New Faces!

Posted by kenleighacres on July 27, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

It has been a month since these pretty faces have been in our pasture, but it seems just like yesterday that they arrived!

They are all California girls and I think they have enjoyed the move to the valley of green 🙂

There are 4 new girls and 3 of them are lambs.  From left to right – Viola, Pansy, and Trinity.

Viola is a 4-horn lilac ewe lamb (Kenleigh’s Tristan x Castle Rock Aphrodite) from Joan at Mud Ranch.  I had originally picked out a couple ewe lambs from pictures online, but had the opportunity to see them in person at the end of April and fell in love with her.  She brings blood lines from the East Coast that are new for us.

This is Pansy, also from Mud Ranch.  She has big shoes to fill because her mom is one of my favorites.  Her mom is Kenleigh’s Paisley and I knew she was special the moment I saw her.  I still enjoy seeing her on my visits to Joan’s house and this year she had a ewe lamb that reminded me a lot of her.  I am very happy that Pansy has come to live here!

Trinity is from Meridian Jacobs and also brings some new blood lines for us.  Her sire is Sweetgrass Clint.

The three young ones were chaperoned by Susannah.  She is another Mud Ranch girl and another wide 2-horn ewe to add to my collection.  Since she has been here, I have found myself singing ‘Oh! Susannah’ on more than one occasion 🙂

Love her horns!

Oh, how I…

Posted by kenleighacres on July 19, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 2 Comments

HATE foxtail!

This horrible, vile, obnoxious plant goes by many names – cheatgrass, wild barley, speargrass…but it all does the same thing.  It is a master at working its way in, but won’t work out.  They can become a health hazard for animals because they embed in the hair, especially the paws and ears, and in nostrils and even eyes.

The problem starts when you walk through a bunch of foxtail like this or if you are a sheep, try to graze the grass underneath the foxtail.

The little ‘spear’s’ pop off and stick.  Poor Holly had a couple on her face and around her face.  We have already had to pull a couple from the sheep’s eyes.  The sheep have enough grass to graze for what they need, but I am throwing a couple of flakes of hay out so I can walk through them and do a daily check of foxtails in the eyes.

The dogs are banned from the pastures during this time of year.  Many years ago, Darby, had to have surgery up his leg to fish a foxtail out.  The vet never did find it.

We keep it mowed down with this…

If we keep everything short enough, then the chances of the sheep getting them in their eyes decreases.

We also planted chicory in the hopes of choking out the foxtail and giving it a competitor during the summer months.

The green, leafy plants in this picture is the chicory.  It is working in some areas, but not as well as we were hoping in other areas.  The foxtail is just so invasive!!!

The sheep LOVE the chicory and it is great feed for them.  There aren’t very many flowers, but in the pastures that I have been keeping the sheep out of, there are some.  Such a pretty color!

 Ok, my little foxtail rant is over!

So many laughs!

Posted by kenleighacres on July 16, 2012
Posted in: Felting, Fiber. Tagged: , , , , . 10 Comments

When you combine a bunch of fun ladies with a full day of felting, you are bound to have a day full of laughs 🙂

That is exactly what we did on Friday!  I taught a nuno felt tank top class and it was a blast.

Kelly and Lauren are measuring out the silk fabric for their shirts.

The laughs really started when we held up and they tried on the silk ‘shirts’.  We had to account for the shrinkage of the wool, but wrapping our heads around why they were THIS big was funny.  I assured them it would be ok!

Coleen volunteered to be the seamstress…or maybe she just sat down in the chair first 😉  She was hard at work…

or maybe that was hardly working!

Next, it was time to lay out the fiber.

We were crammed into every corner of my shop.  We were hoping to be outside and enjoy the sunshine, but it was too windy and it would have been disasterous…fiber everywhere!

I missed getting pictures of wetting down the projects, but it was probably because I was laughing at the comments flying around.  My favorite of the day was ‘who jacked my shower curtain?’ said in total seriousness 🙂  We used sheer shower curtains to lay over the fiber and wet it down.  This holds the fiber in place while it allows the water to soak through.

 Next came the rolling.  Some was done by hand…

and other’s were done by the rolling machines that a couple of ladies brought.

