The Great Susonnni Will Reveal All...

It seems like I just did an FAQ but Erin and I are getting many emails asking the same questions over and over again,which means that lots of you are unclear on the same things and this seems like the best place to bring everybody up to speed.

1. Where's my yarn/roving/fleece? I bought a Fall Share...why didn't I get my yarn in the fall?

If you have a Fall 2008 share what you own is a share of the fall 2008 Shearing. The "fall 2008" is referring to the shearing date, not the delivery date of the yarn.

We did the Fall 2008 shearing on October 25th. After the fleece is sheared we deliver it to the mill to be processed. At that point, the control I have over when we will get our washed fleece/roving/yarn back ends. That's really, really hard for a control freak like me. So I spend a lot of time choosing a mill to process each shearing and turn-around time is a HUGE factor in which mill I choose. The mill we are using now had an estimated turnaround of 12 weeks when we dropped our fiber off. 

That does not mean that the mill went right to work on our fiber. There were people in line ahead of us, and the truth is that no matter where you take your fiber, the majority of the time at the mill the fleeces are sitting patiently awaiting their turn. When last I spoke with the mill, they had gotten behind during the holidays and said they would give me a new ETA sometime next week. Personally, I want them to do the job well, rather than quickly. Once the fleece is processed there is no turning back, you know?

As soon as I know more about when to expect the yarn I will post it here. Promise. Cross my heart and hope to die. We know your anxious- we're anxious too! Just believe that we want you to have your yarn as much as you want you to have your yarn, okay?

2. What did you decide to name the church/yarn shop?

Unfortunately, we have had to put the yarn church project on hold due to the fact that we can't get anyone to install heat until the spring. We purchased three wood stove waaaaay back in September and spent more than three months trying to first get on the an installer's schedule, then waiting for one to show up for an appointment. One guy stood us up five times. Five flippin' times. The next company we engaged gave us an estimate 200% higher than Mr. No Show and couldn't do the work until February anyway. At which point I gave up, curled into a ball under the covers and started hitting the bourbon. 

The thing is, with everything else we have going on right now- the book, the new website, the Hudson Valley CSA, the new ewes-  it felt a bit like we were trying to force the yarn shop too quickly and against too long of odds. We will revisit the idea in the late summer for opening next fall. In the meantime we have turned our heated, glassed-in porch into a smallish shop and you are more than welcome to by and fondle the yarn when you're in town.

As for the name, there are one or two I am trying to decide between. But I haven't decided just yet.

3. Will you be moving back to Martha's Vineyard?

Of course! We have a our spring shearing schedule for April 18th and we are lonesome for the Island. We still have a lease on Tisbury Meadows, our Vineyard Haven farm, but are looking for more grazing land. If we can't manage to work out all the details, we will be moving a smaller number of animals back, but I don't think it will come to that.

4. When are the Spring Shearings?

The Martha's Vineyard Shearing will be held in conjunction with the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Fest like last year on April 18th. The Hudson Valley Shearing Day Celebration will be held on May 9th. Anyone can come to either or both. Yes you can bring your family, your friends, your knitting group, a blind date, small children, large children, you guru, your hypnotherapist and your facialist. Only dogs and rodeo clowns are unwelcome. Don't get me started on rodeo clowns...

5. When is the new website going to be up? Where's our lambcam? 

So glad you asked. The new website is schedule to be up on January 15th with a new online shop, your favorite blog and a reader's photo gallery. And that's it. 

Just kidding! The lambcam (or "lambcamb" as Rebecca Blood's husband brilliantly named it) will be up and running too. If this stupid storm that is beating the crap out of the Northeast lets up, that is. We were supposed to be setting the cameras up today (and worming the nanny goats, and picking up hay, and getting the oil changed, and, and, and...) but the falling snow made that impossible. Hopefully we will be able to get it all set up before I leave on Tuesday.

We are also going to be doing some spectacular giveaways to celebrate the new site launch so be sure and visit everyday and comment for your chance to win.

Very FAQs

Okay, some of these AQs are not so very F, but some are very, very so I figured it might be helpful to answer them here. 

