Picture of the new BFL Boy

Here is the new baby!

Just Say NO

Well the Great Lakes Show is in 2 days and the ewe that I have entered in that show still will not walk on a lead! After several days of warming up to walk and getting used to the halter, I spent an hour tonight in the heat trying every trick in the book to get her to walk. No luck. Maybe she will be more cooperative in the morning when it's cooler. Entering this show sounded like a good idea when my friend Lisa suggested to me but now I wonder just what I was thinking when I said yes. It's like the time I said yes to a 2 week camping trip in the wilds of Maine with my friend Peggy many years ago. I had never camped so it sounded like fun til the first night in the tent in the rain. There were just too many things I hadn't thought about when I signed on. Like no bathrooms!!! Peggy and I had a great time all in all so I know I will survive Wooster and my sheep show. I have not camped since Maine and I think sheep showing might end up the with the same finality. Life would be boring if I had said no to ideas like these. Less stressful but boring. That sheep will walk like a champ tomorrow, I just know it. Molly is going along to take pictures of the Wooster show. I'll post a picture for laughs. Ohio here we come!

Last BFL Baby I really mean it this time!

Can't remember when I took that darn ram out but he must have bred this ewe as his parting act. I was really surprised when I noticed she was bred. Her new ram lamb is "BLUEtiful" according to Molly. He has the most wonderful blue pigment all over with great upright ears. Mom is a yearling with the skills of an experienced mom. Molly took some pictures of him that she'll post tomorrow.

Just An Ordinary Sunday

I had expected Mexican lamb customers today but not 3 cars full of them. They came in snakeskin cowboy boots with lassoes for one lamb. Too late for Cinco Di Mayo, I decided it must be the Mexican rodeo come to town. I'm sure my neighbors were ready to dial INS.
After they left just I sat down to relax, an old friend showed up at my door with a newborn fawn she found on the highway. It was healthy but very hungry. We mixed lamb milk replacer but it would not suck. 2 ounces of milk in its tummy by stomach tube had it warm in no time. I just feel so badly for the momma losing her baby. I'm sure she is frantic like the mother sheep when they can't find their lambs.

Burrr

We returned to really rainy cold weather. Why wasn't Sheep and Wool weekend cool like this? Not seeing my lambs for just 5 days was really an eye opener....they all look so big now. While I was away, 2 ewes lambed. Both mules. First timers with no problems at all. The BFL lambs all look so dark now. Funny how when they are born I lament their lack of pigment forgetting how the sunshine "tans" them in such a short time.The Shetlands continue to escape to graze on the lawn. They are stopping traffic and will surely cause an accident soon. Lots of lambs for sale...especially Shetlands. Just ask for pictures if you need lawn mowers.

Home

Tim and I left Wednesday, May 5th for Utah. Upon arrival we realized getting Molly's stuff packed and stored was going to be a bigger task than we imagined. Finally on our way, we decided to take the long way home, I70 instead of I80 since there is so much more to see. We started out in Moab,UT. at The Arches National Park. What a beautiful spot with the reddest sand I've ever seen. The wildflowers were blooming and it was cool enough to hike lots of trails. Molly got spectacular pictures. Friday morning we took a back road out of Moab along the Colorado River. It's one of those places that you want to come back and spend more time enjoying. Into Grand Junction,CO where we met up with Jared at work, just to say hello. Unfortunately for me, he works in a garden center and I found a flower pot that I just had to have. Stuffing it into the already stuffed car wasn't easy but where there's a will..... Now the person in the back seat was really lacking for space. Tim experienced his first drive through the Colorado Rockies. This is such a spectacular drive. So much snow still on the ground there! On to Georgetown,CO. It's a quaint old mining town with lots of atmosphere and a really good coffee shop. Of course we had to find the University of Denver and get a gymnastics shirt before heading east to Kansas. Too many jokes about Kansas. I kind of like it. There are so many quirky little places to stop. Torn between them we opted,thanks to Molly, for Abilene. Once home of Wild Bill Hickock and Wyatt Erp, the town museum contained the Museum of Telephony, which made us laugh at first but turned out to be quite interesting,a working carousel and lots of historic buildings and displays. Why there was a guy dressed up as Wild Bill himself. I'm such a tourist and love this kind of stuff. The saloon was looking for Can Can dancers for the summer. We suggested leaving Molly for the job but after much discussion we decided she was more of a Can't Can Dancer, with no previous experience. Would that make her a Can't Can't Dancer???? The costume was definately not her color either....red satin. The coffee was terrible but we had the best scones ouside of the UK. Robert Gates was speaking at the Eisenhower Library at one but we had to "get outta town" for Kansas barbeque in Topeka and John Brown Ale in Lawrence. East to St. Louis, where we had Mother's Day Dinner in the restored Union Station. It was a long drive home from there. No more fun stops after the historic Indian Mounds in Cahokia Il. but we had had so much fun together. It reminded me of the days when my mom would pack the 5 of us in the car and drive cross country, stopping at every historic tourist stop enroute. My brothers and I have such great memories and still laugh about our trips. Hope Molly and Tim will have the same.

