Rainy Days

All the holiday busyness is finally winding down and as it winds down the heavy rains have hit. Giant mud puddles have appeared and the rain hardly lets up, and Thomas Creek is filled to the brim. The sheep are all rather bedraggled looking but they haven't been complaining to much. The pregnant ewes have become more interested in the grass hay in there feeder with this rain, though it is mostly the Dorset's that huddle under the shelter of the feeder while the Romney's prefer to sit in the rain. Last years lambs are very soggy as well and have a tendency to run full speed at me and sometimes run into me when I go out to feed. The two rams pen is rather soggy even with the cover of the lean-to and we are debating bringing them into the barn. Stardust

and her triplets don't have to deal with the rain since they live in the barn. The Triplets are growing very well and I

will soon be able to put them into their first blankets and introduce them to the halter

As the New Year quickly approaches we are also busy

preparing for this years CSA shares. We will be having the sheep sheared soon, which part of the fleeces will be made into yarn for the shares. We still have plenty of room available for both our dyed and natural colored CSAs if you haven't become a share holder yet.

Thankful

We have so much to be thankful for on the farm. We're thankful for the healthy little triplets who are growing very fast and enjoy hopping around their mother. We are thankful for our barn which is being renovated to be a more appropriate barn for sheep. We are also thankful for the long rain we had this past year even if we didn't enjoy it at the time it has ment that we haven't had to start feeding hay as soon as usual. We are thankful for the sheep with all there funny personalities and we are thankful for all of you who support us!

We spent a lot of yesterday getting ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Jaust a little Bit about how our sale works.

From 12:00 am Black Friday until 11:59 pm Cyber Monday (Nov. 25-28, 2011) you can recieve free shipping (US only) on all items in our store by using the coupon code FREE4SHIPPING.On yarn purchases buy 2 get 1 free of equal or lesser value; please do not add your free skien to your cart simply send a note to us of your choice. All orders will recieve a coupon for 15% off on any purchase during the month of January 2012.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CoveredBridgeFiber

Little Lambs

This morning Stardust had her lambs,triplets. We were hoping we would have a girl, but having three girls isn't bad either. Stardust was one of the ewes we gave hormones to so she would have early lambs, she was also the only one that took. They are small but very cute all are doing well. Now we just have to pick out names for them.

Days Just Right For The Fire

As we adjust to the changing of seasons we see all kinds of signs around us saying that fall is here and winter will be coming sooner than we would like. Geese fly overhead and the shots of hunter's guns fill the air. The air is crisp, sometimes with foggy mornings or just plane gray days. The sheep do not mind with their woolly coats and our dogs just rush around in the fallen leaves.

As November approaches we are excitedly anticipating Stardust due date. Today we took her and Clover to our shearers house to be shorn. They really enjoyed riding in the back of the truck sticking their faces to the win, on the way back not so much. We know have two fresh gorgeous fleeces waiting to be skirted. we have started collecting lambing supplies and thinking up projects ideas for the winter season.

The ram lambs are enjoying living outside instead of cooped up. The ewe lambs greet me when I come to feed pushing and shoving trying to be in front. They often end up outside of the gate but are easily perswaded to come back in. Alex and his ewes follow there daily routine of grazing and napping. The Dorsets are always happy to see me hoping for a treat of an apple or some more salt.We have slowly be collecting our sheep the only group still away from our farm are the White Romneys. The house smells of woodsmoke and has a warm glow to it making you want to snuggle up with some knitting in front of a good movie with a cup of hot cocoa or tea.

Lazy Fall Days

Fall has come at last, this could be viewed with disappointment or joy. It seems the weather has chosen to be a drizzly fall not a crisp sunny one. To my surprise I don't seem to mind even though we have had such a short summer. Yesterday we had some warm sunny weather but today we are back to gray dizzily clouds. I feel the urge to write but every time I try it seems I can't find anything to write about for the days all seem to melt into one another with no change of events. We are eagerly awaiting Stardust's lambs to be born the first week of November as well has the hope that winter will not rush too soon upon us.

Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival

We are busy getting ready for the last show of the season, OFFF. OFFF is by far my favorite show and a great way to end the show season. It is very laid back and not at all stressful. I love getting to talk with all of you who come out.

At OFFF we only bring lambs this year we are taking six two White Romneys, Two NC Romneys, and this year Two NC Dorsets.We always have a sale pen by our sheep, one of my favorite things about the show.We have been printing labels and we have just started doing a lottle bit of trimming.Tommorow we will take everything up ,makes Saturday not such a rush.

We can't wait to see all of you who come out!!

