Knee Deep in Sheep

In Which There is Rampant Nudity!

2012-03-06T18:13:00.001-08:00

Sheep nudity, that is. Today we had another session of sheep shearing.

Gooseberry, looking rather startled at recent developments...

...and being separated from her fleece.

Wabbit says, "He calls himself a professional, but look at this dorky hair!"

Peaches has faded to a wonderful shiny silver.

Copper has faded in an interesting mottled fashion.

The difference in fleece types is pretty wide here. We have the finer wools, like Sunny. Under her coat her fleece naturally separates into blocky, upright sections of wool. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason as to how the wool separates. Some blocks are big, some are little. But if you look closely you'll see that the bigger sections have creases where they could easily separate into smaller blocks. The smaller pieces - maybe the thickness of your finger - would be considered a lock. Imagine how chaff and crap would creep down in between the locks and make the wool trashy without the benefit of a coat.

Sunny, coat off.

Sunny, also with some interesting mottling, having that fleece peeled off.

Compare that to Alexandria the Cotswold. Cotswolds have coarse wool. I hate that term which makes it sound like the fiber feels scratchy and nasty but it really just means that each fiber is fatter in diameter than most other breeds. Cotswold wool fibers usually measure 30 to 40 microns in diameter. Fine Merino is about 18 to 20 microns. A red blood cell measures 8 microns. So saying Cotswold is 'coarse' is all relative. Anyway, her wool divides itself into very distinct locks. While a little chaff sticks in it, the lock structure is such that a good shake makes most stuff fly off. (Having good hay feeders helps too!)

Alexandria's locks - an "open" fleece, and naturally curly.

Here's a good list of sheep breeds and their micron counts, and here's a discussion of why you should care.

More naked sheep Thursday! Stay tuned!

It's Winter Out There

2012-03-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

But inside it's a tropical resort.

Um, you're not going to try to come out here, are you? I don't think there's room for your........mass.

Nope, Monday morning if for working. Only the PETS get to relax in the sun. Sigh.

A Noteworthy Day

2012-03-02T18:44:00.000-08:00

Besides being my Aunt Edith's 91st birthday, today is also momentous in two other ways. First, it's the One Year Blogiversary of KDIS. I haven't been as diligent as I had planned to be, but we have chronicled quite a bit of life here on the farm and now that I have a year of practice under my belt I'm hoping the frequency (and maybe content) will improve.

So, to start off well in that intent......... I bring you some of the participants in the first round of shearing, 2012!

Ooh, I hate this part.....so undignified

Seriously?! You're taking pictures of me like this??

Gem and her nice gray fleece

Ashes and her amazingly faded silver fleece - was black last year

Whiskey, and her faded (and sunbleached on the tips) moorit fleece

Due to a delay this morning, we were only able to get through 31 ewes this time. Yesterday we had gone through all the ewes and "felt them up" to see who had the most advanced udders. We pulled out 50 who will probably lamb in the first 2 weeks of the lambing season. He'll be back on Tuesday and we'll hope to get through the rest of today's lot plus as many of the less developed ewes as he can manage. That will leave a third round of late bred ewes, unbred geriatrics and ewe lambs (now yearlings getting their first shearing), rams and wethers. It would be great to have eveyone done before lambing starts (March 20!) but last year we - and he - couldn't make it work for the rams until into May.

Holly waited patiently in the barn all afternoon, checking in occasionally to see if we were ready to do something more fun.

Mommmm? When are you going to be done? I'm boooored.

Good dog, Holly. We'll do something more to your liking tomorrow.

How to Keep Your Mouse Hooks Sharp

2012-03-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

OAK moulding around a door in the barn.

Left side of door

Right side of door

Moulding around a door frame can be replaced easily enough. But.....

Corner post of hay feeder

Notice the depth to which the post has been clawed away. Apparently only knots and nails slow these cats up. Do NOT be messin' with our cats!

Eeesh.

I'm Glad That Part's Over

2012-02-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

I don't mention it much because it makes some dear friends sad, but we do use a lot of the lambs we raise for our freezer trade. We breed with the plan of improving the specific qualities we need in the animals we raise - in our case fleece and hardiness and size - with each successive generation. And when you breed your ewes every year you very rapidly reach a tipping point where you realize you simply can't keep everyone, and not everyone has traits you want to reproduce. Many years ago we sold lambs we weren't keeping at the local auction barn. I didn't particularly like the situation, but "they" always assured us that "lambs are high right now". The reality was that we'd have done better rolling dice in Vegas. Reasons for the poor prices included "too heavy", "too light" "not a meat type lamb", "too heavy in fleece" and the ever popular "they are black". Additionally, I loathed dropping them into an abyss of unknowns. I knew their ultimate purpose would put them on someone's plate, but the unknown care in the interim...that really got to me.

We've worked the last few years to remove those unknowns. We cultivated a market of customers who want our lamb. We found a facility within feasible driving distance that treats our animals gently right to the end, and works with us to produce the best product possible for our customers. We trailer the lambs there ourselves that morning so we know they are transported safely and don't have to wait in an unfamiliar setting a moment longer than necessary. We go back the same day and pick up the pelts for tanning so that they aren't wasted. We've even been fortunate enough to find a network of dog foster homes who raw feed their charges and will take all the bones and unused organ meats so there is even less waste.

We've now retrieved meat from the last group of lambs for this season. Their pelts have also been sent off for tanning. I don't have to make any more difficult decisions for some time now, for which I'm glad. It weighs on my heart to know that many of the lambs I saw come into the world will die at my say so. It probably looks like a betrayal when viewed from outside, but really it's just the opposite - betrayal would be relinquishing control over their welfare, whereas I am making sure they have a good life right till the last minute.

I read a story many years ago that really stuck with me. I don't know where it came from, but it went like this:

Ages and ages ago when the world was still new Man and Animals could still understand one another's language. It was a hard time. Nature was cruel and everyone struggled to survive. The Family of Sheep was particularly beset by many dangers. They had no sharp teeth or claws for protection, weren't particularly fleet of foot to outrun danger and couldn't make shelters for themselves from the weather or hungry predators. They suffered mightily. One day a wise old Sheep observed Dog, who had made an association with Man, living in relative safety and thought perhaps some arrangement could be reached whereby the Family of Sheep could benefit in the same way. So Man and Sheep negotiated long and a deal was offered; Man would care for Sheep and provide food and water and shelter and protection from danger and medicine when illness came. In return, Sheep would give man their wool for clothing and a portion of the flock each year would be killed to serve his needs for food. Some would be young, some would be old, but the rest would live on under the watchful care of Man. The Family of Sheep discussed this plan at length and readily agreed to it. So many died ugly deaths every year as it was - how much better that those die gently by the hand of one who cared for them, and the bulk of the flock would always live in safety.

This story feels true and I hope when I meet the Judge I'm found to have upheld my end of the bargain.

Better Than Nip

2012-02-17T18:15:00.000-08:00

If you're an indoor-only housecat, what's better - more exciting, more alluring, more satisfying - than catnip?

Sheepy smelling sheep coats, right off the sheep.

We can keep these, right?

Today was a work day. We went through the flock and gave vaccinations (doing it now allows time for the moms to mount an immune response to the vaccine and have lots of antibodies in their milk for the lambs), changed some coats that were getting too tight, and also moved a few bred ewes into the lamb-and-geriatrics group so they can get a little grain. Most of the ewes won't need grain until very near lambing and into lactation, but some are having their first lambs and still growing themselves and some ewes are getting old and can use the extra nutritional boost during these last few weeks to be in good condition at lambing.

We got finished in good season with no damage to anyone - always a plus. Some of the coats we took off large ewes weren't especially dirty and went back on medium sized ewes who needed larger duds. In the end I had a pile of half a dozen worn coats. Before going back into the storage bins they get washed of course, so that meant dropping them on the floor of the mudroom while getting out of work clothes. The cats were on them in a trice. There's something about that sheepy, barny smell that draws them instantly. I let them wallow in the pile for a bit, then down to the washer they went.

I'd be annoyed, but I'm too......happy........ya know?

Better than drugs and no dangerous side effects.

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

Kiss the ones you love today and eat cake!

Sadly, One Cat Fewer

2012-02-13T18:59:00.000-08:00

Our barn cats are regular as clocks when it comes to meal time. When White Cat didn't appear for supper Thursday night we thought it odd. Missing bedtime snacks was alarming. We opened garage doors, workshop doors, shed doors thinking he might have gotten shut in somewhere. Nothing. Friday we hunted the hay mows, ditches and under shelves and feed racks in the barns. Friday night at midnight we found him in the hay mow of the sheep barn in one of the places we had already looked. He was reluctant to move, but not in obvious distress or pain. He purred and was happy to be fussed over. A big soft towel in the cat carrier and a bowl of water and a few hours spent in Andy's heated shop tided him over until seeing the vet in the morning. A careful exam revealed a broken canine tooth and a wildly displaced hip. White Cat had been hit by a car, the first here in nearly 20 years. We decided to sedate him for replacement of the hip, give supportive care and take a wait and see attitude. He continued to decline over the weekend and it became clear that there were internal injuries that were going to cause his death. We opted for euthansia and his doctor eased him into the next life with petting and assurances that he was a good kitty.

Although neutered, vaccinated and fed as well as any house cat, our barn cats do face perils. The road is something we have no control over. Where had he been from Thursday mid-day to Friday midnight? How had he heroically made his way back home despite grievous injury? I'm very grateful he made it to us so that we'd know what had become of him. I'm glad we could help him go gently to his inevitable end. Although we sure didn't need another barn cat, I'm really glad this fat, happy white cat adopted us. I'm sorry we didn't have him longer.

We'll miss you, White Cat.

The February Challenge

2012-02-02T11:40:00.000-08:00

My friend Sara from Punkin's Patch is just about the most artistic, creative, clever person I know. She's also wired like me, in that sometimes we work much better to get a job done with a deadline or inflexible NEED staring at us. This month she has thrown down the proverbial gauntlet (Oh great - one MORE thing to pick up off the floor!) and set her blog followers a challenge to Find Five.

For the month of February, find just 5 minutes a day (OK, more if you're one of those overachievers) and do something you've been putting off. Maybe it's a tiny task that never makes it to the day's priority list. Maybe it's a big job that you've been putting off because it's....well....big. But if you can just make yourself do "it" for 5 minutes a day for the whole month of February you'll be doing way more than NONE.

I'm going to start the daily challenges by catching up on written thank you notes. One a day, maybe two, until I'm caught up. I've said 'thank you' to everyone at the time and had every intention of following up with a note but haven't. gotten. it. done.

What's your challenge? C'mon, you know you can do this!

Thanks, Sara. I needed this. And thanks too for saying the challenge DOESN'T have to be house cleaning :-)

Found It!

2012-01-29T18:28:00.000-08:00

Chore time a couple of days later, again in the hay stem leftovers in the manger. Hay from the same field, so the antlers must have dropped nearly together.

Mangled by the baler but still substantial

I have this little video in my head of a big buck resting in the field, eyes half closed, when there's this little <click> POING-POING and the antlers both eject from his head simultaneously. Ha. I do have to wonder what they think when one falls off and the other doesn't for a while. Must be odd to have that weight unbalanced on top of your head.

Fall off?! Your stuff can fall off??

Don't worry girls, it doesn't apply to you.

Gawkers

2012-01-25T14:31:00.000-08:00

It never fails. When you want to get pictures of the sheep they see you looking at them and decide you must be Up To Something. Mostly what I get are shots of sheep turning away, or butts - or foggy nostrils when the really friendly ones crowd up. Today I was taking some pictures in the ram barn of a ram lamb for an interested party and of course that drew a crowd.

Our subject of the day - moorit ram lamb #030.

His fleece - because I knew you were wondering

He's an agreeable lamb and since he wasn't giving off vibes of distress the other, bigger boys started to gather.

Colored Cotswold Isaac, all mellow from Andy scratching his back

Cotswold/Border Leicester cross Rocky

Another C/BL cross, Jared. Not very flattering, with the bulging "stomped-on-frog" look in his eye.

Young Mojito - Mo for short - last son of our good old ram Spats.

I think they kind of liked having something interesting happen (as long as it wasn't happening to THEM) to break up a boring afternoon. You can bet that they won't be this handy when I want to take THEIR pictures another day.

Things That Make You Go "Hmmmm....."

