Happy Birthday, Betty!

Today would have been my mother-in-law’s 80^th birthday. Preston was in Colorado Springs on business on October 6^th having lunch with people he had just met when he got the call from Los Angeles that his mother had died suddenly. He called me immediately and I was in a state of total disbelief. Betty was someone you were certain would live well into her 90’s. But God had a different plan.

I only knew her for a few short years, but the lessons I took from watching her live her life will stay with me for a long time. At age 60, when the rest of us are thinking about retirement, she started a new career at an estate planning law firm as a personal secretary for one of the partners. She worked full time, a 40-hour work week Monday – Thursday… not because she had to, but because she wanted to. She ran circles around the younger girls and the attorney who spoke at her funeral said they’d have to hire 3 people to replace all that she did at the firm. Her work ethic was amazing.

But she still made time for lots of fun. She loved to come visit us on the farm and was eager to try anything new. She was here for 2 weeks in June. She saw lambs being born, saw her son milk a ewe, was here when our new llama arrived and helped us bale hay and even drove the tractor pulling the wagon full of hay when we were trying to get it in before the rain came. She had so much fun. She was my drinking buddy. She’d always say “Its 5 o’clock somewhere” and mix up a Manhattan while we made dinner.

She was a very active Red Hatter and went on several trips each year with her good friend Alice. In September of this year, she and Alice planned to go to Washington DC. Although they went with the group, the two of them always extended the trip to get in a little more site-seeing. A few weeks before the trip, Alice became too sick to travel, but Betty made the decision to go anyway. She navigated the nation’s capital, the Metro and did the tourist thing all on her own. What a brave woman!

Every weekend she would write us a letter. It usually talked about the weeding she would do in her rose gardens, the beautiful tomatoes she’d have year-round, the goldfish in her pond and errands around town. She’d include articles of interest from the newspaper to include maybe a letter to the editor she had written under the pseudonym Mary Johnson. And she always sent me a stack of coupons.

She wrote a letter to us that first weekend in October, put it in the mailbox Monday morning and went to work, feeling fine all day according to her co-workers. At the end of the day, she gave them a cheery good-bye – see you tomorrow. She stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things and apparently on the way home started to feel badly. She pulled in the garage and ran in the house, sat down on a chair and that’s where the fire department found her the next morning. A neighbor saw that her garage was open and called the police.

In her reviews at work each year, she’d always ask what she needed to do to keep her job. She said she wanted to go with her boots on. That she did.

She loved reading my blog. She said on several occasions that she felt like I was writing a letter just to her and not to burst her bubble by telling her any differently. I even found copies of some of my stories she had saved on her computer. So since her death, I hadn’t felt very inspired to write. But today, in honor of her birthday, the inspiration returned. Cheers, Betty! Here’s to you and your amazing life. I will miss my drinking buddy.

Store Opens on Etsy

Just a very short, quick blog today to announce the Grand Opening of my store on Etsy.com. Etsy.com is a storefront for homemade items only. I picked up my yarn at the fiber show last weekend and have put some of it in the store. Please stop by The Icelandic Shepherdess Store and let me know what you think! I'll be putting some roving out there as well, so check back!

Beets are yummy!

When I attended the Michigan Fiber Festival last month, one of the Icelandic Sheep breeders recommended giving sheep beet pulp as a healthy treat . Well, it just so happens, I have beets in my garden the size of cantelopes, so I certainly have enough to share! Here is a picture of the half I didn't feed to them next to an apple just for perspective.


I ran chunks of the beet and some old grocery store carrots that were in the frig thru the grater in my food processor and made a big bowl of shredded beets/carrots. I took it out to the sheep and put it in the trough I use for grain. There were 4 or 5 of them that absolutely LOVED it! Bianca, the white sheep in the middle of this picture, was the most enthusiastic about their yummy treat. Her chin was all red when she finally came up for air.
Here you can see in the background the girls who didn't find the beets as appetizing.

The girls didn't quite finish it all ... there was a lot of it!! So I took the left overs to the lambs and they weren't as enthusiastic, but they did manage to finish what was left over the course of the day.
Beets are good for people too! And if you've only ever had a canned beet and think, "YUK!" then I encourage you to purchase a bunch of fresh beets in the produce department. Trim the tops, boil for 10 -15 minutes and enjoy. They are very sweet and butter tasting. I promise you will think differently about beets. I also like to top a toss salad with some raw grated beets.

From The World's Healthiest Foods here are some of the benefits of beets:

These colorful root vegetables contain powerful nutrient compounds that help protect against heart disease, birth defects and certain cancers, especially colon cancer.

The pigment that gives beets their rich, purple-crimson color-betacyanin-is also a powerful cancer-fighting agent. Beets' potential effectiveness against colon cancer, in particular, has been demonstrated in several studies.

Helps reduce total cholesterol and triglycerides and increase HDL.

