Sheep Gal

Big Win at the Big E!

Exciting news on the wool front: our Cormo ram, Teaberry won the Champion Purebred Fleece Show at the Eastern States Exposition Fleece Competition on Friday! That's his fleece, the tall white one in the center. And it's a beauty! 

Last Wednesday Holly and I delivered a carload of very special fleeces from this year's shearing to the exhibit hall at the Eastern States (a.k.a.  the Big E), the largest agricultural fair in the Northeast. This show, held every September in West Springfield, Massachusetts draws competition from all over the country. I reserve the best of our best to enter. 

There's a division for Purebred fleeces and a division for Handspinning fleeces. Within each division are classes for specific breeds. I spent hours last week dithering over which Cormo fleeces best represented the breed and which ones might be deemed worthy of an award in the handspinning category. Each farm may enter only two fleeces per class, so it's important to choose wisely. I ended up taking four Cormo fleeces, one Border Leicester fleece, and four cross-bred fleeces, including two for the colored wool category.

It was very exciting to see Teaberry's fleece awarded the purple rosette for the Purebreds. Kind of like watching your kid score a winning goal in a soccer match or get an A+ on a science fair project.

The flock was well represented. Tea's son, Cody, took second place honors in the Purebred white Finewool class (with Tea taking the blue ribbon). Verbena's fleece captured a red ribbon in the white Finewool Hand Spinning Fleece class. Arcadia's locks placed third  in the Border Leicester class and this was the BL National Show. We had some 5, 6 & 7th placings as well in the Handspinning Division. Not bad.

You can celebrate with us in a special contest. Describe a milestone or success, either yours or someone close to you, in the comment section. On Friday, October 9th I'll draw a winner from all commenters for a basket of my hand-dyed Cormo Silk Alpaca yarn, which happens to be made from the wool of many Teaberry offspring.

Tea's doesn't understand all the fuss - he already knows he's hot stuff. Here he is, looking rather George Clooney-esqe in this photo taken last summer. All it takes is field of grass to make his day. That and my Cormo ewes. What a guy. 

Soon it will be time for him to try his luck with the ladies. It's hard to believe, but we've reached that time of year again. I'm reviewing the flock list, deciding how many and which ewes shall be bred. You can read more about the thinking that goes into breeding for good wool in my article for the fall issue of Twist Collective: The Ram is Half the Sweater.

Speaking of Twist Collective, features editor Julia Farwell-Clay was here to present the Fashion Show at the Fifth Annual Franklin County Fiber Twist on Saturday. The sweaters and shawls are even more spectacular in the person. Seeing them modeled on the runway sharpened my appreciation of the talent behind each season's collection. The show was a real treat and we thank Julia for an awesome show and tell. 

Another busy week. Time for our Sheep Shares members Foliage Open Barn this coming weekend (and time to reserve shares for 2010 soon). Then the New York Sheep & Wool at Rhinebeck comes up mighty quickly, where we have double-sized booth this year in Building A. I'll be sure to bring a lock of Teaberry's wool for fondling.

Somehow, we must finish haying in between the fall fiber festivals. I counted the square bales in the barn yesterday and we're still short of what we need to carry the flock through winter. Making hay in fall is challenging. The dew dries off the field late morning and begins setting again by 3:30 in the afternoon, as soon as the shadows creep across the fields. That doesn't leave much dry time for raking and baling. It takes a good 4 days for mown grass to dry well enough for baling at this time of year and we're just not getting that break. The pattern has been one or two sunny days wedged between periods of overcast and drizzle. It's maddening, really, with so much to do here. If you see a four day window of decent weather, you'll know what we're up to. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

More Adventures in Yarn Farming

First of all, I want apologize to everyone who commented to my late August post about the end of summer. Due to some quirk in the new, "improved" Typepad, those comments never appeared (usually there's notice of new comments) and I didn't see them at all until posting yesterday. I remember wondering where everyone was at the time and thinking that all of you were enjoying a last vacation perhaps before sending the kids back to school or heading out for Labor Day. Reading your comments was a treat - and always is. I appreciate it when you take the time to voice your thoughts, and I'm trying to find out what went wrong with Typepad so this kind of thing doesn't happen again (and if it does I'll have to flog them with a wet skein).

As promised yesterday, a little more about my latest project: another book! On the subject nearest and dearest to me - raising sheep and wool craft - my next book, Adventures in Yarn Farming, has consumed prodigious amounts of time and energy this summer - and will most definitely continue to do so throughout the coming year. I'm working with at a great editorial team at Trumpeter Books, the craft & lifestyle imprint of Shambhala Publishing. Although it will be a good while before copies are on shelves at your local bookstore, I'll be posting from time to time about the process, letting you know how it's a cookin'.

