Maplewood North - Farm and Fiber

Anyone Want to Win Some Yarn?

2012-02-19T22:39:00.003-06:00

I have a cold, and it's late, so no long blog post tonight, no pretty pictures. But I would like to refer you to another blog - Yarn On The House. Ve has a really nice blog over there and she features indie dyers and knit designers. And the really nice thing about her blog is that she gives stuff away. All you have to do is comment on her blog (and maybe follow her blog - not sure about that, but I follow her). And this time around, the yarn she is giving away is ours! Hearthside Fibers "BaaBoo" yarn (our bamboo blend fingering weight yarn). Three skeins, one to each of three winners. Two in "Purple Haze" and one in "Annie's Snowy Mountain". Please pop over there and have a look. And maybe you'll be lucky enough to win a skein of our yarn!

Meet Zeus!

2012-01-07T09:24:00.004-06:00

I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family. This is Zeus:

He is a Border Collie. A bit over 2 months old, tri-color, very sweet and very smart. I'll probably jinx it, but I have never had a puppy this young with such good toilet habits. He was born in a box stall on a horse farm and confined there, as the breeders were afraid the horses would step on the puppies if they were left to roam. The owners bred their female on purpose, then decided after the puppies were born that maybe that hadn't been the smartest thing they ever did, so the puppies ended up at a nearby rescue. He was at the rescue for less than a week when we picked him up this past Wednesday evening. He sleeps through the night (although those nights are pretty short right now), has yet to have an accident in the house (although we are pretty vigilant about taking him out when he wakes, after he eats, etc), so far has ignored the Xmas tree, which is still up, but is very interested in the cats' litter box. He is not afraid of the goats or the sheep (of course, they are on the other side of the fence at this point in his life). He responds well when we tell him "no" for inappropriate behavior. He does seem to be curious about chicken poop, but it is hard to avoid that on a farm. At the moment, he is curled up behind my chair here at the computer.

It is wonderful to have a puppy in the house again, although I did hope to sleep beyond 6:15 this morning. Oh well, I've lived through sleep deprivation before in my life. But I think I was better able to handle it in college! So if you see me on the street and I don't respond - well, I might be sleep walking!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T10:52:00.003-06:00

And this year, I will try to post here more often. I would say that this is my New Year's resolution, but that would just be asking for trouble, as I don't think I have ever stuck with any of my resolutions. But I did so poorly at posting last year, that it shouldn't be too hard to improve this year!

Looking back on last year, in addition to not posting on the blog, we started our new business venture, which most of you know about, if you still read my meager posts. Hearthside Fibers began in earnest just after the first of the year, we did about half a dozen fiber shows, I finally got the Etsy store launched in the fall, I set up a Facebook page and we placed our product in the local yarn store, Kaleidoscope Fibers, in Lake Mills, WI.

In the coming year, we are already booked into an additional one or two fiber shows and are considering a couple more. I plan to get more product into the Etsy store. We are adding a few new yarns and rovings.

On the sheep and goat end of things, we have downsized the commercial/meat sheep, but have retained most of the goats and fiber sheep. So for our fleece customers, we will have Shetland fleeces in a few months (and some of those fleeces look absolutely gorgeous "on the hoof"), a few Icelandic fleeces, maybe some mohair and a few other assorted fleeces off of the "pets" that we didn't sell. Lambing/kidding begins at the very end of March, and may continue into June, as we still have one ram in with a few of our ewes - he was put in as a clean up ram, just in case the ram lamb we originally had in with that group didn't do his job!

Not much in the way of pictures with this post. We have had very little snow here in SE Wisconsin so far this winter, unlike much of the rest of the country! So no pretty scenery shots. Very odd for us and I am nervously waiting for the other shoe to drop. There is no way that this mild weather and lack of snow can last much longer. Today it is hovering around freezing, though, and the winds are brisk, so I am glad that I will be sitting in the living room, watching the last regular season Packer game (GO PACK!) instead of in Lambeau with my cousin and his girlfriend.

So, since every year I try to get a decent picture of the Xmas tree, I will leave you with best wishes for the New Year and a shot of our tree from early Xmas morning -

Going Forward Into Fall

2011-10-23T22:15:00.006-05:00

If there is anyone out there who is still following this blog - well, thank you for hanging in there. No excuse really, although I like to say that I have been busy.

We have survived the hot summer weather and are now enjoying the cooler, and sometimes rainy, fall days. Today the temperature was fine - almost 60 - but we had some rain. We have three young Nigora goats who sometimes graze our backyard and today, when it rained, they took shelter in the most convenient spot they could find. The picture is a bit blurry, as I have a new camera and forget to adjust the settings, but Billy found shelter in an old rabbit cage that we have under an overhang off the back deck -

I must say, that while I love my sheep, goats certainly are entertaining!

The summer wrapped up for us with a couple of fiber festivals. Yet another picture of one of our booths - this one at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI - the show was a success and we can't wait until next year!

This is what our barn looked like before the festival began:

And this is what it looked like the rest of the weekend:

My favorite weekend of the year! This was our first year vending - and while it was loads of fun and financially rewarding, I did miss spending the weekend with our sheep in the Hall of Breeds, talking with festival-goers about the pros and cons of the different sheep breeds, seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

And speaking of the sheep, we are downsizing a bit this year, as we switch our focus to the fiber end of the industry. We are already booked into several shows for next year and I am finally getting some work done on getting an Etsy site set up (since I can't seem to master Zen Cart for our web site). Tonight I was finalizing the choreography for getting the sheep/goats all moved around to their respective breeding groups. The plan for this year is three Shetland breeding groups, one non-Shetland group, one goat group, a bachelor boys group and a group of lambs/kids who are not ready yet to be bred. I'm sure the rams are ready - at least it seems that Gallifrey is saying "Let's get this show on the road, already - I could go for a little female companionship!"

Yes, I'm Still Here!

2011-07-14T22:39:00.004-05:00

I know I haven't posted in a couple of months. I don't know why. I've taken pictures, intending to get them here on the blog. I could have posted more about the end of lambing. Or getting ready for Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair. Or the dreadful heat that we have had on certain days (we are about to get hit again with heat and humidity and I am not looking forward to it). But I guess I just haven't been very talkative.

Here is our booth at Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair. The weekend was disappointing. And I know we weren't alone, as in talking to other vendors, they were saying the same thing. Several don't plan on going back next year. Larry has family living in that area, though, so for us it is a good excuse to get together with them, even if we hardly cover the cost of getting into the show in the first place.

And since I don't have a lot of good things to say about that show, here are some goat pics. We haven't decided yet who is for sale and who is staying, but I think I would like to keep this little doe here on the farm. She is just adorable.

The kids fit through the fence and help themselves to whatever they like in the yard.

At least they are grazing clean "pasture"!

Below, you can see the mommas in the background, in the barnyard where they belong. And the kids are out climbing on the old hay bales, having the time of their lives.

We have started weaning the oldest lambs. The kids will be weaned soon. We are downsizing the flock drastically this year, so many of the ewes are going to market as soon as their lambs are weaned. The Shetlands have to be photographed and those that we decide are for sale need to be posted on the web site. But very little will be done in the next few days - I think I mentioned we are in for an extended period of heat and humidity? I could really go for a couple of inches of snow right about now!

Kids and Lambs

2011-05-07T11:54:00.003-05:00

Last night, when I would normally be in my jammies and watching a little TV before bed, I was helping a new mom deliver a baby. This is Elfine, a Nigerian Dwarf goat, and her new little buckling, who appears to have more of an Angora fleece like his papa. She is a wonderful mom and both were doing fine this morning.

And another of the Nigerians, Sequoia, who has two little bucks, one brown and the other, pictured here, who is brown and white. Their fleece is more "Nigerian-like". This is Billy, with his mom.

Shetland lambs, so far, have been mostly ewes. This is Fontina with her moorit (or maybe musket) ewe lamb.

And the newest member of the flock, Arcateen's moorit gulmoget ram lamb, who was born sometime last night or early this morning while we slept. He looks a lot like his papa, Tarpan. Gotta love those Shetlands - he was all dry, fed and sleeping in the barnyard with his mom when Larry did the first check this morning. (For those of you who know that I never put our Shetlands in jugs - a few of the Shetlands ended up with the "BWS" and they have gone into jugs and then into the nursery as I "funnel" them out into the Shetland pasture to rejoin their flock. The majority of the Shetlands are lambing on pasture without the "benefit" of jugging, since they don't really need it - they bond so well with their lambs and are very protective by nature.)

I'll have to check the lambing sheets, but we must be at about 50 lambs and kids at this point. The majority of the "big, white sheep" are done - we still have six or eight Shetlands and Icelandics to lamb and most of the goats - although I'm not sure all of them were bred, some are still slender with no udders. Lamb percentages are down a bit this year - feed quality wasn't as good. But the lambs and kids that are on the ground look good. And such a variety - Shetlands, Icelandics, Coopworths, Polypays, goats. Colors and patterns. It's like Christmas!

Dress Rehearsal

2011-04-05T10:23:00.003-05:00

Well, the fiber is mostly all packed and ready for Spin-In this weekend. Just a few more skeins to label. We had a dress rehearsal this past weekend: This is the main part of the "store" - there's more towards the front of the booth, but the camera was dying and this is the only decent picture I got. But we're pretty pleased with the way it looks - now on to the main event. Set-up is Thursday - the vendors are open for business on Friday and Saturday. Hope to see you there!

Just Checking In

2011-03-21T10:29:00.007-05:00

Not a lot to blog about lately, although we have been very busy. We are almost daily dyeing yarn and roving, in preparation for our first fiber show - Wisconsin Spin-In - Pewaukee, WI at the Country Springs Hotel - April 7 - 9 - click the link for more information. We are Hearthside Fibers - look for us if you are there. We're on schedule for product, I think we have just about everything we THINK we need - of course, that list could be different than what we find we actually DO need, come the weekend of the show! Just so you have something to look at in this post, here are some of our yarns - I think these are the fingering weight highland wool that we will be selling.

Yep, after studying the closer shot, I have identified these correctly.

In other news, we sheared the sheep (or rather, Roger sheared the sheep) last Wednesday. Only a few glitches this year, starting with the day we moved the half of the sheep that weren't already in our barn. The majority of the sheep and goats moved fairly easily - three of our Jacobs, though decided they were not coming with us. We tried enticing them into the barn with grain - not successful. In fact, one of them leaped over the fence, ran around the goat pasture, then decided it did not, in fact, want to run away to the neighbor's. So she leaped in with the goats, decided that wasn't right, leaped back out and finally made her way back to her Jacob buddies and leaped back in with them. At that point, we decided they could stay put and we left them where they were. I am again trying to train them to the grain bucket, so maybe, if they are bred, we can reunite them with the rest of their flock here in our barn, where we are equipped for lambing. But, as I said, the rest of the sheep and goats were fairly cooperative and the rest of the move went fairly well, in spite of the fact that the farm is a sea of mud and a fairly large pickup truck pulling a good sized livestock trailer filled with many animals does have a tendency to get stuck in said mud. But, in the end, all of the animals got into the barn and, although the truck and trailer are very muddy, they are not stuck. Must see the glass as half full. (By the way, our Nigerian dwarf goats were the easiest to move - they did not come over for shearing, but after, in preparation for kidding in a few weeks - they followed the grain bucket right onto the trailer and hopped right off when they got to their destination - I sure wish the sheep would behave that well.)

The day of shearing went smoothly - except for the two Shetlands that managed to squeeze through the fence and escape - I'm not mentioning any names, but Lavender and Maia still look awfully woolly! I will most likely throw (well, not literally) them up on the fitting stand and shear them with the hand shears in a few weeks. Maybe if I wait long enough, they'll roo for me. By the way, to my customers - the reserved fleeces have been skirted and those customers have been notified. The remaining fleeces will most likely not be skirted for a bit, as we prepare for Spin-In - but as soon as I get the new web site up and running and fleeces skirted and made ready for sale, those of you on our customer email list will be getting an email.

Lambing/kidding does not start here until mid-April - many new ewes and does this year, so it could get interesting. Fortunately, the "veterans" are all good moms and, barring any unforeseen circumstances, shouldn't cause us any headaches. I hope the new girls all do a good job, too.

And, for a parting shot - our washer died quite awhile ago - and our dryer was making an unearthly screeching noise every time we turned it on, so we finally took the time to replace them. Fuzzball thinks the new dryer is grand!

Introducing Hearthside Fibers!

2011-01-29T10:18:00.003-06:00

I haven't posted in awhile - as usual, my excuse is, "I've been busy"! I took holiday pictures, intending to post them, but that didn't happen. This is what I have been doing instead of posting:

Those are hand dyed rovings, dyed right here in our "dye kitchen".

And we have hand dyed yarns as well:

Just a small sampling of the hundreds of skeins we will be taking to Spin-In in April (April 7 - 9, 2011). It will be our first show - if you are anywhere near Pewaukee, or planning to be anywhere near Pewaukee at that time, mark your calenders!

This is loads of fun - I usually start my day by putting some fiber in to soak, then washing the fiber I dyed yesterday, then dyeing the previously mentioned soaked fiber. Larry and I have "packaging" days - he skeins yarn, I label product. And he has been wonderful in taking over feeding most of the animals (I like to work in my PJ's and really hate having to throw on jeans first thing to feed all before I start in on the fiber). I do still tend to the chickens, the guineas and Alexander Goose, so I do get out each day and get some fresh air!

In other news, THE PACKERS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!! I will not be working next Sunday during the big game - I do not want to be distracted even for a fraction of a second by needing to rinse a skein of yarn or some other silliness. I have been a Packer fan for 50 years and I do not intend to miss a moment of this game.

The rams are still in with the ewes, as the weekend we were going to remove them from their harems, it was extremely cold - I believe the girls are probably all bred, as there has been no courting going on for weeks now. I'll suffer through a late lamb or two if I must.

No sheep pictures today - I wanted you all to concentrate on the fiber - the label will say "Hearthside Fibers" - we decided we wanted something cozier for our fiber line than Maplewood North, although that is also on the label, just in smaller print, below "HEARTHSIDE FIBERS" - remember the name (I'll let you know when we finally get around to creating a web site - at this point, we thought product was more important). And come to Spin-In, if you can - we'll be there!

Blow That Horn!

2010-12-02T21:37:00.004-06:00

I would like to briefly blow my own horn. In the summer of 2009, I contacted Interweave Press, sent off some Polypay fleece samples to Amy Clarke Moore, the editor of Spin-Off magazine and Carol Huebscher Rhoades, the author of their Fiber Basics articles. I talked to Carol at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, where she teaches some of the Wonders of Wool classes. We emailed several times, I sent some more fleece, took some sheepy pictures, figured out how to transfer said pictures to a disc, signed the appropriate releases and in the winter issue of 2010, our Polypay sheep and fiber were featured! If you look on the left side of the magazine cover, you will see (under "Try these fibers!), "Polypay (what's that??)"

And inside, they answer that question in the form of a Fiber Basics article,written by Carol Huebscher Rhoades and using several of my sheepy pictures and spinning up our fiber for their samples! That's one of our ewes in the picture below.

The entire Polypay spread is eight pages, including pictures and projects. I have to say, we are just thrilled with the article - my 15 minutes of fame, I guess!

More New Additions!

2010-11-29T14:25:00.004-06:00

OK - I think this is it for 2010 - additions to the flock/herd, that is - hopefully not blog posts, although I have been very bad at updating it lately. The flock has changed dramatically in the past few months. We still have the Shetlands and the Coopworths and the Polypays - and one Clun Forest - and two Dorsets - and a handful of crossbred ewes. And you know, if you have been reading along, that we added some Icelandics and a Jacob earlier this fall - and some Angora goats - and some guineas - oh, and we still have some rabbits and some chickens - and one gorgeous, but mean rooster - he might have to go. But anyway, I digress.

We have recently added some more Jacobs - I think this is the wether - hard to tell sometimes, when they no longer have the normal male equipment.

And we have added some Nigerian Dwarf goats. These should be the two wethers, Jack and Dexter, although I'm not sure which is which yet. They love the fallen leaves from our London Planetree - somebody tell me quick if those are poisonous.

And a few more Jacob ewes. Although this is only one of them. Must be Zola? She is supposed to be the friendliest, and as the others were hanging way back, I'm deducing that this is she.

But the cutest ones are the Nigerian Dwarf girls. This little girl is very friendly - her name is Magic, I think. She would stand forever letting you scratch her chin, neck, back if you had the time. (Stasia, if I have all the names wrong, I apologize - let me know!)

Two more of the Nigerian girls. They come in all colors and are just the cutest things. Although what in the heck am I going to do with them? This is a fiber farm, after all. I guess we will have to make some goat cheese or maybe some goat's milk soap.

Or we can breed them to Valentine (aka Bucky), our new Angora buck and maybe get some nice, fibery Nigoras. That's him in the picture below, sort of in the middle, with the orange ear tag. It was very hard to get a good picture of him, as he was very intent on breeding one of the girls and only paused long enough for me to get this shot. He came from Bleating Heart Haven in New Holstein, Wisconsin - and after he jumped a solid wall that must have been close to five feet tall and tried to bash his way out of our truck, he settled down nicely for the trip home and is now behaving himself. Although if he didn't have all those lovely girlfriends, I'm afraid he might jump the fence and head on down the road!

