Who doesn't love a party?

My friend, Michelle of Boulderneigh had this on her blog today and I thought it was a lovely idea, so I'm going to come along for the ride.

My name is Kelly and I started my blog in 2009 because I wanted a way to brag about my Shetland sheep, as well as my spinning and  knitting projects, I liken it to a mother bragging about her children.  I've found that I love to blog, and I've found some great online friends along the way.  I don't always have something witty or intellectual to say, but it's a way to share my happiness, worry or sadness.  I think my bonus in working on my blog is the feeling that people you've never met face to face care enough to comment, celebrate, empathize or simply pray for me.  How great is that?

I live in a little valley in Southern Wisconsin with my husband, along with our outside "residents" a  flock of registered Shetland sheep, a couple geriatric llamas, one alpaca, 3 horses, a lot of chickens and 2 Marmemma guardian dogs that watch over the outside critters.   Inside our house are 2 incredibly spoiled cats and Tess, our 11 year old German Shepherd cross.   The animal numbers have increased significantly since my son went away to college a few years ago.  I've been accused of replacing him with animals and I think he's probably right.

Our goal for our little slice of heaven is to grow as much of our own food as possible, with as little chemical input as we can manage, as well as supporting other local growers, artisans and farmers in our area.   Since finding a lovely group of women that share my love of all things fiber related, I've kind of fallen into a group that mirrors our lifestyle of sustainable living.  This blog, my connection to the fiber community and the people I've met from being a part of it all has become my safe place to land.  I feel like my life has been heading to this place since I was born, everything about it just feels "right". 

I love the idea of having a give-away for leaving comments, and since I've spent a fair amount of time knitting 100% Shetland caps this winter, I've decided that I'm going to offer one as a prize for leaving a comment on this blog post.  No strings attached, just leave a comment and you will be included in a drawing for a cap.  All you have to do is tell me your size, and I'll knit you a scrumptious Shetland wool cap to keep you warm.  You do not have to have a blog to enter, just leave a comment, that's it.   No matter where you are located, I am willing to send your prize to you.
Make sure to leave me your email address so you can be contacted if you win.   The winner will be announced on Feb. 1st on my blog, so make sure you check back. 

Here's an example of one of my caps.  Shetland sheep come in 9 natural "whole" colors and several modified colors, so there is no need to dye the yarn to make them pop!

Good luck and remember to check back on Feb. 1st for the winner.

Like peanut butter and jelly...

In my humble opinion, kids and sheep go together just like PB & J.  I may be the teensiest bit biased, but I think that animals and kids are pretty great separately, but put them together and the joy is amplified.  All these photos are courtesy of Corinne Rasso of Crosswinds Farm, she and her sister Marie are kind enough each year to be the photographers for our show in Jefferson and my hat is off to them for the fine work they do for us. Since we can't post 200 photos on our MSSBA website, I thought I'd share a few of the kids and their sheep on here.  

See what I mean????  It makes an ordinary sheep show.....something special.   Thanks to all the parents and grandparents that cultivate the interest of our youth.  Without their support, these children wouldn't have a chance to do this.  

I love surprises

I had a fellow Shetland breeder inquire about one of my ram lambs yesterday and I gathered the boys to get photos and fleece shots, I found this..........

Pearl Jam's fleece is mioget!  And I thought I had another moorit boy. 

Front view of PJ

 Pearl Jam (PJ) is a Lil' Country Bee Sting X Sheltering Pines Bug ram lamb that was born about a month later than the rest of the lambs.  Bee Sting was exposed to Bug about 1 month later than my flock at Juliann's house during the month of December. (she was leasing Bug)  She was only with him about 2 weeks, so the neither of us were really expecting to see a lamb from the exposure, but true to Bug's hyperactive tendencies, he got the job done.   He's smaller than the other rams, but he sure doesn't take any crap from any of them, and he's turning out to be a really awesome little ram, I am looking forward to watching him mature because he just keeps getting better. 
Lovely color, abundance of fine organized crimp and nice staple length and virtually nothing on his head for horn growth.  Now let's hope the little guy will roo in the spring too. 

Shows his lack of horns.......just itsy bitsy chips. 

