Black Sheep Gathering 2

BSG is at least a two-post event. Here is the first. On Saturday I took a class. I sell the Clemes & Clemes blending board but had never watched the expert work with it. Gwen Powell is the person who worked with Henry and Roy Clemes to design and refine their blending board and she taught an all-day class. This was a full class. Everyone brought their wheels in order to spin samples during any down time. Here is one set of rolags made from two boards-full. This is another in which Wensleydale locks are blended into another wool and can be spun with the locks hanging out but well secured.Here are all the rolags I created. A lot of fun spinning coming up! Later that afternoon two friends practiced leading the ram lambs in preparation for the Spinner's Lead contest that evening. This is Cindy and Beth with Nash and Marvin after the competition. They are wearing their handspun, handknit Jacob garments. Here was a huge crowd pleaser. This is Terri Mendenhall with her spotted ram. Take a look at his mane and tail! He carried Merino samples for all in his saddle bags.Thanks to Dona for the two photos above. On Sunday I had free time.

I talked to Terri about sheep coats and came home with a few. I'll experiment with sizes and get a few more. The purpose of these coats is to keep the fleeces clean from vegetable matter and dirt. To coat sheep all year you need at least three sizes so that you can change the coat as the wool grows. I don't know if I'll coat all year or mostly the last half of the year when the grasses get taller and have more impact on the fleeces.

I browsed the Fiber Arts competition.

This is a gorgeous felt in 3-D made by my friend Shannon of Kenleigh Acres. She takes orders for her felt pups but has about a year waiting list.

Here is another felt piece I admired.

This one too. Of course it's not just about felting and there were plenty of knitted pieces as well. I just didn't get any photos.

The Fiber Arts competition is in the vendor hall. It's not hard to find Dona and Mary where there is shopping. That's Kathleen too, talking to Sally Fox in her booth. Other Farm Club members who were at BSG this year were Peggy, Gynna (working at the Clemes & Clemes booth, but took time to help me show), Tina (FC emeritus, now living in Portland), Stephanie (on a post job-quitting tour of the northwest), and Chris (who isn't FC but a friend anyway and my roommate for the week).

 This is me with Nash outside the barn. Thanks, Shannon, for the photo.The sheep are released at 4 p.m. on Sunday and my goal is to get on the road as quickly as possible and get out of the mountains before dark. I left the fairgrounds at 4:17. At one of my stops I took a look in the back and thought that maybe I should have bought a coat for Nash. Not looking good.Here is bide a wee Bea, who just happened to get in the truck with the other sheep when I left. Mavin stayed behind to take her place at the bide a wee farm.It's always good to come around the last mountain in Oregon and see Mt. Shasta. However, the lack of snow on this 14,000+ foot mountain is very discouraging. But that's a thought for another time. It was nice to be with my friends and other sheep enthusiasts and forget the rest of the world's problems for a few days.

Black Sheep Gathering

Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon is an annual event but I usually get there every other year. When I go I take sheep. Estelle ready for her first road trip. When we get there everyone is ready to get out of the truck. Farm Club members and other friends also drove to BSG. They were always ready to help with the sheep.After the truck ride the sheep need some touching up. They don't get a full bath but we scrub the feet and legs.

The Jacob sheep show was Friday morning. It was a relatively small show this year with three farms represented.Nevertheless, I was pleased to win Champion Jacob ram with my ram lamb, Meridian Nash and... ...Reserve Champion Jacob ewe with my yearling ewe, Meridian Jean.

Black Sheep Gathering is a great place to see a variety of breeds of sheep.My friends tried to talk me into bringing one of these BFL lambs home.

I don't think that this yearling ram would have even fit in my truck.

There are great shopping opportunities in the vendor hall and in the barn. Dona shared her fabulous photos of wares for sale at BSG and the Eugene Farmers' Market in the Meridian Jacobs Ravelry group here. I saw these in the vendor area:  By the way, I'm planning my second annual estate sale for sometime in August!Seen in the parking lot.

Seen near the Farm Club chairs and spinning wheels. Dona and Mary said that they put on their 8th grade sleep-over hats for this shopping trip.

For us Black Sheep Gathering isn't just about the sheep and the shopping and the food. It's also about spending time with friends.

More photos in the next post.

Farm Day - May 2015

Where is Dona when you need her? As much as I like taking photos I don't take very many  on a Farm Day because I'm distracted. Seven Farm Club members were here this morning to help with some specific tasks. We accomplished those easily all the while enjoying each other's company. This is such a great group of friends First we caught all 76 lambs. We weighed all of them and vaccinated the older ones. We chose four ewe lambs and 4 ram lambs as the most likely options (narrowing it to 2 each later) for taking to Black Sheep Gathering next month. Because my flock lambs in March the lambs are still young and it's hard to think who I might want to take to the show in June. We also caught the 4 yearlings who did not lamb this year to choose which of them I'd take and also to replace their lamb ear tags with larger easier-to-read tags.  After we finished with the lambs I showed Gynna how to go about halter breaking lambs that she is going to take home with her in a few weeks.The birds were happy when we finished in the barn because then they had free access to their babies without worrying about all the people and dogs.

