Snow Days in March?

It is finally spring so can someone explain to me why it looks like a Christmas card outside.

This is the second day of snow for us, talk about record breaking weather. We hardly ever have this much snow in the first place but add the fact that it is March this much snow is unheard of! So we get an early spring break.

The sheep are not in the least bit impressed they were already soggy muddy messes from the rain and mud but add snow to everything, the poor things are misreable and its impossible to keep the barn clean and dry for them.

But some happy news,yesterday Annabeth had a big ram lamb! That leaves Sugar Foot as the last ewe to lamb like last year.

The new arrival

Someone is enjoying the snow.

Emma Bear

We are very happy to announce that Emma has given birth to a big ewe lamb this afternoon. We again have been having a very long spell with no lambs being born. It was thrilling to finally have a lamb born.



Emma and her new baby



Emma is a very special little ewe, I got her as a bummer lamb two years ago from a long time Romney breeder. As a lamb she got pneumonia and so when she gets stressed she starts coughing for that reason she didn't go to many sheep shows but she still is one of the friendlist sheep in the flock.



Even though it has been two years since she was on a bottle she still believes that the bottle is for her and will actually drink from the bottle if you let her.

Emma's fleece currently being sold in our Etsy shop.

Emma's fleece is very impressive it grows incredibaly fast so her staple length often is around six inches. She produces very heavy fleeces with gorgous crimp. Her wooliness is what got her the nickname of Emma Bear.



Emma as a baby



We are looking forward to seeing how her lamb grows out and if she has a gorgous fleece like her momma.

Out Into The Big World

Today started off as any normal day, a lazy morning involving feeding the sheep and lallygagging around the house. But we had other plans for the day that were a bit more productive. Today the lambs and their moms got to go into the big wide world.

Now whose idea was it to leave Dolly with all the lambs?

The older lambs got shots and all the ewes got dewormed. When we opened up the gates all the ewes rushed out, even if they were forgetting their lambs.

the cat slept through all the commotion

There was so much commotion of ewes searching for lambs and lambs searching for their moms that the whole farm was in upset. One little lamb got so upset that he went through the fence and was running through the yard. it took us a while but we managed to corner him and take him to his mom. Then we realised the ewe he was trying to follow and who was calling to him wasn't even his mom!

One of Autumns lambs, Charlie, didn't want to get his hooves muddy so she kept having to come back to the barn to try to get him to come out.

 We are also happy to report that Dolly has learned to count this year! Last year she could never keep track of her lambs and was always leaving them behind. This year she can count up to two but no matter how bossy she is she just can't get them out of the barn at all. For the time being she has given up and is residing

 in the barn.

In the end we had to take a couple of the lambs out to their moms but now things are begining to return to normal. While the lambs are more than happy to romp around in the rain.

Lambs...Lambs...Lambs

It seems we waited forever for Calla & Mauds lambs to arrive. Both ewes we due on Valentines Day, but much to our disappointment, the day came and went with no new lambs. The next four days seemed to stretch on forever as we diligently checked them.








Finally we were rewarded by the arrival of Calla's twin ewe lambs at 6:30 am on Saturday morning.

Mauds little fellow arrived at 11:30 pm Saturday night. Already at only 12 hours old, he keeps himself busy toddling around his pen when he is not napping.

Calla's lambs aren't as active. They spend most of their time snuggling with each other & their mama.

As you notice, Calla & Maud are white ewes with colored lambs. Calla is a Romney & Maud is a Dorset. Both ewes are what we refer to as B-factored. Simply stated, this means they are white sheep that carry the recessive black gene. We bred Calla to a natural colored (black) Romney Ram & Maud was bred to a natural colored (black) Dorset Ram. By doing this the odds were that we would have 50% lambs colored like their mothers (B-factored) and 50% natural colored like their fathers. What we got was 100% natural colored lambs!

This week we'll be waiting for Floss, Annabeth, & Emma to lamb... the fun continues!

Little Lambs

We have been extremely busy as lambing season has come upon us. Dolly had triplets yesterday though sadly one was dead when we got home. This morning one of our meat sheep had lambs and this evening Autumn had two big boys.

Flooding

The snow that we had a few days ago didn't last, in fact, it warmed up very fast. Not such a great thing. The rain has hit hard, snow from the mountains has melted, and our little town of Scio is flooded.

Last night was spent in town preparing for the flood, that at the time, might happen. We went into work this morning. Water crossed the roads in many spots and we had to wait for cars to pass in order to go around logs, but all together, not too bad. Town was bustling with sandbags being delivered and people being evacuated.

Surrounding towns are also suffering and all ways out of town are closed, except the highway. We knew that we had to get home. We had to go around our normal route because our road was closed.

Here at the farm we are doing ok. You wouldn't know it on any other day, but we are a bit higher up than some of our neighbors. We just have lots of puddles -- not much different from when it rains heavy without flooding. Please keep us and our little town in your prayers.

(top) the street between the feed store and the lamb show pavillion

(bottom) the bridge at the center of to

(top) Gilkey Bridge (bottom) a close up shot of the water going under Gilkey, also the space the other side of the tracks is a corn field in the summer

(top) a neighbors field across the road (bottom) part of our field you can

see the difference

Snow Sheep

Yesterday was a busy day here on the farm. It was shearing day...WHAT?!?! You're shearing in January! Are you crazy? It may sound crazy, but there is some logic behind it. We shear our sheep every January right before lambing season hits since a full fleece on a ewe can cause some problems, which shearing can help with. When lambs are born, they don't have a 4 inch fleece on them to keep warm, so if the mother has no fleece, she can feel the cold the baby lamb feels and will take it to shelter. Sometimes lambs get confused and suck on locks of wool when they try to get milk. Shearing also lets us, as the shepherd, to keep an eye on the ewes to see how close they are to lambing. And finally, taking the wool off also lets the younger sheep have a chance to grow.

Now our house is over-run by fleeces, and we are slowly making our way through skirting the fleeces. We had to keep part of our flock inside the barn, because we ran out of blankets that fit everyone. It is too cold out for them to not be wearing coats, because as soon as shearing was over the snow hit as the forecast said it would.

Happy St. Distaff's Day!

January 7th, St Distaff's Day, it isn't a well known date and in truth it isn't even really a holiday. In days gone by it was the day after the feast of epiphany,the first free day after the 12 days of Christmas. It was the day everyone got back to their normal schedule after all the festivities. The distaff was the tool used to hold the fibers being spun to keep it out of the way. In the middle ages all classes of women spun, it was a task that was done after the days chores were done or was taken to a friends house and done while they visited, this of course was before the spinning wheel was invented. But on St. Distaffs day there was some fun mixed in with the work. The men did not return to there ploughs till after plough Monday, when the ploughs had been blessed. So often the men played pranks on the women, lighting flax on fire and the women in return soaking the men with water.

"St. Distaff’s Day; or, the Morrow After Twelfth Day” by Robert Herrick

Partly worke and partly play
Ye must on St. Distaffs Day:
From the Plough soon free your team;
Then come home and fother them:
If the Maides a-spinning goe,
Burne the flax, and fire the tow:
Scorch their plackets, but beware
That ye singe no maidenhair.
Bring in pailes of water then,
Let the Maides bewash the men.
Give St. Distaffe all the right,
Then bid Christmas sport good-night,
And next morrow every one
To his own vocation.

Though it may not be widely recognized we would like to honor it, even though most of us have probably already gone back to our normal lives. From Jan.7th- 9th we will be having a sale use the coupon code: DISTAFFDAY to receive 10% off your entire purchase from our shop.

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.