What a GREAT Weekend!

We had a blast again this year at Michigan Shepherd's Weekend in Lansing and as always came home with a bunch of new information and great ideas for the farm.  The thing that I really love is that the more years we attend, the more it seems like a reunion of friends.  Some of these people we see once a year and others more often, but the longer we are part of this group the more I am amazed at how a love of animals can form such strong friendships.

I spent the whole weekend at the symposium and Wayne drove out for the day on Saturday and then came home to care for all of the animals.  Some of my favorite topics this year included talks about Selling at Farmer's Markets, Direct Marketing of Lamb, and Less Labor at Lambing time.  I also got some great ideas by talking to fellow shepherds about products they use and new management ideas...  I will need to update by lambing supply list!

The Sock & Yarn contests went pretty well for my first year running them, and many folks who didn't participate sounded like they planned to do so next year.  I was thrilled to find the PERFECT judge for the Skein of Yarn contest - Carol Densmore is a "Master Spinner" who travels to a spinners school in Canada for 10 days each year.  Carol really went above and beyond my expectations and spent a lot of time carefully examining each skein.  She then provided hand written feedback on every entry with positive feedback as well as where improvement was possible.

For people like Wayne and I who learned to spin by watching YouTube Videos only a year and a half ago, this personal feedback is awesome...  We donated prizes for the contest - first prize was a beautiful throw blanket made from Wool and Alpaca fiber, and second prize was a nice big candle.

The Sock contest was by "Popular Vote" as it has been in the past, but next year I am going to make some changes.  There were some "unattended" kids who were found filling up the voting cards.  There was also some discussion that the rules need some updating - one of the entries was a sock someone had made out of their own fiber by a local wool mill.  How can a hand-knitted sock compete with one made by a wool mill?  I don't think they ever had this issue before so no rule was ever in place.

I entered photos in the photo contest and won 1st place in the "Fairs and Exhibitions" category.  I think that the photo contest is a great way to advertise our farm for free at the biggest sheep breeders event in our state.

I got home this afternoon to a gorgeous sunny day and I spent part of the afternoon walking the farm.  Want MORE good news?  This afternoon Jasper is finally moving perfectly sound and seems to have recovered from whatever was hurting him.  Here are a few pictures I took this afternoon:

Jasper and Sue

Sally

Sally

Sue

Akasha, Jagger, Cody, and Billy

Riot

The whole "light horse" gang

Abby waiting to pounce on one of the other dogs...

I hope that everyone else had a great weekend as well... I am already looking forward to next year's symposium!