Yesterday was our Sheep Shares CSA member shearing day. I couldn't have asked for a nicer group of helpers, better weather or prettier fleeces. Mike and I thank everyone who came to pitch in. We accomplished so much in one morning - fourteen sheep shorn and about 90 lbs of wool boxed and ready to ship! You guys are awesome. Here are some scenes from the day:
Thank you to Lisa McGuire for taking these photos. For more pics of Shearing Day action, visit our Facebook group: Foxfire Fiber Friends.
There's still time to join us for 2014!
Sheep Shares is my farm's yarn and fiber CSA. It's a way for you, wherever you are, whatever you do, to participate in the life of a working sheep farm - and to receive in the course of a year two shares of either yarn or spinning fiber produced from the wool of my flock, delivered neatly to your doorstep. You need never set foot in the hayloft, skirt a fleece, nor lift a shovel.
If you sign up, I promise the sheep and I will take care of the rest.
I'm writing because there are only a handful of openings left for Sheep Shares 2014. If you have been on the fence, now is the time to act.
You can find all the details here on my website.
Thanks for reading!
above photos: Cormo Silk Alpaca yarn (fall yarn share for 2014)
Cormo Silk Alpaca roving (fall fiber share for 2014)
Just back to the farm after a weekend vending and book signing at the Fiber Festival of New England at the Eastern States Exposition. Thanks everyone who stopped by my booth to scoop up skeins of Cormo yarn and to be among the first to acquire a copy of Adventures in Yarn Farming. I'm really flattered to hear the positive, warm responses from those of you who had purchased copies at Rhinebeck two weeks ago - and have already finished reading it. Wow, and wow. You made my day.
Writing a book is like working in a bubble. It's wonderful, really,not only to be finally sharing my work but also to be receiving feedback. Thank you.
With the hour's time change, we're back to doing evening chores after dark. It's hat and mitten weather out there tonight. We'll be banging ice out of the water buckets come morning.
Stay tuned this week for an announcement about a blog give-away celebrating my book launch and a heads up about Sheep Shares Yarn Farm CSA 2014.
Note: This lovely photo was taken by Ben Barnhart, the photographer who provided most of the photos for my book.
Last weekend our Sheep Shares CSA members and their guests flocked Springdelle Farm for our annual summer social event - the Strolling of the Sheep. I love this event. There's no better time of year to showcase our lush, verdant fields and to put our flock on center stage. Here are a few scenes from the day.
Of course Crackerjack, our guardian llama, received his share of the limelight. As did our mini donkeys, Cupcake, Prissy and Dulce who quickly made themselves the center of attention.
The donks seemed to think any gathering is all about them. They quickly mobbed the guests for attention. So part of the afternoon became a donkey groom-a-thon. They couldn't get enough.
Our youngest visitor, PIppin, a Soay-Icelandic bottle lamb brought by my assistant Kathryn, found a shady bower beneath the red maple and took a nap during show and tell. I could easily fill a separate post to show and tell you about our show and tell. An amazing array of sweaters, shawls, vests, mitts and mittens. Near the end of the afternoon we cast on for our Cormo Classic Knit-A-Long. Cormo Classic is our newest farm yarn, a 3-ply worsted weight destined to be a favorite.
Thank you to my Sheep Shares CSA members for making this one of the warmest, most convivial gatherings ever at Springdelle Farm. It was wonderful to see so many of you, especially first-time visitors.
Also thank you to Lisa McGuire for sharing her lovely photos to round out this post.
Every spring on shearing day I hold aside a handful of special fleeces from my flock. Sometimes it's a fleece from a sheep who holds a dear place in my heart. And some fleeces are simply masterpieces of wool, crimp and lanolin. We keep our eyes peeled those truly special fleeces on shearing day.
After a shorn sheep stands, shakes and scrambles from the shearing board we take a minute to examine the goods. If the goods are super-good, then everyone pauses to pull locks, fondle and admire. Back in March, that was the case for a number of fleeces.Those fleeces did not travel with the rest to the fiber mill. I rolled them carefully and stowed them in the wool shed.
When packing up last Friday for the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair I stuffed those special fleeces into the back of my Volvo along with my shelving racks and tote bins filled with yarn. These five were destined for the fleece competition at the festival: two moorit fleeces (one from Latte and Cognac); a snowy white Cormo fleece from Dune; Issey's dazzling white Cormo Cross fleece; and a stunning silver, speckled fleece from Cilantro, a burly Cormo Cross-bred wether.
