Breeze Hill Farm - March 2009
Participating in Wordless Wednesday
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New Kid On The Farm
You met this guy on Wordless Wednesday a few weeks ago..today I want to share his story.
While out running the Border Collies, Monday morning, several weeks ago, we heard a Rooster crowing. Around here we have sheep, goats, cows, horses, dogs and cats..no chickens. That’s just not something anyone close by raises and after the fox killed our last hens, we had been chicken free for 4 years – which brings me back to the crowing Rooster. I started following the crow. Imagine my surprise when I found 2 beautiful Roosters pecking around in the cemetery at the church across the road from us.
These guys seemed very tame. Catching the first one was easy. The second one got very upset and confused. He took off into the woods and we couldn’t find him. Hubby had to go to work and I had early deliveries, so we brought Rooster #1 over to our place and said that we could get the other one when we got home. Also, as much noise as Rooster#1 was making, we felt confident that he would encourage Rooster #2 to come to him. Well that didn’t happen.
When we got home that night, we discovered Rooster #1 running around and crowing. Apparently, these guys had been pets..they didn’t even know how to roost. We went to the church to find the other boy but had no luck. At midnight, when we let the dogs out for the last time, we heard Rooster #2 crowing. We got the dogs in and headed for the church. By the time we got there all was quiet. We hung out for almost an hour and decided this Rooster quest would be easier in daylight. We never heard him again! Rooster #1 was just sad the next day perpetually crowing and running around but there was no response. I spent hours at the church and in the cemetery listening and looking for Rooster #2, but he was no where to be found. The following day, I found him dead in the cemetery. He had been slaughtered by what we assume was a weasel.
Thankfully, by day three Rooster #1 had acclimated to his new home and had stopped calling his brother. So now we have a new Rooster! He’s quite the cool little guy. He thinks his job is to tend the sheep. Where they go..he goes. We’ve worked with him a lot and now he knows how to roost, where to find his food (sheep and goats eat anything that hits the ground, so we had to put his food up) and that bugs are a good dietary supplement. He’s a good boy. We are now considering adding a few hens so he won’t be without his kind and hope that the fox families have moved on for now. We didn’t realize how much we missed having chickens in the barnyard.
This Blogger/farmers rant – With so many avenues to find homes for unwanted animals a story like this should never have happened. We live in the country, there are 3 feed stores within a 15 mile radius of us, they have bulletin boards. There, of course, is Craig’s List, a local paper and word of mouth. We would have gladly taken these two Rooster’s if the person who dropped them had simply turned up our driveway and asked. There is just no excuse for one of these beautiful animals being slaughtered! All of this being said, we are very happy to have our new Rooster..there is a new peaceful calamity on the farm now and he’s good for the soul…guess things really do happen for a reason.
We still haven’t named him though..got any ideas? Please share.
Old Website…New Stuff!
This is the “unforgivable sales entry”! Sometimes we just gotta do it.
Just a quick entry this morning. I have done some work on our website (it seems as though the new website will never be done) and added more of our products to the store. You know our goats milk soaps and lotions make wonderful gifts! For you gals and guys with more mature skin, our Nourishing Cream is the Bomb..it’s even great for your face (and it’s cost a lot less than department store products) not to mention it’s all natural and paraben free.
OK, done with the sales pitch Blog entry. Hope everyone has a wonderful day!
Our Stray Rooster
"Our Stray Rooster"
He came here as a pair, seeking food and shelter, dropped by someone who didn’t care.
Participating in Wordless Wednesday…
Rainy Fall Day…Wordless Wednesday
Cria Fleece Is No Good..I Don’t Think So!
My post today for Fiber Arts Friday is somewhat boring and possibly a little educational.
A few weeks ago, someone, somewhere mentioned on Twitter, I think, that rumor has it – cria fleece isn’t really good for much. At the time I responded that this simply isn’t true so I thought I would use my post today to elaborate.
One could use the same statement for many “baby fibers”. For instance, Lambs Wool. Lambs wool is not the 1st years fleece from a lamb. It is the fiber growth from birth to the shearing done just before taking the lamb to market. That’s looking at about 4 months growth on the fiber. The fleeces are very small with short staple lengths and full of stress breaks from weaning, diet change and general growth of the lamb. Lambs wool is difficult to spin but it’s beautiful, soft and very much desirable. The first years fiber from a lamb is called a Hoggatt. This fleece is probably the longest, strongest, best fleece you will ever shear from that sheep in it’s life.
