[Jacob-list] AGM

[Robert May]

Hello Betty, Robin, et als...

Brandon, Royal and I left Pennsylvania for Estes Park
last Tuesday morning (6/12), with 18+ Jacobs in the
trailer. Brandon had driven down, from Maine, on
Monday, so he already had a 500-mile drive under his
belt. The drive out to Estes Park went very
smoothly--16 hours of driving on Tuesday, and another
12 hours on Wednesday. We did notice a gradual warm up
in temperatures, as we headed further West.  By the
time we reached Nebraska, the temps reached 106
degrees.  Fortunately, there was no humidity! We
arrived in Ft Collins around 8pm.

On Thursday, 6/13, we met up with Diane Fagerberg who
kindly dropped off Brandon Wooley.  Brandon, Royal and
I then visited with Mickey Ramirez and had a chance to
see this year's lamb crop--some real beauties!

>From Mickey's we drove out to Estes Park and got the
sheep settled in to their pens.  The officials at the
Wool Market were appreciative of the many Jacob
breeders who had bought 53 Jacobs to the event.

After a drive up into the mountains, we headed over to
Lorraine Perry's parents home (Nancy & Joe) who
graciously offered sleeping accomodations at their
beautiful home.

On Friday, 6/17, we did the initial set up of the JSBA
booth, and welcomed additional members and sheep to
Estes Park.

27 JSBA members, from 13 States attended this year's
AGM.  The meeting included some stimulating
conversation which was much appreciated.  A delicious
lunch, followed by Lorraine Perry's presentation on
fitting and showing and a presentation by a DVM on
scrapie was also well-received.

Some free time allowed attendees to explore the Wool
Market and see some of the "wares" that were offered
by a sizeable number of vendors.  Alpacas, Llamas and
Angora goats were also on display.

Saturday night included a bountiful buffet dinner that
was followed by "thank yous" to Diane Fagerberg,
Lorraine Perry, and Mickey Ramirez for their efforts
in organizing the AGM, Jacob Breed Show, and JSBA
booth.

The JSBA Board of Directors provided Ingrid Painter
with a Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of
her efforts to preserve the Jacob Breed, as well as
her assistance in organizing the JSBA, and ongoing
participation as a member of the JSBA Inspection
Committee, including her service as Inspection Chair.

Sunday morning was the Jacob Breed Show, with 40+
Jacobs enterred in the show.  It was great to see how
willing JSBA members were to assist in showing all of
the Jacobs.

As Robin noted, the Judge did seem to overly emphasize
"straight" legs, but there were plenty of blue ribbons
going to a variety of different breeders.
I was pleased that my "winter" ewe lamb took a first
place; and that my yearling ewe took a second. 
Brandon Wooley, Royal Unzicker, and Dennis Shultz were
the "big" winners; however, Lorraine Perry probably
received the "most" ribbons, from the 12 Jacobs that
she had enterred in the show.

After saying our goodbyes, and collecting our prize
money, Brandon, Royal and I were loaded up and hit the
road by 1:30 pm on Sunday.  Of course, driving East,
we were going to lose 2 hours from the various time
zones that we would be crossing.

Eleven hours of driving on Sunday, got us into Iowa
and the tired threesome found a motel room around 1:30
am on Monday (6/19).  On the road again by 6:30,
we had smooth sailing until we hit Chicago.  With all
of the road construction and a "stupid" toll booth, it
took us 1 1/2 hours to drive  1 1/2 miles (to get
through the toll booth).

Trying to time a hook up with Joe Bohr was difficult,
to say the least.  An unexpected tractor trailer
accident on Route 80, caused another hour of lost
time, as traffic came to an abrut halt.  A planned 5
pm roundavous with Joe, didn't happen until 8 pm. 
Fortunately Joe had some reading material in his
truck, and we were able to stay in touch by cell
phone.

The three of us had already decided that once we hit
the road (East) on Monday morning in Nebraska, we were
going to drive the rest of the way straight through.

We finally returned to Royal's farm by 6:30 am on
Tuesday morning--24 hours of straight driving.  I must
say that with three people driving, it made the drive
a lot easier.  There were even times when each of us
were able to grab a couple of hours of sleep on the
back seat of the truck.

I think the highlight of this year's AGM was the fact
that JSBA members from so many different states were
in attendance--and from so many different areas of the
country.  In addition, having so many great-looking
Jacobs on display was equally pleasing!

Kudos to Diane Fagerberg, Mickey Rameriz, and Lorraine
Perry for their collective efforts in organizing this
year's AGM.  It was great to be able to put some
"faces" to the many individuals that have worked so
tirelessly for JSBA.

To my buddies, Royal Unzicker and Brandon
Wooley...thanks for an enjoyable trip!

A grateful President...

