Fleece at Wooster

We made it to Wooster. It was great to catch up with new friends we have made through the border leicester connection. The Koeppels from Ann Arbor were there and did very well in the sheep show and won the fleece competitions. We saw Barbara Thompson and her daughter's family (Seldom Seen Farm) from Rhode Island, and of course the Fogles from Raymond, who have been very supportive. The people are all so nice and helpful - a great community.

Jerry had hoped to buy a new black ewe lamb, but he didn't see what he wanted, so decided to wait it out. We did show 2 fleeces for judging. The white one was too short (Jerry gets carried away with trimming), but it did sell! The black ram's fleece (see picture) ended up in second place - I guess he was a good buy! I brought that fleece home. By the way, we decided to name him Othello.

The Wooster show had a good turnout with many vendors - gets bigger and better every year. I got many ideas to try out in Fern's Fiber Studio for fall open houses and the market.

Wooster

The Great Lakes Wool and Fiber Show is this weekend in Wooster. The featured breeds this year are Border Leicester and Tunis. We are not taking sheep to show or sell, but we are taking some black fiber from the new ram and white from one of our 2-year old ewes. We are hoping to find out what caliber our fleece is. Then hopefully we will know what we need in order to improve fleeces.
Hope to see you there! Here is the URL for the show:
http://www.greatlakesfibershow.com/

Time to get serious!

I am ashamed to see that I last posted in November! I had good intentions, but being both very busy and a bit technologically challenged, I kept putting off adding to the blog. Here is an update on our sheep-related activities:

• We were in the Louisville area the day after Christmas dropping off wool at John Guffey's for processing. We stopped in to visit with Diana Anson and take a look at her BL's.
• Lambing is done. We lost 3, and ended up with 10.
• We bought a black ram after traveling to Wisconsin in April to check him out. He has a nice fleece.
• I have continued to go to the Worthington Farmer's Market at least twice a month. I haven't sold much, but there seems to be a lot of interest in my spinning, yarn, and knitted projects.
• We went to Maryland for the Sheep and Wool Festival (huge affair!), but Sporty (our black 'champion' ewe only came in 5th place (more on this coming up).
• Next we have the Border Leicester show and sale coming up in Wooster on the 23rd of May.