A Cria fleece is much like lambs wool only in that it has a very short staple length. The cria fleece has it’s share of breaks in the fiber from diet and stress changes too. The fleeces are tiny but absolutely gorgeous (as any Alpaca or Llama breeder will agree). When you have one, you want to do all kinds of wonderful things with it but the fleece is hard to work with. Where mature Alpaca and Llama fiber tends to be more difficult to spin, because of the lack of memory, the cria fleece is multiple times worse. The staple length often resembles dust, but keep in mind, that is all cotton is and it’s spun into very strong yarns and thread. So, from this seasoned spinners perspective, I don’t find cria fleece to be undesirable to work with at all. I’ve heard many alpaca and llama breeders, through the years, say, “Cria fleece, oh yeah, we have it micron tested (why I’m not sure), judged and then we chuck it!”.
I think of all of the wonderful things I’ve done with cria fleeces. I’ve spun them as is-makes awesome yarn for baby garments! I’ve blended it with a little bit of mohair and wool. I’ve even blended it with silk. It’s absolutely beautiful dyed and over dyed and added as fine strands to a stronger more mature fiber. If you raise Alpaca’s, and have fleece from one of your animals that’s not so great, cria fiber can be blended with it to soften up the yarns spun from that fleece. What is they say? “The possibilities are endless!” Don’t forget felting too. Tiny little fleeces can always be used in felting projects.
I don’t want to step on any toes here but sometime people will tell you something is no good and it’s simply because they don’t have certain fibers readily available or they’ve had one bad experience. I am not a Master Spinner but I have been a dedicated spinner since 1994. I’ve spun rabbit, chinchilla, kid mohair, sheep, cotton, flax, soy, corn silk, dog and cat. Every fiber has it’s place.
Me personally, I love the baby fleeces the best! There is no garment more beautiful than a baby blanket made with baby yarn. It may take 4 fleeces to complete it but the end result is to die for.
Be sure to check out Fiber Arts Friday and join in!
Busy Week Ahead
Wow! I can’t believe it’s that time of year again. Fall Festivals, Holiday Open Houses and Events centered around the upcoming Holidays. The next two months will be hectic to say the least. Everyday that I am not at a function, I will be preparing for one. It’s a fun time too, because there are many of you that I only see this time of year and I always love meeting new customers and friends too.
As promised, if you look at the “tabs” at the top of the page, you will see a new tab for “Events”. I’ve only gotten October Events up so far, so you need to check back often to see where we will be. I will try, this week to get November up, so you can plan ahead if you want to attend any of the Events scheduled for November.
I can wait to get out and see everyone!
“Baby”
Oops! I forgot to include a photo of baby in my previous post. Isn’t he just too cute and sweet?
St. Stephen’s Farmer’s Market
Yesterday was the first St. Stephen’s Farmer’s Market in Richmond, VA. We are so glad that we chose this as our new market for 2009. What a fantastic market. So well thought out, such wonderful people incharge and the attendees..Wow! We are use to the coordinators thanking us for attending but never have we had the attendee’s thank us. Everyone was so excited and it showed in every part of the day. Sales were great and the contacts that we made will prove to be very beneficial too. Soap was the big seller for the day but there was a lot of fiber interest too. I took the spinning wheel this time. Usually I don’t take it because it tends to become more of a sideshow but I think it was a plus for yesterday. Not to mention, I’m getting work done while I’m working! Several people signed on to take spinning classes. Met a new family that has started a fiber farm and she really wants to learn how to spin.
The day could not have been as successful as it was had it not been for my husband. He is such a good salesman that I just let him go. I may have mentioned this before but we have one item that we sell that he isn’t allowed to sell. Our Collina Breeza Nourishing Cream is excellent for more mature skin types and it is a face and all over cream. Well, we learned when we first introduced it that it isn’t a good idea for a man to tell a woman that see needs this cream!! Everything else, he is top salesman for.
I’ve added a couple of photos of our booth. I cannot believe how fat I am and the grey hair, yuck. I need to go to a different kind of farm!
Happy Customers!
Welcome To Breeze Hill Farm
It’s late Friday night and I’m finally getting around to setting up what I would call a real Blog. Sorry to everyone I’ve pulled all over the place. Sometimes it not as easy as it seems. Our most recent Blog was Verizon and it was totally user unfriendly or perhaps I am an unfriendly user. So here we are ready to keep everyone up to date on all happenings at the farm. Please bare with me as I learn all of little nuances of WordPress.