 

No matter what technique was used, the results were beautiful!  Here is Lauren modeling her shirt…

and Sharon with her’s.  Sharon was a real trooper…this was her first felting experience.  She really jumped in the deep end with this project!

 I didn’t get pictures of the rest, but they were just as fabulous!

Evening Light

Posted by kenleighacres on July 6, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Photography, sheep. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

I love the evening light of a summer day for taking photos.

Handsome Aragon – he has such a sweet soul.

Here he is with his best buddy – Hector.

Our new boy, Dalton.

There are a lot of things I like about him, but his horns are just so impressive.  He is just a year old!

Abraham loves talking to the girls and a few were happy to return the interest.

The ram lambs are growing up and will be interested in the girls soon enough…

 

but for now, they are just happy to hang out with the big boys.

Handy panels

Posted by kenleighacres on July 2, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 4 Comments

I shared a picture of the panels we bought from Shaul’s Mfg. in my previous post and not long after we brought them home, we needed to use them!  I really would have been ok with just having them on hand and using them to catch the rams up for breeding groups next month, but one of the boys had other plans.

Somehow Abraham did a doozie on his upper and lower eyelid of his right eye.

From what I can tell, he got his eyelids caught on something and pulled back – this is a picture before it happened…

and here he is with his pretty blue stitches.

I’ll spare you the gory details, but am very thankful the vet was able to put him back together…even if it was minus his upper eyelashes.  He scratched his cornea along with everything else and needs to have meds applied daily.

That can be a little difficult when there is a group of rams out in the pasture.

Here’s our lab, Deuce, modeling the other panels we have – they are 8′ and are very nice, but they are heavy and are being used in more permanent locations.  In the past, we have had to move the panels and use them…but now we have a better option!

We grabbed the new panels and made a pen in the corner of the pasture.  It is pretty easy to move the boys in, doctor Abraham and let them back out.

Each panel is 5′ long and they can be linked together.  The vet and I were able to make a ‘V’ and use it as a squeeze.

   Since we have to catch him daily for 7-10 days, we have left the panels in their pasture and it is pretty funny how often they hang out – in or near – the pen.

Here he is today and his eye is already looking better.  The vet said his scratched cornea will take the longest to heal, but he should be back to normal in a couple of weeks.

Until then, I’m glad we have the panels to catch him up!

Textures and Colors and New stuff!

Posted by kenleighacres on June 30, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Felting, Fiber, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , , . 8 Comments

One of my favorite things about Black Sheep Gathering is walking around and taking in all of the colors and textures.

It is a bit overwhelming at first and many people can be seen with a glazed over look on their faces – a sure sign of trying to take it all in at once.

Judy Taylor at Little House Rugs  and her hooked rugs are always a favorite of mine.

I always have to buy a little bit of dyed fiber to play with and the Bluefaced roving at Dicentra’s is a new favorite.  So many vivid colors to choose from!

Jacob sheep will always be my favorite, but I do love all sheep.  This particular one has lots of character 🙂

This little guy really had the ‘cute’ factor.  He is a Navajo-Churro ram lamb…

and this is a yearling ewe of the same breeding.

This is a Lincoln ram and he was getting the best rub down EVER!

If I had the room, this is the other breed I would have.  I love the Bluefaces and their ridiculous ears!

A HUGE thanks to my sister-in-law, Erica, for manning our booth so I could walk around and take in some sights.  Showing sheep, doing herding demos, and sitting at the vendor booth is very hard to do all at the same time!  I couldn’t have asked for better help, she restocked the tables, answered questions, and did a fabulous job with no fiber knowledge!

Here is my little pile of goodies that I brought home.  The book is one that I have looked at before, but the price tag has always held me back.  Thanks to a friend for making me buy it, it is a treasure!

Here are the colors I decided on from Dicentra – I can’t wait to use them!

I ordered a few more of the lightweight panels from Shaul’s.  They are easy for me to move around and they have already come in handy…more about that later.

 I also have a few new sheep!  A few more Mud Ranch girls, a ewe lamb from Meridian Jacobs, and a yearling ram from bide a wee farm.  They deserve their own post though, so I will share pictures of them in the next day or two.

