Puyallup Fair 2012

Another great time exhibiting at the Puyallup Fair ! This year I had more help, my granddaughter K.N. is old enough to stay with her brother C.T. & I the 4 nights and 5 days of exhibition in the Animals Of The World barn. We camp there so we're able to get some rest before each busy day.Camping in our trailer makes it even more fun too.

 The front of my exhibit, with C.T. & K.N. at the table, ready to answer questions should I have to take a break.

These pictures were taken before the fair was officially open for the day. No crowds to obscure the picture taking.The sheep pens were clean after our morning clean-up.After picture taking we enjoyed our traditional fair breakfast, doughnuts & beverages ( who eats healthy at the fair ?). Coffee for me!

Side view of exhibit...

..back view. My exhibit is in a center aisle. I needed to create walls to post information about Jacob Sheep, and also create visual borders. I have worked on the design over the years to minimize visual clutter, but as you probably realize, this often requires a cost in supplies and a lot of labor.My husband and I are refining this, because transporting the walls, the sheep, and everything else is also a big thing to take into consideration.

 Goth, my ram. Posing for the crowds.He was very accommodating to photographers this year, and even mellow.I am not exaggerating when I say there must have been thousands of pictures taken of him over the past few years.One would think he is aware of this the way he posed this year.

 

The ewes ( girl sheep ) in their pen.Thora, Tovah, Mally, & Buttercup were here this year, showing the public the varied horn count on each sheep in this breed.

A lot of time and energy, a lot of fun invested in another year at the Puyallup Fair. I am so thankful to have been invited to participate as an exhibitor here, and even more blessed to have 2 of my grandchildren help me out. Our granddaughter K.N. even chose to spend her birthday here with me and her brother.Maybe next year she'll be here too.Lord willing, I will , and so will Goth.

 

Best Birthday Present Ever!

My birthday always falls on Labor Day weekend. Usually we go camping, but this year I requested a very big present. I asked my family to give up their time and energy to help my husband & I rebuild and repair our sheep fences. No presents but their presence. Some dear friends volunteered to come help too. (above from left to right, friends Paul Fryer, Mike Ritter, and our youngest son Daniel )

 My husband & youngest son. Guess some men are always boys at heart.

Paul & his brother-in-law, Mike. They added a LOT of muscle and worked hard all day. Thank-you Mike & Paul !Thank-you to Carol & Katie, their wives, for allowing them to spend a weekend day here.I truly appreciate this gift of your time.

 New fence posts for the new and improved fence-line,makes my heart sing.

Old fence on the left, repaired and restructured fence, the right.

Goth, prior to being confined while the men worked.He seems to glory in his pen of destruction. Maybe he loves to see what his power & horns can do, but now, gone are the ugly tarps he ripped, the bent and mangled fences he destroyed.

Our son's dogs Ruger 

and Mongo supervised the work,

while Goth, confined to a small area for the safety of all, played with his rubber balls,and napped.

I cannot express the gratitude I feel for the actions of my family & friends that show their love in a very tangible way. Their presence was present enough, and more.My husband & I could not have done this without them.In a soon coming  post I'll show more of the work in progress. But again I say to all who were here, " thank-you!"."Present:anything presented, a gift." Webster Dictionary

Ram Tough, Ram Destructive

I happened to be looking out an upstairs window one morning last week while I sipped my first cup of coffee.I heard a loud "THWUNK" and saw the tall stump of an old cottonwood tree sway. Then I saw my ram Goth take aim and run full force into the stump again and topple it! Goth examines his handiwork. ( Head work?) The other cottonwood stump still stands, but for how long? The two cottonwood trees towered over our property when we first moved here. We built a ram pen around them and years of my rams ramming them and chewing away their bark killed the trees. ( They are cottonwoods, we did not care ) Even though the trees are dead and the stumps have begun to rot, I could not have pushed them over with a sledge hammer, or even a car without causing damage to the car . So you can see, the power of a ram is mighty.Now the tall stumps of the trees are finally being pushed down by the mighty force of a ram.

"ram, n. 1. An instrument or device for driving, forcing, or crushing by heavy blows or thrusts. " Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary I think the pens the zoos build for rhinos would be perfect for Goth.

OOPS! He Did It Again.....

~He did it again. Goth got his own right leg caught up in his right bottom horn. I wrote a post about this July 16, 2008.Goth seems to have learned a thing or two since then because after hobbling around all day on 3 legs he finally untangled his leg by himself.He does well with 3 legs though, he was able to shake his horns at Delilah and hoard all the alfalfa , he was able to hobble fast enough to elude me in my attempt to disentangle his leg from his horn, and finally, he DID actually get his leg out all by himself. Hooray Goth!~

Wagging Their Tails behind Them?

~"Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and can't tell where to find them. Leave them alone and they'll come home, wagging their tails behind them." . "Do I look like Little Bo Peep to you? Goodness, such a fuss and ruckus about tails ? Who needs a tail anyway? I don't! " says Delilah.