Beets' Betaine Helps Lessen Inflammation

People whose diets supplied the highest average intake of choline (found in egg yolk and soybeans), and its metabolite betaine (found naturally in vegetables such as beets and spinach), have levels of inflammatory markers at least 20% lower than subjects with the lowest average intakes, report Greek researchers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Detopoulou P, Panagiotakos DB, et al.)

Being A Mom

If you are a mom, you can probably remember the first day your child got on the school bus or the first day you left them at daycare and that feeling of "letting go." Well, I can tell you that none of the compares to the day your child drives off in his first vehicle. A feeling of complete and total helplessness.

Ben is starting college here locally tomorrow and will be commuting, so he needed to have a vehicle. We did some shopping on Craig's List last weekend and Monday we went out to see a couple of them. He fell in love with the first one he saw, but we looked at a couple others and "slept on it" that night. The next day we went back and made it his. It's a 1994 Ford Ranger with a new motor and transmission ... and a Pioneer stereo (and speakers) that allows you to plug your iPod into it. That was the clincher. For some unknown reason, he decided at the 11th hour of shopping that he wanted a manual transmission even though he's only ever driven one twice. Are you sure??! Ok.

So we drove to the BMV with the seller, got the title transferred and new tags. Then I followed him home in my car. We were about 50 miles from home and I don't think I was able to breath much of the trip. When I saw cars tailgating him, I wanted to drive up beside them and sideswipe them into the guardrail. They are being idiots with no clue that the guy in front of him has only been driving for 6 months and just bought his first vehicle 10 minutes ago. (So if you are reading this, please don't tailgate ... it might be my son or another new driver.)

As an aside, when we were at the BMV waiting in line for the tags, there was an older man there with a walker renewing his license. He couldn't hear the woman instructing him through his vision test. She was literally yelling at the top of her lungs so the man (and the rest of us) could hear her. Don't you think that people who drive should be able to not only see, but to hear as well? How will they know when there is an emergency vehicle approaching? How will they hear someone honk a horn if he's about to pull out and get hit? Just made me wonder.

So here is Ben modeling his new truck. Please keep him in your prayers.

So, Ben got his truck, Colton had to settle for new sneakers as his mode of transportation. We went last weekend to my favorite sneaker outlet store. I took him about 6 months ago and he'd grown from a size 12 to a size 13. He tried on a pair of 13's and they were too small!! I had him try on another brand in case they ran small ... nope. He wears size 14 shoes! Amazingly they did have a few pair in that size. They were having a buy one/get one 1/2 off, so we got two pair and did have to have the other one shipped from the warehouse. Ben's feet stopped at size 12 and he's about 6'1" , so I wonder if Colton is going to grow into his feet and be taller than Ben. Ha! Wouldn't that be the payback he's been waiting for for 14 years!! Here he is modeling the new sneakers.
Our other mode of transportation on the farm are tractors of all age, color and model. The older ones need to get "exercised" regularly to keep them running ... I won't make any comparisons to people here. So I was walking across the lawn and received my own personal parade ... Ben on the 1949 John Deere Model A (which is for sale by the way) ...
Preston on the 1940 John Deere Model B...
and Colton on the 4-wheeler (ya, I know it's not a tractor, but it goes a whole lot faster!)

On the topic of farm equipment, Preston gave the hay baler a complete overhaul, replacing worn parts and fine tuning moving parts. He cut one pass of hay a few days ago and we baled 10 bales yesterday just to be sure it was working properly. It did well and sounded a whole lot better. So now I'm back to my watching for a 4-5 day stretch with no rain.

A trip to the Fiber Mill

Last Tuesday morning, I was scrambling to get my last two fleeces washed along with the Coopworth fleece I bought at the Michigan Fiber Festival. I had made an appointment to go down to Ohio Valley Natural Fiber … the other fiber mill I use … on Thursday and bring my fleeces to be processed while I wait. But they have to be washed and dried!

Amid wind and rain, I was able to get them washed on the back porch. But how was I going to get these dried with all this humidity and no sun?! I brought all three into my studio / office and laid them out on screens. I turned on the air conditioner on high, both ceiling fans on high, and ran two portable fans. Amazingly they were dry by Thursday morning.

So I put all 12 bags of fleece in the car and headed down to Sardinia around 7am. It took about and hour and 20 minutes and I actually arrived just ahead of the employees, but Kent, the owner, was there to greet me. Kent is one of the funniest, eccentric, unassuming characters I’ve ever met. So he’s always a joy to see while I’m there. He and his wife Ginny have owned the mill for 20 years and do an incredible business. He said their backlog is out to next April for delivery! Thus taking the time to go down there is worth it!

First step is to weigh in each of the fleeces and assign them a number. Then decide which ones need to be picked. I want to pick any fleeces that are multi-colored so the color is even throughout. I also want to pick the fleece with the mohair I purchased so it will be well blended.

