Lambing Season 2012

03/22/2012 09:06:00

Write your post here.Well, Lambing Season is off to a very good start. My days are filled with Fiber. We now have over 12 babies. Lambing started early on March 1st. We had two singles and a set of triplets right away. All white babies. Then we had a gorgeous black and white girl and another white boy. I like white fleeces, they are always the finest but the hand spinners are really excited about the tri color fleeces. I will be coating my sheep this year after everyone has lambed to keep the sun off of their fleeces and keep them even cleaner. I have been asked by several etsy and facebook friends to do this blog so I hope to link it to those media now.

Someone asked what my lambing season days are like.

Well, after we shear, we finally know who is pregnant and what condition they are in.

This year we had all of the school kids come and watch.

That is only 9 kids at the island school but it is really fun to get them involved. We are doing a project called Sheep to Shawl with the kids. Our island teacher Carol Sowl wrote a grant for local artists to get paid a bit this winter to teach the kids art classes. Her budget was cut down to almost nothing. So, this project will include shearing, washing the wool, which we did yesterday, carding, dying, spinning, weaving, knitting and crocheting and felting, all with the kids.

So, now that we are into the season, I check the barn every 2 or 3 hours.

That means the night and day just kind of run together.

I get up in the morning, start the coffee and check the barn.

If all is quiet, I go back in and spin for an hour or so. I am trying to spin a new skein every three days.

Then chores, hay, grain, water, clean jugs, take pictures, etc.

Then back into the house to work on the next rug in line.

I am mostly a rug weaver and have four more orders for large pieces to get done before summer. I feel very fortunate to have so much work this winter.

I am now making a long hallway runner from my wool of course.

So, I weave and check the barn all day. Then chores in the evening.

During this time, I usually start a batch of yarn in the dye studio both for weaving and for sales this spring.

Well, that is enough for today.

More tomorrow and maybe more pictures.

A Shepherd's Notebook

10/11/2011 16:54:00

This new website was prompted by a customer. She had visited the wonderful Craft Coop where I sell most of my work on the island. I live quite a way out on the island and many visitors do not get out this far. The Woods Hall Craft Shop is a way for island craft persons to sell their work. Most of us produce our wares in the slow quiet winter season and then sell our work in the summer. I will tell you lots more about Woods Hall at another time.

Anyway, she had purchased some of my yarn this summer and emailed me requesting a way in which to purchase more. I was delighted but do not know exactly what she purchased or what she was looking for. She wanted some visuals and price lists to make her decisions. Hence, this website.

I hope you enjoy it. I will try to keep this a running notebook of a shepherd's year on the farm.

Right now, it is breeding season. The ewes have all had a good summer grazing on lush pastures. We have had good rains this season and they raised their babies and wandered around looking for more grass for the last four or five months.

Now they are sorted into groups, checked for weight and fitness and the rams have been turned in to do their job. We are using a Romney cross white ram Phillipe with several ewes and a pure bred Merino ram Tobias for another group. Phillipe has ten ewes in his pasture and Tobias has twenty ewes in his pasture. Now it is time to be patient and let them do their work and I just need to keep feeding them in small increasing amounts with lots of fresh water and mineral. After three months we will remove the rams. Settle everyone onto winter pasture and wait for the best time of year, shearing and lambing season. I think a shepherd's year really starts this time of fall. It is the promise of new and better lambs and fleeces for next season's projects.

Fly Away Farm

Lambing Season 2012

A Shepherd's Notebook