Notes from Flying Goat Farm

New Blog!

2012-02-10T13:35:00.000-05:00

To all my followers.....
I have moved my blog to be integrated with our website.
You can change your reader to follow www.flyinggoatfarm.com

I think you will like the new look and the topics that I am blogging about.
Thank you for all your years of support on this site.

Interning: What we learned

2011-10-23T20:04:00.000-04:00

We were fortunate to get an internship with Dr. Fred Speck at the Fall EAGMA show at Shenandoah Fiber Festival. I have to tell you I was nervous. I'm relatively new to the goat world (we've had goats for 7 years). A few years before that I started going to shows to see the goats and listen to what judges said about the goats, so I could make a good purchase.

Here is what we learned from the experience:

Just because you are young and beautiful doesn't mean you will automatically win. Kids won't get grand or reserve champion unless there are real flaws with the yearlings or adults. Why? Because you expect them to be finer and have a better fleece. If you have an adult with a kid or yearling fleece that is more likely to be grand or reserve champion.
Body structure is just as important as fleece quality. More than half of the decisions by Dr. Speck were based on body structure such as bite and color of gums, how goats stand on their legs, whether they walk with straight legs and feet and spring of rib, which is in essence if they have a wide body that indicates health of the animal and whether they will carry kids in a healthy way.
Ears can tell you a lot. If they are uniformly pink, the thinking is that they are closer to the South African genetic line of angora goats. If you rub their ears and small kempy fibers come off in your fingers, then probably the goat has a lot of kemp.
There is a fine line between starving a goat for finer fibers and feeding just enough for health and fine fiber. A breeder can overfeed animals so their fiber is more coarse than it needs to be. But the opposite is also true. Any goats who looked unhealthy were automatically put to the bottom of the class, without regard to fiber quality. We pulled out random samples of fleece and looked at it on a dark fabric to see fineness and kemp.
Using shorn fleeces to assess goat quality is less reliable than judging the animal itself. This is where Texan breeders and Mid-Atlantic breeders have a disagreement. In Texas, if a fleece doesn't fit the age class, it is disqualified. If a yearling has a kid fleece, it should be judged in the kid class, not the yearling class. Dr. Speck explained to us that some breeders may be unscrupulous and put in more than one fleece to up the weight of the fleece, or they may say it's a yearling fleece and in fact it is a kid fleece. This makes a lot of sense to me, but EAGMA has a differing view. Dr. Speck showed us how to determine the class of fleece (kid, yearling, etc) by looking at the base of the lock and the tip of the lock. A kid fleece has a small diameter or each lock and a very fine, pointed tip.
When judging fleeces, the weight is the first consideration. This is because the breeder should want the most fleece for their input of feed, etc. The second consideration is the yield. This means that there should be a low loss in weight through processing. You want a fleece with a small amount of grease, vegetable matter and second cuts. Lastly, the best fleeces have character and style. This is true for shorn fleeces and on the animal. Character is the crimp of the lock. The crimp is not the same as let's say a merino or cormo fleece. It is a zig-zag in the lock. Style is the spiral or helical nature of the lock. Dr. Speck looked for a balance of character and style to pick the best fleeces. Uniformity is the last characteristic. The more uniform of staple length, character and style of the locks throughout the fleece or animal the better place in the judging.
Dr. Speck kept asking "Does it fit?" Does it fit with others in the class? Which is higher and lower in quality? And that is how he puts the goats or fleeces in order from best to worst in the class. He taught us to look for the obvious differences and then to look at the two or three top goats/fleeces again. We had to find small differences in most cases and we had to justify our answers.
Lastly, we learned that it is really important to have a set of explanations when judging because these shows are learning opportunities for the goat breeders and the spectators. Dr. Speck always gave positive statements about the animals. He didn't mention disqualifications, rather focused on why the top one or two goats were picked.

Kid Fleece Ribbons and 2nd place Marmalade

2011-09-29T11:21:00.000-04:00

This kid doe fleece is a faded red. It is a light caramel color. The judges thought it had good style and character. It was high yielding (i.e. not a lot of grease) . They liked the uniformity and the soft feel of the fleece. This unwashed skirted fleece is 1.6 pounds and is for sale for $40.60.

This is the kid fleece from #29 Basil. It is skirted but unwashed. It weighs 1.4 pounds and is for sale $34.40. The judges comments were very uniform and soft. Finer than the 2nd and 3rd place fleeces but not as heavy. That is because I skirted out the shorter, dirty fiber.

This kid doe (#34) fleece is white. The judges liked the uniformity of staple, length, fineness and softness. This unwashed, skirted fleece weighs 1.5 pound and for sale $37.50.

This fleece is from a beautiful doe kid. The lock style is more open. The judges liked the uniformity of length and the soft feel of the fleece. They would have liked the locks to have more style or more corkscrew look to them. It weights 1.75 pounds. It is skirted but unwashed. It is for sale $44.00 This goat has a really great body confirmation and will be a great foundation doe for a starter herd.

I will have these fleeces at Montpelier Fall Fiber Fest this weekend. Or email me and you can buy through PayPal.

Lastly, my marmalade won second place at the Great Frederick Fair. The first place marmalade was a peach/marmalade....so I feel good that this was a real citrus only marmalade. It is fantastic!!

This was my first season of entering competitions for my fleeces and my canned goods. I feel that it was pretty successful and encourages me to enter more items next year, now that I know the ropes.

New Mirrix Tapestry Loom

2011-09-10T11:46:00.000-04:00

Here is my new Mirrix tapestry loom. I have not explored tapestry too much. It is typically very slow. It is also usually a picture and I believe that I can't draw. My first weaving was on a Navajo loom and for all intents and purposes was tapestry weaving. Done with a sword to make the shed (the opening between the warp threads). To change sheds, there was a stick with some string heddles to pull on to make the opening. It was slow and tedious.

Why then am I doing tapestry now? Because I have lots of adult mohair that has been spun into yarn by Zeilinger Woolen Mill. It is lustrous, but it is scratchy, because it is from adult animals. I have over 100 pounds of this yarn. I thought it would be perfect for tapestry or rug weaving, because of it's luster and the mohair's ability to take up dyes so vibrantly. But it is pretty hard to sell something that you haven't tried yourself. I took several mini-skeins with me to Los Angeles and asked my friend Merna if it would be good for tapestry. I ended up going to the tapestry group meeting and tried it myself on a small 5 inch tapestry. It was fun! It was colorful! It is the right size to fill the spaces between warps at 8 ends per inch. So when I got home I contacted Mirrix looms and became a distributor of their products.

This is what I love about the Mirrix looms. They have answered the problems that beginning tapestry weavers always run into, such as even spacing of the warp threads, making a good shed or opening to put your threads through and having good even tension throughout the warp. The warps are spaced evenly by way of a spring at the top or bottom of the loom. The loom comes with 4 springs that give the most common end per inch settings. The shed controller is really nice. The weaver still has to put each warp through the heddle and thread those heddles onto the controller, but once this is done all you have to do is change the position of the handle to get each opening. The tension is controlled by lengthening or shortening the side rails by way of wing nuts. I also love the little feet that allow the loom to sit on a table and not in my lap.

I was able to warp this loom, thread the heddles and get started weaving within an hour. That is really nice. The weaving is smooth. It is going relatively quickly....for tapestry. A foot controlled loom is probably always going to be faster. But I am loving this loom and really enjoying weaving tapestry for the first time.

Email me for further details about purchasing one of these fine looms!

This weekend in pictures

2011-09-04T20:16:00.002-04:00

Some of our summer bounty: spaghetti squash, broccoli and lots of eggs! We are getting nearly 5 dozen a day now!!

Here are our sheep: Viola, Lily, Puck and Helena (L to R) They are 2 cormos, Border Leicester X Blue Faced Leicester, and Blue Face Leicester...again Left to Right.

Here are our 2 new BFL ewe lambs! We got them today and them immediately got to work eating. They will be by themselves until next week and then we will integrate them with the sheep. We are also going to try (again) getting all the sheep and goat girls together for the winter. Hopefully we can do it this time.

Here are the young guineas. They travel in a pack and make lots of noise to fend off predators and other fowl.

We are again having way too many little brown birds and crows in the chicken house. We put up mylar party stuff to ward off entry of the wild birds. This works somewhat but today when I went down to collect eggs there were over a dozen LBB's in there eating the chicken food.

Here are our beautiful bucks! They are so ready to go "a-courting". Just wait boys....you will be meeting your girls in a couple of weeks!

Finally, here is our most mature rooster. He is very elegant. He holds himself with pride. He watches out for his girls. Most importantly, he has his area and Floyd (the ugliest rooster alive) keeps to his area...no crossover, no cock fights. They call to each other starting about 4am....very peaceful!

Too Many Tomatoes

2011-08-15T14:32:00.000-04:00

Bill planted about three million tomato plants. Not all of them made it through their childhood in plastic cups, some were lost as leggy teenagers, but enough have made it into maturity. In previous years, I've made marinara to freeze. This year we decided to make tomato sauce and paste. This past weekend, Bill estimates that he harvested between 80 and 90 pound of tomatoes.

We love our Italian tomato press. We bought it from Napa Style. With this press you don't have to peel or seed the tomatoes. The peel and seeds are strained out automatically. So one of us cuts the tomatoes and the other one works the machine. Two times this past weekend, we filled up the roasting pan to the brim with the tomato sauce. At this point it is very thin and needs to be thickened.

So we then cooked the sauce at 450 degrees for at least 2 hours, until these small bubbles form. When stired, the sauce is thick enough that it stays. There may still be a small amount of liquidy sauce that kind of separates from the thickened tomato, but just stir that back in. Each "recipe" that we made filled 2 quart jars. We then vacuumed the lid and froze them.

While cutting the mountain of tomatoes, Bill said, "won't it be great to open one of these after there is snow on the ground?"

Visit to Los Angeles--updated

2011-08-12T09:51:00.001-04:00

I arrived in Los Angeles in last Tuesday morning. It was cool and crisp as I headed up the coast in a bright red Mustang. The windows were open. The music was on. I felt like I had come home. It has been 15 years since I left Los Angeles, but it still feels like home to me. Photos can not catch the incredible blues and greens of the ocean. Turquoise. Aqua. Teal.

My first stop was a visit with my aunt. Ojai is a small artist town East of Ventura. It is known for creativity and spirituality. It was long the home of Krishnamurti. Ojai has acres and acres of citrus trees. Fruit was being harvested all around the valley.Even though it was 90-95 degrees during the day, the temperature was tolerable. I had an amazing vegetable taco lunch at Azo Restaurant. We had dinner at La Fonte on the outside courtyard. After dinner, we walked across the street to the bandstand to listen to the community band. The park was full of families. Just before intermission, the band plays a march and listeners with balloons march around the park. The woman in the lead had 2 small dogs, each with their own balloon. Truly a small town with a strong community.

