This is it. I'm done!

Payment plans suck.

LOL

I wasn't planning on purchasing ANY sheep this year, and then I go and get...well...let's just say too many :) And in a year where everyone is tightening their wallets I'm apparently just throwing money around like a drunken rich guy at the Casino! (I don't gamble, but thought it was a good analogy)

I have however moved out over half of my mature ewes and over half of my lambs from this year..either to pet homes, fiber homes, other breeders or to the butcher ( I LOVE SHETLAND MEAT!)

I've changed the dynamics of my flock quite a bit after I realized what kind of Shetland I wanted to raise (the one that they describe in the 1927 SSS standard). I admit I did get rid of most of my primitives, or longer intermediate fleeced sheep. I moved out most of my spots. I did not expect to get so many scurred ram lambs from full horned rams so I do have a lot of now known poll carrier ewes. So I embraced the polled Shetlands and now have a small group of them bred to the new ram from Juliann that I got (the moorit gulmoget smooth polled ram). I did get some spotted lambs out of Jazz, and I'm VERY happy with them. He was bred to a lot of Minwawe spotted stock and I was really happy with the amount of spots I got and the UK fleeces that came on them as well.

So when I was emailing Becky Utecht about her solid sided gulmoget ewe lamb earlier in the year I was quite taken with her. I've always admired her mother River Oaks Lucy, a Sheltering Pines Bombarde daughter, and I had seen her microns from her sheep and been to her house numerous times to visit with her and talk sheep. I was able to feel fleeces and I really liked her River Oaks Eliza fleeces also. Well one day this summer much to my surprise Becky had talked about possibly getting rid of her Shetlands (*pausing for long gasp from readers*)!!! I know!! I nearly went into hysterics and told her if she was going to do that I'd need to get 3-6 ewes from her. She calmly and politely told me she was going to breed a few of the ones I mentioned to Kimberwood Harrison the polled solid sided gulmoget ram that gave her her cute little River Oaks Lana. But she had mentioned perhaps parting with Eliza, Lucy and Lana. Well I won't bore you with the details but I did end up bringing home Eliza and Lucy yesterday, but Lana is staying at Becky's for awhile...I guess :)

Eliza and Lucy are very UK in their appearance, soft handle, crimpy fleeces and nice microns. I know Becky kind of was second guessing her selling them but I promised that i'd take good care of them and would let her have first dibs on the offspring if they ever became available.

Earlier this spring (early winter maybe) I decided that the Bluefaced Leicesters were a second breed for me! I had fallen in love with the two ewe lambs I got from Beechtree Farm last year at MFF. I started sending payments to Brenda in April for lambs and was talking to Becky U and Stephen Rouse about possibly getting a BFL or two from them as well.

Turns out I got several from Brenda, a ram from Stephen but I still needed a few with slightly different lines to bring in to my small flock of BFLs. I contacted Nancy Starkey out east as I know she has done her share of AI in the past. She said she wasn't going to MFF but maybe Kathy Davidson of PA would be going and have something that I liked. For the next several months Kathy and I emailed back and forth, sending photos, pedigrees and 'wishes' that I wanted in the girls. She had an impressive group of girls to choose from. She was aware of my quest for the UK style BFL with the soft fleece and the lovely draping that they do, dark blue pigement and TYPE TYPE TYPE! MFF didn't work out but she had mentioned that she visited her brother in MN and before I knew it she and I planned a trip to meet at Becky Utecht's house! How fun!

Immediately upon seeing the two girls she brought for me, my heart went 'pitter pat' and I knew that I had made the right decisions, along with Kathy's great ability to find just the right girls for me. Becky was impressed with them too and we both said that Kathy needed to visit her brother in MN again NEXT fall with more lambs ;)

I went to get photos of the girls in the quarantine pen but then soon realized that the electro-net was not working and the ewes that I brought back from MFF (which are still in the quarantine pen as well) were not on the RIGHT side of the fence.....

Maybe tomorrow will be pictures...sorry to tease :)

In the mean time, my payment plans with the sheep will hopefully be over SOON when the rest of my calves go and I be paid up. Thanks to those who were patient with me in this agreement. I hate owing people money!

