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A Good Day

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Had a good day yesterday. The Events Coordinator at the facility where my Mother is right now, got wind (wonder how that happened) of the fact that I am a handspinner and asked if I would like to do a demonstration for the residents. While I am typically use to doing this for Womens Clubs, Garden Clubs and childrens groups, I wondered how well this would work out at a Rehabilitation and Nursing facility. To my surprise, it was wonderful. I had to keep it interesting, with a little detail but not too much information and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. The men asked a lot of questions about how the wheel worked and about shearing. The women loved the beautiful colors of the hand dyed yarns, the softness of the fiber and the fact that I was the one spinning..not them! Overall I would dub this one a success.

I never realized, until yesterday, how badly the folks that are in a facility like this one, crave mental stimulation. People that I have seen when visiting Mom, that had never even said hello, were laughing and talking..asking questions and seemed to be loving it. To anyone who has a talent and would like to share, keep the retirement and rehab community in mind. Their days can be very long and lonely and they tend to retreat to within themselves as a result. Give them a reason to smile!

I haven’t posted much recently because it’s been quite busy here. By the time I’m ready to think about the Blog..it’s hours past bedtime and you wouldn’t want to read what I’d probably write anyway.

This is a picture of the field that just a month or so ago was covered in snow..just look at how much it’s come out for Spring.

With all of the snow and rain we’ve had so far this year..it’s starting to look like a mini jungle around here. Can’t believe all of the different flowers and new weeds there are that we’ve never seen before. It really is a beautiful and bountiful Spring!

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When Is It Too Much Rain?

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This has been a burning question for days now. Every time we turn on the news, we see reports about flooding..every time we look out our door, we see flooding. There has to be a point where enough is enough. Our pastures are on the way to lush and green but any grass growth that happens to be under the taller stuff is rotting. Our garden spot is standing in water, not because the drainage is bad but because there is so much water it has no where to go. The sheep and goats are both looking for elevated surfaces to stand on..s.o.p. for a goat but sheep are typically ground dwellers.

On the plus side though, all of this moisture is making for an absolutely beautiful Spring. The herbs are growing by leaps and anything that could bloom, is blooming. There are many new Irises showing this year that we’ve never seen before..can’t wait to see what colors they are. For years we have only had one or two little Lilly of The Valley pop up and bloom. The year I’ve counted 68 individual plants coming up. So from the floral garden standpoint..the rains (and snows) have created a beautiful display.

Talked to my shearer yesterday and we’re scheduled for shearing in two weeks. I know my girls will be happy when that’s done. Two of my smaller (more Romney) girls were actually walking on their side fleece, so this weekend I trimmed up their sides..the fleeces are really nice. I still think that I’m going to do a “pool it all together” processing this year. Since the Alpaca fleeces that I have are so plentiful and our girls fleeces are looking so great, a blended fiber will be nice and something very different. The end result should give me a lot of fiber to dye, over-dye and leave natural, so keep a look out for those to be listed around May or June. I have several people on a waiting list to get samples and if any of our readers are interested in samples too, just email me or leave a comment. When they’re ready, I’ll email you to get your address.

While on the subject of fleeces, all of my little goat crosses (Angora x Alpine) blew their fleeces almost a month early. I wasn’t able to salvage any of it. The fleece that they produce is the equivalent of Cashmere with the luster of Mohair. It’s really pretty, takes dye very well and I love to blend it with my white sheep wool..but not this year.

Soap update..it’s curing nicely and I should be getting it out to my customers very soon. I have cut back on the variety of fragrances for the time being (until I get orders caught up) and am going to start a Garden Collection of fragrances later in the season. I am still experiencing a hold up on the lotions and butters but hope to get started on those soon.

Have a wonderful day and safe day!

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Work!!!

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Wow, I had no idea how much this farm has missed me! Before I go any further with this entry, let me take a moment to say how thankful I am for my husband. He has done a beautiful job working a full time, away from the farm job, and working another full time job here. I couldn’t have done anything without him!

We spent the weekend fencing. When we moved here there was existing fencing. Some of it was in good shape but most of it was barely fencing at all. We’ve done lots of repairs, replacements and quick fixes but it’s time now to start doing serious replacement work. It looks pretty good! Instead of using field fence, we’ve started using no-climb horse fencing. It’s much more effective at staying in place when you have horned creatures like goats. If all we were fencing were sheep, we could use picket fence. They are not the fence challengers that goats are.

So, next weekend we will finish the fencing project and move on to barn repairs and garden preparation. Now that the time has changed we have some daylight in the evening and I hope we will be able to do those barn repairs in day by day increments.  All of the snow and rain we’ve had this winter has done some serious damage to certain parts of the barn. Also, it really needs painting – It’s on the list!

