Tag Archives: farm blog

What Happened To The Fiber Samples??

by

Several months ago, I had posted information about fiber blends that I had on the list to offer this year and I’ve been asked by several, who had expressed interest, where are the samples? That’s an excellent question! The fiber is sitting on my front porch waiting for UPS to pick it up to send to the processor. In all of the craziness with Mom’s  illness, general farm stuff..I forgot to pack up the fiber and send it. This forgetting thing, no doubt, comes with age!

For those who didn’t see or hear what my plans are..here we go. We have approximately 100 Alpaca fleeces (20 of which are black and will not be included in this) in every color available in natural alpaca, 30 sheep fleeces in colors ranging from dark blue silver to white, a fairly large amount of Mohair and a little bit of Cashmere. I have taken 3/4 of all of these fibers and am having them blended and/or variegated, carded into roving, and 3/4 of that spun into yarn (dk weight). I’ve done a bit of this on the drum carder, it’s absolutely beautiful..not sharing a photo because I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I’ve even spun up some and taken it a step further and over dyed a little bit of it. All I can say is “Oh My!”.

If you want to get on the waiting list for samples, just email me at breezehillfarm@verizon.net and I’ll add you to the list. According to the processor, we’ve got about a 2 month wait, so by the time it comes in, I get the samples out and you place your orders..it’ll be a great time of year to start thinking about Christmas projects.

Advertisement

Chickens!!!

by

It’s a great Monday morning here at the farm. Everyone is content, settled, and happy. Just lounging in the barnyard. The view has changed over the weekend with the addition of some new girls…chickens to be specific. Every since “Beau Cocks” came here as a stray rooster we’ve discussed adding a few hens and this weekend was the right time. Saturday, we went to a Chicken Swap, something we’d never even heard of and found a couple of really nice girls. Also, we’re pretty much certain that Beau is a Welsumer Rooster. The Welsumer is the Kellogg’s Rooster, so he’s a real honor to have (when he’s not spurring and crowing constantly)..but back to the new girls. Our chicken collection now sports an adult Araucana hen, an Araucana Pullet, a Welsumer hen and an American Game Hen. Here are a few shots of them:

American Game Hen

Araucana Hen

Welsumer Hen

Something else we did was purchase fertile eggs from Araucana hens, several we’re not sure about and 6 Buff Orpington. Since the Game Hen is a huge success in her appearance and temperament, we’re saving her eggs to incubate too. Oh yes, we bought an Incubator! So we are definitely chicken ready now. How, you may ask, is Beau Cocks handling the new girls..well, if you remember from previous posts he thinks he’s a sheep..he still does! He is, however, starting to be protective of them. He’ll learn.

If anyone has checked out our website recently, I’m sure you’ve noticed what a mess it is. For now let’s just call it a work in progress. Just as I was getting the site ready and uploaded, Mom was released from Pulmonary Rehab and it’s been a new drama everyday which, once again, is taking me away from the farm and the business. I hope that very soon, I will announce the new website on the Blog and everyone will have something complete and professional to view. Until then..bear with me.

Have a wonderful day!!


New Kid On The Farm

by

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.

 


It Always Seems Like I’m Getting Ready!

by

With the two events of last week behind me, I am getting ready for the first deliveries for the Co-op Winter Season. I’m also getting ready for a second attempt at the Fall Festival at Brookview Farm. Saturday’s event was rained out, so they are going to try again this coming Saturday. Several of my customers have placed sizable orders in anticipation of early Holiday shoppers..so I’m getting those ready too. Yes, I feel like I’m always getting ready! I’ve reduced my milkings to once a day now that the girls have been bred, so I’m only making soap and lotion every other day. Thankfully, I have a good bit of milk frozen, so we should make it through the season easily. Another words…order, order, order!

I feel so fortunate to have been part of the Wisteria Faire last week. There are so many nice things to say about the event starting with Mother and Daughters that put it together. They had done such a beautiful and efficient job in the planning stage that all went off without a hitch. This event was at two private homes which was really kind of neat. My booth was set up on the front porch of the daughters’ home..want to talk about a captive audience, everyone had to walk by me on the way into the house..so everyone saw me. We sold a nice mix of goats milk products and fiber items. It was so nice to see people buy yarn for Christmas gifts. The first day was a little slow, but that gave me time to work on a spinning order that I have. It was just wonderful and an email today let me know that there will probably be another in the Spring! Yeah!

You will notice that I have a new tab at the top of my Blog for the Co-op. My intention with this page is to list weekly, in detail, what we have listed on the Co-op. I think some of the reason why our sales are so very low may have to do with members not knowing exactly what it is they would be purchasing from us. Hopefully, this will help..we’ll see. Feedback on this will be appreciated, this is why I have left Comments open on the new page.

Well I must go do round two battle with Verizon (the phone Co.) over our internet. So far today they have eaten about 2 hours of my time with no resolution. Since I have nothing else to do today (HA) my patience is wearing mighty thin!