Archives for sheep

Simple Gifts – day one

December 19, 2010 | 11 Comments

At this time of year, the season of giving, it's so easy to get swept up in the holiday shuffle and bustle. The simple gifts each day brings can easily be overlooked or taken for granted. For just a moment each day this week I'm really making it a point to pause, reflect and appreciate. It feels especially important to me, in a year that has been spectacularly difficult although I'm working on seeing that too as it's own gift. Simple Gifts, day one: Teamwork Mike, Holly and I spent this morning rounding up the remaining sheep at the top
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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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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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Of Rams and Men

July 15, 2010 | 20 Comments

In summer the rams live in our backyard. We like to visit with them after dinner, before dusk gets thick with mosquitoes and forces us to retreat indoors. It's one of my favorite times of day. In general it's ill advised to treat rams like giant teddy bears. You certainly shouldn't get down at their level in the middle of the field without nearby cover, as Mike is the photo above. Mike has a special connection with the "big boys". It's a guy thing, I suppose. He's not intimidated by them the way I am. They sense it and don't
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Wake Up Call

June 24, 2010 | 71 Comments

Let me explain the pause in blogging – and please read this post carefully because it contains an important message for all my female readers. My agenda last week included prepping to teach handspinning at WEBS, dyeing summer yarn share samples, helping Holly give lambs their CDT boosters, getting ready for the Open Farm on the 27th, collecting sheep and goat fecal samples for inspection, sowing another round of salad greens and staking the tomatoes, attending my nephew's high school graduation in New Hampshire, working on my book . . . My "to do" list didn't include having a heart attack.
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Foggy Farm part two

June 12, 2010 | 5 Comments

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Foggy Farm

June 12, 2010 | 2 Comments

Nothing yanks me out of bed as fast as the sound of lamb in distress. That's what I thought I heard at 5:30 a.m. today. Patten Hill is socked in by mist this morning, making it hard to do a head count. But when I arrived in the pasture (above) all was well. But the farm looks like a different place in the fog. Late yesterday afternoon Holly and I had moved the entire lamb flock with mothers and Crackerjack to the open barn pasture on the west side of the road – the lambs' first experience crossing the street.
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Sheep Afield

June 8, 2010 | 6 Comments

After a stormy weekend, it's always good to get back to our usually scheduled program. As I mentioned last week, we're already well into our rounds of grazing rotation. The flock is divided into several groups based on age and gender. Caitlyn's charges (top photo), a mixed group of Cormo yearlings and adults are bivouacked in the upper pasture for the moment. The mothers and lambs are centered at the "home farm" pastures – safest and closest to the barns – under Crackerjack's watchful eye. The rams hold the high ground up by the house, their usual summer digs
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Shearing Day and Some Good News

May 16, 2010 | 16 Comments

Friday was a monster work day. And since I was preoccupied with Mishka's progress at the animal hospital and getting the last of Sheep Shares finally out the door, Holly and Andy tackled everything on their own: shearing (border leicesters, llamas, goats), deworming everyone, hoof trimming. All the spring flock maintenance tasks that could possibly get rolled into one day. I'm so grateful for their help, since I'm both physically and emotionally drained after the events of the last four weeks. Ben Barnhart was on hand to snap some photos for future projects. The border leicester fleeces are spectacular. I
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