And I am going to whole-heartedly try to keep my flock CLOSED now for the health of all the animals involved, and my pocket book. I will however 'have to' open it up for one or two special girls or boys if the 'need' arises in the future.

I think I need to settle down and get married. I need a level headed person in this relationship! :) :):)

Partial Breeding Group list

Well I have my AI group of girls ready:

Justalit'l Shasta Ag/Aa horned smirslet flecket F3 Gordon
Justalit'l Chloe Ab/Ab fawn katmoget F2 Minder
Justalit'l Black Lambo Aa/Aa Black F3 Holly F3 Timothy
BonoCreek Lavender Brown Aa/Aa fawn F2/F3 Jamie
FirthofFifth Rooibos Aa/Aa fawn 25% UK
FirthofFifth Evidence of Autumn Aa/Aa fawn F3Holly F3 Jamie
FirthofFifth Booto Ab/Aa Fawn Katmoget F1 Timothy
River Oaks Lucy Ab/Aa Grey Katmoget F3 Dillon F3 Holly
River Oaks Eliza Awt/Aa White 18% UK
RYL Rachildas Awt/Ag white illget F3 Lightning
Underhill Peep Ag/Aa musket F2 Greyling, F2 Jamie
Underhill Ulla Aa/Aa moorit F2 Jamie

I'm planning on using a mix of Orion, Timothy, Holly, Jamie, Minder and Lightning. I was unable to secure any Jericho or Greyling.

My F1 Jericho F2 Drum Ram F3 Drum Jings grey katmoget ram, Wintertime Jazz will have 9 ewes:
Wintersky Layla horned Aa/Aa mioget F1 Orion F3 Timothy
Wintertime Galina At/Aa black gulmoget F3 Dillon
ShelteringPines Myra Ab/Aa smirslet grey katmoget
ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis Ab/Aa smirslet grey katmoget F3/F3 Minder
Minwawe Sterling Aa/Aa black krunet
Minwawe Dixie Cup Aa/Aa shaela smirslet
Minwawe SeaBreeze Aa/Aa moorit smirslet sokket
Minawe Flopsy Aa/Aa moorit
ShelteringPines Snow Cloud Ab/Aa grey katmoget (this is Suzanne Nevada's ewe)


That leaves 13 ewes/ewe lambs that I would like to breed this year to five rams. That means 2 or 3 ewes per ram. And it makes sensce fleece, pedigree, color wise, but physical labor wise its silly!

I'm hoping the micron reports will help decide who I use and where the ewes should be placed because right now I'm torn between a few rams to put them with. Stay tuned!

A few of 'da boyz'

Here are a few of the boys I will be using this fall.

UnderTheSon Arapaho. He's a very dense, crimpy and dark moorit boy. He's going to be a big guy when he gets older! He's an F2 Orion.

Lil'Country Barkley and UnderTheSon Mohican. Barkley is the polled gulmoget from Juliann, Mohican is the fawn katmoget (possibly modified) F2 Brent/F3 Jericho

Another shot of Barkley showing off his smooth polled noggin ;)

I just love this guy! ShelteringPines Burma who is an F2 CarryHouse V2 among many other UK bloodlines.

My father/son duo is shown here! Wintertime Jazz my F1 Jericho and his son, WhitePine Lyons, the shaela who is an F2 Jericho F4 Jamie. and 62% UK

When I first got my Shetlands I thought people were crazy for having more than one ram, but now I see the 'problem' of 'needing' so many different rams for different things!

Ell and Sadie

The same day as the video I posted a few days ago...I took a few photos.


Such a happy girl :)


Sadie wanting to play with the 'squeakless' squeaky pheasant


Sadie on the alert....she keeps the peace in the backyard let me tell you!

Anyone want some Old English Game Bantams?

After my mink attack last year, I had a chicken massacre thanks to my cats. I ended up only having one rooster and one hen survive the ordeal. So I contacted Choice Bantams in South Carolina who raised premier OEGBs and placed an 'order' for two fawn silver duckwing roosters and 3 fawn silver duckwing hens. After the initial introduction, they were fine. Until the cats got in again and got both my new roosters and one of the hens. We no longer have cats on our farm.

