North Carolina Mt. State Fair- WOW! What a great fair!!

What a fabulous time we had at the Mtn. State Fair!! We are very proud of our flock! Mary Anne Johnson from Ohio was our judge. These are some of our shining moments. Saturday was the Jr. show (showman are 18 and under) so only Lauren could show. We put sheep in the Shetland classes and in the Fine Wool classes. Above you see Lauren showing in the white Shetland ewe lamb class. This is Jackie O. and she was first in her class. Lauren also received her showmanship pin in this first class.
Here is Lauren showing Jackie in the Champion Homegrown class along with her college roommate, Breynna. Jackie won homegrown Shetland ewe. Breynna is showing Jane Austen who won homegrown ewe in the Fine Wool class.
Above: Jackie O
Above: Baby JaneShania takes 1st place in the aged ewe class. Shania is a 4 year old spotted Shetland. She is one of our favorites.

Below: Lauren with Baby Jane who just won the Champion Fine Wool class. Baby Jane is the little ewe lamb who's mom died the day after she was born. She was our bottle baby for this year.

Below: We are so proud of Jane. She won Reserve Champion Ewe for the Jr. Show!! Wow!!Lauren won this director's chair for being the Premier Exhibitor for the Fine Wool Classes.
Another highlight of this show: out of 12 natural colored Shetland ewe lambs Lauren placed 1st with Amelia Earhart and 2nd with Charlotte Bronte. We also had Reserve Champion Fine Wool Ewe with Abigail. This was one of the best Jr. Shows that we've ever had!

Tomorrow I will highlight the Open Show! It makes all the hard work worthwhile!!

Need a fiber friend?

This post will highlight the fiber friends that would like to find a new home. There are some amazing fleeces on these sheep! Here are Alexander Graham Bell and Abraham Lincoln. Alex is a very soft moorit wether. His brother, Abe, is a very soft grey wether. They have nice fine fleeces and are looking for someone who will enjoy those lamb fleeces! Their mother, Abigail, won best natural colored fleece at the North Carolina Mtn. State Fair last fall. Here is Ricky Ricardo. He is a black wether that has a soft dense fleece. He has a brother, Fred Mertz, that looks identical to him. Both are ready to go home with someone who likes the darker fleeces. They have great faces!!
I was hoping to keep this fellow a ram but his horns concerned us. He is a fawn, spotted katmoget wether. His fleece is very soft. It will be a great spinning fleece! Plus, who can resist that face?
We also have 3 more wether lambs available. Two, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, are very friendly (great pets) and they have very dense black fleeces. We also have Orville Wright who is going to be grey, and he has a huge fleece. If you're interested, we would love to hear from you.


We also have a couple of older Shetlands that would like to live in a spinner's flock. Introducing Goliath...he is a 2-year-old black (greyling) wether. This past spring he produced the largest fleece on the farm. He is shy but loves animal crackers!

Next we have Windswept Madam Hooch. She is a 5-year-old light grey ewe. She has a beautiful soft fleece. She usually has twins or triplets and always rejects one of her lambs. Yes, we continued to breed her for some crazy reason,and we have 3 sheep that we can't part with. The first is now three-years-old. Padgett lived in our house in diapers and even went to school with me. Then we have two -year-old Sarah. We learned our lesson, and she lived in the barn. She still doesn't think she is your normal sheep. Neither does Padgett for that matter. Then we have a yearling, Almond Joy. She is the most "normal" out of them all. She will still call to us when she hears us coming. We finally realized that we had enough bottle babies so we didn't breed Hooch this year. (Then of course this year Cadey died, and we have bottle baby, Jane Austin.) We would like to sell her to a spinner's flock because she will never win the "mother of the year" award. We don't recommend any further breeding. Some days she is extremely friendly towards humans and loves to be rubbed. Then there are days that she likes to be independent.

Later this week... rams for sale and ewes for sale!! Be watching for 4 ram lambs, 1 yearling ram, 1 yearling ewe, and possibly 3 ewe lambs!!

Happy 15th Birthday to Belle on July 4th!

We are a two dog family! Belle celebrated her 15th birthday yesterday! WOW! She is a dachshund-terrier mix. We always take a Belle birthday picture. Other than cataracts, being hard of hearing and a few fatty lumps, she is quite healthy. She sleeps most of the day and every once in a while will have a running spurt. Katie was in Kindergarten when we got Belle. It's hard to believe that Katie has already finished two years in college, and Lauren will be going in the fall.

Tucker Blue is an Australian cattle dog. He will be ten years old at the end of the month. Tucker used to go to the barn every day with Rothey until we got Beulah, our donkey, in January. Now he just looks on from the fence and gets to play with his rope when Rothey comes back from the barn. He never truly was used for herding. Tucker just thought that was his job.

Belle has always been the head honcho since she was 5 when we brought Tucker home as a puppy. Although, he tries to "herd" her sometimes! She doesn't stand much of it these days.

It is truly amazing how your dogs become a very integral part of your family! They are always happy to see you, and they love you no matter what!!

