Filed under: Advertising, Alpaca Rancher, Artisan, Blogroll, Chickens, Crocheting, Dyeing, Eggs, Felting, Fiber, Fiber Artist, Fiber Arts, Gardening, Instructor, Knitting, Lambs, Life, Marketing, Marriage, Sales, Sheep Rancher, Shepherdess, Shyness, Staying Young, Sustainability, charity, farm, volunteering | Tags: anniversary, Chickens, chicks, Farmers' Market, flowers, head pain, health, Lambs, Life, love, NAIS, pulse generator, roosters, roses, spring, surgery, trees
Hi Everyone,
I apologize for not having posted anything in a while, but I had surgery for my head pain. I’m now a BIONIC WOMAN!!! They put a lead with 6 electrodes along the 2nd branch of my Trigeminal nerve (under the right cheek) with some of the wires around my ear, down the back of my neck, over my right shoulder, and down to about midway between my collar bone and my breast to connect to a pulse generator (not unlike what they use for heart patients). What the generator does is to mask the pain I have (at the time it was lvl 9-10 and now it’s 80-85% of what it was so about 2-3-ish). I’ve had this head pain for 15+ years thanks to a doctor who thought he was GOD and a hospital that really wasn’t monitoring me. They left me with a 3-day cerebral spinal fluid leak and the head pain which was worse than any migraine I’ve ever experienced. Enough of this for now because I’m feeling much better, especially once I was able to reduce my meds as well.
The catkins are on the Hazelnut tree and the roses have some leaves starting to come out with that lovely maroon shade they have before they turn green. Fabulous…I love spring. There’s even a mosquito flying around my head as I type this.
I just finished ordering some Americana chicks from Murray McMurry’s Hatchery. 25 of the little chicks…I’ll get them the first week of March. I’m so excited. I’m going to make a nice place for them that is predator free for the nights, with some nesting boxes as well so they’ll lay where we want them to lay. That way I’ll have my farm fresh eggs again and so will my in-laws. It was a bummer last year when the chickens laid whereever and we couldn’t fiind them. Turns out they laid them next door in the covered hay. They tossed them instead of bringing them to us to let us test to see if they should be eaten or tossed. The other thing I’ll be doing is letting my chickens hatch out their eggs. My next batch of chicks are straight run. Straight runs means they don’t sex them, but sends both male and female chicks. My male rooster was eaten last year by a predator, so no males left. However, I usually get about 50/50 so when the roosters get old enough and put on enough weight, I’ll get them butchered at the local hatchery for the stew pot. I only need 1-2 roosters to fertilize the chickens so they’ll be able to make chicks of their own. Also, the one thing I discovered is that the roosters don’t just crow in the morning–they crow all day long on and off, so if you have too many roosters, it gets way too noisy. If there are only a couple, I like the sounds of the roosters in the morning though–a natural alarm clock (or is that alarm cluck).
No Lambs yet, but it’s only a matter of time. I’ve decided that I won’t be raising Icelandic sheep to sell any longer. The NAIS is just too weird to deal with. They’re letting sheriff’s and other law types come onto people’s farms here in WA without notice so they can “check” to see if you’re doing things right. Wonderful. I’m one of the few people who believes in Sustainability around this area and they want to check me? Sorry Charlie, but it doesn’t work that way. So as long as I don’t sell sheep/lambs to anyone, I’ll be okay. I think they want to put smaller famers/ranchers out of business, and using the bird flu and animial diseases to do it. What the government is using are scare tactics!!! And their scare tactics will put small farmers and ranchers out of business. They’ve put it off til 2009 with only about 7% who voluntarily registered. It’s not very popular and you know those 7% did so out of fear. Just like in some of the other countries that force their people to do things that are not good for the people, but only good for the government.
Lance, my husband, and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on Valentine’s Day. It doesn’t seem nearly that long. My first married was about 9+ years, and I celebrate on April 15 because that was the day the divorce became final. This is the second for both of us and it’s so much better than our first marriages. It’s not perfect, but we work at it.
