11/22/2005

Happy Thanksgiving

Greetings from the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. It’s a snowy day and the sheep are nestled in the fold. Bleating for the comfort of more Hay!!! I shall accomodate in due time. Somehow the feeding schedule seems unfair with it’s regular and diliberate rationing. But so it goes, my days need the rhythm of the chores, probably more than they do.

Our sheep barn is taking on more of it’s final form. The roof went on and the back wall is sheathed with pine boards and little windows placed symetrically along the plane at human eye level. Even with the snow blowing outside, Ernie and Germaine work on the details of the hay and grain feeder. It’s a great design, made with ease for the people to feed out without being stampeded, and to keep out hay from the fleece.  The rest of the barn sheathing will be milled up over the long winter months by Ernie on his bandsaw wood mill. He has a great plan in mind and I dare not interupt the creative process. Over the years I’ve come to trust his instincts and especially his craft of building. If it’s built by Ernie, it’s built right and true. It’s worth waiting for!

So I leave you for a few days, off to Vermont to see my brother and his family. Two stars, Bjorn and Annalise, born on the same day, two years apart. Can’t wait to see what’s up with them. Cheers. Lisa

11/10/2005

Sheep Barn progress

Today was supposed to be a “rain” day for Ernie, which means indoor plaster work on an old house nearby. But lo and behold, the sun is here, the winds are whipping and the temperature is 40, but he’s going to work on the sheep barn. Siding is going up along the back wall and if there’s time and more boards, along the front. Last night was a cold blowing rain all night. The sheep in the far pen made due with out a roof over their heads. God Bless them. The metal roofing is due to be delivered on Saturday morning, just in time for our planned roofing day. How convienent!

I’m washing lamb fleece for a customer that wants it spun up into yarn. It’s off the wether ram lamb “Aaron”, who was the cutest little lamb in the bucket which I had on the website front page all summer. His fleece is soft and lovely. He is half Leicester Longwool and half Bluefaced Leicester. What’s not to like? I planned on having him be the companion sheep for the ram of whomever needs a companion at any given time. Right now Aaron and Raz are together. Raz is the open ram lamb that will be harvested soon, he’s half LL and half Costwold. The lamb fleece shorn off of him is awesome too.

I’ll be working of dying alot of the lamb fleece to make into some lovely colored rovings. I probably have about 20 new colors to experiment with.

All for now, Lisa

11/9/2005

Coyote Watch

You know you’re living on a sheep farm when the threat of a coyote looms near. I can assure you, the threat is real. We have seem a lone large coyote, in very good condition on our land for the last three weeks now. First sighting up in Cranberry Cove where the rams are summered. That sighting prompted up to bring up the rams to the barn. The last two sightings were at the end of our driveway. Simply standing still and peering at us, he didn’t move or run away. Obviously scoping out the place. He must have gotten the cat afterall.

I spent some time running extra electric net fencing around the outside of our paddock fencing this morning. I hope the next howl I hear is his cry of pain from being zapped. I have seen scat on our perimeter walks in the woods, which reveal the remains of smaller hairy animals like squirrel or chipmunk. This canine is running in chahoots with a bostrus screach owl. Between the two of them with their erry noises during the night, it’s enough to curdle your blood.

Thank goodness the three Border Collies stand on alert, in their kennels, during the night. More later I’m sure…. Lisa

11/6/2005

Breeding Begins

Today the rams and ewes have been put together for their breeding season. Our older ram, "Paragon", a white Leicester Longwool, has four ewes to service, while our new Black Leicester Longwool ram "Charles" has two ewes. I plan to leave them in these groups for at least two heat cycles, about 34 days, so that brings us into late December. Since "Charles" isn’t proven yet, I’ll put his two ewes in with "Paragon" for a month afterward to "clean up". If all goes well, I’ll be expecting lambs on March 25 and on. Stay tuned….

Yours in Shepherding, Lisa

11/1/2005

Shearing Day at The Good Shepherd Farm

Greetings, 

Shearing Day at The Good Shepherd Farm in Savoy, MA yesterday. Lovely flock of Reg. Romneys in full fleece. I was able to skirt the fleeces as they came off from the shearers who were using the age old blade shearing technique. It was a very peaceful and quiet event. The sun was shining and as the ewes ran off into the pasture their newly shorn-selves glistened in the sunlight. The flock is just about half black and half white now. I thought, a game of checkers or chess, and a few cooperative sheep, and we’d have quite the game.

To all you handspinners that have been waiting patiently, your fleeces are on the way.

Cheers, Lisa