Sheep Gal

Wool Away!

"Wool Away!" is the command given by the shearer to the "fleece-o" to pick up the freshly shorn fleece after a shorn ewe exits the shearing board. In the lingo of a "down under" shearing shed, the "sheep-o" pulls sheep from the holding pen and walks her onto the shearing board; the shearer shears; the "broomie" sweeps away the fribs, dags and bellywool; and after the sheep is shorn, the fleece-o tosses the fleece pizza-dough style minus the spin - onto the skirting table. The skirters then get to work.

Since we are a small operation, our "sheep-o" often doubles as "broomie"; shearer also serves as fleece-o. So Andy is the one who scoops up the fleece souffle from the board and throws it onto the skirting table.

I had a battalion of skirters Saturday! It was our Sheep Shares Yarn & Fiber CSA members shearing celebration. Sheep Shares members from near and far arrived (some brought family and friends). Skirting wool was a team effort.

 We oohed and ahhed and fondled and pat and boxed wool all day. By lunchtime, our fingers glistened with lanolin. When our hands got cold (it was darn brisk in the wind outside the barn) we buried our fingers in the warmth of the wool. The shorn sheep were funneled into a pen in the carriage barn. We kept the south doors wide open to let in the sun's warmth.

We took breaks for trail mix, muffins, coffee - and to play with Meg, Andy's energetic border collie pup.

By mid morning we were giddy with the heady fragrance of sheep and fresh clipped wool.

We sheared our granny ewes too. Here's Pansy (below), a thirteen-year old granny, getting a special snack. And a pretty lock of Pansy's wool, above. 

While we helped Andy pack up his gear, the flock in the Carriage Barn basked in the afternoon sun.

 After the the last fleece was boxed, we trundled up the road for a pancake lunch at Davenports Maple Farm Restaurant. The sap is still running up here on Patten Hill, but this will be the last weekend before the Sugar House restaurant closes for the season.

We filled three tables. Pancakes, waffles, eggs, maple syrup and more coffee filled our bellies. Knitting filled our hands. It was a satisfying ending to a morning of hard work. A big thanks to the Davenports for hosting our lunch - and a huge thanks to our Sheep Shares members and their guests for helping Andy, Mike and I finish up the flock.

Tomorrow morning I load boxes and boxes of fleece into my truck. As soon as I finish morning chores, I'm headed to FedEx and the fleeces are headed for the fiber mill.

For 2013, it's "wool away."

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Note: Wool Away is the title of renowned shearer Godfrey Bowen's book about the art and technique of shearing - hard to come by since it's out of print, but a fascinating read if you can find a copy.

Another Day in the Shearing Shed

 

These photos were taken during last Friday's shearing. We were fortunate to have more spring-like weather and luckier yet to have Holly and Meg pitch in for the day! We still have about a third of the flock left to shear.

Saturday is our shearing open house for our Sheep Shares Yarn & Fiber CSA members and their guests. We'll be posting photos on Instagram (look for them under BarbParry) throughout the day.

Ready, Set, Shear!

On Friday we rolled up our sleeves and got to work on one of my favorite days in annual cycle of yarn farming.

Shearing day!

This year we've divided the work of shearing our flock over three days, last Friday, next Friday and then Saturday April 6 - when our Sheep Shares yarn farm CSA members will join us and pitch in. Working at this pace gives me time to be hands on with both sheep and fleece and makes for a relaxed, more comfortable day for both humans and sheep.

We started with a group of ewes, below. Followed by the big wooly rams and wethers, above.

In the process of me leading the rams into the crowd pen where they wait their turn, the boys managed to trap me in the middle of the pen. Literally, I couldn't budge. Since I didn't need shearing, I took the best route - rolling over the backs of the sheep (I certainly wasn't about to go under them). It reminded me of rolling on a plush-pile, wool carpet, well, except for the distinct ram-aroma. Once I launched myself from the pen (with Mike pulling out by the arms), we got down to business.

This our shearer Andy. The wooly monster is Chai, our Merino cross Moorit ram who looked more grizzly bear than sheep, before his haircut.

And here are the naked sheep, post haircut. Left to right: Cilantro, Calvin, BoBo and Fennel. We'll keep them in the barn, protected from the wind until their fleece regrows a bit. Hopefully, more spring-like weather is on the way soon.