So this spring I had the Silver duckwing rooster, a silver duckwing hen and 2 fawn silver duckwing hens. Out of these breedings I was able to get BOTH silver duckwing and fawn silver duckwing roosters and hens. And now I have too many! Would you like some? I want to keep two hens of each color, 1 rooster of each color and i'm getting a pair of Blue Silver duckwings from Choice Bantams this fall sometime. I don't want to over winter so many, so on October 4th if they aren't sold by then, they are going to the exotic animal auction in Perham. They definetly won't be coming back!

I paid $25 a chicken as they are show quality, good parents and from proven lines. However I'm willing to sell at group prices to move them out :)

A silver duckwing rooster and fawn silver duckwing rooster.



A partial group photo.


Another partial group photo.

Random photos

The entire ewe flock (with ewe lambs) chowing on their morning allotment of hay.


NO DOGS WERE HARMED IN THE TAKING OF THIS PHOTO. It was actually like 80 degrees that day and Sadie and Oliver were trying to fend off the heat by napping. This is how they typically sleep in the bed too :)


Isn't Mitcham just the cutest thing ever?!


Here is WhitePine Sedalia who is a Wintertime Jazz x Minwawe Sterling baby. She's uniformly crimpy, ultra soft and I can't wait to get her micron report back to see just how soft :)



The three ducks (all hens) that I'm wintering over. The Chocolate hen is the only duck that survived the mink attacks (all of them) last fall and the black and blue hens were from hatchery stock this spring and were the only two that were even 'salvageable' for my restart in the Swedish Ducks. Swedes are docile, set on eggs well (and are great moms) and are a meatier type breed. I just love 'em!

Breeding Groups

** Warning! Long post. Be prepared to not leave to go to the bathroom or answer the phone. So grab a coffee or tea and a blanket and settle in to read.**

Ah yes...its that time of year again. Where the rams get all rowdy and the girls flirty. I've had this time of year on my mind for over a year, since LAST year's breeding groups were put together. What should I put the lamb out of THIS breeding to NEXT year?!! LOL. Its comical and keeps me guessing......I guess that is why I do it ;)

This is only my third breeding season. My first season I had one ram with 5 ewes, my second season I had 3 rams with 13 ewes, 9 ewes and 5 ewes. This year I don't know!!!

This year my goals were simple yet hard to accomplish. I wanted a moorit based ram. I must admit I'm already pretty picky about a ram (and I'm sure all of us are!). I couldn't decide on one, so I got two. A moorit and a fawn katmoget. Both from Theresa Gygi. I also wanted a moorit gulmoget and I found that with Juliann Budde. He is also polled to boot and I can work him into some of my ewes that are known poll carriers. I also needed a BFL ram and I found a natural colored/English Blue ram lamb at Stephen Rouse's farm. Add those four to Jazz and Barish, my two homozygous black, grey katmoget rams and I have six groups. I also decided to keep Lyons, a sheala solid ram out of Jazz. He's super soft and just growing gorgeously. You may have seen him at WS&WF?

SO seven rams to use this fall. Oh yes! And the AI that I am doing with some friends in WI. That's a LOT of options!

All year I"ve been watching the ewes and lambs, the rams and going over pedigrees, structure, fleece handle, fleece type, colors, horn genes etc. Two rams I was planning on using I probably will sit on for a year....and one I wasn't going to use I am going to use on 5 ewes! My how things change.

One of the biggest reasons was this: I really don't want to lamb 30 ewes out next year! I did it this year, and as much fun as it was, it was spread out way too long. Some of my ewe lambs from end of May, early June are just too small for me to comfortably breed this fall. Last year i put everyone in a group and assumed they'd cycle if they were 'ready' and they'd grow over the winter. The result was smaller lambs from smaller ewes. Now that everyone is catching up in size, I ponder if I should breed ALL the ewe lambs.

I won't.

I have 15 ewe lambs that I either raise or purchased. They have been split off of the rest of the ewe flock and are going to be fed more in hopes of getting them growing more in time for the December breeding groups. Whoever isn't at least 50 pounds (or whatever number I decide it to be) by December won't be used. Currently of the 15 I have about half that are as big as the yearlings (or bigger) and will have no problem lambing next spring.

I've already sold what I felt was not needed for my breeding program, so I have left what I feel is structurally what I am striving for (or can improve upon easily enough by the right breeding), soft enough (or again improvable with the right breeding) and the right color combination (I'd ideally like blacks that are recessive for moorit and spots).

