Well, September is finally here, and I'm glad because it will provide some relief from the ridiculously hot temperatures we have been enduring all summer.

Last time I looked this was MAINE! It's not supposed to be 93 and humid! My poor sheep have been miserable, not to mention the poor shepherd . Anyway, we are on the way to cool comfortable days and cooler nights and that just the way we like it!   The fleeces are getting long and luxurious, and shearing will happen next month. Six sheep from our farm have gone on to new homes, and next month meat lambs will go to freezer camp. Then our winter flock will settle in, girls and boys will separate for a while, then be put back together for breeding in November. We will do some AI this year with rams from Iceland and that is always exciting.  But right now, we will enjoy Septembers beautiful weather and get ready to go to Common Ground Fair! It is the weekend of the 24-26. Please come up and see us and say hi!!

Here is a link to the fair website:http://www.mofga.org/TheFair/tabid/135/Default.aspx

 We have owned our guard llama, Zoritta, for 2 years now, and up until we got her, had no prior llama experience whatsoever. She does her job very well, we have had no predator losses in our flock at all, and I know her large watchful eyes are always keeping tabs on the activity around her, night and day.

She is extremely easy to care for, eats what the sheep eat,and is really no trouble at all. She has, however given us some good laughs as we have discovered her her little idiosyncrasies.

In summer, when the weather is hot, she spends a good part of her day in the cool, stone walled area under the barn. Llamas are native to cooler climates and are heat sensitive. But sometimes on sunny days, she does something we like to call "dead llama".

For reasons unknown (unless it just feels good, that's enough reason for  most of us), she will go out in the pasture and drop down flat on the grass for many minutes. Just a swish of her tail now and then lets us know she is still with us. The first time I saw this I was understandably alarmed, but then the tail swished.

Sometimes if she is in tall grass, you can walk out in the field unsuspecting, and not see her at all. When she leaps up (because you surprised her, too) you can have a small heart attack.

Other times she will do this:

 In the world of llama's, this is called Cooshing, and just mean lieing down with legs folded underneath.

We like to call it the Loch Ness monster, cause that just what she looks like out in the field.

Well we have wrapped up another lambing season, and our pasture is now filled with lots of galloping, frolicking, head butting, conga line dancing babies! All went well for the most part. There were a few more singles born than I expected, and one ewe had some still born babies which is very heartbreaking, but our 17  lambs are all big and healthy and growing out fast. Most look very promising and I am anxious to see how they fill out. Many black gray, a few badgerface, one mouflon, and a couple spotted, as well as lovely gleaming whites. The lamb fleeces will be very beautiful and colorful this fall! I am always striving to improve my flock,and that is reflected in the conformation of the new babies. Your best sheep on the farm should always be your lambs if your breeding program is working!  Now the challenge of deciding who to offer on the sales list, and who to keep!

This little girl was born on Wednesday 4/14/10, and got a pretty rough start in the world.

We found her at 5:30 am in the wet swamp, with a leg stuck in the mud, cold and hungry. Mom was a little ways away, and had a hard night of labor and delivery. We dried her off and got both girls hydrated and put together in a small pen area close to the house. Thankfully, mom was happy to accept her hungry baby and all turned out fine. She is healthy and takes great pleasure in galloping circles aroind her mom these days!

The sun is shining, but it's windy and cool.

the daffodils are blooming and the magnolia is in bud

lambs are born, they stumble around wet from birth, and find mom's warm milk.

lots of rain falls, the ground is soggy, grass is green, really green.

red winged blackbirds sing and geese stop to visit the pond.

calves gallop circles around thier moms.

I feel like cleaning the house from top to bottom, but the list of outside chores has suddenly exploded and there is not enough time or energy left.

It must be spring!

Our new guy was born Sunday morning, March 28.
This is Iona's fourth calf and she is a great mother. She has never had any problems with calving, and we found the pair doing fine, an hour or so after he had arrived.  The next day we discovered she must have been protecting him from an intruder, because her nose was decorated with porcupine  quills.

Although pulling them out was not fun or really easy for all involved, I'm glad it was her nose and not the calf that took the sharp spiny quills. The things we moms do for our kids!

I have a part time job, working at my church. Over the holidays, and other times when I see friends or relatives that I don't see very often, they usually ask me some version of the same question.