And we also now have a goose. Alexander came from Tuppinz Farm with the sheep, as he thinks he is a sheep - and as Tuppinz Farm no longer has any sheep, we felt he should come along with his "family". So, while the goats and sheep rode in the livestock trailer, Alexander got the back of the truck to himself, where he settled down on the rubber mat for the three hour trip to his new home. Here he is getting to know some of his new sheep family - some of our Coopworths.

So, the breeding groups are now all together. Lambing/kidding will begin mid-April. With all the different breeding groups and the bachelor boys group and the lamb/retiree group, I have 9 different pens/pastures to feed, water and check on every day (well, that's stretching the truth a bit, as a couple of those groups have big bales of hay, so I don't really have to feed everyone every day). But for the next six weeks or so, I basically need a checklist so I don't leave anyone out! So here's hoping the rams/buck do their job and we have lots of bouncing babies in five months!

New Additions

2010-10-24T12:16:00.008-05:00

We have added some new animals to the farm, thanks to our good friends Stasia and Jeff. When we brought home the Angoras in August, we volunteered to help them with their exploding guinea population. We took four keets off their hands. I'm not sure they even noticed, as they have dozens and dozens of the things. So we placed these four guys/gals in a small rabbit carrier and popped them into the back seat of the truck. Covered them up a bit, thinking they would think it was nighttime and settle down for the 3 hour ride home. Well, they weren't fooled one bit and chirped and sang and complained all the way to the first rest stop. Where we took their carrier and removed it to the back of the truck to ride the rest of the way with the goats! My advice to you, is never try to travel with guinea keets in the vehicle with you - VERY NOISY!

But I have always wanted some guineas, and "Mr Opportunity" was knocking! Here they are in our brooder, which was their temporary home until we got something bigger set up for them:

They have since moved into a dog kennel enclosure in our barn, complete with multiple roosts, while they get a bit bigger and become attached to our barn, so that at some point, when they are allowed to free range, they will still come home at night.

On our next trip to Stasia and Jeff's, we picked up a few sheep, including some beautiful Icelandic ewes, two of them pictured below. Thank you so much for allowing us to bring all of these beautiful animals to our farm.

And, because the majority of the animals on this place have to be productive - we are trying to bring in a bit of income, after all - we obtained this Icelandic ram at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last month:

This is Oliver, who we purchased from Rick and Laura of Queso Cabeza Farm over in Michigan. He was the champion Icelandic ram at WSWF. I'm not sure yet whether or not I like the fact that he is polled, but he has a beautiful moorit fleece, which I promptly sheared off just after this picture was taken:

He's a lamb, so I'm hoping he is assertive enough to stand up to our Icelandic girls who are a few years older. We're hoping to have nice lambs out of them in April. I can't wait, as Icelandics are like Shetlands - it will be like Christmas, waiting to see what colors/patterns will be on the lambs when they are born! Already getting impatient and the breeding groups don't go together until mid-November!

Well, must get going - according to the Weather Channel, it looks like the rain is gone, at least for the time being. But the sun was shining half an hour ago, and now it appears to be gone. Hope I didn't miss the nice weather for the day, blogging. Cheer for the Packers tonight! We're playing that Brett someone and the Vikings!

Good Horns

2010-09-18T21:29:00.003-05:00

There seems to be a lot of dissent within the North American Shetland Sheepbreeders' Association lately. Some of the folks like the short, crimpy fleeces, some like the long, wavy fleeces. I must say, I have a little bit of both in our flock. In fact, our first sheep were of both varieties, and we purchased them from several "reputable flocks".

There is also a bit of a gap between the breeders breeding for bigger sheep and those of us who like the smaller sheep. We got a lot of comments this past weekend at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, where we were exhibiting some of our Shetlands, about how cute and small our sheep were. Well, our Shetlands are the same size today as they were almost ten years ago when we bought our first Shetlands. And we still have one of those original sheep, and she is about the same size as all of our other adult ewes. Shetlands are not "miniature" sheep, but they are small - they are supposed to be small. If you want a nice leg of lamb, get a Polypay or a Coopworth (we have those, too).

When visiting the Shetland barn at the Festival, we noticed some Shetlands that were quite large. In fact, they compared in size to the Icelandics that were being exhibited in another barn. I will have to do some research - I'm not really an expert on the "perfect" Shetland. But I seem to recall that Shetlands were supposed to be finer boned, agile - more "deer-like" to successfully navigate the rocky shorelines of the Shetland Islands. Ewes were to be feminine and the rams should be "manly", but still agile, not heavy, ponderous things.

And the one thing that really gets me is when supposedly reputable breeders sell adult rams with crappy horns. Sometimes a ram lamb will be sold who eventually has fatal horns - I had an absolutely gorgeous ram lamb, with wonderful wide horns, one of our first years with Shetlands. But those gorgeous, wide horns grew right back around, heading for the underside of his jaw. He ended up in little white packages and was very tasty. But year after year, we see adult rams, with terrible horns, being sold to other breeders.

We all have an opinion on what is a good fleece, or whether we like solids or patterns, or whether "bigger is better". But there is really no excuse to keep a ram after his horns take that deadly turn back toward his head. Wether him if you must, take him to market, but don't sell him to another breeder. And if you don't know what good horns look like, see below. While the photo may not be the greatest, the horns are pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

Goats!

2010-09-05T12:29:00.004-05:00

Well, as you can see, I may have squeaked in a blog post before July ended, but I totally missed August. It was hot, we were busy, I was lazy - take whichever excuse you want to use. They were all true at some time or another last month.

To bring you up to date, school has started for another year, Nicholas is now in high school. He seems to be liking it more (at least, so far) than he did junior high.

The heat has subsided - the last few days have even seemed a bit "fall-like" - been tempted to turn the heat back on in the mornings, but I know that it is to be back up in the 80's in a day or two, so am enjoying being able to put on slippers, an extra blanket on the bed, cuddling in the afghan while watching TV in the evenings. The good thing about a hot, wet summer, is the pastures have lasted much longer this year. Last year we fenced part of the hay land for temporary pasture. We haven't had to do that this year. In fact, we have been able to let some of our pastures rest a bit this summer, instead of overgrazing them as in some summers past.

The bad thing about all this rain - well, the mosquitoes, of course. I planted a few flowers and veggies early this summer and that was about the end of the gardening for me. Not being a great gardener anyway, when the mosquitoes are as abundant as they have been this year, I don't like to linger any longer outside than I have to. If I had known that it was going to be so buggy, I might have looked into a CSA and let someone else grow my produce.

We have made some additions to our farm. Thanks to the very generous nature of our friends Stasia and Jeff we have adopted some more sheep, some guinea keets and some goats. We now have 5 beautiful Angora does.

I know that I could probably get better pictures outside, rather than in the darkish barn, but as the girls don't know us very well yet, this is the sort of picture that I get when I step outside with them:

That's them, that little blob in the center of the picture. They trust us being on the outside of the pen while we are in the barn, but if we are outside, they seem to feel the need to remove themselves from our direct area to the far side of the pasture. But they are getting better, they crowd around Nicholas when he feeds them their pellets and they don't immediately rush out of the barn when we go in. For the first couple of days, I wondered if they ever relaxed, but in a few days time, I actually managed to get into the barn without all of them bolting to their feet. I've even managed to get one or two of them to sniff my hand!

Next post, maybe I will have pictures of the new sheep. And, this week we are getting ready to go to Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival which is this next weekend. We will again be in the Hall of Breeds, so please stop by and say hi if you are there.

Being very lazy today. My excuse is it's a holiday weekend (I can always find some excuse if I need to), but I have a dozen little Shetland rams that are locked in the barn until I can get the thistles cleaned out of their barnyard, so at some point I have to brave the BIG, BLACK AND YELLOW SPIDERS and venture out into the jungle, clean up the picky, fleece devouring intruders and let our little guys back out to clean up the "good" plants.

Quick, Before it's August!

2010-07-31T22:45:00.003-05:00

I tried posting earlier this month, but the pictures weren't posting to the blog properly, so I gave up. But in case you were wondering, the hay was finally delivered, a day or two after I posted. So now we have 60 plus ton of hay lined up in various places for winter feeding. (Big sigh of relief).

I did participate in the Tour de Fleece this year. That was part of what I tried to post earlier this month when Blogger was giving me fits. I do have fibery pictures, but they are slightly out of date, so I think I will take new pictures and post those next month. I did not spin as much as I would have liked, but I did spin a bit. I was very pleased with having spun any amount, as it has been so freaking hot and humid here. Of course, much of the country is actually hotter than we are, but there are reasons I live in Wisconsin - one of those being family, of course, but one of the other reasons is it is cooler here than in regions to the south of us. And Milwaukee (about 30 miles east of us) received about 11 inches of rain in July - I think they said we normally get about 3 and 1/2 inches. June was also wet. The pastures look very nice, due to all the heat and rain - so do the mosquitoes.

In pictures today, I give you Chickie. She is the sole survivor of our previous batch of chicks - from several years ago. She and her flockmates would roost in the barn, usually above the lambing jugs, which tends to get messy, if you know what I mean. But over time, coons or something got to the rest of the flock, so now she is alone. Which makes her very friendly, so here she is on our deck. Soon, though, she will have help in keeping the bug population down, as our spring chicks our getting very big and some of them will move here to our part of the farm (they are currently residing in the coop across the road at Mom and Dad's). I hope they adjust to their new home and I hope Chickie adjusts to them (not very original with the names, am I?)

Before the mosquitoes moved in this summer, I managed to get a few hanging planters planted. Petunias grow pretty well for me (as does the Queen Anne's Lace, which you might notice encroaching on the pots) - I don't seem to have much luck with pansies or violas, though.

But what I always seem to have a bumper crop of is thistles. I probably shouldn't show this picture to my fleece customers - but they are awfully pretty and I love the birds and the butterflies that feed off of the nectar and the seeds. We do try to get rid of as many as we can, but they seem to get away from us every year.

And for the obligatory sheep picture, here are the ewes and lambs out on pasture.

We tried something different this year, in that we put the Shetland ewes and lambs in with the big whites. The Shetland pastures get a bit sparse as the lambs grow, so, since the other girls have a large pasture, we thought they might like to share. The pastures are adjacent, so all it took was opening a gate. It makes it easier for the shepherd (me), as I only have one ewe/lamb group to rotate every day or so and one group of rams to feed (the rams are a bit hard on fences, so they are more confined and are fed hay most of the year - but there are only five of them, so it's not too bad - and, Larry and Nicholas feed them more often than not, so it's really not too bad for me!) The funny thing is - sheep are such creatures of habit - even though the ewe flocks have been merged, the Shetlands usually go to their original area at night and the big, white girls stay in the area that they were used to.

Well, if I don't get this posted soon, it will be August. Forecasts for the coming week are for temperatures still up in the 80's - I would kill for some highs in the 70's - and there is more rain in the forecast. At this rate, school will be starting and I will have accomplished much of nothing this summer (did I already say that I don't do well in hot, humid weather - no ambition, no desire to do anything but sit in front of the fan, maybe knitting a dishcloth. Watching TV is about as active as I get in this weather). But soon, regardless of the temperature, we will have to take the culls to market, lambs will have to be weaned, decisions will have to be made as to which lambs to keep and which to sell, sheep will have to be moved to new pastures. Maybe August will be cooler - one can always hope!

Hurry Up and Wait

2010-06-18T13:52:00.003-05:00

Today I am waiting for our hay to be stacked. We grow our own hay but have one of our neighbors cut and bale it for us. He has the equipment to make the big, wrapped bales, which we need, since our storage facilities are smaller than our needs. And we now have over 50 ton of new hay for this coming winter, which translates into over 2600 small bales and I'm too old to help stack that many little bales, even if we did have the space for it. With the wrapped bales, we stack it where we need it, so that it can be fed to the sheep with very little hauling effort on our part.

But in order to get these bales where we want them, we have to be here when the neighbor and his crew bring the bales in from the field. They brought the first load over around 9:00 last night - then they had to get some fuel - so they didn't finish yesterday - and today it is currently sunny (which is an uncommon occurrence this June), so I am thinking they are doing something that is more dependent on sunshine than hauling wrapped bales in from the fields. But, I have to stay put until either they deliver the bales, or Larry relieves me to take his turn at "hurry up and wait". We have decided that Shearing Day is less stressful than Hay Delivery Day, because our shearer has an appointment, which he keeps very efficiently, whereas the Hay Guy is more vague. But, like the shearer, custom hay guys are few and far between, and we bow to their needs. And, he's a neighbor, so we try to be "neighborly".

I haven't blogged in awhile, so since I am waiting today, I thought I would take the opportunity to sit near the fan and try not to move too much (it's hot and humid here, but a cold front is coming through later, although I think that means it will no longer be 90 and humid - maybe low 80's and less humid).

June, so far, has been a bit of both good and not so good. Nicholas finished Junior High and will be going to High School in the fall - of course, in Creek, that means that he goes to the other wing of the Jr/Sr High building. Not a big adjustment. That was a "good". "Not so good" was the day the washer decided to quit just as a load was spinning out. And, on the same day, the faucet on the bathroom sink decided it didn't want to turn off. I'm not good with plumbing, so being alone in the house at the time, I turned it off as best I could and made sure the drain was running clearly and abandoned ship (meaning I went to my parents' for a cup of coffee!) On the "good" side, I found out that my family is actually descended from John Alden, who is rumored to have been the first person to step off of the Mayflower. Apparently, that also means that I am related (a long ways back) to both President Adamses (is that a word?). And, I guess, to Dick Van Dyke, Marilyn Monroe and Dan Quayle, among others, who can claim to be related to John Alden. To heck with the DAR (which I am also eligible to join, I believe) - I can join the Mayflower Society. Yes, I am a genealogy snob.

We finished up lambing with about 100 lambs. We lost one ewe to pregnancy issues and two lambs very early on - one had physical issues and I don't think she was meant to live. Now I am watching all very nervously as it has been so wet and rainy that I'm sure the worm load on the pastures is unreal. The majority of the BWS have been wormed - the Shetlands are next on my list.

I have been doing some knitting. I have started the Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell from the Interweave Knits Summer 2007 issue. I am using Plymouth Yarns Llama Cotton Worsted in color 1249, which is a nice "peachy" color. I don't have automatic links to anything, as I am working offline at the moment (in case the hay guy calls to say they will be moving hay soon - or won't be moving hay soon - but chances are, he won't call at all, he'll just show up). The yarn is wonderfully soft, some VM, we'll see how it wears after I finish the top. This is an adventure for me, since I have never knit a garment before, only socks, scarves and dishcloths. But my gauge appeared to be on. I'll let you know. I'm almost done with the body of the top and will soon separate the front and back (currently knitting in the round) to begin shaping up towards the shoulders and the lace portion (which will take me a lot longer than the stockinette portion).

And these are the socks that I actually started when we were in San Francisco in March. I got about an inch knit on the first sock while we were gone (why do I even bother? We are so busy when we go on vacation, that there really isn't time to knit - but, as a Knitter, I feel the need to travel with a project, I guess). After we got home, I was just flying through the first sock - at the rate I was going, I felt I could knit both socks before April ended. Of course, I forgot to figure in the time that lambing takes. So when that first lamb was born, knitting came to an abrupt halt. But the second sock is on the needles and I am working on the foot, so maybe if I go back and forth between the socks and the shell, I could get them both done this summer. Yes, yes, I am a slow knitter - and I want to get my spinning wheel back out and spin the rest of the Coopworth so I can start knitting a cardi for cold weather.

And, as you can see, I have a few hanging baskets planted this year. That's about it - I planted some spinach and mesclun, but the weather turned hot and they haven't grown well. We have some tomatoes, squash and peppers in containers, the perennial herbs are growing nicely, but need weeding and I still have a few pots of flowers and herbs to get into the dirt. Maybe after the cold front goes through - there is no way I am gardening in 90 degrees and humid!

Still no hay, but I feel I have bored you few readers enough. Maybe some knitting time coming up here while I wait some more - I guess I shouldn't be complaining - I'm just not a good Waiter.

Enough Already!

2010-05-13T08:48:00.004-05:00

Rain, that is. We have had two inches in the last two days and, while I understand that it is needed to keep the pastures green, enough is enough! There is a lake in front of the barn, everything is muck and I slip and slide on any surface that is not entirely flat. I haven't been down to the low spot in the Shetland grove yet today, so don't know how bad that is. But all of the babies are wet and, although they are still cute, they are kind of gross when they try to snuggle up to you. And it is very hard to take lamb pictures in the dark, dreary, rainy weather. I did manage to get a couple before the floods - this is one of the two ewes I have to shear yet - yep, she is IN the feeder:

As for lambing, we have two Coopworth ewes that haven't lambed yet - one looks like she will go any minute - hopefully she comes into the barn and does not lamb in the lake - the other is not terribly big and may wait until the last minute. The Shetlands are done - although I did put Gallifrey in with the ewes again this spring, as I didn't have him shorn by the shearer and needed a place to put him while the rest of the rams were being shorn. So there is a slim chance that we will have a few August lambs - although I'm not going to hold my breath, as Shetlands don't lamb well out of season.

