So we took off Thursday after work to go to the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene. I took this picture of the trumpeter swan who has been hanging out with the silage bales across the street for the last 2 weeks when we left. We had a gourmet meal from Taco Time in Marysville on the way down and made it to Salem by 11PM. We got up early Friday morning and made it to the Gathering just in time for the Shetland show. Below is a photo of the Shetland rams all lined up and being judged.
Here's the rams again with an HS (no T) ram in front.
Here are all the ram lambs lined up- quite a few!
And the ewe lambs!
Then pair of ewe lambs- you can see on the left some of the lambs weren't very cooperative with the idea.
Three gatmoget butts!
Then Saturday morning I arrived before 9:00 for the Shetland fleece judging. Here John (and Tina) Parks won the first place ribbon for yearling and lamb Shetland fleeces with the gorgeous fleece from Luna.
Here's the mature Shetland fleeces being judged.
After the fleece judging and wool sale I checked out the fiber arts results. Shetland wool figured prominently. There's this intricate Fair Isle sweater...
This fine Shetland shawl....
And this lovely felted lamb coat!
I tried to be good with our money. I bought this lovely West African made basket to hold my knitting...
And this gorgeous fine Shetland fleece with which I hope to make my own Shetland shawl.
We left Sunday morning to head home. When we arrived we found a dead lamb- Bam Bam (our most promising ram lamb) had apparently escaped under the gate into the next field with the donkeys. We found him lying there. I feel like the worst shepherdess in the world, leaving for 2 days when if I had been home I may have found him in the field and moved him back to his pasture or heard his or his mother's cries.
I think our grey mini donkey Marty killed him. He used to be a good donkey but recently he has chased our smaller goats and very recently he had grabbed a small buckling by the neck and was swinging him violently. Since then we kept him separate from the other small animals, but our escape artist lamb managed to find him. Now Marty will be for sale. I hate to see him go, but we cannot have a killer donkey on the property. He is fine with our other donkey and great with people, including children, so I hope we can find him a nice home.
So we took off Thursday after work to go to the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene. I took this picture of the trumpeter swan who has been hanging out with the silage bales across the street for the last 2 weeks when we left. We had a gourmet meal from Taco Time in Marysville on the way down and made it to Salem by 11PM. We got up early Friday morning and made it to the Gathering just in time for the Shetland show. Below is a photo of the Shetland rams all lined up and being judged.
Here's the rams again with an HS (no T) ram in front.
Here are all the ram lambs lined up- quite a few!
And the ewe lambs!
Then pair of ewe lambs- you can see on the left some of the lambs weren't very cooperative with the idea.
Three gatmoget butts!
Then Saturday morning I arrived before 9:00 for the Shetland fleece judging. Here John (and Tina) Parks won the first place ribbon for yearling and lamb Shetland fleeces with the gorgeous fleece from Luna.
Here's the mature Shetland fleeces being judged.
After the fleece judging and wool sale I checked out the fiber arts results. Shetland wool figured prominently. There's this intricate Fair Isle sweater...
This fine Shetland shawl....
And this lovely felted lamb coat!
I tried to be good with our money. I bought this lovely West African made basket to hold my knitting...
And this gorgeous fine Shetland fleece with which I hope to make my own Shetland shawl.
We left Sunday morning to head home. When we arrived we found a dead lamb- Bam Bam (our most promising ram lamb) had apparently escaped under the gate into the next field with the donkeys. We found him lying there. I feel like the worst shepherdess in the world, leaving for 2 days when if I had been home I may have found him in the field and moved him back to his pasture or heard his or his mother's cries.
I think our grey mini donkey Marty killed him. He used to be a good donkey but recently he has chased our smaller goats and very recently he had grabbed a small buckling by the neck and was swinging him violently. Since then we kept him separate from the other small animals, but our escape artist lamb managed to find him. Now Marty will be for sale. I hate to see him go, but we cannot have a killer donkey on the property. He is fine with our other donkey and great with people, including children, so I hope we can find him a nice home.
Posts
4 comments:
Oh Donna, I am so sorry to hear about Bam-Bam! Try not to beat yourself up too much; if Marty has gotten that bad, he could have grabbed a lamb within seconds of the lamb getting into his pasture. Staying home wouldn't have guaranteed a thing, unfortunately. It WAS good to see you....
Thanks for the help with my guilt. I just feel bad, wish I could do a better job at preventing this from happening. Marty, as much as I love him, will have to go. It was good seeing you- sorry I am such a social nincompoop and also didn't talk to you more. I enjoyed myself at BSG and hope you did too.
Oh, what a disappointing end to a fun weekend. So sorry that you lost your little fellow, and like Michelle said, even if you had been home, you might not have been able to prevent it. Thanks again for the pictures - Enjoyed your views of BSG :-) T.
Tina,
Thanks for the sympathies. It was a huge sorry at the end of a nice trip. I hope folks do like the photos.
Donna
Post a Comment