Then the fleeces are divided into white only and any with color. They have one carding machine for white fiber only so they don’t get polluted with color fibers.

At the picking machine, the fleece is laid out on a belt ... you can see the darker mohair and the white wool.

... and it rolls through some pretty hefty teeth to separate the fibers a little bit … nothing too fine yet...

Then it comes out into a screened room with a blower that blows the fibers all around the room to mix them together. Then someone goes in and scoops it back up and re-bags it and moves it over to the carding machine.

The carding machines are huge … probably 6 feet high and 12 feet long with lots of rollers with all different size teeth of varying densities. The wool gets tossed into a hopper and ...

then is fed up a belt with teeth just grabbing a little at a time. The belt at the back of the picture actually broke when I had 3 fleeces left, so they had to hand feed the wool in on the other side. It was not going to be a fun task to replace according to Kent.

Then it comes around and is dropped out of another hopper which feeds it through more teeth along another belt. Ya, it looks dirty and the machines can't help it if you consider you have to keep the gears oiled and then wool is constantly flying through the air. In fact the show Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe (he's doing Ford commercials for his summer job) came to Kent's mill and filmed a show in April. He thinks it's going to air in October. If I get a head's up, I'll let you know.

Now the wool gets fed little by little into a series of rollers with teeth. They comb out and separate the fibers and will also pull out some of the remaining vegetation that didn’t get hand-picked out by me.

and more rollers ... see the wisps of fibers starting to grab onto all the rollers?

here you can see a lot of it grabbing on...
... and then down the other side

After going through all these rollers, it comes out the other side in a strip of roving … a small tube-shape of combed wool … it would fit through a paper towel roll. This is what spinners feed into a spinning wheel to make yarn. Someone has to hand feed it into a box ... this is the only step that requires human intervention.

They have one more carding machine that feeds into a spinning machine. They didn't have it running, but it was loaded with wool, so I could see the path it traveled. Truly amazing that someone invented these machines. The wool is spun onto a long roll about 4 feet long. This is one ply yarn. If someone wants it made into 2- or 3-ply yarn, it goes through this machine below. In the very top right, you can see about 4 spools of dark yarn hung from the top. It has to be hand fed into the machine to get it set up, but then it will ply the yarn onto cones auto-magically. This mill requires at least 25 pounds of wool to make yarn and I barely get that in one shearing. The other mill I'm using for my yarn only requires a 3 pound minimum.
It was about noon when the belt on the carding machine broke, so Kent invited me in for lunch while they hand-fed the rest of the fleeces. I got a tour of their finished addition to the house. The house itself is an interesting tour. He has added a lot of interesting features ... many of them energy saving. He also had much of the wood work, doors and furniture hand crafted by an Amish gentleman.

While eating lunch a big thunderstorm went through, so I enjoyed lunch, the tour and the stories until it passed. I left about 1:30 with my clouds of wool ready for the hands of eager spinners at A Wool Gathering next month.

A trip to the Michigan Fiber Festival

Last Friday we decided to take a last minute trip to Michigan. I wanted to attend the Michigan Fiber Festival and it is conveniently located in Allegan just a few minutes from Preston’s cousin’s house. This is a huge festival and I hadn’t attended it since I bought my sheep, so I was going with a new perspective. I also was going as a shopper and not a vendor, so I was able to browse at my leisure.

I knew that one of the fiber processors I use, The Wooly Knob, would be there, so I took 3 bags – 18 pounds total – of my wool with me for them to take back and process. The parents of one of the owners have a spinning mill where they will spin my roving into yarn for me. So I am having that done for the first time. To my surprise, he said they could have the yarn back to me when I see them at The Wool Gathering in September. I will have a booth there, so it will be great to have that for sale!

So after the wool drop, I meandered my way over to the animal barns. I spotted some beautiful Icelandics right away. Their farm was located nearby, so I may visit them next time I am up there. I saw some other Icelandics owned by another farm and I wasn’t as impressed. I guess I am developing a trained eye for quality.

There were other breeds of sheep, but none that stole my heart. So I went over to the other barn where the goats were… mostly Angora goats which were actually what I first intended to purchase when I started my flock, but something changed my mind at the time. I am still in love with these little creatures … they are just adorable.

Check out the horns on this buck (male goat)!!! Both does and bucks have horns, but these were amazing!

They come in different colors ... I think this one is considered black .. maybe gray.
This is a white one ... I think it was a kid (a baby). Oh! I walked up to one pen and there were two very small baby goats in with their mom. I was very surprised that an owner would bring a mom with babies so young ... much too stressful. Turns out she didn't know the doe was pregnant and the babies were born the night before! Surprise!!

This one is considered Red in color. This is the color I bought and mixed it with some white lamb's wool.

I met this young girl holding this goat on a leash. It was the most adorable of them all. So I think it's time I purchased a couple of them. I'll see what I can find when I go to The Wool Gathering next month!