COLLECTIONS

What prompted this blog post? Two things really. First, my parents have moved from their home to a retirement mobile home park down the road. This meant that I needed to clean my stuff out of their attic. Boy, was there a bunch of STUFF! Secondly, my oldest brother has begun sending me items for my latest collection.


I think it's because of my oldest brother, Peter, that I have all the "collectibles" that I have. I don't know, maybe I've always collected and he & I are a lot alike? My earliest memories of collecting go back to when we would vacation and I wanted knick-knacks to take home. I've had collections of small "ceramic" animal families, mushrooms in fourth grade, shells, rocks, balloons and bears in college, angels, cows, Noah's Arks, and now of course, sheep. I found many of my earlier collections packed away in my parent's attic. Many were broken and were disposed of. The rest were repacked and are now in my in-law's attic. Can you guess that we have no attic?



My latest collection you see here. My brother came for a visit from Pensacola, FL in the spring, and he brought two unique gifts for me. The first gift he brought was of a dachshund (we have a live one) that is colored like a Holstein bull with horns and it says, "100% all beef hot dog." He thought I was still collecting cows. I still have a few around but that was about 15 years ago. (My favorite is a black and white cow clock with a swinging udder for the seconds.) When he found out I was collecting sheep, he purchased a sheep made of cauliflower with a mushroom head. It is adorable! (You would think with all the real sheep we have, it would be enough. Nope, I have many inside as well.)

We discussed what fun it would be to collect these "Home Grown" animals and keep them in the kitchen. Well, leave it to Peter. I received my second one in the mail in April. The next one came in May for my birthday and yes, I received one in June. He calls them my "jelly" of the month. I so look forward to each month to see what critter I will get next. My brother loves me and keeps me collecting after all these years. (When I was collecting mushrooms at 9 and 10 years of age, he helped me set up a mushroom display in our local public library!)

Cauliflower Sheep Lemon GoatLime RabbitOrange CatsI can't wait until July to see what the next "jelly" of the month will be. Thank you, big brother! I love them.

Hand Painted Roving

One of my projects this summer while I am home was to hand paint/dye roving. We have never tried this before. So, on one of Katie's days off, we gave it a try. We found out that too wet wool and too much dye can make a mess. Also, not having the right kind of pot to steam it in made for the use of a microwave. We found out why they suggested using rubber gloves, which we didn't.

We used white Shetland wool that Katie had accumulated from the only white ewe we have ever had. I like to spin consistently but this didn't let me. So, as you can see my yarn is a little lumpy.

I may use it to make a shawl with some fuschia yarn I had spun a while ago. I would like to add ribbons, too.

Katie is the dye expert... so ...we'll try this again!

Happy 18th Birthday, Lauren. We love you!

Graduation gift...a trip to the beach!

This trip was to be a surprise graduation gift for Lauren, but as it turned out it wasn't. So, the morning after graduation, Katie, Lauren, my sister Cindy, and I left for North Myrtle Beach, SC. We stayed at a little mom & pop motel on the beach. It was old but clean, and it was on the beach. We had 5 days and nights of great weather and a lot of fun! The picture above is of me, Katie, and Lauren.

We spent the day on the beach and by the pool and then out to supper each evening. On Sunday night we went to Calabash, NC and ate at a good seafood restaurant. Then we walked across the street to the greatest gift and Christmas shop around. I always purchase at least one special ornament. This year it was of a sea urchin.

Katie and I were always on shell hunts. Hunting it definitely was! We found some amazing things. Sea treasures such as olive shells, augers, eye shells, ear shells, shark's teeth, and we were blessed to find some sea urchins without their spines. I found several with spines that were still alive but I threw them back into the ocean. I also found a live, large starfish. I threw him back, too.

We splurged on Monday night and went to the Dixie Stampede in Myrtle Beach. I have been to the one in Pigeon Forge, TN. The girls had never been. It was a lot of fun and the food was great, too. We were on the south's side.

Tuesday night we ate at Johnny Rockets at Broadway at the Beach. We went in a lot of the shops. The candy shops are amazing. I ended up with some salt water taffy and some of my favorite Jelly Belly flavors. At 10:00 we saw some amazing fireworks as we were standing in the fallout area.

Wednesday was the last day there so we stayed near the beach and pool. It was a great trip. Lauren and Cindy are tan, Katie used 1 1/2 bottles of sun screen (yes, it does work) and I have sunburn in several places.

We left early Thursday morning. Where does the time go? Well, it's back to the real world again. Someone needs to help feed the sheep!!

CELEBRATION TIME!

May 30, 2008- Lauren's High School Graduation- pictured above with Josh and Sam (Lauren is on our right.)
Lauren was valedictorian of her class. We are so proud of all she has accomplished. Here she is with her maternal grandparents.
Lauren plans to attend Gardner-Webb University and study nursing. Here she is with her paternal grandparents.
A group of Juniors pose with Lauren along with one of her teacher's children. Graduation was great. The slide show was wonderful! I think that most of them were sad that this time has come. This is a neat class. They were one of my favorite 6th grade classes that I have had the privilege of working with.

Afterwards Lauren went to a graduation party at the school put on by two other graduates' parents. I went home to begin packing for our trip to the beach. Pictures tomorrow!