2012-01-22T08:10:00.000-08:00

My crazy blue/yellow/green dyed wool came back as roving Friday. That was fast! Thank you Zeilinger's! It's lovely and actually just what I had originally set out to create, but I'm surprised how completely the color extremes blended away during processing. You would never guess those peacock color curls were all in there.

Saturday was our January spinning guild meeting so I had a chance to spin a bobbin-full. It's always helpful to prospective customers to see just how a roving will look when spun. Some color variation does show in the yarn, so it will turn out to be a pretty, heathered green as I had first intended. I have yet to ply it and make a proper skein of it - maybe tonight after supper.

The meeting itself was a fun gathering. When I last checked the sign-in sheet we had hit 80 members in attendance and it's possible a few forgot to sign in. It was also our annual Chinese Auction in which everyone de-stashes their extras, plops them on long tables and everyone buys tickets to try for items that interest them. You never know what will crop up. Sometimes a member will see a giant bag of yarn at at yard sale for $1 and buy the whole thing to get that one skein that caught their attention and the rest winds up in the Auction. Books, equipment, half finished (or never started) kit projects, dye stuffs, raw and prepared spinning fiber, tons of yarn, and some miscellany (not too much of that - we do have standards, you know) - in all there had to have been a couple of hundred lots of items which the guild officers smartly worked through in just over an hour. Almost everyone wins something, and one or two people always become the lucky ones of the day with their names being called again and again. It's weird, and doesn't seem to correlate directly to the number of tickets bought, and it's not the same people from year to year, but every year does see "the lucky ones". We rub them and then go buy lottery tickets. (Just kidding).

One of many tables of goodies

"Oh my gosh, look at all this stuff!"

I'm glad the weather cooperated so I could attend. It was in the low teens last night, so this morning was a frosty, sparkly postcard.

Click to biggify - all those tiny white dots are glittery diamond points of sparkle

The sheep were not at all impressed with how pretty it was. They were all comfortably settled in and waiting for us to come and do the morning chores.

Hazel and Glinda. "Honestly, stop with the pictures. Those mangers aren't going to fill themselves."

Chore time starts with us going from manger to manger scooping out any leftover hay stems that weren't eaten (not a lot, given the good design of the feeders and the fact that Cotswolds will eat about anything not nailed down) and find THIS in one.

Hmmmmm.....

Spikes......yikes!

This deer antler had to have lain in the field since late 2010 when it was shed, survived being mown over by the haybine (although the point on the left is cut cleanly so we know it saw the cutter bar up close), then got baled up by our doughty baler in summer 2011 and now comes to light in 2012. We had a similar antler incident a few years ago, but it cost us a rear tractor tire and a good chunk of change when the tire succumbed to the antler points!

Makes us wonder if the mate to this one is still out there in the field.......lurking.....waiting.......

Who knew hay could be so exciting?

Winter Wednesday

2012-01-18T17:55:00.000-08:00

We're having a cold spell now following the weekend storm. Holly still needs her walkies though, so we ventured out to see what's new in the neighborhood.

The wild turkeys have been out picking grit from the road and just moving around the landscape doing what turkeys do. One of the few things I like about winter is being able to see the tracks that Holly can read by scent. This group had about 10 individuals.

Tracks of four turkeys, more out of frame

We stopped back at the barn on the way back in just to make sure everyone was happy. Being out of our routine schedule, Glinda found the visit suspicious.

You are not On Schedule. State your purpose.

This can't be good - she must be Up To Something

Oh, please. What a bunch of nervous nellies.

Pearl was not impressed. When you've settled into your favorite spot and gotten down to some serious cud chewing (and are a former bottle lamb to boot) you aren't easily moved.

I'm with you, Pearl.

Then Again, Maybe Not

2012-01-15T12:43:00.000-08:00

I had all good intentions of going to Roc Day in Ithaca. Thursday night we went to bed and it was 40 degrees. I thought, "Oh, packing will be a snap tomorrow." The next morning we woke up to a mini-blizzard. Heavy snow, winds to 40 mph pushing it around, temps in the teens. That put a serious damper on my enthusiasm since I know the hilltop no-man's-lands between here and there, and the history of 'iffy' road maintenance I've seen other Januarys. By 5 PM I admitted defeat and decided not to go. As it turns out, my travel companions weren't up to going either but hadn't wanted to be the weak link so all in all it worked out for the best.

By Saturday afternoon the snow had stopped and the sun even made an appearance although it stayed in the single digits all day here with wind.

Sunny, frozen January

We had about 9 inches of snow but it was drifted, so deeper and more problematic in some places....like the driveway. It required the first plowing of the winter.

So what does one do when presented with an unexpected day off? Take the dogs for a good romp, of course. Julie and Angel came over and we had a good tramp around the ram's pasture.

Holly

Angel, apparently not minding the bad case of 'snow nose' she has

That's the first Roc Day I've missed in about 10 years, but "discretion is the better part of valor" as the saying goes. I'll ascribe it to the wisdom of age (rather than the wimpiness of age) and hope to make it next year.

How Cool is That?

2012-01-12T13:00:00.000-08:00

This last week has been pretty darn busy. The new year started off at a dead run and so far I'm keeping pace reasonably well. (I know it's only 12 days into the year, but it's my little fantasy and I'm holding onto it as long as I can.)

So far this year in Sheep-land we have disassembled the partitions between all the breeding groups and combined the ewes again. We've changed up coats on all ewes who needed it (most) and washed the dirty ones. Andy totally cleaned the barn and I tidied up all the alleyways and walkways that had accumulated chaff. Amazing how much better the hay cart rolls! Manure is stashed in the long, empty, former feedbunk until the ground either freezes up or dries out and it can be spread. A batch of dried hides has gone out for tanning. A group of lambs has left the farm for processing. Pelts from earlier lambs have returned and been stashed in inventory. Wool has come back from the mill and samples are spun up already! (Kind of had to - Roc Day is Saturday!) A starter flock of ewe lambs has gone to a new home in Ohio. Quite a few orders for raw fleece or pelts or roving has been sent out. Holly had her annual check up and vaccinations (she loves going to the vet - EVERYone is a new friend just waiting to be met). And I was able to get enough more gray Cotswold dyed to send a good-sized box off to be made to roving.

Peacock colors

I kept on with using both blue and yellow dyes together in the pot hoping for better greens. I still lose a little blue component in the exhaust, but I get this crazy gradation of color. I'm hoping it somehow translates in the roving. I suppose a chemist could tell me how the weathered ends of the wool have physically altered scales that allow bigger (or smaller) color molecules to attach first and the other colors and sizes fit into the rest of the fiber in progression as more time elapses......or something like that. I'm happy with "Ooooh, that's so COOL!"

Biggify to better see the yellow/green at the tips and blue/green at the butt of the lock

Now come a few tedious days where I compile all the farm financial bookwork in preparation for the upcoming tax season - receipts in and expenses out. I have it all here in chronological order right down to receipts for the lightbulbs in the barn, it's just a question of categorizing and totalling everything. I know I should do it monthly, it's just never the priority du jour. Oh well, when the weather's crappy outside it's not the worst thing in the world to sit at the table with the radio on and a big mug of coffee. Or two.

A couple of days of concentrated effort and I can continue to say I'm ~~caught up~~ not falling farther behind.

Tree-mendous

2012-01-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

So what does every house with cats need? A cat tree for them to call their own. After we removed a cabinet that Dexter liked to perch on he moped under the dining room table and really seemed sad. Andy thought building a cat tree would be just the tonic he needed. A little ingenious construction and a $50 carpet remnant and we have a cat tree perfect for perching.

King Dexter and his minion, Calvin

It has four platforms spiralling up the central post which has a telescoping top plate that Andy screwed to the ceiling (which will eventually get finished and be pretty, but that's another story). Now when they rocket up the post it won't go crashing through the front windows.

The king's not here.....maybe I should ascend to the throne

There. If you can't make your cats happy you're not doing something right.

Good-bye and Good Luck

2012-01-01T19:23:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! For us 2012 has started off with making some new friends and also saying good-bye to some 'family'.

We had the great pleasure of being contacted by a nice family in Ohio who want to start a flock of Cotswolds at their farm. After a few phone calls and emails to determine what they were looking for we settled on a group of seven white Cotswold ewe lambs from this spring's crop for them to choose from. These particular lambs are all being registered with ACRA (American Cotswold Record Association). They made the drive from Ohio on Friday and stayed in a local hotel overnight.

Saturday morning started with some beautiful light. I love the way the sunshine makes the air glow down the valley.

The sheepy girls had all had their hooves trimmed and received 'grown up' eartags the day before. I told them some folks were coming out to visit.

That's nice. Are you going to feed us now? We can't meet strangers without breakfast.

Shoot. I always land at the end of the table with no room......

Hey, I think I see a truck coming down the road.

We had a lovely long visit (at least I had a good time - I hope they did too!) and we spent time in the barn talking sheep (Cotswolds, specifically) and in the wool shed talking wool. They intend to have the Cotswolds as a wool flock, but aren't actually sure what direction to take when marketing the fleeces - raw to spinners, processed to roving or yarn (and what kind of yarn), make into quilt or comforter batting, sheets of felt for jacket lining....... We tossed around a lot of suggestions for them to consider. In the end they decided to take all seven lambs to have a nice sized starter flock. They will be bred this coming fall and will lamb in spring of 2013. We are very happy to know that they will be well-cared for and they will provide enough fiber to pursue a couple of different ideas.

"So they loaded up the truck and they moved to Bev-er-ly......., I mean O-hi-o!"

The report late this evening is that they rode just fine and are now settled into their new home doing what Cotswolds love to do - EATING. And.....smelling the resident cats there and trying to love them up.

Silly sheep.

The Shocking, REAL Story Behind Modern "Sheep Farming"

2011-12-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

The secret is out. What sheep do when we're not around.

Sheep and power equipment. It's the future - embrace it.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T14:54:00.000-08:00

After having no snow for all of December we were graced with just enough on Friday to make a greeting-card type Christmas scene.

Snow-Ho-Ho

Holly and her friend Angel had a glorious doggy play-date with lots of action.

Arrr....I'm gonna get you!

Smack down!

Wait, did you hear something?

All I hear is you going down!

Angel weighs about the same as Holly, but is taller and therefore faster, but she's so good natured that she lets Holly win the 'I'm going to eat you' part of the game.

Christmas morning was sunny, and the sheep enjoyed standing in the sun waiting to be let back inside for breakfast.

Mmm.....dis is nyce..

Nyce......but is it breakfast yet?

Yeah, we's starffing. What's da holdup?

But eventually everyone trooped in for hay. We give them especially nice alfalfa hay on Christmas (although they then complain bitterly about every subsequent meal for about a week until they realize that was just a special occasion and not regular fare yet).

Cleo enjoyed the chance to get her feet warm. Yes, she's sitting on a ewe's back, but the others mobbed around her so fast it's not clear just what's going on. These sheep LOVE this cat and want to smell her and if she licks them they just about fall down in a swoon. It's really weird.

It's Cleo! Hi, Cleo! Cleo, c'mon! Lick me! Cleo!

She decided they were breathing too. much. sheep. breath. on her fur and she hopped off.

Woolly wishes to all this Christmas!

Buzzing With Activity

2011-12-18T19:25:00.000-08:00

Although it was only 12 degrees this morning we are still without any snow to speak of. All this open weather has allowed Andy to keep working on outside chores. Once the basement was packed full of firewood it was time to get serious about the fuel for the outside wood boiler which supplies heat to his wood shop and my wool shop. Heavier trunk wood was cut to length and divided into smaller pieces on the tractor-mounted wood splitter. Now the big pile of limb wood which has been waiting since early summer is being converted into chunks sized to fit the boiler. No more hiding place for woodies!

Working through the pile of limb wood.

Each length of wood is hoisted and carried to the faithful tractor-powered buzz rig, set in the cradle and pushed into the spinning blade.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-ZINGGGGGG

The saw blade makes a distinctive ringing noise as each cut is completed and the rpms shoot back up with the load of chewing through wood taken away.

Making another pile of work

When the pile of cut pieces gets big enough to interfere with more dropping onto it, it's time to take a break and stack the pieces.

Closing in on 20 cords

The old saying is "wood warms twice", but in reality it's more like six times by the time it's ready to chuck in the boiler.

