Exciting news – Chris Spitzer has sent a new batch of photos of the CVM/Romeldale lambs. Good heavens, I was astonished to see how much they have filled out. I feel bad for Chris's daughter, Randi, who did some heavy lifting so we can admire these lambs. What fun (for us, that is)! Note: You can click on the photos to make larger, except for the first one – I spaced out and forgot to super-size it, sorry). Tumbleweed (formerly ram lamb #1): Java (ewe lamb #2): And Java again, in profile, so you can see her lovely fleece and
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I can't believe another week has flown by. Just a quick progress note on the naming of the CVM/Romeldale lambs. The brown lamb with the white cap, Ewe Lamb #2 is JAVA, a name suggested by Diane.  Sandy colored Ewe Lamb #3 is DUNE which was suggested by April. Diane and April will receive sets of Little Lamb Note cards featuring the lambs from year's past. Thank you everyone for your help. It's really wonderful that when this group arrives at my farm next month, they will all have terrific names especially chosen for them. I had an update from
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Here's a glimpse of my shearer, Andy Rice, in action as he unfleeces one of my Cormo ewes. I am rough skirting the fleece as it comes off the sheep, which saves a ton of time on the skirting table. On shearing day last week we repeated this process 33 times.  I was exhausted by the day's end. I don't know how Andy manages to do this day after day at this time of year, with lots of travel in between gigs. It is just plain hard work.
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I gave Mike a camcorder for Christmas and we've playing with it, making some exciting movies of our golden retrievers, the sheep, our shoes (well, we didn't know the camera was on). My sheep are no strangers to cameras. I take shots every day and the lamb cam is permanently mounted to the barn wall like "big brother" watching their every move.  Ordinarily a bunch of big-time hams, they were completely freaked out by the camcorder. So it's a good thing I'm getting them use to it now, before I film the arrivals and antics of the little ones. Here's
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For me, the only thing more exciting than waiting for lambs to arrive is waiting for the arrival of freshly spun skeins and carded roving from the fiber mill. I picked up the first of my spring yarns at the spinnery this week. This yarn run has been in the queue at Green Mountain Spinnery since the end of last year. In February the newly shorn fleeces from my Cormo-cross yearlings joined my late autumn wool clip at the mill to produce boxes of glowing skeins (now stacked floor to ceiling in the studio). For me, the timing is a
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As promised, here are some better shots of last Monday's cormo shearing day, courtesy of Adrian B. (thank you, Adrian!). Kodiak waits her turn in the holding pen: Andy Rice at work: Crackerjack, a concerned guardian, supervises: "Hey, careful with my sheep!" Peeling off the fleece. It's a beauty. Buttercup, post-shearing. We don't bother shaving noses which is why she still looks a little grungy (but sweet). The lanolin in the wool really attracts and holds dirt, another reason why those coats are so important. Buster was bored. It was a very long day.  Click here to see more of
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Thanks to everyone who suggested names for this little guy, CVM ram lamb #1. So many cute names – and you were all thinking creatively about colors.  When choosing a name I imagine myself calling the lamb from out in the field. Will a sheep respond to this name? Will I feel silly shouting it at the top of my lungs in the pasture? Sometimes a name comes along that is just a perfect match. Which is what we thought of "Tumbleweed", suggested last week by Lori. Of all the great ideas, this one best fits this little ram. When
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Monday was the big push to shear all adult cormos, including the bred ewes – and also the day of what I hope will be the last winter storm. A ripping nor'easter rolled in early Monday and pretty much socked it to us all day, dumping a good 8" of powder here in western Mass. Although we worked indoors and the sheep were all inside, it was not the ideal conditions for shearing day. The good thing about Monday was the help. Since the storm forced school cancellation, we got lucky and scored a couple of high school students for
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Choosing this year's theme for naming the lambs was a lot fun but not so easy. Thank you everyone for adding to the pool of imaginative  and clever suggestions for names. With soooo many great ideas, choosing the right one was difficult, but we've chosen a naming theme that feels just right for this year, for several reasons (as you'll soon see!). Without further ado, this year's theme,  suggested by Lisa of New Hampshire,  is COLORS, which, as Lisa pointed out, feels especially appropriate with the release of my hand-dyeing book (Teach Yourself Visually Hand-dyeing, Wiley Publishing) later this spring. 
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Yet  again!  It seems last week's milder temperatures were just a tease. And we now return to our regularly scheduled winter. I kept an eye on the sky this morning as I made my rounds, hoping to make it to the village for a latte and Sunday papers before the pending storm.  First stop, the big barn. The bred ewes (above) are becoming absolutely rotund. They are due for shearing next week, and I'll be anxious to see if they are  heavy in fleece or heavy with lambs – or just plain heavy. It's so hard to tell under all
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