Breeding Season Starts

October 1 - breeding season starts. Count 148 days more or less and there will be lambs. I know where I'll be February 26. Farm Club came to help sort sheep.

There were four breeding groups to sort--ewes that would go to three Jacob rams and Peyton, the BFL. There is also a non-breeding group. I juggled which ewe lambs to not breed--I want to have some to show next spring (maybe take to MSWF to sell?) and to show at State Fair. I debated which ewes to put with Peyton. Obviously those won't produce purebred Jacob lambs, but the crossbred lambs grow fast and are valuable for market lambs. 

We got the rams out and trimmed their feet.

We got the marking harnesses ready. I use the same color in all of the harnesses. The breeding groups are all in separate places so I'm not trying to sort which ram bred which ewes. If they were all together I'd have fighting rams and still wouldn't know the sires because there would be multiple breedings. I will change the color in about two weeks. Then I'll know that all the blue marks are from the first two weeks of breeding and if the ewes are marked with the next color they were bred in the next two weeks.

This is ewe lamb, Hollyhock. The dirty face and dirty wool is a result of the tall dallisgrass that is now sticky. As a result the sheep are covered with dirt and with dallisgrass seeds.

I this opportunity to take close-up photos of the ewe lambs that I need to register.

Here is the main event. Rams working working overtime with their mouths open and tongues out. Uh, Peyton, that's a wether.

The ewes that are in heat will hang around the ram. Sheena and Shelby were the two who were interested in Catalyst. If Catalyst showed interest in one the other started beating him up.

This gives new meaning to Fall Colors.

Black Sheep Gathering 2017

Black Sheep Gathering is my favorite West Coast Fiber Event. I just wish that it wasn't so far away. It's about an 8 hour drive if you just stop for gas and nothing more.

This year it was important to leave early enough to avoid the heat in the Sacramento Valley. That meant I loaded sheep at 4 a.m. and was on the road by 4:45. I was passing the Sutter Buttes before the sun was up.

First good view of Mt. Shasta, this year with plenty of snow.

Most of this post is just random shots in the barns and vendor hall.

Our across-the-aisle neighbor, Teeswater. I can't imagine dealing with that fleece.

Other neighbors, Navajo-churro yearling rams, ready to be shown.

Angora goat show.

Wool Show judging. That is my ewe, Cindy's, fleece. This is the first time in years I have entered a wool show. I had planned to keep this one, but I'm still spinning the other that I saved this year. This fleece sold within an hour of the sale opening.

Meet and Greet with Peyton, the BFL ram who was coming home with me. (See Rusty's Blog later for a post by Peyton.)

This is Moo Shoe Pork, a crowd favorite in last year's Fiber Arts show, created by Nancy (Peyton's owner) and in the Liongate Farm booth, near Peyton.

There were several spinning circles in the middle of the air conditioned vendor hall. These were very popular as the weekend wore on. People in Oregon get start to complain when the weather gets into the high 80s. And it did get hot, pushing the high 90s, but thankfully cooled off at night for us campers.

Dyed mohair locks.

M&M dispenser. I know, not fiber related, but maybe for keeping up strength while in a spinning competition?

Our Farm Club friend, Gynna, demonstrating at the Clemes & Clemes booth. I carry this fabulous drum carder and other C&C products at the shop.

Here is what she was doing. I haven't tried dizzing off the drum carder before but certainly will now.

I liked this display of fiber. The purpose was to show how the picker being sold in the booth prepared the fiber.

I met up with Tina, Farm Club Emeritus, who now lives in Portland.

She found a rug-hooking mini-workshop in the vendor hall.

Two of us entered the Fiber Arts Show. This is Doris' beautiful knitted shawl. She used Lori's fleece and blended colors to create this gradient. Her masterful work was recognized with the award for Best Use of Natural Colored Wool!

We had chosen Friday as the day that several of us could go out to dinner. Nine of us met in the sheep barn and it took awhile to figure out where to eat.

Decision made, but then we needed to figure out who was going where after (motel, back to the fairgrounds, etc), which cars had room for extra people, and synchronize map apps.

Seen on a car window and magnified about a million times from an iphone photo taken from a lane away.)

After a good dinner we got a passerby to take a photo of all of us in front of the Eugene public art.

Love the concept and the You Are Here part.