Stories from the Farm

What a wild ride the last couple of weeks has been. It started with us taking sheep to the Benton County Fair for a couple days and then the Lane County Fair for 6 days and then us hosting the Jacob Sheep Breeder’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). A couple months ago it seemed like a good plan 😉  I am very lucky to have such great friends that stepped in and helped with last minute preparations for the meeting, especially when Paisley ended up getting pancreatitis Friday morning and needed to see a vet immediately. My vet was able to get her fixed up and by the end of the weekend she was almost as good as new.

The AGM officially started Friday evening with dinner and lots of time for chatting.

After dinner we had a wool show. We had a wonderful turn out and thanks to Karen Lobb of bide a wee farm for convincing me to go get the 2 fleeces I had in my shop. I didn’t have time to finish picking them and the thought was just too overwhelming, but luckily I finally listened to her.

Kenleigh’s Infiniti was 1st place in the adult ewe class

and Timber’s Hallelujah, owned by my son and bred by Lisa Stirnemann was 2nd place.

Saturday morning started early with breakfast and the sheep show.  We were very fortunate to have Martin Dally judge for us.

We had almost 80 sheep attend the event and the show had a very nice entry.  This is the ram lamb class.

The ewe lamb class had 17 entries.  I was delighted when Kenleigh’s Duchess was awarded 1st place!  She went onto win Reserve Champion.

Robin Lynde from Meridian Jacobs won Champion ewe with Meridian Vicki.

Kenleigh’s Lancelot was awarded Best Fleece

and Chamion ram!!!  He is now in California with my friend Joan Gross of Mud Ranch Jacobs.  Before he left, he bred a few ewes here and I can’t wait to see his babies.

This was the last show of the year and my son’s last show with Precious.  He was sad when he found out he can’t show her again and is hoping Lulu will give him another Precious next year.  When did he get so tall???  He sure has grown up fast!

Saturday afternoon was full of workshops.  My husband did a wonderful job on the basics of butchering workshop.  Here he is demonstrating how to prepare the hide to be shipped off for tanning.  We also had a sheep panel & skirting table workshop, dyeing workshop, and felting workshops.  I had a blast with the felting workshops and I finally had to leave to meet the vet at the neighbors for the health certificates.  The ladies were having so much fun they just couldn’t stop!

The majority of the event was held at our neighbor’s indoor arena and this worked really well.  I have to send a huge shout out to Lora Withnell at Rocking Dog Ranch for letting us borrow her sheep panels – THANK YOU!

Saturday night’s dinner was handled by my parents – cooking by my dad and decorating by my mom 🙂  We had spaghetti with ground lamb, salad, and delicious garlic bread.  My sister handled the rest of the meals.  I very naively thought I would be able to do this too!!!  Yes, my name is Shannon Phifer and I take too much on 😉

After dinner was the much anticipated raffle.  There were so many beautiful things donated this year.  Thank you to everyone that donated an item and supported JSBA by purchasing tickets.

We had a question and answer session with the JSBA inspectors on Sunday morning and a lot of last minute sheep buying and swapping deals were being made.

Bliss isn’t sure she wants to go for a road trip!

Here are additional AGM photos.