Archives for fiber farm

Sheep Sharing Give-Away

December 16, 2010 | 108 Comments

This morning I wondered why the sheep prefer to camp under the stars along the fence, right up by our house, when they have a perfectly good house of their own at the edge of the paddock. Perhaps they like having a front row seat for the daily theater of humans. The show starts when I raise my bedroom shade just before sunup. Their eyes are instantly on me. They follow my movement through the house, downstairs to the kitchen window. We watch each other while I brew coffee. It's a daily ritual – one of many in the work
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Winter Morning

December 14, 2010 | 5 Comments

A fresh dusting of snow overnight speaks the undeniable truth: winter is here to stay. A flock of sharp appetites greeted me at the gate this morning. I am grateful for not having to shovel snow today – and for heated water buckets. Snow shovels are on stand-by. Now I need to get serious and put the plow on my truck! Come back tomorrow for an important announcement about Sheep Shares 2011. Until then, stay warm!
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Gathering In The Flock For Winter

December 9, 2010 | 7 Comments

Your kind thoughts have been much appreciated here this week. Our home feels very quiet without Mishka. Even though she was 11 years old and had been sick for a while, she was her fun-loving, sometimes mellow, sometimes nutty self almost right up to the end. I can't tell you how much we miss her. A wintery blast of weather has forced some quick re-arranging of the barn and paddock space. This was the scene in the back of my Highlander yesterday morning. Cinder, Cognac and Bailey hitched a ride back down to the big barns where the whole flock
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Name-Storming?

November 29, 2010 | 60 Comments

Whoa, before you get too excited please know this is a photo from a few year's back. It has been suggested that it's not too early to begin "name-storming" a list of themes for next spring's lambs – since the work is now in progress with the flock. Here's a list of themes used in most recent years: 2005: Greek Mythology 2006: Herbs & Spices 2007: U.S. cities & towns 2008: Fashion Lambs 2009: Colors 2010: Computer Fonts & Typeface We'll start a list of ideas now and then put it to a vote. Let the name-storming begin!
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Young Love

November 27, 2010 | 17 Comments

Courtship time. Rams snicker sweet nothings into the ears of ewes who batt their eyes coquettishly. The pas de deux that will bring new lambs to the farm next spring. And I'm telling you, with so many eligible ewes and four outstanding rams, it was very hard sticking to my original plan of limiting the numbers for next spring's lambing. Ultimately, we made sure each of flock matriarchs (Cocoa, Buttercup, Pansy, Charlotte) is represented by either a daughter or grand-daughter (or in the case of Cocoa, grandson). And then we took a close look at ram lineage to avoid crossing
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November morning

November 10, 2010 | 4 Comments

The majority of the ewe flock is now stationed in the high pasture, well out of reach of our rams at work. We're intentionally breeding fewer ewes this season to lighten the load for spring. I'll tell you more about that in a bit. Until then I thought you'd enjoy a glimpse of breakfast in the high field. Note the loaded apple trees; windfall apples are a sheep delicacy. BTW, Cognac is doing well and appreciates your get-well wishes. Her nose looks fine. copyright 2010. Barbara Parry. All rights reserved. Feel free to share a link to this
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Quill-ogy

November 9, 2010 | 10 Comments

The calling card of an unwelcome visitor to the sheep paddock. Poor Cognac had a close encounter of the prickly kind Sunday afternoon. Mike found her with a snout full of porcupine quills as he was putting away the mower. Just in time for the Patriots game. We spent the next hour extracting a mess of nasty little barbs. Cognac winced with every quill but was otherwise quite stoic and patient. But her poor nose – you can some idea of how painful it was from the photo below! She seemed quite grateful for our help. Now, how to extract
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Farm on All Hallow’s Eve

October 31, 2010 | 9 Comments

Snow in the air today for the second time this month. Brrrr. Just finished brining in the flock, setting out Butterfingers and Heath bars, though I have a feeling the group below may be the only trick or treaters we see tonight (and they much prefer apples). Carried my camera today so I could share some scenes from the flock and farm: (Funny, leaves are mostly down but my petunias and phlox are hanging on!) Happy Halloween. hugs, Barb
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Thoughts from a Fiber Farm in Fall

October 30, 2010 | 10 Comments

What's there to think about? The "work" of the moment is thinking and planning for next spring. It's time to place the rams with the ewes. HIgh time. The flock is restless and impatient. With four eligible and highly motivated boys (Teaberry, Parsely, Chai and Cinder) and dozens of young ewes, I have more options than ever before for pairing. With one black and one moorit ram, there's more potential for breeding for color. I could easily breed 50 or more ewes. So exciting. So tempting. But really, I do not need 100+ lambs next year. This summer we rotated
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Lambs In TV Land

October 26, 2010 | 20 Comments

Monday was a big day. Holly and I popped Mistral and Georgia into the back of my Highlander for a special field trip. We were guests on channel 22's (WWLP, our local NBC station) lifestyle program, MassAppeal. The night before, I didn't sleep very well. In the wee hours of morning I found myself questioning the sanity of taking two lambs who have never set hoof off the farm to a television studio for live program. It was an hour drive. Mistral was vocal, Georgia, quiet. I sang show tunes to help them relax on the way to Springfield. I
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