I just finished up knitting three hats and fulled them. One was alpaca and two from Icelandic wool from yarn that I’d spun from my own animals. The alpaca hat is soft and fluffy cinnamon with lighter cinnamon stripes, one wool hat is ivory white with moorit (reddish brown) stripes,
and the third is dark charcoal with light charcoal stripes. I’m getting my ready for the Farmers’ Market in May (May 4 to be exact) and need more items. I’ve got beaded markers for knitting and crocheting, hats, baby clothes, baby blankets, buggy blankets, toys for babies and children of all ages, and other items. I enjoy making things, but let’s face it, we can only keep so much of what we make and give it away as gifts–then we sell it. Not that I don’t giving what I make away as gifts, but when everyone has super afghans, hats and scarves, etc. you can’t keep giving them the same things. I’m working on an afghan for my sister, Karen, out of the yarn I received when my Mom died last October. The yarn is mostly neutral colors and those are the colors she likes, so that’s what I’m working on for her…an afghan to remember Mom by.
Life certainly has taken some turns. Last year I was busy drying hot peppers on thread and in my dehydrator, and today I’m worried about other things. So, keep the faith and believe you can live sustainably. I keep getting closer and closer every day.
Hugz,
Jet
Filed under: Advertising, Artisan, Chickens, Dyeing, Eggs, Felting, Feral pets, Fiber, Fiber Artist, Fiber Arts, Gardening, Instructor, Knitting, Life, Marketing, Marriage, Sales, Sheep Rancher, Shepherdess, Shyness, Staying Young, charity, farm
We finally have lambs now. We had 5 born, but one died when the ewe stepped on her and broke her neck (and it would be the one that I wanted to keep–wouldn’t you know). FYI, Finn & Icelandic sheep are in gestation from 145-155 days and I’m not sure if that is the same as other sheep or not. I now have a Cotswold ewe in the flock, so I have to figure out if she’s even pregnant this year.
In the picture above are the last set of lambs. The one right in the front is Stockings, the lambs I mentioned that died. I cried when I found her, but I also know that it will be alright. She would have been perfect for the farm, but there will be another one who will come along that will be perfect. It’s just hard to lose sheep you’ve already bonded to, but life moves along with work and other lambs and sheep and alpacas, etc.
Rocky, my registered Icelandic ram, was a little off this year and I still have 3 ewes left to lamb, and one is that Cotswold ewe, MJ, is the registered Icelandic ewe, Sandy, and the last is the Romney/Icelandic/Finn cross, Little Bits aks Bitsy. Bitsy was the product of a mistake when the Romney ram I was selling got in with the ewes, hence the 3-way cross. She is cute and her fiber is really nice so I thought I’d keep her for the novelty factor. Her lambs will be 50% Icelandic, 25% Finn and 25% Icelandic, so should have even nicer fiber.
I’m selling Rocky this year and buying a new Icelandic ram who’s a dark grey mouflon. I want more color in my flock rather than white. Rocky throws a lot of white lambs, so this is how I discovered how to get more color.
Having sheep is amazing! This year they’re lambing later than the last 3 years, but that’s fine. We had a set of twins our of Sophie a 50/50 Finn/Icelandic cross: Sam the ram, and Boyd: Sam is white with very light silvery gray spots on the left hip and left shoulder, and Boyd is black with a grey or white undercoat. Then we had a set of triplets out of Madge, our 100% Finn ewe: Stockings, a little black and white ewe lamb; Bobert, a white ram lamb; and the last, Sylvie, a white ewe lamb. Now we have Sandy, Blesa, and Bitsy left to lamb. I’m not sure MJ got pregnant this year, she’s our Cotswold ewe.
I mainly raise Icelandic sheep, but I like a little variety and I’m looking for a cross that has the ultimate fiber to spin. So far, the Finn/Icelandic crosses seem to be quite nice…easy to spin, lots of crimp, very soft, and it felts like a dream. So the other types of sheep I have are Finn (Madge), Cotswold (MJ), a Romney/Finn/Icelandic cross (Bitsy), and a Shetland/Lincoln cross (BW).