I've heard that people pay good money to go to a gym and do repetitive weight lifting type exercise. I'm thinking we should be selling memberships..........

Guild Gifting

2011-12-17T15:27:00.000-08:00

The December meeting of the Genesee Valley Handspinners Guild featured two holiday staples - goodies and gifts. The cookies were varied and delicious and the gifts were so temptingly wrapped that thievery was the word of the day. Actually, this is how it works: Everyone wishing to participate brings a prettily wrapped gift of 8 ounces of ready-to-spin fiber. The packages are brought in plain brown bags so that no one knows who the giver is, and your name goes in a hat. At the appointed time, the first name is drawn and that person gets first pick from the table of packages. The following people have the option of either taking from the table or stealing from the first person. The first few participants tend to select the most elaborately wrapped packages, but soon people are stalking the rows of spinners looking for 'that box' that they had their eye on which someone else selected first. A person whose package is stolen can either select from the table of also steal from another person. The game limits stealing to 2 people in a turn, so the third person finding themselves suddenly bereft of their gift has to pick again from the table - a time limit of necessity as about 40 people participated. Some packages changed hands a dozen times before landing with a spinner for good.

I had three boxes stolen away from me and finally ended up with this promising package.

Gift from a fellow spinner

And the contents did not disappoint......

Jackpot!

I'm the happy owner of four 2 oz. puffs of beautiful Romney batts from Longmeadow Farm in Freedom, NY. This will be a special spinning treat for some time in deep winter when a mental pick-me-up is sorely needed.

Trust a spinner to know just what another spinner needs.

And Now, For Something Completely Different

2011-12-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

The corn is all picked, the basement is full of firewood, and while there is still the outside boiler to finish cutting firewood for, equipment to put away and some manure to haul out, That Andy is turning to thoughts of time in the wood shop. He has an order for a lawyer's style bookcase of cherry from someone's property. He sawed their small logs this spring and let them air dry over the summer. Slow and natural drying is least stressful on lumber. Now that he's almost ready to work with it, the lumber needs some final drying to get down to a moisture content that will be stable when in someone's house.

lumber stacked to dry

This is the small finishing kiln Andy built within the shop. It holds more than enough lumber to complete almost any project at one time.

Heating system to dry lumber

The heat source is some reclaimed baseboard hot water runs left from a renovation project. The hot water is pulled off the main heat exchanger he built which heats the whole shop. The heat from the water in the pipe transfers to the fins of the heat run and radiates off, rising up through the layers of lumber, and drying the wood in a gentle manner. The source of all this hot water is our outside wood boiler. Andy has it plumbed to heat my wool shop and his wood shop, but we also pull some extra 'free' heat off it to bring the water heater up to temp faster for washing wool, and now it gives heat to this little kiln, too.

Breathing holes

A couple of holes in the top, far corner of the space will allow for hot air to vent out and carry humidity with it.

Sealed shut, and working

Simple design, uses 'free' energy, and works quietly all the time without any input from him.

Now if I could just find a way to get wool to wash itself.

Second Verse, Same as the First

2011-12-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

So, what have I been doing since moving the rams out of their breeding groups?

Skirt, wash, dye, repeat.

I'm working through the white Cotswold lamb fleeces and doing some dyeing for a special request colorway. A group of spinners saw Berry Patch at FLFF and wanted me to do it in lamb and add some silk as I had done for September Glow and Spring Meadow.

Berry Patch

So, I've been spending time each day doing the aforementioned skirt/wash/dye routine. I'll have almost 30 lbs of washed fiber for processing, so I should get back 25 lbs or so. The actual basic colors for the blend are lilac, pink/crimson and kelly green/emerald green.

Lilac

Pink and Crimson, mixed

Kelly Green and Emerald Green, mixed

It always amazes me how colors that look like clown barf when sitting in bags next to each other will cozy up together and be pretty when made to roving. Seriously. Look at Berry Patch. Now look at these colors. Now look back at Berry Patch. Really?? Yes, truly a miracle. I'll be eager to spin a sample with the silk added and see how it looks. Maybe similar to Spring Meadow, but that has blue and yellow and this doesn't. So. Many. Color. Combos.

My favorite color is green and wouldn't you know that's one that gives me trouble. I suspect it's our uber hard water, but I really have to add a good bit of vinegar to the dyebath and heat much longer than other colors and it still doesn't exhaust 100%. Spruce goes a little easier, but these bright greens are problematic. I had a gray fleece (Mr. Bill) that became un-reserved so I decided that I'd overdye it. I've done blue on gray (Blue Jeans) and purple on gray (Wine Country) so I thought I'd go green, but I really didn't want to beat on it so I thought I'd make my own green by putting yellow and blue together in case that helped somehow. Apparently, despite being thoroughly blended in the pot, the dye attaches to the fiber as though it were two colors. I actually like this and I think it will card into a nice roving with some depth of shading that should be pretty. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Yellow plus blue equals yellowgreenblue

As soon as the dyed lamb is on its way to the mill I'll grab some gray Cotswold to add to this. I like to send a batch big enough that it will have a little shelf life. More skirt, wash, dye in my future.

And then what color shall I do? Hmmmm.........

When the Party's Ooo-vveerrrrrr............

2011-11-28T18:35:00.000-08:00

Breeding season is officially over today, and not a moment too soon. Isaac has worked himself near to death.

Ugh.

Ha ha, just kidding. He was just enjoying a nice post-breakfast lie down. Sheep sometimes do like to lay flat out on their sides and they sure do look alarming until you see them breathing.

Breeding season started on October 24. We had seven breeding groups and one group of youngsters and old ladies that didn't get a ram. Given that gestation is 147 days, give or take a day or two, our first lambs should arrive on March 20 and the last possible lamb could be born April 24. A span of 35 days allows for all ewes to cycle once and most will have time to cycle twice if they don't catch on the first breeding. And if someone doesn't conceive, it's OK. The barn is always full! We schedule lambing this way so that we are past the worst of the cold before babies arrive but by the time everyone is done and the barn is bursting at the seams they can start going out to pasture. Also, I'm sure that all ewes have lambed and all lambs are out of the jugs before I go to MD for the sheep and wool festival in early May. I would never leave Andy with pregnant ewes to watch when he has so much other stuff to do that time of year!

The rams are all haltered and tied in the trailer for the trek back across the road to the upper Bachelor Barn. Having just come out of their harems, they are primed to fight with one another so tying them is the safest way to get them where they're going. They were all gentle and well-behaved with us when we went into the pens to feed or water, but it's like flipping a switch when they get together.

Hmmm........I have a bad feeling about this........

Once in the upper barn we build a temporary - but very sturdy - small pen for them to get reacquainted in. We make it small on purpose so that no two rams can back up and get a running start at each other to butt heads. Broken necks can - and have - resulted. It takes many days, even a couple of weeks, before they have resigned themselves to the fact that the girls are gone and they have re-established their pecking order among themselves. We move them off the trailer and tie them again until we can get the heavy panels secured that will hold them until they come to grips with the new reality.

If I can...just...chew this...a little more....ugh....almost there...

Once everything is secure it's a free-for-all of pushing, grunting, sideways head slamming, jumping, thrashing and general mayhem. But they really can't do worse than bruise each other.

*#$*#!&*&...I'll fix you, you $*&#%$&#* !

We did use one ram lamb this year. He's very promising and seemed to have no problem breeding the girls, but we didn't need to put him in with the big guys. He's not all hopped up on attitude the way the adults are, and besides...he'd probably get killed.

Nooo! Don't put me in there! I'll be gooood!

Isaac is especially peeved at being back in with other rams and worked himself into a state pretty quickly. He only weighs 275 compared to the two white rams' 325, so while he was hurling himself at them they just took it and gave him a whack in the side for good measure.

Pant...pant...gasp....pant....&$#^#*$^!!

Sorry guys, eleven months must seem like a long time, but it will give you something to look forward to.

Frosty Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T17:31:00.000-08:00

The last two days were foggy and alternating freezing rain, snow and regular rain. Today the sky was clear. Hooray! It did go below freezing last night, so this morning eveything had a lovely rime of frost on it.

This oak leaf blew in from the woods

A cluster of apple leaves

I love how delicate the bit of wild carrot leaf in the lower right corner looks, and the buttercup leaf in the upper left looks like it's dusted with confectioner's sugar.

Single apple leaf

Notice how each little hair on the devil's paintbrush leaf is outlined in frost.

We need to remember to give thanks every day - for family and friends of course, but don't forget the blessings we live with every minute: to see the beauty around us, to breathe deep the cold clean air, to have the bounty of fruit trees and plants and the animals we keep, warm clothes, clean water, medicine when we need it, to be living in a free country.....

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Spinning Saturday

2011-11-19T17:19:00.000-08:00

The Genesee Valley Handspinners Guild meets monthly throughout the year. I'm usually able to attend half or more and they are always a delightful day out. Any spinner or wannbe spinner ought to try to hook up with a local guild. They are THE best place to gain inspiration, knowledge and a dose of renewed enthusiasm for that project that's been languishing in the bottom of your tote bag. Today's meeting was well attended (around 60 of the 100+ members signed in, I believe) and lively.

Spinners, spinners, everywhere

Several of us set up vendor tables in the back of the room and sell fiber, equipment and related things, and sometimes handcrafted jewelry, soaps, candles and the like. You can always find that small birthday or thank-you gift that you were needing if you shop the tables in back.

One of the best features of our meetings is Show and Tell. It's a great way for us to show off our triumphs to people who will appreciate them, whether it's a skein, garment, book, piece of equipment, dye experiment, or 'the first time I ever did one of these'.

The line for Show and Tell

We also have a potluck twice a year and November is the year's second. Naturally it features hearty, hot dishes, but also lots of salads, fruit and good-for-you items which tend to balance out the tables of baked goodies. With so many fantastic cooks under one roof the array is astounding and everyone finds just the cuisine they want. We really should compile a cookbook using the recipes of the bi-annual potlucks, but so far no brave soul has stepped forward to do it.

Only two of the four tables laden with food.

And another really good feature of the potlucks at a guild meeting is that nobody freaks out if there's a hair in the food.

Class Picture Day

2011-11-17T18:09:00.000-08:00

I had a fellow in OH phone about possibly getting some Cotswold ewe lambs to start a flock. He'd like to stick with the ACRA registry, so I flipped through my record book to see who was eligible and who would also be a lamb I would sell. (Must. Not. Keep. Them. All.)

Once I had them picked out on paper we went through the lamb group and separated them into a smaller pen so I could (try) to take some pictures. Taking decent photos of a group of milling lambs is like watching fleas in a teacup. It's a good thing I started with fresh batteries. They were shorn a few weeks ago so they are at an unflattering stage right now. Typical kids. Besides side views and butts, I took a head shot of each.

Looks studious. Voted "Most Likely to Succeed".

Clueless party girl. Voted "Most Likely to Make the Headlines".

The Drama Queen. Voted "Most Likey to Make it to Hollywood".

Gets along with everyone. Voted "Miss Congeniality."

Teacher's pet. Voted "Miss Goody-Four-Shoes".

Very athletic. Voted "Miss Jock-ette".

Biggest hair. Voted "Most Likely to Be a Cheerleader".

At least I didn't catch anybody with their eyes closed and mouth open. This time.

Last Weekend......

2011-11-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

....my cousin Carolyn and I went to a small craft show "over the border" in PA. We had not heard of it before, but having gotten a personal invite to attend (they really wanted spinning and hooking demos and gave us a plum booth spot) we decided to go. Besides, it was a fundraiser for the local library system so how could anyone say 'no'?

Turns out Prattsburgh is a thriving metropolis compared to Genesee, PA. We were housed on the open main floor of an old hotel. We saw a thermostat on the wall, but it must be a sacred item as no one touched it all day :-( Ah, well, dressed in wool and drinking hot coffee all day we were able to stave off frostbite.

Lamb, yarn, sheepskins (and Julie!)

Quilt batting and lots of roving

Rug hooking fabric, kits and samples

Carolyn brought some nice hooked items she has done including this one of her son's dog.

Tezel, hooked from her portrait

Having tallied up the hours and dollars spent making the rug, Carolyn opted to send her son a photo of the rug. He can visit it anytime he wants.

We didn't get out much as the craft organizers graciously had runners to get lunch for us, but Julie did see this flock of exotic birds.

Rusticus shovelia, subspecies pennsylvanium

Gotta add that to my Life List!