Fleeces flew from the shearing board to the skirting table.

Ivy, a skirter in training, swooned for the intoxicating fragrance of fresh Cormo wool.

It was lovely to have my former assistant, Kathryn join us for the day!

We boxed these beauties right up.Two hundren pounds of Cormo fleeces are already en route to the fiber mill, less than twenty-four hours hot off the sheep that grew them. How's that for a fast turn-around?

Naturally, I saved some very special fleeces to enter in upcoming fleece competions: Cilantro (super fine, mottled silver and black); Chai (rich, chocolately Moorit); Latte (delectable au lait Moorit - even finer than Chai); and Issey (crimpy, cloud-like white Cormo cross). We'll see how they measure up to the competition, starting at the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair in May.

An exhausting yet exhilerating day. One group down, two to go.

Thank you to Friday's shearing team:

Mike (indentured husband, administerer of warm water and fresh hay to the flock after their haircuts)

Andy Rice (my shearer of 16 years)

Fred Davenport (farm assistant, expert sheepo)

Kathryn Swanson (studio assistant, expert in all matters and maker of very cool leather earrings)

Ivy (Kathryn's cousin - who was a fast learner and up for everything!)

Kangaroo Dyer Gail & her husband Bill Callahan

Caleb Kissling (friend and sweeper extrordinaire - says he would pay me to help on shearing day, if I wasn't nice enough to let him work for free)

Also, thanks to Kathryn Swanson for sharing her lovely photos to round out this post.

Happy Spring!

Okay, so spring 2013 is off to a less-than-ideal start. This was the view from our front door this morning. Mike's been busy clearing 12 inches of heavy wet snow from the driveway so we can get to the barn.

Here's to brighter, warmer days ahead.Wishing you all a happy spring.

Taking Care of Old Sheep in Winter

This is Cocoa. She turns 16 this month which is ancient in sheep years. Cocoa has a special place in our hearts as she happens to be one of our first-ever sheep which makes her our flock matriarch. After a decade of lambing (including sets of triplets and quadruplets) she is still going strong, except for her teeth. Years of grass-grazing and ha -munching have worn her incisors (the front teeth) crookedlly, some of them right down to the nub givng her the gap-toothed smile of a jack-o-lantern.Last fall Andy performed some dentistry on her, to even out her bite. It helped some with grazing. Her grinding molars in the way back of her mouth seem to be operating well. I can't see them, but I can tell by the way she crunches and munches on grain.

This winters's proven hard on her - she's had trouble pulling hay from the manger. When she grabs a mouthful from the feeder, you can hear the blades of grass slide through her gums. When we noticed a delcine in her condition we started supplementing her with high protein alfalfa cubes from the feed store. They are compressed alfalfa hay in nugget form. We dump a handful into a pan, soak them in hot water to soften them up, like a bowl of shredded wheat cereal. Cocoa can't wait for us to place the bowl on the floor inside her pen. She stands on her hind legs, with her forelegs perched on the rungs of the blue panel.

Who doesn't like a hot breakfast on a cold morning?

Later this week we begin shearing, starting with our rams and wethers. They'll be kept indoors after their haircuts, until they've grown a bit of fleece. Hopefully by then, the season will take a turn for the warmer. I'll post some pics to share with you.

Cocoa and our other "grannies" will wait until milder days in April for their spring haircuts.

Happy Monday to all.

Snowed In

Snow's so deep, the sheep won't leave the barn unless we make them. We break paths for them and lure them outdoors with hay on fair days.

Today is not one of those days. It's been snowing sideways since I opened my eyes at 6 a.m. Fat, wet snow that shovels like concrete. Mike is scrambling to clear the driveway before this switches over to rain later - then we'll have a hot mess on our hands. A cold mess, I should say.

It's been a wind-roaring, snow falling, frost heaving, ice damming, nose freezing winter - wearing us down and out, like a guest who's overstayed its welcome. Perhaps you feel the same way. 

The sheep are more stoic and don't whine about it. They're dressed for the weather, 24/7, swaddled in wool. I don't think they mind one bit. They tuck into the barn, noses pointed downwind, legs folded beneath them in the straw, chewing their cud. Since they're getting so little exercise and consuming a ton of hay, they are happy, fat, wide and wooly sheep. 