1. Where my yarn at?

We get many, many emails every day from anxious shareholders who can't wait to get their hands on their dividends. Believe me when I say we hear you! I know it seems like forever ago that you bought your share and how long does it take to grow and process some yarn anyway? And isn't this a Fall Share so shouldn't I have gotten my yarn in the fall?

Here's how the CSA works. You buy a share in a shearing- let's use Fall 08 as the example here. That means you have a share in the fiber that comes off the animals at the Fall '08 shearing. This year, due to icky weather, we were forced to shear a whole month later than I like to, but it couldn't be helped.

So all the angora goats were sheared on October 25th. Shortly afterwards we took bags and bags (and bags) of mohair fleeces to the mill for processing. The mill estimated a turnaround time of 10-12 weeks, but that was just an estimate, and they do not guarantee delivery dates. Many, many mills are on a 6 month turnaround right now so 10 to 12 weeks is great really.

As soon as the yarn and roving are ready, we pick it up from the mill and we begin the hellish process of shipping. (Several of you lovelies who live nearby have offered to help with the shipping and I hope you know I will be taking you up on it!) It will take at least a week, maybe two to get all the boxes shipped out. 

Then you get your box in the mail, exclaim with delight and spend the next week boring everyone you know to death  showing them the yarn from your sheep. 

Knit and repeat.

I will communicate with you here about the status of your goodies. With the last clip I was on the phone with the mill at least once a week and posted here when the fiber is being washed, being carded, being spun, etc.

I hope that clears it up and I apologize if the process was unclear to any of you. It's my job to make this an enjoyable experience for you and I hate that anybody may have been worried or put out.

2. How much yarn will I get in a share?

We don't know. We really, really don't know. It depends on the amount of fiber the animals shear (varies with the weather, animal health), the number of animals in the heard (number of lambs born, animals lost to illness, etc.) 

You should know that we want you to get as much yarn as possible. An unbelievable number of our shareholders re-up with every offering- something that I am more proud of than just about anything I've ever done.  

3. When will we see the lambcam? 

Soon. Very soon.  We are waiting for the new website to launch and as soon as it's up it will be 24/7 cuteness for your viewing pleasure.

4. What can a non-knitter do to support the farm?

I can't tell you how many emails I get everyday from people who want to be part of what we are doing but have no interest in receiving yarn. It is an amazingly flattering thing to hear but I didn't really have an answer for them until I gave my speech at M.I.T. (see, now that it's over , it was a Speech. And did I mention that it was at M.I.T.?)

After the Speech (at M.I.T.) a share holder named Maria and her husband came over to talk to me and Mr. Maria- sorry, I don't remember his name- suggested that non-knitters would like to support the farm as well. "Maybe they could sponsor a bale of hay and become members of the farm?" At the time I thought Mr. Maria was over-estimating the extent to which people like us, but then I started getting more and more emails asking how they can get involved.

Turns out, Mr. Maria is a genius. Seriously. They should ask him to give a Speech at M.I.T.

We are now offering memberships in the farm for anyone who would like to help out with the (crippling) cost of hay over the winter. Members will be invited to all shareholder events and be welcome to visit the farm on weekends in the winter and anytime in the Spring, Summer and Fall.  Anyone who sponsors 10 or more bales will also receive a Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm 2009 calendar. (Which we wouldn't be able to do if we didn't have so many extra calendars, Patrick.)

I will do a separate post on how to sponsor a bale later today.

5. Can shareholders in the Martha's Vineyard farm visit the Hudson Valley farm and vice versa?

Absolutely. Visit the farm you are closest to or come to both. We'd be hurt if you didn't drop by.

FAQs. Well at least AQs.

I get lots and lots of questions via email and in the comments on blog posting so I thought I would answer some of them today. 

Why do the lambs have long tails and the adult sheep have short tails?

It will come as no surprise to long-time readers of the blog that this question came from the ever-observant Sedress. Most sheep farmers dock their lambs tails much the same way that some breeds of dogs tails are docked. We purchased most of our sheep after their tails had been docked. We have chosen not to dock our lambs tails for a couple of reasons.