Ask About MD Sheep and Wool At Your Own Risk

For my 5th birthday I got a baby brother. We not only share this day, and the birthday cake that goes with it but looks, personality and temperment. That would be Type A. Just last week I bragged to that brother that I had really mellowed with age. Well, we all know that "pride comes before a fall" and my fall was MD Sheep and Wool.
My Aries temperment reared its ugly head in the heat and the dust of my new booth location. (When they told me I had been moved they did not say I had been banished from my prime location to the Gobi Desert complete with yurt.... Mongolian felted tent). With few sales and temperatures over 90 "little miss sunshine",your congienial vendor had disappeared. I threatened to strangle the fire marshall who had caused the move and assault the EMT who left his ambulance parked directly in front of my booth with the motor running while he took a break in the AC in the back. The musicians accross the road egged me on by offering to accompany the whole confrontation with appropriate tunes. The vehicle remained there for an hour blowing exhaust into my tent. Now I was not only hot but sick. My lambs in the pen beside the tent, altho shaded, were panting. When the speaker directly overhead loudly announced the time was 3PM I was ready to pack up and go home. Three more hours to endure! My son Tim was there and his only comment was " Mom, this booth is craptacular." He encouaged my evacuation by hooking the truck to my trailer. My friend Geri who BTW was also sharing the heat and exhaust of the booth and Nancy Starkey encouaged me to stay for Sunday. Geri and I rearranged the booth hoping to create more shade on Sunday. Thank you both for being patient with me and enduring my periodic fits of rage. After a wonderful dinner in AC, wine and great company,I felt calmer. Thank you Nancy for a cool place to sleep.
The BFL gathering under the trees was the best part of the day. Such a great group of people. Lisa, I promise to be more cheerful and behave myself at Wooster. Thank you all for sending customers my way. Lord knows I needed them since my sales were down about 70%. Jolene and Paul Vezzetti always make me feel wondeful.
Sunday was hotter, dustier and also lacking in customers but by then I was resigned to endure the day without hostility.
Mrs. Goodpastor and I invented a new olympic event......the ???? meter ram lamb relay. This is how it goes.... a team of 2 women.... one over sixty, overweight, overtired,overstressed and overheated,the other woman overdressed,overheated and over generous to have gotten herself into this in the first place,... must carry a 70 pound ram lamb from my booth to her truck, a distance of North fairgrounds to South fairgrounds, fortunately all down hill, through human traffic. Why not walk him,you ask? Simple,he isn't halter broke. Mrs Goodpastor,definately the stronger member, carried til her arms gave out,passing the ram to me for short relief stretches. Never was I so happy to see an open tailgate! Now I know how the finish line looks to marathon runners.
Well that's my tale of MDSW 2010. I intend to call my brother and recant my mellow with age statement! Some personalities never change.