Introducing Hearthside Fibers!

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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!