Vermont Grand View Farm

2012-02-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Baa baa black sheep

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir

Three bags full.

One for my master

One for my dame,

and one for the little boy

Who lives down the lane.

Baa baa black sheep

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

I must have chanted that rhyme a million times as a child, and not once did I ever think that I would be the one holding the three bags of wool. Who would have thought that I would have a sheep farm one day? I think there are members of my extended family who still wonder at such a thing. Our journey in farming has evolved and grown over time. We did not set out to own a sheep farm. They entered our lives as a means to maintain our pastures. Using the wool from our sheep was an after thought, and now is the focal point of just about everything I do.

Our farm now raises meat (chicken and pork), pasture lambs, eggs, and vegetables for our own family, and a few fortunate neighbors, fellow farmers, and guests. I spend the better part of the summer and fall growing, harvesting, and putting away our bounty. Five years ago, we converted one end of our home into bed and breakfast rooms. This endeavor, to share our rural farm life with others, extends what began 25 years ago as a desire to raise our own food, into a desire to help others make a connection between farm and food, and farm and yarn.

Shearing Day at Grand View Farm 2011

Our sheep and other fiber animals (llamas and German Angora rabbit), provide the central focus to our farm and my life. Our yarn business and the fiber classes we hold here on the farm, rely upon them for their wool. The astute yarn customer or guest to our farm recognizes that our small flock can not possibly provide all the wool necessary for all the yarn we produce. So where does the wool come from that goes into our yarn? All of our yarn CSA shares come from the wool produced here on our farm, from our own sheep, llamas, and rabbits. In doing so, I am certain of the quality of wool and fiber put into the yarn. My CSA customers want to feel a direct connection to our livelihood and our animals. They wish to "know" their wool producers and know their purchase supports a family farm. When our customers come to the farm, I can personally introduce them to the flock that provided the wool for the yarn they have purchased. I can introduce them to the llamas that their share helped us purchase, and they can hold the bunny whose fiber was used to make their shawl. Our CSA share holders feel a connection to our family and farm, and have the satisfaction of knowing that they have supported us and our farming efforts.

Ewe and Lamb from John O'Brien's Flock

Once all of the CSA yarn has been fulfilled, I then turn to a local farm just about 10 miles down the road to provide me with additional Romney wool. John O'Brien, movie producer and shepherd, maintains a large flock of Romney sheep, which he inherited from his parents. A mutual fiber friend, saw the potential of my yarn business and John's wool, and connected the two of us together. John raises his sheep primarily for meat lambs. For years, he composted his wool. Now, I purchase the wool from him, and have put his own yarn, made from his own sheep, into his hands and the hands of his friends. Last year, I used approximately 18 fleeces from John's flock. He does not coat his sheep in the winter as I do, and so the process of skirting his fleeces is tedious and takes a long time. In the end, I am rewarded with lovely Romney locks of wool with an amazing luster. This wool goes into my bulky weight yarn, sock yarn, and felting batts. So now, my yarn customers support not just one Vermont farm, but two!

Two Lambs from 2011

At our current level of farming, I know that my endeavors on our farm will not make me rich, and will not even support our family. My husband has a "real job" and earns the income needed to raise a family of five, home school, and now send our children off to college. I need my sheep, and all of the animals here on our farm, to earn their keep, and that is what they do. We are stashing away something much more valuable than money here on our farm. We are enriching lives. My reward comes when a yarn customer visits the farm and has an "aha" moment, making the connection between their knitting project and my sheep, or when a child from New York City collects fresh eggs for the first time, or when my farmstay guest looks at me in amazement, after eating breakfast, and says, "it tastes so fresh!" They have fit the pieces of the puzzle together; their appreciation for and their value of local farms and sustainable agriculture has increased exponentially. Our farm has made the connection, and one more person in the world understands what "buy local" and farming is all about.

2012-02-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

Will you be my Valentine?

Tell your sweet heart you love them with a beautiful wool heart!! It is so simple, even children can enjoy it!

Gather a small zip lock bag, wool roving, shiny glitz, and locks of mohair.


Gather your supplies

Your batt is now ready for felting

Pull tufts of wool from the roving and lay them out on top of the zip lock baggie. You will be creating a batt with the wool. Now, continue to pull thin tufts of wool off of the roving and make a second layer on top of your first one. Lay the wool in the opposite direction. Be sure that as you layer the thin pieces of wool roving that there are no holes. You want an even layer of wool. Now lay your tufts of mohair and glitz on top of the batt.
Carefully slide your batt into the zip lock bag. Add several drops of liquid dish soap and carefully sprinkle about 4 tablespoons of warm water into the bag. Zip it shut.
Slide the batt into the baggie.
Gently begin patting the baggie. Be careful not to ball up the wool inside the bag. You want all the wool to be wet and soapy. Add more water and more soap if you need to. Once all the wool is wet you may begin to gently rub the baggie. Continue rubbing for about 5 minutes. Children love to sing a song while they work.


Rub the baggie gently.

5. Now begin rubbing vigorously. Rub the baggie for about 5 to 10 minutes longer. Open it up to see if the wool has turned to felt yet. If you can pinch and pull fibers up from the batt then you need to work it a little bit more.


Rubbing more vigorously

6. Now take the piece of felt out of the baggie and rinse it under warm water and then rinse under cold water.

Rinsing your felt.

Your wool Valentine!!

7. Smooth your piece of felt out and let it dry. It is now ready to cut into a heart shape!

Let your wool felt dry.

Visit our online shop to purchase a supply kit for making your own wool felt Valentines!

2012-01-31T09:21:00.000-08:00

"Charlotte", bulky weight-mohair/Romney wool

The Sheep Herder's Hat

Last fall, at the VT Sheep Festival, I came in contact with a knitwear designer who lives in northern Vermont. She and I spent some time in our booth talking about our farm, sheep, wool yarn, and my desire to put unique knitting patterns into my customer's hands. Becky seemed passionate about her work and about connecting with local fiber sources. By the time she left my booth, I knew a perfect match had been made. Each of Becky's designs offer something special that sets them apart from other knitting patterns. A few weeks later, I sent a box of yarn to Becky for her to be inspired by. Within just a day or two, she had drafted a couple of ideas for our yarn!

The Sheep Herder's Hat

Today, Becky released our first pattern!! I am so excited to see this long time vision come to fruition.The Sheep Herder's Hat features our bulky weight yarn, "Charlotte", named for one of our first angora goats. The hat can be worn back for a stylish slouchy look, or pulled down over the ears for those cold trips to the barn to feed the sheep. I have dyed the yarn using natural dyes and a non-toxic dye called "Greener Shades". This hat knits up quickly and easily using a lace pattern. The band is held with a decorative button.

Buttons by Melissa Jean

A PDF of the pattern may be purchased from Becky here or visit our online shop for a hard copy and to order yarn as well. I buy all of my buttons from Melissa Jean who hand makes lovely buttons in many styles and colors.

Thank you Becky for sharing your love of knitting, and amazing creative talent with us and our customers! We look forward to new designs this spring!

2012-01-27T15:18:00.000-08:00

Into the Hands of Knitters

This year, the Vermont Farm Show moved to a different venue, the Champlain Valley Exposition. For the first time ever, the show featured a "Buy Local" Market one evening, which proved to be a smorgasbord of Vermont artisan foods and a haven for individuals claiming to be "locavores". Vermont's agricultural base was evident as forty-two farms set up displays featuring their products. Farmers filled the hall at the fair grounds, stocking their tables with samples of maple syrup, artisan cheese, wine, apples, honey, farm raised meat, vegetables, and caramel sauce. One woman commented that she had no idea that it would be like a fancy gathering with wine and cheese tasting. The entire room buzzed with excitement and chatter as people moved from table to table, sampling, and selecting their purchases.

When I filled out the vendor application for the market, I knew that I would be surrounded by farms who raise food. I suspected that they would offer tasty treats to the crowds in order to lure them in for a closer look at what they had to offer. Indeed, people packed the isles to taste their way through the market. I did not want our farm to be overlooked so I offered my own tasty treat...."Yarn Tasting". Husbands chuckled as they read my "Yarn Tasting" sign while their wives readily picked up a pair of knitting needles. It is one thing to be able to touch and caress a skein of yarn, but another thing to knit with it. At one point, I had women waiting in line to knit with our "Leisel" yarn. My shawl, which I knit from our bunny's yarn, drew them to the basket filled with yarn. As one woman knit with "Leisel" another woman joined her, picking up our new bulky weight yarn. She wanted to learn how to do a "yarn over" and so the three of us stood at the table, knitting and chatting with one another as though we had known each other for years.

By the end of the night, we had passed out countless business cards and fiber class schedules. We had connected with old friends, and made new acquaintances. We had laughed with people we did not even know, and shared a small piece of our lives with many. We put our yarn into the hands of Vermont knitters and proved that the traditional art of knitting still thrives.

2012-01-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

"Lord Willing...."

A couple of weeks ago I had a phone conversation with a woman who is heading up a new bed and breakfast association. She embarked on a long description of how to "triple sheet" a bed. It took her about 5 minutes to give me each detail of the process as I quietly listened at the other end of the phone. She ended with a laugh saying, "Oh I have completely overwhelmed you haven't I?" To this I just laughed right back and said, "I am a farmer and there is little you could say that would overwhelm me." I could tell that she could not begin to understand my response.

As a farmer, I have learned that each day holds new endeavors, rewards, and challenges. There are no guarantees, and nothing should be taken for granted. You can choose to either be overwhelmed by it all or to grab hold of each day, letting go of your own agenda and rolling with whatever comes your way. I thank God when I wake up in the mornings for bringing me here to this place, and thank Him every night for seeing me through another day.

"Faith" enters the world...backwards.

Yesterday morning I left my husband at home to tend to chores while I ran some errands in town. When I returned home, he greeted me outside to tell me that we had a sheep fatality. When he went outside to fill the hay feeder for the ewes, our little ewe lamb named Faith was down, and he could tell that it did not look good. He discovered that she had apparently cast in the night and had died. She had laid down with her head pointing down hill and her back on the downhill as well. The gentle slope was enough to prevent her from righting herself. A couple of weeks ago, I had found her cast in this same position when I went out to do evening chores, but she was still alive. Once I helped her to her feet, she rebounded fine. When a sheep casts, and feels stressed, it does not take much time for them to die.

Faith enjoys playing with mom

My husband spent the better part of the day dealing with this situation. I was thankful that he was home to help as I would not have been able to move her from the field very easily. We sheared her so that I can use her wool in yarn this spring. He laid her in the back of the truck as he used the hand clippers. Faith was one of those perfect Romney ewes. Her fiber glowed with luster and had a beautiful, even crimp. She had the classic jet black nose and black hooves. She looked like a little teddy bear in the field.

Faith peeks through the hay feeder

Faith was our first lamb for 2011. My daughter and I had to assist with the lambing as she presented back feet first. Pulling her out was no easy task, and I feared losing her in the process. My daughter had faith in our ability to bring her out safely just as her mom, Ina, had faith in us as we worked. Thus, we chose the name "Faith" for this little lamb. As soon as she hit the ground, my daughter asked if we could keep her. Faith would join our breeding ewes.

Because the temperatures have been so mild, we have left the ewes in the upper field with the llamas. Their winter paddock had remained muddy, and I was waiting for it to completely freeze before bringing them down by the barn. After our accident with Faith, I decided it best to get all of the ewes off the hill and to flatter ground. So just at dark last night, we moved them to their winter quarters.

Take nothing for granted....hold on to each new day.

This incidence reminds me again that there are no guarantees, and that despite my plans and desires, I am ultimately not in control of life here on our farm. I can diligently care for each animal and do my best to keep them healthy and well, but I am reminded of the saying, "Lord willing, I will do this or that...."

2011-12-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Spirit

This morning we seemed to capture someone in our household with a little too much Christmas Spirit.....

My son, who was supposed to be helping clean house, ran through the dining room imitating Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with a fuzzy duster for his tail and a red dot sticker on his nose!

We sincerely hope that your family has a blessed Christmas full of Christmas Cheer!

2011-12-16T05:44:00.000-08:00

Morning Routines

Most of us find comfort in routines. We find ourselvesalmost on auto-pilot as we go through our daily rituals, whatever they may be.Routines are predictable and bring a gentle calmness to our day. Animals, likepeople, find comfort in routine. In the morning, all of the animals knowapproximately what time I show up with hay and water in hand. If I am late arriving, they stand at their fence line or cages waitingand watching, as if to hurry me along. The longer they stand, the more they pace and callout as if scolding me for ruining their morning routine.

Three Hens...One Nest

Hens, in particular, have their morning ritual of findingthe perfect place to sit to lay their eggs. They do not need to wait for me before they can begin theirroutine. Several hens have learned how to escape the chicken coop. This opensup a whole new realm of egg laying nooks in the barn, and simply adds to mydaily chores. I must hunt for the new nesting locations. For several weeksnow, several hens have enjoyed using a little corner in the main part of thebarn for their nest. We partition it offwith a panel during lambing season. The lambs enjoy piling into the corner toget away from their moms and take a peaceful nap without worry of getting underfoot of a large ewe.

"My beautiful egg has arrived!"

This morning I arrived a little early to the barn andwatched three hens as they vied for the corner nest. Eventually, all three henssat nearly on top of one another. As one laid her egg, another hen wouldquickly tuck the egg under her own wing to keep it warm while she continuedsitting. Then, the hen who had just laid the egg jumped to the railingannouncing the arrival of her beautiful egg. I imagine this little scenario hasbecome their morning routine. By the time I had completed all the other chores,three wonderful eggs lay in the hay. One hen lingered on the railing, anotheron the nest, and the third ventured off in search of something to eat.