We also have our Icelandic ram, Rocky (after Rocky and Bullwinkle—we sold the lamb named Bullwinkle last year to a nice family along with 2 ewe lambs), and Whitey, an Icelandic wether. Whitey will be our meat sheep for this next year. The nice thing about Icelandic sheep, is that you can butcher from 9 months to 5 years and it still tastes like lamb, it’s that mild. You can tell it’s not beef or pork or veal, but it doesn’t have that strong taste. I believe it’s because the Icelandic breed doesn’t have as much lanolin in it’s fiber and less fat in their meat, where as the stronger, more muttony tasting lambs have a lot more lanolin in their fiber so more fat in their meat. I’ve talked with other shepherds about this and they agree, so I think this is true across the board, but I’ll have to talk with a few more sheep people to see what they say about it, so at this time, it’s my opinion.
My chickens are laying again, about 4-6 eggs a day, so I’ll have enough to sell again this year. I have 2 roosters and 8 hens after the feral cat killed 7 hens, so we got a live trap and trapped the cat, and took him to jail (actually the animal shelter) so they could either get him adopted or whatever (and I think it was the whatever). He was really feral and had been adopted and abandoned at least twice since we’ve been here (not by us but our neighbors that adopted it, abandoned it, then adopted it again, then moved away and left him). That made me really upset and I called the animal shelter about it, but they said just to bring him in—I think the people who adopted him, then abandoned him should have taken responsibility of taking him to the pound, but because they’d already moved, the shelter didn’t do anything to them. So, I don’t think he was save-able as much as I wanted to save him, but I tried to 4 months to try to get him to be more friendly, and I never got past the snarls and his urinating because he was scared and then he’d run. I felt so bad for him, but I didn’t want to lose any more chickens.
At any rate, once he was at the pound, I bought 25 more chickens, this time Aracaunas and all pullets at that. I ordered 25 straight run Americaunas (the Easter Egg chickens), so I won’t be doing business with them next year if I need more chicks. So, if I want chicken soup or dinner, I’ll have to butcher my hens instead of the spare roosters. I had 13 roosters in my freezer and ate them, and I have one left. We had chicken once every two weeks from last summer until now, so it worked out well and though they were a little tough, the soup helped that a lot also.
I also have to shear my alpacas so they have bright and shiny new haircuts for summer before it gets too hot for them, not to mention I have to trim their hooves as well. In the Autumn, they’ll have all their shots for the year. I worm them about once a month with a naturopathic wormer using cob (molasses mixed with grains), chopped garlic, finely chopped onion, nutritional yeast (aka brewers yeast), and DE (diatomaceous earth) in appropriate amounts. I stopped using store bought wormer because I’m not sure what it does to the meat as well as the fiber. It seems that the natural wormer keeps the fiber softer, and when I used the chemical wormer, the fiber was more coarse—not what I want in my fiber. I’ll have a great fiber crop this fall though, and it wasn’t too bad this spring either, but I’m not sure if I’ll use the shearer that I used this time for next year. The sheep all look ragged, but that’s the way it goes.
Our cherry and apple trees are blooming. I love the light pink blossoms that shower down the sweet smelling petals when the winds blow. It was lovely yesterday. We planted 3 spreading yews in the front area where we took out the blue rug juniper. Lance and I are both allergic to juniper so we’re going to get rid of all of it, unless we move to our new property, but not for a while. We also planted 4 yucca, 2 rhubarb, 6 daylilies, and some other bulb flowers as well as a dianthus (different are than the others). I like having some color out front instead of having it all green. I like the idea of the rhubarb also because once the leaves come out it, almost looks tropical, Kind of like small sized Gunthera or Giant Elephant ears.
I’m planting my garden as well…mangels for the animals in winter (it’s a type of beet they use for farm animals—trace minerals, iron, B-vitamins for stress and cold), both spicy and mild mesclun, herbs, lettuce, and I bought 3 tomato plants: a cherry, an early girl, and fantastica…I wanted more heirlooms, but this year they didn’t have any, much to my dismay.