Once back in Los Angeles, it was important to visit old and new foodie haunts. The first evening we went to Bombay Cafe on Pico. We had fish pakora, lamb frankie, eggplant deva, Sev Puri, Uttapam and garlic naan.

The second day we were at A Votre Sante for lunch and a celeb siting of Ted Danson. This was after the Seaside Weavers Tapestry group. I learned how to set up a new tapestry and started a small tapestry with my mohair yarn dyed with cochineal. That evening we found that the food trucks were in Venice for 1st Friday. We joined about a million people searching for fun and exotic food from the trucks. We had shortrib tacos from Koji Truck, Peking Duck Taco from the Dim Sum Truck, Green Corn Tamal and ceviche from Border Grill Truck. What fun!!

Saturday morning was the trip to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market. This is a small market by LA standards. Still there were 20-25 vendors there. When I have sold at a local MD farmer's market there are barely 10 vendors. The shoppers can get eggs, meat, cheese, vegetables, fruit, and skin care products.

The Border Grill Truck was at the market too....so we had to have more of the Green Corn Tamal and try the churro bites. Such a great breakfast!

One big reason for my trip was to go to the opening of the Seaside Weavers 40th Anniversary Exhibit at the Pacific Palisades Library. There was a lot of interest in the exhibit and it was great to catch up with old friends. My Spiral bag is displayed on Marj Meadows' handwoven coat. My Endangered Species bag and ikat scarf are in other parts of the room. The last part of the celebratory weekend was the annual Seaside Picnic at Marj's house. Good Food! Good Friends!

What I learned this week, is that no matter how far away you are from true friends, it is easy and oh so valuable to reconnect. I was surrounded by love for a week. Thank you all!

Here I am with Nicki and Carolee. It was a great day!

My owl bag is on the left. It is ikat woven with feather and bead embellishment.

New Slippers!

2011-07-31T09:10:00.000-04:00

I love my new Haflinger slippers! Our whole house is hard wood floors and I love to go barefoot....but there is always so much junk that gets tracked in from the farm that I need to wear some slippers. These are soft. They don't make a lot of noise on the stairs. They form fit my feet. Of course I was immediately enticed because of the sheep on them. They come in very cute patterns and colors and I want them all!!

Do you think I could wear them to school??

Natural Dyed Mohair

2011-07-29T10:42:00.000-04:00

Here are all the experiments I dyed in the last 2 weeks. They are a wonderful palette together.

Cochineal dyeing

2011-07-28T13:19:00.000-04:00

Here are my latest experiments...Cochineal is extracted from a small beetle that grows and feeds on prickly pears. The red juice concentrates within the insect. These insects are cultivated in Mexico. They are grown on large cactus farms.

The top left skeins were mordanted with alum and cream of tartar for a more true red. The lighter skein was dyed with a 0.25% WOF and the darker skein was 1% WOF. Both pots fully discharged. I am thinking that the extra mordant had a lot to do with that.
The top right skeins were mordanted with alum only for a more fuschia color. They were dyed at 0.25% WOF. I am using an enamel pot and I suspect that there are some minute cracks allowing some iron to enter the water, thereby giving the purple cast instead of bright fuschia.

The bottom skeins were also mordanted with alum and dyed at 1% WOF. There is a lot of dye left over and not very much take up. After 1 hour of heating and several hours of cooling, I didn't think that the take up was good, so I re-heated the skeins for another hour and left over night to cool. There is still a lot of dye in the pot. I'm not sure why the color didn't all enter the fiber. I am going to reuse this dyepot with new skeins and see if I can get a darker color. The mordant I'm using is old, but I wouldn't think that alum would go bad...but I do believe I will try my nice new alum and see if that makes a difference.

More experiments to come!

So Many Jars!

2011-07-25T09:05:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we packed 9 jars of Bread and Butter Pickles and 12 jars of Kosher Dill Pickles.

At this point we have made 112 jars of pickles. I've also put up raspberry, triple berry and plum jams, orange marmalade, blueberry compote, strawberry sauce and mint sauce. I've also made some prunes and froze some cabbage for soups and cabbage noodles in the winter. The tomatoes are starting to come in and there are some salvageable peaches that are so good and juicy, once I cut out the stink bug damaged parts. All these will be so wonderful when the snow flies....which is looking better and better from the hot and humid Mid-Atlantic.

More Natural Dye Experiments

2011-07-22T11:10:00.000-04:00

I'm continuing to experiment with natural dye extracts and dyestuffs. All of these skeins are 2 ply 100% mohair from my animals. It is a yarn made from adult mohair, so it is appropriate for tapestry or rug weaving. It was made at Zeilinger Woolen Mill as a single, then I ply it. Some of this was plied by Jamie our intern.

This first skein was dyed with cutch ( I think...the label fell off but the color was correct). I over-dyed it with Quebacho Red and it is a lovely salmony orange color.

This second skein was dyed with really old osage orange. I bought this extract in 1994. The extract is a liquid, but after all these years it became sludgy. I then over-dyed it with the Quebacho Red. This skein kept it's carmel character with a light orange cast.

These last 2 skeins were dyed with 5%WOF alkanet soaked in water. The result was a grey lilac color which I really didn't like. So I added more alkanet and simmered the wood pieces for an hour. I then let the extract and wood pulp sit for 24 hours. I strained off the wood bits and dyed these skeins. The result is a really pretty olive color. But why green? In Jenny Dean's book, she says that alkanet can go green depending on the water pH. Our water is 6.8 so nearly neutral but on the acidic side. I'll try again and add some alkaline to make it on the base side and see what happens. Alkanet smells really foul! So to re-do samples will have to be a labor of love.

Dyeing with Cutch

2011-07-16T08:53:00.000-04:00

Cutch comes from a tree in the Acacia family. It's not something I can grow in your backyard in Maryland. I have what looks like brown crystals of the extracted dye from the tree. The wood is boiled in water to extract the dye and then that is boiled down into the crystal like dye stuffs. In my research, I found that this dye was used to make the first khaki colors used in military uniforms.

I measured out just under a 1:1 ratio of dye extract to dry WOF. I dissolved these crystals in hot water and then added my mohair skeins. The skeins were mordanted with alum, although you don't need alum for color and light fastness because of the high tannin content of this dye. The tannin will act as the mordant for you and you can save one step of the dye process. I heated the skein and the dye over medium heat, never boiling but merely simmering for about 1 hour. I let the skeins cool in the dye bath and then rinsed and dried the skeins. There was still dye in the pot so we used it to over dye some madder sample skeins. This dye took prettty evenly without a lot of movement in the dyepot. I didn't have to constantly stir. I stirred once when I put the skeins in and then left it alone.

Madder and Weld

2011-07-13T11:21:00.000-04:00

Naturally dyed 4 skeins of Flying Goat Farm 2 ply yarn with Madder and Weld. I mordanted the skeins with Alum a couple of days before. They were kept wet and cool in a recloseable bag in the fridge. I used Earthhues extracts for this set of samples. With these extracts, you can reproduce colors with natural dyes, which can be hard to do with the plant stuffs themselves.

I planted 2 boxes of Madder 2 years ago. They produce large ground cover type plants with tiny flowers. I dug up a few of the roots to see how hard it will be to divide the plants. I would love to make small transplants to give my dyeing enthusiast friends.

The roots were washed and then cut into bits. A dye stock was made with them by simmer the pot for an hour. The dye looked really dark. But the dyed yarn so far is quite light. We used Jenny Dean's formula of equal parts dye plant and fiber. To achieve the same color as the extract, there will need to be significantly more roots used. I will update this as we continue with that experiment.

This yarn is madder extract at 4% WOF. There was still visible dye so I was able to over dye another skein...more about that below.

This is our weld plants. I will be harvesting this plant later and trying it as a direct dye. The bright yellow color is found in the leaves and stems.

This skein was dyed with 5% WOF weld extract. The dye bath was nearly exhausted.

This skein was dyed in the madder pot. I took it out, rinsed it and placed it back into the weld pot to simmer. It is just slightly oranger than the madder by itself.

This last skein was dyed in the weld pot. It was the same bright yellow as the skein above. I rinsed it and placed it in the madder pot. It is a lovely nearly orange color.

It's Finished

2011-07-11T13:35:00.000-04:00

My first attempt at a shaped garment...not counting socks is this sweater. It is the Peace Fleece Everyday Cardigan pattern. They say that it is easy and it pretty much was. I used 2 ply yarns from my goats. It was processed by Zeilinger Mills into a singles which I plied to save a little cash. I dyed it with Royal, Aquamarine and Kelly Green. There is a very nice random self striping happening that almost looks like argyle. I finished the neck rolled collar with mohair/silk boucle that is a very nice detail. I used natural wood buttons made by Peace Fleece as well. Now all I have to do is wait for a cold snap......today it's nearly 100 degrees...I'll be waiting for a while to wear this. Now what will my next project be?

Canning Season

2011-06-22T15:47:00.000-04:00

Red Raspberries

Black Raspberries

Mint

Strawberries

Blueberries

Meyer Lemons

All have been mashed, juiced, strained, simmered, heat processed.
They are now ready to sit on the shelf or be spread on toast or made into a tart or a savory sauce for summer grilled meats.

YUM!!

This is my new favorite canning book. There are great recipes and the are organized by the food you've grown. I can't wait to try the slow oven roasted tomato paste. Oh, and I should say that the recipes are for canning, drying and freezing.

YUM!

Group G (Weaving Study Group of Potomac Fiber Artist's Guild) Field Trip

2011-05-24T05:56:00.000-04:00

It was a beautiful day here in Maryland after a week of drerary wet drizzley weather. Jo of A'paca Fun Fiberworks Farm met us at her barn with a smile and lots of energy.

We toured the barn, saw and pet the freshly shorned alpacas.

Some of us (Sue here) even got a kiss. Sue is here talking to Jo about Mobius' mom.

It was so beautiful and warm. The alpacas were out on the pasture, laying in the grass. I need to ask Jo if she is ever scared when she looks out there to see them all laid out.

We tore ourselves away...truly we could have stayed there all day. We blasted up to Frederick to make our lunch reservation. We dined at Brewer's Alley in historic downtown Frederick. The food was yummy and the service was great! We used this time to conduct our only "business" of the day which was to play Weaver's Poker. More on that later.

Our next stop was Singleton Fiber Processing. This is a small Belfast mini-mill fiber processing family. They have only been open for about a year. They take local raw fiber and turn it into roving for fiber farmers and enthusists. Sorry no pictures....I'll have to see if some of our group took some. Mary was kind enough to actually show us the machines running. So we could really see the process.

Next we went to Middletown to Harley Farms. Elaine Murray and her family raise Cashmere goats and Crabbot Arabians. She brought out 2 horses into the open yard and let were content to be pet, talked to and fed. Here Karen is communing with Carly.

We heard all about the goats and the process to get the cashmere from them. The shade was nice and the information was entertaining. Here are some group members from the left, Carla, Jeanne, Susan, Sue, Pegg, Cheryl and Janet in the front.