I've sited bluebirds twice in the two weeks and robins down at the farm. Shearing begins next month. Surely spring's not far away.

Please leave a comment and let me know, how are you faring this winter?

Top of the Hay Stack

When it comes to barn chores on winter mornings, Mike is a trooper. Since the start of the new year, I've been under the weather off and on. He's been a super good sport about tackling morning barn chores solo for the better part of last four weeks. In mid winter, morning chores on a New England sheep farm are like an endurance test. You work quickly and efficiently.

Inside the carriage barn where the rams spend the winter, square bales of hay are neatly stacked from the floor to the rafters. The stack is beside the row of feeders outside the sheep pen. By removing bales from the side of the stack, we create steps to the top of the hay stack. We feed from the top and work our way down. This stack was rafter high in November. Now it's about two thirds that height, which turns out to be a very good thing.

Let me start by commenting on barn chores, which can feel tedious at this time of year. As with any set of routine tasks, you tend to operate on autopilot. Don't we all have tasks that we perform almost by rote each day, without second thought? Walking the dog, taking out the trash, scraping a frozen windshield.

Feeding sheep is like that. Climb the stack of hay bales. Yank a few bales by the twine - send them to the floor. Descend hay stack. Cut strings. Drop flakes into the feeders. The process takes ten minutes, maybe less.

While doing morning chores Wednesday, as Mike reached for the strings on a top bale, the bale on which he was standing kicked out from the stack sending him reeling backwards. Reflexively he grasped for the only objects within arms reach (more hay bales). But as Mike tumbled,  so did nearly all the square bales on the north face of the hay stack.

Had he had landed amidst the tumbled bales, the outcome would have been less painful. Unfortunately for Mike, the hay feeder closest to the hay stack broke his fall. Our hay mangers are plywood troughs, about 8 feet long. The inside is V shaped, with a slanted wire mesh panel on the front facing the sheep and a slanted plywood panel on the back facing the shepherd. Mike landed inside the V, catching the edge of the outer plywood on his leg. 

Sheep are use to seeing hay flakes, not people, dropped into their manger at breakfast. They all bolted out through the small door you can see in the pic above.

While Mike was stranded in the hay feeder - trying to assess the damage to his leg and backside - I was bustling about the farm getting ready for a meeting in Greenfield with my bookkeeper. Right about the time he was pulling himself out of the manger I was just yards away in the dairy barn collecting employee time slips for payroll. Instead of calling me (he said he heard my car running outside), he brushed the chaff from his parka and finished feeding the sheep. Then he headed home to ice his leg.

I didn't hear this story until I returned home early afternoon. Aside from a spectacularly colorful bruise mid thing, Mike is unscathed. Very darn lucky - this could have been a disaster. Sometimes I tease Mike - as rugged as he is, he seems at times too accident prone for farming.

He texted me the above photo of the boys lounging in the barn, taken in a peaceful moment just before his tumble from the top of the haystack. 

This post is a cautionary tale - beware of the mundane, stay mindful in daily tasks. And keep your smart phone in your pocket during barn chores!

Milestones & Quiet Farm on New Years Day

Mike and I celebrated the holidays quietly at home this year, enjoying the company of our flock, dogs, llamas, goat, donkeys - and each other. We celebrated arrivals and marked several milestones this season.

Milestone #1 - Hooray for Zoe and Welcome Home, Farley!

The week before Christmas, we had some encouraging news for our Zoe, our 1 year old Golden Retriever. As some of you may know, she's been convalescing from radical surgery back in October to address severe degenerative joint disease in her right elbow. Her xrays on December 19th hold promise - good healing from the surgery. Although she still has along road to rehab ahead, she appears to be walking without lameness. This is one of the best gifts we could ask for. Her positive report also meant that Farley, her brother who has been staying with friends for the 8 week window of her recovery, could come home again. It was a very happy family reunion for all!

We thank orthopedic surgeon Dr. Kurt Shulz and the staff at Peak Veterinary Referral Center in Burlington, VT for taking such good care of Zoe. Also, much love and thanks to our good friends Dick, Gale and Jackson for taking Farley into your home so Zoe could rest.