Jacob wool wins the Black Sheep Cup!

Posted by kenleighacres on June 28, 2012
Posted in: family, Farm Life, Felting, Jacob Sheep, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 5 Comments

As I mentioned in the previous post, my Fiber Art’s entry did very well, but I think what I am most excited about is the fact that something made with Jacob wool won the Black Sheep Cup!  I love the versatility of Jacob fiber and I want to share it with everyone 🙂

I love that I got to share this moment with my husband, son, and numerous friends.

The Fiber Arts division was full of inspirational, beautiful pieces of art – here are some of the other entries…

Love the colors and textures in this woven piece.

These Pembrokes are so cute!

This sweater was made with Bluefaced Leicester yarn.

 

The colors and shading are beautifully done in this wall hanging.

The consistency in this yarn is amazing!

The size of this wall hanging and the details in the border were really something to see.

The pattern in this sweater is so intricate.

If I hadn’t seen this in person, I wouldn’t have believed it was needle felted and not drawn.

I love the facial expressions – so sweet.

This one is my favorite…

or maybe this one 😉

This is my son’s favorite.  He is so excited that it gets to live at our house for the next year.

Never in my wildest dreams, did I think that one day my name would be added to the plaque!

I am going to enjoy its presence every day it’s here.

WOW, WOW, WOW!

Posted by kenleighacres on June 25, 2012
Posted in: family, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, sheep. Tagged: , , . 11 Comments

I find myself repeating those words over and over again in regards to the weekend we just had at Black Sheep Gathering.

Here is a sneak peek at what came home with us…

Blue ribbons for all of our Fiber Arts entries and the shocker of all was that my jacket won the Black Sheep Cup…the Best in Show of the Fiber Arts show!  I still can’t believe it!  More about that later…this post is all about the sheep show.

Thanks to Coleen and Toni for taking photos while we were in the ring!  Coleen did double duty and helped us show as well.

  

I love showing sheep as a family!

First in the ring were the rams.  This picture is of the Champion class and includes the 1st and 2nd place Yearling rams and Ram lambs.  The Yearling ram results were…1st place – Kenleigh Acres with Byeburn Hector and 2nd place – bide a wee farm with bide a wee Dalton.

The Ram lamb class results were…1st place – Kenleigh Acres with Kenleigh’s Gusto, 2nd place – Windy Acres, 3rd place – Hunter’s Glen with Hunter’s Glen Rudolph, 4th place – Hunter’s Glen with Hunter’s Glen Roy Rogers, 5th place – Windy Acres, and 6th place – bide a wee farm.

Champion Ram was Byeburn Hector and

Reserve Champion Ram was Kenleigh’s Gusto.

Here we are showing our Yearling ewe entries.

Yearling ewe entries from left to right – Windy Acres, 2 ewes from Drumcliffe Farm, and 2 ewes from bide a wee farm.

The Yearling ewe results were…1st place – Kenleigh Acres with bide a wee Shana, 2nd place – Kenleigh Acres with Kenleigh’s Emeline, 3rd place – Drumcliffe Farm, 4th place – bide a wee farm, 5th place – Windy Acres, and 6th place – bide a wee farm.

The large ewe lamb class.

Another view of the ewe lamb class.  The Ewe lamb class results were…1st place – Kenleigh Acres with Kenleigh’s Elan, 2nd place – Hunter’s Glen with Hunter’s Glen Prancer, 3rd place – Windy Acres, 4th place – Kenleigh Acres with Kenleigh’s Folly, 5th place – Hunter’s Glen with Hunter’s Glen Cupid, 6th place – Mud Ranch with Mud Ranch’s Pansy.

Here is our son showing his ewe lamb, Cupid, with some help from our friend, Tammy.  I wish I knew what he was saying 🙂

  

Here is the Champion ewe class.  Champion ewe was bide a wee Shana and Reserve ewe was Kenleigh’s Emeline.

Next up were the Young Flocks from each farm.