And for the obligatory lamb picture, this is one of Sparx's ram lambs - he is a gorgeous grey, not black and white - those light spots on his body are grey - I hope he grows up with good conformation and nice horns (he is standing kind of strangely in this shot - he looks better when his legs aren't all bunched together - his head isn't really as big as it looks!)

We've got three jugs full in the barn again, so chores today will include tagging, docking, castrating and lamb shots - also worming of the moms. I hate to do all that in miserable weather, but it has to be done. Morning bottles have been fed - soon they will be reduced to two bottles a day. Baby chicks in the brooder. And I have to be down at school at lunchtime, as it is an early release day, so I guess I better get moving. Or maybe just one more cup of coffee?!?!

Still Trying to Catch Up

2010-05-04T09:38:00.003-05:00

Well, the major portion of this year's lambing is complete. We bred about 65 ewes - Polypays, Coopworths, and Shetlands with a few terminals and one Clun Forest thrown in for good measure. We have over 90 lambs on the ground, about a 50 - 50 split between rams and ewes, five ewes yet to lamb, about five who look as though they were not bred. Of course, they have until early June (technically) to lamb, so maybe those five who have not bagged up will lamb very late. We put all five breeding groups together at the same time last fall and all five rams settled the majority of their ewes within their first cycle - meaning 85 percent of the girls lambed within the first 17 days of lambing season. A very hectic 17 days, but it got it over with.

Lambing went fairly smoothly - I assisted with a few deliveries - one girl wasn't lambing fast enough the day of the FFA banquet, so I nudged her along a bit with a gentle tug on her big single.

One of my best moms (Cappuccino - Shetland ewe), decided this year, that since she was about to go into labor, she would try to steal someone else's lambs. She has never been a problem for me, but this year she chased one poor lamb all over creation until I corralled her in a private pen where she delivered the first of twins just before I wanted to call it a night. Then she presented the head of the second and continued cleaning off the first. Apparently one was enough for her this year, as she ceased trying to deliver the second. Thinking that maybe the second delivery was too hard for her, as the front legs appeared to be back, I gave a gentle tug on him. Well, he "splooshed" right out - I guess Cappuccino only wanted a single this year - maybe she thought if she didn't deliver the second, he would just go away. Actually, she is normally the most laid back mom I have ever seen in the pasture. She has delivered a lamb backwards, no problems. She always twins and, although her lambs are always the "rebellious" ones, she usually has her head in the feeder until you ask "where are your lambs?" and she looks around like she's just remembered she's a mom. But her lambs thrive. Probably because her milk is good since she has no nervous issues.

I do have five bottle lambs this year - five too many. I have two sets of twins whose moms just do not have enough (or any) milk. Both moms are already on the "cull" list. And I have a triplet - born in the wee hours of the morning, Larry discovered them when he went out to the barn very early about a week into lambing. I was still in bed, as it was a Saturday and my intent was to sleep in a bit. He woke me to let me know I had a lamb to tube. So he brought her into the kitchen, near death, very dirty. This is what she looked like after I fed her:

That is our Lab mix, Kipper, being the good mom and cleaning her off (she was the cleanest lamb you have ever seen when he was done). Well, I got a few ounces into her, popped her into the playpen and went back to bed. Unfortunately, since Kipper claimed her and I fed her, Mom would not take her back. But "Spot" is our pet now and follows Kipper all over the yard. She tries to nurse off of him, tries to jump up on his back if he sits down. He hangs his head and gives me this look as if to say, "Mom, do I have to put up with my little sister? She's so annoying!" But he did a good job - I think she looks a lot perkier now:

Yes, she has a black eye patch and, no, we weren't very original in naming her "Spot"!

So, now I am attempting to get back to the rest of life as we wait for the stragglers to lamb. I am still trying to catch up on dishes - although I have actually done a little bit of cooking again (during the first 17 days, we ate fast food and sandwiches mostly) - laundry doesn't suffer too much during lambing, as Nicholas has to have clean clothes to wear to school, so I'm sort of forced to take care of that. The playpen is still up in the kitchen, just in case we have any more lambs that need to come in for 24 hours. That will stay up until the last ewe lambs. I did vacuum the living room last weekend, as Nicholas was having a friend over. But the rest of the house looks like a tornado has gone through. That's why I'm blogging - so I don't have to look at the mess and contemplate cleaning it up! I think I'll go out and admire the lambs now!

Finally, Another Shetland

2010-04-20T09:06:00.004-05:00

This is the little girl that greeted me just before I went to bed last night:

The best shot I could get this morning, as Abra (her mom) was being the typical Shetland and not letting me get near her. Of course, that's what I like about the Shetlands - their primitive responses to things like lambing. Don't let anyone with a camera get close to your lambs! The lamb looks to be grey yuglet katmoget - sired by Psalm 23 Edinburagh, now gone from the farm, as he tried to kill one of his ewes last fall.

Now to finish my cup of coffee and back outside. We had a set of Coopworth twins early this morning and I want to check on them. One of our Polypays is soon to lamb. And Nutmeg, another of our Shetlands, had a difficult lambing this morning - I ended up having to corral her and pull the lamb. Lamb is a ewe (I think) and appears to be nursing, but Nutmeg is very skittish and I wanted to back off and let them do their thing without me hovering. I thought that was a good excuse to come in for a few minutes and have my first cup of the morning.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-04-19T09:54:00.004-05:00

We are just over a week into lambing and we have 35 lambs on the ground. 21 ewes have lambed, with 44 (I think - I have a tendency to lose track at this point and the farm records are on another part of the computer, so I'm winging it here) yet to go. The majority of these lambs are Polypay, Coopworth and crosses. Here's one little guy - or gal - I can't tell from this angle:

This little one was either just getting up from a nap on Mom's back or is using her as a springboard in a game of lamb tag. It's very hard to get action shots, in the barn, at dusk. This was the best I could do.

Nap time in the nursery - our only colored Coopworth lamb so far this year - I can tell you that this one is a little ewe:

And another nap group, this time being watched over by Mom.

So far, only one Shetland lamb. This is Maia's little moorit ewe:

So far, it has all gone fairly smoothly. I do have one set of twins with a good mom, but she doesn't seem to have enough milk, so I have been supplementing them. And on Saturday, when I thought I was going to sleep in a bit, Larry woke me at about 5:30 to let me know that one of the ewes had triplets - two were with her in the barn, one was out in the barnyard. She lost count, apparently, and one was in need of tubing. So I threw my coveralls on over my pajamas and tube fed a lamb on the kitchen floor. She revived, but Mom would not take her back, so she is a full-time bottle lamb. Cute little thing, with a black eye patch. She lived in the "playpen" in the kitchen for about 24 hours - now she is in the nursery with the other moms and babies. I'll try to get a picture of her on here the next time.

Back out to check on sheep again now and do mid-morning chores. Or maybe one more cup of coffee!?!?

Lambs

2010-04-11T12:20:00.002-05:00

First lambs, born last night between 7:30 (when we noticed she was in labor) and 10:30 (when I decided she was only having twins and they were both nursing). Purebred Polypays. You can see one nicely - only the nose of the other one.

Second lambs, born this morning - around 10:30. Clun Forest x Polypay. I think she was only having twins - once I got her in the jug, she refused to turn around for me so I could check to see if more were on the way. She is very skittish and I don't like stressing her too much when she is in that tiny space with new lambs - so I try to stay out of her way. Fortunately, she is one of the best moms in the pasture, so I don't worry about her too much.

So, two jugs full - many more to go!

No Pictures of Spring Break

2010-04-07T21:20:00.007-05:00

Spring break was last week. We took five days and went to San Francisco. We took some really nice pictures and I wanted to show you some of them. However, they were taken with our new camera, which has a much higher resolution than the one I use to take pictures for the blog and the web site. And, since we have dial-up, it was taking forever trying to get them loaded. So I'll just hit on the high points -

We stayed right in the Fisherman's Wharf district - very nice. We rode cable cars and trolleys. One cable car we took to the cable car museum, where we saw the continuously running cables that make the cable cars move. When we attempted to get back on a cable car to continue on our way, they were very crowded, so we decided to walk for awhile. We ended up in Chinatown. I'm glad the cable car was crowded. Chinatown was fascinating - all the shop signs were in Chinese with no English translations. We turned down a little alley and found a little "factory" making fortune cookies (it's actually written up in all the guide books, but I had sort of forgotten about it until we came upon it). I had a nice picture of Chinatown to insert here, but too many pixels.

We took a ferry to Alcatraz - the night tour (meaning we took the ferry over about 6:30 and returned to Fisherman's Wharf around 9:00 for a late supper - I think Nicholas really wanted to take the NIGHT tour, so he could look for the ghosts he had seen on "Ghost Hunters"). Very interesting place, kind of depressing, though - although I guess that was the whole point in putting the prison there. I had pictures of that too.

In Golden Gate Park, we stopped by the Academy of Sciences, where we took in the Planetarium show. We had tea at the Japanese Tea Garden (Nicholas took a perfect picture of the tea garden framed by gorgeous flowers - rhododendrons, maybe - too many pixels).

One morning we took a cab out to the San Francisco end of the famous bridge (picture of that too that you are not seeing). I took pictures at Fort Point, pictures of Sausalito and Alcatraz Island across the Bay, pictures of the Pacific on the other side of the bridge. Lots of pictures, as we walked all the way back to the hotel - must have been 10 miles or so - just kidding - it was probably only 3 or 4 miles. We visited the USS Hornet, had ice cream at Ghirardelli's, saw the port of Oakland - one of the coolest things was just before we landed back in Milwaukee - our flight followed I-94 and I got a picture of Johnson Creek and even saw our farm from the plane (although, in all honesty, the picture of the farm didn't turn out, so you aren't missing a picture of that).

We ate lots of good food, although I didn't take pictures of that, so nothing missing there - salmon, clams, calamari, dungeness crab - we had an absolutely fantastic lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant - Kitchen Kura, I think it was called - probably a few health code violations there - but I actually ate my whole meal with chopsticks - they didn't offer stainless (although we did get Nicholas a fork so, as Larry put it, he wouldn't starve to death). We actually do have a picture of the outside of the restaurant, but - oh, you know by now. And I made it to one yarn store - no pictures, but I do have a picture of the yarn I bought - I took that after we got home with my very old, 1.3 mega pixel camera!

Lambing should start any day now. Hopefully not tonight, as we are getting rain at the moment, which sounds like it is turning to sleet and is predicted to turn to snow before morning. I'll try to blog once in awhile after the lambs start arriving.

I Guess I am "Blogger Challenged"

2010-03-13T12:31:00.003-06:00

I would just like to say that the weird double spacing I sometimes get in my posts (see the post below) are not of my doing. I don't know why it appears that way and, although it bothers the perfectionist side of me, it does not bother it enough that I want to figure out how to fix it. It just bothers me enough that I need to point out to you that I did not pick that particular layout on purpose. Thank you for listening.

What Happened to February???

2010-03-13T11:23:00.006-06:00

Here it is, the middle of March, and I haven't posted since January! What in the world happened to February? I know I was here - I watched the Olympics. And I did knit during the Olympics, although I never really got myself signed up for any of the Knitting Olympic events that were going on. I signed up for Ravelympics, but after popping over to their website, was a bit confused and never made it back to figure out how to really participate. But I did finish this scarf, which I had put aside before the holidays to work on holiday knitting -

I thought it fit right in with the Olympics, as it was knit up in the colors that were on all the bibs that the athletes wore and adorned the banners along the sidelines of the events. I'm not sure what they called their colors, but mine are Toe Jamz "Lavender & Sage" and Dream in Color Smooshy "Some Summer Sky". Pattern, "Chevron Scarf" from the book "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" by Joelle Hoverson. I made my scarf much shorter than the pattern, as I just wanted to hang it over my neck, not loop it all around - an advantage of being short, less yarn used on a scarf! And I have enough of both yarns left that I could do socks to match.

Although the Olympics are no longer a timely subject, I just wanted to say that I thought Vancouver did a lovely job - I would very much like to visit someday, so their tourism board was successful in this household. And I noticed that Canadians all seem to know the words to their national anthem. And they sing it out proudly. Why don't we do that in this country? I suspect that most of us don't really know the words to our national anthem - my excuse is the wide range of notes and my really lousy singing voice. It's quite embarrassing to try to hit those high notes of "the rockets' red glare" when no one else in your part of the stadium is doing more than, maybe, moving their lips. If you need to refresh your memory, or if you want to read the history of our national anthem, see here.

In other news: Well, there really isn't much "other news". February was a quiet month. My excuse for being lazy - resting up for shearing in March and lambing starting in April. We shear next week - lots of rain lately, but fortunately most of the sheep are smart enough to go into their barns/shelters when it is pouring. I was out yesterday feeling of fleeces and they were fairly dry. We now have forecast several dry sunny days before the shearer arrives. If that changes, I will be locking them into their shelters.

Here are some pics of the Shetland girls still in full fleece - can't wait to get those fleeces on the skirting table!

Gaia is the grey ewe with the dark stripe down her back - her fleece is always lovely.

The big news yesterday - I am now officially a "Loopy Groupie"! I not only scored a skein of the Sanguine Gryphon's Bugga Sock yarn (that was what I ordered, it's the dark yarn on the right - the rest is Loopy loot), but I received my Loopy Groupie welcome pack, full of lots of nice gifts. Thank you, Sheri!

Well, Nicholas has a cold and he has just informed me, that in spite of the fact that doing chores would allow him to drive the riding lawn mower around the property, he does not feel up to doing them. So I guess I better have another cup of coffee and maybe a long john and get my own self out there to feed the sheep. At least the hoses are again connected and I don't have to haul endless buckets of water out to them.

Quick - Let's Post Something Before the End of January!!!

2010-01-31T11:07:00.004-06:00

I'm sure that any "regular" readers of my blog have all but given up on me. No posts for a month and a half! It's not that I haven't been doing anything or thinking anything. Just really nothing that has been "blogworthy". I could have posted Xmas pictures - I did take some of the tree, but wasn't all that impressed with them. And I took some more outdoorsy photos. Nothing good there either. But here is a picture of the scarf I knit for my father for Xmas. I'm a bit late to the party, but I finally got around to knitting one of those Noro scarves that everyone was doing a while back - this is Silk Garden in colorways 269 and 279. I did mine in a broken rib pattern, as I'm not a huge fan of standard 2 x 2 ribbing. And I must say that I now understand why everyone was going nuts knitting these scarves - they are very addictive. I didn't want to stop knitting this one, but it seemed a good length for my dad and Xmas was upon us, so I had to cast off and wrap it.

So I cast on another one, although, since I'm not made of money, I am doing this one out of Lion Brand's new wool/acrylic blend "Amazing" in the colorways Aurora and Mesa. It is a pinkish/purplish thing with some blues, golds and autumn tones mixed in. Not quite as bright pink as it shows up in the picture. I'm not a "pink" person and I have absolutely nothing to wear with it - of course, I guess it would go with my barn jacket, which is black - but the sheep might revolt if they saw me wearing a scarf that was partially acrylic!

Which brings me to my other excuse for not blogging in awhile. Last summer we got a new computer. But the old computer was still working fine (although since it was about 10 years old, it couldn't handle some of the newer things we wanted to do with it - thus the computer purchase) Well, we had been gradually transferring stuff from the old to the new, using the new for current things. But since we have dial-up internet, the old computer was still our internet computer. We aren't "networked" or anything - no wireless access, so we couldn't use both. Well, I finally caved and Larry unplugged the phone line from the huge, bulky dinosaur and plugged it into the new, sleek, slim CPU. I got all the correct codes and phone numbers and all programmed into the new machine. But - speaking of dinosaurs - my digital camera is ancient - 1.3 mega pixels - can you even buy something with that few mega pixels anymore? And I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to view/edit/post pictures from it. Well, as you can see above, I can, sort of, although I am using different software and I'm not as "fluent" in the editing process as I was with the old software - therefore, a picture of a really PINK scarf, when I wouldn't be caught dead in something that was really this PINK. I wonder if I can find the old software and load it on this computer. Probably too old for this new technology!

So, January is almost over - a quiet time here, really. The rams went back together after breeding season fairly uneventfully, earlier this month. The ewes are getting fat, hopefully the adults are all bred - lambing is scheduled to begin mid-April. We've got a month and a half before shearing. So I think I will enjoy this relative lull and do some spinning and knitting and look forward to warmer weather and lots of woolly twins!

