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There is nothing in the world softer than a lamb's muzzle in your hands. Heavenly.

I love this shot! The way they are all looking at the camera reminds me of photos from an office holiday party. 

Delicious, delicious molasses.

Victoria is a very proper sort of lamb. She kind of reminds me of Margaret Thatcher.

Nan is hands-down the sweetest lamb I've ever had. It's hard to get good pictures of her because she wants to be right beside me, nuzzling me all the time.  She is wearing a bit of hay in this pic...

which Victoria finds absurd and wasteful.

"Let me help you out with that. Nom nom nom nom."

We moved Miss Linda, our oldest nanny, in to the lamb pen this week. Linda is 14 or 15, toothless and she doesn't get anywhere in a hurry. She has a lovely spirit though and is the best mama we have. We put her with the babies so she wouldn't have to compete so hard for food. She's already gained a little weight and the babies seem happy to have her body heat in the shelter. Every time I check on her there are three or four kids snuggled up to her.

Don't you want to kiss that little nosey? I kissed it this afternoon for you.

I can't get enough of the perpetually surprised look on Martha's face. 

Naming Names

It may be a wee bit early but I think we should start coming up with a naming convention for this year's lambs and kids. For those of you new to the blog, we use naming conventions for a bunch of reasons. It makes it super-easy to figure out how old an animal that was born on the farm is but mostly it's just easier than coming up with a million names on the spot during birthing season. 

Two years ago we named our babies after candy and varieties of cheese. Last year the shareholders voted to name the kids (baby goats) after herbs and spices. We have, up till now, named our ewes (female sheep) after islands and our rams after presidents of the United States, but we have so many sheep now that we are going to name the new lambs the same way we name the kids from now on.

With so many readers I'm sure we can come up with a really good naming conventions this year. Post your suggestions here. We'll winnow the list down to five or six and then let everybody vote.

Here's what you need to know:

The category needs to be something with lots of naming possibilities. Candy was great cause there are umpteen jillion kinds. Think broad. Characters from fiction? Good. Characters from Dickens?Fine.  Characters from Salinger novels? Not so much. 

Be creative. Chinese food dishes. The counties of Ireland. Just be sure there are names suitable for males and females.

We can do two different conventions for the goats and the sheep as long as they kind of go together, i.e. goats are herbs and sheep are spices. 

This is one of the most direct ways in which you get to help us on the farm so have fun with it! I can't wait to see what ya'll come up with.

With Apologies to My Male Readership...

Last September I had the good fortune to sit next to a woman named Nancy Aronie at an animal communication workshop I was attending. I say good fortune because Nancy is an absolutely fabulous woman. She's a wonderful writer and gives a very famous workshop on the Vineyard called Writing from the Heart.  Everyone at the workshop we were attending had to go around the room and introduce themselves and Nancy laughed deeply and wept openly in the same sentence. She is brilliant, and brimming over with life, and, lucky for me, she is freezing all the time.

Lucky for me, because the other reason I was so fortunate to be sitting next to Nancy was that she brought a hot water bottle with her to the workshop. Turns out she takes it everywhere she goes to keep her warm. During a break in the morning session Nancy refilled her water bottle from the tea kettle. At first I thought the whole thing was kind of bizarre, but when she stuck it in between us I was instantly converted. "You'll have to get one," Nancy said. To which I replied,  "Nancy, I am 38-years-old. I cannot start carrying a hot water bottle around with me." 

Which turned out to be totally untrue. Even as I write this I have my trusty hot water bottle by my side, keeping me toasty. Oh, I don't carry it around with me. Not out of the house anyway. Unless I'm going up to Patrick's parent's house across the street. Or for a long car ride. Or to the movies. Not that we ever go to the movies, but if we did, I'd take my hot water bottle with me.

The only problem with the hot water bottle is that I can't take it with me when I'm doing chores outside cause you have to hold it. I actually considered getting one of those baby slings to hold it in place against my chest while I'm feeding or working the livestock but it seemed kind of impractical.

The thing is, I am cold all the time. Well, not all the time. I'm warmish from May through September. But winters in the Northeast kick my ass. I hate being cold, and as a result, I dread doing all of the everyday tasks that I so enjoy doing when it's warm.