I purchased a pound of mohair (Angora goat fleece) while I was there with the intention of combining it with some of my wool to make a wool-mohair blended roving. It will make it much softer.

On to the booths … I have been wanting to learn to felt, so I purchased a hat form and a needle felter to do needle felting. You basically lay the roving over the form in thin amounts in different directions and poke it with the 10-needle needle felter until the fibers intertwine and make felt. You keep adding layers until it is as thick as you want it.

I also met a lady who did something called nuno felting. It is a very, wispy thin layer of felting into a piece of fabric … something drape-y and loosely woven, silk for example. She had a stunning scarf that she had made unlike anything I’d ever seen. So I decided I needed to learn how to do that too. I found a book that taught all different types of “wet felting” … felting by using water and rubbing to make the wool felt. I experimented yesterday with a small piece of fabric to learn the process. I think it came out correctly; I just didn’t use an appropriate fabric. It wrinkled in the last step of the process, but I have other remnant pieces of fabric to play.

My last purchase was a Coopworth sheep fleece. I had never heard of them … they are a cross between a Romney ewe and a Border Leister ram. The fleece was beautiful and so clean (she puts coats on them) … so I had to have one.

It was a wonderful day and I’m so glad we decided to make the trip. I always learn a lot from my fellow shepherds and fiber crafters.

Gone Camping

Waiting (napping) while the pie irons cook.

When I told my neighbor we were going camping, she asked why we didn't camp on our own 30 acres. I told her we wanted something wooded and remote. She said, well then camp on my property. She owns 35 wooded acres. No, we were off to Hocking Hills, an area in south central Ohio that is a lot more wooded and mountainous than the flat farm land here in the Dayton area.

The boys and I packed up along with the dogs early Thursday morning and Preston came out on his motorcycle after work that evening. We pitched the tents. They boys each had their own (a good thing). Valur slept with Colton and Annie slept with Ben. They all thought that was pretty cool since the dogs aren't allowed upstairs in the house.

Camping for me is all about waking up in the morning to a chill in the air, a fire going and warming up some water for coffee. We make our camping coffee in a coffee press (too spoiled to make instant).

We made some "fun" food while we were camping. I brought some sweet corn and we grilled the corn in the husk for about 15-20 minutes. We didn't soak them as most people will tell you to do. It was amazingly good. You just pulled back the husk and used it for a handle and after thoroughly soaking it in butter and salt, just lean over into the weeds and chow down!

We used pie irons for a couple of meals. For breakfast, we brought pancake batter made at home and put it in the pie iron along with some fruit. If you've not seen a pie iron, it's two pieces of cast iron about the size of a piece of bread that hook together with a long handle and you cook it over a fire.

We also made pie iron pizzas. We made some with Italian bread and some with Pillsbury pizza dough. You put the sauce and toppings on one piece of bread and then top it with another and close it up. The key is NOT TO OVER FILL!!! I also took a hunk of dough and put it on a cast iron skillet ... it cooks very quickly. Then put the toppings on. That is oh so yummy. Try it at home!

You'll see from one of the pictures the view from our campsite and the big tree. Colton wanted to use a rope we brought along to make a swing. Well, the rope got caught in the crotch of a big branch and they spent the rest of the weekend thinking up ways to get the rope down. Just as we were finished packing to go home they freed the rope. It was such a great way to occupy their otherwise idle time and exercise their ingenuity that we think we'll throw a rope up in a tree next time just on account.

We did lots of camping when I was a kid and my parents always played cribbage at night after we went to bed. So of course there has to be a cribbage game in the camping gear. Ben challenged me first ... he lost by 2 points. Colton was next ... nope, not even close. Then Preston took a chance ... nope. As a kid, I heard 15-2, 15-4, pair is 6 ... as I was dozing off to sleep. When we got home, Sunday night we played partners ... me and Colton against Ben and Preston. Our team won that one.

Friday we went on a 7 mile / 4-hour canoe & kayaking trip. Preston and I along with the dogs took the canoe. The boys each had a kayak. I didn't think the dog thing was going to be a good idea at first ... dogs walking nervously around a boat ... not a good thing. But they finally settled down and slept for most of the trip.

They have a new zip line attraction in Hocking Hills. For a mere $85 you can ride in a harness for 3 hours (ouch! without a bathroom?) on a zip line thru the trees from platform to platform like a modern day Tarzan. We got to watch several people zipping thru the trees as we canoed. It does sound very cool ... but $85, not now.

Near the end of the trip, Preston and I wanted to try out the kayaks, so we switched with the boys. I'll just say this ... it was a good decision to spend most of the trip with the boys in separate vessels. I also learned that I could never do 4 hours of kayaking. You are much lower to the water than canoing so it's a whole different set of muscles. I also was feeling the pain from the twisting that Dudley did to my wrist during the sheep deliver.

