From the President's Desk

                                                                                          submitted by President Elaine Shirley

            It is cold and windy tonight, perfect time for lambing. We are waiting for lambing to start; the girls better get busy because if we don’t have lambs for Easter (way to early this year!) the town may riot. I have gotten several e-mails and inquires from our lamb watchers so we are all anxiously waiting.

            The Leicester Longwool annual meeting here in Williamsburg last November was a great success and I was very thrilled with the turn out. Thanks to all of you that made the effort to come to the meeting, especially those who flew in from far away. I learned a lot over the weekend as I hope all of you did. Thanks to Phil Sponenberg for his insight into the breed and his work with the hands on section. He has a terrific way of making everything so clear and condensing lots of information down into a usable and understandable form. He has been a great friend to all rare breeds and particularly the Leicesters. As Phil pointed out, this originally began as an interesting historical project but with the decline of the breed in all the other countries where it resides, our population is increasingly important. So now we have even more of an obligation to produce high quality animals, carefully breeding to the breed standard and promoting the breed and marketing our products. It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day work and get attached to individual animals but we have to keep the big picture in mind. Thanks Phil for the reminders.

            Joan Henry and Kelly Smith did a great session on what to do with your wool and as they said there is a buyer for all your wool, the problem is identifying them. The session was good because there was a lot of give and take and ideas from the members. We possibly could have gone all day if the Fife and Drum folks hadn’t kicked us out of the building. So we know there is plenty to talk about the next time we get together.        

            The hands on session wasn’t well scripted but hopefully it was helpful to see a large group of sheep in one place and compare them. I think it probably also helps to see sheep you don’t have a history with to look at them with fresh eyes. We enjoyed hosting the meeting and look forward to the next time the group meets in Williamsburg.

            Now our next big thing will be 2009 participation in Rhinebeck, New York. This will be a chance for the northern breeders to present their animals and for the breed to get more exposure at an event that hasn’t seen many Leicester Longwools. Our anniversary celebration in Maryland proved that we can produce an interesting and varied program to interest the visitors. Card grading the sheep, hand shearing, hook rug making, dyeing with natural dyes and braided rugs are some of the projects we showed off at Maryland and can do for New York. Our sales area was full of a great variety of Leicester items. Start working on your ideas and let’s make it a great show!

             Hope to see members at the 35th Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May. We should have another youth conservation winner announced at that event and it is my chance to catch up with many of you. Good luck lambing and hope to see you soon. Elaine