Newsletter 2009

 

 

 

 

FRONT PAGE           :ALBC REPORT       PRESIDENT REPORT          4H REPORT         

WOOL MILL REPORT         FARM REPORT     CULLING IS VERY IMPORTANT     GETTING SHEEP READY FOR RHINEBECK

 

 ALBC 2009 Report

 

Changes to the 2009 Conservation Priority List

 

ALBC has completed its annual review of its Conservation Priority List (CPL), leading to several changes for the 2009 version. The CPL can be found on the ALBC website at www.albc-usa.org/cpl/wtchlist.html.

 

The Leicester Longwool sheep is not enjoying the same success, and is moving from Threatened to Critical. The populations in the U.S. and other countries are declining, including in its home country of England, making the U.S. population all the more important to the long-term survival of the breed.

 

photo by Rebecca Pushkin

 

Leicester Longwools Featured Breed

New York Sheep and Wool Festival 2009

logo by Joanie Livermore

More information coming soon.

 

Message from the President

submitted by Elaine Shirley

I hope everyone had a great holiday season, a few weeks to recover from it and that the winter hasn’t been too bad!! Everyone’s favorite/ least favorite time of year is at hand. I look forward to those adorable lambs and their cute antics but I sort of dread the late nights and the possible problems that lambing can bring, but I guess you can’t have the pleasure without the pain. So good luck to everyone at lambing and may you have all twins and no bottle lambs.

            Although it seems a long way off Rhinebeck will be here before we know it. The committee is looking forward to everyone participating in any way you can. We are hoping for a good turn out for the card grading show. Remember we have graders coming a long way to help us out so let’s make it worth their while. Be thinking about what sheep you will bring because the time to start getting ready is now. After the 15th anniversary Ivan wrote some suggestions for presenting our sheep. “Preparation of the sheep- on full wool sheep, some parting of locks so that wool can be inspected would be an advantage. If the fleece tends to become matted that could be carefully done – soon - and at intervals till the show. Insert fingers between the locks near the skin and carefully part to extremity. Be careful not to interfere with wave and crimp. It would be nice to see the 1 to 1 ½ year old sheep in full wool” I have seen the sheep that are shown this way and they are really breath taking, especially when you part that wool and the fleece just glows however this takes time and I think that we would end up with felting or cotting here in the humid state of Virginia if we let the fleeces get that long. I am picking out the animals I want to take to Rhinebeck and I will have them shorn by the mid- March at the latest which will give them six months worth of growth. Remember we are trying to promote these animals and their fleeces are a great way to promote them. So get those animals shorn in preparation, or if you sheared in the fall or winter you should have a good representative fleece. I would not wait and shear them in May or June, that will probably not give the sheep enough time to get those great ringlets.

            If you can’t bring animals (or even if you can) start working on items to sell in the Wool Nook, anything out of Leicester wool and things like photographs, artwork, sculptures of the sheep would be great. Be creative, we had a great variety of Leicester items for the 15th anniversary; let’s see if we can top that! Also don’t forget our fleece sale; the Romney folks (2008 feature breed) had very good sales in their tent so we hope to do the same.

            We need educational displays and talks or workshops for our educational area. The Romney breeders did several displays; one I thought was great was a fleece given to a fiber club to show how much stuff can be made from one fleece. There was a sweater, several pairs of mittens, socks, a hat and felted items. It was the answer to that persistent question, how many sweaters can you get from one sheep? Think about how you can be educating the public (many of them non-sheep people) about this great breed of sheep.

            Don’t forget to have items ready for the skein and garment competition. Anything you can knit, felt, spin or weave will have a category available at Rhinebeck.

            You will start getting mailings about the show, look for one in the next couple of weeks. There will be things in each mailing that will require some attention, hotel reservations, health papers, volunteer schedules and more. So please read each mailing and if you have any questions contact a member of the committee.

 

                                                                                                                        All the best, Elaine

 

 

 

Committee Members for the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York at the Duchess County Fairgrounds

 

Joan Henry  304-379-9100  grazingherd@frontiernet.net

Kelly Smith 304-379-2212 hoppingacres@frontiernet.net

Richard  and Donna Larson 540-829-5683 oldgjerpenfarm@yahoo.com

Rebecca Pushkin  Rebecca Pushkin@comcast.net

Susan Ziller 815-338-3202 ziller susan@yahoo.com

Elaine Shirley 757-220-1019 eshirley@cwf.org

 

 

photo by Sara Ani

 

 

Blackberry Fields Farm &

Reisterstown Roadrunners 4-H Club

submitted by Sara Ani

I would like to let everyone know about what Blackberry Fields Farm and the Reisterstown Roadrunners 4H club does with their Leicester Longwools.

These pictures were taken at Hampton National Historic Site in Baltimore, MD. Hampton is one of only two national park sites in Maryland and is a mansion and farm dating to the colonial era. Our club participated in “Dairy Days” at Hampton National Historic Site. We brought two Leicester Longwool ewes, Liberty and Alexis to portray the kind of sheep that would have lived at Hampton during colonial times. We also brought heritage breed chickens, Dominique. The kids dressed up in colonial era costumes and talked about their animals. Much to our delight we met Carrie who came up from Colonial Williamsburg to talk about cheese making during colonial times. Someone brought a cow that was milked and the public made and ate ice cream. One of the highlights though was having the public watch while Carrie milked Alexis. Alexis is now 12 years old and has not lambed for several years but continues to produce an udder of milk every spring. She is hopeful I guess that she will be a mom again! Anyway Carrie milked her and the people found it very interesting. One of the missions of Blackberry Fields Farm is educational and the 4Hers are very fond of going to historic sites and presenting their rare breeds to the public. Besides Hampton National Historic site, the kids bring their Leicester Longwools to Hancock’s Resolution twice a year and Cromwell Valley Park. Hancock’s Resolution is the oldest home in Maryland and part of the county park system in Anne Arundel County. The plantation originally raised sheep and they are happy to have us bring our sheep to their festivals and talk about them, demonstrate carding and spinning and allow the sheep to be sheared by hand with hand blades. Cromwell Valley Park is  a Baltimore County Park that encompasses the land of 3 former farms and they demonstrate many rural activities like apple butter making and they are glad for us to add fiber activities to their festivals with sheep as well. The kids love these opportunities and found it especially gratifying when Hampton gave our farm and club all the hay they grew in appreciation for us helping at the festival. The hay was grown, hand cut and put in old fashioned hay stacks. The club enjoyed loading up the haystacks and transporting them to the farm to feed the sheep. In two weeks the kids will be doing a different kind of festival, Winterfest which is part of Baltimore City’s effort to celebrate the diversity of the North west Baltimore neighborhoods and bring together the diverse ethnic and religious groups in a celebration of crafts, activities and music. We are the animal section!

In these pictures you may recognize Tsippora dressed in colonial costume, the rest are other 4Hers.

Hope everyone will enjoy the pictures and seeing what we do here in Maryland. Thanks, Sara Ani

 

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updated 03 March 2007