I haven't even thought where the ewes will go that will be AI'ed ....as far as a clean up ram. Since I"ll have enough rams to choose from I might do rebreedings to Jazz or Barish, or I'll try soemthing 'new' and use the ram lambs.

I collected lamb fleece samples tonight with the help of my dad. I took 15 ewe lamb samples and 5 ram lamb samples. Since I can "feel" how soft they are that's great, but I'm a numbers man and if I can see the histogram AND feel how soft it is, the better I can place the ewes to the rams.

I have an idea of who will go with Jazz as I'm hoping he'll soften the fleeces on the ewes that I"m putting with him, as well as give me some spots and some katmogets! Since he is homozygous black, I'm putting mostly moorit bases or known moorit carriers with him in hopes of getting blacks that will carry the moorit coloring.

Barish is getting some girls in hopes of pulling the modified out again. this year he threw an emsket ram lamb that went to Rayna and a couple of nice solid black lambs...all the boys were scurred too!

Barkley the moorit gulmoget is getting a white, moorit, fawn katmoget and black gulmoget, and a black...all possible poll carriers.

Mohican (fawn kat)will get most of the solid blacks from Jazz and Barish in hopes of getting some patterns and bring out the moorit gene they mostly carry.

Arapaho (moorit)will get the grey katmoget ewe lambs out of Jazz and Barish and hope for some solids and katmogets..in browns and blacks.

Burma the BFL will get the BFL girls and possibly a Shetland ewe...I'm still deciding if I want to do that this year.....or wait until next.

The boys will be used again on girls that will compliment them not only in pedigree, color and fleece type, but with the proper micron. Its the only way I feel I can really improve upon and make the fleeces finer.....if even slightly finer.

So yes...pens.....

Jazz, Barish, Arapaho, Barkley, Burma, Mohican, ewe lamb pen that aren't getting bred, ram lamb pen that I"m keeping to butcher next spring, BFL lamb pen, and Lyons might even have a few girls...that's 10 pens. Am I ready?

Last year I put the boys out with the girls October 31st. The first lambs came March 30th. I didn't take the rams out until January 15th. The last lamb came June 8th. That's WAY too long of a lambing season!

I have the Cardigan Welsh Corgi National in Kansas next early part of April and I'm planning on taking ALL FIVE dogs to compete in some sort of event throughout the week. I don't want my dad to have to worry about lambs, so I'm not putting the ground breeding groups together until November 20th. That will make it around April 20th for a lambing date and I should be home and prepared for the 2nd lambing group! They will be taken away from the girls December 30th or there about. If they don't get bred, they don't get bred and I won't have to keep waiting for ewes to lamb.

My AI girls will be AI'ed on October 26th. That puts us around March 25th or so...and they should all be lambing within a few days of each other and so whoever DOESN"T lamb then I'll know will have gotten bred by a ground breeding and will not lamb for another month. That will make the AI lambs older and bigger but I can't have so many ewes lambing when we are in blizzard season. (Last April we had 5 feet of snow over three storms...all seven days apart..and it melted in between storms) so I don't want to have too many ewes with lambs in the barns due to high amounts of snow.

PHEW. I"m exhausted just thinking about all of this...and typig it. I'm sorry I got a little winded ;) I just get excited thinking about it!

I"ll keep you posted on the micron results!

Throwing the Ball

OK no videographer was injured in the making of this movie.

Trying to post videos after I saw Corinne do it. And no, if she jumped off a cliff (or if her GPS told her to) I wouldn't follow!

The wait is over!

WOW!

After two years of seeing a gorgeous black special at the dog shows around here I finally was able to get one :) AND it just so happens that this guy is 3/4 related to the black dog I kept seeing! Extra score!! I'm still very much in love with my Cardigans, but wanted and needed a larger dog to intimidate visitors from walking into their pen. I'm a little bit nervous about the grooming but I've been reassured that normal maintenance is the key and it won't be too bad.



Isn't he just the cutest thing? His temperament is amazing and his socialization to this point is fantastic...he isn't afraid of anything and curious of everything.


Here's a photo of his proud parents!