Four Seasons in Wisconsin

2009-12-11T14:07:00.004-06:00

Some people claim that we only have two seasons here in Wisconsin - winter and road construction. I disagree. We do have four seasons - we begin with one or two months of mud season - you know, that time that comes after the snow melts - mud all over everything - that's usually when we lamb (see my post of April 12, 2009 for a mud story). Don't get me wrong, just because there is mud everywhere, that doesn't mean some days aren't nice, tulips blooming and all that springy stuff. I actually enjoy most of mud season - the lambs, the promise of new growth, fresh pasture, thawed hoses. Then comes the three to four months of mosquito season - can't go outside without bathing in some sort of insect repellent that probably will make me die young of some sort of cancer. Then we have a couple of weeks of real fall weather - cooler temperatures, changing leaves, the last of the garden harvest before the first hard frost, sheep eating the last of the pasture, rams behaving like gentlemen, not like the fools they become during breeding season. And then, finally, we have six months of winter. Endless cold, frozen water buckets, gates that are frozen shut, thigh high drifts (OK, I'm short, but thigh high is still too high in my opinion!).

Wednesday we had a foot of snow and blizzard conditions, now we have temperatures that drop below zero over night and we're lucky to get into double digits during the day. To top it all off, yesterday when I woke up about 7:00 am (I slept in because there was a two hour delay for school due to bone numbing wind chills), the power was out. So, no heat, no water (we have a 125 gallon fish tank that comes in very handy at times like these so we can actually use the toilet), no first cup of coffee - and, OMG, Nicholas couldn't play his Playstation! Fortunately, WE Energies (if you look at that really fast, it looks like weenergies - play along with me - think hot dogs, frankfurters) was very efficient and fixed the problem in about an hour and a half.

But, with all the complaining I do during our six months of winter, we do see lovely scenes like this:

And, because it is almost impossible to blog without including some sheep pictures, these are the two Dorset ewe lambs that we got from Don and Carol Battenburg this year:

And one of our lambs, a Polypay/Coopworth cross - I can't wait to see her fleece on the skirting table - she appears to have the finer wool of the Polypay, with the brown coloring of her Coopworth dam:

Hope your weather is warmer than ours - at least at the moment - it is supposed to get up near freezing this weekend. Hooray!

The Blizzard of 2009

2009-12-09T14:46:00.004-06:00

And I certainly hope it is the only blizzard of 2009! In fact, if we're lucky, it will be the biggest snow event of the winter! The weather guys started predicting this one several days ago - yesterday around 2:30 pm they switched us from "winter storm warning" to "blizzard warning". That means blowing snow, winds sustained or gusting at or above 35 MPH. The local school was shut down for today by 7:45 last night. The governor declared a state of emergency for the entire state (I'm not really sure what that means, but the National Guard was put on alert). UW-Eau Claire was closed today - no classes! (I think the entire UW system may have been shut down). That NEVER happened while I was there!

Larry started plowing paths to all the sheep around 7:00 am - Nicholas and I slept in a bit, enjoying the snow day. Then we all hauled hay to those groups of sheep who do not have access to big bales, like Edsel and his four girls:

Some blizzard shots:

Nature's Christmas tree:

And I had more written, but Blogger deleted part of my post, so I leave you with a parting shot of Bubba, our colored Coopworth ram lamb and, hopefully, future flock sire:

This and That

2009-11-18T11:56:00.005-06:00

First off, my first archaeological find! While walking through one of the pastures a few weeks ago, I found this interesting rock. I put it in my jacket pocket, where it sat for a few days. Then I remembered it and placed it on the toilet tank lid (the bathroom is right across from where I hang my jacket), where it sat for another week or so. Finally, the other night after dinner, Larry and I were discussing something which brought us to the subject of rocks - probably the fact that there are so many of them in some of the pastures - and I thought of my toilet-sitting rock. We washed it off (it was in the pasture, after all, and the "dirt" on it might have been more than dirt - remember, we were at the dinner table) and began studying it and imagining what it might be. Well, low and behold, turns out it is something called a "nutting" stone or "cupping" stone. No one knows for sure, but they are found throughout the country and the "experts" seem to think they might have been used for cracking open nuts or grinding bits of grain or dye ingredients or as a base for fire starting implements. In any case, I was excited, since when I was about 10 or 12, I wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up.

In sheepy news, we sorted out the breeding groups last weekend. We started at 9:00 am on Sunday. First we caught up all the BWS ewes. Nicholas and Larry grabbed each ewe while I consulted my clipboard, instructing them to push the ewe into Val's (Coopworth) breeding group or Heinz's (Polypay) group. We then loaded up Heinz's girls into the trailer and carted them across the road to their new pen to await their "man". Val's girls were turned back out into their pasture to await Val. Larry and Nicholas loaded the two rams into the trailer (back on this side of the road), while I caught up the Shetland girls to await their sorting. Then we took Heinz over to join his harem, loaded up the two Shetland rams we are using this fall (Eddie and Edsel - at the time, being housed across the road) and headed back to this side of the road. Then we pulled the four Shetland ewes out that were going to the far part of the pasture and moved them. Next, the ewe lambs were pulled out to stay in their little pen. Finally the remaining Shetland ewes were taken to their part of the pasture. Fortunately, all the Shetland pastures/pens are adjacent and the girls just had to be led into their areas using the ever effective corn bucket and locked behind the appropriate gates. Then Eddie was taken out of the trailer and put in with his girls, then Edsel was removed from the trailer and temporarily restrained with a halter while Val was let in with his girls. Then Edsel was led to his part of the pasture.

Next, back across the road, this time with a smaller "cart", to grab a couple of ewes that had remained in with the last of the lambs this fall, to bring back to our side of the road and be put in with Sammy, our other Polypay ram, so he would not be lonely. Then, Larry called it a day (by now it was around noon), as he had to go into work that night. But Nicholas and I went back across the road, as Bubba (our Coopworth ram lamb and future flock sire) was now alone (he had been keeping company with the Shetland rams) and was baaing very pitifully from his pen. So we moved the Shetland ram lambs over with him, where they are now residing happily in their bachelor pad. And the remaining market lambs still needed to be fed and watered.

At this point, it was about 1:00 pm and Nicholas was given the rest of the day off. I took a 10 minute break to have a dish of ice cream (AKA "lunch"). Then I was back out moving water buckets around into the new areas, feeding those groups who don't have the big bales, and just doing a general check on everyone. All the rams were doing their thing, neck outstretched, lips curled, sniffing out the ewes who might be in heat. And the ewes were doing their level best not to be caught. But I did notice a couple of ewes being mounted, so Larry tells me April 9 we should begin lambing!

At this point, I called it a day - fortunately the Packers had a late start (3:15), but I had already missed the opening kick off - long day for me - 6-1/2 hours straight, most of it on my feet. My muscles are still sore! But the Packers won and the breeding groups are sorted, so it was a very productive day!

Some sheep pics for you - Eddie, who is in with a dozen Shetland ewes. He must have spent all of Sunday chasing the girls, as he looked like he had collapsed on Monday morning - I even threw my jacket on over my pajamas to go out to make sure he was still alive. But he is alive and well - although I swear he looks like he has already lost some weight!

Lily, one of the girls in with Eddie -

This is part of Val's mostly Coopworth group (there are a few Polypays and crossbred ewes in there). Some of the girls are so fat this year - I hope not too fat. And I'm not sure why - they were on less than optimal pasture right before being put on hay.

And this is the view from the lamb pasture, looking back out over the hay fields. The sun was shining through the clouds so nicely - can you see the rays shining down behind the flag?

Hope everyone is having a good "midweek"! The weekend is coming!

A Post Before a Short Hiatus

2009-10-10T12:10:00.003-05:00

Well, since my mother is going to be borrowing my camera for a couple of weeks, I thought I would blog while I still had the option of posting pictures. She and Dad are actually going away for about a week and since she hasn't gone digital yet, I offered her mine. And, since she needs a few days to practice, she is getting my camera a few days before they go (for those of you worrying that I just told the entire internet that my parents were going on vacation, keep in mind that I didn't give exact dates, my brother and his wife still live with them and I am over there daily as I do chores around the farm - so, no, the place will be nowhere near deserted!)

So, depending on weather conditions, this may be the last picture of fall color that you get from here. If it gets terribly windy or rainy, all will be gone by the time I get my camera back.

We have had rain quite often since those 22 days of drought in September. And last night, the first frost here on this side of the road (my dad's pumpkins got it a couple of weeks ago - he must be in a lower lying area than we are). Just a few minutes ago, as I was setting up a dye pot, I looked out of the window and noticed snow flurries. Tonight they are predicting hard frost. I hope we get some warmer weather toward the end of the month, as Larry and Nicholas are headed to Lambeau Field for a Packer game and the 8th grade is going on a three day trip to Upham Woods - a 4-H camp near the Wisconsin Dells. The cabins, I'm told, are heated, but they do go canoeing on the Wisconsin River and they spend the majority of their time there outside.

In fibery news, I have been doing a little bit of spinning and am still working on the lace scarf shown in an earlier post.

In sheepy news, the first group of lambs was taken to market a couple of weeks ago. Tiny bits of hay are starting to be fed. The sheep are slowly being sorted into "sub" breeding groups. They will be divided further in the next month, as we plan to lamb later next spring, so no groups will be put together until mid-November. And the boys better be organized, as I am hoping to limit breeding season and, therefore, lambing season, to about six or seven weeks this year. (They actually get most of the girls bred in the first three weeks they are together - in fact, some of our groups will only be together for about 3 weeks, but taking into consideration first breeding date through last - it will encompass about 6 weeks).

This is one of the lambs I think I will keep. She is a purebred Coopworth. Long bodied and very pretty. Very feminine. But you can see how brown the pasture got during the drought. Fortunately, most of the sheep have been moved to greener pastures.

Soon we will be feeding hay to all. While I don't like the heat and humidity of summer, I do like the fact that feeding the sheep requires only green pasture and there is no ice on the water troughs (as there was this morning!) Here's to Indian Summer and a long, mild fall!

Summer Into Fall

2009-09-28T10:16:00.003-05:00

I am not a good summer person. I like the idea of summer - blue skies, green grass, long, sunny days - iced tea, lemonade, baseball games - but the reality includes heat, humidity and bugs, which I don't do well. I like fall - cooler, less humid weather, the bugs start disappearing. But fall always seems like the end of something to me, in spite of the fact that football season has begun again, breeding groups will go together soon and with that, looking forward to new lambs in the spring. So there is always that touch of melancholy that comes with the last home Brewer game (last night), the first cold, windy day (today), the change of the woods from shades of green to autumn tones -

I think the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, former commissioner of baseball, summed it up pretty well, when he wrote this about baseball:

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops."

Random Monday

2009-09-21T09:58:00.008-05:00

Yes, I am still here - if there is anyone left who is still reading my blog, I apologize for my lack of posts lately. I have taken pictures and have had many things to post about over the last few days, weeks, months, but just haven't gotten around to it.

We did go to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival again - exhibiting Shetlands, Polypays and Coopworths in the Hall of Breeds. We talked to lots of people, sold some sheep (thank you to Kathryn Hammond, Lori Behnke, the Randy Taylor family and the Fulks), caught up with old friends, made some new friends, saw many different breeds of sheep and made a few purchases in the vendor barns - on the left, from River's Edge Weaving Studio, Bluefaced Leicester roving, and on the right, Calypso yarn from Creatively Dyed. I also got my annual t-shirt and some really cute sheep napkins from Ewesful Gifts.

In talking to the many people at the Festival, we found out that the Grand Champion Shetland Ram was the son of one of our rams! You can see him on his farm's blog, www.wheelywooly.blogspot.com.

In other news, it finally rained last night, after 22 days without rain. The pastures were all brown and stubbly and we are nowhere near the date when we should start feeding hay. But maybe the pastures will green up a bit now and the hay fields can put on a little new growth before the snow flies. I don't know how people live in dry climates - it has been driving me nuts, watching everything green shrivel up before my eyes. But before this drought hit, we had pastures that looked like this:

This is the ewe flock after we turned them out into new pasture awhile ago. Our plan was to flush them on this, but with the lack of rain, this field is now mostly brown. In their attempt at greener pastures, a few of the sheep have braved the electric fence and gone through to the hay field adjacent. The other morning, one of the ewes was on the wrong side of the fence, so I set up some temporary fencing to block her from my parents' backyard, closed off the catch pen so it was empty, propped open the gate back into the pasture and herded her back in. Throughout all this time, the rest of the flock was very interested in what I was doing and being quite vocal about it. As I was closing the gate behind me, having successfully reunited her with her flock, I saw one of our adult Shetland rams come flying across the lane. He went through the electric fence (I don't think he ever saw it!) and began courting the Big Whites! I then had to round up most of the ewe flock into the catch pen, grab Eddie (the ram) and drag him back to his pen (now on the opposite side of the barn, so he can't see the girls!) I don't know if he bred anyone, but he had about 15 minutes while I was grabbing the bucket of corn and the halter. If he did breed anyone, I hope it was one of the few Rambouillets we have left, as I have been curious about the fleece from that cross!

One thing I meant to put in the blog earlier this summer, were the before and after pictures of our barn deck. The barn has been there for a few years - this is the end that faces the house and our back yard:

Larry decided, sometime during lambing this spring, that he would build a deck there. It came out very nicely and is a nice shady spot to sit in the afternoon, when the sun is on the other side of the barn.

The trellis planter had both sweet peas and morning glories, but the morning glories won out. Next year, though, I have to remember to plant a darker color, as the white with faint blue stripes blends into the barn too much:

Well, Blogger has been giving me headaches this morning, so I think I will wrap this up. My parting shot today is of a nest I found out in the Shetland pasture a few weeks ago. If you look closely, you will see that much of it is wool - you know how most nests are really quite heavy for their size, packed densely often with mud? This nest is as light as a feather :) - being about half wool! I'm sure those baby birds were quite toasty in their wool house!

A Ride Down the Lane

2009-08-13T21:30:00.007-05:00

I know, I know - I haven't blogged lately. I did spin some more for the Tour de Fleece, but it was all the same fiber, so nothing really exciting to show. And I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. This summer has been relatively cool - in fact, the coolest July on record in Madison, which is just about 30 minutes from here. But the cooler weather has meant drier weather - no big thunderstorms brewing without all that heat and humidity. We did get some hot and humid weather about a week ago - and 2 very welcome inches of rain. The pastures were starting to turn brown, but now things are growing again.

No pictures of the garden for you this year, as it has sort of become overgrown. We do have zucchini and summer squash - some herbs - a few beans and cucumbers. The tomatoes have not done well, due to the cool weather in July, I understand.

My experiment with rooing some of my Shetlands did not go well, either. Maybe that is due to the weird weather we have been having, too. So most of the sheep that the shearer didn't shear, I have been shearing gradually over the summer months - on the fitting stand with a hand shears. I have learned that it isn't as hard as I thought it would be. The hand shears works remarkably well. The hard part is catching the sheep. My sheep are a bit fuzzy looking when I get done with them (thus no pictures) - I have a tendency to leave a bit of belly wool on them, due to the fact that I can't see as well underneath them and don't want to cut them. And they usually have a little wool left on their necks, just where the fitting stand restraints go. My sheep are not tame and, therefore, sometimes get a bit impatient with me as I am trimming away. So far, no blood has been drawn - from either me or them - but I don't want to push it. I get most of the fleece off and the rest can wait until the professionals get involved in the spring.

I do have some pictures for you though - just not of sheep or yarn or gardens. These are pictures from the farm. Behind my parent's house there is a lane. It goes down past the sheep pasture and then turns and goes up towards the woods. My father had the brilliant idea of clipping the lane quite a few years ago and I think it is one of the prettiest spots on the planet. Parts of it are shady,

some is bordered by Queen Anne's Lace.

There is a marshy section off to one side where the cattails grow.

This is the view looking up toward the woods - the woods is situated on a drumlin, a unique geological feature resulting from the last ice age.

This little path was Larry's idea. It's not easy getting up to the woods, due to all the overgrown vegetation, so he cut a path partway through. The base of the drumlin is down this fork in the trail. This is the "road less travelled".

Normally, I am riding down this lane - it's really quite a distance to walk. We cut the grass and feed it to our rams. And while the lawn mower is annoyingly noisy, it is still a pretty drive. But once in awhile, I turn off the lawn mower and just admire the view and listen to the birds. I am so glad I live in the country.

Tour de Fleece

2009-07-12T22:22:00.004-05:00

Yes, I am once again participating in the Tour de Fleece - you can read about it here. Basically, it gives me an excuse (or maybe incentive) to spin for most of the month of July. I really don't pay close attention to the Tour de France - mostly I spin while I watch the Brewers play baseball - unfortunately, today they lost to the Dodgers - they need to stop doing that as they are in second place behind the Cardinals and they need to get back into first place.

Anyway - I am spinning about two and a half pounds of Coopworth roving that I hope to, someday, knit into a sweater or a vest (depending on how much actual yardage I end up with when I am done - I have never taken on such an ambitious spinning project before and am kind of winging it). So far, I have made it through about a pound - although technically, not all of it during Tour de Fleece. The two bobbins on the left are a three-ply yarn, the two bobbins on the right, the spun singles. A bit of the roving sits there in the picture as well. It's reddish, with small bits of yellow and bigger bits of blue. It spins up into a reddish yarn - a dark reddish, not a bright orangey reddish. I tweaked the color in the picture, but I'm not sure I quite ended up with the actual look, so you'll just have to take my word for it. But I think, in the end, if I manage to actually knit up a garment, it will go very nicely with jeans, which is primarily what I wear these days, being a full-time shepherd and all.

