30 Days of Ranch Memories: In the Sheep Business

I only got to participate in the Hooker County Fair one year, because the winter of 1982-83, we packed up and my dad went back to work at Iodence's.  That year I would be ten, and couldn't wait to get a new heifer to show.  Well, I did, and if you checked out my "wordless Wednesday" post yesterday, you saw Holly, the  one and only horned heifer I showed with horns and me looking classy.

Well, my Grandma Stannard was worried about how competitive the cattle shows would be for me, and like any grandmother, she only wanted the best for her only grandchild.  And we did live in a competitive cattle county, with the Iodences, Sellmans and Dyers, just to name a few.  Grandma decided I would need sheep - the best her money could buy, and we visited a neighbor to buy my first registered Hampshire ewes - Molly and Polly.  (If you are keeping track, I did have three projects that year - Holly, Molly and Polly and it was fun to see my mom try to keep track of the names!)

Well, we picked out Molly and Polly, but the sheep business was entirely new to us - we knew (or my dad I should say) cattle.  So we decided to make it easy, we would show Molly and Polly as market lambs and then buy them back after the sale instead of them going to be lamb chops.

My, how I loved having Molly and Polly!  They were just my size!  And they were my project.  We built them a pen in yard with portable cattle panels and steel posts, and moved the pen around to wherever the weeds grew.  And I was a book worm - I was to books back then what most kids are to computer games and technology now - you couldn't get me to put a book down.  So my parents decided the best way for the lambs to get used to me was for me to set on a five-gallon bucket and READ out loud to my lambs.  And I did this every day!  I'm sure Molly and Polly found the Bobbsey Twins and Mrs. Piggly Wiggly invigorating! But it kept me occupied that summer AND it got them used to me.

Our fair turned out pretty good in the lamb project that year and I had reserve champion market lamb with one of them - don't ask which because I too could get them confused.  We sold the lambs through the sale and then took them home to start our flock.  More about that later. 

My first Dawes County Fair was a success!  Reserve market lamb and grand champion heifer!  And Grandma was worried that the cattle shows would be too competitive! 

Molly and Polly at brought me success during my first year showing lambs!  (check out that hair)

 

A newspaper clipping about me and my mentor, Sarah , with our champion heifer honors.