The people there were really nice, but it wasn't a fiber crowd. Roc Day in Ithaca, hosted by the Black Sheep Handspinners Guild, in January will be a different story!

Indian Summer

2011-11-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

We are having a gorgeous, unusual streak of warm sunny weather. Everyone is loving it.

The ram boys are queued up every morning to go out and poke around in the pasture. They have hay available in the feeders at night to snack on. Even though the pasture is old and past its prime this time of year they still want to go out and do sheepy things.

C'mon, lady, hurry up with the gate already.

Mr. Bill photo-bombs the scene

This black lamb had dozed off while waiting. Note the white spot on his side. It's the only white mark he has. His buddy was kind enough to sit and wait for him to wake up.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...........

Then he woke up and ran to catch up.

Crap, I hate being last.

And everyone spread out for a nice day of grazing.

Living that good sheep life.

Andy has been able to get after picking the corn. For ear corn to keep in the crib it should be 24% moisture or less. The snow and cold we had slowed its progress but now we're good.

Trusty gravity box and elevator

Flowing out well with the help of an occasional poke to keep it moving.

Filling the center bay of the crib

The ears are not husking nearly as well as last year's variety. It might be peculiar to that type or it might be due to weather and environment. It's undesireable to have so much husk in the crib as it cuts down on air circulation and promotes mold growth, but there's nothing to be done but hope for the best. We are much luckier than some people who have lost their corn crop to drought or flood.

Last year's corn on left - husked well. This year's on right - not so much.

Wouldn't this make a cool jigsaw puzzle?

Holly got as far as the apple trees before collapsing in the sun.

Huh? Wha..? Could you not make so much noise? I'm trying to rest, here.

Such a hard, doggie life.

Fa La La La La, La La-La Shawl

2011-10-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

My spinning guild, the Genesee Valley Handspinner's Guild, is undertaking a group knitting project in which we all knit a La-La Shawl using our choice of yarns, gauge, etc. They will all be displayed at the 2012 Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival. I appreciate knitting, but it's not my 'thing' the way spinning is. I find knitting to be anxiety-producing. If there's any kind of pattern, the number of stitches matters. If you are making a garment it's not unreasonable to expect it to fit. If you make a mistake and don't catch it immediately, you have the task of either unknitting rows to reach your problem or just ripping back and then trying to pick stitches up again. Either method is time consuming and stressful, at least for me. When you don't have much 'leisure' time, the thought of spending it on a futile effort that you realize you've done wrong pretty much makes it easy to postpone the start of anything. Still, I've been wanting to make a shawl of some kind for a while now, mostly so I could indulge in buying a (OK, maybe a few) of the beautiful shawl pins I see people using. ( I also have the buttons I'm going to build a sweater around......someday).

Anyway, I've been saving some special yarn for a special project and this will be perfect. It's a blend of wool from a dear little pet sheep named Flip (who I sadly have no pictures of) which I dyed pink, all the fur I accumulated from our wonderful Molly dog, and also some odd bits of pretty silk, some dark red mohair and a little peach colored angora. Quite the combo, but it spun up beautifully and I ended with just a few ounces shy of 5 whole pounds. And it's been in my stash for..... years. Molly died in 2007. I'm not sure if I had the roving made before or after she crossed The Bridge.

Molly

So before heading to Rhinebeck on the guild's bus, I got everything out with plans to get started on it while I had a busload of great knitters ~~captive~~ available to ask questions.

The Special Yarn

Molly's fur muted the pink wool to a lovely plum color. Bits of the peach and red show up too.

The Equipment

I armed myself with my Denise needle set as I had no clue what I should use, the pattern, stitch markers, a row counter and a hefty ball of the yarn. The rest is safely back in the stash for future projects. All went according to plan, and having settled on size 9 needles (thanks Wendy and Bonnie for the frequent advice and hand-holding) I started the pattern. Three false starts and I was underway. At the risk of jinxing myself, it really IS an easy pattern and I recommend it as a confidence builder if you are knitophobic like me.

Progress!

I've just completed the second lace row and it all seems to be working. They yarn is handling nicely and Molly's fur is raising a dark, fuzzy, angora-like halo on it! I'm going to try to get it done by Christmas and it will be my present to myself.

And maybe a shawl pin.

You've GOT to Be Kidding Me!

2011-10-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

We usually see our first measureable snow fall during the week of November 11. Anything falling prior to that is a dusting that doesn't even really stick.

This is yesterday (taken through the wool shop window).

Uh-oh.

The temperature here this morning was 25 degrees. (Note - I am currently searching sites for quilted or lined jeans. Anybody have a favorite brand or store?) Clearly the snow is not going anywhere. At least the sunrise created some pretty effects.

Sunlight on snow. I feel a haiku coming on.

The sheep have the very best view on the farm today.

The lambs weren't real happy about being pushed outside while we filled the feeders. They were born in the barn and by the time they were able to go out into the yard and pasture the snow was gone.

Why are we out here? Please let us back in!

At least they could enjoy the sun for a change.

Sheep shadows

Now if Angel would just come over we could play........

It was going to happen sooner or later. I could have lived with it happening later.

In Which There is Only Time to Blog Cats

2011-10-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

A wise blogger friend of mine, thecrazysheeplady, once told me that when time is short, post a picture of your cat.

I don't always climb into your tote bag.

But when I do, I crumple whatever is in it.

"He's my big brother! I'm going to grow up to be just like him! I do EVERYthing he does!"

Sigh. "Yes. Yes, he does. Everything." Sigh.

What an amazing stroke of luck that I actually happened to have pictures of our cats handy in the camera.

Take It Off, Baby!

2011-10-19T17:59:00.000-07:00

Having been born in late March and early April, the Cotswold lambs have grown a prodigious amount of fiber. At a rate of an inch a month - typical for the breed, especially youngsters - they now have up to seven inches of clean, soft, particularly lovely wool. Up to this point they've been grazing pasture 99% of the time with only a snack of dry hay when grass gets short from drought, or if they've been kept off the pasture for a day as happens when we run the flock over the scales to check weight gains and eye scores (a measure of one particularly dangerous type of internal parasitism). Anyway, their fleeces are lovely now, but will lose condition from VM contamination and possibly cotting if left on until spring shearing. Shearing now gets the fleece off in excellent condition and makes them cooler, too. There is plenty of time for them to regrow another 6 inches by spring shearing. Our schedules finally matched up and Mr. Magee came to do the deed.

What is this 'shearing' I hear about?

You'll see. Heh heh heh.

Shiny piles of lamb's wool

Glow-in-the-dark lamb

The Cotswolds really are that shiny. (The glowing eyes...not so much. That's my camera :-/ )

Hey, what's everybody looking at?

These other lambs weren't being shorn today, they just got caught up in the group when we penned them. They did do a good job serving as wooly doorstops and moral support for the Cots. Sheep pick up subtle cues from body movement and eye contact and they know when you are or aren't 'after them' so they were very calm as we worked around them selecting out only the Cots to shear.

Cleo! Hi, Cleo! Hi! Cleo! Hi!

All the sheep love Cleo and she loves them back. Or maybe she just likes hot sheep breath.

Hang on. Don't worry. It'll be over soon.

Traditionally, one shears the white sheep first and the colored sheep after to avoid any contamination of the white wool with colored bits. It's not critical here since I handle and sort all the wool myself, but we just tend to do it out of habit.

Shiny shades of silver sheepies. Say it three times fast.

Around behind the ears

After the 20 ewe lambs were done we moved operations up to the ram barn and did 15 ram lambs too. After being shorn they have to get reacquainted, so much shoving and smelling and some head butting ensues.

Who are you and why are you in my pasture?? Oh wait......geez, Fred, what happened to you?

So now I have 35 (more) fleeces to work with! Woo!

Dexter apparently took advantage of Holly being out all day to spend the afternoon in her chair.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Indulge in a little too much 'nip, did we?

I'm thinking orange cat fur might make a nice blend with lamb........

Feeling Our Oats

2011-10-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

When our field of oats was combined last month we didn't have time that day to unload them into our storage bin. The next day rained, then we baled the straw, then something else needed doing, followed by something else and something else. The good news is that it was OK to leave them in the gravity boxes until we could put them away. No vermin could get at them and they were safe from the weather. The bad news is that knowing things are "OK" is seductive and you keep putting off the chore of finishing the task.

So Monday it was clear and sunny and Andy got 'er done. First the grain head was attached to the elevator to funnel the oats down into the bin, then the elevator was drawn down to the yard next to the bin, cranked upright and maneuvered so that the spout was lined up properly with the bin door. The tractor unhitched and moved to the side so the PTO shaft could be hooked up. Then a second tractor backed the gravity box up to the bottom of the elevator so the grain would spill into it and be carried up and deposited into the bin. The few cars that came down the road right then could swing into the mouth of our driveway and around the tractor. Most drivers smiled and waved, as they could see Work Was Being Done. One guy seemed a little miffed that he had to slow down, but it was good for him as he was going too fast for this road anyway. Probably a 'transplant' from somewhere more urban.

Ready to go

Guillotine door rolls up, oats spill out.

Starting to flow 'down the drain'

Flowing along and kicking up dust

The inside of the gravity box is built like a lopsided funnel. Being made of smooth metal, the grain flows like water down and out. Hence 'gravity box'. Because the grain is very dry (as it must be to keep from spoiling in storage) moving it causes billows of dust and oat hulls and chaff. The flights (crossbars on the elevator chute) carry the grain up, but because the grain is trying to flow back down you get an odd hypnotic effect of movement in 2 directions at once, like watching a Slinky try to come down an Up escalator. And all that tumbling blows more of the chaff out.

Up... I said UP! ...the elevator

With the wagons unloaded the elevator is pulled away and cranked down into a more horizontal posture for travel.

Looks good - still got a few feet of room in there.

Closing the lid on the oat crop for the year.

That will be more than enough to supply the flock for the next year as they only get grain at certain times and the oats are only one component of the mix they get.

Puts MY mind at ease. Thanks.

Next up in a few weeks....corn!

Moving Right Along

2011-10-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

Rain is predicted to settle in for about a week, so Andy has been working hammer and tongs at the roof project. He's got it pretty well whipped except for a triangular wedge right under the electrical cable entry box. He'll make that area weather-safe and wait till it's dry again. We'll just have to live with the classy scaffolding for a few days.

Al-l-l-l-most done

I used the weather to good advantage and got a coat of varnish on the wooden display boxes he made for me to use in my booth at festivals. They worked great for yarn at the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival but I didn't have time to put a finish on them before that event. I promised myself that I'd get it done before summer was over. I kinda made it.

Varnished AND gently sanded. Woo!

All of a sudden the holly berries are turning bright red, but they still have blossoms too. They are as confused as the teasels. I hope they are this red at Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho - Merry October!

And while we bustled around trying to get everything done, Holly enjoyed a nice relaxing afternoon on the lawn watching the world go by.

Honestly! Those cats can just be SO uncouth. Hmpf.

Time to move operations indoors till the rain goes by.

What a Tease

2011-10-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

The weather continues to be phenomenal. Warm, sunny.........aaah. With the lawn freshly mowed it even smells like summer instead of fall. After the three-plus inches of rain we had and now hot weather we're seeing some late bloomers strutting their stuff. Here's a short but vigorous teasel in bloom, which some bumblebees are happy to take advantage of.

The king and his court

Teasels used to be cultivated here in the northeast for use in woolen mills. The large primary head was called the king and the others were also harvested, but considered of lesser value as they were smaller and not as stiff. The heads were used to brush cloth and raise the nap. There's an interesting article here from an 1893 American Agriculturist magazine about their culture, harvest and value. An acre would raise an average of 100,000 teasels and at upward of $1.50 per thousand it was worth growing although the market was rather limited. Now they're mostly just interesting wildflowers and a boon to the bees.

Our daily walkies found the milkweed pods on the lower farm opening in the warmth, but it's been so still today that none of the seed silks took flight. The first good gust of wind will really send them flying.

Milkweed fluff

Milkweed is another plant that has uses other than to make more milkweed. Monarch butterfly caterpillars feed exclusively on it. I have a friend who spun a very serviceable yarn with the fluff. And during WWII the seed pods were collected for use in life jackets for soldiers having to traverse the Pacific. We also saw two brave monarch butterflies gamely flitting south, but they were too high to get a picture. Good luck!

There's always an audience by the fence.

