Like Father, Like Son

No words needed.

Almost Shearing Time

We're less than three weeks away from shearing. I used to shear in February, but several years ago I shifted shearing day to November thinking that I'd shear before I started feeding hay in the winter. For several reasons I decided to go back to February shearing but I didn't want to make the shift all at once and risk having the fleeces ruined. Last year we sheared the first week of January and this year we will shear February 7. Here are some of the sheep in full fleece.Sonata.

Jean. She was Champion Jacob Ewe at Black Sheep Gathering in June.

This is Cascade.

The BFL-cross named Ears.

This is Kenleigh's Isadora.

Vanessa.

Wesley is one of three wethers that are part of Ginny's sheepdog training flock.Wesley and Wally are BFL-crosses and the other two wethers in Ginny's flock. They were all born at the fair in July.This ram was also born at the fair. I'll have to decide about shearing them since they will have only 6-month fleeces and it will be more of a stress on them.

Sheep Close-Ups

Guess which sheep will let me get this close and hold still enough for photos?  Gorgeous fleece.Why, it's Jade! Who else? She's the one in the Santa hat in the previous post.Sheep going out to pasture last week. I've closed the gate today. The grasses are dormant and need warm weather and more daylight to get growing well again...if they get water, that is. This grass is showing signs of drying out. I hope some of the rain that is predicted comes through.

Celebrate Hug a Sheep Day

Yes, it is Hug a Sheep Day and we'll be celebrating it here at the farm. Anyone can join us. So that those of you who have never hugged a sheep can get a feel for this I thought I'd share some sheep hugging photos.

The photos above are all of Farm Club members. If you join Farm Club you will have plenty of sheep hugging opportunities.My granddaughter on a visit out here last spring. This is another cute kid, the age my granddaughter is now, at Fiber Fusion. Chickens deserve hugs too. And baby goats. Now we're getting into the archives. This is my son about 10 years ago. Another sheep hug. Running with sheep. I love this photo. A couple of these girls are in college now.While I was searching photos I found this one. Doesn't have to do with hugging sheep, but it's two of my kids waking up in the dairy barn at the State Fair back in my dairy cow days. My mom drying off a newly born kid.But today will be all about hugging sheep.

State Fair 2015

I missed the State Fair last year because I was in Texas waiting for a grandbaby to be born. Coming back to the fair this year I decided that I wanted to change my display. The fair offers Marketing Awards for each species for those who put some effort into the displays that are with their livestock. I put a lot of thought and effort into this and Farm Club members also helped with some of the behind the scenes stuff as well as being there every day of the fair.This is what the main part of the display looked like. I used rusty tin (and I didn't have to do the DIY TV shows' trick of using acid on perfectly new tin to make it look that way) for the background as well as additional signage over the sheep pens. I focused on Farm Club and the idea of local marketing of wool, lamb and promoting consumer education while many of the other sheep exhibitors primarily promote marketing breeding stock.  I created a Jacob sheep puppet  as a craft project for kids to take home and came up with a crossword puzzle unique to our farm.

Part of marketing is using social media and the award description even specified use of QR codes. There is this blog, Rusty's blog, a Meridian Jacobs Facebook page, MJ Ravelry group, a MJ YouTube channel and even Pinterest and Instagram (which I didn't put on the sign). This is the fifth or sixth year that I have provided pregnant ewes for the Nursery that is managed by the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. This doesn't have anything to do with the Marketing Award, but the people at the vet school are so appreciative of this that I continue to do it.Isadora, one of the new mom's would probably rather be home, but she really has it rather nice at the fair--always plenty of food and a blowing fan when it is getting very hot.

I think our CA State Fair has a lot going for it. I did not do my regular pre-sheep-show visit to the fair because of our trip to Texas and the work to get ready, but I looked at a few other parts while I was there. At the other end of the barn there are the longhorns. I am afraid that this is a dying breed--not the cattle, but the people who bring them to the fair. There are only a few exhibitors left now and I hope that someone else will choose to show them because they are always fun to see.Same with sheep, right?I always like to see the part they call the Farm. We have modeled some of our garden ideas from what we have seen here. No reason to throw out tires when they can be used to grow vegies. They had a stack of three for potatoes which I thought was very clever. At harvest time just pull off the tires.I took this photo for my husband. In the Counties Exhibit Hall I saw this cycling jersey promoting the Tour de Manure.Back at the barn, I love to see the beautiful Clydesdales.  They make my yearling ram look rather small.

The fair runs for three weeks and the sheep are in the nursery for the whole time. But the sheep show is only four days. Good thing because it is exhausting talking to so many people. The moderate weather for the last week of the fair contributed to record crowds. I had to bring additional panels to "protect" the rams from people  being too close and not reading the "Do not pet rams. Do not grab horns." sign.

Of course the point of going to the fair is to show sheep although my focus is on the marketing award because it's hard to compete in classes with many breeds of sheep. Those are my two yearling rams.

I was pleased that Meridian Crosby won Reserve Champion ram in the Heritage Breeds Division.  He was not cooperative for the photo but hopefully the official photographer got one.

Both rams were happy to get back in their pen after the ordeal of the show ring.

The work paid off.

I won the Marketing Award as well as Herdsman and Best Program directed at the General Public. I found out later that I also won the Marketing Award over all the livestock species for the full run of the fair! I can't say thank you enough to Farm Club and a couple of other friends who helped at the fair. I couldn't do this without you.A successful few days, but all of us were glad to go home.