For more info please check out my website. www.ebonwald.com. Look under the name Mitcham :)

**** HE"S A BRIARD!!*** (from the herding group!)

Creating your own line

Having gone to school for genetics and growing up around animals my entire life, this seems really 'basic' to me. However I'm sure there are many who wonder why they aren't seeing results in their breeding programs after a litter or two (or lambing season/calving season,breeding season etc).

Since I've been breeding cattle and pigeons the longest I'll talk about them mostly. This can be related to dogs and sheep and just about anything else.

First of all. Find something you like to look at, and stick with it! There are so many people in pigeons who are raising for example the English Trumpeter. I"ve been breeding them for 14 years and still am having inconsistent results. Why? Because I'm going solely on color or gender, not on overall type. On the opposite side of the coin, I have been raising Homing Pigeons for 15 years. I started with all out crosses (still all homing pigeons, just different lines and different 'families' within lines. From that beginning I closed off my flock, and have only brought in SIX birds for colors/patterns/ or pedigree. Pigeons are great because you are guaranteed a new generation every year, if not twice in one year! The genetic advancement you can make with them is amazing! While most of my homers are from the "Janssen" line (a man in Belgium who raced them and made his own strain), I am able to tell MY birds from everyone elses. I can tell at 3 months of age which are cocks and which are hens, and they are almost like cookie-cutter birds. All the cocks are the same, all the hens are the same structurally, except for color/pattern! Of course with line breeding you get the very best to come out and the very worst. My biggest problem now is that the backs tend to be weaker, so I've kept back my strongest backed birds to breed back to my best of the 'other' patterned birds. Its working :)

I laugh when dog people or sheep people say "well in my breeding program" or "in my lines". Really? Looking at pedigrees or both species would be an easy answer to that. I personally don't think you have your "OWN" line until at least 4 generations! When it says EBONWALD or WHITE PINE in my pedigrees for four generations, then I can say that I have my own line. Until then, I'm just breeding someone else's lines!

In my dogs, in all of their pedigrees, there are several generations in a row with the same kennel name. That's a line. In the sheep, when the farm name is in three or four generations...that's a line. I can only think of a few people in both dogs and sheep that I'd consider have lines. Get mad. Its ok. I said it. Why are you mad? Its because you don't have your own line? I don't have it in my sheep or dogs. My sheep are mostly Sheltering Pines, Underhill, WinterSky, Bramble, Justalit'l, FirthofFifth.

In my dogs...almost all of them go back to Pluperfect, Cardiridge, Coedwig, Phi-Vestavia, Chandler, Kennebec, Davenitch, all long time breeders. I have to decide what i like best and bred to that.

In pigeons guys make me laugh...Person A buys person B's birds. He breeds only person B's birds for three, four generations and claims to have his own line. Really? Aren't you just breeding person B's birds? Do they look at all different? what makes them different enough to be their own line?

More times than not I've tried to cross two different lines in any given pigeon breed, only to have failure. Sure both parents are amazing birds in their own rights, but bred together all that crap that is hiding in the lines shows up. You can sometimes get a pair that 'clicks' and have amazing babies. Never split them up! They are a Godsend!

Is it any different in sheep? No! I've breed line A, to line B and gotten amazing stuff. I've also taken line A to line B and gotten terrible stuff. And just because its the same marking or color of the unrelated parents doesn't mean that you've now created a line.

Wow, am I rambling? I meant to have this all laid out in order but I seem to be jumping around a bit. Oh well. IF yo know me, you know I have ADOS....Attention Deficit ............OOOOH Shiny!! LOL

Maybe this has helped you at least realize that you need to create your own family/line before you will have guaranteed results,and even then you might still get a few 'uglies', but much less often!

And while we all breed towards the same standard, we all have different takes on what we feel is the prime example of the breed we are breeding. Heck that's why we have so many religions! ONE BIBLE, all different points of views. We all interpret it a little different, don't we? But that's another days' discussion :)

Cattle Decisions

I was able to move out several mature cows yesterday, a yearling heifer who somehow got pregnant at 5 months of age and calved full term (she did lose the calf however) and 6 bull calves, all from my spotted/yellow/traditional marked herd. Last year I had tried to AI the lot of the spotted/traditional marked cows, and each time the day would come to inseminate, the yellow spotted bull kept getting out (archive my blog to read about those terrible days). He, in jest I assume, gave me all bull calves this year! The only two heifers that will go to the spotted program this fall are out of AI and from some of the original imported bulls from Switzerland. *sigh*

Years like this, make you wonder what you are doing, if you are going in the right direction and if you are making any progress.