Looms & Leaves

Yesterday was a big day for us, we drove down amid the football traffic to Eugene Textile Center so I could pick out a loom. For a few years I have been wanting to learn to weave and now I finally have my own loom. I tryed out a few looms and finally decided on one ....It was a little bit bigger than we thought we would be getting. When we got home we had to call up some friends to come help us unload it out of the back of our truck. Once it was in the house we found it was a lot bigger than it looked among all the other looms. It fits just fine but we seem to have to do a bit of reorganizing now.

Breeding season is going very well all the Dorsets, except two who are not with the ram right now,have been breed. The Romneys haven't taken off which is to be expected so we are waiting for marks. One of our little ewes, Stardust, apears to be bred which is very exciting. We did a program with a few of our ewes to try and get early lambs, last year no one took but this year we believe Stardust did that means lambs around the 1st of November.

I have added some new items to our etsy store, and also a reminder we still have plenty of room for this years yarn CSA we would love it if you joined us.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/coveredbridgefiber

Rams, Rams, Rams

Today was the day of rams, we took three ewes to a white ram, took two ewes from a friends farm to our house, and another ram home to the Dorset ewes.

Sugar Foot, Lynn, and Emma went to the white ram where Eleanor was, she went home with our friends, the Nichols, after state fair. Eleanor greeted us through the fence it seems she recognized us before we did her.

We also visited Dolly who has been reported of being very naughty not only is she beating up other sheep but she has been reported of stomping her foot at Terry, her past owner. But what do we expect from Dolly, we also admired a new spotted Dorset ram lamb born on Sept. 1 who was very cute, if he grows out nice he may be a new ram to breed to Dolly.

From there we went home with two natural colored ewes and a Natural Colored Dorset ram. We dropped the two ewes off, wormed the ram and put a marking harness on him and drove back to our neighbors where the Dorsets are staying. He was more then happy to meet the girls though I can't say the same on there part.

Now we have to wait for marks to start appearing, Alex, the Natural Colored Romney has already marked one ewe in him group.

~Nicole~

Breeding Season

Breeding season has officially started on our little farm and you could say we have sheep spread all over the state. This morning we separated our Natural Colored and White Romney ewes,and put a blanket back on Bitsy who seems to be a regular Houdini when it comes to wearing a blanket this year. Open class went home from State Fair and 4-H went in. Dolly and Eleanor went to a friends farm to be bred to different rams, later we will be taking some more ewes over to their place. We also brought home a new natural colored Romney ram named Alex who was introduced to the girls tonight. Bridget who is new to breeding season being a first timer, thought it was a game when he was chasing her around the field and bunny hopped away from him. We are starting to feel the change in the season now leaves are starting to change and the mornings are crisp and cloudy. Once state fair is over school will start and our preparations for OFFF will also begin.

Dolly getting shorn she was one of the public's favorites to look at.

Bridget's fleece in the ORBA wool show.

State Fair 2

Another day of showing in the heat. Guinevere is going to need major practice before OFFF ,we discovered today. Esther likes to climb on gates to open them and Eleanor thinks everyones her friend as usual. We didn't place high but this is hard competition and we are still developing our flock.

And what do we find when we get home? Escaped lambs running throught the drive way who had opened their gate and had to be herded back to their pen. Jr Show tommorow.

~Nicole~

State Fair

We have been so busy that it has been hard to find time to post,we have been fitting like crazy. We went up to the Oregon State Fair yesterday with some friends and had our first show today.

Today we showed two of our Natural Colored Dorsets in the Natural Colored wool show. We had fun, didn't place super high, but in the Romney fleece show our Natural Colored fleece took Champion in the Jr. Show and our dyed samples also got Champion. Tommorow we are showing the Romneys in Open and Saturday in the Jr. Romney show. Tommorow is also the first day the fair is open to the public to stop by.

Floss & Dolly

For More Pictures visit our facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Covered-Bridge-Farm/248314941855481

~Nicole~

August Green

On any typical year if you took a drive through our area in August you might notice the lack of green grass,many fields would be cut and baled and many fields would be looking rather dried up. On a typical year like that at our farm we would have dried up fields except for maybe the front paddocks if they had been receiving watering, which definitely doesn't happen regularly. We would be filling the barn with hay and feeders would be also full of hay for the ewes. This year though things seem to be a little different, the fields are looking rather green. Not just green but thick and lush with grass. This year we have had a unusual amount of rain all the way to the second week in July. It seems this green grass is our reward for enduring the endless mud and dreary rainy days that seemed to never end.