The only dismay I do have is that there is something killing my adult chickens so my egg production has dwindled along with the flock. However, I bought 25 Auracana chicks in March and they’re about half grown now, so when they get about 4-5 months old, the egg production will go back up. I have 10 customers patiently waiting for eggs and now they’ll have to wait longer. Oh well, they’re still less expensive than store bought farm fresh eggs and really are farm fresh. We have a live trap out there now with cat food in it to catch the raccoon or feral cat. We’ve already caught two feral cats who’ve killed the chickens and taken them to the pound, but there is something else out there killing them (we’re down to 4 now out of 13). I really wish that people would not let their cats run wild. The second one we caught was half-tame and was part Siamese or Himalayan, but Lance said no more cats than Norphan, so to the pound she went, but I think she’s salvageable, not like the first one we caught. People move away and leave them behind or they just dump them on the highway, so between feral cats and feral dogs, it’s a huge problem in the country. Really ticks me off that people put off their problems and don’t take responsibility for their animals.
Also, I’m now selling again at the Farmer’s market, this is the 4th year now, and sold over some yarn and a few other items, but it always takes time to get people to see me. I had a nice 2′ x 6′ banner made with the picture on my business cards as well as the same information on the front of them. I’m also doing flyers this year so that I can give them to people as they pass buy. It really has helped a lot in the marketing and it’s harder to get rid of flyers. One woman bought some yarn for a friend who lives in another state and will send my business card along with the yarn so she can call me to order more if she wants. It was a good connection, to say the least. I also sold some yarn to the local yarn shop. I hope it’s selling so that I’m able to keep supplying her with yarn. It would be terrific.
That’s about it on the home front for now, except my tomatoes are in, the mangels are planted as well as the mesclun (spicy and mild) for salads. I’m feeling happy right about things–life, love, marriage, business–and can only hope it goes as well in the near and distant future…and I hope they go well for all of you, too.
I’ve got groceries to get, so I’ll write more later! TTFN!
Filed under: Advertising, Alpaca Rancher, Artisan, Crocheting, Dyeing, Felting, Fiber Artist, Fiber Arts, Knitting, Life, Marketing, Marriage, Sales, Sheep Rancher, Shepherdess, Shyness, Staying Young, charity, farm
I’ve been expecting lambs any day now, but none yet. I’m rather disappointed each morning when I look out my window into the pasture and don’t see any little lambs out capering around. The wonderful thing about Icelandic lambs is that they’re capering within 15-30 minutes after they’re dropped, mom gets done licking them, and they’ve gotten a bit of colostrum (first milk) from their mom’s udder. You’d be amazed at how fluffy they are and what they’re like.
We had snow last Wednesday, a whole 1.5″, but it also melted the same day so we didn’t have to worry about shoveling–thank goodness. I moved away from WI so I didn’t have to shovel snow or get to work in it. I did that for 22 years and I’d had enough. The first year we moved to Walla Walla, we had the worst winter in 40 years…we managed but had snow on the ground for 6 weeks and it was really cold. As long as it only happens once every 40 years, I can deal with that.
I finished up a sweater for a woman and am I ever happy it’s done. I eventually had to do something totally different than what the pattern was because there was stuff written wrong in the pattern. I got so tired of tearing things out (frogging in knitting-ese) that I decided to do it MY way. I looks like the pattern picture, but it was easier to do because I didn’t follow the orignal pattern. Thank goodness or I’d have still been working on the orignial sweater. Now I’m working on a shawl for a frienand it’s going to be a tough one as well, but it will be beautiful when it’s finished.
Mainly, I enjoy making up my own designs. I created baby toys, hats, scarves, shawls, sweaters, among other things. I’ve started working on patterns now as well. I buy my yarn though mill ends as well as through the local yarn shop (LYS) or from other outlets to find something that’s just right for what I’m making. Then I design it as I go, writing it down as I proceed with each part. Sometimes it turns out and sometimes it doesn’t, but I always have fun regardless. I also spin yarn from animals’ fiber (wool, alpacas, cat hair, dog hair, yak, whatever). You’d be amazed at the wonderful natural designs that come from the fiber itself. I spun up some silver Icelandic wool, and it came out naturally striped with darker gray stripes throughout the body of the sweater and the arms. I making it for my husband and so far, he likes it a lot. It’s standard V-neck sweater, so it’s not too hard to knit up.
I’m planning on making a copy of the sweater I made for that woman, but out of my own handspun yarn. Luckily, I kept track of what I did the first time, so it will be easier for me the second time. Life can be so much fun and so challenging, so I just keep on working to creating things I want and need for me and my family.