Here's a pic of Zoe the couch potato (above) on Christmas morning. And below, a glimpse of my Christmas afternoon hike with Farley. We're keeping fingers crossed that Zoe too will soon be able to join us for hikes and outings.

Milestone #2- Happy Anniversery to our Sol Llama!

On the solstice we celebrated our rescue llama Sol's (tall, dark & handsome guy in first pic above) second anniversary at the farm. Sol came to us on a snowy December morning in 2010. Since then he has contentedly made Springdelle farm his home. He loves sharing hay with the sheep (above) and hanging out with his pal - our guard llama Caitlyn (below). Most recently, he's started taking corn from a scoop held in Mike's hand. This may not seem like a big deal but Sol is one wary, independent dude. He's come a long way in trusting us.

Milestone #3 - Adventures in Yarn Farming

Manuscript Completed!

In December my book Adventures in Yarn Farming underwent its final editorial touches with good shepherding from my dear and patient editors at Roost Books/Shambhala Publications.  My book has headed at last into the final design process. I can't tell you how much I love this project and how good it feels to have it that much closer to sharing it with the rest of the world. Look for a celebratory launch in fall 2013. At last!

Milestone #4 - Celebrating 50 Trips Around the Sun

My birthday is sandwiched between Christmas and New Years. This year was a big one, although I feel no older, nor wiser, really. I celebrated with a small gathering of close friends at a very special local restaurant. As I blew out the candles on my cake, Mother Nature showered our west county hills in white confetti. Thanks to all for wishing me a happy birthday.

New Year's Day 2013

This morning was a lot like every morning so far this winter. We fed and walked the pups then headed to the farm to serve breakfast to the rest of the gang. I hopped in the truck to plow a path so the donkeys can stretch and get some exercise. Sol begged Mike for corn. Mike fed the rams and wethers. I'm about ready now to make lamb chili and biscuits for our New Year's Day dinner.

In the midst of a season that has wrought so much loss and inconceivable grief for others not so very far from our farm, I feel unbelievably blessed. Our hearts go out to the families whose lives have been irrevocably disrupted by the loss of loved ones.

I can't tell you how much I value your friendship and support over the past year. Wishing you all the best in this new year.

Solstice Sheep & Donkeys

It was a peacable pasture yesterday morning at breakfast. We turned out the sheep and donks together and fed them in the field. As you can see, the two groups kept some distance from each other at first. But by later in the day, they were comfortably ambling about with no worries. A lovely day in the field for all.

It's a very good thing they are feeling more companionable toward each other. Wind, snow and rain rolled in last night. From the looks of things, the critters peacefully shared a cozy barn. Everyone was dry this morning and the barn was full of sheep and donk poop piles - not our favorite way to start the day but a good sign that all critters felt "at home" in the barn during the stormy night.

Today kicks off our Solstice KAL featuring our winter 2012 Sheep Shares yarn and fiber - Cormo Silk Alpaca. You can join us if you like - by clicking our "Joining Thread" on Ravelry- details can be found here. One lucky winner will receive a Sheep Shares Farm Yarn & Fiber CSA 2013 membership.

Wishing a peaceful solstice to all.

The Barn After Dark

We've reached the time of year when there just aren't enough daylight minutes at day's end. I had a meeting in Greenfield this afternoon and got back to the farm just after dark. Here's a look at the night barn with sheep and donkeys.

The farrier came to the farm this morning. Donkeys don't wear shoes but their hooves need maintenance on a regular basis. Cupcake and Prissy get gold stars for standing perfectly still while Randy, the farrier, pared their little hooves and cleaned out all the ick from the frog of the hoof (the frog is the soft sole of a donkey's hoof. The hoof wall surrounds it. Like a horseshoe ;-).

Dulce was Miss Fidget - not at all happy about her pedicure. She used some fancy footwork, dancing backwards and forwards and sideways to keep Randy away from her feet. But we eventually got her foot work done.

Ann (from SYALER) tells me they catch on fast to clicker training - and they love peppermints for rewards. I'll see if I can get her to be more cooperative in picking up  her feet before the farrier's next visit.

Cupcake wishes you a good evening!