Leisel Looks for Her Treat

Leisel, our German angora bunny, has gotten accustomed to herown little routine. In the morning, I pull a table over to Leisel’s cage sothat she can hop out onto it. She seems to enjoy hopping around while I goabout feeding the bunnies and cleaning cages. She waits for me to put herlittle “treat” of sunflower seeds and oats out for her to eat. She lets me pether as she sniffs around and eats. One morning my daughter did the morningchores. She was unaware of Leisel’s little ceremony with the table. My daughtercame back in the house saying what a bad mood she had been in, proving thepoint that even the bunnies depend upon predictability of morning routines to bring peace to theirday.

2011-12-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

What DO you do all day?

Some people ask me what I do all day. They can not quite wrap their mind around what a home school, farming family looks like on a day to day basis. Well here goes:

Wednesday, Dec. 7

Hungry Sheep Wait for their Hay

I woke up at a very dark hour-though I am unsure the exact time. I laid in bed mulling over all that I did yesterday and all that I need to do today and all that I want to do. Finally, at 4:30am, I rolled out of bed so that I could stop thinking and get busy. I reviewed emails, researched more college options for my daughter and got in a few rows of knitting all before 7:00am when the cats discovered that I was awake. So into the kitchen I went to feed the cats and the dog. While in the midst of that routine, our ewe named Bonny, stood in the field behind the house looking into the kitchen window. Rats....the sheep have also discovered that I was awake. I pulled my barn coat and muck boots on over my pajamas and went out to do chores feeding the bunnies, sheep, chickens, and llamas.

College Mail Piles Up

The rest of the morning has been a flurry of activity. I have several large projects on the front burner which have captured my attention for the day. First, there is the sock order with Zeilinger wool that needs tending to. After several emails and phone calls back and forth with the mill in Michigan, I can focus on other things. Next in line is an abundance of college related communications. Again, after several phone calls, scanning, emailing again, and phone conversations-that too gets under control. This week is Biology test week so my son follows me around asking when I can sit and do vocabulary words with him and oh yes-we also need to start the new grammar lesson. He must wait in line until I have responded to the various phone calls.

Ahhh....My Knitting

Once I sit down to work with my son on schooling I grab a pair of knitting needles. I have several knitting projects in various stages all over the house. I have the "quiet time" knitting and the "pick up and knit a few stitches" knitting. While reviewing grammar sentences with my son, or waiting for the computer to boot, I get a few stitches done.

The afternoon looks just as busy with fleeces to pack up and ship to the mill, an online order to box and ship, a pile of sheep coats needing mending, and the family laundry in various stages. Somehow I must figure out what we will eat for dinner and prepare it before leaving this afternoon to take my daughter to her ballet class. There I will get a couple hours of knitting while watching her class. We will arrive back home around 10:15pm just in time to get a few rows of the quiet time knitting done before falling to sleep.

Sheep Coats in Need of Repair

So there you have it-one day in the life of a home school, farming family!

2011-12-04T16:27:00.000-08:00


Marc, shearing Leisel this summer.

Before we shear

Some Bunny

I constantly look for ways to make my work easier. I often feel that so much of what I do takes longer than it should because of lack of proper equipment. This summer, we had someone come to our open farm day to demonstrate shearing German Angora bunnies. Marc raises angoras and we purchased our bunny Leisel from him. He has perfected the art of caring for and shearing rabbits using electric clippers. It had been taking me 2 to 3 sessions spread out over a two or three day period to shear Leisel using scissors. Marc clipped her down within 1 1/2 hours this summer on our front porch. After seeing this, I knew I had to purchase my own set of clippers.

Beautiful Angora/Wool blend yarn.

I find that many guests to our farm have never seen an angora rabbit. Most of them know about "angora sweaters" and how expensive they are, but few of them have ever seen the fiber growing on the rabbit. They leave our farm with a greater appreciation for the price of angora yarn and finished products after they have spent some time with Leisel learning about how to care for her. Angor fiber, one of the softest and warmest fibers in the world, creates a lovely halo when knitted and is highly sought after. The German Angoras boast of being the most heavily coated rabbit among all the angora breeds. Our Leisel yields approximately 11 to 12 ounces of fiber every three months. With each shearing, Leisel loses about one tenth of her body weight in fiber. All year, we save her wool in bags and in the spring combine it with a fine wool to have the mill spin it into a delicate sport weight yarn which we offer as a Yarn CSA Share.

Leisel-after shearing

This fall we successfully sheared Leisel ourselves for the first time using a pair of light weight clippers. It took about 2 hours to shear her back, sides, and down her legs. Though we tried using them on her belly, we found it easier to use scissors for her belly and face area which took another two hours. As with sheep, the ease and speed of shearing depends upon how you hold the rabbit. Knowing the right position to place them in, allows you to extend legs and reach those difficult spots. We felt a little awkward with this part but with practice, we should be able to speed this process even more. In the meantime, Leisel will just have to be patient with us.

The word out there from people who have purchased Leisel's yarn say it is beautiful and absolutely love it. I currently have two projects on knitting needles and can not wait to finish them and wrap Leisel's cozy fiber around me! If you would like more information about purchasing one of Leisel's yarn CSA Shares, visit our website! Just a few shares remain for the 2012 shearings.

2011-11-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

A Warm Welcome

Several months have passed since hurricane Irene marked her path through the state of Vermont devastating roads and farms along river fronts. Much effort has been put forth to help Vermont farms recover and begin to rebuild their lives. Our farm, fortunately did not see the loss and damage that so many of the valley farms suffered. I have been comforted by the stories I have heard about neighbors helping neighbors to clean up homes and yards, open roadways, feed, and clothe those in need.

One of my yarn customers who lives in Maryland purchased several skeins of yarn from me about a month ago. Yesterday, I received a package in the mail from her with hats knit from my yarn and a note asking that I get the hats to someone in Vermont who lost theirs in the flood. I contacted my friend Jenn at Fat Rooster Farm because I knew she had been directly in touch with some of the farms who had lost everything on that day in August. She put me in touch with Thymless Herb Farm whose farmland, animals, and home were swept away by the flood waters as Irene passed through.

I spent a long time on the phone this morning talking with them and hearing story after story about the events of that day and how their pigs swam and survived but their 200 meat birds were lost and their home flooded. They will spend the winter planning and deciding what new direction their farm will take in the spring. They seemed interested in adding wool products and sheep to their farm and we talked about the many possibilities for using wool as a value added product and I invited her to come to our farm where I could show her how to work with their wool and offer ideas for marketing it. In return, she offered me recipe ideas for our invasive knotweed which grows along our fields.

A package sits upon my dining room table ready to be mailed containing hats from Maryland and a hat that I knit as well. They will be a warm welcome to this family. Thank you Torre for answering my call for hats and for your generosity and concern!! You have directly impacted the lives of this family by providing for them.

2011-11-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

Here's to You Emily

My oldest daughter, Emily, before going off to college, perfected the art of making pies. Every holiday, we looked forward to her creations. Not only do her pies taste amazing-with a hint of sweetness and a full fruit flavor, but they look like a piece of artwork with lattice work and crimping to perfection. Once she went to college, I wondered who would make our Thanksgiving apple pie. Fortunately, her younger sister, Anna, must have watched her sister in the kitchen as this year she presented our family with a wonderful apple pie using our own apples and just as yummy and delightfully pleasing to the eye as her sister's pies! We miss you Em but will look forward to many yummy farm meals and your delicious pies in December!!


Anna's Apple Cider Pie

Apple Cider Pie

pastry
1 cup apple cider
1/3 cup evaporated cane juice
7 cups homegrown apples
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cinnamon
1 tablespoon Vermont Cabot butter

Roll pastry and place in 10 inch pie plate. Combine cider and evaporated cane juice in saucepan, bring to a simmer. Add sliced apples and cook until apples are tender. Turn heat to low and remove 1/4 cup of the liquid and add the cornstarch to it while whisking vigorously. Add to do sauce in pan and stir until thickened. Add cinnamon and butter and stir. Pour apple mixture into the prepared pie crust. Top with lattice work. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Cover edges with foil to prevent over browning.
(Recipe adapted from The Southern Living Cookbook.)

2011-11-24T08:29:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving on the Farm

All spring, summer, and fall we work hard to grow food to set aside for the winter. With the first stalk of rhubarb to the last carrot pulled from beneath the snow, we fill a large upright freezer, boxes in our cellar, and jars in our pantry with an entire winter's feast. As I plan our Thanksgiving menu-I choose recipes that will feature our own home grown bounty. The only thing we do eat which we do not grow ourselves is our turkey. This year I bought a turkey from Fat Rooster Farm, just 10 miles away. Jennifer has been my farming mentor and every year I purchase a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) from her to supplement what we do not grow.

One of my favorite recipes which has become a tradition here in our house is Scalloped Rhubarb. I have adapted a recipe from Sarah Chase's Cold Weather Cooking to come up with a delicious rhubarb dressing. Each spring, I make sure to chop and freeze enough rhubarb to make this yummy dish at both Thanksgiving and Christmas. A couple of year's ago, we had a bed & breakfast guest who said she had more rhubarb than she knew what to do with. She was delighted to have a copy of this recipe.

Scalloped Rhubarb with Dried Cherries

5 cups chopped rhubarb

1/2 cup evaporated cane juice

4 tablespoons of butter

Right from the freezer

1 onion

3 cups Olivia's Cornbread Stuffing

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup cassis liqueur

Mix rhubarb and evaporated cane juice in a large bowl. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a skillet and saute the chopped onion until soft. Mix onion with rhubarb mixture. Melt remaining butter, pour over rhubarb and stir. Add walnuts, cherries, and stuffing. Mix well and put in greased 10x12 inch casserole dish. Pour the cassis over the top. Bake at 325 for 40 minutes or until bubbly.

2011-11-20T13:37:00.000-08:00

Thanks Jim for helping us!

Rich Vermont Soil

The sky was clear as our plane landed in Jackson, Mississippi on Thursday morning. My daughter and I flew down to look at a college. Looking out the airplane window I could see the many roads, trees, and winding rivers. What struck me most though was the red clay. Growing up in North Carolina, I became accustomed to seeing red dirt and the challenges it presented to gardeners. Since living in Vermont though, I have gotten spoiled by our rich black loamy soil. It takes going back to the south again and seeing the soil there to remind me of how blessed I am here at our farm in Vermont.

Today, we had our neighbor drive down on his small tractor to scrap out our paddock area behind the barn. We had not scraped it out for several years and a nice rich layer of well composted manure lay waiting for someone's garden. We just needed the help of our neighbor to get the manure where it needed to be. He scraped, dumping his bucket full into the back of our truck. We then drove it up to the garden and unloaded it with our shovels. Our neighbor was thrilled to get a load of the compost to put on his garden, and a few farm raised goods out of our freezer as payment for his work.

2011-11-14T05:04:00.000-08:00

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

My husband and I moved to Vermont about 23 years ago from the Washington, D.C. area. We tired of the lengthy drive to work everyday and mass humanity everywhere we looked. It became obvious that if we were to "keep up with the Jones next door," both of us would have to work full time. Our children would be put into daycare at 5 weeks of age along with all of my colleague's babies. In two year's time, we would up grade our tiny 600 square foot townhouse to a "single family" home that would stretch us financially and we would purchase two expensive cars to sit in our two car garage.

Misty Fall Morning

As a young girl, my parents owned property on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. We lived in an old farmhouse in a valley while my father built a house on the mountain. As a girl, I loved the fresh air, dark star lit nights, and the horizon with endless miles. Though I lived my middle school through high school years in the city, my heart remained in the mountains. When my husband expressed discontent in his city job, I felt that pang once again to live in a rural setting.

Our families graciously allowed us to spread our wings and move north to Vermont. Our first years in Vermont, we lived in a quaint 200 year old cape. Seven years ago, yesterday, we moved into our current farmhouse which is appropriately named Grand View Farm. For the past 23 years I have breathed fresh air, taken in many a star lit night, and gazed upon the endless mountain tops and endless valleys. From my front porch the views are breath taking both morning and night. I praise God for his creation and the farmhouse he has brought us to.

Sunset Over the Green Mountains

Psalm 119: 1-6

1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, 5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.

2011-11-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

Maintaining pastures with a wagon, clippers, and a lawn tractor

The Challenge of Small Farming Operations

Last week, we sold our ram, Elijah to a large farm in NY. A free night in our B&B comes with every livestock sale so that our customers can pick up their sheep on a more leisurely schedule. Sunny and Tom Bixby of Liberty Ridge Farm spent one night with us before heading home again with their new ram. Sunny and Tom began their farm in the early 1970's. They began, as many of us do, with one sheep. In this case, it was a bred ewe Tom had bought for Sunny so she could have wool to knit herself a sweater. Their farm quickly grew from this one ewe to over 300 sheep. They have down sized their flock considerably but it is still far larger than our small hillside farm.

While they were here, we talked about the differences between small farming and large farm operations. They have 12 border collies-we have one. They have 50 breeding ewes-we have 6. They own a "Bobcat", hay equipment, and tractor-we own a pitch fork, shovel, and lawn mower. They own a fancy hay wagon that picks the hay up out of the field and stacks it in the barn for you-we hurl each bale of hay up to the hayloft by hand. The loss of one lamb during lambing is a very small percentage of their lamb crop-we need every lamb to live as the loss of one represents a huge percentage of our lamb crop. There in lies the challenge of small farming operations.

Everyone helps pull burdock from the field

My question for the day-how does a small farming operation grow? After talking with Sunny and Tom, I began to realize our limitations here on our farm. As it is, feeding our sheep, maintaining pastures, and cleaning paddocks present our largest challenges. We have to rely upon other farmers for hay and the past few years, this has not been easy. Many farmers have gone to round bales and we do not have the equipment to move round bales or store them. Those still doing square bales, are in demand and finding a source close to home can be difficult. Then, once we have a hay source, we ideally need to have it delivered to us or we must make multiple trips in our pick up truck. Unless the farmer delivers the hay and brings a hay elevator, we must toss each bale up to the hay loft by hand.