When we purchased Lincoln as a day-old bottle baby we really weren't looking to buy a lamb. We were at a friends farm to pick up an angora goat bottle baby and Lincoln was in the same playpen looking cute, so we took him too. His tail had already been docked, and I don't know if it had been cut to short or what, but it got terribly infected and was sort of always covered with poop. He survived and is fine, but it was a pretty harrowing experience. So there's that.

We also lamb much later than most farms in the Northeast. By the time our lambs are born the flies have already hatched. Any open wounds, which is what is left when a tail is docked, is vulnerable to fly strike. Now, some shepherds will tell you that long tails can lead to a build up of manure which can also lead to fly strike. And that's true. But an open would is about a million times more likely to be a target. We keep a close eye on the lambs backsides so that manure doesn't have a chance to build up and it has never ever happened. 

On balance, I think our approach is the right one for us.

What deciding factors go into choosing a mill for your fiber?

This one is from Jen at The Sachem Farmhouse, a B&B I would like to visit someday.

Choosing a mill is so difficult! Basically, I am looking for a mill with a reputation for doing good work that can handle the kind of volume we have AND offer customer service that isn't terrible. It doesn't have to be great customer service, just a step above appalling is fine. The quality of the end product matters to me infinitely more.

By the time we send fiber to the mill we have invested tens of thousands of dollars in growing it, not to mention thousands of hours. Turning it over to someone else is a huge leap of faith. I have heard horror stories about fleeces being destroyed by processing, or shorted (not all the fiber given to the mill is returned). In one case that I know of a mill went into bankruptcy while they had hundreds of a friend's fleeces. She actually had to pay to have her fleeces shipped back to her in the exact same state she had shipped them in!

I can't wait to get the Spring 08 fiber back from the new mill that we are using. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial relationship.

What kind of dogs do you have and what do they do?

This is probably the question I get asked the most. Our dogs are an Italian breed called Maremma. They are a livestock guardian breed- they do not herd, although Cini thinks he can sometimes. 

All three of our dogs were born on working sheep farms and instinctively understand that guarding the flock is their job. There is very little training involved with them as far as guarding goes, but all dogs go through their annoying teen years when they have an excess of energy and are super-playful. This requires a bit of reminding that they are not allowed to chase, chew on, harass or otherwise vex the sheep and goats.

We have three Maremma:

Biscotti, (or Biscuit) is our oldest dog. She was six weeks old when she came to live on our farm.

Biscotti at three months old. I HATE this picture of me, but B looks so darn cute I'm posting it anyway.

This was taken last week.

I love this picture of B with her puppies.

She is very lighthearted and playful. She weighs about 70 pounds give or take and is on the small side for the breed.

Fettucini is our male. He is a constant worrier and is never off-duty. Cini eyes farm visitors warily, although he usually wags his tail at the same time. He weighs about 110 pounds.

Cini as a puppy with Logan, Patrick's younger son.

Cini giving Buster and Cosmo some love.

Harry and Logan think this picture of Cini is the funniest thing ever.

Sabine is Biscotti and Fettucini's pup. It's too early to know what kind of guard Sabine will be but she and Cini are best best friends.

We had one litter of three puppies before having Biscuit spayed. The puppies were born in a whelping box lined with sheep fleece so they would be aware of the sheep even before their eyes and ears opened.  Having puppies was awesome and I totally understand how it can be kind of addictive. Having said that though, I am really concerned about pet overpopulation. 

Although this breed is very affectionate and loving they are not house pets. I think I should repeat that. These dogs make terrible house pets! They are working dogs and are very uncomfortable anytime they are away from their flock. Believe it or not, although this breed has only been in the U.S. for around 20 years, there are Maremma rescues. I recently heard of a rescue receiving a Maremma from a family that bought it as a puppy in a pet store in the mall. 

What kind of camera do you use? 

I have a mad crush on my camera, a Nikon D40. It is hands down the best camera I've ever owned. It's super-intuitive, lighting fast (which really matters when you are taking pictures of animals that are forever moving) and an affordable (around $450) introduction to a digital SLR. 

