12/19/2008

December Solstice \’08

Blessings for the Solstice!

The winter season is off to a roaring start, indeed. We had a power outage for eight days here in Cummington, Mass. We got by with good old fashion yankee ingenuity, by keeping the woodstove going, cooking on the wood cookstove, and using kerosene lamps. The water source was close by, a running stream named the Whitmarsh Brook. We used water from the brook to flush the toilet and boiled the water for drinking and cooking.

Alot of time was spent simply maintaining the household and keeping the animals well fed and watered. The sheep are fully equipped to deal with winter’s domination. They lived quite comfortably in the paddock and barn as they would have in any season.

It’s just about time to remove Charles, the breeding ram, from the ewe flock. He’ll return to the ram lamb group and he’ll be just fine in his supreme statis among the younger rams. There are four ram lambs staying over winter, either waiting for their new owners to pick them up, or for whatever my use will be for them in the Spring.

The wool business is still running, regardless of the economic down turn. Spinning wool into yarn is still a valued effort by warm-hearted folks, like myself. It’s always such a blessing to get an order and I respond with a quick turn around. We can’t be too long without our wool stash, can we?

I hope you all have a content and warm holiday season. I look forward to the depth of winter’s grip to focus on weaving projects.