Hey, how are ya doin'? Me, I'm good, I got grass.

And back in the house I found this little guy on the kitchen floor - a ring-neck snake. He wasn't getting much traction on the linoleum despite all the fur and dirt. :-/ This is his normal adult size. This particular individual didn't have the classic vivid underside of some, but was a pleasant pale yellow. Good thing I found him before one of the cats did. They'd treat him like a Twizzler and it wouldn't be pretty.

Sorry, wrong address, thought I was in Slytherin House.

I was able to get our Cotswold yarn posted today on the website for sale. I'll work on getting the dyed skeins listed as I am able, but it just feels wrong to work at the computer during daylight hours when it's this nice out. I also started putting a finish on the nice yarn display boxes Andy made and hope to finish that tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Morning Ritual

2011-10-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

Everyone has their morning routine. After the basic necessities are taken care of, some people start the day with coffee (show of hands), reading the paper (OK, I'm dating myself but some of us still like to hold a piece of newsprint to find out what's new in the region and world), maybe doing yoga or <shudder> running. After we do sheep chores and have breakfast I sit at the computer desk and get this:

The Morning Nose

Once I sit down Holly gets her Kong, shimmies around under the desk and c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y pushes it onto my lap and then waits with her nose on my knees. Sometimes she waits a few minutes like that if I'm in the middle of typing. Can't stop and let that train of thought derail, you know. Then I get up and -oh joy! - stick a diet cookie down into the small end so she has to work to get it out. She gets sooo happy over a 2 calorie styrofoam-peanut-like doggie treat.

Good dog.

October's Bright Blue Weather

2011-10-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness the gloomy cold has given way to....... sunny cold. At least by my standards. There was a good frost on the grass and roofs this morning, though not a killing freeze. The sky has been absolutely cloudless - not a puff, a wisp, a streak....nothing but blue.

Sunny October day.

The down side is that you can see a LOT of leaves have come off during the wet spell, and now that the sun is out it's really, truly fall (as if the calendar hadn't clued you in).

Andy is finally able to get after a job that's needed doing badly this year. It really was too hot earlier to do it, but now that the year is winding down it's getting crucial to get. it. done.

Laying shingles, what fun

Somewhat more than half yet to go

He's going to replace the shingles on the whole lower storey, so has to go over the cupola and across the front of the house and wrap around the corner where the electrical entry cable is. We'll move the snazzy wood scaffolding as he goes along. The weather is supposed to hold like this into the early part of next week. Here's hoping.

Knowing a freeze was possible, I went over to Julie's and picked a bucket of mint so more jelly could be made for us by the good folks at Los Gatos. They have a great side business of making specialty jellies, jam, chutneys and the like. They're awesome.

Bucket o' mint

The usual patch was pretty sparse this year due to the hot dry weather all summer. I hunted around the south side of the pond under the tree line where the spillover runs and found a much better area to pick in. It was wildly overgrown and wading through the goldenrod and multiflora rose to get there I thought of the lyrics Johnny Horton sang in "The Battle of New Orleans"

"Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go."

But it's really good mint.

After taking some pics of the newest roving which had still not gotten listed on the website (it is now) and pulling together a web order to mail out tomorrow I took Holly down the road for you daily walk. You'd think that walking a country dog is sort of pointless given that they must exercise themselves. Yeah, but she is only out when we are out, and she doesn't go farther than the lawn or upper barn and corn crib area. She does hunt for mice in the alfalfa field (mouse snack, yum!) but that's the extent of it, for which we're grateful. A supervised dog is a safe dog. So we try to walk somewhere interesting every day and being a dog, EVERYwhere is interesting so she never tires of the same route.

We saw deer. Well, I did. She was too short to see over the grass, but she could smell them!

WHO DAT??

Nicely colored hips on the multiflora rose in the hedgerow.

Pesty thing, but at least you're pretty.

And a valiant butter-and-sugar wildflower still blooming between the tractor tire tracks.

Pretty, and NOT pesty.

The shadows were getting long by the time we got back.

What are you doing still walking? It's almost time to let us in.

And of course the cats knew it was supper time.

Where. Have. You. Been? Alexi, Ivan and Natasha

Speaking of kitties, little Calvin is past the kitten stage and is now a young catling. He is off being 'tutered and Dexter is enjoying a 24 hour vacation from his busyness. He's kind of looking around for him, so I'm sure he'll be glad to see Calvin return tomorrow. He just probably won't admit it.

Peace and quiet and a sunny windowsill to myself. Thank you.

Tomorrow......more sun, more fun!

Monday Mishmash

2011-10-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

The rain has finally stopped but it's still cloudy and gloomy. This morning we had our yearly Scrapie Program flock inspection. At this point we have reached "Scrapie Free" designation but are still subject to yearly inspection. It involves checking a year's worth of my records as to who has joined the flock (either by being born here or by being purchased and brought in), which individuals have left the flock by whatever method - death (list date and cause), sale to another flock (date and name, address and phone of buyer) or culled ( these are used for home consumption or processed and sold to a 'raw feeder' who fosters Newfies and Bernese Mtn. Dogs - no one has to suffer the auction barn ) -and noting any replaced ear tag numbers. Happily, no discrepancies were found and the tech was out of here in record time.

While I went to town to mail out a web order and grab some groceries, Andy tackled the job of repairing a metal gate that the sheep had finally beaten to death. It's a perfect height for them to stick their heads through, lean hard and rock back and forth to scratch their necks. Years of that kind of flexing had weakened one of the long members and it finally cracked. Andy took it up to the shop and replaced the broken section with 2 hardwood boards - one locust and one oak. They should last longer than the rest of the gate.

You're fixed - back you go.

I worked for some time in the shop sorting washed curls for a big Santa bearding order then took Holly for a well-deserved walk. It's been so wet that we haven't gone farther than house to barn to other barn to house to shop to house, etc, etc. Our road is fairly quiet and most of the people who travel it are familiar with us walking and we wave at each other in passing. I love the 'country wave' drivers give. The hand resting on top of the steering wheel kind of flips up as they make eye contact - just sort of "Hey, I see ya there, bye" as they go past. So far it's been a whole hand, not a single finger. Heh.

Anyway, I'm trying to get into the habit of putting the camera in my pocket when I go out - easier now that I'm wearing a coat most of the time with sufficient pocketage. Today was Wooly Bear Day and we saw several. They are unusual this year, being mostly solid color without the black banding. I wonder what that indicates for winter weather.

Cold winter? Warm winter? Get off the road or you'll see NO winter.

This woolly on my shop is clearly conflicted.

I was a Dorper in a former life.

The sheep were really enjoying being on pasture without being rained on. This is their last rotation into this pasture before breeding season later this month.

Happy sheep

They've gotten used to seeing us walk by and don't startle and move off which is nice.

"Hey, Mom, what's them peoples going by?"

Emma, a colored Cotswold

Gilly, another colored Cotswold

Not a very exciting day, but any day you can feel like Progress Was Made is a good one.

Warm Winter Woolens

2011-10-02T18:24:00.000-07:00

We've had quite the rude reminder - with temps in the mid 30s and wind and rain - that summer is over, fall is really here and hard behind that will be winter. Ick. I hate winter. Oh, I like the pretty snow at Christmas and a sunny day with snow on the ground and frosted trees can be beautiful, but I've never been able to withstand cold well so I dread the long, dark cold season. From December to late March my usual outside attire is thermal undershirt, wool sweater or heavy sweatshirt, thermal sweat pants, insulated ski pants over the sweats, fleece vest, quilted jacket, heavy insulated winter coat with hood, knit hat (sometimes with a thermal snood under it), 2 pairs of gloves, 2 pairs of socks and thermal Muck brand boots. And I still get cold unless I'm moving the whole time. Andy even carries a second pair of gloves for me inside his shirt where they stay warm and halfway through chores when my hands go numb we swap so I can finish. I even get cold in the house when it's a very reasonable 68 degrees. At 70 I feel pretty good and that's where Andy starts to sweat, so we have a magic 2 degree window where we're both comfy. Some days, when the temps are low enough and the wind is blowing hard enough it's just not possible to get parts of the house warm enough for me. Then I wear a shrug and fingerless mitts. I have some very humble ones that I made myself, but I've been recently blessed by good friends with (as Snapple puts it) Better Stuff!

Amy gifted me with this LaLa Shawl at the Fiber Fest in September. It's some of my dyed Cotswold lamb and silk called Forget Me Not which I'm currently out of but hope to make more of soon.

Back view

I like to roll the collar area for extra warmth over the back of my neck and it stays on my shoulders well that way, too.

Front, with shawl pin, also from Stone Edge Fibers

Along with the sample baby garments she knit to showcase my Cotswold yarn, Caroline also made a pair of mittens which I neglected to blog about. Bad Robin.

Worsted weight singles yarn

And before that, our spinning guild held a "hand covering exchange" in which all participants put unspun fiber in a bag, the bags were shuffled, and each person took a bag with the direction to make a pair of mittens/gloves/mitts/muffs/whatever and at the end of the designated time they would be returned to the original owner magically made into something nice. Wouldn't you know, out of 40-some participants Caroline got my fiber. We got a sneak peek at our items at a guild meeting, then they were all whisked away to be held until the fiber fest when they would become an awesome guild display. But when that was over, they became mine, mine, mine!

Backs

Palms

Beautiful things, made by friends. My heart is already warm.

Past Tense

2011-09-29T18:23:00.000-07:00

The camera is full of stuff that happened a few days ago (or more than a few) and it's past time to get caught up.

I dyed a lot of our Cotswold yarn for our booth at the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival .

The festival went very well with nice weather and happy crowds. Everyone loved the shawl my friend Amy made from some of my roving. It's the LaLa Shawl we're going to do as a guild group-knit project and will exhibit them all next year at the 2012 festival.

Andy spent a lot of time explaining the features of the skein winder and swift that he made. He had a lot of interest but no firm orders.....yet.

The bees are doing very well. Many have adopted the hive with no qualms.

The majority of them have decided to remain in the tree, and in fact the little darlings actually pushed the steel wool out of the cracks we had jammed it in and made openings of the size that pleases them. So I guess we have a bee tree. The fall flowers have been blooming like crazy and providing them with fast and easy fixin's to make honey. You can literally smell it around the tree.

While we had a stretch of good weather we went to the woods and cut a lot of trees to go toward our winter firewood. We have wood-fired boilers for both the house and our two shops and between those two boilers we use about 60 facecord. In a perfect world we'd have cut these last fall and let them season a year. We used to do that, but got behind one year and can't seem to catch up. The good news is that ash is one of the few species that will still burn and give off good BTUs when green and we have tons of it. Many of the trees seem to be affected by Ash Decline and are dying, so it's not like we're cutting viable young growth.

These are on the edge of the woods and surrounded by sprangly undergrowth that makes working with a chainsaw more dangerous than necessary. I go along In Case Of Accidents. He jokes that if going for help isn't likely to do any good, I can at least stay with him till he stops twitching. Eeesh. Funny, but not. Unexpected things can happen and having another person along when he's cutting is a smart thing he always does. Here Andy is starting to swamp out the area around this cluster of ash so he can work more safely.

He cut better than 20 trees in about an hour and a half. Here's one just getting under motion. Later he'll go back and pull them out with the big winch on the back of the tractor, drag them into the field where he can work more easily and cut the limb wood to length and block and split the trunk wood.

And while waiting for him to add more fuel to his chainsaw I found this at my feet.

A downy turkey feather. We have a lot of them around, travelling in flocks through the tall grass looking for grasshoppers and in the woods for beech nuts and acorns and anything they can scratch up from the ground.

"And that's the way it was."

And if you know who said that every night you're at least as old as I am :-)

Bee Tentatively Hopeful

2011-09-11T17:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I left early to spend the day demonstrating hand spinning at the Benjamin Patterson Inn and Museum down in Corning. This place is right in the heart of Corning near the Corning Glass Museum. The Inn itself was built in 1796 and is original to the property but they have added some outbuildings over time. For a small site the museum is really comprehensive with dedicated docents and volunteers demonstrating period appropriate activities all year (lots of school field trips here) and especially on this weekend - the "Whingblinger". I had everything I needed packed into tote bags except the camera. :-(

But when I returned home I found the move-your-hive setup in place and apparently starting to work.

Step right up, nice new clean hive, no waiting.

Man, I hate these one-way streets!