I’ll be shearing my alpacas this spring. I have four of them, all males: Al Paca (a white Suri), Earl Grey (a rose grey Huacaya), Koko (a cinnamon Huacaya), and El Dorado aka Eldie (a white Huacaya). I have my pair of electric shears, brandname Heininger, that a friend gave me for Christmas one year that he bought at a retired horse rancher’s yard sale for $25 with two blades/combs (the standard and a goat), then I went and bought two more combs (an ovine and an alpaca), then also bought an item to keep the combs off the shears so that there is about 1/3 to 1/2″ more fiber on the animal. I did Eldie last spring, but ran out of steam and time to do the other ones. I will do the other ones this year, and Eldie later in late spring. I love working with fiber and have since I was 4 years old.
Well, I hope my lambs start coming soon. I’m getting tired o f waiting for them.
Filed under: Alpaca Rancher, Fiber, Fiber Artist, Life, Marketing, Marriage, Sheep Rancher, Shepherdess, Staying Young, farm
It was such a beautiful day yesterday in Walla Walla, I couldn’t believe it. Sunny, warm enough I had to take my coat off to work, with a lovely light breeze starting to stir the branches on the fruit and nut trees. Absolutely lovely! I didn’t realize how much the gloomy late winter, early spring gray was affecting me until then–who would have thought I’d have a minor case of SAD (Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder). I believe there are tons of people who are affected by SAD, but don’t even realize it. I grew up in WI, and I used to get “cabin fever” from time to time, but they didn’t call it SAD. Now I know better. 
No lambs yet, but it is getting closer by the day. I do believe my sheep, Blesa, will be the first to lamb. Her udders are as large as after she had her lambs last year…only problem with that is that the teats nipples are too large to fit inside her lambs’ mouths and they hang almost to the ground. I had to milk her last year to get the colostrum out for the poor little lambs…and it looks like she’ll have twins or triplets this year, so another year of bottle fed lambs. But I do love the bottle fed lambs dispositions anyway…they come when I enter the pasture knowing I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the few few weeks, then later in the coming months, it drops off to two bottles a day, then one bottle a day, then weaning. I follow exactly what the mothering ewes do so that the lambs don’t get a short shrift of milk and grow properly.
Lance told me last night that he’d finish up my stanchion today so that I’d be able to milk Blesa properly for the lambs’ milk because her poor udders get so sore that she really needs to get the milk out, not to mention that if I don’t get the milk out, she could get mastitis (udder infection).
In addition, with the stanchion, I can milk, trim hooves, give the sheep their 8-way, vitamin, & BoSe shots, and in the future, possibly shear. Oooh…I feel like I am getting a birthday present early (Feb. 19 is my birthday).
Lance took me out to dinner at the Homestead Restaurant in Walla Walla for Valentine’s Day, which also happens to be our anniversary (our 10th, no less)! We had a really nice time, but I wish we could have sat next to each other rather than across from each other. The pricey dinner included hors d’oeurves, dinner, dessert, a polaroil pic, a rose, and great service (we had to pay for wine, coffee, and anything extra). We ordered batter fried mushrooms and bruchetta, very rare filet mignon with garlic potatoes & veggies, & raspberry cheesecake for dessert….lovely and delicious, except for the mushrooms which had the batter being a little under done (the batter around the large mushrooms was still wet instead of fried) so I sent them back. Oh well, we all know nothing is perfect, not even 10 years of marriage, but we try to keep things going for each other with lots of “I Love You’s” and hugs and kisses each day. Seems to work out fine considering what we both had with our first marriages. Guess those first marriages were our practice marriages to get ready for our marriage. 
