BottleBabes

These little lambies were abandoned/not recognized by their mamas. (Motherhood is tough work!)  This can happen to a first-time ewe, or if the ewe has triplets...too many to keep track of!  That's when the nice humans step in and bottle-feed the babes.  These two lambs are now so used to getting their food from us, they coming running over "baa-ing" every time we're in the same field as them.

I wanted puppy pics, they wanted milk.

FenceWalk

 I went to check the perimeter fence at one of the properties we lease, to make sure things were still in place after all the storms we had these past few months...it was spectacular, and turned into more of a hike in woods and meadows.  Not a bad way to spend an afternoon at work.

View from the top of the hill.

Sheep grazing down below.

Fall/Winter forage area for goats in 2011.

Amapolas

 The sun is here!  The sun is here!

Make Way...

...for Duck[ling]s.  One of my favorite books from when I was a little kid.

Rumpledstiltskin

I recently bought a spinning wheel off of craigslist.  As if I didn't have enough projects already, I decided to learn to spin yarn in my (limited) free time from farming.  The man I bought the wheel from was selling it for his mother, didn't know how it worked, and rather sheepishly (no pun intended) offered me two bags of wool...he said most people had been grossed out and said no, because they were unwashed.  Dirt, twigs, dead bugs and all.  But an unwashed fleece is nothing compared to what I encounter on a daily farm basis, so I excitedly said yes, brought everything home, and began Googling "how to clean fleeces/wool for spinning".

One bag I believe contained alpaca fibers.  (The other was wool, but in washing it, I think I accidentally started the felting process.)  What you see here is the alpaca.

After hours of hand-carding, picking out bits of dirt and leaves, and careful stopping and starting of the pedal, I finally spun some yarn! It's still lumpy and uneven in places, hence the title of this blog, but if anyone's going to try this on their own, my advice is to think of it like riding a bike...wobbly at first, but with enough practice and patience, you'll figure it out!

ArcoIris

A bright spot on a dreary afternoon at Sweet Home Farms.

Athena's Prize

At Sweet Home Farms we use Great Pyrenees guardian dogs to protect our herds and flocks from predators such as coyotes and cougars.  There's Athena, Barks, Belle, Bette, Beau, and Bert.  Athena is the matriarch.  She's pushing 7 or 8, but still does her fair share of work.

The more time I spend with the dogs, the more their different personalities and quirks come to the surface.  Big rocks (apparently) are prized possessions in Athena's mind, and she somehow manages to collect them wherever she goes.

A couple days ago we moved her in with the chickens and the mobile henhouses, and this is what I discovered...





Here's the old girl herself, relaxing under an oak.

 And the henhouses.