Our girls are turning out to be great farm girls. Veggies are finally starting to grow and should start getting ready for market soon! Summer officially arrives on Monday but the appropriate weather is certainly taking it's very sweet time arriving on the Palouse! At the most only a few more weeks of spring fare before we can begin our summer feasting! Hope everyone's gardens are growing well!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Spring into Summer!
I've got mroe pictures posted on our facebook! you can check them out there but if you're not a fan of facebook (geeze, terrible joke!) you can check them out via the following link to the publicly available album.
Friday, June 17, 2011
HannaMae Saved the Lamb
About a month ago, we had a surprise lamb in late May. He came from a yearling ewe that we had previously thought had lost her lamb. Just like her mother, Penny gave no signs of being pregnant and dropped her first lamb with nothing more than the bleat of a baby to announce it's own arrival.
The afternoon that Penny dropped her lamb, Jason moved the sheep, as planned, into a pasture that encompassed a section of the creek running through the farm. We have a small bridge spanning the creek but as the creek is not very wide, it is common for the sheep to simply hop the creek to get where they're going.
Being a first-time mom, Penny had yet to learn what her baby could and could not yet do. While Penny had no problem hopping the creek, her toddling lamb still wasn't quite strong enough and ended up hopping into the creek instead.
HannaMae watched Penny's lamb try to follow it's mother and when she saw the lamb fall into the creek, she ran to her Papa who she knew could save the lamb. After a moment of translating "the lamb is bubbling!" into "the lamb is in the creek!" Jason took off for the creek. He threw himself on the ground and pulled the lamb from the water. a moment of inspection determined the lamb to be fine and he gently tossed the lamb across he creek to his mother.
The lamb had indeed been bubbling, being able to only get his nose above the water about half of his jumps. Being spring the water in the creek easily runs several feet deep and had HannaMae not seen the lamb, he may have very well been lost.
Three cheers for HannaMae! Who still will begin telling you some version of how she saved the lamb whenever she gets the chance!
The afternoon that Penny dropped her lamb, Jason moved the sheep, as planned, into a pasture that encompassed a section of the creek running through the farm. We have a small bridge spanning the creek but as the creek is not very wide, it is common for the sheep to simply hop the creek to get where they're going.
Being a first-time mom, Penny had yet to learn what her baby could and could not yet do. While Penny had no problem hopping the creek, her toddling lamb still wasn't quite strong enough and ended up hopping into the creek instead.
HannaMae watched Penny's lamb try to follow it's mother and when she saw the lamb fall into the creek, she ran to her Papa who she knew could save the lamb. After a moment of translating "the lamb is bubbling!" into "the lamb is in the creek!" Jason took off for the creek. He threw himself on the ground and pulled the lamb from the water. a moment of inspection determined the lamb to be fine and he gently tossed the lamb across he creek to his mother.
The lamb had indeed been bubbling, being able to only get his nose above the water about half of his jumps. Being spring the water in the creek easily runs several feet deep and had HannaMae not seen the lamb, he may have very well been lost.
Three cheers for HannaMae! Who still will begin telling you some version of how she saved the lamb whenever she gets the chance!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Shearing Time!
Last Thursday, we had our sheep sheared! It was quite exciting. Even after having Martin Dibble come for the past three years, I am always still awed by how easily, quickly and efficiently he shears sheep!
Martin has been shearing for about 40 years now, starting when he was about 15. I'm sure he took longer then but each sheep now is sheared in two to three minutes! We asked him what his daily limit of sheep is and he told us that he'll do about 100 per day. Well, we're not that big yet but in a couple of years we might be taking up the better portion of a day for Martin!
After watching our video of him shearing SweetPea, you may start to wonder what we pay him for. Well, Jason and I have both sheared sheep before, using electric sheep shearers though not as nice as Martin's setup, and it took us much closer to an hour for each sheep. and our fleeces came off with way more second cuts and the sheep were a fair amount bloodier than when Martin is done with them. If you ever have the chance to attempt to shear a sheep, you will likely also conclude that Martin is worth his weight in gold!
Getting set up to shear was an interesting task. Our first shearing experience was with some folks who, at the time, had nothing in the way of handling facilities. We had to catch each sheep in the field. With Jacobs being known to be more flighty than more commercialized breeds, this made for interesting times. We learned our lesson then and there but we have to make facilities when we need them now because as yet, we have nothing permanent. With our sheep barn steadily emptying of a decade's worth of storage, we had enough room in the nice dry barn to make a pen where we could squeeze the sheep into a small enough space to catch them easily without anyone getting hurt. Our sheep are still flightier, being Jacob sheep, but I think they are less so than their reputation when we use gates and panels and chutes and proper handling techniques. All of it is worth it in the end for happy sheep and the products they provide us with every year!
