Farm Update 6/12

I know I say this at the beginning of just about every update but what a crazy week it has been! 

Patrick and I did our first Farmer's Market on Saturday and it was a blast. We sold some yarn, talked to lots of people about the flock and even got to meet a shareholder. It was just lovely!

 I am really bummed that I will be missing the market this Saturday, but when I left my full-time job, I agreed to stay on temporarily part-time to help out with an event called the Martha's Vineyard Lighthouse Challenge. It takes place over the weekend and I will be so happy when it's over. I've only been spending about 15 hours a week on preparing for it but it has taken up more of my head space than that, if you know what I mean. 

You know that expression "Make hay while the sun shines"? Well on the Vineyard the sun shines from mid-June through September. Most people on the Island make the majority of their annual income during the summer season and everyone is crazy-busy right now. I would like to find someone to help out with the farmer's markets and with shipping the online orders but the job market is really tight right now and even high school kids are making big money this summer. 

On Sunday we moved the mamas and their kids out of the kidding barn just ahead of the heat wave. First we had to move all the rams and bucks to our new farm, Tisbury Meadows. It is a beautiful piece of property and we are so lucky to be able to lease it.

Squall. (The dark stuff on his back is delouser.) Isn't he beautiful? I have such a crush on him!

Buster sampling the flowers.

Martin seemed to like them as well.

The boys.

We had intended to rotationally graze the flock at Tisbury Meadows but after taking a good look at the pasture we have decided that with only 18 animals on 5 acres it is unnecessary. We practice rotational grazing at Felix Neck because it helps improve the pastures and keep parasites down in the flock. Basically, in requires us to move the animals daily to fresh pasture. 

If you are interested in learning more about rotational grazing, I highly recommend Joel Salatin's Salad Bar Beef. Salatin is really responsible for bringing rotational grazing back to American agriculture and we have read everything he's ever written. Polyface Farm, Salatin's farm in Virginia,  has become a mecca for young farmers and Patrick and I are hoping to go down for a visit in July.

Anyway, after we got the boys settled at Tisbury Meadows we moved the babies and mamas over to Felix Neck. It was so exciting to see them out on pasture for the first time! We wormed and deloused them all before moving them, so they look like dirty little things, but they are still adorable.

Bay Leaf and Cumin, my bottle babies.

They are great for my self-esteem because they are always so happy to see me.

I was looking around tonight went I went to feed and I suddenly realized that we had a whole lot of babies this year. 

Ike and Truman are actually younger than our youngest Angora kids but lambs seem to grow up much faster than kids.

Truman is already eating sticks!

Truman follows Ike everywhere.

Ike is positively gigantic.

There is a lot of gamboling going on.

Fettucini and Biscotti look so happy together.

The nanny goats were so happy to get out of the kidding barn and on to the pasture.

In other news, we finally selected a mill to process the Spring '08 fiber. It was much more difficult that I thought it would be and I really appreciate your patience. After bringing the fiber back up from the Hudson Valley and bringing it over on the ferry I boxed it all  up and called around trying to find someone to take it to the mill.


Patrick and I had planned to drive it up, but it took so long to pick a mill that neither of us can take two days off to drive it up right now. But never fear- UPS LTL freight came to the rescue. LTL stands for "less than a truck load." Basically, they are the people you call when you have 400 pounds of wool and mohair to ship across the Canadian border. 

The mill gave me an estimate of 5 to 10 weeks, but I am begging them to put a rush on it. I will keep you all informed, I promise. 

I am getting lots and lots of emails about coming to visit the farm. You are all welcome to visit anytime. I am going to be posting a schedule on the blog and on our farm website tomorrow so you'll know when the farm store is open. If you'd like to see the babies at Felix Neck on your own, the property is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily and there is a $4 admittance fee. All of this money goes to support Felix Neck, an Audabon Animal Sanctuary. Just check in at the visitor's center and the staff will show you where the animals are grazing. 

You can also find me and our yarn at the West Tisbury Farmer's Market every Wednesday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

Woolies asked me if I could post some pics of my antique toy barn collection. Here are a couple of them. Warning: I am not a serious collector. What I mean is, I love the way the toy barns look and I like putting animals in them, but I don't do research to find out which animals would have come with which barn. In fact, I mix and match.

I love the angora goat in this shot.

I bought this very primitive handmade barn on ebay. All of the animals that came with it were handmade as well. The thing is, the guy who I bought it from said it was his father's and that his grandfather made it. How could anybody ever part with something like that?  I bought it because I could bear to think about it just being thrown away. And I didn't pay much for it at all.
The animals really knock me out. The scale is crazy- the cows are giant but the horse is the same size as the dog.

Mydogpetey asked me about the Osprey pictures on my flickr page. There are a pair of Osprey with a nest at Felix Neck. These shots are of the male. Osprey live on a diet of fish and when I took these picture the female was still sitting on her eggs. (You can see the nest in the background.) They hatched a couple of weeks ago.

I keep hearing on the radio that the highest gas prices in the country are in Stockton California. They are paying $4.30 something a gallon. Apparently Martha's Vineyard isn't part of America. EDITED TO ADD: I am kind of bitter about high gas prices but I didn't mean to sound quite so...um...bitter. 

And now...[drum roll here] for this week's giveaway. The Manos giveaway was a big hit last week so we are doing it again. This week I am giving away 6 balls of Plymouth Yarn Brushed Baby Alpaca. Each ball is 50 grams/110 yards and the color is a lovely light blue.

All you have to do to be entered in the giveaway is leave a comment on this blog post telling me what you would knit up with this yarn. Simple as that. I will be selecting the winner at random on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. So get to commenting! And tell your friends. As always, you don't have to be a shareholder to win.

My next post will be an FAQ, so shoot any burning questions to me at susangibbs1 at mac dot com.