So, yesterday… It was almost 70 degrees. Lance and I both worked on the trees that had been cut down (we lost 2 willows to 50+ mph winds in the fall and winter, then had an arborist take the rest of them down this spring). Cutting up the large pieces and putting the small branches and such into the burn pile (we haven’t burned anything yet as we need a County burn permit). We’ve cleaned up most of the property since we moved here, so that we have gotten some additional land which I threw grass seed on so the sheep will have a bit more pasture where the original burn pile was. When I dug and hauled everything out of the corner, I noticed that one of the previous owners had actually tried to burn wood/garbage in that corner and several of the fence posts had chars on them as well as two posts almost burned entirely through. We also had a branch on the apple tree that we had to take off and when we did, we noticed a lot of dry rot and perhaps termite damage in the center of the branch. Of course, we were already aware that one of the previous owners didn’t know how to prune trees either, so that left the cut branches parallel to the ground leaving a place for water/rain to get between the bark and the inner tree to be compromised. Oh well, we’ll have to replace most of the trees anyway (we’ve already taken down 10 of the 14 apple trees, the two willows, probably 2 of the peach/apricot trees, and maybe one of the walnuts… What a waste. Oh well, we’ll put in trees that are more appropriate (a couple of elms, arborvitae around the front pasture to replace the ones that are dying for bad pruning, put in a couple more apricot/peach trees to replace the ones that are almost dead–basically starting from scratch. It really upset me to see how poorly those trees on the property had been taken care of and I knew that this would happen, but I didn’t think we’d still be here to deal with them… But isn’t this what life is all about. I do have 2 tulip trees coming though for the lawn area, so we’ll see how fast they grow; and we’ve got volunteer elms coming from Dale’s Dad’s farm (Dale is Lance’s partner in Zydax). But I’ll still have to buy the peach and/or apricot trees and maybe get a few bush cherries and sand cherries to provide a nice privacy screen near the front pasture, but I don’t want them to grow so tall that I can’t see my sheep and alpacas when I’m looking out the front window.
So, today, I’m a little sore, but I’ll go out and work a bit more in the pastures scooping alpaca pucky and sheep sh*t to put into the back pasture’s compost heap. You’d never believe just how much accumulates during the winter when I can’t get out to shovel it each day, but the lovely compost I have for my gardens is wonderful. I can hardly wait to see how my garden grows… Mary, Mary, Quite contrary. How does your garden grow? And all of that nursery rhyme.
Today, the wind is a bit stronger and I see clouds encroaching in the SW, so I’d best get my behind out there to finsh what I can before the clouds get out here and I lose the day. You’d never believe how young raising sheep and alpacas keeps me–learning new thiings every day! I can’t think of a better way to do this! TTFN!
No lambs yet, but they are coming… Well, it’s mid-February and no lambs yet. Seems like Rocky, our ram, was a bit slow on the job this year. Last year, we had lambs in the first week of February, but every other year, we had lambs in the second to third week, which seemed to be the norm. Rocky’s 2.5 years old this year–we bought him from a friend in Midland, MI, when he was a lamb. I am very pleased with him, but he can be a bit ornery when he doesn’t get his way, but mainly he likes people and will let them scratch his forehead and around his horns.
People always ask me if sheep with horns are dangerous. I’d have to say they can be, but for the most part, the rams are probably the most dangerous whether they have horns or not. They don’t use their horns for anything much, but all rams ram with their foreheads. They can hurt you quite badly if you don’t watch out for them, especially when they’re in rut (in heat) because then you become either a danger to the flock as in another ram, or you’re a potential mate to ram which is just as dangerous. Think of when a male dog’s in heat and how they jump up on you…now imagine a 300-pound ram trying to mount you. You can see how dangerous that can be, and they are fast as well. When Rocky’s in heat, I don’t give him scratches unless I’m outside of the pasture…that way he can’t make any mistakes.
I can hardly wait for the lambs though. This year, I have a 3 Icelandic ewes (100% Icelandics), an Icelandic/Finn cross ewe (her lambs will be 3/4 Icelandic & 1/4 Finn), a Cotswold ewe 50/50 Icelandic/Cotswold), a Finn ewe (50/50 Icelandic/Finn), and a Romney/Icelandic/Finn cross ewe (her lambs will be 50% Icelandic-25% Romney-25% Finn crosses). It will be interesting to see how they all trurn out and what their fiber is like. I also have two wethers, a 100% Icelandic and a Lincoln/Shetland cross and both have lovely fiber. I enjoy the Icelandic/Finn crosses because they are single coated (Icelandics have a dual coat called the thel and tog) and the fiber felts better than either breed separately, so it’s perfect for people who enjoy felting. The Finn’s have wonderful crimp and the Icelandics have wonderful luster so you can imagine what the crosses fibers are like.
