NEWS!!!! page 2

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3/18/06 The Bluefaced Leicesters are sheared!  They all look great, and the fleeces are lovely.  So clean and white and lustrous.  I am thrilled!

3/19/06  The Washington County open and PAngora Specialty show went well. I had second place out of 10 wonderful colored SR FA does.  My Satin junior buck took BOS, and the BOB was a Somerhill bred doe.

4/2/06 My Satin Angoras won BOB and BOS at all three shows in Piketon, and Georgia won BOB and her second leg in Show A in French.   In Show B,  judge Pam Nock hated my senior does shown in soft junior coats.  Oh well..... :^)  :^)

4/13/06  BFL lambs are arriving daily!

4-14-06  Straight line winds blew off the corner of the barn roof during this afternoon's thunderstorm.  On the one hand, the morning sun gives a cathedral-like feeling in the barn, but having to carry an umbrella inside the barn is a definite negative.   Insurance will cover it, and thankfully, we've found another victim (er, I mean craftsman) to climb all the way up there to fix it 5-1-06   The roof is repaired along with several other smaller places on other outbuildings.

5-4-06  See you all at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival on Saturday, and the Ohio State Convention (rabbit show) on Sunday.

5-7-06 The Katahdins started lambing about 6 minutes before I returned home from Maryland.  Shiner had a set of twins.  Since then, we've had 5 more sets of twins, all born unassisted in the pasture.  We have 30 bred this year.

5-8-06  Somerhill Estelle (fawn) won BOB - FA in the PAngora Specialty show, and Somerhill Shiraz won BOB - SA in both the specialty and the OSRBA show, winning her 5th junior leg.

5-13-06 Enjoyed the Mineral Wells, WV double show.  My SA doe, Shiraz, was mentioned as second choice in the best 4 class, and Estelle won BOB in one show, with 2 of her REW sisters winning legs also.

Somerhill Shiraz

5-15-06 The score for our first week of lambing the Katahdins - 14 ewes lambed, with 25 lambs born; 14 ewe lambs and 11 ram lambs.  All born alive and are healthy.  This leaves 15 or so ewes left to lamb 5-25-06 The Katahdins are done lambing.  44 lambs born - 22 ewes/22 rams.

5-25-06 The Noble-Morgan grazing council came to our farm for a tour.  Nice evening, 30+ people came, with lots of questions and conversation.

6-4-06 I've finished dyeing the BFL wool for the 2006 roving run.  Its a blend of blues/purple/spruce.   I'll be shipping it out for processing this weekend.

6-20-06  Did our first FAMACHA checking of the Katahdins.  22- #1, 22 -#2, and only 2 -#3 which we had to deworm.  Very good results!

7-8-06  The BFL lambs are weaned.  They are already eating close to 1.5# of grain split into 2 feedings per day, and really thriving.  They fussed for a couple days, but have settled down and are so friendly and inquisitive!  They practically climb into my arms.  :^)

7-17-06  Boy, is it HOT!!!!!  So far, all the amimals are withstanding the heat and humidity.  The ewes lay around in the shade all day, and go out to graze in the evening and late at night.  So far, the BFL lambs have not missed a beat - still eating like pirana.  The buns are coping, too.  I keep a fan on them day and night, and so far, no one seems stressed by the heat.   Hope we have some cooler weather soon - we've had such a mild summer so far, this sudden heat is hard to adjust.

8-8-06 The Katahdin lambs are weaned.  They were starting to look a little rough - I think the heat was effecting their growth.   We've got them wormed, and started on grain and hay and all are eating well and starting to bloom.

8-14-06 Ahhhhhh - cooler temperatures at last!  The entire BFL flock was tested for OPP, and all came back negative.  Thank goodness, since 14 months ago, a purchased ram came back with our first & only positive since 1999, when we first began testing the flock  We also had blood drawn to have the 2 stud rams and 5 of this year's ram lambs codon tested.  It will be interesting to see what the results are.

8-22-06  The Bluefaced Leicester roving is back from the processor!  Its a blend of purple/spruce/blue and spins up into a beautiful, sparkling yarn in jewel tones.

9-10-06 The rabbit show season is upon us!.  Went to Piketon to a double show.   Somerhill Paloma, a 9 week old black doe was BOB in show A, with Somerhill Defoe, chocolate agouti buck as BOB in show B.

9-15-06 Got the BFLs sheared. The shearers asked if we had washed the sheep

9-16-06 See ya at the Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs, Ohio!   I will have BFL fleeces, roving, dyed locks, angora yarns, and sheepskins for sale.