[Jacob-list] Home again!

[Betty Berlenbach]

I was a little trepidacious driving 7 hours home from the AGM on Sunday with a little wether (buddy system) and a BIG horned four horned ram I bought from Cheryl Terrano who had delivered him to the AGM on Friday in my little pick up truck. Luckily, it was raining which cut way down on reflections in windows which could have been perceived by said ram as a competitor. And also luckily, this big guy, swollen nose and all (I guess West Virginia is ahead of us in the "let's go breed" department), was a pussy cat, a very well behaved boy, who alternately ate good second cut hay and sat to chat with the little guy, who also ate a lot.  I arrived home very tired from a very stimulating AGM, filled with back to back workshops, presented by Jacob breeders: fascinating talks on fleece by Peg Bostwick and Linda Bjarkman, projecting horns and fleece style by Karen Lobb (who keeps meticulous records of all her sheep and their developing horns and fleeces, apparently), Ingrid Painter presenting a draft of a new, very helpful guidebook to selecting registerable jacobs.  In addition, there was a showing of Edd Bissell's famous video...the one in which he refers to Maizie Hescock as "Amazin' Maizie".  (Can't duplicate his wonderful accent in print!).  It's my favorite line of the whole video and I wait for it every time I see the video.  In addition, there was a presentation I skipped on pasture improvement and fencing improvement with government help given by a woman involved in the government end of things.  Instead, I went to look at the pens and pens of jacob sheep in the animal barn...and there were MANY!  More than I've ever seen in one place.  Gorgeous lambs and yearlings and aged ewes and rams...quite a collection from all over the country.  I missed the show Friday night, but heard Ingrid did an incredible job at judging and instructing along the way. She very cleverly asked that no one show their own sheep, since she knew so many of the participants.  Meals were delicious, thanks to Sue Unzicker and Bob May.  What a lot of work went into this event, among the best I've ever attended.  I'm sorry you all couldn't get to it.  Although, if we'd all been there, I'm not sure where we would have put all the sheep!  Thanks to all those whose hard work made this a banner AGM year!
 Betty, in Vermont,who now has a blog, thanks to help from Walter and Linda.  See Betty's blog at http://sheepwoman.wordpress.com.
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