The sheep and llamas do a pretty good job of maintaining our pastures, however, after grazing an area, we need some way to knock down the invasive weeds. If left in an area long enough, the sheep will eat just about everything there but I have found there are some things which they refuse to eat, burdock, and thistle. I have literally run our lawn tractor in the ground using it to mow pastures. This fall, our little John Deere lawn tractor completely gave out leaving us the winter to decide how or with what to replace it.

Cleaning shelters and barns must be our most laborious and back breaking task. We try to not allow a deep manure pack to build up as it becomes almost too much for us to clean if allowed to go too long. This spring, I spent two weeks cleaning out our goat shelter. I did a little every day so as to not stress my back. I never got around to the llama shelter and this weekend, my husband and son took on the job. They cleaned the llama shelter one shovel full at a time. At one point yesterday, I engaged my husband in a conversation about how we could possibly continue to farm this way as we get older. Changes must be made if we want to continue as the years pass and the children leave home.

We decided that we ideally need several things, all of which are on my "wish list":

A new shelter that allows a tractor to come in and clean it once a year.
A tractor or "Bobcat" to do the cleaning.
A hay elevator and reliable source of hay.

With these things in place, we could continue farming long into life and allow our flock size to increase. We pondered all these things, walking the pastures looking for a new spot to put the new barn, and looking at the ads in the paper for used tractors, and hay elevators. After spending about an hour of daylight dreaming and talking-we felt the weight of the expense and went back to the pitchfork and pick up truck deciding to leave these decisions for another day.

2011-11-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

My Wish List

a tractor with a bucket
a barn you can drive a tractor into
more sheep (did I say that?)

and while I am dreaming....

how about a hay field with a friendly farmer to cut the hay for me
and for my husband to be able to work part time at his day job and farm with me!

My husband last winter...

2011-10-31T10:11:00.000-07:00

Nothing Like the Threat of Snow

With every change of season there comes a whole host of chores that need to be done. Though we know this happens every year, we never seem to get everything done in a relaxed, timely fashion. This fall is no exception. The list of things to get done before winter sets in has been just as long as ever. Friday afternoon I began hearing reports of s _ _ _. (I almost hate to actually write the word for fear that my extended fall season will come to an abrupt end.) The reports said that we could have as little as 4 inches and as much as 10 inches. That lit a fire under me as many of my fall chores need to be done before the snow sets in.

Bunny hutches in the barn

With this forecast looming over my head, I enlisted the help of my daughter in moving the bunny cages to the protection of the barn. This involved scrubbing each cage, grain trays, and water bottles and then carrying them into the center part of our barn. The barn protects them from the intense wind and blowing snow that howls all winter long on our hillside farm. After about an hour's time-both bunnies were snug in their winter quarters.

Unloading hay

Some years I have no trouble getting hay purchased and delivered by the end of August. This was not one of those years. We found a source for hay early on and actually had our first load delivered in a timely fashion but then the farmer's tractor broke. As September came and went, I began to realize that I needed to find a different source for the remaining 300 bales. I finally located another farmer, further away, that had just cut a beautiful load of second cut hay. It sat loaded on his trailer, we simply needed to coordinate our schedules with the weather for a delivery. September came and went and October came. We had trouble coordinating both our son's soccer schedules and mother nature to make a delivery. He called this past weekend to tell us about a different farmer that lived closer to us who had hay available. So we turned to farmer number three-and began picking up the remainder hay 25 bales at a time in our pick up truck.

Rolling up fencing

The other task to be done before the ground gets covered in snow-is to pick up temporary fencing. My husband went from field to field rolling up the flexible netting that subdivided our pastures for summer grazing. Then, I went to work rolling up the temporary fencing which extends beyond our permanent fence into a hay field. Our sheep graze a little on the hay field after the second cutting of hay.

Our ram-Jethro

Lastly, the time had arrived to put our ram in with our ewes. We sold our ram, Elijah, and he goes to his new home this week. We had to move all of the sheep around to bring him to the barn so we could take him to the vet for his health certificate. I felt it was only logical to go ahead and separate our breeding groups while we had all the sheep in the paddock and barn. Though we usually hold off until the second week of November-I am excited to have lambs arriving in March this year instead of April. Jethro seems quite happy to be with the girls a couple weeks early as well.

All of these chores have been on our list for many weeks. With fall soccer and me making trips with my daughter to look at colleges, we have not been home on a weekend to begin to scratch any off the list. The chore list always seems to get done though-one way or another and there is nothing like the threat of snow to hurry things along.

2011-10-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

Time

Time is a funny thing. We seem to be either waiting for time to catch up to us or we are wondering how time passed us by. This past weekend, we attended our oldest daughter’s college for "Parent’s Weekend". She is a sophomore attending a college 15 hours away from our little hillside farm. This weekend, I came to realize that we, my husband and I, have entered into a transition period passing from one phase of life to another and wondering how did time get away with us. With two children still at home, I feel we have one foot in each door. One foot maintains our home schooling efforts at home and the other foot tests the waters of the “empty nest” with children living far away.

Where has time gone? Wasn’t it yesterday that our oldest daughter entered into our lives? It seems only a few weeks ago that I had little ones underfoot, chattering endlessly, standing on chairs in the kitchen to help me bake bread or wash dishes. Surely it was only last year that we lay in the floor tracing our bodies on paper, or dressed in Roman togas, or sat at our dining room table chanting grammar rhymes or Latin noun declensions. And now-I find myself at a college campus for Parent’s Weekend with a bright eyed 19 year old by my side.

Parents and younger siblings stood out awkwardly on the college campus as collegiate life whizzed around us. Our daughter attends the nation’s only college which does not accept any federal or state funding. Because of this, the college has maintained its autonomy and dedication to “pursuing truth and defending liberty”. The campus abounds with enthusiastic youth, determined to make a difference in the world and to rise above mediocrity. Their dress, attitudes, respect for their professors and one another, conversations, and love for learning reveal that they strive for excellence in all they do and represent. By the end of our weekend, I felt a sense of hope for our nation, knowing that with time- these youth will be our future leaders, teachers, politicians, business men and women and great thinkers.

2011-10-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

Trying to Find the Balance

Home School Mom and Wife

Shepherd/Farmer

Business Woman (yarn sales and B&B owner)

2011-10-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

A cold drizzle misted my windshield as I drove to the fairgrounds last weekend for the Vermont Sheep Festival. I wondered who would venture out on such a cold and wet day to attend a festival which required walking muddy fairgrounds from building to building. The previous day, I had packed all of my yarn and knitted samples into the back of my van and headed over to get my 10 foot by 10 foot booth set up. I tired not to feel intimidated as I looked at the back of my van ...

and then the empty space which I had to fill.

Somehow, I had to transform this space into a yarn shop which characterized our farm and highlighted our products inviting the festival goer to enter. The vendors around me seemed to have a good handle on their booths as they had already begun to fill them with colorful yarn. First, I arranged the tables....

Then, began to unload and empty the many boxes which filled my van....

I had decided to focus upon the lovely natural colors of our yarn. I resisted the temptation to dye any yarn to bring along this year as I am finding much pleasure in the warm browns, creams, and lovely soft grays of our yarn. The next step was to add some color to our booth by hanging the needle felted murals that our summer camp children have made over the years.

The goal of the murals was to pull people in to the booth. Once there, they would begin to look around them at the yarn on the tables. I placed a small sign at the end of the table near the aisle which read, "Yarn Tasting". In front of each basket of yarn, I put a small ball of the yarn cast on to knitting needles with a sample knit.

At last, the booth was ready and I had gone home to tend to our Bed & Breakfast guest who would be arriving soon.

As I pulled into the fairgrounds on Saturday morning, I wondered what the weekend would be like. Would people come out to the festival? The weather man had predicted cold rain all weekend. Within about 15 minutes of opening the festival on Saturday, the buildings began to fill with people. I noticed a cheery mood among the fiber folks who attended. Groups of women and men gathered in the aisles of the vendor hall talking and laughing. They carried bags and totes which they filled with fiber, yarn, and amazing trinkets and hand woven items. In my booth, I felt that people were looking to support the small Vermont family farms. There was much interest in what we do on our farm and our yarn. I found that people could not resist picking up the knitting needles and adding a few rows to each sample. One woman laughed when she saw the "Yarn Tasting" sign and joined in the fun of knitting!

I sold several yarn CSA shares over the weekend to individuals who wanted to invest in our farm and join us in our efforts. A few people inquired about our summer camps and fiber classes and a woman who runs summer camps in the neighboring town talked of collaborating next summer to expand both of our camp offerings.

The entire weekend proved to be busy with many people attending the festival and stopping to talk with us. I should have known that a little drizzle would not keep fiber folks away from a festival which promoted Vermont's agricultural roots!

2011-09-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

Apples-The Perfect Crop for the Farm

The house smelled of spicy apple butter, savory tomato sauce, sweet blackberries, and fresh baked bread yesterday. All of the odors mingled together, warm and inviting, signifying the end of the growing season. This time of year the kitchen counter tops overflow with bowls of apples and tomatoes from the garden and piles of kale and chard. It seems that no sooner have I cleared the counters and they are full again.

I remember as a young girl, helping my mom in the kitchen at harvest time. My sisters and I would sit on the front porch preparing the vegetables, snapping beans, shelling peas, slicing and dicing. Then we would shuttle our bowls into the kitchen where my mom stood over steaming pots and kettles. The hiss of the pressure cooker always frightened me. As the steam shot out with each hiss, I wondered if the lid would explode covering the kitchen with beans. In our basement, shelves lined one wall displaying our summer fruits and vegetables in clear glass jars. These memories instilled in me the joy of gardening and eating from your own harvest. There is something very satisfying about growing your own food and putting it away for winter meals. It brings with it feelings of self-sufficiency and thriftiness.

Bob enjoys an apple.

Apples seem to be one of those perfect fruits for a sustainable farm as everyone loves them. Our animals enjoy the apples as much as we do. When we pick the apples from the trees in the field behind the house, we have two baskets. We put the "good" apples in a basket for making sauce and pies and the "drops" in a basket to feed to the sheep, pigs, and chickens. The sheep will stand at the fence line watching us pick the apples calling to us as if to remind us to share with them. Bob, our wether, especially enjoys fresh apples and has taught his two ram buddies to love them as well.

Homemade Apple Butter

The "good" apples are brought back to the house where we sort them again. The softer varieties are made into applesauce or apple butter and the more crisp varieties are put in boxes in the basement next to my potatoes. We wash the sauce apples, core them and fill a large stock pot to simmer on the stove. Once the apples have softened, we run them through my grandmother's old food mill to make yummy applesauce. I freeze some of the sauce and then make apple butter with the rest. I have found that a crock pot works well for making apple butter. The whole house smells of spices and sweet apples as it sputters in the pot. With a crock pot, making apple butter is easy!

Homemade Apple Butter

Fill crock pot with approximately 12 or 13 cups of homemade apple sauce. Add cinnamon, cloves, and brown sugar to taste. Cook on "high" setting for at least eight hours with the lid cracked so the steam can escape. The sauce will turn a delicious brown as it cooks down and become thick. (I have found that most recipes call for a large quantity of sugar. I prefer my apple butter a little more tart and add the sugar slowly over time-tasting as I go to be sure to keep it from getting too sweet.)

2011-08-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

One of my biggest concerns all summer long centers around hay. Will the farmer be able to get a second cutting? Our sheep need the second cut hay as it has more leaf than stem and provides for a well balanced diet with high protein. Will the weather cooperate so that the farmer can cut and bale the hay without it getting wet? If the cut hay gets wet in the field, it decreases the nutritional value and it is dangerous to stack wet hay in your barn. Will I have enough money to pay for the hay once the farmer delivers it? All of these questions buzz around in my head all summer long and by September I find I have restless nights of sleep until hay fills my barn.

Hay feeds our sheep and llamas for 7 months out of the year. Without it, our animals can not survive the long winter. Our ewes rely upon getting all of their nutrition from eating second cut hay throughout their gestation so it needs to be high in protein. We like to see the protein level somewhere between 12 and 14%. This provides what the ewes need for their developing lambs.

Hay accounts for our single largest expense for the year. Once all of it gets stacked in the hay loft-I must pay the farmer in one single payment. This year, the hay costs $5.00 per bale. We estimate that each sheep eats approximately 28 bales per winter. This year, we need 400 square bales of hay which brings our total to $2000. All of this money must be paid in full upon delivery.

Today, the farmer brought over our first wagon load of hay along with three of his daughters riding on top of the bales. With their help, we hoisted 98 bales into the hay loft and stacked them in record time. The bales seemed to weigh over 50 pounds each making for tiring work. I marveled at the strength of his daughters as well as my own daughter (Go Anna!). They cheerfully lifted the bales placing them in neat rows in the hay loft. The farmer kept exclaiming over his daughters and what hard workers they were. I could tell that he was quite proud of them and they seemed to want nothing more than to please their daddy and be a help to him.

The next delivery of hay depends upon the weather and when there will be another streak of sunny weather. It takes three days of sun to make square bales of hay thus the saying, "you've got to make hay while the sun shines." I will be watching for that next stretch of sunny weather and my next wagon load of hay.

2011-08-17T04:25:00.000-07:00

Ginger and Java

I can testify that this old saying holds true: "You can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl."! A year ago, a mom and her young daughter ventured out of their city home to spend time in Vermont. We had the privilege of sharing our farm with them for a couple of days. Our two worlds could not be more different. They come from a very urban setting where homes sit close together and yards are either tiny or nonexistent. The number of people living in their city far exceed the entire population of the entire state of Vermont. While in Vermont, they spent much time enjoying the change and exploring.

