First off, thank you everyone for your words of concern and encouragement. It means a lot to hear from friends during difficult times. The skies were clear and the landscape crystalline the day after the ice storm. Chain saws provided the soundtrack for morning chores as every one on Patten Hill cut their way through the tangle of limbs littering yards and driveways. A curtain of ice cloaked the woodland in lace as the temperatures remained below freezing. We looked around and took stock of the damage. The pic below shows one of the impassable farm access roads. And this
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Last week's troubles seem minor compared to what we've been dealing with since Friday morning when an ice storm struck New England. I went to bed Thursday evening to the sound of frozen precipitation pelting the roof and windows. A phone call from our security company alerted us to a power outage down at the farm, sometime after 12:30 am.  I woke before daylight to what sounded like artillery fire but was the sound of large trees snapping and falling, one after another. The house was running on generator, so I was able to make a strong pot of coffee
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We're having a bit of a bad streak, mechanically speaking, both at the farm and at home. It's bad enough that we've had a week that's included single digit temperatures, negative-digit wind chill factors, sleet, rain, ice – but what really frosts me is when things stop working the way they're suppose to when you most need them. I'll say more about that in a minute. First, let me show you what happens when you carry treats and a camera in the same pocket  . . . If sharp-eyed Cocoa spies my hand reaching into my coat pocket, she's right
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I know twelve sets of eyes are watching me when I turn on the light and look out my bedroom window each morning. My cormo guys spend summer and fall grazing the field behind my house at the top of Patten hill. This arrangement maintains a safe distance between the rams and ladies down at the farm. It also saves Mike a lot of time on the rotary mower. All but two in the group are wethers, which makes them fairly companionable and easy going. We enjoy their company all summer long, just steps from the back door. They keep
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As I zipped around doing evening barn chores yesterday, I thought about my many reasons to be grateful. I am blessed with health and  wonderfully supportive family and friends. This year my family (who are rather spread out geographically) decided we would all do our own thing for Thanksgiving. Although I really miss seeing everyone, I am glad no one has a long drive, no one has to deal with airport agony and that we can all have a restful day.  I am thankful that I live on this beautiful patch of planet and that my life is graced with
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Wednesday morning Holly rounded up the lambs and ewes and grabbed the buckets of clean sheep coats. The gang is really putting on wool at this time of year and we had been noticing quite a few jackets with snug fits.  We're also transitioning now from pasture to hay feeding. There's still grass out there, but as the earth hardens with each frost it gets more and more difficult to set the stakes of our temporary electronet fencing into the ground. I've learned from past experience not to wait too long to take down the electronet. Mike and I once
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To follow up on yesterday's promise, here's a better look at Butch with his new sidekick Gypsy together in the pasture. Enjoy. Caitlyn &  company: ************************************************************************************ copyright 2008, Barbara Parry. All Rights Reserved. Foxfire Fiber & Designs at Springdelle Farm
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Fall means a farm in transition. Temperatures dropping, trees unleaving, daylight shrinking, the sheep keenly sense and respond to the change in season. At one minute, they rest at ease, here enjoying a moment just after dawn. A moment later, they're charging at each other, ears back, heads down. The rams get territorial, squaring off in the pasture. It's nearly time for them to join the ewes. The ladies are restless and short-fused as well. Lots of sparring at feeding time in the barn. The landscape here is changing in other ways.The birthing barn is getting a badly needed roof
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Just returning from a rather long blog hiatus to share a slice of autumn morning with my flock.  In the seeming blur of summer and early fall, the lambs have grown and the flock has burgeoned to 100 – filling our pastures. When not changing sheep coats and checking fence lines, and filling water troughs, my summer days were hugely occupied by teaching fiber art classes and writing a book on hand dyeing.  I am now in the thick of fall sheep & wool festivals, which means many hours in the dye studio. Time outside with my sheep helps me
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The solstice is a pivot point, marking both a transition in season and a change in the work flow at the farm. This week the border leicesters were joined in the high pasture by the yearling ewes and Caitlyn, my eleven year old llama. This pasture is huge and really ought to be subdivided for intensive grazing, but for now I am letting them have it all. Happy sheep. Using the shed as a vantage point, Catilyn surveys the flock. The upper pasture is quite some distance from the barns. We constructed this outpost last year so the sheep would
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