NAILE 2013

Success in Louisville!

Our luck in the show ring this year continued at the NAILE in Louisville. In the Natural Color Border Leicester ewe show we had the first place yearling ewe, first place senior ewe lamb, and second place junior ewe lamb. The senior ewe lamb was also Champion Ewe and Best Fleece. 

We also won all three pair classes and flock, which was undefeated this year.

We have had a lot of help showing the sheep throughout the year . We'd like to thank Brian Larson, Emma Hopkins, Colin and Artie Siegmund, Don Drummond, Jill Morton, David Freds, Tyler Myers, and Alisun Watson.

 We'd like to wish ewe Happy Holidays!

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.

Michigan Fiber Festival

I'm finally getting around to posting on the Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan. Every year the third week of August, I (Dena) head to the MFF for a few days of workshops that include spinning, knitting, basket-making, and numerous other crafts. This year I came home with a rib basket and skeins of painted yarn. Eileen and Ruthann always join me for this annual trek. Of course, one of the highlights is eating at a couple of great restaurants...the London Grill in Plainwell and Salt of the Earth in Fennville. They are both worth the trip!

Jerry has been bringing sheep to show on the weekend for the past few years. The people are great, the atmosphere is pretty laid back, and we've had success. This year wasn't any different. We won several classes with the 6 sheep Jerry brought. We had first place white yearling ewe, first place natural colored yearling ewe,

first place natural colored ewe lamb, second place white ram lamb, second place natural colored yearling ram. We had reserve champion white ram, champion white ewe, champion natural-colored ewe, and best fleece of the show.

We topped off the weekend with dinner at Tim and Janet's, friends of ours who live in Kalamazoo, just a short drive from Allegan. A great way to end summer!

First Lamb of 2010

Finally - the first lamb has arrived! The mother is a natural color ewe we bought in New York (already bred) in October. The sire is also natural color. They came from Seldom Seen Farm (Barbara Thompson). Surprisingly, she is the whitest lamb we've ever seen - not what we expected!

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.

Just starting

After doing so well in Louisville last week, we decided it is time to enter the world of cyberspace and share our successes and education in the raising of border leicesters.

We began our flock of border leicester sheep in 2005 by driving out to Cuba, Illinois and visiting with Greg Deakin. At that time we purchased 2 ewe lambs. Since then we have bought sheep from Diana Anson, Barbara Thompson, and Linda and Bill Koeppel. Our flock has grown to include both white and natural color, fourteen ewes and two rams. We are slowly learning what to look for in fleece and structure. That brings us back to Louisville, where the black ewe lamb we bought from Barbara Thompson at the National Sale was champion ewe and champion fleece in the natural color border leicester show. This same lamb won the supreme champion ewe in Allegan at the Michigan Wool and Fiber Show in August of this year. The white yearling ewe we bought from Barbara Thompson at the National Sale in 2007, was first early (no pun intended)yearling ewe and second fleece at Louisville. Of the three sheep we took to Louisville, we had a champion, three first- place, one second-place, and one sixth place.

Our goal? Raise our own champions now!