The one-way wire funnel apparatus was working pretty well, letting bees out but confounding them when they tried to walk back in. Many were going in and out of the new hive box in a normal, businesslike fashion so some of them appear to accept it.

The down side, which we kind of expected, is that the bees inside looked for other, easier ways to get out of the tree. Any place bees were leaking out got plugged with a little wad of steel wool, the one thing bees can't push or chew their way through. Ew, chewing steel wool - ugh. The few small places above and below the original hole they chose as a front door were filled easily. Then they started coming out the other side of the tree. Andy and Nick reported that they were quite docile while bark was gently pulled loose to find where they were getting out. Happily, nobody got stung.

Closing up the back door

Tonight just before dark we checked and found yet more places the bees were getting out. We could actually feel warm damp air coming out of the cracks and it already smelled like honey! We added quite a bit more steel wool everywhere we could find, and checked the wire mesh funnel on the other side to be sure there weren't any dead bees blocking it. (There weren't).

I think tomorrow they will have a really hard time going anywhere but out the funnel, but we'll see. We're hoping they don't get creative and go up and find a place we have to use a ladder to block.

And the other part of the tale is that we've discovered that this tree is really, really in bad shape and it's a wonder it hasn't split and fallen on the house and garage already. Once the bee situation is rectified we'll have to seriously think about taking it down or be sorry in the next big wind or ice event. And I really don't want to think about that.

Dye Day

2011-09-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

My cousin Carolyn is an excellent rug hooker. When she took up the craft in earnest a few years ago, she phoned a family member and excitedly told them, "Guess what? I'm a hooker and I'm hooking on a rug right now!" Without missing a beat the person on the other end said, "You tell that husband of yours that if he's going to let you do that the least he can do is get you a decent mattress instead." Funny people, my relatives.

Anyway, just as knitters eventually want to spin their own yarn, Carolyn wanted to dye her own rug fabric. I have the equipment and space, she has the knowledge of what's desired, so we've teamed up to create dyed Dorr wool fabric for rug hooking (or any other craft it would work for).

Eye of newt and tongue of dog........ oh wait, that's the other recipe. I mean 1/8 tsp. Fushia and 1/16 tsp Lilac.

We dye a yard at a time and order a 15 yard bolt for each session, so there are lots of options to choose from. The giant pile of color swatches on the corner of the table is a guide, but even with ultra precise dye measuring spoons (hard to call something that measures 1/128th of a teaspoon a spoon) we missed the mark on a couple of the pieces. No matter - every color will appeal to someone, sometime. And it was just fun to be so creative with someone who's so much fun.

The end result was a pile of pieces that she will take home, rinse again and dry, and label for sale at FLFF.

Five hours of fun in a pile

Who knew hooking could be such fun?

You Will Bee Amazed

2011-09-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

I love honey bees. Someday when I'm too old to wrestle with sheep I'll have a few hives, like Sara and Stella. (Not that they are too old to wrestle sheep...well, Sara isn't anyway...) In the meantime I enjoy them vicariously through friends. Sometimes a swarm will come through our place and settle to rest where we can see it. We call our bee friend, Nick, and he comes to collect them and start a new hive at his place.

He got this great big swarm 2 years ago.

Hey, are we lost? Or just resting, or what? What's the TomTom say?

OK, everybody into the box....no pushing.... plenty of room...

That hive is still doing well at his place.

So last Sunday when I was away at the State Fair and called home, Andy told me to be careful when I came in as there was a small swarm of bees who had found a crack at the base of the old locust tree right by our front door and had moved in. It was after dark when I got home, so they weren't visible and then it rained most of the week and I forgot to look for them. Then today we had sun! And there were the little group of bees going in and out, doing what bees do.

Dum-de-dum. Home sweet home.

What fun, a little hive of bees in our tree.

Then, after lunch while we were deciding what the next highest priority job should get out attention, we heard a hum. Then a buzz. Then a roar. If you've ever heard a swarm of bees passing by, you know the sound. We looked out and saw this coming over the house from somewhere west of us.

Click to biggify

Roll out the welcome mat - the rest of the family just got here

They kept coming and coming - a truly huge swarm....and went straight to the tree and started going inside. Clearly the little group had been scouts who liked the tree. Maybe they couldn't get back to the hive for a few days because of the horrible wet weather. Whatever the case, these guys came in with a purpose.

We're hoooo - oooommme!

While this is amazingly cool and we feel honored that they chose US to live with...the fact that they are literally 5 feet from our front door is a huge problem. One allergic visitor, one naive dog, one collective crabby mood on the part of the bees, and we are in a world of hurt. But what to do? We will NOT do anything harmful to them, so the only option is to get them to move. Enter Nick to the rescue. Tomorrow he will come over very early, before the bees wake up, and make them an offer they can't refuse. First he's going to install a one-way door on the tree - the bees will come out but they won't be able to get back in. Next he's going to fit a nice new hive in the space between the porch railing and the tree so the hive opening is literally a few inches from the tree hole. He's going to put some honeycomb and bee brood (unhatched bee babies) in the hive to help convince the bees that THIS is a great place to live with a built-in family to tend. Theoretically, since the bees have only been in the tree for a few hours they should be willing to move into the hive box. It might take a few weeks before they all abandon the tree and accept the hive box as home, but it should work. The queen may or may not give up the tree. It would be sad if she chose to stay there and dies, but if the whole rest of the swarm can be captured Nick will give them a new queen and they will continue on.

Stay tuned for bee updates! And if you come by to visit you might want to use the side door. Just sayin'.

Signs and Portents

2011-09-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

I know a red sky at night is supposed to be a sailor's delight with fair weather the next day, but what the heck does a lemon yellow sky precede?

The sky was really this color - solid heavy cloud cover in gorgeous brilliant yellow. We've been having heavy rain all day courtesy of tropical storm Lee's remnants and this visual treat happened just as we were going in for supper. I"m glad we got to enjoy it.

In other news, I got a box of roving from Zeilinger's today. They are so nice to work with. I sent this with the hope that it would be done in time for them to bring it with them on the truck to the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival. They called to say they could do it, or even send it earlier. I said I was torn - save some shipping money by having them bring it, or spend the UPS fee and have it earlier so I could spin samples of the new colors. They offered to ship a pound of each as soon as it was done so I could spin it. Minimum shipping cost but I have what I need - I can have my roving and spin it too!

Sssppiiiiinnnn ...... Uusssssssss........

The white and gray are both Cotswold. The dark brown is crossbred lambs' wool. I've put dyed silk with each in contrasting colors. It's *supposed* to spin up and show blips of color. I've started on the white and while I wish I'd added a little more color it's spinning like a dream. And the gray feels soooo smooth and soft. Whee! I can spin some every night and I should get all three sample skeins plied and washed in time.

Homework that I really WANT to do!

Summer's End

2011-09-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

The end of August doesn't always feel like the end of summer. It's still hot and sunny, the grass and leaves are still green, flowers and gardens are still producing......but the clues are definately there that the season is changing. If you're on schedule with your work it's not cause for alarm. If you're behind you start hyperventilating into a paper bag. Happily, we're pretty much where we should be for the date. (Hey, statistically we were due!)

Remember that field of oats Andy put it? They really ripened over the last week and the moisture meter said 11% so they were ready to be combined and put in the bin.

Literal 'amber waves of grain'.

We are fortunate that a fellow farmer a few roads over acquired an aged combine and agreed to cut our field in exchange for some hay for his cattle. The man who did it last year was unavailable, so we were actually looking for a combine ourselves, but this is a much more sensible arrangement.

The cavalry coming over the hill! (Sort of)

At this point I had to leave and take some boxes to the UPS depot. I was only gone a bit over an hour, but when I came back he had gotten this far. Notice the dust coming off the machine as the dry straw and grain get a thorough threshing.

Nearly done

We're as happy to have the nice clean straw to bed the sheep barn with as we are the grain.

Another sign that summer is almost over is the NY state fair. It runs for 12 days, with the last day being Labor Day. Our tradition is for me to go up on the day of the Fleece Show with my entries and whatever friends are available, do a four hour stint in the Wool Building demonstrating spinning, and then spend a few hours seeing the sights with those friends. Andy isn't a big fan of crowded venues...... or long drives (two hours each way)......or hot weather......so he's just as happy to wave a fond farewell as we trek off and he stays home to take care of things. After spinning, we eat a bunch of good stuff, go through the animal barns........

Lucille makes a new friend.

..... and then check back at the Wool Building on the way out to see how the judging went.

Wheeee !

Those four with the big purple ribbons are Rocky (Cotswold/Border Leicester), Jazz (purebred Cotswold) , Ashes (another Cotswold/Border Leicester cross) and Cessna (CVM/Rambouillet and Border Leicester cross). Yes, there were other fleeces there. Yes, I'm VERY happy. Yes, they are all for sale and will be at Finger Lakes Fiber Festival if they aren't bought by spinners at the fair. The other four of the eight I entered took 1st or 2nd in their divisions, so I earned just about enough premium money to fill the truck with gas.

Tomorrow is a work day in the barn - weighing and checking eye scores on all the ewes and ewe lambs - and Sunday I go back up to the fair to pick up the fleeces. Then it's full steam ahead to get as much done as possible for Fiber Fest.

So the technical end of summer doesn't mean much to the work load, but I think at least today is ended, too.

Pooped pets

Really, Really Cool Things

2011-08-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

The lot of yarn I had made up at Stonehedge Mill has been washing up beautifully and I've been making plans to properly market it starting at the upcoming Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival. Besides getting the equipment to handle that amount of yarn efficiently, the next order of business was designing a label.

One of the chief components of a label I discovered is the listing of technical info. How technical can yarn be, you ask? Apparently, plenty technical. Having ever bought only 2 skeins of yarn in the last 20 years (really) I did not remember what was on the labels. Lo and behold, included there is washing instructions, fiber content, country of origin, physical address and website of producer, stitches and rows per inch in a given swatch, suggested needle and crochet hook size, skein weight and length in both English and metric measures, color and dye lot! My friend Carolyn, talented and versatile fiber artist that she is, agreed to test drive the different yarns and give me her professional opinion on the swatching and tool selection numbers. (Thanks again, Carolyn. I'm too inexperienced to know if it's wrong - I just forge ahead and make. it. work. )

Armed with all that info, I hired the services of an ad designer and we did the whole back-and-forth of creating it by email. The things you can do nowadays! I had a basic idea or two and she whipped them onto paper, added a few of her own ideas for me to consider, made changes as I asked, and ta-daaaa! Here they are, three to a page, fresh from their birth at Staples. I have a page for each yarn weight.

Golden Sheep Yarn labels

Since this is 100% Cotswold wool yarn and Cotswolds are known as 'the golden fleece breed' (due to the wool's value in Britain a few hundred years ago.......) I tilted the idea just a little and came up with Golden Sheep Yarn. I don't know if it's horribly clever, but I like it :-)

So. We have yarn. We have labels. Now to show off the yarn to best advantage so knitters will know what it can do - lift the hood and rev the motor a little, so to speak. In steps another friend, Caroline, who offers to knit 'a little something' for each weight. (Do I have cool friends, or what?) In my mind, 'a little something' is a 4 by 4 inch swatch of garter stitch, with maybe a ribbing border. "Yes, please," I say. "That would be lovely and much appreciated."

This is what she did................

Hat with 2 buttons from Bulky 2-ply

Eyelet lace baby sweater from the worsted weight singles

AND

A second sweater with little leaves from the 3-ply worsted weight

Close up of eyelet lace

Close up of leaves

I plan to dye some of each type of yarn and also have the natural white available too. I love it and really, really hope the yarn is well-received by knitters, but here's my conclusion so far........

Raising the sheep, milling the wool, designing a label........... many hundreds of dollars.

Friends like these.......PRICELESS !

Time Marches On

2011-08-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

.......and in fact has trampled all over my good intentions to blog frequently. The days are full, but not exciting enough to chronicle. I've been busy skirting fleeces for the last person on the reservation list (she's getting 11), and also skirting those that are entered in the state fair. I'll be taking them there next Thursday for the show and also will be spending a stint behind the fence in the Wool Building demonstrating spinning. Guaranteed to be a good time.

With some diligent watering the flowers are looking nice.

Mailbox on other end of planter.

I'd complain about getting buried........but they're flowers.