So we ended the trip with me in the canoe with Ben and Colton back in a kayak.

We came back to the campsite exhausted and hungry. So we started a fire for dinner. When we arrived on a Thursday, there was only one other camper that we could see near us, so it was a very peaceful first day. As the evening progressed on Friday, the campsite was filling up quickly. Next to us was a group of adults who felt the need to blast their radios and started partying as soon as the tents were up.

Now I don't mean to be an old fuddy-duddy, but there is a place for loud music and drunken parties and there is a place for quiet sitting around a camp fire. Well, it turned out all of their friends had sites, too. And before we knew it there were dozens of people and several sites. It went on well into the morning and concluded with a woman vomiting very near our tent.

It was a disappointment to say the least and even my quiet morning was not to be. They somehow managed to get up at 7am and start again. We went hiking that day, but decided to eat an early dinner and not spend Saturday night there.

The hiking was fun. We went to Old Man's Cave ... you can see the pictures below. We took the dogs. Valur was overwhelmed with excitement ... you can tell he doesn't get out much. "So much to do! So much to sniff! So much to pee on!" Pour Annie was acting like an old lady, but Preston was more than happy to let her walk slowly. It was very pretty and very well done to make it accessible for people to hike without it being tacky.

Camping at home the last night turned out nicely even if I didn't wake to a fire. We had planned to go mini-golfing on Sunday near the campsite, so we did that here at Young's Dairy and got ice cream, too. We played cribbage and some other board games that evening and had corn on the grill again. So I guess we did end up camping on our own 30 acres after all.

Here are some pictures ... I hope the captions line up ok ... I was having trouble with that and couldn't rearrange the pictures so they sort of jump around.

Preston kayaking

Natural Bridge (see the rock formation above creates a bridge from one side to the other)


Looking down into Old Man's Cave


Inside Old Man's Cave



Valur checking out Ben's tent



Preston, Deb and the dogs at the Natural Bridge -- this was actually a stop along our canoe trip.


Colton kayaking



Colton on our hike to Old Man's Cave



The boys brushing their teeth (LOL! it was too funny to resist)



Ben and Colton in the canoe... sorry puppies!


Ben with all the food unpacked.


Ben kayaking


The Lower Falls


Colton's tent

Sheep, Sleep, Beans, Sleep, Sheep, Sleep, Beans ...

It all caught up with me today and I actually took a nap ... I might do that twice a year. It has been an intense week. The days blurred together but one day this week, I picked 16 pounds of beans from the "big garden" out back and canned 14 quarts. Colton helped me with the snapping while I managed the other logistics of washing jars and beans. Colton filled the jars and into the canner they went. It took about 6 hours from the plant to the last popping lid. We are up to 33 quarts of beans.

Then yesterday, both boys helped me pick beans from the garden near the house. We picked about 30 pounds of beans! I just couldn't imagine canning all of them, so we did a quick rinse in the deep sink and put them in a large cooler for Preston to take to work and offer to everyone there. I haven't seen him yet this evening, so I don't know yet how many he is bringing home. I wonder if sheep like beans?

I made two sheep deliveries this week. Dudley, an adult wether, and Hannah's little black wethered ram lamb were loaded up Wednesday morning in the rain with the help of Ben. We were able to get the lamb in a large dog crate, but Dudley got to run "free range" in the bed of the truck.

I drove by myself to Beaver, OH ... about 80 miles southeast of here into the beautiful mountains of Ohio. The last 45 minutes was a continuous series of 30 mph S-curves. Even I was car sick when I got there and wondered if sheep got motion sickness. I arrived at Lynn's driveway and panicked when I saw that their dirt driveway with a 45 degree incline was completely washed out by the rain. I quickly called and told her I wasn't going to be able to get up the driveway in the truck. So she drove down in her car that has a hatchback. I will use Lynn's description of the trip as her husband gunned the car up the driveway:

Dudley "who is now sitting in my lap pooping away as I hang onto his horns for dear life as we bumpity bump and get air hauling ass up the grand canyon that is my driveway."

Now I was really car sick! We then had to walk (read drag) 175 pound-built-like-a-brick-house Dudley about 150 feet to the entrance of their fence down a rain-slicked hill and he wanted nothing to do with wherever it was we were taking him. Finally, success. We catch out breath and back down the "grand canyon" we go.

We slide the dog crate (good decision) into the car and Lynn sits back there to keep the crate from going airborn. Ditto on the trip back up. I decided to take the lamb out of the crate and walk him down the hill ... probably not the best choice in hind sight. The smaller the sheep, the more they can swing their body in violent opposition to what you are trying to accomplish. It had to be funny to watch, I'm sure. But I bet that crate would have just slid nicely down the hill.

Well at the sight of lush greenery, both sheep walked into their new home like it was nothing to get them there. They have a beautiful shaded hillside they now call home. One more bumpity bump down the hill, catch my breath, and wind my way out of the mountains in the pouring rain.