And in between photo shoots and word smithing and editorial pow-wows, I'll continue to keep you dialed in to what's happening here on the farm.

More September scenes today: Holly bringing the ram lambs back to the barn late afternoon. Each morning we let them out with Crackerjack to graze in a gently sloping leafy green field to the north of the West Barn. Before dusk we bring them home. Too much evidence of predators afoot. Even with electrified fence and llama, I would worry that they'd be a tempting sight for a pack of coyotes, (or worse).

The biggest challenge to brining the boys home is not getting bashed in the back of your knees while leading them to the barn. They're getting really pushy with each other and with anything else that gets in their way. Everything is a challenge. Everyone is a potential rival. Even a plastic bucket.

Fortunately, all is peaceful in other parts of the farm. As I stopped to refill the stock tank in the upper pasture late afternoon, the Leicesters and Cormo ewes were heading out for a snack. They love grazing once the sun dips behind Patten Hill and the shadows entirely cover the pasture. Their fields are surrounded by a mile of tall permanent fence,  with a nasty live wire at the very top to make any predator that considers scaling the fence think twice. 

This group grazes mostly by night, taking shelter in the shed by day.

For the next few weeks, many hours of my days will be filled with work in the dye studio. The Sheep Shares fall yarns are arriving, and show season kicks off at the end of this month. Here's the low-down:

- September 26th - Franklin County Fiber Twist, Greenfield, MA. I am a planner for this event and we have some great vendors and a full slate of fabulous demos and workshops - including a Twist Collective Fashion Show at noon. Here's the link, hope you'll join us if you can.

- October 3rd - Sheep Shares members open farm day - which includes my state of the Ewe-nion Address, details to come (and on my website).

- October 17 & 18th New York Sheep & Wool Festival, Rhinebeck, NY - The biggest and best of the fall shows - you need 2 days to see it all. You'll find me in Building A with a double booth this year, brimming with farm-fresh woolly goods.

- November 20 - 22 - Knitter's Review Retreat, Williamstown, MA. This weekend has become the traditional end of my fall show circuit. In good company of Clara Parkes and many veteran attendees, it's a great weekend of learning, sharing, shopping and general good fiber kharma. If you ever find an opening to attend this retreat, jump on it! And be sure to check out Clara's brand new book - The Knitter's Book of Wool.

- December 5th - Booksigning - Teach Yourself Visually Hand-Dyeing at Metaphor Yarns, Shelburne, MA. Friend and Shelburne neighbor, Meta Nisbet has invited me to talk about the projects in my book and share a bit about my dyeing methods in an informal presentation. 

Dinner time here, so that's all for now. More sheep scenes in a bit . . .

September Scenes

Summer feels like it's evaporating as we edge toward the autumn equinox. Hay is happening, bit by bit, and the barns are now about half full of what we need to feed the flock this winter. The flock is now enjoying cool, dry grazing days. 

Here's the scene at the top of the hill this afternoon, where my son Caleb and I found Caitlyn and her entourage enjoying the shade of the pines. Actually, when we arrived at the top of the hill, Caitlyn was in one of her favorite haunts on the leeward side of the shelter. She seemed a little perplexed by my son, an unfamiliar face. He's here on visit from Florida this week, helping me out with some farm chores.

Butch came out of the shed to say howdy and sample the minerals - a bit salty judging from his expression.

The sheep are doing what sheep do in late summer: grazing, putting on wool, getting frisky with the cool evenings. The ram lambs are up to their shenanigans - and getting to be quite the handful. The ewes are sweet, demure - and a safe distance from the boys.

Won't be long before it's courting time for Teaberry and a hand-picked group of ewes. I've spent several afternoons reviewing flock records, family trees and wool samples. Over the next week or so I'll be selecting the ladies who will join Teaberry for 4 weeks, beginning in mid October, which will put lambing in mid March next year. 

Some of you know, I wrote about the whole process of sheep match making for the fall issue of Twist Collective - if you're curious you can check it out right here  in my article  The Ram is Half the Sweater (which is part five in a year-long series entitled Yarn Farm: Four Seasons from Sheep to Skein I have written for Twist Collective). My series will wrap up with the winter issue that launches later this fall. I've really enjoyed writing this series, an exploration of all facets of sheep and wool craft. Writing increasingly has taken more and more of my time in recent months as I embark on a brand new literary project - more about that tomorrow. We're about to sit down now for a family dinner, a rare treat now that our son is grown and living quite a distance from home.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I'm not quite sure where the time goes and how I can possibly be thinking of next year's lambing already as summer wanes. Promise to share more soon. Stay tuned.

Summer Snapshots

Here are a few glimpses from this week:
The lambs checking for the newspaper, the yearlings and Caitlyn drying off in front of the fans after a thunderstorm, and Belle meditating in a quiet corner of the barn late one afternoon.