See that lean on the right side? Not good!

Over the last couple of weeks I have batched up about 200 pounds of soap so within the next few weeks I’ll be molding, packaging and delivering soap again. The patience and understanding my customers have shown this winter has been very much appreciated.

As I’ve been typing, a thunderstorm has worked its way here – the heavens have opened and it’s pouring rain. With the warm temps I guess I’d better add grass cutting to the list of “To Do’s”.

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“The 5 Mile Long Post”

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I am calling this entry “The 5 Mile Long Post”. There is a lot of catching up to do in many different areas, so let’s get started.

First, my Mother bless her heart. This is the main reason I’ve dropped out of existence for a while. Several weeks ago, things got very bad for her and I ended up moving in with her. As with how her health problems have been since November, things had gone from bad to worse. After yet one more ER visit, the ER Doctor got me on the phone. He told me that my Mother was in Advanced End Stage Lung Disease (this was news) and that I “needed to grow up and accept the fact that she is dying and that she and I needed to get use to it”. What a nice man..that I might add, last I checked is still on Administrative Leave! He sent Mom home saying that there was nothing wrong with her. Two days later she was admitted to the hospital for what would end up being a seven day stay. (nothing wrong with her, eh?) On the seventh day I took her to a Rehab Clinic for treatment of Steroidal Myopathy. She was there for 1 week and was sent home. Did I happen to mention that Mom has lost from 165 to 121 pounds since November and can no longer walk?

After 4 days at home, she fell. Now she is in a Skilled Nursing Home & Rehabilitation Center. Her estimated time there is 6 weeks. I now have a little break.

I’m finally back at the farm full time. It is amazing how much has been lost over these past months since Mom started going downhill. My business has suffered to the point that there is no income being generated at all. Because of promising orders would be filled, then emergencies that took me away from the farm, I am a bit “gun shy” now about trying to promise anyone anything. There are so many calls to make, emails to answer and at this point I’m not sure what to say…sorry just doesn’t seem to cut it. So wish me luck with this task.

Even though Mom is in a facility, that doesn’t mean that my responsibility with her ceases – so I am still seeing how many directions I can go in on a daily basis!

I realized yesterday that I had not lined up a shearer this year. My friend, Kathy – Scarlet Fleece is taking a shearing class so I offered up my flock for practice subjects. She is just as particular as I am, so I know she’ll do a wonderful job. Thank God for friends.

Since Mom’s illness has been far reaching into our lives, we also had not seeded, limed or fertilized our fields in the Fall, so this past weekend we started that project and hope to finish this coming weekend. The time change will help out a lot with all of the projects on the list..like cleaning the barn (a usual Winter project for us). This year is house painting year too. We are very lucky that this project is only trim and shutter painting. Also, before we know it, it will be garden and market season and we haven’t ordered the first seed.

Last night my husband announced he will be going to training school in April, so I get to be both the woman and man of the farm. The dates he will be gone are dangerously close to that 6 week mark with Mom – more stress that I didn’t need!

So anyway, I am back! Keep checking back to see my Blog-I promise there will be less illness and poor me and more about the farm. It’s a wonderful time of year and I look forward to green pastures and dandelions!

Cheers!

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Polioencephalomalacia-Naomi-Update

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Naomi - June 2003 - February 2010


We are very sad to say this morning that we lost Naomi as a result of complications from Polioencephalomalacia. She put up a good fight and we worked with her day and night but in the end, I think we may have noticed her symptoms to late to save her. After her first injection of Vitamin B1, she rallied almost immediately. We continued her injections but yesterday afternoon, she went down again and at midnight she was gone. We will miss her so much. What a beautiful and wonderful girl she was, her fleece was to die for and her personality was perfect.

Naomi was born in the June of 2003 and weighed in at 15 pounds. We worried about her Mom (Ada Claire) because she was a very small ewe, but upon returning from work the day she delivered, she had given birth to this monster lamb without incident. Naomi never lambed herself. We figured she thought that just wasn’t for her but she was an awesome baby sitter. She would wait, sometime not patiently, for the lambs to be big enough to play with. Their Mother’s obviously frowned upon Naomi’s behavior but she’d just make wide circles, roust up the lambs and it was game on!! Her fleece was like nothing I had ever seen. She was the granddaughter of Natalina Marie (our grandmother’s names) who was one of our original foundation flock. This is where that magnificent fleece came from..a Rambouillet x Romney x Border Leicester makes for some of the most gorgeous fleece and tons of it. She always produced the highest volume of fleece of any animal on this farm..rams included. I will miss that too.

As my husband stood over her lifeless body he said, “she is safe now in the ultimate Shepherd’s flock”. Goodbye my sweet girl, your’s is a presence that will definitely be missed.