I punched numbers (EPDs) looked at pedigrees and compared the bull calves standing side by side, etc and decided to keep two bull calves from this year..A yellow spotted bull and a red spotted bull. The red one is out of AI, the yellow spotted out of that bull from last year. The two cows I sold that were mature...well. Caitlyn M25 (yes they are named and registered) was my #1 cow in the herd, however her udder would swell to unproportionate sizes before cavling due in part to her age, her pedigree and genetics. I could no longer hope to have more calves from her with the extra extra large teats she had. I have kept two of her daughters to carry on her line, with smaller teats. The other cow, Cayenne R18, was a yellow blaze cow that I had hoped would throw me yellow spots. Unfortunately she was also part Charolais (about 1/8) and that yellow gene wasn't coming from the Simmental, but from the Charolais. She was AI'ed this past week to a yellow bull, but I decided I didn't want the 'fake' kind of yellow, I wanted it pure, so back to the drawing board on that one.

Overall I think that I did the right thing. I feel good about my decisions and moving forward from this point.

I am however moving out all of my solid red Simmental and my dad is selling off his solid black and goggle faced black cattle......the entire herd.......as he is refocusing what he wants to do after work and on weekends (and its not farming!)

If you know of anyone who would like an amazing group of girls (with herd bulls inclueded) that has had 20+ years of hard work, lots of AI, performance data, registered animals, this is their lucky day.

Let them be little!

As the country song goes (I don't really listen to country anymore FYI) Let them be little, cuz their only that way for a while.....

Let's go back to when the pups were just, well, pups!



Sadie one of the first days at my house :) All together now.....AAAAAAAAAAAAAwwwwwwwww!!!


Sadie being cute out in the snow :)


Oliver in Finland before being flown over here!


Oliver with Sadie the day I picked him up!


Mac a few weeks into living here.


Mac one of the first days here


Zoe while still at Wanda's house


Zoe with her sister Panda in the puppy pen!


Ell still in Canada

Ell on our way home from Michigan where I picked her up!

*SIGH*

They grow up so fast!

Sadie's ready to go!

Sadie has lost the extra weight and is raring' to go! I am hoping that due to the schedule screw up of the agility program director and in turn missing two 8 week sessions of practice, that we'll still be able to maybe get a Q or two at the next trial we decide to go to!! Finger's crossed!

Rochester...what a weekend!

TADAH! Welcome to a little insight into my dog showing and friends! Photos first, then the 'important' stuff afterwards......


Here is the 'show string' of my dogs at the Rochester dog show


Here is Sherilyn Mumme of Urbandale, IA and the Pembroke Welsh Corgi "Ransom". Sherilyn is groomer extraordinaire! If you couldn't tell she loves the color pink too :)



Ransom's breeder Tammy Johnston of Houston, MN and Rus Mumme (Sherilyn's other half) going over the finer points of Ransom before his showing on Sunday.


Mary and Erica Morris of Wahpeton, ND. These two ladies couldn't be two more amazing and awesome women. I think they are the best I've ever met! They are honest, open, helpful, caring, intelligent and most importantly FUN! As with all my friends they are amazing people, but Mary and Erica befriended me first at the FMKC and are my sponsors for that club. I can't imagine dog showing or performance events without them!


Here is Wanda Bendinelli of Olivia, MN with my Zoe (merle) and her Panda (black and white). They are litter sisters and both need a major to finish! Wanda is very proud of these girls (I am too!)



Here are Barb and Steve Peterson of Saginaw, MN. They are two of the funniest and funnest people I've met! They are Mac and Maggie's breeders and Barb currently has the #10 Cardigan in the country (Mac's dad) and she got a Group 3 and Group 1 this weekend with Mick! Congrats again!



And here is my Ell Bell Miester girl looking adorable in her crate ;)

I had a fairly good weekend....considering I almost sent my dogs with
Mary and Erica Morris because I couldn't really afford to go, but man am
I glad I did!