We're having some decent drying weather which means we're back in business on second cutting hay. Norm and Lisa have mown, tedded and raked the Long lot,our largest field; we should be ready to bale tomorrow. So much rides on the volume and quality of this mowing. We have many mouths to feed in the barn this winter.

Yesterday I arrived at the farm to see hundreds of swallows congregating on the phone lines, preparing to head for points south. Their departure is a late summer bittersweet moment. I'll miss their presence in the barn and company when mowing the fields.

It's a sure sign that autumn is not far off. Tell me, what spells end of summer for you?

Visitors!

It's been mighty busy here over the past couple of weeks as we've been scrambling to pull in hay bales in between bouts of thunderstorms. In the midst of all of it I've had the nicest visits. . . 

Starting with last week when Lynne Vogel, author of Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook and Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters, stopped in to meet the lambs and see the farm. Although Lynne and I keep in touch online, it's been about six years since we've actually seen each other face to face- that was when I took her color spinning workshop at SOAR in Michigan back in '03. Her color work and inventive spinning methods have been inspirational for me. So I naturally I am thrilled that she was able to manage a visit on her way home from teaching dyeing at Harrisville Mill in NH. She made several new friends while here.

 

This weekend the lambs were on their best behavior for a visit from the Slater Mill Knit & Crotchet Guild from Pawtucket, RI. I met this group when I gave my slide show/talk Adventures in Yarn Farming at their May meeting, telling them to be sure to pay me a visit sometime. They took me up on my invitation with help from travel planner extraordinaire Alanna Nelson of Tactile Travel, who arranged the trip, providing the biggest tour bus I've ever seen. Pretty plush.

Mike and I gave them the farm tour. When we stopped at the West Barn for a sheep meet & greet, Crackerjack and the ram lambs were a bit camera shy.

But the ewe lambs happily greeted their visitors in the Carriage Barn.

Snacking away on hay handouts, they made many new friends and kept us company while we knit, spun and sipped lemonade beside their pen in the barn. 

At noon the group packed up and headed south for lunch and a visit to the yarn mecca - Webs.

We were really fortunate that the rain paused long enough for everyone to view the farm and studio at this time of year when everything is lush and green. There is something mesmerizing about working with fiber in the presence of the animals who produce the fiber, our conversation punctuated by occasional "baahs" from the peanut gallery. Mike and I love sharing what we do. Many thanks to Alanna and Bernadette for making this trip happen.

Day's End

While Holly and I wrapped up chores this evening I took some sheep shots with my new iPhone. I'm actually able to post to my blog from my phone - it's mindnumbingly easy. So I'll quick posting more often.
Separating the moorits was sad. Chai, the moorit ram above was quite protective of his girls and he's not sure he likes being with the cormo ram lambs . Not yet anyway. He has his buddy Latte for company .
The moorit ewe lamb, Cognac and Bailey, are enjoying their new friends. It was funto see them all together sharing the feeder space this evening. I suspect the girls have been harssed a bit lately by the rams, so the girls club is quite happy for now.
The last shot shows Holly walking the mothers back from the pasture before dusk. We keep the flock behind hard fences at night to keep them protected.
The sheep seemto like going home at the day's end.
On a separate note, thanks for your comments on my recent posts, especially your questions about why the sheep wear coats, and are they hot in those coats
And why are we always moving them about? And then there were some excellent questions about color breeding a few posts ago. This weekend I'll try to answer them in a separate post.
Hope your weekend is wonderful!!
P.S. My new niece Lilly is doing very well,happy to be at home getting to know her family.

Hazy days

Took this shot as the light was beginning to fade. The mothers followed me as I inspected their pasture. Such a lovely time Of evening.
Today we separated the little ewes from the not so little ram lambs. Lots ofunhappy campers but they'll soon adjust.
More later!

Llama & llambs

I'm thrilled to announce the arrival of a very special little ewe-lamb - my niece Lillian who arrived this week to my sister Kathy and her husband Scott. Lily's debut was four weeks early which took all of us by surprise; she's the cutest little lamb of all and I'll post pictures soon.

In the meantime, my April lambs are getting big, as you can see from the video below. Sorry for the shaky footage, hard to film and walk at the same time. 

Enjoy!

New Faces at the Farm

Say hello to our new Moorit lambs!

Last Friday Holly and I drove to Foxhill Farm in Lee, MA, home to Alice Field and her flock of lovely Cormo and Merino-cross Moorits. I had spoken with Alice a month ago about adding a Moorit lamb to bring color to my flock (Moorit is not a breed, but a recessive color gene for a true brown sheep). I surprised myself by coming home with not one, but a flock of four in the back of my Toyota Highlander. I found them all irresistible, their colors amazing. 