The goats were all out eating grass until we came with the feed buckets and boy did they make a bee line to the grain. Lots of us got to feed some pretty persistent goats.

Our last stop was Kiparoo Studio Farm. Annie Kelly gave us a short history of her journey in the fiber world. And then we shopped!!!

It was a great day. Thanks to all our fiber farm hosts!

Oy Vay

2011-05-23T21:45:00.001-04:00

I just made a really nice post about our field trip and POOF!! It's gone.....
I'll try again tomorrow.

Here's a picture to whet your appetite

Hay!!

2011-05-14T06:29:00.001-04:00

It seemed so simple. Just drive along. Bill will pick up the bales. We'll put them in the hay loft.

As we started to pick up the bales, Dale our farming neighbor was out in front baling. The bales really explode out of the machine.

Here is Bill during our second run. Each time we could fit about 45 bales into the bed of the truck.

Dale ran out of baling twine and had to change the spools. When he finished, his counter read 466. There were several bales that had to be redone. So we figure that the true count was somewhere near 450. Oh yea, at the beginning we were keeping count. But as the barn filled up and we got more tired, we lost count.

We borrowed a hay elevator from our friends at England Acres.

This was such a life saver. If we had to carry all those bales up the stairs we'd still be out there doing it. Now we have to find one of our own, it is vital with a 2 story barn. This weekend we will be setting up the barn for the does and ewes.

Yesterday in Pictures

2011-04-18T18:44:00.000-04:00

Macchiato is wondering why I'm taking pictures. He is a great herdshire...first generation color who threw color with a colored goat and a reg. white goat...and look at those blue eyes!!

We moved the moms and kids out onto new pasture and they LOVED it!! Unfortunately it's hard to get those great pictures of running, jumping and twirling kids!

Gus and Chester loved being outside with us.....it was a wonderful day on Sunday!

HomeSpun Yarn Party Winner!

2011-04-02T13:52:00.000-04:00

Peonypeg3 is the winner of our yarn giveaway at the Homespun Yarn Party last weekend. It was a great day with lots of energy, great people and nice weather. Hope to see you all there next year!

Goat Flying over the Barn

2011-03-29T10:52:00.000-04:00

Our new barn is nearly complete. The last crew is here to make the last railing and a couple of other odds and ends. They are even going to fix our garage that was built a few years ago...but the builders forgot to put the flashing in...so when it rains the rain comes in instead of staying out. Gus loves the hay loft....we might have to have a party or dance up there before we fill it with hay!!

This is the view we have from the house. You can almost see the floppy eared goat weather vane on top. It was a special order...but how could we have Flying Goat Farm with out some kind of Flying Goat?

Here she is in all her glory!! We will get water in there, some electricity and the goat will be ready to move in. By that time the big field should be nice and green and yummy to eat!!

Slide show for new barn

2011-03-15T18:20:00.000-04:00

What the barn pad looked like at 8am this morning.

A big part of the barn was built today...remember all this work was done in 8 hours!! The workmanship is just great. The communication between the builders and the crane operator was like a ballet. We are loving the barn AND the process. I'll give you a couple of photos to whet your appetite

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flyinggoatfarm/sets/72157626274201024/show/

Look at that joint! It is all put together with mortise and tenon with wooden pegs!

At the end of today's work!

foundation complete

2011-03-13T20:07:00.000-04:00

Amid all the rain this week, the foundation and new driveway were completed.

I know this one is hard to see...they worked into the night to finish the pad before we were hit with a deluge of rain. We sent them home with some italian sausage and spaghetti at 8:30pm. They were back at 8am the next day.

The parts come tomorrow and barn razing is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately for us, this is the week that I can't take time off on Tuesday or Wednesday because of state testing in Maryland. We are hoping to set up our camera to take time lapse photos...so come back and see if that happens!!

Kids Galore!!

2011-03-13T20:02:00.000-04:00

All our kidding is done! 12 kids....6 boys and 6 girls. 4 colored and 8 white

All babes and moms are fine! This is the best time of year!!

The New Barn is Coming!!

2011-03-03T20:02:00.000-05:00

This is our 13 acre field. We've tried for 4 yrears to make it healthy and able to produce hay for our animals. But for all those years and all those dollars we didn't get any hay. It finally dawned on us to make this field into pastures so we can healthfully manage our animals and sell the really high priced equipment. It makes more financial sense and more animal sense to do this. So for the past year, we've been saving up money to build a great barn. Our barn is being built by an Amish family up in Pennsylvania. There are no nails and no screws. They will then take it apart, bring it down here and rebuild it in our field. We are so excited about this project!

So today, workers showed up to grade the pad. Lamar is also from Lancaster. It has been rainy here. But they were able to get their equipment in and to start the project. They are using GPS technology to make this pad level. It isn't apparent in the photo, but there is a drop off from left to right in this view.

They are starting the pad for the barn!

Lamar has scratched off the top soil and they are bringing in stone for the pad.

Lamar is leveling out the stone for the pad.

The concrete mixer deposited its load and almost got stuck in the mud. Thankfully it was extricated and the barn will proceed tomorrow.
More pictures to follow!!
We're expecting the barn to be finished in the next month.

Whole New Generation

2011-03-02T21:01:00.000-05:00

I've been absent for a week because nearly every day we have had a baby or two or three born! Our first kid was on my birthday, last Friday and tonight is Bill's birthday, we had 2 born tonight. So far we have 10 kids and only 1 more doe to kid. It's been an incredibly stressful week because there have been one to four kids born in a day. BUT, we are nearly done in a mere 6 days. The good thing is that there is only 1 more birth and the doe is an experienced mom. The bad news is that we are running out of private small places where the doe and kid can bond. It's pretty cold here...not down in the teen's thankfully, but nearly freezing. So we have all our little oil radiator heaters out in the bonding areas, so everyone ELSE stays warm. I do have to say that this morning, I was feeling pretty cold in our bathroom where we usually have one of those little heaters. Needless to say I didn't stay in there long. I wish I had pictures to share...but you will all have to wait until everyone is out on pasture. As a preview, I will say that the oldest kid is hopping and twirling around.....SO CUTE!!

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This Morning on the Farm

2011-02-20T10:00:00.001-05:00

Some of the bred does looking to see what all the commotion is about

The sheep and doeling group is wondering why we are outside looking in

Waiting for grain

The bucks wanting to know why we are out there!

Neighbor's oak tree with a ton of starlings in it....wow they can make a lot of noise.

Some of the neighbor's horses. They are always curious but they don't like it when Chester and Gus bark at them!!

It is a very blustery March kind of day. Bill and I went for a walk around the outside of our pastures to see what trees were down and just to be out in the wonderful warmish day.

Drum Roll Please!!

2011-02-19T13:49:00.000-05:00

The back of my sweater is done! The last 2 inches seemed to go on forever!

The minute I finished the back, I cast on both of the fronts on 1 circular needle. I'm hoping that by doing them together they will be more easily the same size. I am using a center pull ball of yarn, so I can knit one front from the center of the ball and the other front from the outside of the ball. I know I might get confused at the top of the front where you have to make the neck shaping, but I figured that if that was a problem, I could take one of the fronts off the needle and do those parts one at a time.

Back to knitting!!

Local Vanilla

2011-02-14T20:46:00.001-05:00

Bill started yelling from the conservatory room yesterday….”Lisa, come here”. It was urgent. I immediately started to think, What? A goat is giving birth?...Chester and Gus are running amok? What could it be? I jumped up off the couch and ran to the room….OK walked fast! What he was yelling about was this:

We bought this vanilla orchid at Epcot in November 1997. Do the math…that was 13 years ago. It was about 3 inches long and in a test tube filled with a clear agar/gel solution. Bill thinks it was about 8 dollars. We packed it in our suitcase and took it back to Elk Grove California. When we unpacked it, the agar was all broken up and we weren’t sure it would pull through. Bill planted it in a very small pot and started to care for it like all the other orchids in our life.

We moved from Sacramento when the orchid was three. Then we moved from Oregon when the orchid was 7. Now it is 13 years old and it is finally making buds and blooming. We estimate that it is about 90 feet long and 40 pounds.

Since we have been in Maryland, The orchid lives on the hot, humid porch in the summer and spends the winter in the conservatory. We don’t know if it is the age of the plant or the environment. But in the last couple of weeks, Bill has been germinating and starting garden seeds in the conservatory. It has been brutally cold outside and the conservatory is pretty drafty. So Bill put a small oil/radiator type heater in the room. It is hot. With all the other plants, it is also humid.

The buds are being coaxed to open by small ants that are eating the sweet sap that is oozing from the buds. We don’t know if the flowers will be pollinated by the ants. Bill is going to hand pollinate the flowers, just to be sure.

Won’t it be cool to have “local” vanilla??? Stay tuned for updates on the orchid.

Sweater update

2011-02-06T16:02:00.000-05:00

Have knitted 19 inches on the back. Only about 2 more inches to go for this first piece!!

Come visit me at Homespun Yarn Party March 27, 2011 Savage Mill in Savage MD.....12-4pm

New sweater is emerging!!

2011-02-02T05:48:00.000-05:00

Sunday was my first sweater lesson. I am using a Peace Fleece pattern for an Everyday Cardigan with some modifications. Terry had made this sweater in a medium size. I tried it on and while it fit mostly we decided to make it as a large. That way if I want to line it later I can.

I knit a gauge sample. The pattern calls for 4 stitches to the inch on size 8 needles. My yarn was about 5 stitches to the inch. So I changed my needles to 10 and I got 4 stitches to the inch. I cast on 96 stitches for the back.

The sweater starts with 2 inches of k2p2 ribbing. I changed back to size 8’s for the ribbing as it works better to be on smaller needles. I have to admit…we were talking and talking and I made some mistakes in the k2p2….Note to self: don’t talk or listen when you need to concentrate on ribbing or other complicated pattern. So I took out some, knit some, took out some…there are still some issues in the 2^nd row of the ribbing. But I’m hoping that no one will look that closely.

When the ribbing was completed, I changed the needles back to the size 10 and started doing the stockingette stitch. So far I’ve knit 11 ½ inches. The back will be at least 22 inches…I’ll figure out if that is long enough when I get there.

The Chicks Have ArrivedUpdated

2011-02-01T08:35:00.001-05:00

The chicks arrived Sunday afternoon. The Frederick post office called us when the chicks came into the distribution center and we could go there and pick them up instead of waiting until Monday morning.

Our box was one of three that came in on the same shipment. As we drove home, the noise from the box was deafening. Who knew that chicks could make so much noise….well there are 75 of them.

We took them down to their new home and started the process of counting them and dunking their beaks into water. You must do this with each chick in order to “teach” them to drink water. Remember they were packed when they were only a few hours old, transported to the airport, taken a plane ride, then trucked to the post office. They came a long way without food or water.