The roving, by the way, is Tapestry from Carol and Paul Wagner at Hidden Valley Farm and Woolen Mill. It spins like a dream and the plying issues are all mine (first time I have ever done a three-ply - maybe I should have experimented with that on a smaller project first!) I think I have a rhythm down now, but I am still afraid I may be overplying a bit - well, we'll see in the end, I guess!

Well, I just wanted to post something about Tour de Fleece, so anyone that was actually paying attention could see that I was participating. I think I still have one Shetland yet to lamb - or maybe she is just fat - hysterical pregnancy? I still have a sheep or two to roo - although that experiment went nowhere this year. I only managed to roo two sheep totally so far - even one of the ewes that rooed like a dream last year is not rooing at all well this year - I will probably harvest what I can and then take the hand shears to the rest of her - hopefully not totally destroying the remaining fleece in the process. Maybe I can get that done in the next few days, as the temperatures are supposed to be warm, but not hot and the humidity is supposed to be low. But we really do need rain - I am starting to worry that the pastures will stop growing - they should have a good root system, but I need something to worry about.

Hope the weather is good wherever you are!

And Now a Fibery Post

2009-06-27T21:36:00.004-05:00

First, for those of you who might be wondering, the ewe with the prolapse seems to be doing fine. I kept her in the barn in her own pen for about a week, removing the retainer after about 5 days. Another big dose of LA-200 and I sent her back out with the rest of her flock. And, although the weather has been very hot and humid, she seems OK.

Now, on to other, more fibery news. I knit a 12 inch square that I mailed off to another Ravelry member to be added to a blanket that he is putting together for one of the Paul Newman camps for kids. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was a nice waffle weave done in Caron Simply Soft in a nice dark jade color. Very soft, but I'm afraid I'm a wool snob. It is just so much nicer to knit with wool.

I have also been working on a lace scarf - my first real lace project. I did do a dishcloth with a lace pattern and have done a few swatches, but this feels like my first lace. It is a great "first lace" project. The design comes from the book Luxury Yarn One Skein Wonders - the Nancy Pygora-Merino Lace Scarf - a Myrna Stahman design, no wonder it is so pretty (I just read the fine print to see the designer's name) - well, the design is pretty, I'm not trying to brag about my first lace! It knits up very quickly - although since I don't spend huge blocks of time on it, it will take me awhile. But I'm not getting bogged down in endless rows and when I do work on it for a bit, the length actually seems to change - the nice thing about scarves, I guess. But for those of you who hate to purl, all wrong side rows are purled. But I don't mind purling, it's just the switching back and forth, like when knitting ribbing, that I'm not fond of.

I am using a Fleece Artist yarn - their basic merino sock yarn in a colorway I can't remember the name of, but it is various shades of brown, with a few reddish highlights in spots. Obviously not blocked, so it looks kind of rumply - and I always seem to be trying to take pictures in the dark - some of the other blogs I read - well, you take such pretty pictures, in natural light, draping your knitting decoratively over a bush or a fence or some such. I grab a white mattress pad to stick under it, to highlight the holes! Anyway, here it is in all it's rumpled, artificially lighted glory . . . . .

And I got the rest of my birthday present from my folks today. A nice package from The Loopy Ewe, one of my favorite online yarn shops. (I must say, they have VERY fast service - I ordered some knitting accessories from two other online stores at the same time that I ordered the yarn from The Loopy Ewe - this past Thursday, yes two days ago - and I got the yarn today. The other two vendors - well, I'm still waiting on them!) I give you Creatively Dyed's Calypso yarn in the Coconut colorway and Dream in Color Smooshy in Some Summer Sky. The Calypso colors seem to be showing up quite well - mostly natural shades - beiges, browns with some dark purples, dark greens and bits of rosy colors. The Smooshy is showing up as mostly blue, but there is quite a bit of purple highlighting. Both yarns are superwash merino - see, I'm a wool snob - of course, seeing as we have about 200 sheep on the farm at the moment, maybe rightfully so!

The Calypso will probably become a garter stitch stole, the Smooshy is going into the stash for the time being.

Well, the weather forecast shows slightly lower temperatures for the next few days, so maybe I can start getting a few things done again. These last few days we have spent a lot of time in front of the fan and the TV. And speaking of the TV, a "new to me" Doctor Who is on in half an hour and I intend to be firmly situated on the couch by then. Not to be insensitive, but the news that David Tennant was being replaced as the Doctor was more shocking to me than the news of the death of Michael Jackson. I guess we all have our priorities!

It's Always Something!

2009-06-12T22:16:00.005-05:00

Today our first cutting hay was being baled and wrapped and it will be stacked in various places around the farm tomorrow. We try to plan ahead and put the hay in the most convenient spots relative to where the sheep will be this coming winter. Lazy farmers (which I most certainly am one of!) are also usually quite efficient! Let's try to do things in the easiest way possible - that's my motto!

Yesterday I worked a little harder. If you're squeamish, skip down past this part.

OK, let's back up one day before yesterday. We had a Shetland ewe who delivered a stillborn lamb - just as well, as a portion of the lamb's intestines were outside of the body. The birth was assisted, but when I went to bed, the ewe seemed tired but fine. Not true, though, as when I got up yesterday morning, I discovered she had prolapsed (uterine prolapse - meaning she kept on pushing and having contractions, until her uterus was turned inside out and was now outside of her insides - no pictures for this part of the blog!). So I went back inside and had my breakfast and coffee and contemplated my next move.

I got together some supplies - antiseptic lube, prolapse retainer, gambrel restrainer, deer sled (boy, that sled comes in handy for hauling sheep around!). The gambrel restrainer is a nifty little device that sort of traps their front feet up near their head so they can't get away from you - which came in handy, so I could contain her (she was still up and fairly mobile) in the pasture while I went to the barn to get the sled. I then dragged her (in the sled) up through her pasture into our backyard - I thought it might be cleaner working there than in the barn or barnyard. That and I had been dragging her uphill and I was tired at that point and found it a convenient place to rest.

Then came the fun part - washing off the uterus and stuffing it back inside of her. Fortunately a Shetland uterus is only about the size of two of my fists and Shetland ewes don't weigh much. Keep in mind that while you are trying to replace her uterus, she thinks she is still in labor and continues to push against you. So you hoist up her back end a bit, with the idea that gravity will aid you in your efforts - then you have to get this organ (is a uterus an organ?) back inside of her and turned right side in (a prolapsed uterus is inside out in more ways than one, so you really are up to your elbows in it, so to speak, when you replace it and turn it back the right way) Then, the grateful ewe urinates all over your arm, because you have just freed up her urethra, which had been blocked by the offending organ. So while you hold everything back in place, you grab for the retainer (which is almost out of reach, but not quite), get that inserted and, in this instance, tied to the wool to hold it in place.

I thought of having a beer at this point, but didn't think it would be kind of me to leave her trussed up and lying in the backyard. So I put her back in the deer sled and dragged her the rest of the way to the barn (still slightly uphill). I got her settled into her private quarters in the barn, gave her a big shot of antibiotics, some hay and water and then I went in for my beer. Well, not really - as it was still morning, I had another cup of coffee.

Tonight she is eating hay and seems to be doing OK. My biggest concern now is infection. While I try to be clean and use antibacterial stuff, I don't have a sterile operating theatre. So now we wait. But, as we used to say in college (hi, Lynn!), it was a "learning experience". I learned that I can put a uterus back into a ewe (whether or not successfully, we have yet to see). I learned how to use the gambrel restrainer (never used that before). I also learned that if this had been one of our Polypays, who are quite a bit heavier than Shetlands and have larger internal organs, I probably would have needed help.

Not all has been so gruesome here. I moved the Shetlands into fresh pasture the other day and the lambs, being the children that they are - and you parents out there know how kids sometimes don't pay attention - weren't listening, and they didn't go through the gate that their moms went through. They ended up on the wrong side of the fence. You can see they are all looking to the left wondering why they are all alone:

Well, there their moms are, on the far side of the fence, grazing on lush, new pasture while they are not:

And the newest lamb - Athena and her ram lamb, who looks a lot like her - his markings have just not faded with age yet:

I do have knitting on the needles, for those of you who are more interested in the "fiber" part of "Farm and Fiber", just no pictures at the moment. Maybe next post. I am knitting a lace scarf and am doing some charity knitting - a blanket square. And I only have to bind off "loosely" the stole that I have been working on for a couple of years. It's that "loosely" part that worries me. Oh, and I am spinning some Coopworth roving in the hopes of someday having enough yarn to knit a sweater or a vest (depending on how much yarn I actually get in the end!). I'll try to get some pictures of all of that for the next post!

And now, after reliving my exploits as a sheep vet pretender, I am exhausted. I think I will call it a day!

Latest Lambs

2009-06-01T10:49:00.003-05:00

Sparx finally had her lambs! But being the good mom that she is, she was making it very difficult for me to get a good picture, even though by this point they were already a couple of days old! She kept herself between her lambs and me the entire time. But I thought this pic kind of cute - looks like the lambs are kissing, while Sparx keeps her focus on me. The lamb to the left is the ewe and the spotted katmoget on the right, the ram. Total lamb count is now 117 - 15 of them being Shetlands, the others, BWS. I believe the breakdown is 60 ewe lambs and 57 ram lambs, including 6 sets of triplets, which we don't really breed for, as I prefer twins. With triplets, I always worry, often supplementing one or more of them. Too costly. Twins are normally no problem, moms provide all their nutrition - after all, the ewe only has two faucets - why in the world would anyone want triplets?
Not a lot going on here - well, not a lot to blog about anyway - always way too much work to do. We are down to the last two weeks of school for Nicholas. The Science Fair is over, the last band concert has been presented. Lambing is over for all intents and purposes, although I do have a Shetland or two with a bit of an udder, so should have a couple of summer lambs. I must get back to skirting the rest of the fleeces, maybe try my hand at a little dying. I did finish a pair of socks for Mother's Day, but forgot to take a picture of them before giving them to my mom! I am about to finish a stole that I started a couple of years ago and am working on a lace scarf, but no pictures of those to show you - maybe next time. So, in lieu of fiber pictures, I leave you with a picture of Fuzzball, sleeping, for a change, on a couch pillow, instead of on whatever I happen to be knitting at the moment!

Lamb photos

2009-05-17T14:09:00.008-05:00

I know I haven't posted in awhile. We've been busy. The lambing is just about done - still a few that may lamb between today and "lamb freedom" day, which I believe is June 4 (it's on the calendar, but that's a whole room away and walking that far is a lot of unnecessary work!). The Shetlands actually have until August 1 to prove their worth, as we left Eddie in with the girls until shearing - Larry is actually hoping for some very late lambs, so maybe we would have a lamb to take to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival for the Hall of Breeds. If not, this is what a young Shetland lamb looks like - this is one of Cappuccino's ewe lambs (she had two) -

Cappuccino is the perfect ewe in my book. Most of the Shetland flocks that you might know through your browsing of the internet would not want her. She is not pretty to look at, cow hocks, kind of saggy (well, how would you look after having a set of twins every year of your life, including your lamb year? Cappuccino's seven years old) - she would never win in the show ring. But, as already stated, she always twins, is friendly, lets you manhandle her lambs without getting upset (unlike Saffron, who tried to knee cap me when I attempted to place her lamb back in the shed with her this spring), her fleece always sells - to quote this year's buyer, "oh my GOSH is it gorgeous!!!" She will have a home here until she peacefully dies in her sleep.

The lamb count, by the way, is 114 lambs, 12 of which are Shetlands, the others are purebred Polypays, Coopworths and assorted crossbreeds. Here are some of the white ones:

And another Shetland - this is Saffron's lamb, the one I risked my knee cap for. As you can see, he is practicing his lip curl, hoping that he gets to be one of the flock sires of the future!

This lamb might become one of our flock sires. He is our spotted Coopworth - his fleece is a nice silvery color and his face is kind of "yuglety". I'm hoping he grows up nicely.

Some of the lambs resting in the sun. They are actually now out beyond the wooden gates in the pasture with their moms. The weather has been just perfect for them - sunny, but cool. They are so pretty, lying out there. When the weather gets hotter, they won't lie out in the pasture, but will come back up into the tree line, to lie in the shade. Where it is not only shady, but gets wet when it rains, muddy and mucky, if you know what I mean.

And now the parting shot:

The Nanking cherry in bloom. The flowers are gone now - I took this a few weeks ago. But spring has been quite wet and cold here this year, so any promise of warmer weather has been enjoyed. The lilacs are actually blooming now, some of the tulips are done - in fact they have all seen better days, as we have had some gusty winds. But the pastures look good and the hay fields are coming along. I just hope in wishing for some warmer weather, I am not soon regretting it and complaining about the heat, humidity and mosquitoes!

Eddie's Fertile!

2009-04-26T10:30:00.004-05:00

Well, I've known that for a little while now, since the Shetlands have been bagging up and have big tummies! But we bought a new ram lamb last fall from Laura Matthews at Psalm 23 Farm, and in the end, decided to take a big chance and breed all our girls to him, an unproven ram. Our rams were all too closely related to many of them and we wanted some new blood. The gamble paid off, as three days ago Maia had twin ewes, the one in the back that you can't see I think is moorit, the one in the front might be one of those fancy katmoget sheep that everyone seems to be fascinated with (I have to look up the definition of katmoget - I might have it confused with some other marking, but I think that is what Eddie is). Anyway, both are in the "brown" color group - moorit, fawn, musket - it remains to be seen!

And this morning, Brie had a set of twins, one ram and one ewe. The ram might be another kat, in the brown family and the ewe appears more solid in the black family, like her mom. But when I left them, they were both still pretty wet and kind of dirty - mom decided to lamb in one of the "less clean" areas of the shelter. And with all the rain we have been having, there is not a dry spot on the farm, inside or outside.

So, that gives us four Shetland lambs and 61 "other" lambs, for a total, so far, of 65 lambs. So, I think I will finish my cup of coffee and then get on with the chores - check on the new lambs, move the three sets of twins and their moms out of the jugs and into the nursery, feed the rams, fill water tanks/buckets, put some new bedding in the Shetland shelters, wash up a fleece sample that I should have done yesterday, do the dishes (we can't eat until I do that - household chores, while never on the top of my list, get shoved WAAAY down that list during lambing!!), maybe some laundry - boy, I'm exhausted just reading that list, maybe I should have another cup of coffee and knit a little! The rainy weather is much more conducive to knitting then to being outside - but, I don't think the sheep would understand - I'll just have to dodge the raindrops and try to avoid the biggest mud puddles!

Lamb Shots

2009-04-20T08:49:00.012-05:00

Well, we spent this past weekend moving almost all the sheep. First, Larry moved the three big rams into their new pen area, complete with padlock so no visiting friends or family (young children in particular) can "inadvertently" open up the gate and let the rams out. Then, about 2 dozen ewes and 40 lambs were moved from the nursery pen to a small pasture area beyond the barnyard. Then the ewes from across the road (Group 3) that will start lambing shortly, were loaded into the trailer and brought here to our barn, so we can keep an eye on them as they start lambing. Then the ewes of Group 2 were brought from their pasture closer to the barn and joined with the ewes of Group 3. A few of the ewes and lambs yet in jugs were put in the nursery area and the Shetland rams were moved to a new pen. The only sheep that don't get to enjoy new digs are the Shetland ewes. They are behind the house in their pasture and that is where they will stay. A busy weekend and I got a little sun, as Saturday was warm and sunny. Yesterday it rained all day and tomorrow they are predicting snow, so I am glad we got everyone into their proper positions for the next round of lambs.

And speaking of lambs, here are some photos of the lambs from round one. In the center of this shot, you can see my yuglet Coopworth. His face is mostly white, with brown eyepatches and his body is a variegated brown and silver. I will probably keep him, depending on how he grows. If we do keep him, I can't wait to see his fleece next spring!

Some lambs - no the ewe does not have the mumps, she is merely chewing her cud!

A shot of our other colored Coopworth ram with the "yuglety" face:

A cute lamb on a sunshiny day:

A couple of the lambs reclining next to one of the big bales of hay. A nice, warm, sunny spot:

Coming back into the barn to get out of the sun:

Lambs pick the strangest places to sleep sometimes, like this tire impression in the nursery pen:

And sometimes they scare the crap out of you, doing their impersonation of a dead lamb:

This lamb is fine and is alive and well and out in the pasture with the rest of the older lambs and their moms. And a parting shot:

If you notice that the tail is quite wide at the top and then becomes very skinny, that is due to the fact that we dock our lambs' tails with tiny, thick rubber bands that are made especially for this purpose. The rubber band cuts off the circulation in the tail and after a few weeks, the tail drops off.