After lunch Kathleen, Gynna, and Peggy went to the barn and helped me change this pile into......this one. By sucking the air out of the bags with the shop vac we condensed that pile of wool into about half the space. That's a much easier job with more than one person.

 Ginny found an out-of-the-way place to sleep.Later this afternoon Dan put the mower on the tractor and I mowed the pasture behind the barn.

I've  been trying to clean out the freezer and I found a turkey the other day. It's in the oven now and I'm getting ready for turkey dinner (without all the trappings because that would take too much work).

Fuzzy Ram Horns

It's hard to believe that these two rams were born just over a year ago. This year's rams will look like that next year. But for now......it's hard to look tough when you have fuzz on your horns.  

Jungle Sheep

The sheep were glad to get the call to go to the next paddock yesterday morning. Their favorite spot in the pasture is the weeping willow... ...which has branches so close to the ground now that I thought a branch had broken.We will have to cut these branches before they fall across the fence but it is good that the sheep can eat all the leaves off first.  

More Lambs

Just photos of lambs in the evening.

Meet the Sheep--Getting Ready

Meet the Sheep is our annual open house when we invite the public to meet our sheep, learn about fiber and hopefully become fiber enthusiasts. I couldn't do this without the Farm Club. FC members spent the day here on Friday helping clean up and set up. After everyone left on Friday Dan did the final clean-up of moving the piles of things that accumulate on a farm (pallets, disc, un-burned burn pile) and the place looked great. These photos were all taken by Dona on Saturday morning. We parked in the back but there was a line before I got the sheep locked out of that area. "Put it there.""It's this one." We selected sheep for petting and display. FC has already made a "naughty list" of ewes who were NOT to be used for petting.Signs went up.  Amaryllis went into her own pen...

 ...with her own sign.

 Faulkner is in a pen next to Amaryllis so he got his own sign.

 We gathered up some ewes and lambs to put outside where people could get close to them.Others were in a pen in the barn and FC members lifted up lambs for people to pet.

Jackie set up her Sheep to Shop booth...

 ...and Colleen was here with Fiber Confections.

 Julie Kuroki brought her French Angora bunnies and Angora kids along with a lot of display material. (Photos in the next post.)We're ready for the day!

Lambs

I started the last post with a photo of my "lambing board" with two entries. It's full now......and there is overflow onto another board. I have 72 lambs with 3 more ewes to lamb.  Celeste lambed this morning. These lambs are #71 and 72.  Most of the others are in the field. That's no lamb. That's Puddleduck Petra coming to the barn. You can meet these lambs at our spring open house, Meet the Sheep, Saturday, April 4.

Another View of Shearing

I wrote a post about Shearing right afterwards but now I have Farm Club member, Dona's photos to round it out a bit more or just to give a different perspective. All of these photos are hers. Farm Club members getting organized on a chilly morning. Sheep getting organized. There was a lot of Farm Club help and lots of visitors. A wonderful thing about Jacob sheep is the variety of fleeces from mostly black... ...to mostly white... ...to some of each.  Gynna was one of our sheep wranglers, feeding sheep to the pen where Stephany had them ready for the shearer. Alison was at the skirting table all morning teaching FC members and other visitors about evaluating and skirting fleeces. An important part of any fiber gathering is the food. We wouldn't want to starve in the three hours it took to shear the sheep. This is the pot of vegetable chili I made and everyone else brought wonderful side dishes. After shearing we could enjoy lunch. That's our fabulous shearer, John, on the right. And everyone else are FC members. We missed getting Kathleen and Jackie in the photo.  It's hard to corral this group. (And somehow we missed Rusty. I think he was lying in the sun after a long morning of watching sheep crouched on the concrete floor.)

Amaryllis was grateful to NOT be part of the action. After shearing there was still time for FC members to do additional fleece shopping......and other shopping.  Lisa was one of many FC members who helped in the shop so that I could spend time in the barn.

. "Is it over?"  

Farm Day

Shearing Day is coming up so next weekend and Farm Club members came Saturday to help get things ready. Dona took a lot of great photos and all of these are hers. There is always barn cleaning.  A break for puppy-time.After finishing with the barn......it was time to preview fleeces. Mary made cards to be put into bags as the sheep are shorn and she recorded which fleeces were reserved by Farm Club members. .Maggie watched from above.

   Everyone was anxious to get hands-on the fleeces.

This is Isadora and her July lamb, Isabelle. Shearing Day is an Open House so if you're in the area you are welcome to come. See this link.