We were up to about number 37 and I heard a plop. I looked down and there was a little black chick outside the box. They can’t fly. How did it get out? I picked it up and put it back in the cage. Then there was another and another outside the box. They started running around the greenshouse between the legs of the adult chickens. The adults started to peck at the chicks. It was a disaster. Bill and I captured them and realized that they were small enough to go through the chicken wire on their chick house.

So we blocked the edges and Bill ran up to the house to find smaller gauge mesh. He found some window screen we bought to replace some house screens and he cut and stapled it around the lower edge of the cage so they couldn’t get out.

They have completed their first day here and they are all well. ***Update*** yesterday we worked on the chicks to check that the weren't constipated. See this great video from the Backyard Farming Blog. We ended up losing 4 chicks in the last couple of days, 2 from the constipation and 2 from another mysterious occurance. We ended up bringing 5 little chicks up to the house to monitor their condition and they warmed up, ate up and today will go back down with their peeps!

Seed Starting in January

2011-01-30T09:38:00.000-05:00

Bill is starting his seeds. Here are Cauliflower and Fennel

These are tomatoes.

Here are more vegies and the prized Green Globe Artichoke.

This is my Meyer Lemon tree with it's new fruit. Can't wait for more lemon curd!!

We have a small conservatory room connected to the kitchen. During the winter all our orchids, citrus and plumeria trees live here to keep warm. This is where the seed starting happens as well. This year Bill started much earlier. He hopes to get the vegies started and then move them down to the greenhouse in March. He has a small electric heater in there this year to keep the room warmer. He has used these Burpee Seed starter kits very successfully.

More Snow Days

2011-01-28T06:51:00.000-05:00

There isn't much to say! This is day 3 of this week's snow days. Bill couldn't make it up the hill home, so he had to abandon his car at the bottom and walk the mile home through the snow. I was able to pull the 4 wheel drive truck out of the garage, drive out to the road and turn the truck around. Chester and I waited for Bill and we drove him the last quarter mile home. He was soaked, his laptop was wet...yes, it did start. The snow came down like a blizzard and in the morning it looked like this:

Of course, Gus and Chester were in 7th heaven! They really love the snow. They raced around in it and ate the snow. They laid in it and they rutted around in it. When they came back in their bellies were covered with snow balls that had to melt out.

New Chick housing

2011-01-26T12:16:00.000-05:00

Next Sunday or Monday we get our next order of day old chicks. We ordered 75 this time because a friend wants some as well and we will share the bounty when the peeps are about 15 weeks old. This is the 4th time we've ordered day-old chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery This time we ordered an assortment of brown egg layers. In the past we have gotten Arucanas, you know the chickens that lay beautiful green and blue eggs. But I found that customers were leary of the green eggs. They consistantly asked, "what are they like inside?" As if they had green yolks like the Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham. We have some very old Arucanas which continue to lay a rare egg every few days and that's enough.

Each time we have started chicks, we have tried different living environments for them. The first year we had them in the conservatory room off the kitchen. The second year they were in the garage. The third year they were in our small greenhouse. This year, Bill built a super duper chick cage.

It is a simple frame covered with chicken wire around the sides. There are 2 roofs that open independently. There are 2 roosting bars for when the chickens are older and testing out their flying skills. There are 2 hooks for the heat lamps. The lamps are on chains which can be raised or lowered to give the chicks the correct amount of heat. Bill even made a hook for the cord so that the chickens can't get into trouble pecking at the cord.

We will add chick waterers and chick feeders when the new peeps come. We can't wait!!

Free Form Kniting

2011-01-19T07:36:00.000-05:00

I have been experimenting with the concept of Saori (www.saoriglobal.com) weaving technique that is a free-style hand weaving program for everyone. SAORI was founded in 1968 by a Japanese lady Misao Jo, and it has been welcomed in more than 40 countries. The website says, “We weave and learn together in search of our true, hidden selves”. I took on this philosophy to make really beautiful scarves that are “free style”. These are made with yarns that go together, but don’t necessarily match. If the yarn is too thin, then I double or triple the yarns in that row. If the yarn is thicker, well, it gives an interesting bumpy structure. I make these with a garter stitch working on a 29” circular needle. I cast on 300 stitches. This way the stripes are more subtle, not like a chunky horizontal stripe. I think these scarves are fun to wear and to look at.

Planning a sweater

2011-01-18T14:34:00.000-05:00

I finally decided to do it! What? Actually try to knit a shaped garment. Some people are shocked to hear that I’m not really a knitter. I guess because I have all these great colorful yarns for sale. As a child my mom taught me to embroider and do cross stitching. So as a child I completed samplers and pillows and little art pieces. As a young adult, I learned how to do needlepoint and really just loved being in a needlepoint store, with the vast amounts of yarns in every conceivable color. I did a little designing of needlepoint canvases and completing some original pieces. Then I discovered weaving…I could make my own cloth. I still dreamed about those shelves of color in the needlepoint store. So I learned how to dye and I practiced a lot. I learned how to spin and now I have my own fiber animals.

The yarn I’m using for this first sweater is from my animals. It is 100% mohair. I had it processed at Zeilinger Woolen Mill in Michigan. They made singles for me and I have been plying the singles to make a nice 2 ply yarn. Yesterday I dyed it in the colors of the land and sea….turquoise, royal blue and dark green. It has areas of those colors and then really nice transitions between the colors. I added one skein of Mohair/silk boucle for some texture around the neck or cuffs.

My friend Terry has agreed to mentor me through this process, so that I can get help when I run into snags. Thanks Terry!! I’ll post as I make the project so you can all see my journey..this might also speed up the process…it will make me accountable.

Meyer Lemon Curd

2011-01-15T13:36:00.000-05:00

Meyer lemons gold

Banish frozen winter days

Sunshine yellow sweet

a haiku for winter

This winter’s crop of Meyer lemons is amazing. Thirteen total on one of my trees. It took all spring, summer and fall to ripen and they are finally ready to harvest and process. Meyer lemons were readily available in California when we lived there. But here on the East Coast, they are hard to find. I know that these lemons are organic too..grown from our hands. Because they are so precious, I have been perseverating about what to make. I decided to make lemon curd and process the jars. That way I can have the taste of summer all through the year. I had better get working!!

The recipe I used is from Food in Jars Go through this link to make the most amazing lemon curd...get pictures about the process too. I never realized that I could process these. Because they are so precious, I think I will also refrigerate them.

I have been eating it out of the jar, once spoonful at a time. It is like the most amazing lemon meringue pie explosion in my mouth.

Dogs in Snow

2011-01-13T06:04:00.000-05:00

Gus and Chester love the snow!! I’m sure I’ve talked about the joy that Chester finds in the white stuff. After a snow, Chester loves nothing better than sitting in the snow. Now that we have Gus, who is about 6 months old right now. They both love to run in the snow. Today they are also rooting around in the snow….nose down snuffling through the snow. They must have heard some little voles or something because after they snuffled they sat and waited…listening to the ground. They don’t feel the cold or the wet. They can spend hours out in it happy as can be.

What will this new year bring?

2011-01-12T11:32:00.000-05:00

It is a snow day today. We got about 4 inches, not much compared to this time last year. So on this slow day, among my tasks for the day is reflecting and dreaming about what I want to accomplish with the farm this year. I love lists….does anyone love lists more than me? I like to list lots and lots of things. I brainstorm my year, or quarter, for the farm. I find that if it isn’t on a list, it flits in and out of my mind but never gets accomplished.

Some of the things on my list this 1st quarter of 2011 are: design new color ways, make new yarns, use a new mill, process fleeces, dye yarn, roving and fleece, blog more and take more pictures, keep my ETSY store fresh and to really experience the joy on the farm!

Holiday Cookies!!

2010-12-19T11:53:00.000-05:00

One of my more treasured memories growing up was making holiday cookies with my mom. We would make them all throughout the month of December. I was in charge of the Russian Tea Cakes. These cookies come by many names now days: Mexican Wedding Cakes, Norwegian nut balls, Pecan sandies to name a few. This was way before there were food processors in every kitchen. I chopped the nuts by hand until they were fine. I also don't think I used a mixer, I seem to remember mixing the flour, butter and sugar by hand. It is a very stiff dough and it was a work out! We also made sugar cookies and decorated them with colored icing made of powdered sugar, water and vanilla flavoring. We made about 5-6 different recipes but these 2 were always my favorites.

For the past several years, I have not made cookies. My mother in law made them for everyone and having just a few was perfect. But she is gone now, so no more getting cookies for free!! I could have made them with Bill or by myself with Christmas music in the background. But I decided to gift myself with friendship! I invited just a few friends over to make cookies. Their stories were the same as mine, they didn't really make cookies that much anymore, but wanted to. So I gathered the ingredients, bought new cookie cutters, printed out recipes, consulted family about recipes and we got to work yesterday.

We made kiffles, sugar cookie cut-outs, chocolate chip, magic bars, cherry winks and Russian Tea Cakes. Many of the recipes come from: Cookies by Bess This book is from the 80's but it is my go-to book for making lots of different kinds of cookies.

Linda rolling out the Kiffles. These were the Lekvar ones. We used the Tagline recipe...it was decided that next year we use the Check recipe!

Nancy with a cookie cutter. She was our chief dough roller!

Terry is a mathematician....can you tell? She used just about every nook and cranny of the dough!

Terry and Linda decorating their sugar cutouts!

Abstract art from the leftover icing, courtesy of Linda and Andrew!

Thank you friends! As I was ladleing up some of "The Recipe" (mulled port wine) I paused and listened to the laughter and conversation and realized that I was truly blessed to have these dear friends to make holiday cookies with. We all decided that we would do it again next year. But next year we will use the Check family kiffle recipe and make the magic bars first, so they have time to set up. Happy Holidays!

Pruning Class

2010-12-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday was our pruning class. We have a small fruit orchard with about 20 trees that are mature and fruit bearing. For the past 4 years, since we have been here, we have gotten little fruit. The trees flower, they make fruit, and just as the fruit is ripening, it rots or it mummifies. The trees are also getting tall, so they are hard to care for. We had a professional arborist prune the orchard 2 years ago and while they look really chopped, the fruit production was even less fruit production the year after the big pruning. So we decided to learn for ourselves.

We contacted the Master Gardener program at our local extension office and found Tony Murdock of Fine Pruning. He is a Master Gardener and has been teaching the pruning part of the MG classes for a while now. There were 5 participants. Tony planned a pruning demonstration with lots of hands-on practice in our trees. He also talked about pests and diseases of fruit trees and the best tools of the trade. The picture above is mostly a before picture. Tony had made many cuts in that apple tree and had handed over the saw, loper, and pruners to us.

Here is Rick up on the ladder with the pole pruner. The rest of us on the ground were the "back seat" pruners! We would say, get that one...see on the left? Yeah that one. And we would circle around the tree to view it from all sides.

