Archives for Handspinning

Snow Llama

January 8, 2011 | 18 Comments

Woke up to a frosted farm today. Very pretty for morning chores. Sol, our new llama, and the lambs dined al fresco on clean snow. Sol studies everything. Nothing escapes his attention: the Belties (Belted Galloway cattle) next door, tractors, mail truck, UPS deliveries. Today he'll get to watch Mike shovel snow. He just takes it all in. The straw delivery truck earlier this week proved spooky. Sol stood in the paddock some distance from the barn and watched with his ears cocked forward while the bales were tossed off the truck. The lambs clustered around his legs. He is
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Scored Straw!

January 7, 2011 | 8 Comments

I buy straw in bulk for bedding critters. Clean, dry, chaff-free straw is a precious as gold mid-winter when we go through tons of it. We go through tons+ in lambing season. Fresh, dry bedding is a must for keeping clean and healthy sheep (and for raising good wool). The stuff has to be trucked in dry weather, since the trailer isn't airtight. Usually this happens in December but this year there were glitches. Holly and I were getting anxious, down to our last 30 bales. The semi pulled in yesterday morning and we took half the load, stashing some in
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Winter Shares Color Choices (last but not least!)

December 31, 2010 | 4 Comments

Attention Sheep Shares 2010 members. Here's a peek at your color choices (all new colors!) for the winter yarn and fiber shares. Please let me know your preference via email. Shares begin shipping next week. Happy New Year! Cormo Alpaca Lace, left to right: amaryllis, marigold, purple coneflower celestial, cactus flower, squash blossom, granny smith And some close ups: squash blossom cactus flower granny smith purple coneflower marigold amaryllis celestial
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2010 – A Year In Pictures

December 31, 2010 | 16 Comments

This morning I combed through my iphoto library while sipping coffee and watching daybreak. What struck me most is that in a year of challenges and some major crashing and burning, stuff got done. Sheep were fed, shorn, lambed. Yarn got dyed, shipped, shared. Through Flock For Healthy Hearts we raised over $3500 for the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women, a campaign to promote awareness of the serious but often overlooked risks of heart disease in women. I can't thank you enough for your support. (If you would like to make a donation, please follow the link in
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Simple Gifts: Mellow Winter Morning

December 30, 2010 | 4 Comments

Mornings like today's are sublime. Sunshine, temps in mid 30's, yard full of sheep, no wind. Couldn't ask for a better way to start the day. Or to end the year. Come back tomorrow for a look back at 2010 in pictures. Sheep Shares 2010 members, stay tuned. I've been busy in the dye studio and am excited to share color choices for the winter shares tomorrow!
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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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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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Fiber, Friends and Foliage

October 3, 2010 | 11 Comments

We love visitors! A few scenes from Saturday's Fiber, Friends and Foliage open house. Thanks to everyone for sharing a special afternoon with us (and to those of you who were with us in spirit!). Mistral & Georgia share an apple. Crackerjack greeted his fans. Lambs love making friends. Especially Mistral. Lambs also love pumpkin decorating. Georgia and Holly – naptime! A sneak peek at the Fall Yarn Shares. Local Hero Llama Tired lambsters. photos courtesy of Madeline Kennedy, Lori Parker, Holly Sonntag, and Mike Parry. thank you!!
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Plan “Be”

October 1, 2010 | 24 Comments

As you may have wondered, not everything has gone exactly according to plan here for several weeks. It's true: hay has been mown, baled and stacked in the barn. Though not overly fond of the fall monsoons that arrived this week, the sheep are relishing cooler days. And absolutely loving the hay field we decided not to mow, but to save for autumn pasture. So they're waist-deep in sheep nirvana. But as you've probably gathered from all quiet on the blog front, I have needed to step back a bit and take it easy. Today I finished week twelve
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Sheep Shadows

August 28, 2010 | 14 Comments

In the lengthening shadows of shortening of daylight hours, Mike and I inspected the ram pasture on Wednesday. Thanks to three solid rainy days, the grass is in good shape. But we noted the length of time they've spent on this field and deemed it time to change pastures. The wet weather means no second mowing just yet. But we're entering a sunny dry spell. Hay is imminent. It's the stretch before Labor Day. Heath Fair, Cummington Fair, Franklin County Fair. Hay time. Storms have wreaked a bit of havoc here. Thanks to a close encounter of the electrical kind,
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