Introducing...Ginger and Java

This past spring, the mom contacted me about attending our summer farm camp with her daughter. She said that her daughter had fallen in love with Vermont when they were here the previous summer. In July, the two of them joined our summer sheep and wool camp. For an entire week, they became immersed in farm life. The little girl loved the animals but seemed to have a particular love of chickens. Apparently, before arriving at our farm, she and her mom had researched the possibility of starting their own backyard flock in their neighborhood. They had discovered that they could raise a few chickens on their small plot of grass behind their house.

While here, the mom read every book and magazine I had on raising chickens. I supplied her with poultry catalogs so she could learn and read about all the different breeds of chickens. I also hooked her up with several local farmers who had chicks for sale and she and her daughter visited other farms. The day before they were to leave, they returned to our farm after an afternoon outing. The mom bounded out of the car to tell me that they had just bought two chicks to take home with them! Though her husband did not know about their new pets, she felt certain he would be in full support.We made the chicks comfortable in our barn for the night giving them water, food, and a heat lamp. The little girl had named her chicks,Ginger and Java and the next day, the four of them (mom, daughter, and two chicks) set out for their home in the city.

I have since talked with the mom. She has told me that the neighbors enjoy making visits to their chicks and that they are a hit in the neighborhood. They have also decided to expand their little flock and she has already ordered more. They are awaiting the arrival of their new chicks and a mail-order coop to house them. Soon Ginger and Java will be supplying their little corner of the city with fresh eggs and this little girl will get to have a little piece of country in her urban backyard!

2011-08-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

Apples for Winter!

The best apples are always at the top of the tree

We have been nursing along three apple trees that stand in our sheep pasture. Unlike the many wild apple trees that grow across the Vermont country side, these trees seem to have been purposefully planted by a previous owner. We have kept the trees pruned and fertilized with an organic supplement that we add to the soil. This summer we are reaping the rewards of our efforts. The trees have exploded with apples! Yesterday, we spent the morning gathering apples. The ones which had fallen to the ground went into a bucket to feed to the pigs and the sheep and the ones from the trees went into the basket for making applesauce. The rest of the day, the house smelled of apples as pots bubbled on the stove. There is nothing more tasty than home made applesauce in mid winter!

2011-08-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

Campers Display their Mural

The Value of "Process"

Greeting the sheep

In our modern world, we have become a "product" oriented society. The enthusiasm and appreciation for "process" has been lost. With technology, we insist upon immediate gratification and instant results to meet our ever changing whims. One goal of our summer farm camps with children focuses on "process". The farm becomes the perfect tool to teach them about where their food and clothing come from. The setting allows the children to slow down, discover the world around them, and fully engage in the steps necessary to produce a product. Our second group of summer campers met this goal with much enthusiasm and proved that children can still enjoy the creative process whether in the kitchen or in the studio.

Washing a fleece

Our overnight campers requested dinner two of the nights they were here. After talking with their moms, we decided it would be fun for them to help make their own dinner. So we spent one morning in the garden harvesting what they would need to make pesto and a salad. Their morning "craft" session resulted in wonderful basil pesto and a lovely fresh salad which they would eat for their dinner that evening.

Dyeing washed wool

The children also learned how to go from sheep to yarn. They began their week being introduced to the sheep who live on our farm. All week, they cared for our sheep, providing them with fresh water and new pastures for grazing and leaning about the relationship between nutrition and fleece quality. They then washed a raw Romney fleece learning about the lanolin content and the importance of careful feeding habits to reduce vegetation from contaminating the fleece. In the days that followed, the children dyed the fleece and learned how to card it into batts for spinning. By the end of the week, they were ready for spinning and made their own drop spindles using recycled CDs. At last they had yarn to take home with them.

Drop Spindle

To help them bring all of these steps together and to see the big picture of where knitted items come from, the children worked on a group mural which highlighted what they had learned. Their mural required wet felting, needle felting, and even making three dimensional objects to depict the stages of what they had learned about wool and spinning yarn.

Felting the Background for the Mural

Needle Felting

The level of focus and the joy in which these children approached their work all week was an encouragement to myself and the two moms that were here. Often, as an adult, I sometimes lose sight of the joy in the process of doing something and get bogged down in the steps. I want to hurry along just so I can get to that end product quickly. The value of taking time and savoring each piece of the project gets lost in the desire to have my final product in hand. Our little campers, fully embraced each day and the tasks set before them proving the value in the process.

2011-07-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

Never Too Young

I have always felt that children, when given the opportunity, have amazing capabilities and enthusiasm. Every year at our Summer Sheep and Wool Camp, the children who attend, prove that I am right.
Lesson#2 You are never too young to learn how to spin yarn!!

Look Mom, I'm spinning!!

We learned that spinning is easier when listening to fiddle music.

You can spin sitting down...

...or you can spin standing up!

And the results are always lovely!!

2011-07-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

Summer Vacation on the Farm

I have sat here for an hour now struggling with what to write. Our farm has been quite busy the past two weeks with our open studio event, natural dye workshops, and two back-to-back weeks of summer camp. My time for writing has been significantly impacted and now I find it difficult knowing where to begin. I have decided to give you some snippets of events that have happened on our farm, of lessons learned, and of summer vacations spent on the farm.

Lesson #1-Our summer campers discovered that Felting is FUN from start to finish!

Beginning to Felt

Rolling the felt

Squishing the Felt

More Squishing

and Even More Squishing!

Unveiling the felted background for their group mural

Even cleaning up is fun!

2011-07-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

Preparing ferns for the dye bath

Hidden Treasures

Every time I teach a fiber class, I find a hidden blessing. This Friday, I taught a Natural Dye workshop to five women. They spent the entire day on the farm learning about how to mordant yarn for dyeing and how to prepare dye baths using locally growing plants and flowers. The women were so enthusiastic and excited to venture into a new area.

Black Eye Susan dye

Naturally Dyed Yarn Sample Card

As we walked along the road and into the pastures searching for dye plants, one woman, who was very knowledgeable about herbs and native Vermont plants, began introducing me to the plants growing on my property which had gone unnoticed. She began finding St. John's Wort along the road and edge of the field. I had never noticed this plant before as it grew here and there, scattered among the black eye susans and wild daisies. As we walked along, she shared with me the medicinal properties of St. John's Wort. She then proceeded to tell me how to make my own tincture which I could store for future use. I could hardly wait to make my own tincture.

St John's Wort

I needed one item before beginning my herbal endeavor. My husband often gets unusual requests while at work as the kids and I will often call him and ask him to pick up this or that at the store before coming home. Friday afternoon, I called him and left a phone message for him to "not ask any questions, but just bring home some vodka." This was an unusual request as I have never drunk vodka before. Vodka would become the base of my St. John's Wort infusion. My daughter and I walked up the road to pick the St. John's Wort we had spotted earlier in the day. We

St. Johns Wort Blossom

packed a pint jar full of the plant and then filled the jar with vodka. I gave it a good shake and just stared at my new creation.

Adding the vodka

I have decided that making herbal tinctures gives me the same satisfaction as using plants for natural dyes. The process of finding and gathering the flowers and plants reminds me of how absolutely amazing God's creation is. Everything He has created has a purpose and often multiple purposes. Our modern world has forgotten these hidden treasures of nature and we have no need for them in our busy lives. We do not appreciate the time involved in the process but instead look only for the products which bring us instant gratification. I hope that I will never forget God's provision for all of our needs right outside of our doorsteps and that I will always value the effort and time put into using His creation for those purposes which it was intended.

2011-07-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

Where is my lamb?

“Baa….baaa…..baaaa,” rings out across the field. The ewes intensify their call if I happen to be within their sight. Their complaints ring loud and clear and my heart feels their concern. This weekend, we separated the lambs from their moms and several lambs left for their new homes. Contrary to the old saying that “sheep are not smart”, our ewes display intense memory and concern for their young.

Ina naps with Faith.

On Sunday we brought all of the sheep down to the barn to make it easier to catch the lambs. A couple planned to pick up four lambs in the afternoon. Tess, our border collie, helped drive the ewes and their lambs through the pasture and to the barn. Once there, we were able to snag the lambs and put them in a stall in the barn. After having time to wander around the barn yard, we took the ewes back up to the field, leaving the lambs in the barn. For two solid days, the ewes have stood in their field, looking back at the barn calling for their lambs. They know that they did not return when they all went back to pasture and they know exactly where they were left. One ewe named Bonnie, has called relentlessly day and night. When I wake in the night, I can hear her hoarse call above the fan in the window. There seems to be no way to console her.

Clover cleans off her lamb moments after being born.

It is amazing to watch the bond between mother and baby on the farm. During lambing season, when in labor and before the new lamb appears, the ewe begins to talk to her new baby. She nickers in between contractions as if she is calling to the lamb and encouraging it on its journey into this world. Once on the ground, the moms begin their concentrated efforts to clean their new lamb talking softly to them while they lick them off.

Faith enjoys playing on Ina's back.

The early days of life keep the ewe quite busy tending to her young one. During the first few days of life, the mom wakes the lamb at nursing time by pawing at them as they sleep.I am sure their full udders remind them to wake their lambs. In the afternoons, the ewes cuddle with their little ones, exhausted from their work. When they wake up, the lambs are ready for play and mom provides endless entertainment.

Clover keeps Fia right next to her in the field.

Our ewes have proven that they know how to count as well. If they have twinned and we remove one of the lambs, the ewe frantically calls for and looks for the second lamb. When the lambs and ewes go out on pasture, there is much baaing as the moms try to keep their young right next to them. If one wanders away, the ewe calls as she nibbles grass.

The strong family ties and bonding linger well beyond lambing as well. Our wether, Bob, has his mom and sister here on the farm. Bob has not lived with them in the same field for the past three years when he joined the ram in the boy's field. Last year, for the first time in two years, Bob went in the same pasture as his mom and sister Bonnie. I stood in amazement as Bob walked directly to his sister where they stood nose to nose for what seemed an eternity. I felt certain they knew each other and had a special bond between them. Bob did not do this with any of the other sheep, just with his twin sister.

It has been two days now since the lambs left. The moms call less frequently but they still seem to protest any time I am out in the yard. "Where is my lamb? I have not forgotten them," they seem to say. But somehow, things will settle back down and the ewes will get back to their routine of eating and lounging and they will forgive me for taking their lambs away.

2011-07-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day!

Read our July newsletter online! Get all the details on....

Natural Dye Workshop
Fiber-a-thon and Open Studio
July 4th SALE
New Felting Wool

2011-06-24T04:48:00.000-07:00

A Note of Encouragement

For the past four years, our farm has offered a summer farm camp for moms and children. For one week, our campers immerse themselves into caring for our animals and learning all about the many fiber arts. Creativity and energy fills our camp week. Through teaching, we hope to excite others of all ages about the world of fiber and to help them make a connection between producer and product.

View all

Get your own

See our article on page 92!

More than two years ago, I sent a query letter to Spin-Off magazine asking to write an article to share our camp experiences with their readers. I hoped in doing so, I would encourage other fellow shepherds and fiber artists to do the same. This past December, I was thrilled when Amy Clarke emailed me to ask if I was still interested in sharing my story. The winter months proved a great opportunity to write and I submitted my article for their approval in early February. We are thrilled to see it published in the summer 2011 edition of Spin-Off magazine!

The other day, I received a response to my article from a woman in CA.

Dear Kim,

I was very enchanted by your article in the most recent Spin-Off. Makes me want to find an excuse to visit Vermont.

I teach weaving in the San Francisco Bay Area. Your article got me thinking about starting a kids weaving camp. There are sewing camps and knitting camps around so why not a weaving camp. Would you have a curriculum or protocol or even tips you'd be willing to share? From the magazine photo, the gear looks like a modified backstrap style: cotton rug warp, wooden dowel, heddle, kid, yarn. I have minimal experience teaching children and would be open to any tips you can provide there as well. (How to get started? Managing frustrations? Should I practice on my friends' kids first? Have a trained school teacher standing by?)
Thanks for doing such wonderful work in the world.

Best regards,

A. G.

My article has done what I had hoped it would do! I responded to her email giving lots of ideas for things to consider before starting her class and resources to find the materials she needs. Thank you Spin-Off for allowing me to encourage others!!

2011-06-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

As a shepherd of a wool producing flock-fleece quality remains top on my list year round. In the winter, our sheep wear coats to protect their fiber from hay contamination. I peek under the coats from time to time to be sure their fleeces do not felt as their fiber grows longer and longer. On cold days, my fingers linger in the warmth of the ewe's wool. Once sheared, the ewes no longer wear their coats and by early summer they have grown a couple of inches of wool. The spring and summer rains keep their fleeces clean. I find I cannot resist delving my fingers into their locks of growing wool-parting them to peek at the soft curls.

When moving the sheep to new pastures, I scan the field for any plants that may present a problem to the wool. Our biggest intruder seems to be burdock. I am convinced that the person who brought the first burdock plant to this country did not own sheep! Traditionally-burdock's healing properties have been used as a detox remedy as well as a treatment for various skin disorders. Some countries even eat burdock. Our fields seem to abound with burdock and the prickly little burrs that it produces! Perhaps I need to begin harvesting the roots and making my own tinctures to sell. The burrs present nothing but shear agony to me and the sheep as they grow in abundance and stick to everything!

This weekend we went out into the fields to cut down the burdock. The sheep seemed amused by our activity and all of them hung around sniffing and investigating our work. Tere made sure that the tractor did not present a threat to the sheep and kept a close watch over us. We in turn, enjoyed the chance to snuggle up to the lambs.

2011-06-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

The Mystery of Rhubarb

Cloudy....windy....rainy.....50 degrees......seems like perfect weather to me for making Rhubarb Jam!