Here are a couple of the Principles of Pruning. Prune in Winter and in June. Only cut 1/3rd of the tree at a time. If the tree is cut back too much the roots send signals to produce a lot of "water spouts" to make more leaves for energy. Use good tools and take care of them. Start at the bottom of the tree and work our way up. It's easier to recut that to glue it back on later so make conservative cuts the frist time.

Here is our handiwork on the first apple tree. Tony says that the tree is finished once you can "throw a cat through the branches". We didn't volunteer one of our cats to see if that adage is correct. But as you can see the tree is shorted and lots more open than the after picture. Below are 2 of the tools that Tony loves. You can get them from Amazon, which makes it a lot easier!!

We are planning on finishing the pruning of our orchard before the end of February. We were going to get a start today...but it is miserable...cold and rainy and it's supposed to become snow sometime later this evening.

Tony typically prunes in Winter and in June. So we are planning on having a Pruning class Part 2 in June to see how our handiwork leafed out and what we need to do to get a better fruit production this year.

For another perspective of the class, read Diane's blog here

Queen of Unfinished Projects

2010-10-16T10:11:00.000-04:00

I have a list a mile long of half finished projects. I have a list a mile long of projects I long to do but haven't started yet.
BUT, this week, I have finished 5 knitted items (3 cowls and 2 scarves) and 4 silk scarves! 8 items off the half finished items page!!

Give Away Winner!

2010-10-15T14:30:00.000-04:00

At Monpelier Fall Fiber Fest, Ava A. entered our sock yarn giveaway. I put all the entries in a bag and drew out 1 name. Congratulations Ava!!

Walk in Autumn

2010-10-10T16:36:00.000-04:00

I really love Autumn. We took a great walk today at the Monocacy Battlefield--Worthington Farm Trail. This trail goes along the river and then darts into a farm field. Gus, our new puppy, is just learning to walk on a lead. But as long as he is near Chester he is fine. Here are some of the photos of the day.

Gus is getting so big! He is very attentive and active and just a great all around puppy

Some leaves are starting to turn!

Hay rake at the farm

I love these white faced cows. They weren't too happy to have me there and they really didn't like the dogs.

Finishing the Pickles!!

2010-08-10T21:12:00.000-04:00

Okay... we are now officially exhausted. 69 jars of Kosher Dills and Bread 'N Butter Pickles in 2 days. Here are the results!!

Here is the start of the process...

Then we cut and cut...

We stuffed the Kosher Dill jars...

Then we cooked....these are the Bread 'N Butter Pickles

See how messy this is???

And then we process the jars in a hot water bath...

Yes it was a lot of work to can about a bushel and a half of cucumbers...

But we will have some goodness when it is winter and snow is on the ground!!

Pickles Galore!!

2010-08-09T14:26:00.001-04:00

I have been selling my kosher dill pickles and bread and butter pickles at the farmer's market. I was down to 2 jars each. Our summer has been so hot and dry that the cucumbers that we planted did not thrive. So I had to take matters into my own hands.

We bought and were gifted with about one and a half bushels of cucumbers. I heard that if you soak the cukes in cold water, they will crisp up and they make the pickles crisper too. We'll see.

Bill sliced a bunch of cucumbers and sweet onions for bread and butter pickles. These are layered with salt and ice and put in the fridge overnight. This evening they will be mixed with the pickling sauce, put into jars and processed in boiling water.

We use the recipes in the Ball Blue Book for our pickles.

New Puppy Gus!!

2010-08-09T13:50:00.000-04:00

We went to Sycamore Spring Farm to see our new puppy and to have Gus meet Chester. Chester actually met the whole pack. They ran and swam in the pond, chased some farm animals and then laid around in the shade. We woke Gus up from his nap so that he could interact with Chester.

Maeve was a little concerned with having Chester near her babies. But she mostly allowed Chester to share the same space as Gus...but only Gus. When he when to investigate another puppy, Maeve was not having any of it!!

Bill was really happy to have both of his puppy boys together.

TA DA!!

2010-07-30T16:43:00.000-04:00

Front of the bag

Back of the bag

I finished my first woven treasure bag. I had a blast embellishing this bag. I had some problems finding the right material for the strap. I finally decided to use grosgrain ribbon. I think it might be a little wide, so I will reduce the width of the ribbon for the next bag.

Inside of bag

I used my hand-dyed quilting fabric on for the lining. I embellished the inside with words for a dear friend, such as joy, trust, and love. It is a little surprise for the user to see and be reminded to notice the small things in their lives that give them joy and cause them to love and trust. I envision this bag to be the first of a series and I'm sure that the kinks in construction will be worked out.

progress on treasure bag

2010-07-14T10:28:00.000-04:00

I worked on this side first. I was intending to use my personal symbolism of spirals. I did a freeform embroidery and added beads to part of it. Then as I was trolling for beads and threads, I found this rayon boucle that was space dyed. I allowed the thread to twirl as it wanted to and couched it down with a fine thread. I was going to mirror it on the other side, but I really like the changes in the twill pattern that gives a feeling of a spiral. I will sit with this taped up to my window and see where I need to go next with this side. It doesn't feel complete yet.

This will be the front of the bag. I originally drew a sun with a spiral in the center. I even embroidered it but it didn't feel or look right. So I tore it out. I know I should have taken a picture before I ripped it out. I found this space dyed cotton ribbon in my stash and love the way the colors move into each other. Again I'm not sure if the bag will be this way (horizontal) or the other way (vertical orientation). I also found some buttons, watch faces, etc. that spoke to me, so I will be starting a new layer later today or tomorrow.

Pullet Eggs!

2010-07-14T10:19:00.000-04:00

The small egg is from one of our new layers. Well, she is not new to us, she came in the mail on a snowy February 1st morning. She is a buff orfington chicken. These chickens are known as good layers even through the winter and good meat birds as well. We got 30 day old chicks in February. They lived in our greenhouse through the winter, with a small oil radiator and heat lamp if it got truly cold. But the sun kept them warm through most of the really bad winter days here. In April most of these birds were poached by someone, so we only have 5 left. It was heartbreaking to have so many birds taken in the middle of the night and to know that the person was someone who had been here before and knew our set-up. This theft also set us back 2 months in our egg production for this summer's farmer's market. The replacement birds won't be ready to lay until after the farmer's market season is over. There's no use crying over stolen chickens, we just have to move on and celebrate the new pullet eggs this week!!

I loved this book Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance. It is a funny and touching memoir of a man with his chickens in a small town in Britain. I read it before I got any chickens of my own and it didn't deter me from getting my chickens here in Maryland.

Hands-On Fecal Class

2010-07-11T16:04:00.000-04:00

I know it sounds really baaaaad!! The best way to know how your herd is faring with internal parasites is to test their poop! You can spend a lot of time and money sending samples off to the lab or giving it to your vet to do. OR you can do it yourself. There are a couple of items that you need: a microscope, a fecalyzer tube, a microscope slide and slide cover, some toothpicks and feca-sol solution. We tested 7 different samples today and each person got to look at all the slides. So at the end, everyone had a lot of experience preparing the slides and looking in the microscopes. These are the 2 microscopes we own and they are both adequate for finding worm eggs.

The other reason that we like doing fecals ourselves is that we know right now if we need to worm one goat, one group of goats or the whole farm. We use the fecal tests in conjunction with FAMACHA observations that indicate if an animal is anemic (a symptom of a wormy animal) We will be giving more classes in the future so check our website for information. http://www.flyinggoatfarm.com/

New Direction in Weaving

2010-07-09T15:17:00.000-04:00

I have been struggling a bit with weaving for several years now. I let my big 16 harness loom languish in my studio either undressed or dressed but ignored. I didn't have a direction. I have instead focused on quilting and dyeing, beading and stitching, but no weaving or not very much. Now that I have a larger studio I tried to give myself a challenge to go through Bonnie Inoyue's book on multishaft design...I got stuck, I got distracted. I joined a weaving study group this year. We studied block design. It was perfect. Now this summer we have a challenge fabric to make based on a block profile. I am choosing to make towels, since I have never made a household fabric. But, in order to do that, I had to weave off what I had on the loom.

While looking for towel information, like materials, sett, epi, etc, I ran into an intriquing article in Handwoven Magazine by Sara Lamb on making small bags from handwoven fabric. Her article showed beautiful little bags with lots of embellishment.

THIS WAS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!!

Doing this kind of work pulled together all the wonderful techniques I use when making quilted embellished garments. This added my other dimension....as a weaver!

So back to the loom. I decided to pick a pattern that I designed while working with Bonnie's book available here. I then wove 7 inch backs and fronts for 2 bags. The rest I wove as a scarf or other fabric to use in garments.

Now I am starting to add embroidery. I am using personal imagery such as spirls, suns, etc. Then I will layer on beads, mirrors, ribbons and maybe some buttons. Then I will pick a lining from some silk scarves that I have dyed and finally sew it together. I will be posting as I progress on this new direction that combines my weaving, dyeing, beading, quilting and symbolism.

Our new lambs!

2010-07-09T11:43:00.002-04:00

Yes we are building our menagerie. We picked up 2 Cormo ewe lambs from Angel Crossing Farm in Damascus, MD this morning. We brought them back in our large dog carrier. Here Viola has already been unloaded. This is Lily with her new coat on. We are hoping to get nice clean white cormo fleeces. They did well in the carrier on the ride back. They laid down for most of the trip in fact. Goats tend to stand up no matter what happens.

Here is Viola after we got her coat on and just before we unloaded her into the barn. We decided to keep them in the barn today, since it is still so hot. They have new hay, cool water and a fan. We figure they've been stressed out enough for today. Viola is younger than Lily and she may have some separation issues, but they have both been weaned...so we'll see what happens tonight.

This is Lily. I'm holding her tightly, so she won't get up and charge off. These two are so soft and already have a good amount of lanolin in their fleeces.

Cormo fleece is very compatible for blending with mohair. They have similar fine micron counts and can have similar staple lengths as well. My plan is to have some "varietal" blends such as merino-silk roving, blue faced leister-mohair roving and cormo-kid mohair roving. We may also do some limited runs of yarns with those blends. We will have handspun yarn to sell with these blends next year. So keep tuned!!

New Puppies!!

2010-07-08T16:44:00.001-04:00

Bill and I went to Sycamore Spring Farm to see the new English Shepherd puppies. They are about a month old and so cute. Maeve had 10 puppies, 6 females and 4 males. They had just been fed and so they were really sleepy. They let us pick them up, love them up, and then they just went back to sleep and their dreams. We will keep going to interact with them and at some point one will pick us! This puppy will grow into our guard dog. Carol socializes them to be protectors of farm animals and know when there is a predator around. Bill was so happy to just be with the puppies. I know he will have a hard time picking one to come home.

Leader of the Pack is a book that was recommended to us by several trainers when we adopted Chester. It is a great reference for people who want to break their dogs and themselves of bad dog habits. We learned a lot!! Of course, Chester still jumps up on the couch and bed, but usually only when we want him too!!

Eating locally...really locally!

