Winston Salem

[Jeffery and Cheryl Vance]

Bringing some frozen Ameraucana's to N.C.   Don, I am also bringing Cheryl. She has helped me all day, you better pray for good weather as,you and Jerry promised!    We cleaned up six in about 8 degree weather, her hands are cold and about gone. Don't think they will ever warm up!!   I just wonder how the weather is gonna be tomorrow in Winston Salem?  We will have to leave at 2 am to get there on time.   Will see you folks then and can't wait for that southern hospitality.   Hey Don, do I need to bring my coveralls?  This is Cheryl speaking, for I can't hardly stand the cold anymore.  Thanks.    Have a good evening!         

[Don]

Jeff and Cheryl,  I wish I could offer you a better weekend.  We are going thru the same cold front that is passing thru your neck of the woods.  It is supposed to be partially sunny but will start off below freezing in the early hours.  Then we are supposed to have a slow climb to low 50s but it's going to take most of the day.  I think there will be very little wind so that might help somewhat. 

You might take some time early in the morning and tour Old Salem.  It's a rebuilt community of historical buildings with the brothers house, silver smith, bakery, that sort of thing. It's very interesting with tour guides in costume and very nice old half timbered structures, cobbled streets as well as an active Salem college.  It should be dressed for the holidays already as well. The whole city turns to the Moravian traditions for,the holidays.  At least you can be inside most of the tour and have some old fashioned moravian love feast rolls and something hot to drink.  You could check the website if you're interested to check costs and times.  Otherwise, wear some extra layers and hang out around the farmers market that usually sets up in the building next to the poultry barn. 

I look forward to seeing you there tomorrow.  I should get there about an hour before the judging starts if all goes as planned.

[Beth C]

Have a safe & fun trip! Hope it's not too cold!

[Jeffery and Cheryl Vance]

Beth  Are u coming

[Susan Mouw]

Wish I had been able to make it up there. We changed our Thanksgiving dinner plans to Saturday, because my sister had to work Thursday (she's a social worker).

I'm still going to try the NC meet on the 17th.  Hope to see y'all there.

[Jeffery and Cheryl Vance]

Home from the Forsyth Fowl Fanciers show had a great time with all our Ameraucana brothers and sisters and some old friends that we fed for in the past.  Here is how we did.  Our Blue Ameraucana cockerel 1 and BV, he was the only cockerel and their were two pullets, Maggie Maier had the best pullet, Black Ameraucana Cockerel 1 RV,RB was ours and Black Ameraucana pullet 1 BV, BB,Best AOSB,  And reserve large fowl was ours also.  We had a splash that got 1 BV.    Don how did u and John do with the wheatens, blue wheaten and buffs? Not bad for our first show I don't know how many birds there, but had 108 exhibitors.     Thanks for all the southern hospitality,  And thank you Don and Jerry for the invite.

[Beth C]

Congratulations!! Reserve Large Fowl is quite an accomplishment around here. There are a couple of breeds that tend to dominate, because they've been very popular for a long time and there is a lot of good local stock available. Not many Ameraucanas break through!  Glad everyone had a good time - sounds like a good turnout, too. Did you get to meet my "neighbor," Renee? She said she was going. I had really hoped to go but that's an overnight trip for me and finances just didn't allow it this time. Not that it would have mattered, since I spent the whole day under a pile of quilts trying to cook a cold germ...

Susan, did you mean Cape Fear? It's the 13th, not the 17th. I still planning on being there, since it's a day trip, and my favorite show. Hope to see you there!

[Don]

It was good to have such a good turn out with numbers of exhibitors and entries.  And it was great to meet Maggie and Renee as well as a few other AM breeders that are not current members.  I was so busy visiting that I did not get pictures and counts.  But there were a lot of good blacks there, a few blues and just a scattering of the other colors.  I know that John had best Wheaten and Jim Wheeler had best and reserve white.  Maggie showed one bird and she was reserve Blue.  Renee had best and reserve Lav and I'm not sure how her blacks did.  We need to entice a few exhibitors to join the club.   We also need to have more bantams shown as well.  There were only two exhibitors in these classes.  Jeff and Cheryl did not leave many scraps for the rest of us.  But I'm really glad to see the AMs getting more than a sideways Glance.  Tim Bowles did a good job.  I did enjoy the day talking with all the folks that attended and showed.  It was a great day all around and it's good to see many folks interested in the breed in the area.  I hope that more will be able to come for smithfeild Next month and for the upcoming spring shows.  Btw, I don't think we've called for meets in the winter/spring.  What is the time line for spring meets John?

[Don]

On a side note, I wished that they didn't normally save the AOSB for last minute. (IMO It might be a nice change for the secretaries to switch up the judging order once in a while.). Late in the day everyone is tired, ready to go, And some exhibitors, not to mention names (OE crowd), throw the whole show hall into chaos grabbing and running as soon as their classes are finished.  We had a minor disaster where a bird was stolen in an aisle where the judge was still working.  Luckily it was a mistake and all settled down after the disruption.  I know one day shows are stressful for many, but I'm not sure what we can do to reinstate some decorum, common respect in the show halls.