Well, that was so much fun, I decide to email Halle to see if she's ready for her sheep on short notice ... I figure since the truck is a mess, why not get it all done at once. Halle lives near Cleveland and bought several sheep from me last year. She arrived in a UHaul utility van that couldn't have had more than 10,000 miles on it. We loaded the sheep in the van and she headed home. I can only imagine what the next renters of the van thought!!

This time, she asked if I could meet her half way. So Ben helped me load up two of the ewe lambs, one of Delia's twins and Bianca's ewe. They had the run of the truck bed. We met at the McDonald's off I-71 at exit 151. When I read the comments: This Mc Donald's is in the middle of a corn field! I thought this would be perfect if they get loose! Fortunately, everything went smoothly, but I had to wonder what people were thinking as they went through the drive-thru! "Yikes, is that what's in my burger?!?" You could be so lucky!

Back home, after picking the 30 pounds of beans, I cleaned out the bed of the truck ... always fun! Ben and I dug a post hole with the auger on the tractor and assembled an H-brace for one of the final runs of fence out back. When Preston came home, we also put in another H-brace along the property line so we could create an opening for a small gate between us and our neighbors. We've had to either jump over barbed wire or drive nearly a mile! from their house to ours. Now it will be just a quick jaunt across the pasture.

Today everything hurts ... my wrist from one of Dudley's quick moves, my head from the 2x4 framed lid to the hay feeder that fell on my head, my knee from wrestling sheep I can only imagine, the poison ivy all over my arm, neck and sides, even my ears from a build up of fluid according to the doctor. Therefore you can appreciate my need for a nap today. I washed a fleece and fell asleep reading a book.

And So I Decided to Ted the Hay

About 2pm on Friday, I decided to go ahead and ted the hay. After a couple hours I checked what I had done and some places seemed to have dried enough to bale. So I called Preston and Ben and told them my plan and spent a couple more hours tedding until they came home. Ben's friend usually helps us, but was out of town for the weekend. Preston went out and raked it into rows and I drove the tractor with the baler and wagon in tow and Ben at the receiving end of the baler. We did about 100 bales in 2 hours, put the wagons under cover and hoped that Saturday would bring enough morning sun to dry the rest of the hay and allow us to finish.

Saturday, 6:30am: I'm stirring awake and I hear the sound of thunder. "NO!!! The earliest guy said 8am and then actually changed his forecast to later!! They really have no clue." Then the wind immediately picks up and it starts pouring. I jump out of bed, throw on my bathrobe, run to close all the windows and then run outside to the porch to move the two fleeces that were essentially dry when I went to bed, but figured I'd get them in the morning. Well, the rain had already gotten them wet even on the covered porch. The wind had blown a bunch out on the grass, so there I am in my bathrobe and bare feet running around in the rain gathering up my wool. This is all within 5 minutes of waking up!!!! I collapse on the couch to catch my breath, say goodbye to the remaining hay and wait for the coffee to finish.

So Plan B was to work with the lambs. Several needed their second dose of vaccine, all needs their hooves trimmed. A couple who are leaving the farm this week needed to be tagged (an earring in their ear). And I dewormed them all for good measure since several more will be leaving the farm in the next couple weeks. After wrestling with some more than others, I decided who my favorites were. One little gal had more spunk that some twice her size. She flopped and fought me with every ounce of her being. But we got the job done.

This is the time of year when I am really battling parasites. I've lost several lambs to them in past years and I am so determined not to lose anyone this year. So I'm trying some new things. Aside from the internal chemical dewormers and natural dewormers, I decided I would try taking them off pasture (which is where the parasites are) and put them on "dry lot" for a week and see if they improve.

So Ben helped me fence in a little area adjacent to pastures 1 & 2 and the old barn. It's all concrete there with a door into an enclosed area in the barn for shelter. I put all 13 of the lambs in there along with Dudley, an adult wether who is leaving the farm this week. I wanted him to be with the lamb he is going with so they could do a little bonding. Dudley isn't really too keen on having to hang out with a bunch of whiny munchins, but he'll live.

So we go in for dinner and afterwards I ponder some relaxing things to do on my way to check on the lambs. The remaining 4 lambs were weaned today as well, so they were at the fence crying. I walk closer and don't see anybody else. I go inside the barn ... no sheep. Dudley had obviously led the charge and walked over the fence ... that obviously wasn't too enforced. There they all were out grazing in a bit of hay field that hadn't been mowed. Clover heaven!!

So I go get Preston, we decide there are a couple places where there are cracks in the concrete we can put in posts. We get that handled. We roll back the fence and psyched up to go herd the sheep back and here comes Dudley and all the lambs following him back to the barn! There is a God!! He's trying to make it up to me for all the rain. We close the fence, tie it to the posts. They are in there now.