2010-06-20T16:43:00.006-04:00

We love arugula. When we lived on the West coast, it was readily available. Every grocery had it, every farmer's market had it. We could eat lots and lots of it. After moving to Maryland, at least in the part where we settled, it was very hard to find arugula. The bitter crunchy leaf was just not appreciated in these parts. Bill started to ask for it at the local grocery store and every once in a while a bag would show up. That was when we lived in an apartment. When we moved to a house and we could have a garden, the first thing we grew was arugula. But it was very short lived. It would bolt in the heat and maybe we would have one or two salads from it. This year is very different. We have a whole row...about 8 feet long of beautiful abundant leaves. We have had salads galore! This salad it one of our favorites. It is arugula, goat cheese, apples or pears and some kind of nut. Today it was goat cheese I made, some granny smith apples and rosemary cocktail walnuts with just a hint of honey. The dressing was a simple vinegrette using pomogranate wine vinegar, olive oil, dill, thyme, honey, salt and pepper. So simple! Simple perfect for a hot summer's day! The arugula is just now beginning to bolt with the 85-95 degree days. So I made some arugula pecan pesto to eat with chicken, fish, goat cheese or maybe some pasta. I used the recipe in Mollie Katzen's book The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without. It uses pecans and golden raisins to counteract the bitterness of the arugula. I also found a Debbie Madison recipe for using mature arugula with pasta. We'll be having lots of arugula this week!!

Visit to Sycamore Spring Farm

2010-05-30T15:12:00.006-04:00

We went to visit my Farm Gal friend at her farm, Sycamore Springs. She has a wonderful log cabin home that has been on th property for ages. The summer kitchen is 270 years old!!
We went there to look at her dogs. These are English Shepherds. They are guardian dogs for her farm. Below is Maeve....she is going to have a set of puppies in about 6 weeks or so. We are hoping to get one for our farm. Sycamore Spring Farm is a CSA with many families like these coming to pick up their weekly vegies. But also to volunteer their time. We saw people filling water for the animals, moving the Silky family shown below and just communing with the farm animals.

This is Shep. He is just 6 months old and already doing his job along with having fun chasing sticks that everyone was throwing to him. He and his sister played most of the morning with mom getting the stick just as many times as they did.

This young kid was provoking the Icelandic sheep. But the sheep didn't want to play and eventually walked away!

Just before we left, Carol took this broody silky out with her 6 chicks. Mom was teaching her chicks how to scratch to find bugs and which plants are the best to eat. What a wonderful morning we had!

To check out Carol's wonderful farm.. www.sycamorespringfarm.org

Why It Takes So Long to Clean a Fleece!

2010-05-09T14:38:00.020-04:00

It was shearing here about a month ago. I finally weighed it all out and this shearing yielded 100 pounds of mohair and 30 pounds of wool. That’s 130 pounds to skirt, scour and dye and dry. The Spring shear is usually the most dirty of the two yearly shearings. This is because the weather is wetter and the animals get muddier. Since they are eating hay, more hay gets in their fleeces. Angora goats cannot be covered like a sheep. Mohair is so fine that it actually starts growing through the cover and ends up felting the animal.

When I first started cleaning fleeces, I was told to fill up a sink with hot water, Dawn detergent and let it sit for a short while. Rinse and repeat. That worked well for a small, relatively clean fleece, but with spring fleeces, a whole other technique is required.

Skirting--First, skirt the fleece. It is best to do that on shearing day. What I mean by skirting is to remove all the unpleasant fleece, the poopy parts, the facial and topknot hair, leg and belly hair can be removed as well. Most of the times, Emily, our great shearer, does this for me. It is always good to check and remove it as soon as possible.

Picking--Next I start picking my fleece. I take one lock at a time and separate out the fibers. This does two things. It allows the crud to fall out of the fleece and it helps the water reach all the separate hairs quickly and evenly during the washing stage. At this time I pick out as much of the hay pieces as I can. Sometimes, a lock is totally felted or just FULL of stuff, so I trash those parts. The good, mostly clean picked fleece is now ready for washing. On this kid fleece I counted about nine hours in the picking stage. The picture above is the picked fleece before it was washed. The picture below is a look at my trash pile for this fleece.

Washing--Now comes the washing. I am constantly revising my technique. But, right now this is what I do. I have a dedicated washing machine in my studio. You can do these same steps in a large black plastic tub on a warm sunny day instead. Black because it will hold in the heat of the sun for a longer time than light colors. I fill my washing machine with the hottest water I have. I add 3 full rotations of Dawn dishwashing soap and about 1/8th cup of Biz powder in the water and stir gently. I lay my picked fiber on top and then use a stick to push it down underneath the water. I let it sit for about 2 hours. It still needs to be warm. It’s important to drain the water while it is still warm so the dirt and oil doesn’t adhere back on the hair. I've had that happen and it is NO FUN! To remove the water I use the spin cycle of the washer. If you don’t have a washer, gently lift your fiber out of the bucket and pour out the water. I usually repeat the soap step twice. If you have a particularly greasy wool fleece, you may want to do it a third time. The last rinse is just water with a glug of white vinegar added. What is a glug? Well it depends on the size of your fleece but the range should be 1-2 tablespoons.

Drying--The last thing is to air dry it. I found these great fleece bags made of window screening. You can find them here at Cranberry Moon. So I fill the bag with the fleece and set it on my skirting table to dry. Actually if you are going to dye your fleece, you don’t have to dry it. Just put it into your dye pot and follow the dyeing instructions.

Here is a clean Flying Goat Farm fleece. It is now ready to be dyed, carded and spun.
Check out our ETSY store http://www.flyinggoatfarm.etsy.com/

Shearing Day

2010-04-03T12:16:00.004-04:00

It's been a long winter. And we had to wait a long time for our great shearer, Emily to come and shear for us. She did come a couple of weeks ago and just get the belly hair off the does who had kidded already. That helped the little ones find their moms' milk. She started yesterday with the 3 sheep then did the unbred does, the bucks and finally the last of the bred does. She also helped us put ear tags in the new kids.

Here is an in the process picture of our bucklings. Otis, the youngest and most friendly was obviously caught first and so he was the first to be shorn. He has such tight heavy fleece that it took Emily twice the time to shear him.

Here she is shearing Mesa. He is our herdsire. He had about 8 or 9 pounds of fleece on him this year. He is responsible for most of the color on the farm....well of course the does have something to do with it too.

Today, everyone is cool and rested. They are out eating green grass and then sitting in the shade. It is a beautiful spring day with cool breezes and beautiful sights and sounds all around the farm.

The Day After

2010-02-09T15:52:00.002-05:00

You can see how deep the snow is. We went out to check the girls, feed them and make sure they were warm and dry. As we were working with them, Sheik came around the corner with a hen on her back. That hen stayed on her for about 30 minutes.

It is snowing again. We are expecting 12-20 inches tonight and through tomorrow. Needless to say, it will be a long time before we melt out....and when it melts it will be incredibly muddy.

Nearly 30 hours of snow

2010-02-06T15:36:00.005-05:00

It finally stopped. It started around 10 am yesterday. It was not a snow day at school, but all the children and teachers anticipated an early dismissal. Each time someone passed in the hallway they would comment about the snow, the dire predictions of 30-40 inches of snow and question whether the superintendent would let the teachers go early...right after the buses left with the children. Well, Dr. Ecker pulled through and let us all go. As I left the parking lot the snow was steady but nothing was sticking to the ground. I had to decide whether I should go to the store or not. I thought I had enough milk but no bread....so I stopped. And it wasn't bad. The shelves were stocked and the lines weren't too long. I got home by 2pm. Bill wasn't far behind me. Again the hype was about how much snow there would be and he anticipated a really bad commute back. In the best of times, it takes him 45 minutes...but with snow, accidents and slush, it would take a lot longer. By the time he got back snow was beginning to stick to the grass and the driveway. We did all the chores, moved the girls all together and tried to move the boys to a bigger shelter. The boys however, weren't having anything to do with moving. I guess they like their little pasture. The do have a shelter, but it is only big enough for them, not them and their hay feeder.

So the snow has only now stopped. It is 3:45pm. That is nearly 30 hours of snow. About an hour ago we measured the depth of the snow and it was 28 inches then. Bill has spent much of the day snow blowing out a path to the barn, chicken house, greenhouse (where the peeps are) and to the boys' pasture. Now he is tackling the driveway. It will be a while before we see the outside world again.

I have the wood burning stove going. I've made homemade bread, split pea soup and 2 qts of yogurt. I've spiffied up the house, done some laundry, cleaned and oiled my spinning wheel, plied some yarn, shibori pleated a scarf and skeined up some yarn to dye.

Guineas in the Trees

2010-02-01T10:20:00.002-05:00

We are once again covered in snow! The forecast was for just a dusting, maybe 1-3 inches. Well we got 5.5 inches. This winter I learned that guineas don't like to get their feet in the snow. They perch in the roofs of the greenhouses or barn. The perch on top of fence posts and today they flew into the fruit trees to roost. The photo is pretty far away, they are the blobs in the tree branches in the center of the shot. If I try to get closer they will take to flight again, and who knows where they will land.

New Chicks today!!

2010-02-01T09:57:00.003-05:00

A new batch of chicks arrived today. I have been hemming and hawing about the number of birds we have, the amount of work and money it takes to produce good, free range eggs and the number of clients we have. It has been either feast or famine, literally. When we have had young layers and lots of eggs we had to beat the bushes for egg consumers. Some months we took dozens and dozens of eggs to the Rescue Mission because we couldn't sell enough eggs. As the chickens have gotten older and the eggs have gotten fewer we did reach a good equilibrium, but then Food Inc. came out. Now I have too many customers and not enough eggs. So we will be rejuvenating our flock. Today is the first installment. We got 10 arucanas, 10 buff orfingtons, 11 black stars and 1 rare chick. Usually the 1 rare chick is a rooster. I can't figure out who the rare chick is yet...they look too similar. We made a nice brooder area in one of our green houses and we have a couple of "sort of" broody hens to see if they will take them on as their own. We'll see. More cute pictures later...this one was taken by my blackberry and it's not very good. I'll be taking down my Nikon a little later.

#5 Girls on the farm ROCK!!

2010-01-02T08:34:00.005-05:00

This one has taken me a while to work out in words. When you live on a farm with many animals and a few different species, it is easy to see that the girls are what makes the farm work. They lay the eggs and bear the young. They are the most vocal and insistent on getting their needs met. The bucks, bulls, roosters, and other males are mostly happy to just be...they go with the flow.

Now when I originally made this list about what I had been learning on the farm, my husband was not happy about this entry. His opinion was that the males are definitely needed on the farm to get the does pregnant and I definitely need my DH to help me carry hay bales and water and give the shots when I can't do it. Of course the males are important, but the females make the farm work.

