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

 

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!!!

One more ewe

I can't say enough good things about the 2 ram lambs I got from Velma this year, she never disappoints me, always gives me top notch lambs no matter what ram I use.  I have to see how these guys mature, but if they look close to how nice they are now, I don't know how I will decide who goes and who stays.  Lambing is bittersweet for me, it means I have to make hard decisions.  But I can certainly put those off for a bit yet.

Elvis
Velma x Thor ram
divets instead of horns, great structure and very promising fleece.
As Corinne would say, Crimpy Purse too!!!  

Let me introduce you to a few of our new flock members.

Bing Crosby
Challis x Bug ram
being retained for further evaluation

Everything Bing does seems to scream........"Look at me"
I'm almost done lambing.....27 lambs to date, Purebred Shetland count is: 9 ewes and 13 rams. Crossbred lamb count is: 2 ewes and 3 rams.
I purchased Bee Sting late in the fall and while at Lil Country Acres, Juliann exposed Bee to Bug, she leased him for a month after I pulled my rams from their breeding groups.  This puts little Bee about one month later than the rest.  She's round and has an udder, so I'm thinking she won't be too much longer now.

Celine
Challis x Bug ewe
Being retained

Last night I sat on the hill and got a good ole dose of cuteness from the lambs, and coincidentally, I had my camera, so here are some of the lambs with a few weeks under their belts.  Let me know when you are sick of looking at lamb pictures, it won't stop me, but you can tell me.  :)

Buddy Holly
Dot x Bug ram
Can't let this guy go yet. 

Daughtry
Catherine x Thor ram (for sale)

Elton John
Salicional x Bug ram
Love this ram.......will consider selling, but reluctantly after evalutation 

John Lennon
Garnet x Bug ram
(retaining for evaluation)

Madonna
Meadow x Thor ewe
(I have two of these ewes, one is sold)

Axl Rose
Catherine x Thor ram
horned-will be offered for sale after evaluation

Mick Jagger
Hermoine x Thor ram
horned-will be offered for sale after evaluation

Olivia
Salicional x Bug ewe
Being retained

Ozzy Osborne
Hermoine x Thor ram
for sale after evaluations

Reba
Farrah x Camden ewe
Being retained

Ringo Starr
Velma x Thor ram
Being held for evaluation

Shania
Bailey x Bug ewe
Love this ewe, but I have several fawn kat so may be for sale

Tina Turner
Dot x Bug ewe
Being retained

Whitney
Catherine x Thor ewe
Being held for evaluation

Spots...gotta love em'

Tuesday mornings gift  

Challis x Bug ewe 

Challis x Bug ram 

Great birth coat on both these babies and if the end up being built like their parents, they will both be staying right here.  No horn buds on the ram so far.  (crossing my fingers)

Challis is gernerally pretty wild and sticks to herself, but now that her lambs are here, she ubber quiet and very content.  There's so many things that I like about this ewe, but the first thing that struck me about her was her structure, she has a leg in all 4 corners and properly proportioned...not too small, not too large and has good fleece to boot.  Her fantastic mothering ability is just another reason to pass along her genetics.  Thank you to Lori of Sommarang Farm for allowing me to lease her.
Everyday is a gift from God.

23 and 24

Friday was a rough day.......we had to attend a visitation for a 9 yr old boy that did not survive a 4 wheeler mishap, and it was the hardest visitation that I've ever had to attend.  You can imagine the turmoil my emotions were afterward, and we came home to Dot in distress.  She was having strong contractions and it was obvious that she had been having them a little while,  I got the flash light and investigated further and found that she wasn't making any progress at all.  After a lot of nail biting and considerable effort on Dot's part, I managed to pull out a fairly large ram lamb, Dot is not a large ewe.  Dot was exhausted, but she was ok and the ram lamb just shook his head a bit and I grabbed a towel to get him somewhat clean and then placed him by mom's nose and she immediately started mothering him.  Fast forward 30 minutes....I now have a nursing lamb and happy mom, so I head for hay and water and when I return there's a very tiny ewe lamb that's joined the party.

That marks the first Shetland birth that has needed my assistance in any way, and I'm hoping it's my last.  I was emotionally spent by the end of Friday when I stumbled to the house about 12:30 am.  And the whole time I'm heading back up the hill to the house I'm thinking "I have 3 pregnant ewes to lamb yet".  (grin)

And the other thought I had as I was sitting and waiting was.......Birth and Death, we never know when either is going to occur.  

Dot with Tina Turner and Buddy Holly about 12 hrs after giving birth.
Kimberwood Dot X Sheltering Pines Bug

Buddy Holly on the right and Tina Turner on the left 

Welcome Reba and John Lennon

I'm a bit behind on my blog posts, had to take some time to spend with family over Easter weekend.  I only had 2 lambs born since the last explosion of little ones last Friday morning.  Garnet had a very classy little moorit krunet sokket ram lamb and his fleece has got me a little excited, I'm hoping it stays nice as he matures.  Farrah, a ewe I leased from Lori of Sommarang Farm for 2 years, had a flashy little moorit flecket ewe lamb with great looking fleece on Easter Sunday in the afternoon.  My first singles this year, and since both are so nice, I don't mind that they had singles one little bit.
If I repeat myself between posts or babble on incoherently, I apologize, but the lack of sleep is kicking my butt this week.  I don't really know why I think I have to get up so much, most of the time the ewes just look at me like I'm out of my mind as they take care of their lambs that didn't need my assistance at all.  I do know that the lambing pens that we built in the shed this year are a huge improvement over past year's.  The inside pens are now filled and once the cold snap moves through tomorrow, mom's and babies are heading for the great outdoors.  I have 6 ewes left that have not lambed, and I have no idea what they are waiting for, but I need some sleep and had a nice long chat with them last night at 2 am.  And out of the corner of my eye, I could swear that I saw them take their hoof and make twirly motions around the side of their head and I'm 99.9% certain that one of them rolled their eyes at me.  I get no respect from them.  (sheesh)