Rhubarb remains one of those mysterious plants. A quick google search brings up a long history of rhubarb around the world. Historically, the dried root aided in curing a number of illnesses. It seems that it wasn't until sometime in the 1800's that it entered into culinary dishes. Some websites tout that Benjamin Franklin brought the first rhubarb to America where others claim that a farmer in Maine carried the first plant from Europe. Needless to say, rhubarb has a long history which stretches the globe.

I remember as a child hearing my grandmother rant and rave over rhubarb. She grew up in New England where rhubarb thrived in the cool temperatures of the early spring. As a child I thought what could possibly be appealing about a sour tasting stalk with a deadly leaf on the end of it? Then, when I was in my mid twenties, we moved to Vermont where rhubarb abounded in gardens, abandoned fields, and in nearly every back yard. Living in town, we shared a garden plot with some friends. An elderly woman named Hester lived behind our garden and her small garden plot backed up to ours separated by a fence. I marveled at her garden-the lack of weeds, and the abundance of produce from such a small area. We would talk through the fence as we both worked with hoes in hand. She coached me as I planted each seed instructing me on how far apart to plant them and how to care for them. One day, she asked if I would like a cutting from her rhubarb plant. I couldn't turn her down as that would seem unappreciative so I politely accepted with the agreement that she would provide me with some recipes. She drove her shovel into the soil and after a few minutes passed a healthy looking rhubarb cutting over the fence to me. Hester helped me decide where to plant it in the garden and told me how to nurture it along. As I waited for my plant to grow, Hester provided me with arm fulls of fresh rhubarb from her plants. Suddenly, I found my kitchen counters full of her rhubarb-the very plant that I disliked as a child.

I began looking in every cookbook I had for recipes, determined to figure out the attraction to this strange vegetable. Hester provided me with a few recipes as well and so my journey began with rhubarb. The search for recipes became addicting and soon I found that Rhubarb Pie with a hint of orange tasted amazing as did Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, Rhubarb Chutney, Rhubarb Upside Down Cake, and Rhubarb Crisp. A year later, we bought a 200 year old cape just outside of town. It must have been the only house in Vermont that did not have rhubarb growing on the property. I proudly dug up my rhubarb plant from Hester to take with me. Soon in my new home, I had three large plants which thrived and grew beyond belief. I offered cuttings to almost everyone I knew that gardened and made sure they had recipes in hand if they were unfamiliar with the plant. We stayed in that house for 16 years and upon leaving that home to move to our current location, Grand View Farm, I brought three cuttings with me.

My children grew up knowing all about rhubarb as I cultivated their interest in the plant from an early age. As toddlers, they could be seen walking through the garden wearing a large rhubarb leaf as a hat while chewing on the sour stalk. They loved my Rhubarb Pie after dinner and Rhubarb Jam on their morning toast. Making jam became a yearly ritual with my children helping to pick the rhubarb and chop it. The past few years, my schedule has gotten so crazy that I have not found time to make jam with the rhubarb. Today, seemed the perfect day for making jam and restoring that tradition in our home.

Rhubarb Jam

4 cups chopped rhubarb
2 cups of evaporated cane juice (or white sugar)
2 tablespoons of crystallized ginger
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Put all ingredients into a heavy stainless steel pot-stirring constantly, bring to a boil.

Continue to cook and stir over medium high heat until it thickens and holds its shape in the middle of a large spoon.

Ladle into sterilized canning jars. Put on the lids and process for 10 minutes in a boiling bath.

Mmmmmm.........sweet Rhubarb Jam!!

2011-05-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

Appreciate Everything-Take Nothing for Granted

Daffodils in Bloom

About two weeks ago, I had some Bed & Breakfast guests from Long Island. Wanting to see the lambs while they were still small but hoping to avoid mud season, they scheduled their visit with us for the very end of April. This seemed like a safe time frame to me when they booked their reservation back in February. Much to their dismay, they found that mud season was still in full swing when they arrived. Though the daytime temperatures ranged from 40 to 50 during their stay, the breeze had a rather cool nip to it. We kept a fire in the wood stove to knock the chill out of the air.

One morning after breakfast, we chatted about the unpredictable weather patterns. I apologized about the muddy roads and cool temperatures. I somehow feel responsible for these things when it comes to our B&B guests, even though I know that I have absolutely no control over them. My guest pointed out to me that people who live in Vermont must never take anything for granted like dry roads, green grass, warm sun, flowers blooming, and leaves on the trees. She said that we must find ourselves extremely appreciative of each season when it arrives.

Heritage Breed Meat Birds

For years now, I have thought the same thing. We long for the coming spring and slow to arrive summer and once they are here, we savor every minute. When the calendar flips to September, a melancholy sets in as we know that the lingering warm days are numbered. Yet, at the same time, we look forward to the autumn as the beauty of the changing leaves can not be surpassed. I even find myself yearning for the winter months as this is a time of rest on the farm. Then, as March approaches, the cycle begins again. If the winter has been harsh with lots of snow as this winter, the longing for warmer temperatures and green grass is intensified.

Luke's Pigs

Clover and Her Little Ewe-Fia

Today, I can confidently say that Spring has finally settled on Grand View Farm. As I did chores this morning, I saw signs of Spring and a hope of summer. I put the meat birds out on pasture yesterday and they were basking in the morning sun and pecking at the grass for bugs to eat. The two little pigs that arrived a couple weeks ago have made themselves at home and were rooting in the dirt. The seeds planted in the cold frame have new leaves just poking through the dirt and the daffodils are in full bloom. I breathed a long sigh as I walked back to the house after morning chores, appreciative of all I found on the farm.

2011-05-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

Fiber Preparation Retreat Weekend Give-Away

All you fiber enthusiasts- don't miss out on this give-away opportunity!! Jennifer King of The Sachem Farmhouse B&B and I are hosting a weekend Fiber Preparation Retreat at her lovely B&B in CT. The workshop runs June 10-12. Follow this link to enter for a FREE two night stay plus the workshop fee!!

2011-05-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

100 Mouths on the Farm to Feed

The other day, while visiting our pen pal classroom, one of the children asked me how many animals we had on our farm. Together we began counting and adding them up. I was astonished to learn that I have 100 mouths to feed on our farm. It is no wonder that it takes me anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 hours to do chores in the morning.

When I grow weary of my chore time responsibilities, I think about the days long before grocery stores and food markets. Families and homesteaders made their way across our country before there were highways to take them where they wanted to go and stores to provide for them. These hearty souls spent almost every single hour of every single day on activities which sustained them. They were totally dependent upon the weather and their own abilities to provide sustenance for their families throughout the year. I would love to have met these women, men, and children Though we try to grow most of our own food here on our farm or purchase it from neighboring farms, I still find that I spend amazing amounts of money in the food store each year. I can't imagine knowing that every single thing we eat, must come from our own land.

New Chicks

So with all this in mind, the farm grows in size every Spring as our meat bird chicks and new piglets arrive to the farm. Every February, I place my meat bird chick order so that they arrive in April. We raise 50 heritage breed chickens every summer to put in the freezer. A few neighbors purchase some and then the remainder feed our family and our Bed & Breakfast guests who request dinner. For now, the chicks are in the barn. Once they grow large enough that they can not slip through the holes in our poultry netting, they go out on pasture. There they will help nourish our fields as the field helps nourish them.

Luke's Pigs

When my son Luke said he wanted to start eating pork, I told him that he would have to raise the pigs himself. So each summer, he raises two pigs. He puts some of the meat in our freezer and sells what he can not use. A side benefit is that our B&B guests get to enjoy the bacon and sausage year round as well as Luke. The piglets arrived over the weekend and I must say they are quite cute. This year, he bought his piglets from our good friends at, The Perry Family Farm. This year, I hope to put the pigs in a pasture where we cut some saplings a couple of years ago. There are lots of stumps that need to be rooted up and that way the pigs will help me maintain the field.

I want to overhaul the garden this Spring. As my time has more demands placed upon it, I am constantly trying to think of ways to make my work easier. The past few summers, the garden has gotten the best of me with weeds galore, and little time to water in the greenhouse. I have drawn up some plans to rearrange the herb garden, redo the vegetable beds, lay more permanent paths to reduce weeds, and install a watering system. Our greenhouse needs new poly this year as a winter storm put a huge rip in it. My biggest challenge right now is patience....Our busy schedules, uncooperative weather, and our broken tiller have all put a halt to my plans. I have managed to get some seeds in the cold frame already in hopes they will survive. I am craving fresh greens and beets that I am used to having in my kitchen by this time of year.

So with high hopes of providing for our family-I go out at chore time to care for those 100 mouths.

2011-04-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

Sitting in the hay loft window

Two weeks ago today we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of 5 high school aged home schoolers and 3 moms. All five students have become friends with my daughter through an online school which we have been a part of for the past 7 years. We decided to invite them all to our farm for a Spring Break farm field trip. Most of these students had never been around farm life, mud boots, or farm animals. While they were here we scheduled workdays and tours of farms in our area to give them a broad picture of what farming in Vermont entailed.
Through the course of the week they had delved into an assortment of farming experiences-

Greenhouse repairs

maple sugaring
greenhouse maintenance
caring for baby goats
putting hay up in the barn
getting sugar wood for next year's season
feeding animals and mucking the barn

They quickly found out what mud boots were and why they do not have shoe laces on them. They learned that pumpkin can actually be edible or at least easily disguised, and that baby goats really are cute. The moms left with hopes of garden boxes in their yards and new recipes to try.

A Lesson in Weeding at Fat Rooster Farm

Capturing the moment on camera

Visiting the goats at Fat Toad Farm

Learning about cheese making at Neighborly Farms

Cleaning Sap Buckets

By the end of their visit with us, we were all exhausted from late nights and busy days. We had taken hundreds of photographs, eaten tons of food, laughed much, and played hard. Friendship bonds were strengthened, lives were connected, and we were quite sad to see them all have to go back home at the end of the week.

Many thanks to Fat Toad Farm, Fat Rooster Farm, Neighborly Farm, and Hampton Fiber Mill for their time and enthusiasm as they shared their lives and farms with us during our week and many thanks to the families who sacrificed much in order for their child to visit with us.

2011-04-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

Is that a goat in the house??

Well....yes...but please do not tell my husband. Meet Figaro-one of our newest little bucklings. He had a rough start in life and we had to tube feed him to get him going. After two feedings, he was ready to nurse mom but by that time, mom had decided that perhaps he really wasn't her little kid after all. So I have adopted Figaro and have been caring for him round the clock to be sure he thrives. This afternoon-I just couldn't resist bringing him into the house to meet our border collie, Tess and to have his bottle.

2011-04-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

If you want to know why the house is a mess, the laundry is not folded, dishes not washed, school work half done, dinner is not cooked, and the phone messages unanswered...just visit our farm and you will see that with lambs in the barn.....

Double Trouble-Fiona and Frito

Ina stays right by Faith's side.

Morning Hugs for Faith

An Exhausted Lamb-Faith

nothing else gets accomplished?

2011-04-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

Nightly Barn Checks

During lambing season, my internal clock wakes me up between 2am and 3am. I crawl out from under the warm covers- put on my barn coat, hat, and mittens-grab the flashlight, and head to the barn. I always pause and listen before opening the door to see if I can hear a new voice calling out in the night. Then, I open the door. After my eyes adjust to the dark, I begin to scan the crowd looking for any signs of labor.

Many years ago, we took a lambing class and I remember the teacher saying, "if they are chewing their cud, they are not in labor," and "if they are eating hay, they are not in labor." I have learned that this is not true in my flock. Chewing their cud seems to have a calming affect during their labor. I have watched time and time again, my ewes chewing in between contractions. I have also learned to have apples and hay ready for the mom who needs a little boost in energy as they readily eat it.

Pronounced hips -a sign of approaching labor

I watch the ewes closely as they approach their due dates. I know whose hips seem hollow and whose bag is just a tad larger. All day yesterday I watched Chloe, the next ewe on the calendar. Her hips seemed more pronounced and her udder seemed a bit larger. As I entered the barn last night, Chloe was standing chewing her cud with gusto. She then moved to a corner where she laid down and continued to chew. I stood a few minutes but she seemed fine. Then as I turned to leave the barn I heard a grunt. I know what that sound means! I turned back around, shined the flashlight on Chloe and sure enough she began pushing. Within one push, two lamb feet appeared.

I put some hay in the run in so the other ewes would give Chloe space and privacy. I watched as she brought two healthy lambs into the world. Once again, my ewes have proven that laboring ewes can actually chew their cud!

Fiona-ewe lamb

Fiona-ewe lamb

Frito-ram lamb

Frito-ram lamb

2011-03-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

Despite the pending evening forecast of 14 inches of new snow...

I saw signs of spring and new life on our farm today.....

This morning the Robins returned to our farm!

The first Robin appeared in the driveway.

Pale shoots were poking through the ground!

Daffodil shoots against a back drop of snow

And our first lamb was born!

"Faith" - Welcome to Grand View Farm!

2011-03-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

Why Farm Raised?

I stopped eating red meat when I was pregnant with my son (14 1/2 years ago). It was one of those funny pregnancy food aversions. With my middle child-it was parsley. With my first baby-well it was just about everything. I never regained the desire for red meat. In fact, I totally avoid the red meat counter in the food store. When I check out with my groceries, if the person in front of me has red meat, I move to a different isle. The sight of it all red and bloody on the white styrofoam tray covered in plastic just turns my stomach to this day the way it did when I was 3 months pregnant. And the smell of it is so offensive it makes me feel nausea. I have only had red meat once since my son was born and afterward I had a terrible stomach ache.