And at the close of the day we get a light show courtesy of Hurricane Irene. We're supposed to only get about a half inch of rain tomorrow and some mild wind, but the sky tonight is plenty dramatic.

Red sky at night, sailor's de-..........wait a minute, that can't be right. I KNOW there's a storm coming.

This time of year the rams come to expect some dropped apples and pears when they come into the night pasture by the barn. The old trees set a lot of fruit this spring, but with the dry summer and the advancing season the trees are kicking some off. The sheep are a lot more careful about eating them than cows are and we don't worry (too) much that someone will try to swallow one whole and choke.

Excuse me, could you please stop taking pictures and give us the apples???

Real funny, throwing them off into the dark. Har, har. Sheesh.

And if you didn't know what they were, the eyes looking back at you in the dark would give a person the willies.

Zombie.... sheep....will.....get.....you...............

Tomorrow I WILL blog about something really, really cool here........... stay tuned.

Triple Threat

2011-08-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

So the new skein winder has the capacity to make 3 skeins at a time. Keeping the cones of yarn corralled during the process was proving daunting. Once the cone became half empty, it was light enough to tip over and instantly take the others with it. Argh. Yarn tangled together in floor fuzz was not part of the plan. Enter Hand Dandy Andy again.

You WILL stand up straight!

A nice heavy oak board with three vertical dowels holds the cones so they can't escape. The strands of yarn whip around pretty good as the speed increases. We might have to space the dowels out a little more. If those yarns cross while moving it could get pretty ugly.

Whapwhapwhapwhapwhapwhap..............

Every improvement comes with built-in room for a tweak..........

Standing (OK, Lying) On Principle

2011-08-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

This is Holly in her chair. She picked this as Her Spot when she was still a little puppy. If nothing interesting is happening in the house, she goes here and gets comfy.

I'm comfy. Really.

Enter Calvin the kitten this spring. Calvin has no sense of personal space. He would love to curl up with Holly in her chair, but since she considers herself Queen Over All Cats, this is beneath her. Calvin is not big, and they could certainly both be on the chair.

Plenty of room. See? I even left you a spot.

Holly made the choice to not share the chair. Somehow she's decided this is the next best spot.

Hmpf. The Queen does. not. share.

Gosh, you're really showing him! Boy, he'll be sorry now! You really know how to.....wait a minute.... Oh.

And there's a lesson for everyone.

Getting All Wound Up

2011-08-08T15:22:00.000-07:00

Having had that lovely lot of yarn made earlier this year, I realized I was going to need some new fiber handling tools to properly deal with it. Making skeins with my manual skein winder did not appeal when I realized I'd be making at least 4 skeins per pound, probably more, and I had 50-some pounds of yarn. Eeesh.

Electric skeinwinder to the rescue!

Say 'hello' to mah leetle fren'.

But of course, if I DYE a skein it will need to be re-skeined to look and handle its best for sale. So that means I need a swift, too. The little wooden umbrella swift I have just doesn't seem up to the task. Even sturdy ones seem too frail to keep up with the speed of an electric skein winder. My DH, Handy Dandy Andy, took up the challenge and built a swift to go with the skein winder.

Ta-daaa!

It's shaped a little like the skein winder, but that's mostly because A) you can only make something with arms to hold yarn in one or two configurations and B) since it's meant to work with the skein winder I have it makes sense to be oriented the same way - vertical - and be used on the table top. But dear Andy, being the farmer that he is, has made some key changes that will make the swift much more rugged than the skein winder.

Solid metal shaft with heavy duty bearings to hold the arm assembly.

You wanna drive it at 50 mph? No problem.

Metal tracking to hold the adjustable arms securely without wobble.

Adjusts for 1 yd, or 1.5 yd, or 2 yd. skeins.

And they sit side by side on the table to work. Here we are, ready to test the two together.

Readdddy? Settttt?....

GO !!!!!

They have a maximum speed of Much Faster Than I Want To Go. Very efficient. Aaaaaah.....

And here's the result...

Bin of 3 ply worsted, anyone?

As if working with wool wasn't fun enough all ready!

On to the bulky 2 ply!

Quality Control

2011-07-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

I was washing some fleece the other day.....one of those 95 degree days........ and we have a perfect spot to lay damp wool to dry. Our old concrete patio runs the length of the south side of the house and putting wool on a clean sheet on the hot stone is like putting a pizza in the oven - done in about 10 minutes! (OK, that's an exaggeration but not by much.)

So I stepped out to check it's progress and found that Cleo was already doing quality control on it, checking for softness and resilience.

Ahh, purrfection.

Comfy or not, I had to pick the fiber up before chores, so nap time had to end.

Get up? I'm not sure how that concept applies to me.

But I'm still tired, see?

Well, if I have to. It IS almost ~~chow~~ chore time.

Cleo LOVES Holly - all the cats do - and quite often she tries to follow us down the road when we go for a walk. In this case, we just had to cross the road to go into the barn, but she was still all happy to be walking with her pal.

BFFs

Holly considers herself queen over the cats and sometimes she ignores them when they try to rub on her or even avoids them if she's not in a mood to be sociable, which is pretty rude, but they always seem to forgive her lapse in manners. And that's a great quality in a friend.

It's Soooo Hot.......

2011-07-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

........ that this is the temperature INside the house.

Because I'm cold if the temp is less than 68, I must. not. complain. And I can take it, really. But I feel sorry for everyone else who's suffering, like the sheep and the hubby.

So what fun farmy thing did we do today? We sent a tractor trailer load of ear corn from our corn crib to PA. At 7:30 this morning it looked like this.

Tractor powers elevator, elevator carries ears to trailer.

I offered to spell Andy with the shovel but he was kind of in the zone so I just brought water. Andy is the shirtless one, the other guy in the crib is the truck driver and the guy in red is 'helping' the trucker. I hope he's getting paid enough.

Wow. That looks hard. Maybe I'll just watch for a while, you know, to see how it's done.

By 10:30 they had emptied 3 bays of that crib and moved to another crib to finish the load with some older corn. We don't want to sell all we have until we have enough from this year's crop for the sheep this winter. If this drought continues we might not get any corn from what we planted. When you can, you plan to have enough extra feed so that a crop failure won't be a total catastrophe. The weight scale down at the truck stop showed they had loaded just under 27 tons.

After lunch Andy headed to Penn Yan with corn to be made into grist for the sheep. The lambs are still getting a creep ration especially since the pastures are withering. You know it's bad when the weeds are dying. Before heading out he got the boiler going ( ! ) so that I'd have hot water to wash wool.

It's so hot the cats have melted.

Ugh. I'm boneless. Help me.

Hang in there Calvin, it's got to cool off sometime soon.

I Need More Time.....

2011-07-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

...to get done all that needs doing. I've decided that there should be 2 more months squished in between July and August and I would be in better shape.

We did finish first cutting hay last Sunday. Almost 5,000 bales, mostly after July 4. Waiting on second cutting alfalfa but we need rain to bring it on.

In the meantime, I should be working with wool (and I AM, really!) but guess what else needs attention?

Blueberries!

Great, big, fat, sweet blueberries.

LOTS of blueberries!

Many bushes of blueberries.........

About half the bushes......

I can't say it's too much of a good thing because I could eat these until I look like Violet in the Chocolate Factory . And they freeze like a dream so there are pies and cobbler in the distant, wintery future. Hard to imagine winter when it's currently 83 degrees IN THE HOUSE. Sheesh.

You can tell it's hot when the cats flatten out like they were hit by a steamroller or go to extremes to catch a breeze. Yesterday Dexter accidentally pushed the screen out and fell into the bushes.

Into the bushes - Ha ha, very funny. Try wearing fur all summer - see how hot YOU get!

Oh, boo hoo. Cry me a river, kitty. I'll be out there, picking berries.

Graduation Day

2011-07-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

We got involved with making hay and got a little behind on other things, but yesterday was a Big Day for the ram lambs - there were officially weaned from Mom and went to live in the upper barn with all the big boys. We don't castrate the boy lambs as we're never sure when someone might want to buy one as a breeding animal, and also they grow more quickly with their full load of hormones. It's also just unnecessary in our situation since we have a way to completely separate them from the ewes. So right around the 4th of July (when they start getting real pesty with the girls) we put them on the trailer and bring them up to the Baa-chelor Pad. They have a fine time as adolescent boys eating and then sitting around, butting heads and jumping on each other and NOT harassing the girls.

Camp? We're at camp? What's 'camp'?

Ram lambs are so easy to work with compared to ewe lambs. The ewe lambs are full of high drama like teenage girls - they scream and throw their hands into the air, roll their eyes and run away for no reason. The boys are like surfer beach bums - all laid back and cool about everything and willing to go where you want without too much arguement as long as it doesn't look downright scary or difficult.

OK, this looks familiar.

We have a creep area set up as in the lower barn with vertical rollers set too closely for the big rams to get through so the lambs have a safe place to eat a little extra hay, a nibble of grain at night or just hang out without the big rams bossing them around.

Dudes, check it out..... you can see the whole yard from back here.

Um, yeah, that's cool.....but do you see my mom?

Some of the little boys are more needy than others and they called for their moms for the rest of the day and off and on most of last night, but by this morning they were pretty well adjusted and got down to the business of just grazing and learning their new boundaries.

Grass is grass no matter where you are....let's eat!

Congrats, boys. Have a great summer.

Consider the lilies of the field.........

2011-07-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

.....how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin..........

And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Amen.

Hay Fever

2011-07-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

Finally...FINALLY....we have a streak of hot dry weather and can get some more hay baled. The plants are pretty mature, but it was impossible to make hay up to this point because of the weather. We make the traditional small square bales to feed the sheep. It takes about 4500 to carry the flock through the winter and have a little cushion besides. Some people prefer to feed big round bales outdoors, but in our case a) we already have the equipment to make the small bales and b) we don't have a good way to feed the flock outdoors.

Notice the bale in mid-flight courtesy of the baler's "throwing" belts

And here are a couple of full wagons.

Two of five

We have five, and try to orchestrate the work so that we don't have more than 5-7 wagon's full per day. Why don't we cut more, especially when the weather is favorable? Unloading more than that per day is pretty hard when it's just the two of us (and takes time - if we're trying to unload wagons we aren't baling hay). Each wagon carries approximately 135 bales, and at about 40 pounds per bale that's almost two and three quarter tons per wagon. Times five makes thirteen and a half tons that we each have to move by hand - me taking it off the wagon and putting it on the conveyor and Andy picking it off the conveyor and stacking it in the mow. That's about all we can handle at a time and stay standing!

And the hot weather has also brought out the lilies, just in time for the 4th of July.

Red lilies for the 4th of July

Happy Independence Day!

Just Work

2011-07-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

The other day we noticed a lot of smaller birds yelling and unhappy around the corn cribs. Turns out this is why.

Click to biggify and look at the corner of the crib roof.

We have quite a lot of the northern harriers (marsh hawks) around and this enterprising individual discovered that there is a squirrel highway from the woods to the cribs. Ee-Zee Pickins. He was surprisingly tolerant of us working around the upper buildings. We saw him for a couple of days and then either the slow, stupid squirrels had all been eaten or he just decided that sitting like a vulture was beneath him. Now if we could just get a falcon to come pick off pigeons.

We had time to go through the whole flock and weigh everyone, check eye scores and deworm where necessary.

Dewormers, charts, calculator and digital scale head

Every sheep takes a turn ~~getting into~~ being put into the holding box Andy built to fit around the scale. Stand on the scale, get weighed, get your conjunctiva looked at, get a dose of dewormer if necessary and go on your way. Repeat in about 4 weeks. We don't have a dedicated chute area so we have to erect panels and swing gates to make the smaller spaces we need. We hate to chase sheep and they hate to be chased. Adults set their brakes and protest being put in, and lambs leap out if you don't hover over them. By the end of the session we were all tired of the process.

I'm in a box. This can't be good.

There was an interested audience to the process - this nest of barnswallow babies.

Come closer. We'll turn and poop on you. Bwaa-ha-ha-ha!

And enough time to do a little badly needed yard work.

Halp!

Whew! Thank you!

And still plenty of work left for another day.

I'll Take 'Fly Tying' for $1000, Alex

2011-06-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

All us sheep and fiber people know how many purposes you can find for sheep and wool products - yarn, felt, batting, meat, milk, cheese, soap, lanolin, and just sheepy friendship. Here's a tidbit of info on another sheepy item that's guaranteed to make you the talk of the next cocktail party you attend.