Current lamb count - 53 lambs, purebred Coopworth and Coopworth crosses, 25 ewes and 28 rams. We are about a third of the way there. The first group is almost done, only a few who haven't lambed yet and they technically have until the first week of June to lamb, since the ram was left in with them for just over two months, so that he wouldn't have to go back to his ram pen and be all alone while our other guys were with their girls. Groups 2 and 3 might start as early as about Thursday of this week and the way some of them look, I think a bunch of them will go early. I only have seven jugs, though, so I hope and pray they space the lambs out a bit. And the Shetlands should start lambing soon, but they aren't as labor intensive as the BWS. But it can get exciting around here at this time of the year!

The First 9 Days of Lambing

2009-04-12T09:46:00.004-05:00

I am taking advantage of a lull in the lambing. We started lambing on March 31 and, over the course of nine days, have had 28 lambs. A few more singles than I would like, but also two sets of triplets. All have been born uneventfully, except for one set of twins - the first of the two had a leg back, but once we corralled the ewe, the lamb was pulled successfully. In fact, the "problem" child is a colored Coopworth ram, with the cutest yuglet face. I don't know if it's called "yuglet" in the Coopworth world, but those of you who raise Shetlands will know what I am talking about. I don't have a picture of him, but I do have a picture of another of our colored Coopworth ram lambs. He was the first colored Coopworth born - not a great picture, but at least it breaks up the script a bit. I guess he has a bit of the "yuglet" face going, too.

We do actually have purebred Coopworth lambs this year. Last year, we had one. That was due to the fact that Val, our Coopworth ram, apparently thought the grass was greener, as it were, on the other side of the fence. He jumped out of his breeding group, which included most of our Coopworth ewes, and jumped over to the mostly Polypay group. So last year, we had a lot of crossbreds. Oh well, hybrid vigor is good. This year we were a bit smarter and put cattle panels between Val and the other breeding group. While he is an escape artist, he cannot jump that high.

Speaking of colored Coopworth lambs, all of the colored lambs are rams. No ewes yet. I want a couple more colored ewes. Does anyone want to buy a colored Coopworth ram? Purebred, but not registered? I am planning to keep one, but the rest will end up going to market. This little guy above will be headed that way, as he is a single and the others are all twins, so the keeper will be chosen from that select group.

As mentioned earlier, two sets of triplets, so far. The first set was born to a ewe who did not look like she would have triplets - I was thinking twins. Two of the three were very small when they were born, one of them just under five pounds, the other just over five pounds. I have been supplementing them with a bottle, but mom still loves them all and nurses them all, I just don't think she has quite enough milk. But I was very pleased that she lambed at all. You see, about a week and a half before they were born, I found her lying on her back in a rain storm. Torrential downpour, all the sheep in the barn, I'm out there with them about to skirt fleeces. Since most of them are lying down, chewing their cuds, I decided to count them, to make sure they were all there. Sure enough, I come up one short. So out to the barnyard I go and I see, on the other side of the big hay bale, legs flailing in the air. Well, I get her rolled over, but her back legs have gone numb and she can't stand up. She outweighs me by a bit, but something has to be done - she is shivering and grinding her teeth. And remember, the rain is coming down in buckets. So I go into the barn, grab some rags to dry her off a bit and, to keep us both dry, the big yellow and white golf umbrella that Larry keeps just inside the barn door. So there I stand, out in the barnyard, holding this big, bright umbrella over this down sheep, who I'm thinking is probably going to die out there from exposure. Not much wool on her, as we had already sheared. Back legs numb, she can't stand up. I made several trips back to the barn, leaving the golf umbrella propped over her, so at least she wasn't getting any wetter - and she was lying on a nice pile of straw, wet but not mucky, at least. I tried massaging her hips, but no luck getting her to stand up. (I thought maybe this huge umbrella looming over her might scare her into getting onto her feet, but no such luck!)

What to do? I am all alone, no one to help me. Well, something has to be done, so I get the deer sled (no one hunts, but it is great for hauling hay and the occasional sheep, dead or alive). I line it up next to her and through some maneuvering, get her rolled onto the sled, again on her back. I jockey her around until she's not really on her back any more. (When a sheep gets onto its back, it is often not able to right itself - especially when very pregnant - and they will suffocate eventually.) Then I pull her into the barn - again, remember she outweighs me - and to make matters more interesting, there is a sea of muck between the barnyard and the barn. No, I did not fall over, but I did almost lose my boots in the muck several times. Well, I did get her into the barn, rolled back out of the sled, got some Power Punch into her and she was up and about later in the day and had triplets about a week and a half later. So while I have kicked myself for not being able to save some sheep, this one was a victory. And for all you PETA people out there (I'm sure none of them actually read my blog), don't think that just because we raise our sheep for the purpose of a tasty leg of lamb, we don't take care of them. Just picture me, standing out in the pouring rain, holding a bright yellow golf umbrella over a shivering ewe. I did come in and have a nice hot cup of coffee after that one!

As I said, we have had a lull in the lambing - no lambs here since the 8th. And we still have just over a dozen to go in the first group. I expect they will all go at once! But, all the jugs are empty, so I'm set. The lambs already on the ground are in the nursery area, playing with all the other lambs. The oldest ones are so much bigger than the youngest ones - and there is only about a week's difference in their ages. I'll try to get some better pictures. These pictures were taken as my camera battery was dying and I was trying to just get a couple of shots before that happened. But the sun is shining today and I will try to get some better pictures.

A parting shot - some of the lambs in the creep area, enjoying time away from their moms.

HAPPY EASTER!

First Lamb!

2009-03-31T09:30:00.005-05:00

Not a lot of time to blog today, but here are some pictures of our first lamb of the season. When Larry went out to the barn this morning, mom and baby were lying in the barn, all comfy and cozy, lamb all dried off and napping. The ewe is a first timer - Polypay - the lamb is a Polypay/Coopworth cross ewe.

Time for a snack -

Oh, that camera flash is bright - go away -

Lambing was potentially to start this past Sunday, and some of those ewes look like they are about to burst, but maybe they heard me say I didn't want to start lambing until April this year. Well, they certainly are trying to avoid lambing in March - although now that it has started, I wouldn't be surprised if we are soon overrun by lambs!

Skirting, skirting, skirting.....

2009-03-23T10:36:00.003-05:00

That's what I have been doing, but no pictures for you. If you want to see the finished fleeces that we are offering for sale, please check out the web site, www.maplewoodnorth.com (a bit later - I should be working on the web site now, but am, instead, blogging - hey, it's my birthday - I'll do what I want!).

The fleeces look great this year (well, with the exception of our one Clun - she must have slept in the siltiest part of the barnyard!) The Shetland fleeces seemed cleaner and softer than in previous years - or maybe it is just that after a long, cold winter, the feel of fresh Shetland fleeces is irresistible! The Shetlands are all skirted and pictures have been taken. I hope to get those posted on the web site later today, along with a few of the Coopworth that are done, plus our one Jacob and our one Clun Forest.

This past weekend, we resorted the sheep into their respective lambing groups. Most of them were together for shearing - we sorted them back into the ewes who will start lambing this weekend and the ewes who won't start lambing until next month. Some of those girls look like they are ready to pop, so I anticipate the first lambs by Sunday, maybe a day or two earlier if they are having triplets. We also wormed any sheep that seemed to need it.

Sunday, Larry was out in the barn by 4:00 am and by the time I was up shortly before 9:00, the barn was rearranged and ready for lambing to start. We have six jugs (small pens to hold the ewe and her newborn lambs for a day or two after birth) set up, ready to go with hay feeders - I still have to get the water buckets and feed buckets attached. The nursery area is all set to go when needed - just have to shut it off from the rest of the barn with a panel and a gate, when it is needed. Nursery area - a penned area for new moms and their lambs to go to after they come out of the jugs - there they get to "socialize" with other new moms and lambs, but they don't have to deal with the ewes who haven't lambed yet.

I have been working on a knitting project. The dishcloth pattern that was my grandmother's that was mentioned in an earlier post - well, I knit up a bunch of dishcloths to be distributed to the cousins, along with a copy of the pattern, written in my grandmother's hand. I don't know if they'll want a handknit dishcloth (I personally think they would make nice face cloths, you know, exfoliation), but they will have something of Grandma's, sort of, through me.

There's eight there, with a ninth on the needles. I still have to weave in the ends on most of them. The colors were fun, although they may not show up well on the picture. Today is grey and rainy, kind of cool and windy. Which is part of the reason I decided to work on the blog and the web site today - good day to stay indoors as much as possible drinking a hot cup of tea or coffee.

Well, that's what I've been doing. What have you been doing?

After

2009-03-13T16:18:00.009-05:00

Shearing went very well this year. Roger was here by about 7:15 Tuesday morning. The temperatures were in the 40's and low 50's throughout the day with grey skies and a sometimes light mist. We had all the sheep in the barns they were being sheared in (we shear in two different barns), snacks and drinks were ready and available, most of the help was assembled. Larry, Nicholas and my dad move the sheep into and through the catch pens and chutes. Mom and Annie (a long-time family friend) alternate sweeping the shearing floor, I bag and label the fleeces. We started with the dozen Shetland girls. Looking at the camera, we have Athena, Cricket, Nutmeg, Cricket's lamb from 2008, Maia and Brie.

Then we moved on to the majority of our flock - our Polypays, white and colored Coopworths, one Jacob and assorted crossbreeds. After most of them were shorn, we moved them back outside so they could eat again (we hold them off of food and water for 12 -24 hours before shearing). Even in the freezing temperatures, with no fleece, they prefer lying in the sun. They did come back into the barn for the night.

If you look closely, you can see that some of those bellies are getting pretty big. About 1/3 of the girls will start lambing at the end of March.

We sheared the majority here in our barn and then moved to our other barn to shear the remaining few ewes and our three BWS rams. We finished up at about 1:30 - Roger was having a cup of coffee at 1:50. 96 sheep in about 6 1/2 hours - I am forever amazed at how fast a person can shear a sheep! Roger had a 4:00 appointment, but the rest of us went in for an early supper of beef stroganoff, which Larry had very nicely prepared the night before. Then we collapsed on the couch for the rest of the evening, watching reruns of NCIS.

Now the barn looks like this - bags and baskets of fleece everywhere you look. I haven't started skirting yet - plan to tomorrow. The last couple of days have been very cold again and I prefer being able to skirt without being bundled up in all my winter attire.

Baskets stacked wherever there is room:

The Shetland fleeces go right into baskets and onto the shelves - I'll start with those. Some baskets contain smaller lamb fleeces, as well as some of the Coopworth, which are really much too big to fit, but after I skirt the Shetland, I start on the Coopworth. And for no real reason, I always skirt the fleeces in the baskets first. Just habit, I guess, as when we had a much smaller flock, all the fleeces went into laundry baskets. It is now more economical, both budget-wise and space-wise, to use bags.

So, how many fleeces do you think I can get skirted before lambing starts in two weeks?

Before

2009-03-12T15:13:00.013-05:00

We actually sheared two days ago, but I didn't have time to blog before shearing, so just play along with me and pretend.

The weekend before shearing it rained the entire weekend. We had lakes and ponds and running rivers all over the property (and we normally don't have any bodies of water on this particular piece of land). Fortunately, we are on sloping land, so the water mostly runs through to the neighbors. I was going to take some pictures of that, but didn't feel like standing out in the downpour. Sunday night, it changed to snow. Because of the inclement weather, we had 96 sheep confined to various barns in preparation for shearing. These pictures are all from the barn here by the house. We had a dozen Shetlands and 67 assorted "big, white sheep" confined there for almost four days.

Cappuccino on the left, Brie in the back and Lavender in the center:

Pichu, Cappuccino, Brie and Lavender:

I can't identify the entire group here, as I can't see all of the heads. Saffron is the white ewe in the back, Maia is the musket ewe sort of in the center. I think the grey right in front is Pichu and the dark brown on the right is Sparx. But the fleeces sure looked nice "on the hoof" this year. I am looking forward to seeing them on the skirting table.

Another group shot. The dark faced ewe at the front of the picture is Sparx, to the right of her, Cappuccino.

Now on to the group of BWS. Well, this ewe is actually not white. This is one of our colored Coopworths.

And now a few shots of the remaining 66 BWS. I had thought they would be crowded in the barn, but we had plenty of room, even with those huge fleeces on them. They all look pretty good this year. Looking forward to seeing these fleeces on the skirting table, too!

Shearing is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10 (like I said, pretend it's not the 10th yet!) Roger should be here between 7:00 and 7:30 am. The weather is supposed to be rainy, but the temperatures are supposed to be in the upper 40's or low 50's. It will sure beat those years when the temperatures were in the single digits!

Clarification

2009-02-16T09:00:00.008-06:00

The picture doesn't really relate to the post, but posts are more interesting with pictures. Although the post is about fleece, and the sheep in the photo are wearing fleece . . . .

It was suggested by one of the blog readers, that my last post implied that selling the fleeces from the barn cleaning was an afterthought. In fact, the majority of the fleeces are skirted and sold as individual fleeces shortly after shearing in the spring. The fleeces that were pictured in the last post are those that end up on a shelf after I have skirted myself into madness and cannot look at another fleece. Well, not really - I love the feel and smell of a fresh fleece. But life intrudes, lambing gets hectic, summer weather gets too hot, or whatever excuse I find, and some of the fleeces get shelved to be dealt with "later". The Shetland and Coopworth fleeces all get skirted and the majority sold almost immediately. (One year our Shetland fleeces sold out in eight days!). The BWS fleeces are not as colorful and unique as the Shetland and Coopworth and I do confess to getting tired of skirting about 50 fleeces that all start to look the same after a bit. So some of them get shelved and as it gets closer to shearing time again, we clean the barn and the fleeces have to go somewhere - selling them seems a smarter choice than piling them in my parents' barn (some are still there) or in the trailer (not the livestock trailer, we use that occasionally, so I can't hide excess fleece in there for too long), or under the 125 gallon fish tank (that is actually a fleece I bought off of ebay before I had sheep of my own - I should toss that one, as it doesn't really compare to the fleece I have access to now). So this year, I decided to try to sell my leftover fleeces at a deep discount just to move them off the property. And it seems to be working! We only have about half a dozen fleeces left that haven't been spoken for yet. And that number will be a lot easier to hide somewhere, if they don't sell, than some of the excess from year's past!

By the way, we do now have a shearing date - March 18 - and hopefully, this year, we won't all have the flu or be about to come down with it!

This is what I do for a living . . .

2009-02-14T11:33:00.008-06:00

At least, this is part of it - if this was all I did, I, like Octomom, would not be getting government assistance, but I would be living on food stamps.

This is actually the spring cleaning of the barn - cleaning out last year's fleeces to get the barn ready for shearing, which will hopefully take place in about a month. I started with a corner of the barn heaped with bags of old fleece -

I then take each fleece out one at a time, throw it on the skirting table (I didn't take a picture of that) and throw out the yuckiest parts - the manure tags, really chaffy areas, matted areas - the parts that can't be cleaned up and used by handspinners. Then I post ads on the Internet and the orders come in. We got a very good response to this spring's ad - I offer deeply discounted prices and free shipping within the lower 48, which is a good deal, as I figure about $2 per pound to ship. This is one of the larger orders I received this go-round -

Nicholas is becoming quite well known at the local post office, as on days when I have more than one box to ship, he gets to help me mail them after school. My customers are really quite considerate, though. They usually don't all send their checks on the same day and most orders are for only one box, so I can take care of the shipping by myself. And going to the local post office often results in meeting people I know, so it is kind of like going to the feed store (which I really don't do much and I don't run into people that I know there - there aren't a lot of shepherds locally!)

Now my corner of the barn looks like this -

The chickens love the newly exposed "floor" of straw - they can find all kinds of stuff there to scratch through - hopefully, mostly missed grain and not loads of bugs!

And the fleeces are all bagged and labeled, waiting to be shipped out to their new owners. We sheared about 100 sheep last spring and this is basically all that we have left.

I have been doing a little bit of knitting when I have not been spending my time at the post office. This may look like just an ordinary dish cloth, but it is actually a new family heirloom. Well, not really, but I did knit it from the pattern that my grandmother handed down to my mother before she died. It is not the only pattern she used, and it probably was copied out of a magazine at some point. But the pattern is written in my grandmother's handwriting, so I had to knit it up to see what it looked like (because, unfortunately, I don't actually remember any dishcloths that we had that looked like this). It is not quite even, as I ran out of yarn, but I almost got it squarish and it really doesn't look too bad, even though I did bind off in the middle of a repeat. A very easy knit, took about 3 hours. The time could probably be improved on, if I wasn't watching TV at the same time and insisting on drinking coffee while I knit - I know some people do this multi-tasking very well, but I have a hard time knitting with both hands and drinking coffee. As it is, my coffee usually gets cold, because I get into the knitting and forget to drink my coffee - then I have to get up and stick it in the microwave - then I get to knitting again - and the whole process repeats itself. There you go, Larry, that's why some days it seems like I don't do anything!