Last week, I picked up some ground beef from Fat Rooster Farm. I know I have red meat lovers arriving in just a few weeks when we host a group of home schooled teenagers for a week long farm field trip. Our family often gets teased about the foods we eat and raise and there has been much discussion among these teens about what they will eat for an entire week. So I thought how considerate it would be of me to have a red meat meal for those teenage boys that will abide with us for the week. I also figured it was time to meet my food aversion face to face...so to speak. So I decided upon meat balls. That way, I can easily save some sauce out for those of us who do not care for meat with our spaghetti.

I have been dreading making the meatballs. I wanted to make them ahead and put them in the freezer. Tonight, my husband has all the kids with him and so I decided with an empty house, it was a good time to make them. That way-should I get sick in the middle of it-no one would know. I first put all my other ingredients in the bowl saving the meat for last. I had thawed the meat out in the fridge in a bowl. When I pulled it out-there was all this red juice in the bottom of the bowl....yuck. I contemplated putting on gloves before opening the packages so that my hands would not have that awful smell on them but I braved it and began unwrapping the green paper.

I closed my eyes as the meat plopped down into my bowl with the bread crumbs, egg, onion, and herbs. I slowly opened my eyes and took a peek-much to my surprise (well not really) it did NOT look at all like that horrible stuff on the food store meat counter! And the offensive odor-where was that? As I began stirring the mixture with my very long handled spoon so as to be as far away from it as possible, I found myself putting the spoon down and diving in with my bare hands, squishing and mixing it all together. As I made each meatball and put it on the tray, I found myself almost wanting to take a bite even before they were cooked!!! As they baked in the oven-I could almost taste it in my mouth and it was sooo good! The only word I can think of to describe it is.....FRESH....it looks and smells FRESH! mmmmmmmmmmmmm

My Meatballs

Wow! Hats off to Fat Rooster Farm and their amazing ground beef!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is why so many families in Vermont raise their own food-to provide FRESH, tasty, and healthy food for their loved ones and neighbors. People not only have kitchen gardens but also raise beef, pork, lamb, and chicken. The difference between farm raised food and feed lot meat and vegetables that have traveled 3,000 miles to get here is astounding. With the advent of the chain food stores, our taste buds have become numb as

Pasture Raised Chicken

our food now lacks flavor. We block out the images of how our food was grown and how it got onto our plates! We have forgotten that ham comes from a pig and steak comes from a cow.

When my son was two years old, we attended a story hour just after the Thanksgiving holiday. The leader asked each child to tell the group what they ate over the holiday. One boy said he had eaten some ham, my son looked at me and burst out with, "Mommy, is that PIG meat?" (We had raised pigs that year and they had just been slaughtered and put in our freezer.) The other moms and children in the group looked shocked and horrified to hear those words..."pig meat". They preferred to not think of ham as a cute little pink pig like the ones in the picture books that surrounded them in the library.

My son now raises his own "pig meat".

I will never forget the time that our family went on a 15 month sabbatical to PA. We packed our little homestead into a zillion boxes and moved away from our 11 acres in VT to a 3 acre lot in suburbia USA. My garage became a storage shed for my hoes, shovels, rakes, and garden gloves. As we sat at the realtor's table signing papers for our new vinyl sided house in PA, the woman across from me rambled on about how I must find the local stuff-mart store. She was tickled pink that this store provided families with a "one stop shop". She informed me that I could pick up a few groceries, buy the kids new socks, rent a video, and grab a hamburger from the fast food restaurant all from this one store! "One stop shop",..."one stop shop"..."one stop shop"...that's all I could hear. Little did this woman know that I had four LIVE chickens and their coop stuffed in the trunk of my car. I wanted to lean across the table, pick her up by her collar, and say to her, "Look lady, I have four chickens in the back of my car so that my children can at least eat an egg that isn't 6 months old! "One stop shopping" to

Fresh Egg

me means going out into my garden and greenhouse and looking to see what is ripe and ready to be picked for my dinner!" But I didn't, I sat there staring at her repeating her words over and over in my head, "one stop shop". Needless to say, we only lasted there a short while and came right back to homesteading in Vermont.

Now, some 6 six years later, I am encouraged to see a move towards locally grown foods. People recognize the value and quality they have been missing all these years. With this new movement, even those unable to grow their own foods can enjoy the bounty off the small family farm. Even large cities now host farmer's markets where farmers travel up to 60 miles with their trucks over flowing with fresh farm raised foods to sell them to city dwellers. Large food store chains have jumped on board as well proudly displaying signs that read, "Locally Grown" above some of their produce. City apartment residents come together in the summers and plant roof top gardens where they can harvest fresh salad greens and tomatoes.

So as I prepare my spaghetti and meatball meal for these teens a few weeks from now, I will proudly tell them that the meat was farm raised here in Vermont. As they exclaim over how delicious the meal tastes, I will not attribute it to my cooking expertise but rather to the care and attentiveness for which it was raised on my friend's farm. And when they ask, "why do you buy farm raised?" they can taste the difference and answer that question for themselves.

2011-03-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

Our shearer, David Hinman, died last June while shearing sheep at a farm in southern VT. His daughter, Gwen came and sheared for us this year. David always boasted about how well his daughter could shear sheep. He said, "Don't tell anyone, but she can shear sheep faster and better than I can." The two of them often went on shearing jobs together when they traveled to large farms. They would spend their entire day shearing side by side. There seemed to be a wonderful father/daughter bond between the two of them. I had never met Gwen but David talked about how tiny she was yet able to handle the largest rams. You could tell that he adored his daughter.

Ah...a good scratch at last!

After David died, I spoke with Gwen on the phone. She talked about how difficult it was to continue shearing without her dad. They shared shearing stories together as well as shearing jobs. Gwen wondered who would care about her stories now that her dad was gone. I was thrilled when she responded to my call this winter asking her to come shear for us. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to go to farms where your dad used to shear.

The llamas seem to say, "What happened to you?"

Gwen, like her dad, obviously loves what she does. She took her time, chatting the entire time. Though she did not talk directly to the sheep the way her dad did-I could tell that she felt a bond with the sheep. If I struggled to bring a sheep to the shearlng floor, Gwen would come over and so calmly bring the sheep over. Even our big wether at 200 pounds seemed a breeze for her to control.

The llamas were quite curious!

Chloe's Wool

We shared stories about her dad and showed her a poster we had made a year before he died with pictures of him shearing our sheep. I know the past 6 months have been difficult for her but she came in good spirits and willing to share with us. It felt good to have Gwen at the farm-I am sure her dad would be proud of his daughter and how she continues the family tradition of sheep shearing.

2011-03-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

Shearing and Sugaring and Spring

Sugar Buckets hang on our maple trees

Despite the several feet of snow outside my door, Spring has come to Grand View Farm! Whoever thought that Spring had to be ushered in with daffodils, green grass, and dogwood blossoms on the trees obviously did not grow up in Vermont! We know we have made it through the long winter and Spring is knocking on our door when:

~our days waffle between being snowy and being a glorious 35-40 degrees.

The sheep have been sheare

~the sun has a new strength and warmth to it so that we shed our coats at chore time.
~it is time to call the shearer to clip the wool from the sheep.
~the ewes bellies grow round and large with lambs.
~and sugar buckets hang on maple trees along the roadside and our clothes smell of smoke from boiling sap in the the sugar house all night.

So as you see, our Spring does not look the way most people think that it should but it is Spring to us none the less.

2011-03-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

Tending to Lambs

When your children grow up and go off to college, you begin to wonder what lasting impressions they will take with them of their childhood. Will they look back with fondness at their life on a rural farm or will they feel that they have missed out on life? Will they value the lessons learned while growing their own food and raising animals.Will they feel the many hours of solitude, lack of television, a dozen friends, and the newest fashions has left them behind their peers?

Staying up late boiling sap

We launched our oldest daughter off to college this fall. She attends school more than a 15 hour drive away and only came home at Christmas time. She did not come home at Thanksgiving or Spring Break. This past week she sent me an email that read, "I'm so sad to miss lambing. :( Please send me pictures!!"
I smiled when I read that. I wrote back and told her how great it felt to read those words. She responded, "...I am so proud of our farm, and think off all the seasonal events I am missing almost daily. I wouldn't trade growing up the way Anna, Luke, and I have for the world--those experiences, more than any author or class, have shaped the way I view myself and the world, especially now that I am "away from it all" here. The farm has given me a perspective I think few people are lucky enough to have. I love it, and miss it."

Just the words I wanted to hear!!

2011-03-07T07:11:00.000-08:00


Piglets at Perry Family Farm

Piglets Abound!

Our good friends and fellow farmers at Perry Family Farm sent us this picture last night! They delivered 20 piglets through the course of the day yesterday. James and Laura Perry have a farm in Central Vermont raising beef, pork, poultry, and lamb. They sell their meats along with home brew, and chutneys at local farm markets and to restaurants. This summer, they will open a three room bed and breakfast offering farm stays to overnight guests!

We try to get together with the Perrys on a regular basis. Usually our gatherings include a meal, Jame's latest home brew, a tour of the farm, and long chats about farming and inn keeping. Sometimes they call us over for a taste testing session as they decide which ingredients to use in their newest pesto or chutney. Together we brainstorm, encourage one another, and dream. We cherish friendships like these and look forward to when their bed and breakfast opens so we can plan some specialty Vermont vacations together!

2011-02-26T10:08:00.000-08:00

From Rags to Rugs

hanging on the warping board

Woven in shades of green, lavender, pink, brown, and yellow

With a winter break from home schooling this week, I was able to get to the studio in the barn. The barn loom had been warped for a rag rug for several weeks now and at last the weaving is finished.The question everyone of the day around here is...."Did you make that rug for me?"

2011-02-22T08:38:00.000-08:00

Gardening....Carrying on a Tradition

I have always enjoyed gardening. As a little girl I remember working in our family garden in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. We would begin at 8:00 in the morning while the temperatures were cool. Each of my siblings would choose a row in the garden to weed or harvest from. Being the last of five children, I seldom got first choice. The corn rows became the most popular rows to work in. We would hide beneath the tall plants, taking breaks as we pleased and stopping to play in the soil. By the time the sun shone hot in the summer sky, lunch time had arrived and we took a break from our work. After lunch we all sat on the front porch shucking corn, shelling peas, and snapping beans. We sang and told stories as we worked. As soon as we had a bowl prepared we would take it to my mom in the kitchen. Steam filled the kitchen as my mother worked at blanching and canning the vegetables. I have such fond memories of those summer days. I remember laughing and playing while we worked. My older siblings my have a different story but I only have wonderful memories of these summer days. By the end of the summer, our basement was full of canned beans, pickles, jams, and tomatoes.

Once my husband and I moved to Vermont, we began our first garden. We entertained our neighbors as we stood in the middle of our freshly tilled garden reading from our Cold Climate Gardening book. I would read aloud to my husband as he dug the rows, mounded the soil, or prepared the beds. It seemed every year the garden grew in size. We added a stone patio to the end with an herb garden. Then we surrounded the patio with flowering shrubs for privacy. The next year, we added an arbor and grape vines and then a row of raspberries came. Blueberry bushes were added next as well as a hoop house for early planting and wintering over greens. After 16+ years, I knew my garden well. I learned which crops grew well and which ones to avoid. I had virtually eliminated potato beetles by rotating crops. Our garden flourished, our freezer filled to overflowing, and our shelves were beautifully decorated with jar after jar of jam, relish, and pickles. As our children came along, they worked and played in the garden. My son, at age one "helped" plant potatoes. As fast as I put the tubers in the rows, he went along behind me tossing them into the yard. I planted pole bean houses for afternoon tea parties with dolls and gave each of them a section of the garden to plant whatever they wanted to.

Six years ago we moved to our new farm and I had to leave my garden behind. I brought rhubarb with me and various other perennials but the soil, stone patio, and berries had to stay. Since then, I have struggled with gardening. The farm has brought along new responsibilities that fill my time and the soil and weather conditions on our hillside farm have brought new challenges. Every summer I tell my husband that I just can't do it anymore. I feel overwhelmed by the size of the garden and frustrated by having to start again so to speak. Despite all of this, I miss all that gardening represents.
For my birthday this year, my husband bought me a copy of my friend, Jenn Megyesi's new book on preserving vegetables, The Joy of Keeping a Root Cellar. I love Jenn and her farm. Through the years, she has taught me endless knowledge, inspired me, and encouraged me in our efforts to provide food for our family. After just reading the introduction in her book, I felt a new energy and desire for making gardening work here on our farm. As our family has grown and shifted in size, I realize that I no longer need to have a huge garden. I can reduce the size making it more manageable. I also have Jenn's farm, Fat Rooster Farm, to provide me with the vegetables that I can not grow well here. So with renewed fervor, I pulled out the seed catalogs which abound this time of year and filled out my order form.

My daughter and I drew out a sketch of our new garden complete with a pergola and earth oven for cooking pizza in the garden. I have begun to design the irrigation system to go in our greenhouse which will greatly reduce the amount of time I spend in the garden watering. I have also realized that it is okay to hire help and have found a willing teen to accept the job of "farm hand" for the summer. Once again, Jenn has inspired me, pulled me out of my slump, and encouraged me to carry on the tradition of gardening!! Thanks Jenn!

2011-02-07T06:46:00.000-08:00

Friends and Laughter

Our farm offers B&B Farm Stays for guests who wish to have a rural Vermont farm experience. In our guest living room, I leave a book for visitors to sign during their stay. This past weekend, my husband and I sat and read through some of the comments that our guests have left. One comment stood out among all the rest. It was written by a 10 year old girl. She and her mom stayed with us for a week last summer while attending our week long Sheep & Wool Camp. They came from a very urban area and both of them seemed to embrace farm life. I will never forget the first moment I met the two of them and will always cherish their friendship. The little girl's message in our guest book reads:

"I loved it here. I loved making stuff with fiber. I made great friends and I laughed every day. See you next year!"

