Sheep

Registered Bluefaced Leicesters & BFL x Targhee

Our sheep journey started in June of 2015 with the ever majestic Jacob Sheep. We had visited the farm that they came from and got to experience a large flock of Jacobs that had a pasture with a creek and there were ewe lambs playing about as a couple curious adults walked up to sniff our hands. It was a completely new experience.

A couple weeks later after traveling for about 2 hours in the back of a mini van, we had our first sheep; two ewes each with a single ewe lamb. While we were hard at work getting their fence done at the farm for their arrival the weather had proven it's completion deadline of before the sheep arrived impossible. They spent their two weeks in the fenced-in backyard of my parents' house. Some of their neighbors didn't mind however someone complained and we managed to get the sheep pasture done before getting a ticket.

Since we already showed rabbits through 4H at the local county fair we thought, why not show our sheep? What an undertaking. We were expecting to just show up and everything will be fine but we were met with push back over their horns and the safety of fair-goers. I wanted to show the sheep, I had to do the work. That was the first proposal I had ever had to present and for it to mean something more than a school assignment, I was 13.

I missed parts of the school day to sit in a board meeting with adults who discussed if the animals I've been working with were worthy enough to be allowed at the county fair. After a couple months of waiting, we got our approval with restrictions. I knew after listening to the board members that fair wasn't going to be easy, I prepared educational displays about the breed to help educate the public as well. We even had to print the judge's scorecard for the superintendent to give to the judge to make sure the judge knew what to look for.

The first thing someone told me when I walked in the sheep barn with my little ewe that stood as tall as my knees was "you're in the wrong barn, the goat barn is over there." I walked my ewe lamb right into her stall and went to get the mature ewe that was there as an exhibition. Walking that ewe in the parent got more aggravated about the situation, convinced that I didn't know where my animals were supposed to be.

This went on for years until I aged out of 4H, two of my younger sisters joined me in showing sheep during my last 2 years. Each year we upped the educational material, eventually adding information about wool processing since we would regularly place last going up against the meat breeds. That's something you don't see very often, kids going into a competition knowing their going to lose and still smiling about it because they don't care about the placing, they were able to show others a project they are proud of. It took us 8 years before they added a wool class.

Through the journey of raising sheep you naturally become curious on wool and how to process it, what to do with it, how to use it. I started spinning wool probably 2 or 3 years into having sheep. First I made my own spinning wheel, well I attempted to, out of pallets and an old bike. It worked but not well. Then I had an opportunity in High School to show the wool product process to elementary students during Agriculture Day. I managed to teach a handful of small children how to use a drop spindle.

With wool exploration came a hunger to learn as much as I could so I took a beginner spinner class at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival.

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