Archives for Craft

Tipping point

April 7, 2010 | 9 Comments

We crossed the half way mark today with two sets of twins arriving within an hour of each other bringing the lamb count to 22 (11 ewes and 11 rams). I'm so grateful for Holly being here to help. While she worked with Pheonix and her twin ewe lambs, I assisted Stella and her ewe and ram lamb (above). This is Stella's first time. We had to help with delivering the ewe lambs who was huge – 12 lbs! From the looks of things at the moment, I'll have a busy night in the barn. Ursa is pawing the straw
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On the lamb front

April 5, 2010 | 25 Comments

Just a quick post to bring you up to date. Cassandra delivered triplets Saturday – our second set back to back. Harrington, Herculana, and Helvetica are doing quite well. They join Verbena's trio, Georgia, Garamond and Gigi, pictured above. We now officially have a triplet ward set up in the southeast corner of the barn. We have to feed the triplet moms differently than the rest, so it's actually easier if there's a couple of sets of three. They are cutest group in the barn at the moment. Yesterday Pansy delivered a ram and a ewe lamb (Jazz and Lucida)
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Easter Visit

April 4, 2010 | 14 Comments

Sending wishes for a happy Easter & happy spring. Hand-crafted bunny by Elizabeth Radysh. copyright 2010. Barbara Parry. All rights reserved. Feel free to share a link to this website. Please do not take content or images from this website without my explicit written permission. Thank you.
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This Week’s Winner – New Giveaway!

April 2, 2010 | 161 Comments

Meet Verbena's little ewe-ling. That's what we're calling her for the moment, since she's only hours old and I haven't chosen a "font" themed name for her or for two brothers just yet. We're up to the letter "G". Let's see . . . . Garamond, Georgia, Gloucester. Or maybe we should move on to "H"?? I've drawn a winner from the commenters on last week's giveaway. SusanSW is the lucky recipient of a Sheep Shares spring yarn share and a copy of Gail Callahan's Dyeing book! Thank you, Susan, and everyone who commented last week. Today kicks
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Today’s Lambs

March 30, 2010 | 8 Comments

Calypso surprised me with twins today – I wasn't expecting her to be next! Desdemona ("Desi" for short) and her brother Didot arrived late this afternoon. Lambs learn to do so many things quickly, it always amazes me how fast they learn to use their legs, to orient themselves, to find mom's udder, to suckle. No wonder they're completely exhausted, collapsed in a woolly heap. While the storm raged outside, all is cozy in the barn. I'm a little run down from being up at all hours, so I'm turning in early too. Wishing a good night to all.
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Rainy Day – Lambing Q & A

March 29, 2010 | 11 Comments

Dreariness! Rain and wind and no new lambs today. Actually, that's not so bad since we're all pretty bushed. Our bright moments were in the barn enjoying the six little ones who arrived over the weekend. Arial and Bodoni had the right idea, napping in the straw. "Bodo" has a cough. He's had a slight chest rattle since birth. After taking his temp (which was slightly elevated) and consulting with Andy and my vet, I gave him some antibiotics. Don't worry, we'll be watching him closely. Hopefully he'll rally by morning. Since it's a quiet day, I thought I'd take
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New Arrivals – Giveaway!

March 26, 2010 | 121 Comments

Lamb-o-rama Update: Still no new arrivals of the wooly four-legged sort just yet. The photo below is a close-up of my neighbor Barbara Gig's little cutie. But while we're waiting, I'm now kicking off a month of giveaways celebrating new arrivals of all sorts. This week I'm celebrating the arrival of spring shares for Sheep Shares! Fresh, crisp skeins of our hot-off-the-sheep Cormo wool lusciously blended with alpaca from a local farm and bombyx silk. And a new arrival of another sort. A good friend, Gail Callahan, aka the Kangaroo Dyer, is celebrating the launch of her new
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Boston Bound – Dyed In The Wool

March 23, 2010 | 5 Comments

Tomorrow's going to be a busy day. I'm giving a presentation "Dyed in the Wool: The Colors of a New England Sheep Farm" to the Boston Area Spinners and Dyers (BASD). This group meets in Sudbury, but their membership draws from the greater Boston area – my old stomping grounds. When I booked this presentation many months ago, I wasn't thinking clearly about the timing of our first lambs. This afternoon Andy reminded me that tomorrow is D-day if any ewes were bred the moment Teaberry set foot in the pen last October. Holly and Mike will be on call
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Barn Check

March 22, 2010 | 11 Comments

Just back from a quick barn check. Lambs are imminent; we're stepping up our visits to the flock. Watchful for unusual behavior. The girls are curious and surprised by my visits after lights out. Holly and I are watchful now for anything out of the ordinary. We leave each other notes in the barn log on the table in the milk room. Like this one yesterday, from me to her: "P.M. Stella acting weird. Not so interested in hay. Moved her to group 1 (where she seemed to want to be) but still not interested in eating. 'Moooing'. Sniffing butts
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A Day in the Sugar Bush

March 17, 2010 | 10 Comments

I've been quiet because I've been way under the weather this week. It felt good to be outdoors today working in the sugar bush with Mike and neighbors Norm, Lisa and Fred Davenport. We finally got around to tapping a maple stand that's not seen bucket nor tube line in more than a decade. The "bush" surrounds one of my hay fields. This field gives us two cuttings of hay each summer, feeds the flock during our fall grazing months and now will fill a large collection tank (we hope) with sap to take to my neighbor's sugar house each
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