Can you imagine...making great friends and laughing every day? What a wonderful way to spend a week in the country. This mom and her daughter have already signed up for camp for this coming summer and we can't wait to see them again!

2011-02-03T07:04:00.000-08:00

Snow Storm

Snow is not a novelty here in Vermont. Life here on our farm goes on regardless of the amount of snow that falls over night. Snow drifts, snow shovels, and snow shoes fill our door yard. The animals at the barn expect their hay on time-they do not accept a delayed chore time or a declared "snow day" due to weather conditions. We find the sheep seem to enjoy the added warmth of their snow blankets the morning after a storm. They do not care that we have to shovel our way to the barn to tend to them.

As home schoolers, our children quickly discovered that there are no "snow days" for them either. Just because the school bus does not zip by the house in the morning due to weather conditions, does not mean that our school will be canceled. As home schoolers we hold classes in rain, sleet, snow, hail, floods, and just about any weather condition. In fact, the current weather condition sometimes becomes the topic of research for the day. My son has been monitoring the clouds for the past two weeks, recording his information on a chart along with the vital statistics for the day.Our oldest daughter who is in her freshman year of college emailed rather excited yesterday. She was experiencing her FIRST snow day ever. The college had canceled classes for the day for the first time in 25 years. She just had to tease her two siblings whom she knew would have their school books open despite the snow storm.

2011-01-29T06:27:00.000-08:00

From Farm to School

The past few years, our farm has participated in NOFA's (Northeast Organic Farming Association) pen-pal program. The program connects public school classrooms with farms for a year of letter exchanging. Though the participating schools are within our vastly agricultural state, many of the children have few first-hand farm experiences. With every change of season, I send a letter out to our assigned classrooms. My letters introduce them to our farm and the many activities that take place here. I also include what I call "Lessons" which teach them something new about the animals that live on our farm. I also include any answers to questions which they may have for me. For the duration of the school year, a dialog exchanges between our farm and approximately 30 school children. We share the trials and triumphs of farming and they share their own stories and lives with us. Our correspondence culminates with a field trip to the farm to meet the animals they have learned so much about.

I have started a new blog, "From the Shepherd's Pen" which will focus on fiber arts, sheep and other fiber animals, and children. Here I will share portions of our letters to the school children as well as fiber related activities and resources to use with children. I hope you will be encouraged to seek out and enjoy some fiber experiences with children.

2011-01-28T07:04:00.000-08:00

The Small Things in Life

Leisel

All winter I have struggled with keeping the bunny water jugs thawed out. With such cold temperatures, the bottle freeze very quickly. Despite my efforts to keep water available, I can tell that Leisel in particular has not been very happy about frozen water. Yesterday, the FedEx man delivered a wonderful package to our house containing two electric water jugs for the bunnies!! I ordered them from Jeffers Livestock Catalog. They were quite pricey but just 12 hours into their use, I see that they are worth every penny. This morning when I went out to do chores, the bunny water was not frozen! Each bottle holds 32oz. so they have more than enough water for an entire day!! No more running back and forth to the barn all day with fresh bunny water! It is the small things that make my life so much easier!


New Electric Water Bottle

2011-01-26T12:22:00.000-08:00

Lamb Sweater #2


Jenny graciously models my newest lamb sweater!

Ok, this is becoming addicting. These little sweaters are so fun to knit! My kitty, Jenny, is not too sure about her new modeling career. She will be glad when lambs are here and she can stop being my model!

2011-01-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

I Never Wanted To Be a Vet

This fall, in a letter from one of our pen pal classrooms, I was asked to describe the hardest part of my job. I responded by saying that I find having a sick animal to be very challenging and difficult. Upon getting sheep and goats, I quickly learned that I needed to become knowledgeable about how to diagnose and treat our animals when they are sick. Bringing a vet to our farm for a visit costs $110 just to get them in the driveway. The price only goes up with each step he/she takes towards my barn. So we have learned to do as much "vet" work on our own as possible. My husband and I seem to make a good team. I can easily tell when one of our sheep or goats becomes sick and he has become skilled at giving shots when needed and getting animals off their feet for a thorough exam (Thank you Chuck!). By spending a great deal of time with the animals, I have learned what is normal behavior and what is not. Signs of a sick animal may include any of the following:


Fern seems to love my husband!

a dull look in their eyes
needing to be nudged in the morning to come to the hay box
laying down and refusing to get up to eat
standing alone or in a corner facing the wall
favoring a leg
stumbling or being disoriented
a look of depression or lethargy

As soon as I see any of these symptoms, I have my routine of what I do. First, I check to see if they have a normal temperature. Then, I take a look at their feet to see if they need to be trimmed and check for mobility in the joints. Next, I take a look at their mucous membranes to see if they appear to be anemic. My next step depends upon what I find in this initial observation but I immediately begin to do things that will support and boost the animal's immune system. This may mean an herbal tincture, a homeopathy remedy, or a squirt of "Nutri-Drench".


Fern

I have become all too familiar with this routine this fall and winter. On New Year's Day, while doing chores, I discovered that Fern, one of my angora goats was favoring her leg and just did not look like she felt good. For the next three weeks, we tried to figure out what exactly was the problem. Just when we thought we had it figured out and she seemed to be recovering nicely, she would take a turn for the worse. For three weeks, I consulted my books, emailed my mentor (Thank you Kat!) numerous times, and sent out a plea on my angora goat email list for suggestions of what to do. Finally, after a very long haul, our vet gave me a different antibiotic to try. Though her temperature remained normal at all times, we finally decided that she must be trying to fight off some kind of infection. The vet suggested that once their immune system is compromised, it sets the stage for them to be weakened by lurking issues that otherwise are kept in check.

Over the weekend, we finished our round of antibiotics and Fern has remained in good shape. I am relieved to have that ordeal behind us and our barn is finally back to normal. When I emailed my mentor to tell her that our goat had recovered-I told her that I never did want to be a vet when I was growing up and that I was so thankful for people like her and my husband who could help me when an animal is sick.

2011-01-23T15:44:00.000-08:00

Getting Ready for Lambing Season

This afternoon our local knitting group met. I had fun knitting this little lamb coat! My elderly cat, Jenny, is modeling it. She strongly disliked the process of getting the coat on but now she is contently purring away and seems to enjoy its warmth. I can't wait to knit more!

2011-01-16T19:12:00.000-08:00

"Love a Local Business"

What began as a home schooling effort to teach our children about sustainable living, the value of hard work, and the joy of keeping animals, now reaches around our own neighborhood as well as the far corners of the globe. Through our Bed & Breakfast, Yarn and Fiber CSA Shares, Agricultural Experience Shares, and summer camps and classes, we have pulled others on board our learning adventure!

Local families as well as individuals beyond our immediate neighborhood have come to our farm to learn about living with sheep, or to gain an appreciation for agriculture, or to embrace a new art form. In the past year, our farm has seen guests, class participants, and customers from as far away as England, France, Switzerland, Germany and Canada. Our guests all have different "agendas" when they arrive, but they all leave the farm with one thing in common-an appreciation for farm life! They have all personally experienced fresh, locally grown food, clean air, dark star-lit nights, and the softness of wool both on the hoof and in the skein. They have held an animal, dug in the dirt, collected eggs, or spun their first yarn, woven their first fabric, or knit their first scarf.

It is my desire to see our farm reach more people through our Bed & Breakfast and farm camps. This year we are hosting our first farm field trip for high school home schoolers from around the United States. They will live on the farm for one week, work along side of us and travel to neighboring farms to lend a hand. They will learn about sustainable farming practices, lambing, making goat cheese, planting in greenhouses, and of course-fiber. Our desire is to continue to expand the teaching opportunities here on our farm and to reach a wider range of people.

We would like to complete a "bunk room" for people coming to the farm to take classes or to learn about farming and animal husbandry. This will involve building dormers, laying a floor, putting in a bathroom, as well as putting up a new roof. We hope to have an opportunity to receive grant money through Inuit's "Love a Local Business" grant program. Each applicant increases their chances of being selected by gathering support and votes from their "fans". The more "votes" our farm gets, the greater our chances of being awarded grant money. Wouldn't you like to vote today for VT Grand View Farm and help us get our project underway? Voting takes only a minute!

Click here to cast your vote for our farm.

2011-01-14T16:21:00.001-08:00

A Shepherd's Cabinet

When I think about the first time we brought sheep to our farm, I have to laugh. We had no fence and only a small three sided shelter for them. We bought some used portable flexible netting to contain them until we could put up a more permanent fence. All we owned in terms of "sheep supplies", were a pair of hedge clippers that we used to trim their hooves and Storey's Guide to Owning Sheep. It is probably a blessing that our ram did not breed our ewes that first year.

Over the years, we have added to our sheep supplies and I now have an entire cabinet full of supplies as well as an entire shelf in my refrigerator, and a lambing/kidding kit ready by the back door.

It seems that every season, I add one more jar, tube, medicine, or herb to my collection and every season my order to the livestock catalog company gets bigger. I quickly learned that when an animal appears sick, time is of the essence. In many situations, I need to begin treatments as soon as possible and taking a 40 minute drive to the feed store for supplies only prolongs treatments.

I am also extremely blessed to be a part of an invaluable Romney yahoo email group. The group has members from all over the US as well as a few overseas who range from "newbies" to 25+ year veteran shepherds. Their knowledge and skill astound me. Any time I have a question or concern, within just a couple hours of posting on the email group, members begin responding. Last year, when my ewe Ina became ill 2 weeks prior to lambing, I put out a request for immediate help via phone. Within an hour, my phone began ringing and I continued to receive phone calls for the next two days. I am convinced the wise counsel of my colleagues saved my ewe.

Today, I received an order I put in to restock my sheep cabinet. My order included:
syringes and needles in varying sizes
Safeguard in liquid as well as paste (for parasite overloads)
Ivermectin (for parasite control)
Dectomax (for preventing meningeal worm in the llamas)
Probios to rebuild "friendly bacteria"
Pro-Penn G Antibiotic to fight infections (most people like to use a stronger antibiotic but this has always been sufficient for me and when I need something stronger, I get it from our vet.)
Herbal Parasite Treatment (Molly's Herbals)
The Goat Keeper's Veterinary Book by Peter Dunn

For the Lambing Kit-
Goat and Sheep Nutri Drench for the weak lamb or kid or recovering ewe
Calcium Gluconate for "Milk Fever"
Lamb and Kid Colostrum and milk replacer for the rejected lambs or weak lambs
Ketocheck to detect ketone bodies in hopes to head off Pregnancy Toxemia

Tomorrow I will make a trip down to my neighbor who makes apple cider vinegar and will restock my supply of cider. Then I will feel that my Shepherd's Cabinet has been sufficiently replenished.

Items already in my cabinet and refrigerator may include:
Oxytocin
CD/T
Various Homeopathic Remedies
Bach Rescue Remedy
Selenium and Vit. E
Vitamin B Complex
Prolapse Retainer
Hand Shears
Gloves
Thermometer
PVC Splint
Scale
Lamb Sling
Double Crush Emasculator
bottles and nipples
Iodine
Bloodstop
Propylene Glycol

2011-01-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

New Year's Day Snowshoe

We always start the new year off by hosting a New Year's Day Brunch and Snowshoe. This year about 25 people gathered at our farm for our celebration. We gathered around our large dining room table and scattered around the woodstoves while we ate. Around 11:30 we headed out on snowshoes. Tere was intrigued by all the cars and people in the driveway and watched from the fence while folks put on their hats and snowshoes.

I lead the long line up the hill -

over the river and through the woods!
Here's to another wonderful year of farming!!

2011-01-02T16:06:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Read our January Newsletter online!

2010-12-30T15:57:00.000-08:00

New Shepherds!!

Our first AgEx Shareholders (Agricultural Experience) visited our farm a couple of weeks ago! This couple would like to add sheep to their property and wanted to learn all that they could about shepherding. Their day of instruction centered around topics such as: fencing, shelters, parasite control, rotational grazing, basic sheep care, and lambing.

We sent them home with a notebook full of livestock catalogs, journal articles, and various resource lists. At the end of their stay with us, they were even more convinced that they wanted to start their own flock of sheep!

2010-12-16T18:41:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, Kate Smith from the Marshfield School of Weaving, came over to help me warp up the barn loom. It has almost been three months since we brought the barn loom home from NY. Kate has worked with antique barn looms for many years. She has become an expert textile artist and uses only antique barn looms in the weaving school. I stood with my camera in hand snapping pictures at every new step in hopes that once she is gone I will remember how to warp the loom by myself. The two of us worked for about four hours until at last the loom was warped. It felt great to finally be able to sit at the loom and weave. As Kate was leaving the studio, she hesitated and said, "somehow, I always feel they are happier once they have been warped." I had to agree, the room felt cheerier, and the loom looked absolutely beautiful sitting there with a warp on it.

2010-12-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

Mending

Thirteen years ago, my mother bought me a very nice Bernina sewing machine. At that time in my life, sewing clothes for toddlers and quilting occupied much of my time. My machine saw mostly pretty cotton fabric for little girls and lightweight denim for my son's rompers. On occasion I made little tote bags to carry swim suits to the pool or baby doll blankets.

Today, I pulled out my Bernina sewing machine to do some mending. Who would have guessed 13 years ago that I would one day mend sheep coats on my machine. During the winter months when we feed hay to the sheep, I like to keep coats on them. This keeps their fleeces free of vegetation matter. Over the years, the coats get torn and their elastic gives out. The past few days, I have finally tended to some long over due sheep coat mending. With coats on all winter, the fleeces will be beautiful for this spring's shearing.

2010-12-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

Getting to Know the Farm

I want to thank each of our share holders who purchased llama/wool yarn CSA shares in the past week. Their over whelming concern for the loss of our Mama Llama and their desire to see us replace her encouraged all of us on Grand View Farm! As my daughter says, "you rock"!