I have two lens. I bought my camera body in a kit with the 18-55 lens. It's fine if you can get up close to your subject but there are times when I want the capture the animals without their reacting to what I'm doing. For those times I use my 55-200 lens. You can purchase one lens that goes from 18-200 but it is absurdly expensive. It would be nice not to have to change lens all the time, but not $1000 nice.

The D40 takes great photos. Of course, I am now coveting the D80 or even the D300. 

Do you use Photoshop on your photos?

No. I am considering getting Photoshop Elements, a truncated version of the full program that should be able to do everything I could need it to. For me, it's really a time issue, cause I have know idea when I am going to learn how to use it.

Is your fiber organic?

Nope. Unfortunately one of the realities of raising Angora goats is that they get lice. Not the kind of lice that runs rampant in elementary schools. It's a species specific parasite that doesn't even affect the sheep. Left untreated, the lice will drive the poor animals crazy with the itching. When the goats scratch at it with their horns and hooves their fleeces are ruined. 

We use a nasty petroleum-based chemical to treat the lice, which is why the goats look so dirty as their fleeces grow in. Patrick is really wary of using toxic chemicals and dons a plastic bubble before we delouse. I am much more casual about the whole thing and Patrick assures me that I am going to pay for my nonchalance with liver cancer 30 years from now. 

We have just started experimenting with a new herbal dewormer that we hope will help with the lice problem as well. If it works by smelling god-awful it should be mighty effective. 

Got any questions you'd like answered? Email me at susangibbs1 at mac dot com. Also, if you purchased your share through etsy you might want to know that they are changing their feedback policy. As of July 1st, you won't be able to leave feedback for anything you bought more than 90 days ago. So, if you want to leave feedback for you purchase now is the time. 

Now, for this week's giveaway

I have no recollection of buying this beautiful yarn but I do remember thinking I would use it to make a baby blanket with lots of tiny squares.  The yarn is 100% alpaca, 50 grams/130 yards.  There are four colors so I will be choosing four winners. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post that includes your name. Anonymous comments won't be considered cause I won't be able to get in touch with you to tell you you've won. You don't have to register with blogger, just include some kind of identifier in the body of your comment. And just for fun, tell us what's on your needles right now.

I will be choosing the winners at random on Tuesday, June 24 at 7 p.m. Check back here to find out if you won. You don't have to be a shareholder to win. 

If you are not a shareholder and would like to receive notification when I put up a new blog post of giveaway shoot me an email at susangibbs1 at mac dot com. Your email address will never be used for any kind of solicitation, nor will it be sold, lent, given or in any way transferred to anyone else. I hate spam too. :)

Frequently Asked Questions and Stuff

I love getting your emails. LOVELOVELOVE it. And y'all ask some great questions! So great that I think I should share them with everybody else. So here goes, in no particular order.

How do you do so much?

You know, this is the question I get asked the most and I would love to say that my life works because I am so organized but that would be a total lie. I am forever running out the door without the keys to my truck, my camera, my laptop, etc. 

I don't think I do all that much more than any of you really. Remember, I don't have children yet, so my nights are pretty free. I don't know how I'll manage it when I'm toting a baby on my hip, but we always seem to make it work somehow. I also have Patrick here to help out Monday through Thursday mornings. (He spends every weekend in New York with his kids because he is an awesome dad.)

I get a lot of farm work done on the weekends and in the evening after work (thank you Daylight Savings Time!) Also, I don't have much of a social life. This past Saturday, I spent the entire night skirting fleeces from last fall's shearing while watching Hetty Wainthrope Investigates on DVD. I. Have. No. Life.

How did you learn to do all this farm stuff? Did you grow up on a farm?

Nope. I was a child of the suburbs and knew absolutely nothing about livestock six years ago. My life as we know it today started when I bought a book called Barnyard in Your Backyard at a little bookstore in Carmel, CA. At the time, my (now ex-) husband and I were getting ready to move from L.A. to a brownstone in Harlem, NYC, so owning sheep was absolutely out of the question. But once I get an idea I don't let it go easily. Within a year we bought a 139 acre farm in the Hudson Valley and I had my first flock of four Babydoll Southdowns.  A year after that I was divorced, but that's another story for another day.