And finally, a parting shot of one of our sheep. This is one of the girls we got from Gordon and Anne Sammons down in Illinois. She is a triplet and VERY friendly - I'm wondering if she was a bottle lamb or at least raised on the bucket. She is a very sweet thing and will push the other ewes out of the way, just so she can have her chin scratched.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Finished Packer Socks!

2009-01-13T14:08:00.004-06:00

There they are, the finished socks! That's actually the third complete set I have made. So far, I don't suffer too badly from SSS (Second Sock Syndrome). Knock on wood. Unlike my earlier forays into counted cross stitch, I seem to feel the need to finish knitting projects after I start them (at least most of them - I am still working on the garter stitch stole, which gets put aside quite often, but I worked on it just a week or so ago and found it to still be enjoyable). These socks are headed to Virginia Beach, to my cousin, Dave, who is a HUGE Packer fan. I just hope they fit his feet, or they will end up being wall art or something!

In other knitting news, I am again working on a pair of Happy Feet yarn socks for me - started before I began the Packer socks and picked back up again now that those are finished. Sheep news, the big, white rams have been taken out of their respective breeding groups and put back in their little pen. They did some minor head bashing, but seem to have settled back into whatever hierarchy they have. It is nice being able to go back in with the girls again and not having to watch over my shoulder constantly for a "ram attack". Or, in the case of Sammy's group, not going in with them at all, as he has developed an ATTITUDE. (Our Shetland ram is well behaved and may stay in with his girls until shearing, unless we get a stretch of nice weather and I feel like catching him).

And speaking of the weather, we had about 4 more inches of snow yesterday and now it is, according to our one thermometer, 3 degrees outside, with a windchill of 5 below. They closed school today, although I'm really not sure why, as we were the only school district closed. It may actually have been the drifting snow affecting the bus routes, because I don't believe they actually close school unless wind chills or actual temps are down around 25 below. Tomorrow we are due for another 3 - 8 inches, depending on how the forecast shapes up and Thursday and Friday more bitter cold.

Well, it sounds like good knitting weather to me - must look at the bright side!

And the award goes to.....

2009-01-08T11:29:00.004-06:00

Today I posted a new book to my "Recently Read" list over there on the left side of the blog. It is a children's book entitled Esperanza Rising. I read it because that is the book currently being read by the seventh grade English classes at the Johnson Creek Junior High School. I occasionally read what Nicholas reads in school because I love to read and am curious about what the younger generation is reading now. The book takes place around 1930 and is about a young, wealthy Mexican girl, who, through a large bit of bad fortune, ends up in a migrant camp in California. The title is a reference to the Phoenix, who rises out of the ashes, as Esperanza must do given the new life that has been dealt her. Not a bad book (probably better than the drug addict stuff I read when I was in Junior High) - in fact, it is an "award winning" book. (Note that phrase - it's important later on in this post.) However, in checking places like Amazon, various library web sites and the lexile rankings (this is the scoring system that the elementary school here uses to track the kids' reading progress), I find that it is geared toward the age group of approximately 9-12, with a lexile score in the mid 700's. Nicholas just turned 13 and his lexile score was over 1000 when he left sixth grade. Now Nicholas is intelligent, but I know he is not at the top of his class, so there are probably at least several girls whose lexile scores were probably 1200 when they got out of sixth grade. And, since I am not overly organized, I can only get my hands on his fourth grade lexile scores - he started fourth grade with a score of 802, which, according to the form, was spot on for someone at that grade level. So by that indicator, it seems to me that this book, with a score in the mid 700's, is more suited to the 9-year old age group - or maybe a third grade reading level. All this is leading to - why isn't the seventh grade English class reading something a little more challenging? If our kids aim for mediocrity, that is all they will achieve.

I know, you are probably thinking I should take this up with the teachers or the administration. And maybe I should, but I have this lingering fear that if I make trouble, Nicholas will be the one to suffer. And Nicholas reads other, more challenging things on his own, so I really don't worry about Nicholas' reading future being in danger. It's more the principle of the thing that bugs me.

Which brings me back to that phrase "award winning". He is currently reading a teacher-approved book for the next book report. It had to be "award winning", which it is - and it may be the greatest book ever written - for that 9-12 year old age group - another lexile score in the mid 700's. I can't really offer an opinion, as I haven't read that one. But get this. He asked his teacher if he could read The Hound of the Baskervilles instead (you know, that's one of those Sherlock Holmes things, written by that English guy - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Larry has a complete set - that's where our late Beagle, Sherlock got his name and then our oldest cat, Watson, but I digress). That particular book has a lexile score over 1000. A bit more challenging to a seventh grader. But that choice wasn't acceptable - it isn't "award winning".

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-28T15:54:00.006-06:00

Well, the weather here has been extreme. The snow amounts have been approaching record levels again. Then the temperature soared up into the high 40's and most of it melted. Then last night, the temperature dropped and the standing melt water has all turned into ice. Fortunately, most of the driveway is bumpy, so it isn't slick ice. As we were getting loads and loads of snow before Christmas, I thought about taking some pictures, but as pretty as it was, I was getting tired of trudging to the barn through the knee-high plus drifts (I know, I know - I'm short, so knee-high may not seem significant, but really, it is). Nicholas has had two snow days already and two late starts. I certainly hope this does not carry over into January. I MUST find my snowshoes - that would guarantee us no more snow, right?

Christmas was lovely. Nicholas and I spent Christmas Eve with Mom and Dad (Larry had to work). The picture below was taken here at our house Christmas Eve, after we got home. I was taking my yearly pictures of the tree and the packages, when Nicholas had the very good idea of getting in one of the pictures and he assured me he wanted to be on the blog!

Christmas morning, we open packages here, just the three of us. Larry made breakfast before napping for a few hours, after working all the night before. The rest of the day is very laid back. Nicholas and I played Rock Band and/or Guitar Hero for much of the afternoon. Those drums that come with Rock Band are really quite fun to play! (Rock Band was his big gift). One of my favorite gifts is pictured here:

One of those neat "cup-at-a-time" coffee makers (it also makes hot chocolate and tea, which makes it triple-y nice - triple-y, is that a word?) I haven't figured out quite how to justify the negative impact on the environment of all those little individual serving cups, but the resulting coffee tastes FANTASTIC! (That's my American Livestock Breeds Conservancy coffee mug on the coffee maker - get yours here and support endangered breeds of livestock - it's not just the spotted owl that needs saving!)

Well, the Packers finished on a positive note today (beating the Lions, who didn't win a game all season). Here's looking to next season!

Dave, if you read this, I am still working on your socks. Christmas kind of took over my life for awhile there, but I am again working on finishing them up. We're almost there - I'm working on the toe of the second sock, so it will be done any time now!

As I am not a frequent poster, I will wish you all a Happy New Year now and see you in 2009!

Turning Japanese

2008-12-12T14:01:00.004-06:00

This is basically the scene in our living room every waking, non-school hour of the day -

As you can see, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care - and the tree is up and decorated. The young rock star in the picture is Nicholas, our now teenage son! Can you believe we are the parents of a teenager? My how the time flies!

We celebrated his birthday with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese with his best friend, Aaron. We gave them a hundred tokens or so and left them to play video games while Larry, my mom and dad and I sat and endured the noise. Noisy places with lots of young children are not really my idea of a night of fun, but Aaron and Nicholas seemed to think it sounded like a good idea. Afterwards, the two boys came home to play Nicholas' Guitar Hero and other assorted video games. Aaron fell asleep before midnight, but I found Nicholas still awake at 4:30 am, still strumming away. The good thing about Guitar Hero is that many of the songs are rock "oldies", so I actually recognize the music! But I am actually starting to get tired of Turning Japanese, as Nicholas has decided that is his new favorite song.

So, the birthday is behind us and we are now on track for Christmas. I have most of my shopping done, but haven't even started on the cookies or the cards yet. But the holiday concert was last night and the junior high basketball team is done for the season, so now we can concentrate on Xmas.

No new knitting news and I haven't done any spinning lately. I am not knitting any gifts (I'm much too smart to get too ambitious with homemade gifts, as I would never finish them in time!!) I have just under two weeks to bake all the cookies, write the Xmas letter and get the cards in the mail, do some housecleaning, wrap the presents - I just may get it done!

Winter Wonderland

2008-11-24T08:47:00.008-06:00

This is the scene that greeted us this morning down our driveway.

And off of our deck, looking to the west -

To the north -

And to the east -

Very pretty, but I wanted to get some pictures before the sun started shining later today, as the temperatures are supposed to get above freezing and I am hoping it will all melt later today. We haven't gotten our winter water hauling system set up yet and right now, if the hoses are frozen, I fill buckets and cart them out to the sheep in the garden cart. Water for just over 100 sheep, in six distinct pasture/pen areas. So let's just say it is not my favorite chore. And if the snow gets deep, the garden cart will not move easily through the snow.

So, to take a break from the water hauling, yesterday Mom and I did this:

We drove into Milwaukee to see the Florentine Opera's production of Madama Butterfly. They don't let you take pictures in the theatre, so you will have to settle for a picture of the program. While I am not an opera buff, I do like some of the music (Puccini being one of my favorites) and yesterday I even recognized some of the songs! It was a very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon (we went to the Sunday matinee) and it didn't snow, so I managed to navigate the new Marquette Interchange without any major mishaps.

In Sheepy News, we put Eddie (who can be seen on the November 5 blog entry) in with his girls this past week. He immediately began courting them, but was delayed as Florence, our Jacob ewe (who can be seen on the October 17 blog entry), tried to kill him. Really. She got in a few head-on attacks, got him down and then went in for the kill. Fortunately, we were right there, so could rescue him. Florence has been moved in with group two of the "big, whites" where she is not the biggest (although maybe the meanest). She complains every time I am within earshot (and maybe when I am not), but she has to play nice with the other sheep, or her time here on the farm will be limited.

And my parting shot today, the kittens on the front porch are almost adult cat size now and two of them actually sat still long enough this morning for me to get a shot of them. They are very friendly (when this picture was taken, kitten number three, a tiger, was rubbing my ankles) and if I didn't already have three house cats, I would scoop them all up and bring them in with me. But I don't want to become one of those crazy cat ladies whose house has been taken over by the felines!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

One Down, One to Go!

2008-11-10T11:24:00.004-06:00

Although the Packers couldn't get it done yesterday, I did. Finish the first of the Packer socks, that is. Toe Jamz sock yarn in the "Go Pac" color. I hope to cast on the second sock later today. And get them finished fairly soon, as they are a gift.

I apologize for my lack of photographic skills, but I did get to Spin-In two weekends ago and my purchases are pictured below. Mom and I make a day of it, browsing the vendors, having lunch, stopping on the way home for ice cream. Although Spin-In seems to be shrinking since I first started going quite a few years ago, it is a nice day out for the two of us. I do think if they didn't have Spin-In shortly after the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, they might get a better turnout. As part of a belated birthday gift to me, Mom bought me two pounds of Coopworth roving from Hidden Valley Farm and Woolen Mill (hi, Carol and Paul!) in their Tapestry color. I already have a bit of this and really liked the way it spun up, so wanted to buy enough for maybe a sweater or a vest. But don't hold your breath for the finished product. I think the color shows up OK. It's primarily a deep red, with gold and navy highlights. I know, I know, with a flock of about 20 Coopworth in my back pasture, I really didn't need to BUY Coopworth roving, but this is so pretty and the sheep don't really come in this color. And anyway, I sold most of my Coopworth fleece this year, so had to buy my supply elsewhere! The other is a merino/tencel blend from Frabjous Fibers. I think you can see the colors from this picture, but the shiny white bits (I think that might be the tencel) reflected the flash terribly. While it is a "flashy" roving, it's not quite as bright as the picture leads one to believe! It's labelled as sock roving and I have four ounces there, plenty for socks for me and my small feet. Maybe after I get that second Packer sock done, I can spin this up - it's so pretty, I don't think it will sit in the stash too long! (Of course, that is what I said about the fiber I got last year and some of that IS still in the stash!)

That is really not a very good picture. I'll try harder next time.

Fall on the Farm

2008-11-05T14:40:00.008-06:00

Fall on the farm means the weather gets cooler (of course, the past few days have been in the 70's and it has been gorgeous!), the bugs go away - and we start feeding hay. This year we are feeding the large, wrapped bales that you can see in this picture.

I should have stood Nicholas next to the bales - or had him climb on top of them, which he likes to do, to give you a reference point regarding size. I guess you can see the barn behind the bales, so you can get some idea. In any case, they are big and one needs a tractor to move them around. Which we started doing two weekends ago, just before dividing our 80 "big, white" ewes into their breeding groups (also a sign of fall on the farm). After placing several bales in each pasture area, we sorted the ewes into three breeding groups. Here is group one, about half Coopworths and half "other assorted". As you can see, they are thoroughly enjoying their first bale of hay of the season. There are always a few sheep who must eat their hay from the top of the bale.

Group two contains most of this past spring's lambs and other assorted Polypays and crossbreeds. This picture was actually taken a couple of days after sorting. As you can see, they have pretty much eaten down their bale of hay. Shortly after this picture was taken, I opened another bale for them.

Group three is a smaller group, and here are a few representatives for them. They are some of our better lambers and they will be lambing on pasture in May, with minimal shelter and assistance from the shepherd (hopefully).

And here are the boys. Not a great shot of them, but left to right is Heinz (he will go in with group two at the end of the month); Val, our Coopworth ram, who is actually already in with group one (we gave him his harem this past Sunday); and Sammy, who will go in with the smaller group three, also in about a month. Val weighed just under 200 pounds when we purchased him, so, although we haven't weighed any of these guys lately, we think Sammy probably goes well over 200 pounds. So when he got a bit pushy on Sunday, I fled from the pen and left Larry to catch Val by himself. Well, what do you expect me to do? Sammy outweighs me by quite a bit and I really didn't want to wait and see which one of us would win in a pushing contest!

Now, at the other end of the "scale", we have our Shetland sire for this year. This is Eddie, who we brought home from the Sheep and Wool Festival in September. He was raised by Laura Matthews at Psalm 23 Farm in Kiel, Wisconsin. He is just a lamb, so probably only weighs about 40 or 50 pounds right now. Much smaller than our "big, white sheep". I am hoping he is fertile, as he will go in with his girls in about 2 weeks. His fleece is a bit finer than our girls' fleeces, so I can't wait to see his lambs in the spring!

And finally, a parting shot. After the leaves fell off the trees in the pasture behind the house, I noticed this hornets' nest up in one of the trees. We joked about donating it to the science class, but were afraid that if the hornets were dormant, they would wake up in the warmth of the school and terrorize the kids!

Finished Socks

2008-10-17T10:27:00.005-05:00

First of all, finished socks! This is the second complete pair I have knit (I am currently working on the first socks of two other pair). The feet belong to our son, Nicholas, who is also the owner of the socks. I think he likes the socks, but is not too fond of Mom interrupting video game time (thus the cords draped across the floor under the feet) by insisting that I take a picture of his feet. They are Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the Liberty colorway.

The weather here has been mostly gorgeous, although it is now a bit cooler. Nighttime temperatures now getting down at or near freezing. A good time of the year to spend time out with the sheep - it's not hot and sticky, no mosquitoes, no flies. And the sheep are much happier in the cooler weather. They are, after all, wearing wool coats! Here is our one Jacob ewe, Florence, modelling her wool coat for you.

And a final, parting shot of fall here on the farm. The sumac trees are a nuisance - no matter how often you hack away at them, try to kill them, they just keep spreading. But they are pretty in the fall. This is what we see when we visit our Shetland ewes in the front pasture.

Better Late Than Never?!?!

2008-10-02T11:44:00.011-05:00

I know, I know - it has been almost a MONTH since my last post. If any of you are still actually reading this, thank you for your patience! I do actually have some sort of an excuse. The week after the festival, I decided to take it easy - relax a bit after the weekend, get used to the new junior high schedule - good excuses for being totally lazy. The following Monday, I went over to the hospital for some routine tests, came home and was having a cup of coffee with Larry, when I started feeling ill. After about four hours of really not feeling good, we decided to go off to the emergency room (two visits to the same hospital in one day is WAY too many for me). I knew from experience what it was before we got there - a kidney stone - but this way I got the official word from the ER doc - only one - and they gave me some nice pain killers. But, by the time we got home, it was 11:00 pm or so. The next couple of days I laid about in agony. And to top it all off, by the time I had recovered from that, I got the cold that Larry and Nicholas had been suffering from, so I basically lost a week. Then Mom and Dad had family visiting from out west, so time was spent socializing with them - well, hopefully the stone has passed (I don't have any physical evidence of that), my cold is gone and the family has returned to Washington. Now I can concentrate on farm stuff again and maybe blog more often (but don't hold your breath between posts!). So, here we go ---

Well, even though Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival was about a month ago, I still have these nice pictures to share with you (and no new pictures), so that's what you're going to get. First off, the basket of roving and yarn that we included in our farm display, which you all saw on the last post. This is some of the roving we offer for sale, in addition to some of the yarn I spun from various fleeces.