1st place – Kenleigh Acres

 

2nd place – Hunter’s Glen

3rd place – Windy Acres

4th place – Mud Ranch

5th place – bide a wee farm

6th place – Drumcliffe Farm

 

Showing Jacobs is always exciting…thanks sis for helping 🙂

Almost there…

Posted by kenleighacres on June 20, 2012
Posted in: Crafting, Farm Life, Felting, Fiber, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

I am enjoying a quiet morning before the craziness that is Black Sheep Gathering starts tomorrow.  I need to pack my shop into my car for my vendor booth, clean the trailer for the sheep to be loaded into, brush Kate so she looks her best for the herding demos, print pictures and information for my farm display booth, and a lot of other little things….but right now I am taking a deep breath 🙂

While I was taking my deep breath, I realized that I had not shared my Black Sheep Gathering Fiber Arts entry on my blog.

I used the BSG logo as my inspiration, but wanted to incorporate all of the wonderful breeds that can be seen at the show.

I used wool from each breed and most of it came from farms here in the NW.  The only exception is the Wensleydale and that wool came from Jackie Post at Wooly Adventures.

She lives in California and the wool came from Marley, a sheep with a LOT of character.

The Romney…

and the Border Leicester wool came from Coleen Smith at Blessed Creations.

The Icelandic…

and the Gotland wool came from Wendy Hanson at Shaggy Bear Farms.

The Corriedale yarn came from Katie Orr at Critter Hollar Ranch.

The Coopworth locks came from Lora Withnell at Rocking Dog Ranch.

The Navajo-Churro wool and yarn came from Karen Lobb at bide a wee farm.

The Shetland wool came from my stash of roving from the Shetland sheep we had for a short period.

The CVM wool came from Correy McAtee at Custom Colored Critters.

The Jacob wool of course came from our flock.

The Bluefaced wool came from Robina Koenig at Tumble Creek Farm.

A lot of these farms are good friends and are going to be at Black Sheep Gathering – I can’t wait to see them!

 Yesterday, we worked on my son’s Fiber Arts entry and I made one of my own…

My son made his own felt Rose.  We used a new kit to make our own pups.  The kit has molds and it was a safe way for a child to make a 3D felt object, less chance of poking fingers with the felting needle!

Her little tag reads – Live, Love, Leap – pretty accurate for the Rosie pup 🙂

Ok, break is over…back to work!

Make sure and say ‘Hi!’ if you are at the Black Sheep Gathering.

My son’s project

Posted by kenleighacres on June 19, 2012
Posted in: Farm Life, Felting, Fiber, Jacob Sheep, sheep. Tagged: , , , , . 5 Comments

The last post was about my project for the Black Sheep Gathering’s Spinner’s Lead class, this one is all about my son’s project.

He had a clear idea of what he wanted – a vest with green and yellow and a picture of his dog, Rose, felted on it somewhere.  I had to brainstorm a little to figure out how he was going to needle felt Rose onto the vest.  Thanks to a new product I am carrying in my shop, it was super easy!

We printed out a photo…

he used one of these transfer pens…

and traced it onto a piece of tracing paper…

We then flipped it over and ironed it onto the felt.  The pen marking transferred onto the felt and he was then able to fill it in with color and needle felt it.

Didn’t he do a good job!!!

Next we took batts made from Precious’ wool and felted a big sheet of felt.  We took one of his old shirts and made a rough pattern and cut the vest out of the felt.  I have a super easy pattern for a vest that only requires sewing on the shoulders, so much easier than my jacket 🙂

After the vest was cut out, we dyed it – he wanted a muted kelly green.  Once the vest was dry, he needle felted the picture of Rose onto the back.  The last thing that needed to be done was buttons.  We bought some fun, different colored, letter buttons.  He had a hard time deciding what to spell out, but finally decided on ‘Rose’.

Headed out for his ‘photo shoot’.

Here he is with 3 of his lambs – Roy Rogers, Prancer, and Cupid…they were so nice to cooperate!

Roy Rogers is the lamb he is going to walk in the Spinner’s Lead and he is Precious’ first lamb.

We couldn’t take pictures without taking pictures with Rose.  He really did a good job capturing her essence.

and what little boy could have pictures taken without sticking his tongue out in at least one…or twenty 🙂