Now females can be "prickly". My female cats are fine if they are all in separate rooms or on separate sleeping places. But there are times when the youngest one goes after the other two. She clearly wants to be in charge. The hens really do hen-peck the roosters. They will follow him and peck at his feet and his beautiful tail feathers. If they are allowed to continue it, that rooster starts to look really shabby. The does do really well together when there is a lot of grass and a lot of space. But when the grain bowl comes out there is a lot of pushing and shoving. They stop being pack animals and go all out for themselves.

Is this the way of the farm or the way of the world?

Chester and Bill out for an early morning walk

2009-12-19T15:54:00.003-05:00

We got up to the house being blanketed by 6 inches of snow. It has been snowing non-stop now since 10pm last night. Chester just loves the snow. He dances in it. He snuffles in it. He tries to eat it. Even though he is supposed to be "quiet" for the next month and a half after his elbow surgery, we couldn't contain him. Bill went out to the street to see if our paper had been delivered. That is about 1/4 mile each way. Bill bundled up and attached his snow shoes. Chester just got his collar and leash. And off they went. Chester was so happy to be out! It is so beautiful. It is a great day to drink tea and read a book!! But now we have to go out and feed the animals and look for eggs in our snowshoes!!

Nail Polish for a Buck

2009-06-24T07:00:00.001-04:00

Today in my mailbox was an email from Oprah's O Magazine with the headline....."Nail Polish for a Buck". My first thought was confusion as I asked myself why a buck would need nail polish. OK it's early in the morning!! My mind finally got it.....Oh nail polish for a buck ($1).

# 4 - Unless you are constantly vigilant, nature will reclaim its territory.

2009-06-20T13:23:00.005-04:00

I guess that anytime someone gardens they must subsequently weed that garden. On 25 acres that can be a lot of weeding. Of course there is only daily or weekly weeding in the now small garden bins that DH has just completed. But everywhere else noxious weeds pop up and someone has to deal with it.

The first year we were here, we assumed that the large 13 acre field would just grow into a hay field. Well, about 1/3 of that was overgrown with Johnson grass. This is a product brought from Africa somewhere in the 30's. It was brought to the US because it grows fast with minimal nutrition. It was thought that this grass would be a great source of nutrition for cattle and other grazing animals. WELL, it is not. In fact once it is dry the cows won't eat it, it will make them sick. I guess when they found this out, the grass, now weed, was very widespread. It is nearly impossible to kill. In 1 acre there are hundreds or thousands of pounds of rhizomes that spread. In 1 acre, the grass will make hundreds of bushels of seeds as well. So you can see how hard this would be to kill. So our first hay was a total loss. We consulted with the county weed control people and they came out with heavy duty round-up and a multiyear plan. I have to say that our intention has always been to farm organically, but this johnson grass problem is delaying that option. The plan is to rotationally plant the field with complete heavy-duty Round-up sprayed in between. The first year we planted corn. We got a fair amount but it was not abundant. I should also say that the field is nitrogen depleted. Then we planted soybeans. Then we planted winter wheat. The wheat is just now becoming golden. After this harvest we will spray and fertilize and then plant soybeans again. This year, there is very little johnson grass left. It is mostly in the fence line, but the plan seems to be working.

The other noxious weed we have is the vine pictured. It is in our flower beds, in our berry bushes and berry vines, it is everywhere. It is a lot like kudzu. What looks fine today will be totally lost tomorrow under a canopy of leaves and tendrils. So far, we have just pulled and pulled. Because of our committment to keep to organic methods, we will continue to pull and pull. But we need to keep vigilant and never stop!!

#3 - Animals, wild or tame, are ingenious when it comes to getting their fair share.

2009-06-19T11:17:00.002-04:00

It is berry season. Fruit season will begin soon. Birds are everywhere in our orchard. The wild ones are flying in and out, eating bugs and fruit and nesting in the bird houses that we have installed on just about every fence post. As you know from yesterday's post, those birds are getting to my cherries and will probably eat their share of the apples, peaches, pears and plums as they mature. It is our chickens and guineas who are getting their "fair share" of the berries. They eat all the fruit that drops off the shrub or cane. They also eat any berry that is at their eye level. And when those are all gone they jump up and eat berries. Last year we only got the berries that were either on the very top of the blueberry bush or on the raspberry canes. This year the guineas are also using the raspberry rows to lay their clutch of eggs. Right now there are 36 eggs in the nest. It was very well protected by vines (see tomorrow's post), johnson grass and other assorted weeds. Even though we really want these eggs to hatch, the nest will probably be abandoned because we were too close to the nest. Last year the guineas hatched out 14 keets. This year we are still holding out hope as this nest is only one of many in the pastures and orchards. We are also holding out hope for a large berry harvest for the chickens, guineas and our family!!

#2 Fresh picked produce tastes better even if a bird has gotten to it first.

2009-06-18T08:58:00.003-04:00

Let's just say that if you are a germophobe or really picky about how your food looks, you will miss some of the best things in your garden or orchard. Our cherry tree is young and while it blooms profusely, it has only a few cherries. Last year, I harvested cherries that were blemish and peck-hole free. This year, the birds have fastidiously pecked each fruit with one hole. So to enjoy the fruit, you have to eat around the hole. I did it. The cherries were so good. So I did it some more. I enjoyed my cherries, bird pecks and all.

#1 - There is always more to do tomorrow!

2009-06-17T07:37:00.002-04:00

Number 1 on my list probably needs no explanation. I thought I would post our "To-Do" list for this week.

Finish 2 garden bins and get them planted before it is too late
Clean out the chicken nests and re-line with straw
Clean out the barn stalls
Rototill the old garden to keep weeds under control
Spray trees with organically approved spray
Weed around the blueberries and raspberries
Give the CDT boosters to the kids
Finish the 5th goat house....after that only one more to go!
Get feed and re-fill feed bins
Find new tires for the disks
Call the John Deere store to come and fix the hydraulic leak
Split the wood and stack for colder weather
Skirt 13 goat fleeces and 3 wool fleeces
Wash 13 goat fleeces and 3 wool fleeces
Dye fleeces in preparation for fall fiber shows and roving order
Clean the car out of all my teaching stuff

Ok! Who am I kidding??? While I would love to get this all done this week, really it may take a month or more to complete it all and by that time there will be other tasks that will may have priority over those already on the list or they will be added to the end. This week we have vacation time from work, so we have a good chance to get more items off the list. So that's what we'll be doing this week.

To read more about having a farm, read Karen Schlossberg's blog on the subject http://avalonspringsfarm.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-does-job-entail.html

10 things I learned after I bought the farm

2009-06-16T11:03:00.002-04:00

Here are the top 10 things I've learned so far from the farm. I hope to expand on these in the coming days.

1. There's always more to do tomorrow.

2. Fresh picked produce tastes better even if a bird has gotten to it first.

3. Animals, wild or tame, are ingenious when it comes to getting their fair share.

4. Unless you are constantly vigilant, nature will reclaim its territory.

5. Females of all species rock!!

6. We humans have messed way too much with the environment.

7. Poop happens and I have to deal with it.

8. Sometimes the best kept secrets are delightful.

9. Unbridled joy brings more joy in its wake.

10. When you are dead tired, something will happen that lifts you up - a spectacular sunset, a new kid or a tasty berry.

Re-Creation

2009-05-30T17:01:00.005-04:00

When you start living at a place, it takes a while to make it your own. We bought the farm in September 2006, so it has almost been 3 years that we've been here. We've added a garage, paved the driveway, changed a pasture into cropland, planted nearly 200 trees, and reworked the fences and gates. Each summer the garden has been the bane of our existence. When we were first here, it looked highly productive, just out of control because the owners were between 2 large properties. We gave them the benefit of the doubt. There were signs announcing at least 10 different kinds of potatoes, several kinds of squash and there were many different kinds of heirloom tomatoes waiting to be picked. But it was also full of 6 foot tall weeds. It was scary. I couldn't see my feet, were there snakes in there?

The next year, we plowed and hoed and roto-tilled. The next year we still had the 6 foot Amaranths, which were planted as bird food, but which the birds did not eat. We converted the old hoop house into a strawberry patch that yielded tasty strawberries and a plethora of hearty weeds despite the use of black weed cloth. And all of the wonderful peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, arugula and lettuces became over run by the weeds, no matter how diligent we were in the evenings after work or on the weekends.

So this year the plan was to slowly and deliberately fill the garden space with raised beds, do away with the hoop house and mow down the out of control weeds. That thought lasted through the month of May. We made some raised beds and planted lettuces. Well, what the chickens haven't eaten have been overtaken by weeds. So we now have a new plan..... (what you see below is about half of the garden)

The new plan is to abandon the existing...out of control garden....and make a new one that is closer to the house. This one will not be weed free.....but it will have a better start.....we hope!!
So we are moving the new bins out into the lawn (remember our "lawn is about 3 acres). We are starting it as a "lasagne" garden...with old feed bags at the bottom to stop weeds from growing through, then a layer of rocks for drainage, then a layer of top soil and compost from our various piles of dirt around the farm.

So we are ever hopeful. The residents of this first bin will be the tomatoes and cucumbers that are nearly outgrowing their small pots in the greenhouse. There will be another bin that will be the new home of the strawberry plants. And a final bin, at least for this growing season for squashes and other colder weather vegetables. There will be enough room in between for our tractor/mower to go through.

In the coming seasons, we will expand this garden area as we need to. The old garden will become the footprint for a new barn in the next few years. In the meantime it will be regularly mowed, plowed and rototilled to keep it from exploding with weed seeds.

Slowly and delibrately, we are changing the function and look of this farm. We have imprinted it with flowers, trees, chickens, goats, and guineas. We've reduced the level of noxious invasive weeds. It is becoming our own.

Early Morning Roosters

2009-05-24T10:01:00.005-04:00

We have 2 roosters. One, the largest was born here on the farm from a Speckled Sussex rooster and an Arucana hen. He is irridescent. He is reddish brown with blue-black-green tail feathers. He has lost one syllable of his crow. He is very protective of his hens. One wonderful thing about him is that he leads his girls to the food he finds with soft cooing. He never eats what he finds until all the girls have had their fill. The other rooster is much smaller. He came in our last order from McMurray's Hatchery as the "one rare chick". He is black and white with a very complex comb on top of his head. Each of his white tail feathers has a black dot at the end. He has achieved the full four syllable crow.

As roosters mature their crow grows from one syllable to the full cock-a-doodle. There is no doo. At least my rooster have never doo'ed at the end. Another myth is that rooster crow in the morning to greet the sun. No!! They crow all day and a lot of the night. They crow in response to other roosters in the area...one crows and the other answers. They crow when they want to get the attention of the girls as well. Our roosters are quiet from sundown until about 2:30 am. Then they begin their vocalizations for the day.

This morning, I walked out to the mail box down our country lane. It's about a quarter mile, through a forest and along our neighbors' orchards and pastures. Because we are back so far, I never realized that their are two other roosters in the neighborhood. They are on two different farms which are about a quarter to half mile away from each other. They were talking back and forth. Because they were far from me, the sound was melodious, nostalgic almost. So different than the crowing that punctuates my day here close at hand.