Why do you need to be there when the kids are born? What do you have to do?

Unlike lambs and other goat kids, angora goat kids are very, very fragile when they are born. They have lots of hair at birth (not kid mohair- that comes later) and they chill really quickly. Their moms do their best to lick them until they are dry, but in the Northeast, unattended births too often end with dead kids. 

That's why we make such frequent barn checks during kidding. Obviously, short of moving in to the kidding barn 24/7, we can't always be there when a kid is born, but checking often means that a kid will never spend more than a couple hours without our attention.

What I do when a kid is born is try to get them dry as quickly as possible by rubbing him/her vigorously with towels (we are forever washing towels!) and holding them under the heat lamps until they are really warm. I also try to hang around until the kid has taken their first drink from their mom. It can be hard for a newborn to find their mom's udder and even harder to latch on once they do. They can use so much energy trying to find it that they collapse from exhaustion. It's really important for a kid to eat from their mom within a couple of  hours of being born or they may not make it.

If I get there too late and a kid has already become chilled, the most important thing is to warm them up from the inside right away. The fastest way to do this is to submerse them up to the tip of their nose in hot water. In our current kidding barn there is no hot water so this isn't a great option. A kid could easily die while I drive them back to the house for hot water. Another way to warm them is to drop a tube into their stomach and pour their mama's milk in. It's really not as dangerous as it sounds but it's not something I like doing. By the way - the moms really don't appreciate being milked out. 

What kind of medical supplies do you keep on hand?

I try to keep most things I could need around, particularly since we moved to Martha's Vineyard, because the feed stores here don't stock much and mail order can take for-flippin'-ever. Basically I have a couple different injectable antibiotics, Betadine for cuts and dabbing on newborn's umbilical cords, a topical hoof rot medicine, lots of disposable syringes, four plastic drenches- a sort of plastic shot without the needle that you stick in an animals mouth to shoot medicine down their throats, wormer, Pepto Bismol for scours (diarrhea), Pedialyte, a topical antibiotic, an antibiotic ointment for eye infections, a couple of vaccines that we give once a year, a product that helps clear up mastitis (udder infections), screw worm spray, blood stop powder for deep cuts and bloat medication. We also use something called Power Punch that has lots of vitamins and minerals in a molasses base that is great for weak kids or adult animals that have no energy. My friend Liz Thompson owns Smith Bodfish Swift Company (our local feed store with the coolest name) gave me a home remedy she uses for weak animals and it works like a charm! You drench 'em with a mixture of black coffee and molasses.  The caffeine gives them enough get-up-and-go to graze, and once they have some food in them they are on the road to recovery.

I do all the injections of our livestock, because it would cost a fortune to call a vet every time we need to give a shot. Like most things, I learned how to do it from a book.

How can you afford to have a farm on Martha's Vineyard? Isn't it really expensive to live there?

Martha's Vineyard is crazy-stupid-expensive. Gas is $4.00/gallon right now and probably our single biggest expense. I have a Toyota Tundra dual cab truck and it goes through gas like nothing you've ever seen. But everything is expensive here, especially real estate. We own a townhouse that we are trying to sell right now so we can find a house with at least a little land. We don't own enough land for all our animals so we lease land from the Land Bank and have an agreement with Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary to keep animals there. You don't need to own acres and acres of land to have animals; you just have to be creative.

What do you do in your free time?

I read a lot. I also listen to lots of audiobooks while I'm working on the farm and while I'm knitting. But mostly I enjoy being with my animals. Whenever I'm not in a huge hurry, I love to sit down in the pasture and watch the sheep and goats. Before long, the dogs will come over and lay down next to me, followed by Jack and Roquefort (last year's bottle babies) and soon I am surrounded by sheep and goats happily munching on grass and getting their heads rubbed. Some of them seem to enjoy my company as much as I enjoy theirs. 

I am also a big fan of sleeping and try to be in bed no later than 9:30 pm. 

Got any more questions? Email 'em to me at susangibbs1 [at] mac [dot] com