~"Then up she took her little crook, determined to find them; She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed, for they'd left their tails behind them." Goth ( above ), ever proud of himself and knowing he is fully entitled to respect and admiration...says " I have a perfect tail! Short and covering a very important part of my anatomy. After all, who wants flies messing around in some very sensitive areas. They might lay eggs there and cause all sorts of distress that might distract me from pursuing my beloved ewes and ramming fences! I am perfectly pleased with my short tail!" ( he is looking a little pudgy here , I think) ~Here is a Jacob lamb with her tail still intact. There is a very tight rubber band on her tail, about 3 inches down from her spine, and it is cutting off circulation to the rest of her tail. It will wither and drop off. Sounds awful, but is necessary as far as I am concerned. " The tail in Jacobs is long, round and woolly reaching to the knees if un-docked.( you can see that this lamb's tail is even longer) Most people prefer to dock for the sake of cleanliness. Although Jacobs are fairly good at lifting their tails up, if they happen to get soiled--especially at lambing time or in the spring when the grass is lush and green-they can get heavy with dung tags. An owner would have to witness fly strike only once in their life to be convinced of the necessity of tail docking." Ingrid Painter JACOB SHEEP IN AMERICA

~" It happened one day, as Bo Peep did stray into a meadow hard by, there she espied their tails side by side, All hung on a tree to dry." Nursery Rhyme (above: lamb tails that have fallen off)

~Here is the posterior of Black Bart. He has a long tail. His tail has not been docked. The shearer needed to shear him to the end of his tail. Black Bart is an easy keeper and he says"My tail is quite beautiful, and I love the curls that grow out as my wool grows. Any cleanliness is your duty as a shepherdess to take care of. Just don't be expecting me to volunteer to stand still while you do that, or make it easy in any way for you to catch me!" You might have noticed I tend towards tail docking in my sheep. Like any other topic, this can be controversial and I have read up on this, and seen the sheep of people who feel strongly that a sheep should not have it's tail docked. I respect their right to do as they wish, but I will continue to dock the tails of my sheep because there are hot and awful summers when flies are pretty pesky and sheep have wool. Wool does not shed like hair on a dog's tail will. The woolly tails of sheep get woollier and manure clings like sticky tar to it. Flies LOVE this gunk. They spread the word and before you know it, you have a thriving fly community in a very unhappy sheep's tail! And that's my sheep tale about tails today. My sheep do have tails wagging behind them, but they are SMALL tails! Blessings: sheep, lambs, sunny spring days to watch lambs play

Oh How the Mighty Are Humbled, ( Goth gets fleeced)

~Yoo hoo, Goth! Time to get a hair cut! Even big bad boys need haircuts once in awhile.~

~Hubby and I cornered Goth, and using his horns as handles, walked him to the shed for Dirt to shear him and the rest of the flock that were not sheared in January. And of course, it was cold and rainy today, so there are some pitifully naked sheep huddling together under the heat lamp tonight. In the picture above, Hubby is holding Goth's horn while Dirt starts shearing. ~Dirt is almost done with Goth here, but look at Goth's horns wrapped around Dirt's waist. Dirt made a comment about forgetting his Flak Jacket today...... ~Here is another picture of Goth's horns tucked up against my Hubby. The horns are very pointy and hard and can cause a lot of damage with just a turn of the ram's head. Dirt knows what he is doing though and to my knowledge has not been hurt by any of my Jacob sheep while shearing them.

~Look at all the wool from Goth! He had quite a nice and plentiful fleece, not any more!~

~Anna , Bet and Lanny came along to visit while we skirted the fleeces . Anna is holding one of the lambs while it's momma is being sheared. Aren't they all 3 cute? ( Anna is the most sensibly dressed for the weather.~

~Oh how the mighty is humbled...and naked! And probably cold tonight.~

~" It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." Andrew J. Holmes

" Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!" declares the Lord. Jeremiah 23:1

Spot on Spotted ( Jacob ) Rams

~Above is a picture of one of the first Jacob rams I kept here on Cedar Pond. Cedar Pond's Abel,( only a few months old when this picture was taken ) on the left, was a triplet son of my first and oldest Jacob sheep ewe, Maple Creek Joy.Joy died of old age when she was 17 years old. Did you know sheep could live that long ?I had Joy here at Cedar pond for 15 years of her life and still have some of her great-grandchildren. Anyway, look closely at Abel. For some reason, this ram was always decked out in greenery. I used this picture one year as my Christmas card photo. " Deck the horns with boughs of blackberry, baa ,baa ,baa ,baa ,baa....

