Jefferson weekend/Frosty morning

We had a lot of fun at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend. I decided not to bring my sheep because one of my ewes came down with pink eye and the vet said stress could bring it out in my show string since the ewe lambs would have been exposed. So I volunteered to bring 4 women in my little red van instead. It would have been quieter with the sheep in the van! The conversation never seemed to lull. Sheep and knitting topics all weekend long. It was great!

I got brave and entered a skein of Mabeline's hand-rooed, hand-combed, hand-spun 2 ply yarn in the skein competition. I was honored to get a 3rd place ribbon. The first and second place entries were really nice. Maybe next year I'll try it again...


Even though I left my sheep at home, I was thrilled to see two of my lambs in the show ring doing well for their new owner, Bill Gillette and his daughter Caitlyn. I felt like a proud grandma as they collected ribbons and the judge talked about their fleece and conformation. Caitlyn and Bill did a great job showing them. They told me the ewe lambs got Champion and Reserve Champion in 4-H at the county fair and the Reserve Champion went on to win 1st place in 4-H at the State Fair (the Champion ewe couldn't go due to age of the exhibitor).
They are both sired by Sheltering Pines Bombarde. He's an Ag Fawn Katmoget. I really want to thank my friend Stephen Rouse for sharing Bombarde with me. His lambs were awesome and he's RR AA to boot. He'll be getting most of my black shetlands this year -- I want more grey katmogets and some grey sheep in my flock again. Of course, I'm also hoping for some miogets out of Boggart.


I finally got the new part and fixed my computer! I took some photos this morning and here they are. Amber is pictured above, and Brita is below. Geronimo is at the very bottom. They are all fresh from the feeder in these shots - I hate that Timothy hay! The Geronimo photo shows his weird "knife blade" horns.

We had our first freeze last night, there was ice in waterers this morning. It was so cold outside and in the house too. I finally broke down and turned on the heat just now. All the guys went fishing up north this weekend, so turning on the heat is easier than starting a fire... Thankfully our 12 little chicks are doing fine with their adoptive mama to keep them warm. Looks like some of my Black Australorps are really Barred Rocks. I like Barred Rocks too. The poor little Turkens with their naked necks! It seems like they would really be stressed by the cold weather, but I guess they do fine. We'll see...