So let me introduce you. The pretty ewe in the photo above is "Cognac". Her color is a warm golden russet and she is the calmest of the ewe lambs.

In the photo below, "Chai", the ram, approaches for a closer look at my camera. His fleece is velvety-chocolate and he's the most confident of the group. I love the white badger markings, like teardrops beneath his eyes. At 12 weeks old, he's already developing a big, wrinkly ram nose.

"Latte" (left) and "Bailey" (right) are twins, a wether and ewe, in the photo below. Latte is named for his au lait coloration and the swirl of white on his muzzle. Bailey's fleece reminds me of Bailey's Irish creme. She's the smallest and shyest of the four, but also has the finest wool.

Although I surprised myself by being a bit impulsive, I suppose this move reflects optimism now that our fences are repaired and faith that we'll have adequate hay this winter, now that first cutting is off the fields. As you know, I've  been aching to add natural colored fine wool to the flock and to take our breeding in a new direction. 

This will be fun. I can't wait for shearing day next spring, and to see what future lambings bring. . .

We had another first last Friday. While Holly and I were trucking lambs from Lee, Mike had his hands full helping poor Zephyr, who somehow managed to get a face full of porcupine quills. Ouch. We've not seen much sign of porcupine at the farm, so this discovery was startling for Mike when he went to fill water buckets.

I was impressed. Not only was Mike able to catch him single-handedly, but he also managed to  pull half a dozen quills with his bare hands before Zephyr broke away. Not bad! It was reassuring to have Mike handle this crisis solo, since Holly and I had our hands full getting the new lambs comfortable in the carriage barn.

Mike observed that Zephyr was able to graze and to chew his cud - which was a good thing because we weren't able to pull the rest of the quills until Saturday when Andy showed up to lend a hand. 

Zephyr is doing well, no signs of swelling or infection. And no more visits from our prickly friend.

While on the topic of wildlife visitors, I should also mention that I spied our doe and fawn sprinting away from the driveway when I returned home last night, the first sighting since last week. It seems that the fawn's leg is better and had perhaps he had only been suffering from a sprain. Thank you to everyone who offered leads and suggestions for wildlife rehab - I'm keeping that info for future reference.

We're back to clouds and drizzle this week. On the plus side, I haven't had to water my veggies much at all this summer. Andy and I used another rainy Tuesday for trimming hooves and worming 93 sheep, 2 goats and a llama. My shoulders are still sore, but we're caught up on herd health - everyone's lookin' good.

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copyright 2009. Barbara Parry. All rights reserved. Feel free to share a link to this site. Do not take content or images from this site without explicit permission.

Week in Review

I'm not sure where the time went this week. Since my return from Cambridge where I gave a talk on dyeing  & color inspiration for the Common Cod Fiber Guild, we've had a stretch of glorious, sunny weather that has brought busy days. So this post is short on words but long on photos, sharing snippets from this week. We're also preparing for our Sheep Shares Ice Tea Social on Saturday.

Lambs' Quarters -

The lambs love their new home in the west barn and the forage on the west side of the farm. They're becoming autonomous, as I transition them off grain and strictly onto pasture. I'll still use grain for bribes when it comes time to change pastures again.

Hay Days 

Norm, Lisa and Brian made round bales all week, cleaning up all but one little field. It looks like the volume was high, being so late in the season, but perhaps,the nutritional value somewhat diminished since some of the grasses have gone by.

In the picture below Norm is pulling the round baler over the dry raked windrows. It's like a giant carpet brush, catching the mown grass on tines, scooping it up and whirling it into a 500 pound spool inside the metal chamber as it's towed around the field. The whole thing then gets wrapped in about a mile of twine to keep the bale intact.

When the contraption is done wrapping, Norm pauses for a moment and the box swings open on a hinge, kind of like a giant clam shell, depositing  a newly minted bale in the field. Then he continues traveling down the windrow, scooping up another 500 lbs. for the next bale. Even with "time saving" equipment, it's a labor intensive process, since someone then must drive around the field  with another tractor that has a giant spear on the front to pick up each bale one at a time and load the wagon. And then, naturally, there's the unloading and stacking back at the barn.

Meanwhile, in the high pasture . . .

Butch attempted to highjack the Mule yesterday when I delivered water to the flock of forty at the top of the farm, in Caitlyn's domain. There's no natural water supply on the hilltop, so we fill 5 gallon jugs and truck them up to replenish the stock tank twice a day. With the sudden heat, their water consumption is way up. I love the excuse to take a ride and visit the gang twice a day.

Amy (in the shed).

Have a great weekend!

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copyright 2009. Barbara Parry. All rights reserved. Feel free to share a link to this site. Please do not take content or pictures from this site without explicit permission.