Next, the basket that we donated to the silent auction, a "Coopworth Sock Kit", which contained two ounces of medium brown Coopworth roving, two ounces of dark brown Coopworth roving and some knitting needles. Thank you to all of you who bid on this. I was afraid no one would want it and I would have to have my mom bid on it, just to avoid being embarrassed if it was still sitting there after the auction was over!

Next, a picture of my purchases for the weekend. I wanted much more, but tried to limit my spending. I got my annual apparel - this year one of the green t-shirts (the other choice was brown and I just do not look all that good in brown). Also, a sheep calender for 2009, a garden flag (I have been looking for a garden flag with a sheep on it for years - I've got one with a rooster - now I have a sheep!), some extra bobbins for my Babe Production wheel and some gorgeous sock yarn - Toe Jamz - I don't think they have a web site. The t-shirt, flag and calender are from Ewesful Gifts - I'm a regular customer.

A closer shot of the sock yarn - I got two skeins of the Packer colors - glad I bought those on Friday - when I went past their booth later in the weekend, they were sold out! The blue/green mix will become socks for me, most likely. The Packer socks will be gifts.

Well, it was a fun, fun weekend - as always. Only 11 months to wait now until next year. Again, it will be the weekend after Labor Day, so mark your calenders!

I will leave you with a final shot of the last monarch butterfly that I hatched on the kitchen counter. This pic was also taken a while ago, but I took it with the idea of posting it on the blog, so here you go - - -

The last one for this year, as fall is upon us. They are talking about patchy frost this weekend. Time to start thinking about which herbs to harvest and dry and which to try to bring into the house and make houseplants of them. I think the pot of mint I may put into the barn over the winter - it is a perennial and hardy, but since it is in a pot, the barn may offer it a bit more protection. The basil I will dry, as I just used up the last of last year's dried basil in the spaghetti sauce last night. Soon the lambs will go to market and the fall breeding groups will be put together. Yep, fall on the farm!

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool - Part 1

2008-09-09T09:33:00.010-05:00

First of all, I apologize for not blogging for over two weeks. We have been busy. School started again the day after Labor Day. I can't believe that Nicholas is in Junior High already. It seems just yesterday that he was learning the ropes in elementary school. Now he has to remember his lock combination, must go from room to room for his different classes - has to keep track of his homework, without so much help from the teachers! I am kind of glad he decided NOT to go out for Junior High Football - especially since the first game was held the day that we were experiencing the all day rain that was the remnants of Gustav here.

Of course, the start of the school year also means Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival for us. Always the weekend after Labor Day. We again took three breeds of sheep to exhibit - Polypay, Coopworth and Shetland. This year we added a table display to the sheep display. In addition to the general breed information, we took a Shetland pelt, some yarn and roving samples in a basket, farm brochures, breed organization brochures and newsletters - the "Sheep X-ing" sign was purchased from one of the vendors after we set up the display to balance it out!

The three sheep pens looked very similar to last year. Same three breeds, same sign. Different sheep. This year we didn't have any available for sale, so we took all six home with us. In fact, we took seven home, as we added a Shetland ram that we purchased from Psalm 23 Farm in Kiel, WI. I don't have a picture of him - right now he is in the tall weeds with some of our ram lambs - if I can see him over the greenery, I'll try to get a picture of him at a later date!

Here are our two Shetland girls that were at the festival. The picture is a bit washed out by the sun, but the sheep in front is the famous Sparx. Behind her, with her head in the feeder, is one of our lambs from this year - what some of the Shetland breeders would call an HST - her Head, Socks and Tail are white, while the rest of her is black. Hard to see on this pic - I apologize - my photo skills are lacking!

The two Coopworths we exhibited. I guess I should take pictures after they are done eating, so you would get to see more than just their rear ends! One colored and one white.

And now a couple of pictures of other people's sheep. This is the famous Chuck - a Dorper owned by Trophy Acres (Troy and Phyllis Antoniewicz). Troy organizes the Hall of Breeds and he and his wife, Phyllis are fun, friendly people. We enjoy seeing them each year at the festival. The Dorper is a hair sheep, so for those shepherds who don't want the hassle of shearing, they go with one of the hair breeds. The Dorper does get a coat of hair for the cold months and then sheds in the spring. This is Chuck's second year at the festival and he is very friendly and personable. Very stocky and nice looking, but wouldn't do me much good, since part of the reason we have sheep is for the wool.

This is one of the Lincoln Longwools that was across from our girls. I'm not sure who the owner is, but I just think the Lincolns are pretty.

And finally, a shot of me standing in front of the Fairgrounds map. Larry thought I should put a picture of me on the blog. Also good advertising for Briggs and Stratton, I guess!

Again, an absolutely wonderful weekend - the weather was fabulous - the rain held off, the temperatures were great - not hot, like some years. As you can see in the pic above, I had a long-sleeved shirt on, which in my opinion, is perfect weather - high 60's, low 70's! We talked to a lot of people, made some new contacts for wool sales, talked with friends we only see at sheep events. We take the sheep over on Friday afternoon and load them back up late Sunday afternoon. But we are spoiled - the fairgrounds is only about 10 minutes from here, so by 5:30 Sunday evening, we were all unpacked and the sheep were happily grazing back at home. I will try to get a few more pictures posted tomorrow - some fibery stuff for those of you who are more interested in that end of the festival. But all in all, a fantastic weekend - can't wait until next year!!

"Butterflies Are Free to Fly"

2008-08-24T15:19:00.005-05:00

I have always been fascinated by the whole caterpillar to butterfly process and have been casually eyeing the milkweed plants for monarch caterpillars. Several weeks ago, I found three of these:

I fed them fresh milkweed leaves as needed, until they became:

So far, two of them have hatched. I let them go out back. Here is one of the beautiful monarchs that emerged from their chrysalis:

I actually still have one caterpillar who is about done growing. I brought him in unintentionally. I must have had an egg on some of the milkweed that I brought in. They start out very tiny and grow very quickly. It amazes me that they can go from fat, stripey worm to a coccoon that is about half of their original size to beautiful orange, white and black "flying flower". And you can't really tell from my less than stellar photographs, but on the coccoon, there are several areas (the ridge in the top half of the chrysalis is one spot) that look like they are gilded with gold. It actually shines and looks metallic. I suppose if I read my butterfly book, it might tell me what it really is, but to me it looks like an insect version of a Faberge egg, all gold and glittery.

One week left of summer vacation, than back to school for Nicholas. Soon I will be posting pictures of the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, fall colors, sheep in full fleece. Although the daytime temperatures are still hot and two nights ago the nighttime temperatures were still too hot and sticky to sleep very comfortably in, we are starting to feel that cool down most nights, it's not quite so humid most days and it is starting to smell like fall. While I hate to see the long days go, and like the laid back schedule of "no school", I am not a fan of hot and humid, so much prefer the temperatures that are coming. Hope everyone is enjoying these last warm weeks before football weather is upon us.

The Harvest

2008-08-13T15:20:00.003-05:00

Today's harvest - this is our first pepper, at least the first one that survived to "adulthood". We have already had several zucchini and summer squash and lots of little tomatoes. These are the first of the bigger ones. I can't find the seed packets, or I would tell you what they all were. There are standard grape tomatoes, but then we have yellow pear shaped tomatoes, not much bigger than the grapes. Also some smallish yellow tomatoes, some medium reds and the huge reds - maybe those are the Brandywines? I'm not much of a gardener - ask me about sheep - I can sound much more intelligent!

It is lovely being able to go out to our very own garden and pick things. Of course, if we didn't have chickens, there would be much more to pick! They seem to thrive on tomatoes! And I did notice a pretty big spider web out there yesterday. If the enormous garden spiders have moved into our tomatoes, this may be the last of the tomatoes that I harvest! I'll fight the chickens for the crop, but the spiders will win hands down!

Sorting Sheep

2008-08-10T15:38:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we sorted sheep. The "big, white sheep". The Shetlands run on their own schedule! It was the day that we pulled all of the ram lambs away from their moms and put them in their own pasture. Some of them were a bit old, but I only like to do this once in the heat of summer and the youngest are only about 3 months old. I really don't like to wean them much before then. We have some lambs who will still nurse, if their moms let them, and they are almost as big as mom!

Larry and Nicholas moving some of the sheep toward the chutes:

Larry muscles the sheep into the scale, if they don't go willingly, and this time, held onto them while I administered wormer (I pulled some muscles in my back a few days ago and have a hard time bending over, hanging on to a struggling sheep, while forcing medicine down their throats. No, no - it's not as awful as it seems. It's a small amount of liquid wormer - but they, like small children, do not always cooperate fully, so there is a bit of wrestling that goes on. But if we don't worm them, they die. And we only worm the animals that need it.) Nicholas helps with getting them into the chutes, lets them out into their appropriate group after weighing and worming and helps wherever else he is needed. I open and close the scale doors, record weights, determine who to worm and administer the meds.

More moving of sheep:

We were probably at it for about 4 hours, with one break in the middle - it gets very hot and buggy - and in the end, we only actually relocated about 30 sheep, but we had to sort through all of them (almost 100). And now the lambs have been wormed once more (and any of the skinnier ewes). Hopefully, we won't have to do much with them now until we take the lambs to market and put the breeding groups together this fall.

In fiber related news, I have once again signed up for the Mystery Stole. I signed up last year, but did not knit it. I was a bit hesitant, being new to knitting and never having knit any lace. But I followed everyone's posts and delighted in looking at everyone else's stole pictures. This year, I have several yarns to choose from and have purchased some beads. I am still swatching, so have not decided on the yarn or beads yet, but hope to actually knit it this year. I have done a small amount of lace knitting, although not with lace weight yarn - and I have never done beads before, so that should be interesting. It will probably take me years to finish it, so don't hold your breath, but I would like to attempt this this time around. Wish me luck!

Off to swatch some more and catch some of the Olympics - I am leaving politics out of it and cheering the American athletes on to victory!

Gardens and Yarn Stores

2008-08-03T17:17:00.000-05:00

The herbs are going nuts in the garden - basil, cinnamon basil, two varieties of thyme, the cilantro is going to seed and we will soon have coriander.

The tomato patch looks like a jungle and the various squash and pumpkins are threatening to take over the tomato's territory.

I attribute the record growth to the beautiful raised beds that Larry built this spring and the abundant rabbit manure that he added to the bags of topsoil!

For yarn related content, I purchased the yarn below at Knit and Caboodle in St Charles, MO, when we were spending a long weekend in St Louis. The dark blue variegated is Trekking's Hand Art and the white with the blue spots is Claudia Hand Painted Yarn in the colorway Tea Cup. A very nice yarn store in the middle of the historic shopping district of St Charles - a beautiful shopping street full of brick buildings and lush gardens. We, unfortunately, did not get to spend much time there, as we were meeting family back in St Louis. But I fed my yarn fix for the weekend.

Back here in Wisconsin, I have just watched the Brewers lose to the Braves and the mosquitoes have not moved to the neighbors. But, on the up side, the 90 degree weather they were predicting a few days ago has not materialized, although it is a bit humid. I'm torn between wanting an early frost this fall to rid us of the mosquitoes and a late frost, so the hundreds of tomatoes that appear to be growing on our plants can be harvested. I can only eat so many green tomatoes!

Red Jersey

2008-08-02T16:39:00.000-05:00

I have decided to award myself the red jersey in the Tour de Fleece. My goal was to spin every day (or almost every day) and, while I did spin more than I normally would in the heat of the summer, I did not spin as often as I had hoped. So, red jersey.

I did do a bit of knitting while we were out of town last weekend - but I am not a good "car knitter" - I have a tendency to want to watch the scenery go by or take a nap, but I did get a bit knit up on my son's red, white and blue socks. They are pictured here along with some of the oriental lilies that I plucked from my overgrown garden this morning. I am not a gardener to begin with, and this year the mosquitoes are about the size of my sheep, so I try to spend as little time outside as possible. Thankfully, my husband and son planted some tomatoes, peas, beets and squash early in the spring and I got a bunch of herbs in - before the mosquito crop hatched and before the weeds took over. Maybe some garden pics at a later date. Today the lilies and part of a sock will have to suffice!

It's a Little Blurry...

2008-07-23T21:25:00.000-05:00

but I just wanted to show you that I finally completed the spinning and plying on the turquoise batt that I mentioned in my first post. I ended up with almost 1000 yards, but with the mohair and glitz, it is a bit scratchy, so still not sure what it will become. But the colors sure are pretty!

This will probably be my last "official" Tour de Fleece post as I am going out of town for a few days. Tomorrow night I will be in St. Louis cheering loudly for the Milwaukee Brewers to win against the hometown Cardinals. Hopefully they don't run me out of town on a rail. The Brewers won the first two of the four game series, are leading tonight's game in the bottom of the 8th. Wouldn't a sweep be nice?!?!

But before I can take off for a weekend of relaxation and visiting with family - let's see, the sheep all have fresh pasture, the mineral feeders have been filled, the new float valve is on the water trough, the dog-sitter is ready, the cats and hamster have been taken care of, fresh litter in the litter boxes, the farm sitters are briefed. It's only for a couple of days, but there are so many details. At least this time should be easier on the farm sitters (my parents) than a few years ago when I took off on an emergency trip across the country, telling my mom (who is not a shepherd, although is learning constantly) "Oh, by the way, Mom, two of my ewes are due to lamb any day now!" She went out to the barn the morning we left to find twins on the ground!

I am hoping that in addition to a Brewer win this trip, I can locate a nice yarn store and some good food. If nothing else, any building with air conditioning will do, as it is hotter in St. Louis than here in Southeastern Wisconsin. My knitting is packed (the socks from the last post), hopefully I have packed clothes that actually go together - at least they are clean - the tickets for the game are already in my purse. Now off to bed so I can be up early in the morning.

"See" you when I get back!

Still Spinning and Starting Some Socks

2008-07-19T10:52:00.001-05:00

Well, I was afraid of this. I'm not a very active blogger. It's already been a week since my first post, and if there is anyone out there who is actually reading this, you have probably already given up on me and moved on. Can I blame it on the heat and humidity? I really don't do well in the summer swelter.

I am slowly progressing with the Tour de Fleece. Still working on the turquoise batt pictured below. I have been spinning most nights, although not for very long periods of time. I did take the wheel to our local "Busy Fingers" group this week and spun for about an hour and a half. That is our version of a knitters get-together. I live in a very small rural community and to only allow knitters - well the group would be even smaller than it is now. This month we had two knitters, one crocheter and one quilter. I'm one of the knitters and I brought my spinning wheel. I am the only spinner in the group, at least so far.

Since the spinning progress has been slow, I thought I would show you my latest knitting project. My son decided he would like red, white and blue socks, so I purchased some Lorna's Laces in the Liberty colorway from the Loopy Ewe and knit up the swatch last night. I will knit a very basic sock, haven't decided on an actual pattern yet. Probably the Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe. I thought it would be a good project for a weekend getaway we have coming up - about a six hour drive each way. We are going to St. Louis, where it should be even hotter than it is here in Wisconsin. Oh, joy!

My First Post!

2008-07-12T13:26:00.000-05:00

OK, I am finally giving in and becoming a "blogger". Not that I think there is anything wrong with blogging. In fact, I read several others' blogs and thoroughly enjoy it. But I have been putting this day off for fear that I will not be disciplined enough to post regularly. And if anyone should actually read my blog, I would not want them to walk away disappointed when they find nothing new to read.

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Lael and, along with my husband, Larry, and our wonderful son, Nicholas, live on the family farm in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin. The farm has been in the family since the 1950's. We raise sheep - Shetlands, Polypays, Coopworths and assorted other breeds and crossbreeds. We have some chickens and rabbits. And a black lab mix, Kipper and three cats, Watson, Fuzzball and Boo. We have over 100 sheep, which we raise for both meat and fiber and it is my job to stay home and take care of them on a day-to-day basis. You can see more of our farm at our website, www.maplewoodnorth.com.

Part of the reason that I have begun blogging now, is I have been participating in the Tour de Fleece. My goal for this year is to reduce my stash. And to try to spin a little bit every day (well, almost every day. Katherine, the organizer, assures me that we are allowed rest days, just as the cyclists are!). I started with this:

This is the result of a roving that I received in a fiber exchange, a soft blend of Cormo, silk, bamboo and mohair. My photography skills are limited, but it is a blend of purples, blues and greens and reminds me of Monet's "Waterlilies". I'm thinking it may grow up to be a scarf. I have ended up with about 330 yards of yarn, about 14-16 WPI.

My second stash-busting effort is a cloud of a mostly turquoise blend from Quail Hill Carding in "Caribbean Blue" which I picked up at last fall's Spin-In. I'm more than half way through it, but haven't decided yet what it might become.

Now I will try to post this. If it works, I will be back to blog another day. (I had some problems with the pictures - getting them to sit in the correct spots on this post - we'll see what it looks like after posting - please bear with me as I work out the kinks!) Hopefully, I will entertain you and inform you about life here on the farm, my spinning and knitting adventures and life in general. Thank you for reading!