I walk back around to pick up some of the tools and a I think I see something ... I back up ... a lamb is still out there! Two lambs!! I thought I counted right, but apparently not. So I get Preston again and we herd them back. They really want to be with everyone else, so we roll the fence back a little and they walk right in. Everyone is where they are supposed to be. So much for relaxing ... it's time for bed. Maybe tomorrow.

The Weather Man

The last week has been heart-wrenching to say the least. And I'm taking it out on the weather man. Every day we all start our day with a weather report. We plan our activities, our vacations, our ballgames, our picnics all around the weather. And the weather men know this. But do they really know how much the farmer depends on the accuracy of his report? I don't think so. In fact, being a weather forecaster is the one job where you can be wrong 75% of the time and not get fired!

We hope to bale hay three times per season... roughly Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day ... give or take a week or two. We decided to sell all of our first cutting because it is very "stemmy" and my sheep always pick around for the soft stuff, leaving the stems for me to haul away. The second cutting would be much softer and more ideally suited for the sheep.

Well, this also seemed to be the year for clover! It has taken over all of the pastures, the hay field, my gardens. The sheep love it, but it can be too rich, so a nice balance of clover and grass is best. Anyway, we began a couple weeks ago looking at the forecast for about 4 days of no forecasted rain. We wanted to cut a week ago Thurs, then bale on the weekend. But they were certain it was going to rain on Thursday. So we didn't cut... and it didn't rain a drop. The weekend was exceptionally cool ... a record low high temperature ... would have been wonderful to bale in, but no. We relied on the weather man and he was wrong.

As an aside, I am using the term "weather man" generically to cover all forecasters. I look at about 4 websites and it's no surprise that they are drastically different.
www.weather.com
www.wunderground.com
www.accuweather.com/
www.whiotv.com/weather/index.html (our local TV station's website)

So the week went on and it looked like we could cut Saturday & Sunday (18/19th). It was supposed to be sunny with either 20% or 30% chance of rain forecasted by everyone through Wednesday, with the next big chance of rain on Thursday. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were not sunny or even partly sunny (which is important to dry hay), nor was there any breeze (there is always a breeze in Ohio!) So the hay didn't dry very fast. And by Monday, the weather man decided there was now a 70% chance of rain on Wednesday!!

Tuesday night we baled 25 bales to see how they would be and they were way too wet. You can tell when the bale weighs 75-100 pounds instead of 50 pounds. And just a couple days later, it's now soggy instead of crisp and dry. When you break it open, it's warm to the touch and it smells of fermentation. In another 5-7 days, it will be moldy inside and it will be junk.

So Wednesday came and we received 1.4" of rain. It rained all day. I was happy for the garden. I was happy for the pastures. I was devastated for the hay field. Yesterday (Thursday), the sun never came out, so it just sat there remaining soggy. I went out this morning and it is still very wet and I'm wondering if I should ted it or not (fluff it up with a circular rake-type thing). Checking all of the weather sites, there is supposed to be rain tomorrow. The big disagreement is when. One says 8am, one says 11am, one says late afternoon. The hay may not be worth keeping in the end, but it has to come off the field to make way for the 3rd cutting. Otherwise we'll get all that dead chaff in the next bales.

So what to do with the weather man? They should provide a rating on their website with the percentage accuracy of their forecast. That would give you an idea of who to believe. I could send them a bill for the $1000 in hay I will have to buy to replace what I lost. Maybe the government would include me in their "bale" out plan. If anyone has a reliable weather site, please let me know!

Well, gotta close here ... need to go find a weekend with no rain so we can go camping :)

Summer Harvest

My absolute favorite part of summer is growing and eating our own food. Over the weekend, Preston and I canned 10 quarts of beans... the first batch of many to come. It was the first time we had used our new (used) pressure canner. In the past, we just canned tomatoes which you can do in a hot water bath.

I purchased my 3rd dozen ears of sweet corn this morning. I can eat sweet corn every day of the summer and not get tired of it. We tried freezing it last summer and it had a funny taste. The farm where I bought it from made a few suggestions, so I'm going to do a small batch and try it out of the freezer before I do a bunch.

I planted one single solitary cucumber plant in my garden that claimed to be a "bush plant." I took that to mean it would be very compact and fit along nicely with the other vegetables that are in rows. HA!! It has spread across and thru it's two adjacent rows and has produced at least 20 cucumbers so far. I'm not a huge pickle fan, so I had to send Preston to work with a bunch the other day. I'm eating a lot of cucumber sandwiches for lunch!

We did try a refrigerator pickle though that came out pretty good. We are growing banana peppers and I cut up two of them with a cucumber and an onion and put it in a quart jar with vinegar, pickling salt and some pickling spice. I refrigerated it over night and the peppers warmed the mixture up quickly! Preston and Ben really liked it, so I'm treating it like a "friendship bread" recipe and just adding more cucumbers to keep it going.

