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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On the downhill side of the dairy the pasture slopes toward the dell. There is a brook fed by several springs. Grasses and multi-flora roses nearly obscure the view of the brook now, but you can hear the rushing water, especially where it tumbles through the rocks. The sheep don't go there, since we have yet to run secure fence around the perimeter of the dell. The slope pasture is where the lambs and ewes spend much of their time now, at least until I move them across the road to the upper pasture. There are several pastures adjacent to
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Sheep traffic has worn a muddy line along the pasture's upper edge. I follow in their hoof steps and walk the mud-slick path each morning, inspecting the flock.  Observation: the lambs have caught on to grazing – big time.   They beat the mother's to the pasture gate and practically jump over each other in impatience as I fumble with the gate latch.  In a wooly rush, they spring out into the field.  More  confident, less dependent of their mothers, they bunch together, a mini flock within the flock, shoulder to shoulder, heads to the ground.  Boosted by recent rains, 
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The month of May is a time when I could really use a clone- so one of me can keep tabs on the lively group of lambs and their ravenous mothers  at the farm – while the other me takes the farm on the road.  Each spring I become a fiber road warrior for the series of festivals that are circled on the  calendar from April through June. New Hampshire is always my first show of the season, and it's a special one for several reasons.  When my business was very much in the fledgling stage, NH  was my first
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It’s official.  Lambing’s done.  I have a severe case of  lamb-lag brought on by  five weeks of not sleeping through the night, heading to the barn at all hours, eating sporadically.    Our last lambs arrived during this past week.  Holly was alone in the barn to help the last set of twins into the world, while I was out of town.   She called to tell me they were on their way and then handled everything beautifully on her own – her first solo delivery.  I’m so proud of her. This year’s lambing spanned four weeks.  35 lambs, 9  ewes
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Yesterday I found this pile of lambs napping just inside the barn door after a very busy morning.  A recent discovery has caused a flurry of excitement within the fold.   With the milder days I have been allowing the lambs access to the small yard adjacent to the birthing barn.  Their initial response to setting foot outdoors for the first time is one of amazement and tentative curiosity.    Although they have been able to see outside through the panel in the barn doorway for weeks, clearly it had never occured to them that they could ever actually go there. 
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I stepped outside the birthing barn this week to tend to the rest of the flock during this warm, dry weather.  Time for Butch and Sundance, our Angora goats, to move to their summer quarters at the top of the hill.  Since it’s quite a hike and the boys are still wearing their heavy winter coats,  we all took a little ride. Getting them into the Highlander took some bribery.  Bananas were involved.  Once on board, they seemed to enjoy the ride.  Surprisingly, getting them out of the car took some coaxing.   Myopic and in dire need of shearing (next
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