Before I get back to my Road Trip blogs I have a few more photos to share. No big surprises in this post like there were in the last one, but Dona sent me the great photos that she had taken of the show. And since I’m writing another fair post I’ll include a few others as well.
I didn’t see much of the fair besides the livestock area but I walked around briefly. Here is what caught my eye.
On the wall of the livestock office.
Another longhorn, this time with not-so-symmetrical horns.
A “corn-box” for children.
This seems like a good idea for kids but I think I’d want it far from my house. It’s hard to tell in the photo but there are metal bars hanging at each station for banging “music making”.
I always like walking through “The Farm” to get ideas for my garden. I like these bricks that made the corners of the raised beds. It would be easy to change the location of the beds.
Back to the show ring. Rotor was sometimes reluctant at moving around the ring.
Here he is at the head of the class of Shetlands and Karakuls.
This is the Primitive Breeds Champion judging.
None of my other sheep did as well as Rotor. The judge preferred his fleece over that of my other sheep, although I think they are just fine. Meridian Honey, shown by my husband, had won Champion Jacob ewe at Black Sheep Gathering in June, but she was last in this class. That is part of showing any livestock, especially Jacob sheep. There is such a wide variety in acceptable traits in our sheep that it may not really be appropriate to judge them against each other. That is why Jacobs used to be judged by “card-grading”. Each sheep would get a “grade” based on the characteristics–not putting one of a similar grade above another. But that’s not how it’s done in traditional livestock shows.
These are my two yearling ewes, Meridian Honey and Meridian Zinnia.
This is the Jacob portion of the Primitive Breeds ewe lamb class. The two lambs without much color have a bit more on the other side. They are sisters and my friend, Mary, has bought one of them.
Here is our Flock entry in the Primitive Breeds Division.
Rotor’s debut on the photo stage after winning this show. See the previous blog for his other winning photos.
Shadow Mountain Shelby is a yearling…
Ginseng and BFL-X lambs.
Fandango with lambs.
Hot Lips and lamb.
Alexandria and her lambs.
Isabelle with lambs.
Melinda and lambs.
These were the last ones born this year.
Amaryllis.
Sheep looking hopeful as I climb back over the gate.
We caught all the lambs to check for number of horns and split eyelids (a trait that is sometimes seen in 4-horn lambs). 
This was also a good time to check the paperwork and make sure that I had recorded the gender and sires correctly.
My neighbor who recently purchased sheep was here also to get some hands-on experience. He told me that a recently purchased goat had kidded that morning and he wasn’t sure the kid had nursed.
I went to his place at lunchtime to check on the kid and while he held the doe (very skittish) I got the kid nursing.
Back at our place, we finished moving sheep around. I moved “Ginny’s flock” of wethers and she was so hot when she was finished that she found the only accessible mud puddle to sit in.
Last in the afternoon we decided to try grafting a lamb onto a ewe whose lamb had been killed the day before. I had debated it that day and at the time didn’t want to deal with it. But I had some new twins and though it was worth a try. This method of grafting is not as pleasant or as satisfying as “slime” grafting where you just cover the adopted baby in the birth fluids so that the mom will think the lamb is hers. With this method there is a dead lamb and you need to use it’s skin to cover the adoptive lamb to trick the mom into thinking it’s hers. That photo above is the lamb in the skin before I cut it to fit better. Bea, the young ewe, was unsure. The scent of her lamb was there but the sound wasn’t right. The lamb didn’t want to nurse at first and when it did Bea wasn’t happy about it.
This photo is blurry because I must have smeared my iPhone lens while working with the lamb. When Bea finally lay down while trying to avoid me attaching the lamb to her teat I was able to get the lamb to nurse on the engorged udder. For a day or two I needed to halter her or just stand there.
At this point Bea has completely claimed the lamb as her own. (The dead lamb’s skin is gone in this photo–I took it off the next morning.)
We were impatiently waiting for Jazz to lamb. I was sure that she would have triplets because she was so huge. She surprised me with twins the day after Farm Day. They are 9.6 and 12 pounds. At that size it’s good there were only two of them.
This event is attended by almost 3000 third graders and their teacher and parent helpers.
I was amused by this sign.
Kids are exposed to everything involving agriculture.
A variety of local volunteer groups, agencies, and 4-H/FFA members bring exhibits and hands-on activities.
Kids sat in bleachers while learning about dairy products and dairy cows.
This 4-Her had labeled the parts of her horse.
There was even a roping demonstration. There were also herding dogs, police dogs and horses, and dozens of other activities over the whole fairgrounds.
This equipment is what they use to shake nut trees, but it was fun to see the leaves shake in this demo.
We brought two ewes with month old and week old lambs. The morning started out calm.
Kids enjoyed petting the lambs.
But that was when the kids were just starting to get there.
After awhile the ewes and lambs were stressed with the number of people and the noise level. So we talked to the kids, but didn’t handle the lambs anymore. Fortunately I had brought out tame sheep, Jade.
I took her out on a halter and she loved the attention. I told the kids who were standing around watching that they could pet…
…and pet they did…
…feeling horns…
…and wool.
This sheep is amazing. 
When people wandered away she wanted more.
Eventually her handler (me) got tired and put her away…
…but she still hadn’t had enough.
Lilac twin ewes: Meridian Nash x Mud Ranch’s Foxglove.
Esmerelda’s twins, 75% Jacob/25% BFL.
Fandango’s BFL/Jacob twins.
This morning’s lilac triplet rams: Meridian Nash x Meridian Celeste. These bring the count to 55.
…in her camo boots and pj’s.
Kirby will be helping me in the barn for the next couple of days.
Meridian Jacobs' Blog 