Saturday Bendi Ebonwald Smthng 2 Prove aka Zoe, received a FOUR-Point
major and BOS over a special under Lester Mapes! It was tough competition all weekend with 5 bitches needing only a major to finish! Vermillions Mr McGregor was RWD the same day. Sunday,Merrymoon Ebonwald I'm a Q.T. aka Ell, received a THREE-point major under judge Edgar Bajona and BOW/BOS. it was great competiton and everyone there both dogs and handlers were at the top of their game. Ell now has 8 points. Mac was WD that day for another point! He is at 5 pts now.

To the Fernbriar clan....the light boxes that were prizes on Sunday for the
Cardigans were simply amazing and I'm very impressed with them! Its
always fun to 'win' something besides the ribbons when you are showing!!
It was my first time at the Rochester show, and I encourage you all to
think about it next year as its a wonderful venue with plenty of hotels
and restaurants and huge shopping mall nearby.

Congrats Diana and Mac again on finishing Dandy, it was nice to see
Marla there in the ring with us too!

I truly was stunned winning the major on Saturday as there were five
bitches there that just needed a major to finish, so I was in good
company. Literally everyone that I know in Cardigans in the area was
there, and also some Pembroke friends and 'other' breed friends! thanks
for making it such a memorable win in front of so many friends and good
company!

It was so much fun this weekend and I have to thank Barb Peterson for saving us enough grooming space with the "CRIME SCENE, DO NOT CROSS" ribbon! How funny was that AND how easy was it to find! Thanks everyone for sharing for lunch on Saturday....Mexican style! That dip was amazing and the tacos were good! Steve's Birthday cake was great too and I don't know if I needed to bring the extras home with me...because I'll eat them! lol

Saturday night in Kim's RV was fun and lots of laughs! Thanks for the wine (both good and better) and I hope to see everyone again NEXT time! Hey I'll share! Its just been almost THREE YEARS since my last major on a dog! :) It will all even out someday :)

This just in!

Here is Ell's 2 pt photo going BOW and BOS over a new dual champion. She's not stacked correctly, making her top line not level. *sigh*

You think that's bad, the judge and I look terrible! LOL

Off to another dog show we go!

Jefferson, Shetland Sheep part 2

Here is my buddy Lyons and myself out for a saturday stroll. He's such a good little guy!


Lyons feeling rambunctious so I had to hold him by the horn. He had had enough of being stacked!


My best pal Juliann having been persuaded to show with me at Jefferson! Thanks buddy ol' pal!

Centennial. She's so delicate and soft! I had three NON shetland people request to buy her. Sorry folks she's staying RIGHT here!!



Sheridan waiting patiently to go in!



For Briony and the sheep Sheridan's first time in the ring, either one of them...they did well!



Trying to fix those silly back legs....

Maybe have it now?

THANKS CORINNE FOR THE PHOTOS!! WOHOO!!

Jefferson, Shetlands part 1

I am so glad I went to Jefferson! Even if the judging wasn't necessarily to my liking (I don't have to win, just wish they'd follow the standard!) I met so many of my blogger 'fans' that I could have been there all week. Wait! My throat and mouth couldn't take any more laughing or smiling! There are so many little stories I want to share but the majority of people wouldn't get them :) My 'adopted' family of Corrine, Briony, Marie and Nancy K gets it. I guess we are just mutually crazy and understand each other :) Another favorite of mine, Juliann Budde. Gosh you rock girl! I miss you already! You ALL are such good, amazing people! Love you all!

Anyway. .....photos!

Here are Nancy and Corrine showing Nancy's two rams, American Idol and Hunter.


Another photo of the two! They look so happy!



Apparently Briony thought this was funny. Or she knew "oh hey, his good side!" Its true. If you want to take a photo of me, take it this way! :) :) Here I am getting some VM out of Lyons before his debut in the ring.



Here is Theresa Gygi winning the older ram lamb class with Apache. Just FYI I purchased his twin brother Arapaho this summer. :) Congrats Theresa! This was the only class that won with a single coated animal.



Mary Ellen getting in line behind Theresa for 2nd place with one of her spotted boys that someone else got ready for the show!

More photos to follow!