~Here is Abel, several years older, again decked in greenery!~

~And again! I don't have any other rams who will walk around for days wearing their boughs of fir, blackberry, etc. For one thing, any sheep wearing greenery immediately finds flock mates walking alongside them , munching on the greenery until it is gone. So Abel needed to keep clear of snacking sheep to keep his finery.Note Abel's horns. My daughter-in-law Breezy called it the "Elvis thing going on with his horns". ~This is another ram I purchased from Swallow Lane Jacobs when he was only 5 months old. He grew very large horns very fast. I named him Swallow Lane Torque, and I named him Torque, meaning "a necklace, amulet, or collar, worn especially by ancient Gauls, Britons, and Germans, twisted collar" Funk & Wagnalls. I think a collar of horn qualifies as a torque. However, the many men who viewed Torque at the Puyallup Fair thought his name represented 'torque' in other ways.

~Cedar Pond's Thistle, a son of Torque, was killed by his brother.....~

~Cedar Pond's Goth. This is Goth at only 4 or 5 months old.~

~This is Goth now. He is the father of........~

~Cedar Pond's Vandal! This is Vandal at only 7 months of age. He looks very much like his grandpa Torque.~

~Goth says: " I am still THE ram on Cedar Pond!"

"Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and offered him up for a burnt offering in place of his son." Genesis 22:13

Spotted Lambs! O.K., Spotted Lamb....

~I was outside in my jammies around 2:00a.m. setting up my new mama and baby in their temporary pen. Fresh alfalfa, fresh water, clean bedding. Then I dipped the umbilical area of the new baby girl lamb ( ewe) with iodine and left her with her mom, Bide-a-Wee's Chicory.~

~Below is her brother, born late last spring, Cedar Pond's Vandal. He is a big boy, and he is only 9 months old. He is Goth's little brother, they have the same dad.~

~Here ( below ) is Goth, he is the father of this new little lamb.~

~"Keep the ewe and her lamb in a pen together until you have ear marked and docked the tail of the lamb. Three days is a good rule." Ingrid Painter JACOB SHEEP IN AMERICA Blessings: lambs, health enough to care for my sheep

Goth and the Spot of Ugliness, Part II

~Hubby is tying a wood pallet in front of our 100% lifetime guaranteed livestock gate.This is to prevent Goth from destroying the gate.~~We have mended the breaks in the fence, tied gates firmly, and replaced tarps to help prevent Goth from seeing the ewes ( girl sheep) on the other side. When he sees the ewes he tries to get to them, ramming and ramming, and ramming!The tarps do slow him down just a bit.The ram mask also helps by obstructing any straight-ahead vision he has and eliminating the full force straight on ramming. However, Goth still rams , or butts, or runs head on into anything he feels like ramming.He is , after all, a RAM! Rams don't do a lot of thinking, just what they are hardwired to do, RAM! Isn't this just a lovely photo? My oh my, tarps are just what every red neck family needs in their landscaping.

~Goth is checking out his repaired pen. Hmmm, tarps are secure. There is a board in place to lessen the force of a head-on ram, but still.....Goth knows there are ewes and ram lambs on the other side of this tarp. He is not THAT stupid to think they are gone, because his nose knows.

~Goth finds a place to peek at the ewes feeding close by. This is the gate Hubby just secured.~

~Goth is pretty restless. We have just pulled him out of the pen where he reigned supreme over the ewes. Now he is alone and he checks out every possible entry back into the ewe pen. ~Fortunately, we have a secret weapon! We have pastured one of our ewes, Delilah (half Jacob, half Romney ) at the home of Hubby's sister and her husband who live next door. Delilah was not helpful in our attempt to walk her next door to our home, and as she is a bit too heavy to drag over, Hubby and brother Thom hauled her in a wheel barrow. Look at Goth ! He is interested. He is waiting, and we release Delilah into Goth's pen. ~There you go. Goth is happy. Delilah is happy.There will be late spring lambs, and hopefully Delilah will keep Goth company long enough to spare our temporary fix on the fencing so we can do a really good job of it. Anyway, the secret weapon is working for now.

~The happy couple, Goth and Delilah( above ).~

~But be warned, he is still checking out his options and escape and destruction are only a head butt away! ~ Thank-you everyone for your comments and concerns regarding Goth. You are right, he is very dangerous. He is dangerous because he is a ram. Any and all rams are dangerous, tame or not, horned or not. Their sole purpose is to reproduce and get to the girl sheep any way possible. I do not, and never will, trust Goth. I do not enter into any pens containing Goth. We have worked out a system of feeding and penning Goth from the outside of his pen. He has not actively sought me out to ram, and I do not intend to give him a chance. However, if he does, or becomes too much more destructive he will be making the appointment at the taxidermist's, where his father is right now. Yup, Goth's father Torque became too aggressive and dangerous...Hubby dispatched him to the joy and relief of our grandchildren, and he should be coming home within the next few months, ready to be mounted on our wall. Blessings: keeping sheep, fences, lambs, good neighbors we're related to, the cat peacefully snoring next to me as I write this post