The Tup's Indispensible.

I went fishing a lot with my folks when I was a kid, but it was worm-on-a-hook type fishing for bass and sunfish, not fly fishing for trout and such. I was vaguely aware there were people who tied flies and that there were lots of kind of flies meant to imitate different kinds of delicious and irresistible insects and that fur and feathers and fiber were used, but I didn't know any of those people who did that. Then one day a few years ago a very nice man emailed saying that he had searched and searched and found my website and hoped I could be a source of the magic ingredient of a Tup's Indispensible fly. And that is.........drumroll, please.......the wool from a Cotswold ram's scrotum and lower belly.

She wants whaaaaatt??

Wow, you learn something every day. He was actually very sweet and was trying to find a way not to upset anyone's delicate sensibilites, for he used words like "nether region" and "private parts" rather than the good old anatomical terms. When I said I could get that for him and guarantee that it was THE genuine item he was thrilled - thrilled! - and I sent him a baggie of very scary looking fiber which he was over the moon about. Since then I've had several other fly fishermen get in touch and order that essential ingredient. Here's the latest order.

Sheepy short curlies.

This little pile of trout fishing goodness is headed to Germany. Are there trout in the Rhine? I have no idea, but Oliver K. can make about 100 flies with this amount, I think.

I grew 18 pounds of wool last year, and that's what she takes from the bag first. Sheesh.

So next time the dinner conversation rolls around to fly fishing (and it always does, doesn't it?) you can smile brightly and say "Oh, yes, I was just making a Tup's Indispensible the other day, and.....what? You've never made one? Secret ingredient too hard to find? Oh, please, let me share my source with you..."

They'll be talking about you all night, maybe the next day too.

Rainy Day

2011-06-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

We just can't catch a break with the weather around here. This is the time of year when we should be able to make hay like crazy but we're getting hit with one storm after another. The hay is getting more mature by the day (and losing nutritional value) but there isn't a thing we can do about it.

The only good part is that the pastures are plenty lush and the sheep aren't suffering from the heat. They aren't thrilled to be rained on, but as long as it's warm summer rain they will just have to tough it out.

Umm, I'm really kind of wet here......

The Cotswolds are especially pretty when clean from the rain.

She won't let us in. <Sigh> She's the MEAN lady.

I'm so wet my color's running.

Isn't that a cool marking? Looks kind of like a heart on his side.

And after the storm, if it's the right time of day we get bee-yoo-tiful clouds and sky.

Evening glory

I doubt the sheep can appreciate how lovely it is, but I"m sure they're glad it stopped raining. It doesn't take much to make a sheep happy.

New Horizons

2011-06-22T16:11:00.000-07:00

The sheep always know when we're shifting them into a new pasture. This time they were clued in by our work to fence them away from a diversion ditch with some standing water. Pounding posts brought them to the door of the barn where they saw us and started yelling. The ditch water wasn't deep enough that anyone would get in trouble crossing it, but there's always somebody wanting to swill down that nasty stagnant crap instead of walking to the nice clean water tub. Not this year! A couple of rolls of old snow fence makes a dandy barrier around the wet spot. Then it was The Big Moment.

Sheep Parade

Sheep are funny - when faced with a new pasture they don't just put their heads down and start eating. They first have to run joyously over all the nice forage to see just how big the pasture is. They do trample and waste some grass this way, and folks who practice daily rotational grazing, where they move the fence just far enough to expose one day's worth of serious grazing, are cringing. But we aren't that intensive and this works for us. So, off they go into the great beyond.

Yay! We're going.... Beyond The Fence!

Over the horizon!

"No sheep left behind."

Once they've trooped out of sight, Andy can open the gate to the pasture they just finished and get in there to brush hog it down short. This encourages the plants to grow again and also opens up the ground to sunlight which helps to make life hard for any parasite eggs and larva lurking on the damp ground. It doesn't kill them all, but it does cramp their style to some extent.

Mow, mow, mow your grass

Throughout the day the flock makes the trek back up the hill to get a drink (NOT from the ditch) and then stand in the shade for a while.

O, hai ! *

And at the end of the day they come back in for the evening. They're plenty full and ready to just sit and ruminate on life - literally.

Wide Load....Coming Through.

Andy stands at the door to prevent pushing and shoving. Kids.

"Hi, B.B. Had a good day?"

We've already set the table for the lambs with their creep ration. They don't get a lot of grain, but enough to make them "bloom" and also train them to come in and be worked around every day. They aren't so little any more! They push and shove sideways and their butts do The Wave to the left or right.

Dancing cheek to cheek. (apologies to Fred Astaire)

The nice warm day also brought the Mock Orange to full bloom.

And the Stone Crop. My kind of plant. Grows on rocks, looks nice and asks for nothing.

While everyone else was outside being industrious in one way or another, Dexter was holding down the window sill.

Man, watching the new little rug rat is exhausting!

Nice work if you can get it.

* http://speaklolspeak.com/ for translation.

Nothing Very Special

2011-06-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in too many days. It felt like nothing particularly noteworthy was going on, just routine work and the progression of the season. Then I chided myself about that just being a lazy a** excuse for not doing it, and blogging isn't about sensationalism every time, it's about what happens daily. So after 20 whacks with a wet skein of yarn as punishment, here it is.

The honey locust trees on the front lawn have bloomed.

Locusts in full bloom

At least 100 years old, and we have the pictures to prove it!

The clusters of blooms are really pretty and smell wonderful as you might guess from the name. The bees give them a real good workover.

If only the blooms lasted longer

Warmer weather brings out more interesting bugs. I'm a bug person, also reptiles and snakes. I can honestly say there's no critter out there that makes me go "Ewww" and while I don't exactly LOVE earwigs, I can appreciate them for how the good Lord fit them into the scheme of things. I'm still working on appreciating ticks and deer flies :-/

Anyway, this spider set herself up in a perfect spot in a doorway. The breeze actually kind of sucked the bugs right into her web. It was pretty tattered when I noticed her, and she was carefully de-constructing the web, following a strand around the circle of the web, gathering the silk up in a wad, and then she deliberately threw it off the web. Way cool. She had a new one built in a few hours.

This spider literally keeps a neater house than me.

We keep a flourescent light on in the barn every night to act as a night light. It helps keep the sheep from spooking and causing a stampede if the cats get into a row or a pigeon falls down the metal silo chute after dark. This guy must have been attracted by the light.

Yeah, I'm soft and fuzzy.... but so's the picture.

He also has cool eye spots on the wings underneath the top ones, but you really can't see that picture worth crap :-(

The cats spend a lot more time outside, but still manage to check in at ~~chore~~ meal time.

Clem says, "You're looking at bugs when you could be petting me??"

Speaking of cats, we got a new kitten!! Say hello to Calvin. He is going to be a strictly indoor kitty.

Calvin

Calvin's about 11 weeks old and adopted from the Yates County Humane Society's Shelter of Hope. Us deliberately adopting a kitten is like taking coal to Newcastle since we're usually the unwilling recipient of drop-off kittens. But. You can't count on that sort of thing, and while I love our current housecat, Dexter, to pieces, he's not a cuddly cat. He does not want to be hugged, loved on and certainly not sit on your lap. Besides, he was lonely. After a couple of days convincing him that the kitten is SMALL and not up to being used as a chew toy, they are now best pals.

Hold still kid, I'll get that spot for you.

In other news, we sent 3 Cotswold yearling ewes to a new home - the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore where they will be joining a display of rare breeds of farm livestock. At first I thought, "Ummm.......I don't know...." I mean, there are zoos and then there are zoos, but after talking with the Mammal Collection Director and asking questions we knew it would be OK. To city people, farm animals are as exotic as anteaters and capybaras, so the MD Zoo has a great display area of some of the more rare breeds of livestock - Dexter Cattle, Flemish Giant Rabbit, Ossabaw Island Hog, Nubian Goats, and until just recently when they went to the big green pasture in the sky from old age - Jacob sheep. So, wanting to have sheep, but looking for something a little different, one thing led to another and we sent Kay, Kate and Kiera the Cotswolds to be lambassadors.

I'm going WHERE??

"I'm sure it will be fine ..... but maybe keep eating just in case."

They rode in fine style in separate giant Sky Kennels inside a nice van with AC. Probably had a good radio, too. Or maybe a book on tape.

Bye. Thanks for everything. We'll try to write once in a while.

Private accomodations.

These three are on the small side of the breed standard which is what the zoo asked for, and they won't be used for breeding - just sit around and be fed and looked at all their lives. They're just coming into pretty curls post-shearing, so they'll look nice when they get there.

Cotswolds......the girls with the curls.

It's finally warmed up and the William Baffin rose is just coming into full bloom.

Tough as nails, and blooms like crazy. My kind of plant.

And that's pretty special.

The Task Du Jour

2011-06-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

Some days you know just what you have to do from morning till night. Other days you look at priorities and weigh them against the weather, time available, what else needs doing and then figure out what the job of the day is.

Today there were a couple of big jobs. First Andy serviced the haybine and mowed the first field to make hay.

We mowed hay - expect rain in 2 days.

This is actually the upper section of the ram's pasture. They have been excluded from it so far this year. We let the field grow, take off a cutting of hay, and by the time it regrows to a nice lush carpet we'll be bringing the weaned ram lambs up here to live with the menfolk. So far the strategy has worked out quite well.

While Andy was doing that I finished washing the last of the 3-ply sport weight yarn, and then we tackled this.

Doorway to the ram barn

This area hs been churned into a deep muck hole by all the tramping in and out the rams do. They drag litter out all winter and then with the constant rain in April and May they've turned it into a morass they can barely slog through and can't jump over.

Two pitchforks and 8 tractor buckets of slop later.........

Down to bare dirt

And then half a dump wagon of mixed rock from the gravel pile.......

Problem solved

Driving the skidsteer back and forth over it a few dozen times packs it down pretty good. Heavy sheep feet will finish the job.

And while we've been doing that, Holly has been on her self-appointed job of waiting for Woody Woodchuck to make the mistake of poking his nose out from under the woodpile.

I know he's in there. I can hear him fartin'.

Woody Wood's days are numbered.

I See Fiber.........

2011-06-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

......everywhere. Much better than seeing dead people, I'm sure.

Before the 2 inches of rain we got earlier this week, Andy had gone over this field again to crush down the big lumps left after plowing.

The 1066 with duallies on, pulling the vibrashank

Then after the rain and a couple of days drying, I saw this from the upstairs window.

Waffle Weave!

Besides creating a neat pattern, this is a good illustration of soil compaction. The dark stripes show up where the tractor tires have run and crushed the dirt more, the light areas only had the teeth of the vibrashank stirring the dirt so the rain soaked in more fully and the top layer has dried out faster (although the picture doesn't show the whole field is still too soft to work). Fast forward just a few days and it's time to put in the crop - timothy overseeded with oats. Notice how much more the trees have leaved out in about 5 days' time.

Andy sowing his ~~wild~~ domestic oats

We were going to go with straight timothy, but the field where we wanted oats still has standing water. If we hope to get anything this year, it's going with Plan B here. The die is cast, now we'll see what we get.

In other fiber news........ Yarn!

The Cotswold I sent to Stonehedge Mill in late winter came back very quickly, I just lacked time to work with it. Right now I"m washing the 3-ply sport weight.

Cotswold yarn, drying in the sun

Click to biggify and see the shine

I have about 15 lbs of this, and alsto 15 lbs each of 3 other yarn weights. An electric skein winder *may* be on my horizon.

And then we have fiber on the hoof. This demonstrates why we walk the fenceline every night when we bring the sheep in. Yes, he is stuck. I'll be glad when the lambs get big enough that they can't get their pointy little heads through the fence squares. Two nights ago there was one stuck in the very farthest corner of the pasture out of sight from the barn. With so many lambs, we can't begin to do a head count when they come in, so it's easier to walk the line. If they aren't out there, they must be in. If we never checked what's out of sight, we'd lose animals either to dehydration or coyotes.

A little help, here?

And when everyone's in for the night, this lamb comes to get his fix of cat fur. For some reason he's obsessed with smelling and nuzzling the cats while they eat. The cats are tolerant or they and their toenails would have broken him of that behaviour pretty quickly.

Mmmm...........fu-u-u-u-u-r-r-r-rr.

Maybe he was a cat in a former life.