Granet X Bug: John  Lennon
(I've now got all the Beetles names: Ringo, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison)

Farrah X Camden:  Reba

Reba

Sweet Dreams everyone.  :)

8 hrs~4 ewes~10 lambs

I am just too tired to do much more than post the new arrivals pictures.  One of Catherine's ram's (note the pajamas on the little spotted guy) was a little cold and weak, but after a a little warm milk and some Nutri Drench, he's up and doing great now.

Catherine x Thor triplets
White ram, yuglet flecket ram and yuglet sokkett ewe (all black/white)
They are about 6 hrs old in this picture 

Catherine and her ewe.......born approx. 2 am today (love this little girl)

Fiona and her triplets~1 gray ram, 1 white ram and 1 gray ewe.
Fiona is Texal/Charollais, Bug is the sire to these 3 lambs.
This ewe is one of only 2 crossbred ewes in my flock and she is an exceptional producer as well as a phenomenal mother.  

Hermaoine's flecket ram (born about 2 am) A little cold when I found him, but he's up and nursing well.  

Hermoine's yuglet, flecket, sokket ram (bl/white)  

Maura and her twin fawn kat rams (awesome fleece on these two)
Maura X Bug (born about 12 am)

Maura x Bug ram lambs using mom as a jungle gym at 8 hrs old!!  :)

New stuff for 2012 MSSBA Show at WSWF

It's official....we have a few new things that I had to get the approval for from the Wi Sheep and Wool Festival organizers, but I've been given the affirmative nod now and can pass along some of the ideas being planned.

NEW CLASSES THIS YEAR!!!


***Youth Showmanship is being split into three age groups, watch the WSWF website for details, there will be a detailed list of the classes once the catalog copy is finalized.

***This year there will be a Costume Class, so start planning how you are going to dress up you and your Shetland sheep!

I'm very happy to announce that we have been given permission to have a Photo Contest specifically for Shetland sheep at this year's event.  I know that there's been a lot of Shetland owners that would love to compete at the Jefferson fiber event, but distance (and sky rocketing fuel costs) have prevented a lot of you from attending this event.  We thought that having a photo contest that is open to everyone would be a great way to let some of you be involved and show off your sheep at the same time.
There are 2 requirements:  1) There must be a Shetland sheep in the photo  2) You have to provide MSSBA with a 5" x 7" hard copy and a digital copy of your entry.  Both copies become the property of MSSBA, and all entries will be used (with your permission) in a calendar that we will be making with all the entries from the contest.  All photographer will be given full credit when the calendars are made, and the winners will get additional mention and recognition.
The icing on the cake is the prize money....
1st place  (drum roll please)  $100!!!!!  And the cover photo on the calendar.  
2nd place is $50
3rd place $25
4th place $15
5th place $10
6th place $5
Youth 1st place  $40
The entry fee is only $5.00, so it's  a very affordable way to compete at a Shetland Sheep show.

There will be a detailed list of categories as we get closer, such as: Shetlands and landscapes, Shetlands and people/person, Shetlands and kids, Shetlands and any other animal/animals.

Sooooooooo, get out those cameras, I know you have them because I've seen the spectacular pictures each and every one of you have posted on your blogs or Facebook.

Returning events are: Handy Shepherd (may be moved to Friday afternoon), Shetland sheep show, Silent Auction, Skein competition, Make it with Shetland competition, Fleece show and our Pizza party.

Velma and her boys

Finally, a couple more lambs.
Velma is one of my favorite ewes, she straight, square, has very crimpy, dense fleece and she's always given me exceptional lambs.  She's been a good mom from day one and there's just something about her that screams "Look at me" when she's standing out in the pasture.

I'm pretty happy with these little guys.

Crossing my fingers that there won't be any horns........

My only lamb without spots so far.............................

Just look at the yummy fleece.  He's really quite dark, the flash on the camera washed out the rich color of his fleece.

Last night Velma gave me a set of twin rams, one dark moorit with about 2 white hairs on it's head and one black ram with with some significant white on his head and face.  The fleece on the moorit ram is exceptionally nice.
Everyday is a gift from God.

Orange lips

Thanks to our many family and friends that locate and deliver pumpkins to me for my sheep to enjoy.  As you can see, it doesn't take long for them to figure out that they are super yummy.  New sheep and lambs generally turn up their noses at this once a year treat, but it doesn't take long for them to come around.  I have one ewe lamb that loves them so much that her entire face is orange when she's done.  

Dot, Challis and Maura  shamelessly pigging out on pumpkins

Alexandria simply adores pumpkins. 

Dot and Challis 

Vienna thinks I have grain and was quite put out with me that I only had a camera.
I really like this ewe lamb.......can't wait to see what she looks like next year.

Disco and Alabama are pretty disgusted with me here, no treats and so now the pouting begins.

Left front: Salina, center is Killian's butt and right front is Seneca (butt again)
background ewe lambs are: middle of pen is Alabama then from left to right in the back: Alexandria, Sierra, Vienna, & Disco

Killian and Seneca.  Killian was the wildest sheep when she arrived, but now she simply lays her head in my hand and loves to be scratched.  Sits right on the ground.......it's hilarious.

That which angers us, controls us.