In the moments before the start of the festival Saturday morning, after putting finishig touches on my booth, I hustled over to the Exhibit Hall to enter my fleeces in the show. Judging takes place behind closed doors. I spent the morning manning my booth. Saturday's weather set a record for the coldest, dampest, rainiest Memorial Day in recent years - at least for the Mass. Sheep & Wool. Neverthless, intrepid fiberists donned in foul weather gear filed through the barns and stalls. My little stall under the grandstand was drafty, but dry.
At 2 pm the exhibit hall opened up to the public. I took a break from my booth to see how we fared in the fleece competion.
When I stepped into the exhibit hall, I looked immediately at the fleece show results posted on the wall. I was elated to see beside the words "Grand Champion" was my name. But it didn't tell me whose fleece this was. I quickly made my way down the aisle toward the only fleece weraing a purple rosette. On this cold, drear day my heart was warmed to discover that Cilantro, my most ornery, robust wether, had captured top honors in the fleece show.
His flockmates also fared well: Dune took first in the Purebred Fine White Wool class; Latte took second place (to Cilantro) in the colored fine wool class; Issey took a red ribbon in the Cross bred class.
Poor Cognac didn't take a ribbon at all. Although she has a gorgeous fleece that received very nice comments from the judge, other fleeces captured the judge's fancy in her class. I wished I could have spent more time studying all the fleeces in that hall, but I had to get back to business in my booth.
As it turns out, Cognac had another entry, of sorts, in the competitions at the wool festival.
Kat Parks, my former farm assistant, happens to be a terrific photographer. She had entered two photos she had taken of my sheep in the sheep photography competition. Before leaving the Exhibit Hall, I stopped at the photo competition table.
I was delighted to see that Kat's photo - of my ewe Cognac and another ewe Pumpkin- had garnered the blue ribbon in the sheep photo contest.
With her permission I'm sharing it here:
A lovely profile shot. Great Although Cognac's fleece didn't win any prizes in the fleece show, her pretty face helped woo the judges in the photo competition.
Congrats to Kat, for taking terrific sheep photos - and to Cilantro and his flockmates for growing awesome fleeces. And congrats, Cognac and Pumpkin, for being photogenic.
Thank you to the many volunteers who make this show happen and to everyone who braved the elements to attend the fair and stopped by Foxfire Fiber & Designs. What lousy weather, but still a good day. Great to see so many familiar faces.
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.
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!
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.
After two days of raw, dreary drizzle and fog, the sheep and donkeys were elated when I turned them out into the pasture this morning. The donkeys frolicked, bucked, tossed their heads and kicked up their heels in delight. I don't think they're use to having quite so much space for frisking and cavorting.
The sixteen ewes who are their barn mates at the moment, were equally enthusiastic to have free run of the pasture. From the fence line they intently watched the donkey antics in the adjacent field.
We are making strides with the donkey-sheep dynamic. Since the two groups have been barn mates, they've been together much of the time, learning each others habits, smells and sounds.
We had visitors, Dick and Gale this morning, Kathryn and Hunter yesterday. So interesting to see both groups competing for attention. When I stand in the donkey pen at the rail that divides it from the sheep pen, my right hand is commanded to scratch sheep noses while donkey necks beg for scritches from my left hand.
It's a good sign. They're beginning to relax and let their guard down in closer proximity to each other. I spoke with Ann Firestone from Save Your Ass Long Ear Rescue on Friday and she concurred that the best approach to integration is a patient approach. With the donkeys being so mellow and easy going - and not much larger than the sheep, I'm optimistic that they will both accept and find acceptance within our flock.
And even if they don't, I must say, Mike and I are so smitten with this trio, they are here to stay. With all our acreage, fence and barn space, a good solution will unfold in time.
On another note, I learned a distressing bit of news this morning. The trucker who has supplied bedding straw to my farm for many years apparently retired last summer. I suppose it may have been in the local paper, but we had no direct notice. Early winter is typically the time of year when we are in contact. I had thought it strange when I phoned to arrange delivery last week and found the number not in service.
Each year we ususally purchase half a semi-trailer load of golden oat straw (that's about 250 bales, 15,000 pounds of straw) in December. The straw is gloriously clean and doesn't lodge in the sheep's wool. This is rather late in the season to discover I'm without a source. I'm reeling a bit from this news.
Andy and Dick are putting out inquiries for me. I'd be willing to purchase an entire semi load, if I can find a trucker with a good source. It would be two years' worth - but I could probably sell some of it locally, since clean straw can be hard to find.
Anyone suggestions? Please send them my way. Thanks!
