How it all started! (Less marigold, the black ewe)
Top left: Clover Top Right: Petunia
Bottom left: Daisy, Clover and Petunia Bottom right Myrtle
2003 - Marigold and her boys
2004 lambs
Myrtle delivered the first lamb from 2005 flock, ewe born 4/10. Black, no markings. She is two days old in the picture, with our 10 year old son.
Update 4/19/05 - this ewe is sold
Our Petunia delivered on 4/16/05 in the afternoon. She delivered a brown ram and ewe, ewe is a little lighter in color than the ram. Their photos are above, Ram is far left, ewe is two photos on right.
8/2005 update: Ram is sold. We are keeping the ewe, we registered her as Fern. We will be breeding her with our moorit smirslet ram, Woody.
Daisy delivered a ram and a ewe on Sunday, 4/17/05. The ewe has moorit markings on tips of ears, back of neck, tail and feet. She also looks like she's going to have horns. The ram is all white, he is in the photo above left.
In photo above right, ewe is in foreground. In Photo lower right, ram is in foreground.
update 4/19/05 - The ewe is sold.
2005 Lambs
The 2005 Niagara County fair was our first experience showing our shetlands. We brought Fern, Vanilla and Lilly. We got set up on Tuesday, August 2, and the fair started the next day. Ours were the only fleece breeds at the fair, shown in full fleece vs. slick sheared like the meat breeds (suffolks, dorsets and hampshires). They are also a lot smaller than the traditional meat breeds, so they received a lot of attention from fairgoers.
The sheep show was Wednesday at 5:00 PM. Grandma and Grandpa Johnson were there to show their support. Will showed Lilly in the Beginner Showmanship class and in the Shetland Breed Class. Will showed Vanilla in the Shetland Ram Class. Andrew showed Fern in the Junior Showmanship and the Shetland Breed class. Andrew and William did a terrific job in all their classes, we were extremely proud of them. You could tell they spent a lot of time with their sheep before the show, they were very well behaved and did everything the boys required of them. Both boys made educational posters to display above our pen.
The sheep spent the week at the fair, getting a lot of attention and petting from toddlers to senior citizens. There was a lot of interest in the breed, as well as the spinning demonstration that Jennifer provided throughout the duration of the week. On Sunday, the closing ceremonies, Will and Andrew both received herdsmen awards, which meant they spent a lot of time in the barn and took good care of their animals.
Fern is saying to Andrew, "These sheep are huge!!!" Fern is the same age as the lambs on either side of her.