Our share holders together purchased Terra for our farm!! This past Tuesday, Mystic Moon Farm delivered both Alaska and Terra to our farm. We have been keeping them in the barn, taking them for daily walks as they adjust to their new surroundings.

Alaska weighs 400 pounds and seems to tower above me. Her calm and gentle spirit soothes everyone around her. Alaska's space in the barn is right next to where our two little angora does live. One morning the goats escaped their pen and I found them standing next to Alaska eating from her hay bucket.

The goats didn't even come up to her knee and looked so tiny next to her massive size. Alaska didn't seemed concerned at all by their presence and just stood very still next to them. I must say that our Mama Llama would have chased them away from her hay and probably would have spit on them in the process.

Terra is a two year old gelding. His beautiful face and inquisitive look pulls you into the barn. He loves his treks outside though seems very jumpy and nervous. I can tell that it will take him longer to settle in to his new surroundings.

Today almost everything caused him to jump and do a little side step as we walked-the sound of a woodpecker, a car coming down the road, the wind blowing his hair, and the sheep running- all gave him a start. Luke remained calm as he lead him along and encouraged Terra to take it all in as part of getting to know the farm-his new home.

2010-11-25T03:27:00.001-08:00

LLama Shopping

After all of the turkey dinners have been consumed across the US, folks will turn their attention away from their kitchens and tables. The mad holiday rush will descend upon the malls and Christmas shopping will begin. Since moving to Vermont, I have been able to avoid that mad dash and frenzy of shopping. We try to hand make most of our gifts or make donations to organizations like Heifer International or Samaritan's Purse in honor of our various family members. This Thanksgiving, I am thankful that I will not be one caught up in the "Black Friday" crunch.

This is not to say that I have not been shopping myself this week-on Monday, we began llama shopping. Our guardian llama died this fall leaving our flock of sheep vulnerable to predators. Over the years, I wondered if our Mama Llama actually protected our sheep from anything of a serious threat and danger to our sheep. Upon first moving to our farm, she did chase away various curious neighbor dogs and stray dogs but recently, that activity has stopped. When folks ask if we have coyotes here, I say, "no," however, this spring, that answer changed.

A neighbor set a night vision camera in a tree just outside of the resident fox's den that is about 50 feet off of our fence line. The fox was being a particular menace to our neighbor's flocks of chickens and he wanted to know how many fox were there. He later told me that three times in the night he recorded a large coyote sitting outside the fox hole. I was stunned to hear this news as that hole lies quite close to my sheep. I have been a little nervous since losing our Mama Llama, wondering when the coyote would notice her absence.

So this week, we visited Mystic Moon Farm, a llama farm in southern Vermont. This farm has 30 of the most beautiful, gentle llamas I have ever seen. Their herdsman is a young 16 year old woman who has a love for camelids. Upon walking up to the fence, we were greeted by a dozen or more curious llamas all stretching their necks out to have it scratched. We arrived at the farm with the intentions of looking at one llama whom they had selected as a potential guard for our flock and found ourselves looking at two other llamas as well.

There is Alaska, a female who currently works as a guard for their small flock of sheep. She is large in size, alert, and gentle. Her fiber is a mix of white and a rich brown. She would be the best choice of guards for our ewes as her size and experience would surely keep predators away.

Terra, a gelded male, drew my attention before I ever went to the farm. The pictures of him on their website were amazing. Though smaller in size than Alaska, they felt that he too may have guard potential. He is from a very alert and curious line of breeding. He has had experience with the sheep as well though not as much as Alaska. Upon seeing him, I began to think about using him as a guard for our rams. Our rams live separately all summer from our ewes. They have never had a guard with them and we always chance that they will not be bothered by predators. I try to position their grazing areas in close proximity to the ewes in hopes the ewe's llama will help deter any predator activity. With Terra, we could allow our rams to graze a distance from the ewes with a little more confidence.

Then, there is Copper Moon. When looking at their website, before visiting the farm, I was intrigued by the pictures and description of this little llama. He is a miniature Suri llama with the most beautiful copper colored locks of fiber that hang around his body. My son lead him on a walk while we were there. Copper's small size and amazingly gentle spirit would be a wonderful addition to our summer camp for children. I could just see the children taking their lunches and Copper up to the top of the hill for a picnic. I am sure our B&B guests would enjoy a llama trek as well while staying on the farm.

Now, I have a very difficult decision to make. My husband quickly reminded me that we don't need three llamas. He is right....we don't need three llamas, but I am so intrigued by the miniature size, calm spirit, and wonderful color of Copper and it would be great to have a guard for our rams as well making Terra a wonderful addition. I have recently posted a new Llama/Wool Yarn CSA Share in hopes to raise enough money to purchase Alaska as well as possibly Terra and Copper. This Community Supported Agricultural Share comes in full or half shares and illustrates how our shareholders directly influence our farm. Having to replace our llama was not factored into this year's budget for the farm. It is one of those unexpected expenses. With the support of our shareholders, we will be able to replace our Mama Llama and possibly add one or two more llamas to our farm as well.

2010-11-10T05:32:00.001-08:00

Emma

I have owned countless numbers of cats in my life. As a child, we always seemed to have numerous cats around and always a liter of kittens. Throughout my adult life, various cats have come and gone with a few that have left a deep impression on me. These have been the cats that follow you from room to room. The ones who talk to you and allow you to drape them around your neck or hold them upside down in your arms. These are the cats who always seem to be in the middle of what you are doing. I am not sure why, but it seems that these are the cats whose lives are short lived.

Yesterday morning, our indoor kitty named Emma was missing. On occasion she sneaks outside and I can only assume that she somehow got outside. As I thought back over the events of the previous late afternoon, I remembered the front door slightly ajar and the banging of the storm door as if someone had gone through it. I remembered that around 8pm our border collie began barking. It was one of those eerie barks where I felt that something was amiss outside and Tess heard it but I did not. I wondered if Tess heard Emma's cry as she was being carried off by some predator. I did not expect her to return. The house was empty without Emma. We have lost two other cats this way. The first cat, named Tia, disappeared in the same manner as well as our barn cat, Myk, last March. I remembered all too well the emptiness we all felt without them here.

Around 4:30 this morning, I heard a scratching on the door. I got up to see what it was all about and found Emma at the door meowing to come in! She was not humble at all but rather frisky and proud of herself totally unaware of the worry she had caused. I gave her a scoop of her favorite Fancy Feast, gave her a lecturing, and headed back to bed relieved to have her safe inside again!

2010-11-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

A Gathering of Fiber Folk

This past weekend, I attended The Gathering hosted by the VT members of the Northeast Hand Spinner's Association. Mount Snow Grand Summit Resort in West Dover, VT became a hub of activity Friday as spinners, knitters, and weavers descended upon the resort. I saw many of the staff standing with puzzled looks as they watched spinning wheels, looms, and skein winders being wheeled into the hotel lobby.

During the day, numerous workshops were offered such as carding, color blending, spinning, rug braiding, and natural dyes. I took the all day workshop offered by Letty Klein on rug braiding with roving.

I began working on a small rug. A friend of mine had given me the book on rug braiding written by Letty a couple of years ago but I have never done anything with it. After taking her class, I can't wait to get more roving dyed and to start braiding.

I also took a class on spinning funky yarn with mohair. We experimented with many different types of mohair. My favorite was the dyed locks. Now I just need to find a knitting pattern to showoff my novelty mohair yarn.

The hotel lobby buzzed with activity in the evenings. Chairs were rearranged as woman sat around the large central stone fire place to spin and knit. Most evenings, it was well past 10:00pm before the lobby cleared. I must say that the outdoor heated pool was my family's favorite night spot. Though the night air dipped well below freezing, the pool water felt like bath water. Steam rose above the surface of the water from the warm water. I must admit that the entire time I swam in the pool, I thought about all the wasted heat and the amount of money it must take to keep a large pool at that bath tub temperature through a Vermont winter. The resort seemed to be energy and environment conscious as signs in their rooms encouraged us to recycle and reuse. Having an outdoor heated pool in November just seemed to go against what their desire to be a "green" resort.

It was difficult to pack the car and come home on Sunday. The weekend had been just too perfect and I found it hard to leave this gathering of fiber folk.

2010-11-01T05:53:00.000-07:00

Mama Llama

There are times in farming when you feel the burden of the responsibility to care for all of the animals that live on your farm. It weighs you down as you know that these animals depend upon you. Each day, you do the best you can, the best you know how to do. Last week, I felt that heavy burden as we nursed our sick Mama Llama. We experienced ups and downs emotionally, little triumphs, and huge loses. Last Friday, Mama Llama finally died. The sheep seemed very much concerned for her as, they did not leave her side throughout the day. They lay as close to her as they could get as if to comfort their friend. The field seems empty and lonely now without her attentive eye and inquisitive look.

We will miss her soft kisses...

her attentiveness...

her curiosity....

her regal stance...

and her protection.

2010-10-17T16:33:00.001-07:00

A New Home for an Old Loom

Yesterday we assembled the antique barn loom that I purchased while at the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival. The loom has sat in the back of the truck since our return the end of September. With our last fall foliage Bed and Breakfast guests leaving on Saturday, we finally had time to devote to the loom. The previous owner had carefully disassembled the loom using blue tape to mark and label every joint so that we would know how to fit the pieces back together. Many exclamations could be heard as each piece slid into place. All of us found ourselves caressing the wood. After 150+/- years, it had been worn smooth by the many hands who had woven with it.

There is something magical about an antique. I become mesmerized thinking of the lives that have touched where my hands now lay. The warmth and wear of its wood tell of its hard use and it almost seems to come alive again knowing that it has fallen into someone's home who will treasure it once again. We all became silent as we set the last piece in place, the seat where the weaver sits as he or she slides the shuttle back and forth, beating the weft yarn with the large beater bar. I could hardly wait to sit on the seat. I ran my hand along the smooth wood and slid my legs over the bench. As I climbed onto the bench, I pondered the lives of those who had sat where I now sat. I wondered if a little child had sat there with its mother or father while they wove, or had a grandmother woven her family a woolen blanket on the loom to keep them warm. I wondered where the loom was first used and how many pieces of cloth had been woven on it.

While I marveled all of these questions, my husband was running his hand over every section of the loom. His eyes scanned the golden brown wooden surface. His thoughts were not on the lives who had woven on the loom, but rather on the craftsman who had built the loom. "Look!" he exclaimed, "See that mark? The craftsman put that mark there when building the loom." He marveled at how each part worked in relation to the entire loom. The levers, spokes, beveled edges, peg holes, and the mortise and tendon joints all tell the story of how the artist built the loom with meticulous care.

This antique loom, has found a new home in my fiber studio in our 150 year old barn. It brings warmth to the room, and the tells of the lives of many individuals who have woven on it and the individuals who have been clothed by its fabric or kept warm by its blankets.

2010-10-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

One Skein of Yarn and One Pair of Knitting Needles

I am constantly amazed at how one skein of yarn and a pair of knitting needles connects lives across generations and across cultures. For centuries, women have shared and passed on their knitting skills. For generations, especially in colder climates, young girls were required to learn how to knit. Their families relied upon the woolen mittens, hats, and sweaters for warmth in the harsh winter weather. Every region of the world seemed to develop its own style of knitted wear as well as its own knitting techniques.

Today, in my own home, two women touched my life with one skein of yarn and one pair of knitting needles. Helga from Switzerland and Christiana from France came to the area for a vacation and we were the fortunate B&B owners with whom they have stayed. They had done their research before arriving and knew that I sold yarn and produced my own fiber here on our farm. Their first morning here, they inquired about seeing the yarn. After breakfast, I lead them to my fiber studio and revealed the yarn from our sheep, goats, and llama. Their exclamations were such an encouragement to me. With arms full of skeins of yarn, I could see that these women had been knitting from a very young age. They talked of cables, designs, colors, and patterns and I knew that in their minds, they had already knit their projects.

When I heard them speak of knitting with many cables, I mentioned that I had never learned how to do that. Cables seem mysterious to me and far too complex. They assured me that they were not and insisted on giving me a lesson the next day. So this morning, as I served them breakfast, they asked if I had my swatch ready to practice doing cables. As soon as breakfast ended, we sat together on the sofa with yarn and needles in hand. I will always cherish that moment. For just a short period of time, our lives were connected through that yarn. Though our knitting terminology differed, Christiana had no difficulty explaining to me what I needed to do. Isn't this what hand work is all about? Passing on your own knowledge to others. Sitting with other women, sharing knowledge, sharing lives.

Christiana and Helga will go home to Switzerland and France with much of our yarn packed into their bags. They will sit at their homes on the other side of the world and knit with my VT yarn and I will sit here at home this winter, knitting a sweater and practicing what they have taught me. Thank you ladies!

2010-10-04T17:49:00.000-07:00

In front of a nearby farm, a hand painted sign reads, "Never Done Farm". I chuckle every time I drive by thinking that every farm could be named that. It seems that a long chore list remains on our table regardless of the season. Over time, items on the list either get crossed off or get moved to a long term chore list. These chores easily over whelm you. I find that while I work, I must lift my head to see what lies around me, to take in the moment and enjoy it. The other morning, I happened to have my camera in my pocket. Here is what I captured that morning as I went about my chores with my head lifted.

The yarn drying on the railing looked so pretty against the changing autumn trees.

The boys watched every move I made in the field in hopes that I would turn them into a greener pasture.

The colors on the trees caught my eye and Tess, our border collie, and I sat in the field for a few moments ignoring our chores to take in the beauty before us.

As I walked across the road to feed the goats, the sun glittering through the trees seemed to sparkle.

The pigs didn't even seem to notice me as I sat watching them root around in the dirt.
Now-back to chores!