Bob May



--- Robin Lynde <rlynde at onramp113.org> wrote:

> OK, I'll be the first to report! (Am I the first to
> get home?)
> 
> My 18 year old daughter, Katie, and I made this into
> a combined event--"senior trip", visit relatives,
> AGM, Mom-Daughter "bonding" before she leaves for
> college. We left home last Saturday and made it to
> Fort Collins on Sunday afternoon (about 20 hours
> driving). Mickey graciously agreed to sheep-sit for
> us so that we could go on to Colorado Springs. My
> in-laws wouldn't have been too happy having my sheep
> in their driveway for several days. Even without
> sheep, I could smell the truck (not that I minded,
> but you know city people). Katie got a chance to
> spend time with her cousins, ages 12, 18, and 20 and
> I caught up with my sisters-in-law. We did the
> tourist thing--Olympic Training Center, top of Pikes
> Peak via the Cog Railroad, Garden of the Gods,
> Mountain Zoo, and a movie. 
> 
> We headed back to Fort Collins on Thursday to get
> the sheep and got to Estes Park in the afternoon.
> The East Coast contingent (Royal, Bob, Brandon) was
> already there so we unloaded sheep and visited
> awhile. I had made reservations at Rocky Mountain
> National Park for 3 nights. The campground was only
> about 15 minutes from the fairgrounds. Except for
> the inconvenience of no showers and no beds it was a
> good choice. The Park is spectacular. We drove the
> Trail Ridge Road--the highest continuous paved road
> in the U.S. The high point is over 12,000 feet. It
> was a beautiful drive, if cold. It was in the low
> 30's up at the top and the wind chill made it much
> colder. But we saw lots of elk and marmots up in the
> alpine country. We also saw 7 bighorn
> sheep--rams--and watched them wander down past us,
> cross the road, and bed down just below the road in
> the tundra. They are big! I have lots of photos! The
> next day Katie and I took a 4-hour horseback ride in
> the park. I thought I'd be sore after not riding in
> years, but it wasn't too bad. It was a nice way to
> see some of the country--and the weather. For the
> most part the weather was great, but we found
> ourselves putting on the yellow slickers during the
> ride when it started raining harder. It just made us
> appreciate the warm sun when it came out during the
> end of the ride.
> 
> Oh, you asked about AGM!!! I got carried away
> because I haven't written to anyone yet. 
> 
> It was sure fun to see the sheep from all over the
> country and put faces to names. Mickey organized the
> JSBA booth which filled several tables. There was a
> lot of logo things for sale as well as products from
> several members. The sheep tent was crowded with
> spectators each day--the Estes Park Wool Market has
> quite a following.
> 
>  After the general meeting on Saturday we had two
> presentations. Lorraine Perry discussed and
> demonstrated how to fit and show a sheep. (By the
> way, Peg presented the new Judge's Packet. This is
> available to distribute to judges at any fair where
> you will be showing Jacob sheep and will be a great
> tool.) Lorraine demonstrated with a very tame ewe
> who might even "sit" and "fetch" if asked to.
> (That's a joke--no offense, please). The next
> presentation was about scrapie by a veterinarian
> that Mickey knows. She presented the material in a
> very clear and understandable way and answered a lot
> of questions. 
> Dinner was great, followed by presentation of thank
> you gifts to Lorraine, Mickey, and Diane and a
> special award to Ingrid Painter for her selfless
> dedication to the Jacob breed. A lot of us stayed
> around and talked for a couple of hours.
> 
> Sunday was the sheep show. I'm not sure how many
> were entered, but there were enough so that we had
> our own show. Brandon Woolley of Maine showed the
> Champion Jacob ram--a beautiful 4-horn ram in full
> fleece. I can't remember the name, but was he an
> Unzicker sheep? OhOh, my mind fails me. I think that
> the Champion ewe was shown by Denny Shultz of
> Washington. I can picture his first place adult ewe
> and I'm pretty sure she was made champion.  Someone
> else can correct me and fill in details of all the
> others. I know that Royal won several of the group
> classes.  The judge didn't like my sheep as much as
> I do--but that's OK. I am very happy with my
> fleeces, and I know that some of my sheep are not as
> straight-legged as the judge wanted. From listening
> to his reasons, I think that he had read the new
> scorecard--30% wool, 30% conformation, 30% breed
> character, 10% "showmanship". He also stated that
> leg and feet structure is at the top of his list. Oh
> well! I have a few sheep at home with nice straight
> legs. It's fun to show anyway. I thought it was
> interesting to see the diversity of Jacob sheep in
> the show. Congratulations to the winners! 
> 
> After the show, most of us that had traveled a
> distance were a bit anxious to get on the road.
> Katie and I were finally loaded up and left about
> 3:00. I left home with 7 sheep and only returned
> with 5 (2 traded and 2 sold) so that's not too bad.
> We made it home by 7:30 Monday evening. The weather
> is turning hot here and my new sheep from the east
> coast aren't too happy about it. Actually none of
> the returning sheep are too happy. Welcome back to
> the Sacramento Valley!
> 
> Robin Lynde
> Meridian Jacobs
> Vacaville, CA 
> www.meridianjacobs.com 
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Betty Berlenbach 
>   To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
>   Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 2:11 PM
>   Subject: [Jacob-list] AGM
> 
> 
>   Okay, folks, those who went, we need reports, in
> detail...if you please????
> 
> 
>
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