May, 2014

We took a quick trip to the Maryland Wool Festival to deliver 2 ewes to Lydia Smith from Vermont. We just happened to arrive in time to see the natural colored Border Leicester show. The champion ram and ewe were purchased from us at the Wooster sale last year. The ram was shown by the Sands family and the champion ewe was shown by the Bilyeu family, both from Pennsylvania. 

Wooster was pretty successful. We had the top selling natural colored ewe, and our ram was the reserve champion. It was great to see old friends and meet new ones interested in the Border Leicester breed.

We feel lucky to have sold quite a few sheep in the past month. We hope the sheep will do well for their new owners.

Now we look forward to the Michigan Fiber Festival in August. Hope to see you there!

New Crop of Lambs - 2013 

Out of ten ewes, we welcomed seventeen lambs by the end of February. The biggest surprise was the fourteen pounder! There were five rams and twelve ewes, which is a good thing:) 

We're headed to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival with eight natural-colored sheep and three white the first weekend of May. At the end of May, we'll be bringing some to sell at the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster. We're looking forward to reconnecting with fellow Border Leicester sheep breeders this spring from Rhode Island to Montana. 

Below are a few shots of the lambs:

Flock For Sale!

We're ready to downsize (and spend more time with our granddaughter). If anyone is interested in investing in a great flock of Border Leicester sheep, mostly natural-colored, let us know. Hope to see you in Maryland or Wooster in May.

Update - 2012

Other than a quick overnight trip to Maryland to pick up a new black ewe (champion at Maryland the previous year), things have been quiet around here since fall. Lambing in January and February went well - finished by February 16! Half ewes, half rams - total of 16. We've had luck in selling too. In December, we sold sheep to people in Delaware, Ohio. We then sold more to the Taylors in Pennsylvania. We sent fleeces to Maine and one to Alaska. In Athens, Ohio, there are 2 ewes who with the help of our ram had 5 lambs. Needless to say, it's been a good year so far.

Wooster - 2012


We were happy with the National Border Leicester Sale in Wooster Memorial Day weekend. We sold four head for over $1800. And we bought a ram lamb from Tiffany Deakin (can't go home empty-handed!). The weekend was fun getting together with other border leicester breeders. On Friday evening, there was a potluck put together by the Fogles (in spite of Marilyn's shoulder injury). Saturday night was a lovely dinner at the Olde Jaol in town. People brought things for a silent auction (representing sheep or their state). We made contacts to sell fleeces along the way, so all-in-all, it was a successful trip.

Spring Update

Okay - I am ashamed for not keeping up with the blog. I really thought I would do it, but life just gets in the way! Anyway, here are updates on what we've been up to in the past several months:

-It wasn't until mid-March when we were finally done lambing. We ended up with 16 lambs.

-We went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival the first week of May (should've known it was going to be a hot summer since the temperature reached 90 that weekend). We took the camper for its first trip and had a great time. No sheep showing this year!

-Our nephew Brady was visiting with us for several weeks and we got him involved in a lot of projects, including washing sheep and painting the barn.

Here is Brady washing sheep - not sure who got wetter!

- At the end of May (Memorial Day weekend), we headed up to Wooster to be bystanders again at the National Border Leicester Sale. We did find a rack to put in the back of the truck at the equipment auction, which later this summer came in handy when we took sheep and the camper to Allegan.

Here are Jerry and Brady at the Wayne County Fairgrounds

relaxing at the camper after the sheep show.

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/