First Butterfly

2009-04-19T13:34:00.002-04:00

Today I saw the first butterflies. They were flitting around drinking the dandelion nectar. Butterflies, bees, birds all making their presence known this fine spring day. Every living thing is unfolding from their winter bondage, spreading wings, dreaming of nectar, sun and dizzying smells of spring, cut grass, cherry blossoms, new born goat sweetness.

Easter Holidays with the Checks

2009-04-10T14:47:00.008-04:00

I married into a Slovak family. My father-in-law whom I call Pop, though no one else does, still speaks many of the words of his ancestors’ language. I believe that most of the words he speaks are holiday greetings and, of course, food words. My mother-in-law is Pennsylvania Dutch, but when she married she converted to Catholicism and the Slovak holiday traditions. Her in-laws taught her the family recipes and she is continuing to hand them down to her children and grandchildren. Easter is the main holiday with Christmas being a close second. At Easter there are candies to be made, a nut roll to be rolled, an egg roll (not to be confused with the Chinese kind) to be hung, a ham to be bought, beets and horseradish to be mixed and a paska to be baked. All of the foods for the family are packed into a basket and taken to the church to be blessed. To hear my mother-in-law tell it, each family was very proud of their basket and the women vied for an unofficial, unspoken championship over the quality and quantity of food in their baskets.
Paska is one of the traditions upon which the championship is based. I’m sure of that fact because my mother-in-law makes practice batches a week ahead of time in order to perfect her technique. At the beginning of our courtship, Bill’s mother sent the paska each year. It is a sweet bread that is made with two kinds of bread dough. The inner dough is cheese, butter, egg yolk and raisin enriched while the outer layer is a plain white bread. It is usually baked in a round. It is best when it is sliced, toasted and slathered with butter.
After we were married, I decided to try to make the bread….how hard could it be right? I made the cheese dough first. I followed the recipe exactly except for the only change that the family had taken which was to add more raisins. Instead of the original ½ cup of golden raisins, Bill’s mother usually doubled that amount. Because it is so rich it takes a long time to rise. In fact it took so long that the yeast in the white dough was almost tuckered out by the time I rolled and formed the loaves. I continued to make the traditional bread for about 2 years. Each year, my loaves improved in quality and I got better at forming the loaves.
After that initial 2 years I started to improvise in my usual way with food. My first change was to use the frozen bread dough for the outer layer. What with working full time, eliminating one homemade dough cuts the work in half. This also allowed for the doughs to reach optimal rise at about the same time. The next change had to do with the raisins. Even with one cup of golden raisins the bread could use more. So I put the one-cup of golden raisins in the sweet dough and a handful of dark raisins in the white dough. Even with these changes I felt that the dough really needed some orange zest. I met a lot of resistance on that point with my husband. I researched paska recipes in every Slovak and Eastern European cookbook I could find. Lo and behold, there was a recipe in a very old cookbook that had orange and lemon zest in it. I had my proof and got out my grater. In my opinion, my paska is now perfect. It is sweet, it is fragrant, it is homemade and it is Slovak.
The last tradition that I had to break was the tradition that paska is only made and eaten at Easter. I like to make my paska at least 3 times a year. Each time I make 3 to 6 loaves and freeze the extra. We can have this wonderful bread all year. When I made a batch and sent a loaf to Bill’s parents, I heard that they ate it in 2 sittings and there were no complaints. They also didn’t mention the orange flavor or the dark raisins. Even though I married into this tradition, I think that I have gotten the competitive flavor of this holiday and it’s traditional treats. Let’s see, where did I put my basket?

Winter

2009-01-29T06:50:00.003-05:00

With snow on the ground, it seems like the life of a farmer should be slow. We are pictured sitting in front of the wood-burning stove with seed catalogs and garden plans. When you have animals, winter is still busy. The animals need water that isn’t frozen. There is little forage in the pastures, so we must be out giving the herd hay and grain. If the winter is wet, we have to pay closer attention to the conditions of each animal’s hooves. The hooves need to be trimmed. This is especially important if the animals are pregnant, so they have sure footing on the snow and ice. Our does are bred and we will be expecting kidding to happen in March and April. In the meantime, we will be putting together our kidding kits with toweling, iodine, milk replacer and many other emergency items. The birthing stalls need to be mucked out and disinfected as the kidding dates approach.
On the fiber side, this is the perfect season to be skirting, washing and dyeing our fleeces from the year. This can be done in the warmth of the house. In fact, I have been using my wood stove as the heat source for my dyeing. One caveat, always tell your family what you are doing so they don’t inadvertently add more wood to the fire and singe the fiber. We have been working on new color ways for our roving and yarns. I have been inspired by the sunset and the tropical ocean. Look at my etsy store for some of these yummy colors! http://www.flyinggoatfarm.etsy.com/

What is it about 3am?

2008-12-30T09:36:00.002-05:00

Why is it that I wake up each night at 3am? or 3:14 or 3:29? Is that time somehow meaningful? Are my thoughts and worries louder at that time of night? Is it the rooster who is crowing? Or the cats that take up too much space on the bed? Is it the heat or the coolness of the bedroom? Is it my husband's snoring?

I wish I could use that time of wakefulness. I could make a shopping list. I could design a new quilt. I could knit some socks. I could come up with the best way to deal with an especially difficult person. I could bake bread. I could spin a skein of yarn. I could read a book. I could write a blog post.

But I stay in bed, tossing and turning, trying to turn off my mind. Ever mindful that I only have a few more precious moments of sleep before I have to be ready to start my new day. Slowly, my mind relaxes and I drift back to sleep.

What is it about 3am?

2008-11-01T16:21:00.001-04:00

My new goat friend, Karen suggested that we try selling our fiber at a fiber show that was not too far away. She was told that it was a “low key” show and good for newbies to get their feet wet. We decided to do it in the middle of August. October 25th seemed a long way off. Several weekends, Karen and I got together to dye fiber and scarves, to make some fiber cat toys and to do a mock set-up of our booth to see what else we would need. As the date approached, my to-do list got longer and longer. I imagined ways to present our fiber, textiles and yarn, the cat toys, the soap and the photo cards. I also needed to make business cards, receipt and bag stickers, signs and price tags for each item. I plugged away getting all that I could done before the big day.

That Saturday morning, we left at 7:30am, drove the hour to the show and then worked for nearly 2 hours to put the booth together and to display our items. We were still puttering around as the first customers came in, but the weather was bad, really bad and so we had periods of time when there weren’t any customers. During that time we could perfect our booth, talk to other vendors and spin. Karen spun for the first time that day. Whether it was the weather or the items we had, we sold very little that day. It was depressing to think about all the work we had put into the show without a lot of positive feedback.

On Sunday, the weather changed for the better. And the customers started to come in. We had many people who looked and felt our fibers, mohair, cashmere, alpaca, llama and silk. We had several people who bought from 1 ounce to 3 pounds. While we didn’t sell out by any means, we did learn a lot and we made more money than the entry fee. Don’t ask me about my hourly wage!!

What I learned:
There are more knitters than spinners
Be friendly to everyone…it makes the day go faster when you are talking to people
Everyone loves a compliment…on their handiwork or their purchase choices
There are more people who are looking for color than those looking for naturally colored fibers….dye, dye, dye

It's summer and boy is it hot!!

2008-06-08T15:47:00.002-04:00

We have 4 new kids on the farm, 3 bucklings and 1 doe. Two are white, one is lightly red and the doe is a beautiful caramel color. The kids are able to squeeze through the gates and they go out to play with the chickens, investigate the barn and to worry their mothers.

This week the weather turned hot. We have the hay cut and baled in the fields, but we didn't bring it all in yet. Everyone on the farm is panting from the record heat. The chickens are holding their wings away from their bodies and hanging out in the shade. The goats spent most of the day near the barn with its water and shade. But as the shadows get longer, they are moving to the pasture to get their fill of grass seed heads. The cats are alternating between laying on the warm porch and moving indoors to cool off. We are like the cats. Going out to work for short periods to do only the most important jobs then coming in to cool down. Mid-atlantic summer is upon us.

Starting

2008-03-24T18:01:00.000-04:00

Spring is starting slowly here. The days are longer, but the air is still chilled and flurries of sleet and snow are still threatening. The does are anxious. They are hungry and feeling quite heavy. They are awaiting the births of their kids. Crocuses are up and blooming purple and white. The witchhazel has bright yellow fringe. The birds are building nests in the birdhouses and in nooks and crannies around the farm. They fill the air with a cacophony of sound.

Notes from Flying Goat Farm

New Blog!

Interning: What we learned

Kid Fleece Ribbons and 2nd place Marmalade

New Mirrix Tapestry Loom

This weekend in pictures

Too Many Tomatoes

Visit to Los Angeles--updated

New Slippers!

Natural Dyed Mohair

Cochineal dyeing

So Many Jars!

More Natural Dye Experiments

Dyeing with Cutch

Madder and Weld

It's Finished

Canning Season

Group G (Weaving Study Group of Potomac Fiber Artist's Guild) Field Trip

Oy Vay

Hay!!

Yesterday in Pictures

HomeSpun Yarn Party Winner!

Goat Flying over the Barn

Slide show for new barn

foundation complete

Kids Galore!!

The New Barn is Coming!!

Whole New Generation

This Morning on the Farm

Drum Roll Please!!

Local Vanilla

**Sweater update**

New sweater is emerging!!

The Chicks Have Arrived**Updated**

Seed Starting in January

More Snow Days

New Chick housing

Free Form Kniting

Planning a sweater

Meyer Lemon Curd

Dogs in Snow

What will this new year bring?

Holiday Cookies!!

Pruning Class

Queen of Unfinished Projects

Give Away Winner!

Walk in Autumn

Finishing the Pickles!!

Pickles Galore!!

New Puppy Gus!!

TA DA!!

progress on treasure bag

Pullet Eggs!

Hands-On Fecal Class

New Direction in Weaving

Our new lambs!

New Puppies!!

Eating locally...really locally!

Visit to Sycamore Spring Farm

Why It Takes So Long to Clean a Fleece!

Shearing Day

The Day After

Nearly 30 hours of snow

Guineas in the Trees

New Chicks today!!

#5 Girls on the farm ROCK!!

Chester and Bill out for an early morning walk

Nail Polish for a Buck

# 4 - Unless you are constantly vigilant, nature will reclaim its territory.

#3 - Animals, wild or tame, are ingenious when it comes to getting their fair share.

#2 Fresh picked produce tastes better even if a bird has gotten to it first.

#1 - There is always more to do tomorrow!

10 things I learned after I bought the farm

Re-Creation

Early Morning Roosters

First Butterfly

Easter Holidays with the Checks

Winter

What is it about 3am?

It's summer and boy is it hot!!

Sweater update

The Chicks Have ArrivedUpdated