WSWF 2012.......another great year

Where do I start?  This year was my first as show chair for MSSBA and I have so many people to thank, that I'm afraid I'll forget someone.  But here goes........
Thank you to my show committee: Garrett Ramsay, Corinne Rasso, Kim Nikolai, Maureen Koch, and Chris Greene.  You guys are awesome.
Thank you to Juliann Budde for being our announcer, Maureen for being Ring Steward, Maegan Snow for tackling the sometimes confusing job of checking in the class entries and getting placings as the exhibitors left the ring.  Thank you to Marie and Corinne for taking photos and getting pizza for Friday night, the photographer that judged the fleece competition, the our fleece and sheep judge, Letty Klein, our handmade competition judge, Kathy Olmstead.   Thanks to to Penny and Alicia Becker for their help, Chris and Alan Greene for the very nice talk on Flett sheep and AI processes,  to Kim and Bob Nikolai, Theresa and Jeff Gygi for their help.  A special thank you to my husband, Mike,  for the million and one things he did for me over the past week and especially this weekend.  I know showing isn't his "thing", but he sucked it  up and hit the show ring with me this year.  I have no idea what I'd do without this wonderful man in my life. 
Special thanks to all our sponsors and volunteers, without you, the show could not happen.    Thanks to our exhibitors, for traveling and making this show successful.  If I've missed anyone, it is not intentional, so please forgive me. 

Some pictures and placings............more to follow.

Reserve Champion Ram

1st Place Ram Lamb

1st Place Pair of Ram Lambs

OK Acres Ringo

Ringo and I

 

 Reserve Supreme Champion

Champion Ewe

1st Place Senior Ewe

Sommarang Elise

And Gavin Snow

Gavin, Letty Klein (judge) and Elise

  

Reserve Champion Ewe

Sheltering Pines Classique

Garrett Ramsay

Garrett, Letty Klein (judge) and Classique

 

 

 

 

And drum roll please.............the Supreme Grand Champion is........................

Under The Son Coberg

Champion Ram

1st Place Yearling Ram

Supreme Grand Champion

Theresa Gygi and Coberg

 

New Faces

I have purchased two sheep this year, one from my Tori in Indiana and one from Stephen in Michigan.  Wait, that was before I went to MFF and got to see more sheep that just happen to be for sale, and can I help it that they are my favorites....grey katmogets!  I also caved and bought an emsket gulmoget that came from Becky Utecht....I am weak and should be ashamed of myself for not sticking to my plan of only getting 2 new sheep this year.  sigh......someone slap my hand and take my checkbook.  My husband's response to me telling him that I had more than 1 sheep to bring home was, "Now there's a shocker", it would seem he knows me better than I thought.

L: Anais Anais   R: Bengal ~~ Two ewes from Sheltering Pines

A very cool little gulmoget ewe lamb from River Oaks

Side shot of the River Oaks 2012 ewe lamb

S'More Cotillion~yearling

Another busy weekend under my belt

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to have Garrett Ramsay stop and pick me up on his way to the Michigan Fiber Festival.  This was my first time attending this event and I had a great time, meeting a couple people that I had only talked to on chat lists and reconnecting with folks that I have met in the past.  The highlight of our trip is always getting the chance to get our hands sunk into some nice sheep and fleeces.  I decided, kind of last minute, to enter a few fleeces into the fleece competition and then bullied Garrett to bring some as well, and Garrett ended up with 1st place Shetland fleece, I got 2nd place and then Garrett went on to take Reserve Champion colored fleece.  (Champion was a dark Merino fleece) Not too shabby G, not too shabby.

Rosette for Reserve is hanging off the side of Garrett's fleece

 

And here's Betty executing a perfect photo bomb and she runs through the picture!!!!  

Shortly after this last photo, things started to get completely out of control.......none of us could stop laughing.  The whole photo shoot was supposed to be a silly set up of Garrett and I high-fiving (I know, that's not a word) each other while holding our fleeces.

We thought this would be a funny way to take a picture and it was so much fun to pose for it since we were trying to be ridiculous.  Why not sprinkle as much into our sheepy activities as possible?  

Define...Excessive

           12" plus length on this fleece sample that was pulled from a bag of "Shetland" wool.
          (I won't say where this came from, as I have no desire to attack people or their sheep) 

This sample is approx. 8" plus in staple length and the shortest sample among 12 bags of fleece that is supposed to be Shetland fleece.  

