a more mannerly trudge. Now, though, it's like opening flood gates.
The main flock with lambs.....
And the group of yearlings and geriatrics.........
And just because spring comes but once a year..... pretty flower pictures. Dandelions and lamium and forget-me-not and bleeding heart.
There. That's better! :-D
The main flock with lambs.....
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Encore!
More video of the lambs having fun running back and forth.
Oh, to have such boundless energy!
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
I've Coined a New Term
You have a herd of cows, a flock of sheep, and...... behold!
A scamper of lambs!
We have been letting the flock out on grass in the 'baby pasture' for short periods since last week. The cold spring delayed the grass and it isn't good for the pasture to be walked on and gnawed on until there's enough growth to stand up to grazing so we are about a week late. Because the sheep have been on dry feed all winter they have to be reintroduced to fresh grass in a controlled manner or they will overeat and scour at best or bloat at worst. The lambs are thrilled to be out of the barn and have room to run.
The ewes immediately dispersed to find the 'best' forage but the lambs were just interested in investigating things. Everything in the pasture is new to them - dirt, rocks, tall wavy plants, uneven ground. They were entertained without going more than fifteen feet from the gate.
It was an overcast day and I used the camera phone due to its portability so excuse the less than great photos.
The bottle lambs followed me a ways and brought a bunch of their friends along.
"It looks harmless. You say it BIT you??"
Dandelions get targeted quickly.
It helps when you stick with mom and she shows you what to eat.
A scamper of lambs!
A tilted slab of discarded concrete was really intriguing.
"This looks tasty and it's just the right height for chomping on."
It helps when you stick with mom and she shows you what to eat.
"I'm so happy it's spring again!"
We all are!
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Maryland - Part Two
As much fun as it was to hang out in the sheep barn watching the breed shows, there were way too many other things to ignore.
Sheep dog herding demonstrations.... Two handlers, a group of five Blue Faced Leicesters, four border collies and much controlled maneuvering through gates, around cones and being brought into a small pen next to the handler.
The fleece show and sale. Last figure I heard from the people at the check-out table was 960 entries - an easy all-time record, for sure. All categories were well marked and fleeces thoroughly tagged for easy shopping and/or retrieval of unsold fleeces after the event. Wall to wall wool! In the second picture down you can see the queue of people at the back of the building checking out with their purchases. This was mid-afternoon so the most eager buyers had already taken out many fleeces but there were still hundreds of bags of excellent quality wool.
Hey look! The two natural colored medium fleeces I entered placed second (Carmel) and Honorable Mention (Yahtzee) in their class! :-)
Then we took a good long time admiring the entries in the Skein and Garment competition. Both of these Champion entries were made from fleeces from sheep (Beanie Baby and Rebecca Boone) enjoying life at Punkin's Patch. Happy sheep make amazing wool and awesome talent makes beautiful things!
I loved this hooked rug.
Sheep dog herding demonstrations.... Two handlers, a group of five Blue Faced Leicesters, four border collies and much controlled maneuvering through gates, around cones and being brought into a small pen next to the handler.
The fleece show and sale. Last figure I heard from the people at the check-out table was 960 entries - an easy all-time record, for sure. All categories were well marked and fleeces thoroughly tagged for easy shopping and/or retrieval of unsold fleeces after the event. Wall to wall wool! In the second picture down you can see the queue of people at the back of the building checking out with their purchases. This was mid-afternoon so the most eager buyers had already taken out many fleeces but there were still hundreds of bags of excellent quality wool.
Hey look! The two natural colored medium fleeces I entered placed second (Carmel) and Honorable Mention (Yahtzee) in their class! :-)
Then we took a good long time admiring the entries in the Skein and Garment competition. Both of these Champion entries were made from fleeces from sheep (Beanie Baby and Rebecca Boone) enjoying life at Punkin's Patch. Happy sheep make amazing wool and awesome talent makes beautiful things!
An entry didn't have to be large to be worthy of a purple ribbon.
And so many great paintings and photos.
Look at that face!
And of course there were hundreds of vendors to investigate. This was a decoration at a new vendor's booth. She was selling.....wait for it.... felting supplies. WOW! What an advertisement!
If you can ever get to the Maryland festival you'll come home with more inspiration than you'll ever have time to execute!
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Maryland - Part One
This past weekend was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. My friend Julie and I made our annual pilgrimage there to see, buy and enjoy. SO much to see and do - everything is fiber related in one way or another.
Weather was great and it was crowded - I'm guessing the usual 50,000 for the weekend. This is one of two main thoroughfares, the other being parallel this one but on the other end of the barns to the right. You can't see the many barns lying farther up the hill. And of course it doesn't count the people within all the buildings.......
The Leicester Longwool association was celebrating 25 years of the breed being back in the US. Having become literally extinct in America a group of seedstock had to be selected and imported in order to bring this historically important breed back to the US. A tremendous amount of effort and care since then has resulted in very good progress. They had a large tent to themselves and an excellent display of animals from several farms and many items made from Leicester wool showing its beauty and versatility. Some clever boots even made a flock of lawn sheep from some gnarly felted locks and corn cobs!