This year, we had 24 sheep done. With an average of just over 2.5 lbs of raw wool per animal and selling two fleeces before even getting home, we still have 59 pounds of raw fleece to sell, process and sell. None of this included the lambs. Their wool is not yet long enough to be useful or cause them to overheat as it gets hot in July and August.
After washing, our sheep keep about 80% of that weight, on average, which is a pretty good yield. That will leave us with about 47 pounds of wool. If approximately 20 percent of that weight is lost again in the carding and spinning of the wool (dirt, vegetable matter, short fibers, etc.) we will still have nearly 40 pounds of wool yarn. If it takes, on average depending on the weight and size of them, a pound to make a sweater. Our sheep could make approximately 40 all-wool sweaters! So if 59 pounds of wool didn't seem like a lot before, It sure seems like a huge amount now! As a spinner, I'm looking at my huge pile of wool and thinking "geeze, I'm going to be BUSY this winter!"
If you are a fiber artist of any sort, please let us know if you are interested in purchasing some of our wool in any of it's states between raw and yarn. Batts for spinning and hand-spun yarn will be available on a limited basis as I can make time for working on them. As much as I enjoy the art, I have very little time to work on such items. We should have washed fleeces available after the fourth of July as that will be our washing weekend. If you absolutely must have a whole fleece before then, let us know and we can probably squeeze in a little bit of washing time. Raw fleece is $12 per pound, Washed fleece is $20 per pound. Batts are $4 per 1 ounce batt. 4 ounce skeins of yarn (varying yardage) are $20. Colors will vary between white, black and all the greys in between. If you come to the Pullman Market, you can choose from what is available each week. If you have a particular project in mind, please come talk to Margaret and we will figure out just what you need! (509) 590-8897 or OmacheFarm@gmail.com.
After watching our video of him shearing SweetPea, you may start to wonder what we pay him for. Well, Jason and I have both sheared sheep before, using electric sheep shearers though not as nice as Martin's setup, and it took us much closer to an hour for each sheep. and our fleeces came off with way more second cuts and the sheep were a fair amount bloodier than when Martin is done with them. If you ever have the chance to attempt to shear a sheep, you will likely also conclude that Martin is worth his weight in gold!
Getting set up to shear was an interesting task. Our first shearing experience was with some folks who, at the time, had nothing in the way of handling facilities. We had to catch each sheep in the field. With Jacobs being known to be more flighty than more commercialized breeds, this made for interesting times. We learned our lesson then and there but we have to make facilities when we need them now because as yet, we have nothing permanent. With our sheep barn steadily emptying of a decade's worth of storage, we had enough room in the nice dry barn to make a pen where we could squeeze the sheep into a small enough space to catch them easily without anyone getting hurt. Our sheep are still flightier, being Jacob sheep, but I think they are less so than their reputation when we use gates and panels and chutes and proper handling techniques. All of it is worth it in the end for happy sheep and the products they provide us with every year!
This year, we had 24 sheep done. With an average of just over 2.5 lbs of raw wool per animal and selling two fleeces before even getting home, we still have 59 pounds of raw fleece to sell, process and sell. None of this included the lambs. Their wool is not yet long enough to be useful or cause them to overheat as it gets hot in July and August.
After washing, our sheep keep about 80% of that weight, on average, which is a pretty good yield. That will leave us with about 47 pounds of wool. If approximately 20 percent of that weight is lost again in the carding and spinning of the wool (dirt, vegetable matter, short fibers, etc.) we will still have nearly 40 pounds of wool yarn. If it takes, on average depending on the weight and size of them, a pound to make a sweater. Our sheep could make approximately 40 all-wool sweaters! So if 59 pounds of wool didn't seem like a lot before, It sure seems like a huge amount now! As a spinner, I'm looking at my huge pile of wool and thinking "geeze, I'm going to be BUSY this winter!"
If you are a fiber artist of any sort, please let us know if you are interested in purchasing some of our wool in any of it's states between raw and yarn. Batts for spinning and hand-spun yarn will be available on a limited basis as I can make time for working on them. As much as I enjoy the art, I have very little time to work on such items. We should have washed fleeces available after the fourth of July as that will be our washing weekend. If you absolutely must have a whole fleece before then, let us know and we can probably squeeze in a little bit of washing time. Raw fleece is $12 per pound, Washed fleece is $20 per pound. Batts are $4 per 1 ounce batt. 4 ounce skeins of yarn (varying yardage) are $20. Colors will vary between white, black and all the greys in between. If you come to the Pullman Market, you can choose from what is available each week. If you have a particular project in mind, please come talk to Margaret and we will figure out just what you need! (509) 590-8897 or OmacheFarm@gmail.com.
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