Excessive length......I found both these samples to be very coarse and not breed typical at all.  I am going to send them in for micron testing, just so I have a number to attach to this for my own fleece sampler book. I'm not even sure how you could spin these fleeces, , they have a lovely color and they would look nice in a braided rug.  These overly coarse and long fleeces are no more breed typical than a merino type fleece on a Shetland sheep....my point being that extremes on either end of the limits is changing the breed. 
Excessive weight......The other excess that I am finding hard to understand is the new weight limits for Rams and Ewes that have been changed in the NASSA judges packet.  Where did those numbers come from?  Where is the historical data that supports this trend upwards in weights?  I'm not trying to be sarcastic or mean, I honestly want to know where those number originated. 
Old ranges were: Rams 90-125# and Ewes 70-100#'s....new limits allow the rams to be 150# and Ewes 115#....  that seems to be changing the breed to satisfy the livestock judges in the show ring.  I don't know why it was changed or where the historical data is that supports such a large increase in size limits.   Over the last couple years there's been a lot of discussion and disagreement about the correct type of Shetland fleece. I actually thought that the only differing of opinions was fleece styles, but now I can see that I was incorrect in that assumption.

How long before Shetland sheep are allowed to be even larger?  This truly concerns me, far more than the fleece debate. 

Longer fleeces, larger animals, loss of crimp and bounce in the fleece, loss of fineness... how much more will we lose before we care enough to say something or take the time to educate ourselves about what a Shetland should be or what they were?
I think it's time for breeder judges to be trained and utilized, it's time to leave livestock judges in the ring with meat sheep.  They do a great job judging the sheep they know,  market sheep, let's leave them to their area of expertise and develop judges that have their own area of expertise.......the Shetland sheep that conforms to the 1927 Standard! 

How many of you feel the breed is being morphed into something other than a Shetland sheep by the large increases in weight limits?  I'm very curious............

Green County Fair 2012

Clayton showing Alabama in the ewe class. (psss-she's the moorit sheep on the left)   Bamba is having trouble believing that a sheep has to have it's head in that position to look good.  :)  

Reserve Champion Showmanship for his age group....way to go Clayton...(Clayton later went on to win Premier Showmanship for his age group)

Clayton and Bing in the ram class........I purposely didn't crop out the giant sheep following Bing to show the size of the sheep in Clayton's classes.  Poor little Bing didn't stand a chance against the Hercules sized sheep that were there.  Still, we had fun and that's what 4-H is all about.  FUN. 

Clayton is the son of a good friend of ours and he's shown Shetland sheep for 2 years now and loves it.  He does all the work with them, halter training, helping to vaccinate, worm, trim hooves etc.   He also shows dairy and so the sprint between barns can be a bit nerve racking for him at times.  He does a great job with the sheep and I thoroughly enjoy going to watch him.  
Nice job Clayton!!!

2012 Micron data

Ewes

OK Acres Alabama-yearling        25.0 AFD/4.4 SD/21.9 CV/9.1 CEM/84.0 CF/24.6 SF
OK Acres Alexandria-yearling     23.6 AFD/4.4 SD/18.7 CV/7.2 CEM/95.5 CF/22.6 SF
Lil Ctry. Bailey-2 yr old               28.0 AFD/5.3 SD/18.7 CV/9.2 CEM/68.4 CF/26.8 SF
Lil Ctry. Bee Sting-yearling          23.7 AFD/4.8 SD/20.2 CV/9.0 CEM/91.0 CF/22.9 SF
Sheltg Pines Catherine-7 yrs        28.6 AFD/5.5 SD/19.1 CV/9.8 CEM/67.2 CF/27.4 SF
Sheltg Pines Ceylon-4 yr old        29.2 AFD/5.8 SD/19.8 CV/10.1CEM/60.2 CF/28.2 SF
Sommarang Challis-7 yr old         30.2 AFD/5.9 SD/19.7 CV/9.7 CEM/51.4 CF/29.0 SF (leased)
Lil Ctry. Disco-yearling                24.9 AFD/6.1 SD/24.5 CV/11.8 CEM/81.7 CF/25.0 SF
Kimberwood Dot-5 yr old           28.8 AFD/6.4 SD/22.3 CV/11.0 CEM/62.3 CF/28.4 SF
Sommarang Farrah-4 yr old         31.2 AFD/6.1 SD/19.4 CV/11.4 CEM/47.0 CF/29.9 SF (leased)
Wintertime Garnet-2 yr old          26.7 AFD/4.7 SD/17.9 CV/8.4 CEM/81.2 CF/25.3 SF
Sheltg Pines Hermoine-7 yrs        29.9 AFD/5.5 SD/18.5 CV/9.1 CEM/54.6 CF/28.5 SF
White Pine Killian-yearling           24.6 AFD/5.3 SD/21.7 CV/9.6 CEM/88.2 CF/24.1 SF
Sheltering Pines Maura-7 yr old   27.9 AFD/4.9 SD/17.7 CV/7.9 CEM/70.9 CF/26.4 SF
Lil Ctry. Meadow-5 yrs old         28.7 AFD/5.7 SD/19.7 CV/9.2 CEM/62.3 CF/27.6 SF
Sheltg Pines Salicional-6 yr old    26.3 AFD/4.8 SD/18.2 CV/8.3 CEM/81.4 CF/25.0 SF
OK Acres Salina-yearling            24.3 AFD/5.1 SD/20.9 CV/9.4 CEM/88.2 CF/23.6 SF
OK Acres Seneca-yearling          21.9 AFD/4.5 SD/20.7 CV/8.3 CEM/96.1 CF/21.3 SF
OK Acres Sierra-yearling            22.6 AFD/4.0 SD/17.9 CV/7.2 CEM/97.2 CF/21.5 SF
Sheltg Pines Temperance-2 yrs    24.4 AFD/4.7 SD/19.2 CV/9.1 CEM/90.9 CF/23.4 SF
Lil Ctry.Velma-3 yr old               29.4 AFD/5.6 SD/19.1 CV/9.7 CEM/60.4 CF/28.2 SF
OK Acres Vienna- yearling         22.2 AFD/5.2 SD/23.5 CV/9.0 CEM/94.6 CF/22.1 SF