Yesterday, I picked a variety of things from the garden... beets, cucumber, onion, beans and potatoes. I made 3 different summer salads and we took them down to a place on our property we call "The Park" for dinner.

The Park is a wooded area along the creek that we keep mowed down. It has a fire ring and a place to hang hammocks. Annie, our Sheltie, and I do our best to smell yummy enough to attract all the bugs away from everyone else.

Colton had the area freshly mowed and Ben weed-wacked so we could find the fire ring. They had a fire burning by the time I arrived with salads and hot dogs. Later we had s'mores for dessert ...yummy!

I Want My Maaaammy

Today was working day with the sheep. Some of the lambs needed a vaccine and we dewormed all of the sheep. Most of the moms were overloaded with parasites. I can tell this by looking at the skin inside their eyes. A bright red is good ... pure white is very bad. It means the worms are depleting their iron. Lambing and lactating really takes a toll on the ewes. I have one ewe that can't lamb and she is always the picture of health. The rams also look great.

Half of the lambs were ready to be weaned. But I thought since the moms were struggling, I'd wean just about everyone. So into separate pastures they went. I don't know if I can even begin to put into words what it's like to have 11 crying lambs non-stop for 24 hours. My sheep say "maa" rather than "baa." When they are mad, they say "MAAAAAAAA!" When they are really mad, it becomes multi-syllable, "MAAAHHH-AAAHHH-AAAA" and their voice goes up and down in octaves. Some start to sound like they are losing their voice. Some sound like they are crying. Some sound really mad. "I want my mom and I want her NOW!!!" It's pathetic and funny all at the same time. I was able to capture a short video of one of the lambs last night. Take a look ...



Meanwhile over in the mom's pasture, not a sound. "Ahhh, freedom ... finally. I can eat in peace without two little creatures coming up and attacking my udder until my back feet leave the ground."

We had to sleep with the furnace fan on to drown out the noise. Thankfully, that worked. I'm quite sure no creature on 4 legs got any sleep last night.

This morning, I was concerned a bit for the moms. They were clearly very full of milk. So I let them back to their babies for breakfast and lunch. Then the boys helped me separate them again. And do you know ... shhh...listen ... silence!! They are quiet now. Yippee!

Washing Wool

We shear our Icelandic Sheep twice a year... once in the spring and again in the fall. The fall clip is the most valuable and desirable for hand-spinners. It is typically longer and cleaner. On shearing day, the fleece is put into a bag and labeled with the sheep's name and the date. The bags are weighed and loosely stored in the barn.

The next step is to skirt the fleece. This involves laying the fleece open on a screen and pulling out any vegetable matter, short fibers or anything else that is not fleece... ok manure :) Even within the fleece itself, I will sort the premium fiber from the less premium and have it processed for different purposes. Once this is complete, I will put it back in a bag and weigh it again.

The next step is to wash the fleece. This can either be done by me or by the wool processor. It doesn't cost much to have them do it. However, the turn-around time for processing a fleece that requires washing is about 4 months. I have a fiber festival in September, so I am washing my fall fleeces. I can then call the processor ahead of time and they will allow me to bring my fleeces and have them processed on the spot.

So today is about the washing. I bought an old ringer washer at an auction a while back. I have it on the back porch outside the laundry room. You must remove the agitator from the machine as you don't want to agitate the wool or else it will felt. I fill the washer with hot water from a hose hooked to the laundry sink. I add laundry detergent and then gently push the fleece into the water. The water immediately turns to mud the color of chocolate milk. I let the fleece soak for about 15 minutes. Then I drain the water and run the fleece thru the ringer.

And, surprise, surprise ... some wasps had started building a nest inside the roller cavity. I battled them thru the washing, but they were sprayed later that night.

I repeat the process again with detergent and a third time to rinse. Hopefully by now the water is clean. I then lay the fleece out on a wire frame to dry. Depending on the weather, it will take a day or so. I then weigh it again and compare it to the pre-washed weight. The fleece typically weighs 65-70% of the pre-washed wool. This weight loss is mostly lanolin. Icelandic sheep are relatively low in lanolin. Many other sheep will lose nearly half their weight in lanolin when washed.

Now the fleece is ready for the processor. I'll share that with you when I drive down their next month!

A Bird's Eye View

Preston fitted his model airplane with a camera yesterday and he and Colton flew it out over Quiet Thyme Farm. The camera took pictures every few seconds during it's flight.

I thought you'd like to see the actual view of the pastures and buildings as it compares to the drawing I showed in my first post.

You can see dots of sheep in pasture 3 now. The rams are in pasture D.

Preston just mowed pasture 2, that's why it doesn't look so inviting, but it will soon.

You can see more of Preston's aerial photos on our website in the Photo Gallery

Oh, and please note the tree where Frank's skin was found ... right outside the back door :)