I had forgotten that the Leicester folks had asked permission to use a photo of some of our Cotswolds on their association banner which appears to be showing many of the breeds that originated in the UK besides the Leicester.
This majestic ram was quite photogenic.
There were ewes with unweaned lambs at their side too which is something you never see at a typical sheep show.
All the Leicesters were card graded which means they were evaluated by a team of three specialized Leicester judges and compared to the breed standard rather than to each other. Excellent animals received a blue card, Good were red, Acceptable were yellow and Unacceptable (I didn't see any of those) would have been white. I love this method of judging! Comments were listed on each card detailing the strong and weak points of each animal. There could be many blue cards, not just one, and breeders would have a much more meaningful critique of potential breeding stock than a ribbon for first, fifth or tenth place. Smarter matches could be made and extremes of type - which seems to lead show ring activity - is regarded with a wary eye since upholding the breed standard is the whole point of the exercise. I'd love to see other breeds do this once in a while, particularly any minor breeds.
While most of the grading was done in the Leicester tent, about a half dozen sheep were brought to the main arena so more people could observe the process. I also like that the animals are off lead and allowed to move around a small pen on their own - no one setting their feet or posing them to hide deficiencies. The three judges were very thorough and examined everything from the sheep's bite to their gait, fleece character, overall size with respect to present age, reproductive equipment, pigment on nose, ears and hooves, udder structure on females, growth of lambs if applicable and other traits. Here Dr. Phil Sponenberg gives an explanation of this ewe's grade.
The weekend was busy with 'regular' sheep shows too. There were many breeds that warranted their own show - meaning they competed against only others of their own breed in each class - and some breeds didn't have enough entries to show alone and so they competed against quite different individuals. Here is the White Wool Long class. I saw Cotswolds, Teeswaters, Leicester Longwools (some of these chose to compete in the 'regular' sheep show as well as being card graded and did very well against stiff competition) and Scottish Blackface. The judge really got a work out comparing apples to oranges and kumquats. All combined there were over 600 sheep on the grounds for the various shows, exhibits, demonstrations and sales. A breed for every purpose and then some!
These stylish Border Leicesters were waiting for breakfast.
While some Cotswolds dug in.
Next time - more really fun stuff at the festival!
Weather was great and it was crowded - I'm guessing the usual 50,000 for the weekend. This is one of two main thoroughfares, the other being parallel this one but on the other end of the barns to the right. You can't see the many barns lying farther up the hill. And of course it doesn't count the people within all the buildings.......
The Leicester Longwool association was celebrating 25 years of the breed being back in the US. Having become literally extinct in America a group of seedstock had to be selected and imported in order to bring this historically important breed back to the US. A tremendous amount of effort and care since then has resulted in very good progress. They had a large tent to themselves and an excellent display of animals from several farms and many items made from Leicester wool showing its beauty and versatility. Some clever boots even made a flock of lawn sheep from some gnarly felted locks and corn cobs!
I had forgotten that the Leicester folks had asked permission to use a photo of some of our Cotswolds on their association banner which appears to be showing many of the breeds that originated in the UK besides the Leicester.
This majestic ram was quite photogenic.
There were ewes with unweaned lambs at their side too which is something you never see at a typical sheep show.
All the Leicesters were card graded which means they were evaluated by a team of three specialized Leicester judges and compared to the breed standard rather than to each other. Excellent animals received a blue card, Good were red, Acceptable were yellow and Unacceptable (I didn't see any of those) would have been white. I love this method of judging! Comments were listed on each card detailing the strong and weak points of each animal. There could be many blue cards, not just one, and breeders would have a much more meaningful critique of potential breeding stock than a ribbon for first, fifth or tenth place. Smarter matches could be made and extremes of type - which seems to lead show ring activity - is regarded with a wary eye since upholding the breed standard is the whole point of the exercise. I'd love to see other breeds do this once in a while, particularly any minor breeds.
While most of the grading was done in the Leicester tent, about a half dozen sheep were brought to the main arena so more people could observe the process. I also like that the animals are off lead and allowed to move around a small pen on their own - no one setting their feet or posing them to hide deficiencies. The three judges were very thorough and examined everything from the sheep's bite to their gait, fleece character, overall size with respect to present age, reproductive equipment, pigment on nose, ears and hooves, udder structure on females, growth of lambs if applicable and other traits. Here Dr. Phil Sponenberg gives an explanation of this ewe's grade.
The weekend was busy with 'regular' sheep shows too. There were many breeds that warranted their own show - meaning they competed against only others of their own breed in each class - and some breeds didn't have enough entries to show alone and so they competed against quite different individuals. Here is the White Wool Long class. I saw Cotswolds, Teeswaters, Leicester Longwools (some of these chose to compete in the 'regular' sheep show as well as being card graded and did very well against stiff competition) and Scottish Blackface. The judge really got a work out comparing apples to oranges and kumquats. All combined there were over 600 sheep on the grounds for the various shows, exhibits, demonstrations and sales. A breed for every purpose and then some!
These stylish Border Leicesters were waiting for breakfast.
While some Cotswolds dug in.
Next time - more really fun stuff at the festival!
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