Rams


Sheltg Pines Bug                       26.2 AFD/4.8 SD/18.2 CV/7.9 CEM/83.7 CF/24.9 SF  3 yr old
Sheltg Pines TelSay Camden     25.3 AFD/4.5 SD/17.8 CV/7.9 CEM/87.9 CF/24.0 SF  yearling
OK Acres Monroe                   22.9 AFD/4.2 SD/18.5 CV/7.9 CEM/95.6 CF/21.8 SF yearling
Crosswinds Thor                      23.2 AFD/4.5 SD/19.8 CV/8.1 CEM/94.4 CF/22.4 SF yearling
Wether
OK Acres Chandler-yearling       22.1 AFD/4.6 SD/20.7 CV/8.4 CEM/96.1 CF/21.4 SF  (fall sample)

Well, there it is, the good, the not so good and a couple surprises.  Looks like Thor is officially off the sales list for now, I will use him one more year and deal with the horns.  Monroe was going to be culled, but I have no idea how I will be able to send him to the processor in two weeks with numbers like that, and his structure is so fantastic to boot.  Anybody need a good ram?  lol  Just got his fleece back from being hand processed, got it on my wheel this weekend and it is spinning up fingering weight so easily that it's like I'm spinning nothing.  I've never spun fingering weight, and was scared to try it, but this fleece begs to be spun that way and attempts to spin it thicker is a struggle.
 
My hay this winter was superior quality, and I'm wondering if that has any effect on my fleece, as the previous year my hay was the worst I'd ever had and my micron numbers were a a point or two lower on the older ewes.  Just another thing that I'd like to explore more thoroughly in the coming years.  Since we started making our own hay last year, we have a bit more control of the quality, so I may be able to study the feed/fleece quality correlation more readily.  I also wonder if the fact that I got my fleece samples so late in the year has any effect on my test results......hmmmmm, I'm thinking I'll try a few experiments earlier in the year this next winter.  Maybe a sample taken every month on one or two sheep would be an interesting study.
Just an FYI to all you folks that micron test.........Texas A & M did NOT raise their fees!! I sent in $2.50 each for 27 samples and they returned the results in one week and I now have a credit.  The fee is still $2.00 per sample and the turn round time was very fast.


As usual, numbers aren't the be all and end all of a Shetland sheep, but it's a nice tool to help educate ourselves and our customers about fleece.   Now if someone wants a pound of Grade 1 fleece, I know exactly which sheep will give me that product and my customer knows that they will be getting what they ordered.

Nice Surprise

The Fine Fleece Shetland Sheep Association got a nice mention from a fellow blogger.  This gal did a very nice write up about our Shepherd's Harvest rooing demos on Mother's Day weekend.

Check it out at: Independent Stitch Blog

As usual, I have my mouth open.....for those of you that know me, that should come as no surprise.  :)