" Hey! Sue, hows it going!" Then they quickly scan their memory for what my "real" occupation was last time they saw me, " are you still working at the church?" I say yes, they ask how that is going, then they usually give me an expectant look and say, "so, what else are you doing to keep busy?"  So, if anyone is interested, here is a quick(hopefully) synopsis of a year in the life of our little farm.

January: This is one of the quietest months. I focus on wrapping up greenhouse ordering details, thinking of a few new things to offer at farmers market, going over crop production records, and shipping schedules. Greenhouses need to be cleaned and sanitized, as well as any pots that I'm re using. Soil and new pots are delivered and put into the greenhouses. This is also the time for fleece cleaning and washing, spinning and knitting, and always checking the ewes condition as their pregnancies progress. Feed is being analyzed and rations calculated for protein content, as well as watching their body scores so they are not too fat or skinny. Mineral mixes are extremely important for healthy babies and easy deliveries, and making sure they are taking in enough is critical. 

March: Okay, here we go. Want to loose a few pounds and a lot of sleep? Hang around with me for the next 3 months. Plants arrive the first week of March and then it's a race to get a couple thousand pots planted, along with 350 hanging baskets. Some seeds need to be started as well. Once again, dirty, heavy and exhausting business. But fun too. The greenhouse is warm and sunny and smells like soil. The weather outside can still be winter, and we keep fingers crossed, hoping the greenhouse temperature alarms will not go off signaling furnace malfunctions and freezing baby plants. Lambing is getting very close and the ewes need to be watched and given vaccinations 2 weeks before delivery dates. 2 calves are expected this month!

April: Lambing!! Christmas in springtime! This month is spent in the barn, day and night. I will continually smell like a sheep, be covered in a mix of poop and birthing fluids and have a bleary eyed look. The range of emotions involved can be much more tiring than just the lack of sleep, but the combination is what gets you. Lambing is so wonderful, but can also be devastatingly sad if there is mortality. Not for the faint of heart, but I look forward to it every year and can't wait for it to happen. May: More lambs being born until the middle of the month, greenhouse plant deliveries begin around Mother's Day. One calf expected to arrive. Farmers market begins every Saturday. Farm work like barn cleaning and fencing becomes a priority. Sheep start rotating on pastures, and we sleep with one ear open for coyotes lurking in the night in search of little lambs

There is a saying, that "Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans".These words are never more true for me than right now, today, December 1.

My ewes have mostly all been bred and I am starting the process of wondering, expecting, and waiting for lambs.  I have used the method of AI on 2 ewes this year and now must wait to see if they will re cycle back into another heat, or if the AI was successful. Either way, the suspense builds up.

It is also the season to look back on last year, crunch numbers of profit and loss, and plan for next spring's greenhouse crops. Orders must be placed soon, and I have to come up with list upon list of flowering basket combination's, what will be sold at farmers market, predict how much space is in the greenhouses for all the crops, calculate timing of ordering and growing, and deliveries, and much more. This is the part of plant growing that I really dislike, and will get up from the computer to clean the bathroom, do the laundry, or any other excuse I can find to avoid this brain aching work.

We are also waiting for snow, I love snow, when will those first flakes fall? Do we have enough hay for the winter? enough firewood?  And Christmas, usually I just blink and it is upon us. Another year has slipped by and I can only be thankful for the many blessings, and hopeful for the future. To be any other way is to waste the gift of life we have been given every day. So we will get to work and make new plans, and try to remember to enjoy these days in the midst of it all.

  Friday October 30 was shearing day. A little late this year, but the fleeces were  larger and heavier than ever because of it. Our shearer is an amazing woman named Gwen who comes over from New Hampshire. She does a few flocks in the area on the same day to make her trip worthwhile, so we arrange our schedule to fit together for her.

She is worth any amount of schedule juggling, because she is fast, gentle with our animals, and does a wonderful job. Good shearers are hard to find, and worth their weight in gold.

 A total extreme make over,              Baldur before, and after!

It's that time of the year again. The trees colors give us inspiration, and we pause to  appreciate their beauty and be thankful. The sheep have long, thick, luxurious coats, and soon we will shear them and begin the winter work of fleece preparation and processing.