And, if I may be frank with you, (and I think I can speak frankly with you) the worst thing in the world is when my breasts get cold. It's beyond uncomfortable- it's painful. And, short of taking a hot shower, I find it very, very difficult to recover from cold breasts.

Until today that is. Today, I came up with the idea for which I will become famous. Forget the whole "started the first Fiber CSA" business. If and when my obit appears in the New York Times, it will be because of the discovery I made at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, January 4th.

And it never would have occurred to me to share this particular piece of awesome if Patrick, upon hearing the news of my miraculous invention, hadn't groaned and said "I can't wait the hear what the blog readers think of this!" That's when I realized it would be wrong for me to keep this discovery to myself. As wrong as wrong can be.

I was getting ready to go out and work sheep and goats with Patrick and Erin this afternoon. "Working" livestock means trimming hooves, worming and delousing all the animals in a particular pen and it. takes. for. ever. Like hours. Outside. In the cold.  As usual, I was dragging my feet and stalling because I was already cold, and I really didn't want my boobs to get any colder or more painful. So right before I left the house, I grabbed two of those "Hot Hands" hand warmers from the kitchen drawer. You know, those little packets that you shake up to cause some kind of chemical reaction and then stick in your gloves? Only I stuck them in my bra. And it was magic, my friends.

I worked outside for two hours without getting cold. At all. I don't think it's overstating it to say that this may very well have changed my life. 

I think ya'll know me well enough to know that I don't regularly talk about my breasts in public, and I truly hope I haven't offended anyone with my immodesty, but if even one of you suffers from the distress of cold breasts and is helped by my discovery, it will all be worth it.

We happened to have bought a whole passel of hand warmers for our Solstice party, and I think they cost around $2 a dozen at Walmart. Of course it means having to step foot in Walmart- an errand I put right up there with being water boarded- but believe me my friends, it will be worth it.

The Week in Pictures

Every year after Christmas we give our tree to the sheep and goats for a treat. As you can see, they strip it like a school of piranas strips a wildebeest.

Squall and Roquefort have become good buddies in the last couple of weeks. They're inseparable, like George Bush and Dick Cheney. It worries me...

Just cause Cini doesn't want to eat his food doesn't mean he wants anyone else to eat it.

See that look on Squall's face? It's like he knows something about me and he's considering going public with the information.Can you believe we still haven't named all of the new ewes? As soon as Erin gets home tomorrow we are naming them!

It was 11 degrees this morning, people. 11. Degrees. Lucky for me, Patrick was in town and he helped me with chores this morning. I needed his brute strength to break the foot of ice on the water tanks.  

As always, the goats and sheep were grateful.

Sheep in the Snow

I was so busy enjoying myself at the Solstice Celebration that I didn't have time to take many photographs. Here are the few I took.

Our Sheepish Christmas Tree

The Pope's (Bob, Nancy, Patty and Matthew) made the trip up to the farm from Long Island. 

Karen and her mom came up and brought an amazing apple pie. A.Maz.Ing.

EmilyLousie's boyfriend Yan took this great picture of us around the fire. 

Notice Logan's lack of pants. He was "helping" his father with the fire and got hot and it seemed like the best way to cool off was to take off his pants.  Needless to say, I was in the house when this decision was made.

You can see more great picture these two shareholder's blog: Scottishlamb and Chappysmom. If anyone else would like to share the pics they took yesterday shoot me an email at susangibbs1 AT mac DOT com.

We all agreed this was the best, least-stressful party we've ever had. So many people brought great food- my dining table is still covered with desserts. It was just a lovely day all around. We'll be making the Solstice Celebration a yearly Fiber Farm tradition, so save the date for next year.

Let's name some sheep, shall we?

It's hard to believe that I have let these new ewes go nameless for so long but it couldn't be helped. Between working on the book, picking up the house for the party and all the sadness of last week, I just haven't had the time or the brain space to get to it.

But I figured I might as well make a start tonight with the ewe lambs. Remember, we are naming this group after islands.