The Dorset ewes enjoying the neighbors very green and plentiful grass.

Canadian Geese enjoying grass seed in a field next door.

A couple other notes I'm not sure if any of you have tried to comment on our blog but I discovered today it wasn't set right but I've changed the setting so that you all can comment on it.

One other thing we are thinking about doing a small CSA next year, we have been reading other blogs and have decided it sounds like a wonderful idea. We will start small then depending on the response we get we will decide where to go from there. We are just testing this idea and are working on gathering ideas from others. if any of you have done a CSA or having ideas about what you might want to see we would love to hear about your experiences and ideas.

Queen Ann's Lace Dye

Over the past two days we have been working on dying some yarn.That may not seem to special, but how about I add that we were for the first time dying some yarn with natural dyes. Since we have lots of Queen Ann's Lace in our field, that's what we choose for our first natural dye. It was very much a science experiment because we had no idea how it was going to turn out.

Here is the very start of creating the dye bath.

The dye bath after being boiled.

The dye after being strained of the flowers.

We are finally to the dying part.

The final product, I think it turned out very nice.

Also this morning we had a rather exciting event involving two of our yearling ewes. Right now we have four yearlings in a different pen then the rest of the ewes because these four are going to state fair. Dolly, one of our NC Dorsets is a very big boss she also is very big and has horns. Eleanor, is a white Romney she is very new to the flock and so has been getting bossed by most of the ewes but mostly Dolly. I was finishing up feeding the lambs when i walked past the yearling pen and saw that Dolly had her horn stuck on one of Eleanor's blanket straps. this has happen once before only instead Dolly was stuck to Rachel who is gets really worried and didn't want us near her. But Eleanor is a big pet so i wasn't worried about catching her. But Dolly who is not very patient was trying to undo herself but managed to get her other horn around Eleanor's leg. We definitely have no need for any broken legs before fair or breeding season.

So I had to rush in and untangle this mess before anyone got hurt. Untangling them proved to be quite the puzzle but I managed to get it done without either of them trying to run off in the process

We just have to keep an eye on Eleanor to make sure she isn't limping but so far she seems perfectly fine. Now if only Dolly would stop being such a boss and then we wouldn't have these sort of problems.

~Nicole~

Fall Is Coming

This year we have had the strangest weather from rain in July, real summer weather ,and this morning it feels a little like October. The Oregon State fair is just around the corner which means more fitting but also just around the corner is breeding season. In preparation we had our Dorset's and Cross breeds shorn and our Romney's Tagged ( bottoms, heads, and bellies shorn). Tagging helps the ewes keep cooler while still producing gorgeous fleeces tagging also makes the fitting job a little smoother.
Also I didn't manage to put an update up on county fair but we had a good time and did well.
Also this morning we just picked up three boxes of yarn from the spinnery. We have White Romney lamb yarn which we will dye a variety of colors, a gray Romney yarn which will be over dyed, and a gorgeous natural colored Romney yarn mixed with brown lama. The Brown yarn is personally my favorite it is very soft and could easily be worn against the skin without much irritation I personally want to make a sweater out of it. It will be posted soon along with the other colors as they are dyed so got check out our Etsy shop :
http://www.etsy.com/shop/CoveredBridgeFiber?ref=pr_shop

Our new Yarn

Afternoon nap

Lamb & Wool Fair

Today was the second day of our towns annual Lamb & Wool Fair. We had a booth set up selling our yarn, roving,fleeces and my sheep ornaments. A big Thanks to all of you who came and saw us. Tomorrow is the last day and we will be spending it showing my sheep at the Lamb Show. Hope to see some of you there!!

Halter Lessons

Today I began to halter train some of our lambs. Since show season will be here before we know it I began training. Right now we have a total of 13 lambs that are old enough to begin halter lessons. I started out with 5 lambs I was able to catch. Today was really just an introduction. Each lamb was tied to the fence for 15 minutes. Bitsy's baby, Tinkerbell, found it horrid and was determined to get away. it didn't really help that Bitsy came into the barn calling for her and since Tinkerbell was tied up in the creep feed Bitsy was unable to reach her. Once I put some hay though in the feeder Bitsy was content to wait for he baby's lesson to be over while she munched on some hay. Ruth, Esther, Branch, and Carlos didn't get to upset over the lesson though they weren't happy about the whole thing. Hopefully tonight I will be able to catch the other lambs so they can start learning.



Esther and Ruth waiting for me to take their halters off.


Tinkerbell at the end of 15 minutes when she
had finally calmed down.


Branch and Carlos don't seem to
happy with me.

~Nicole~