Barn Landscape
Modern Art Mae Mae
Add comment March 11th, 2010
Getting Kind of Crowded Down Here
My favorite new technology is the Cell Phone. It is a convenient tool for calling the house when extra help is needed in the barn and it is a great tool in an emergency, when veterinary advice is necessary. This time of year, Stephen and I don’t go down to the barn without our cell phones; the ewes’ udders are getting bigger and tighter every day and two dairy goats are due next week.
So last night, when Stephen left to do the early evening barn check and a few minutes later the phone rang, I was sure that he was calling about lambs. “It’s getting kind of crowded down here,” he said. “Lambs?” I asked. “Kids.” he replied.
Does. Early. Triplets. Perfect.
Tweedle's Triplets
2 comments March 7th, 2010
First Lamb
Late winter is a fitful time, a time between sleeping and waking — the bed is warm but the air is so cold. The mourning doves’ melancholy dirges resonate with my reluctance to shift into this new season, even as the curtain rises on daffodils pushing up complete with buds ready to open.
The sun is regaining its intensity and strength, climbing a little higher for a little longer every day. You can feel the heat through the cold air and the promise of too much heat later, but that is easy to overlook for now.
The birds and the light and the barn call to me insistently: Ewes will soon be lambing at dawn; Best to be Earlier than Early.
And so it is. Here She is — the end of winter — time to embrace the dawn to dusk schedule which comes, luckily, with lightly perfumed air, cool temperatures, and glorious, wondrous, beautiful babies.
Tawney's Lamb
1 comment March 6th, 2010
‘Rasslin With the Cold
We’ve had a lot of freezing weather here in the sunny Southeast. The wind has been cheerfully gusting along this freezing weather at 15 miles per hour. Not quite as cheerfully, I have invented a new method of unfreezing dye solution and a new method of unfreezing the dye artist.
When you get right down to it, there really isn’t too much to be uncheerful about!
Add comment January 4th, 2010
First Breath of Spring
It has been unfolding in the slowest of slow motions, our Spring. We have had so much cold (for us) weather and so much rain, that the greens are greening almost imperceptibly. I have gotten most intoxicated with all those in-between almost-there colors that I love so much. Browns, greys, soft peaches and pinks, and those most wonderful greens, the washed out ones, the barely greens, the green greys, the green browns, the puffs of green on washed out golds, all those intimations of green, Oh I Love Them, and I have had plenty of time to look!
These are all one-of-a-kinders, and so I have posted them on my Etsy site.
La Grande First Breath of Spring Series
Brushed Mohair First Breath of Spring Series
Superwash Merino Fingering First Breath of Spring Series
Add comment March 30th, 2009
Queen of the Barn
Our regal, half Persian Miss Mellie is Queen of the Barn. Eight years ago, during the last episode of the Kitty Wars, Mellie claimed the barn and all its comforts (the milking parlor, the mangers, and the hay loft) as her supreme territory. She tolerates visits from her son Beorn, even though his indefatigable appetite makes a regular dent in her kitty crunchies. The other three cats are Enemies of the State who regularly assault her territory, but so far she reins supreme. At times, she will confer upon me the privilege of petting her. I always comply and sometimes come away with a mark of her favor.
Thanks to Lynne for the regal photo.
Add comment March 13th, 2009
Bamberino
We have added a new, versatile yarn to our line-up. Bamberino is 60% Merino and 40% Bamboo. Soft and shiny, these mammoth 620 yard skeins are dyed in tonal colorways with subtle contrasts which knit up into quiet and rich color variation. Each skein is one-of-a-kind (and sometimes we have two!)
Below is a swatch that Lynne knit to demonstrate the subtle variation of the tone-on-tone colorways. (This is a gold on gold with a touch of green.) They are quiet, but the color is muted–not muzzled!
A light worsted weight yarn, Bamberino works perfectly for the commercial yarn version of Ripple, as well as for Lynne Vogel’s incredible Undulation Cuffs, Superfluity, Superruffly, Ripple Rose, Star Flower Cuffs, and Folding Triangle Scarf.
Add comment March 12th, 2009
Odyssey Behind Barn Doors
A friend once brought me a poster announcement of a play that she saw when in Toronto. The bill read, “Goat Show: An Odyssey Behind Barn Doors.” I thought that a pithy summation of my life; most of the work that I do originates in one way or another in the barn. And this past week, an odyssey behind barn doors is exactly what we had here. Barn Drama dominated our entire week — cold weather, weak triplets with a sick mother, shearing day, and finally a difficult lamb delivery which ended in an unforeseen happier ending for the smallest triplet.
Lynne Vogel was here for the whole thing; I am going to let her tell you about it. You can read more of Lynne’s wit and wisdom here.
Shearing Day at Three Waters Farm
The first time I walked into the fleece barn at the Black Sheep Gathering and stood in a room full of fresh fleeces I felt something come alive within me, an emotion powerful and ancient. This primal recognition lifted me as on a wave, awakening memories that could only be written in my DNA, memories of foggy moors dotted with sheep, guarded by the watchful eye of a border collie. I can smell the heather, feel the moisture bead up on my shetland sweater. My mind wanders to visions of hearth and tea kettle, a bite of scone, or a heavy crust of handmade bread and crumble of sharp cheddar beside a flaggon of brown ale. Even as I write I feel an upswelling of emotion.
Yesterday was shearing day at Three Waters Farm and I had the good fortune to be there. Mary Ann, Stephen and I watched as the shearer prepared his mat and clippers, put on his felt slippers, dipped a bit of Red Man with the reverence of one taking communion. Then he turned and said, “OK ladies, who’s first. With gentle confidence and manly strength, he caught and positioned a ewe and deftly buzzed away a year of buttery wool. Mary Ann took each fleece as though she was handed a newborn lamb, inspected, trimmed and rolled the beautiful thing into a ball, then into a bag with the ewe’s name. We watched Old Lady, Young Lady, Tawny, and the Inscrutable Romney (that’s her in the photo) lose their locks in a sweep of finery. And my heart filled with bittersweet emotion at the joy of our harvest and the sheeps’ loss of their
protective blankets.
I arrived here Wednesday night for our yearly dye blowout. I love it here.Good company, good food. It’s never boring. Last year there was the goat that hurt it’s leg. We had to hold it to give it injections and it fainted in our arms every time (hey, I can relate). We watched Young Lady getting ready to lamb, but holding off until we finally went to town. I really wanted to see that lamb being born. We watched for three days. Of course, when we finally had to go to town, out popped a little racoon faced black BFL lamb. This year I watched that yearling render his hoggit fleece, soft, black, as we all spoke of chocolate and the caramel foam that graces a cup of well made espresso.
This year Old Lady had given birth to triplets on the second coldest day of the year and things were nip and tuck. The morning after I arrived found me not in the dye studio, but in the barn, cradling a 5 pound ram lamb in the bib of my overalls. And during one of my short trips to the house, Young Lady managed to give birth to another raccoon faced black lamb. Just like that! I came back to the barn and there was a wet, steaming lamb on the ground. Why?
Over the last three days Mary Ann has managed to save the lives of all three with bi hourly bottle feedings and plenty of attention to the mother. Even as we sat at the computer, Mary Ann perused the screen with a tiny ewe lamb looking on from the bib of her overalls, a bottle sticking out of her pocket like a misplaced udder waving in the breeze. Yesterday was magically warm, 70 degrees, and finally everyone looks great despite rough beginnings.
Add comment March 12th, 2009