These two lovelies are twins, believe it or not. 

We named this one Nantucket, but we're calling her Nan. She has the sweetest face, doesn't she?

Her sister is the smallest of the new lambs and also the most charming. Her name is Martha's Vineyard, Martha to her friends.

She is just so darned cute I can hardly stand it. I mean, those ears! Just look at those pink, stick-outy ears. 

Nan and Martha are always together. Martha is definitely the braver of the two and will walk right up to my camera and nuzzle my hand. Heaven!

The other two lambs were a bit harder to name. 301 is a very serious looking lamb...

but not always. I decided to honor her dignified side by naming her Victoria.

And this little gal is just as cute as a button. We're calling her Capri.

Tomorrow we'll work on the adult ewes.

New Ewe Lambs

Hay: It's what's for dinner.

As I mentioned here, we have been receiving many request from non-knitters who want to support MVFF/HVFF but aren't interested in joining the CSA. Most of the request come from loyal blog readers who've been following the goings on around the farm and want to be a part of it, but there are also an awful lot of animal-lovers who just believe in what we are doing and want to insure the viability of our business. 

My first response to requests to help was "Really?" followed quickly by "Why?".  But then I took some time to really think about it and it makes total sense to me. The desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, to accomplish as a group what we couldn't manage on our own, is the most natural thing in the world. 

With that in mind, Patrick and I decided that we wanted to make supporting our farm something that everyone can do, no matter their financial situation. And we especially didn't want to be off-putting to our shareholders. That's when we hit on the idea of sponsoring a bale of hay.

Hay bales are currently costing us $6.50 a piece. Not bad right? Except that we go through hay like nobody's business around here! 10 sheep (or goats) eat a bale of hay per day which means we are feeding 7 bales a day ($45.50), 49 bales a week ($318), 196 bales a month ($1274). And that's just the hay! We also feed a grain ration twice a day.

The need to find quality hay at a price that won't bankrupt us has taken over a good portion of my waking hours and some of my non-waking ones. The other night I dreamed that I was laying in the hay feeder and the goats were eating my hair and my clothes! 

If you're interested in sponsoring a bale, a day, a week or a month's worth of hay please know that your contribution will be put to use right away! And to thank you we will be acknowledging out sponsors right here on the blog. 

We'd also like to thank anyone who donates a day or more of hay with a MVFF 2009 Calendar. Weekly sponsors will receive a Calendar and a beautiful needle-felted sheep or angora goat ornament for your holiday tree.

Just shoot me an email if you would like to become a hay sponsor: susangibbs1 AT mac DOT com.

A couple of you have asked if it would be possible to sponsor a specific sheep or goat- i.e. cover the cost of feed, hay and vet bills for a year. What a lovely idea! Please contact me [susangibbs1 AT mac DOT com] if this is something you are interested in .

One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

11 new cormo ewes. Well technically I gave them to myself. And I have no idea which day of Christmas this is. 

But the "11 cormo ewes" part is right. 

We are all flat-out exhausted from a loooong day but I can't go to bed without at least putting up some pictures of the new ladies.

These are the four ewe lambs. You'll be seeing a lot more of them when the lambcam is up and running.

Here are three of the seven adult ewes. According to the breeder, all of these ladies twin when they lamb. So we have a whole lot of cormo cuteness to look forward to come spring.

Here's a peek under their jackets.

Isn't it lovely?

More pics tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll start the naming. Ya'll came up with some really wonderful possibilities but it's not to late to weigh in.

Put Your Thinking Caps On...

We are going to Lee, Massachusetts bright and early tomorrow morning to pick up our new Cormo ewes. I'm not sure how many we will be coming home with but we are going to be needing some names. 

In the past we have named our Cormo ewes after islands and we're going to stick with that convention for this group. (We'll need to come up with a new one in the spring.) 

So get out your world atlas and hit me with Island names you like for the new sheep.   

Farm pics

We moved the sheep and goats to new pasture today and it was darn near impossible to get a decent picture of anybody because they all had their heads in their food.

Flies were running Fettucini crazy today so I sprayed him with fly spray. Turns out he hates fly spray.