I prepare the fleeces myself: first skirting (that’s cutting the stained, manure, & bad part of the fiber out, as well as second cuts–very short pieces of fiber), then you separate the fleece into about 1 pound sections and put them into lingerie bags in order to scour (that’s washing in spinning-ese) the fleece, then you rinse them, then you hang them to dry. After they’re dried, you can card them or spin from the lock, both of which will create two different types of yarn. If you card it, it blends all the colors, but if you spin from the lock, you get a self-striping yarn and is quite lovely to knit with. One thing to remember though, do not agitate the fleeces or they will felt on you in the washer. You can spin the water out of the fleeces, but you take them out before you refill the tub. Or you can wash smaller amounts of the fleece by hand, which takes much longer. 
So, I generally use the washer to do wash the fleeces and can often get 2-3 fleeces scoured in one day.
I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I give tours at the farm and have a Children’s reading time on Sundays at 1 PM, PST. The stories take about 30-45 minutes so after the kids have hadn fed the alpacas and have gotten really excited, it is time for something to drink and a story so they’ll calm down for the ride home. I ask for a donation of $1 per child, and that goes to helping to feed the animals (a bale of hay costs over $5/each now so though I never come out ahead on donations, I do have a little help and it’s very much appreciated). Besides, the kids have worn themselves out so after they get put into the car after story time, they usually fall asleep on the way home, which is a boon for the parents.
Last year was a strange year for selling lambs though. We didn’t sell any lambs in the spring, but we sold all of them between October and November. Maybe our lambs are later than other people, but we put a sign out on the chain link fence which runs along the highway and that seems to draw a lot of people in for either tours or to buy lambs. I like living along the highway because of that. I also sold a lot of eggs last year for the same reason. I sell them for a little more than the store does because they are farm fresh, and if they bring an egg carton with them, it costs them 50-cents less per dozen or an 18-count would, which brings the price pretty even with store bought eggs…and I don’t have to buy cartons which will increase the costs of the eggs. The eggs are very tasty. The yolks are so yellow they’re almost orange so you can see the chickens have been eating lots of bugs and grass, as well as the food and oyster shells I give them so they’re eggs are not too soft. We also give them their own egg shells back for the same reason…it helps them keep their calcium up. Earlier in the spring we noticed that the chickens were laying eggs, but they imploded because their shells were too soft, which is why I started to give them oyster shells…then their shells became much harder. I also blow the eggs out and dry them for people who use egg shells to make dioramas, egg shell ornaments for Easter or for Christmas, or use them for egg shell mosaics. I have mainly Americana chickens so they lay eggs colored from pinkish ivory to pinkish brown, 4 shades of green, and 5 shades of blue. So the egg shell mosaic artists don’t have to dye all their egg shells to get the blue sky or water or green grass or leaves. Americana chickens are also known as the Easter Egg chickens because their shells are already colored, and the kids love having Easter eggs for breakfast. Americana chickens are hybrid of the Aracana chickens, who also lay colored eggs (but have less colors). It’s pretty amazing collecting the eggs to see what they’re going to have. Also, the insides of the colored eggs are white…it’s just the outsides that are colored.
Bud, our Great Pyrenees dwarf, is now 2 years and 1 month old. He’s only knee-high on me, where as a regular sized Great Pyr is about hip high or taller. However, despite his size, he is a formidable opponent against predators like raccoons, opposums, other dogs, or squirrels and birds (though they’re really not a threat, he acts as if they are–chasing them out of the pastures he’s in and is so proud of himself when he does). He’s caught a couple raccoons and has eaten them, which is why they do, so it saves on dog food on those days.
Norphan is our barn cat. I “bought” her at Albertson’s when two young ladies had a box full of kittens with the male kittens in bright blue ribbons and the females with bright pink. Good marketing kudos for those girls. There was one female left and I told them I needed to get change after I got my groceries and could they hold onto her for me, which they did (also good integrity kudos for them as well), and I came out and bought my kitten. I had both Bud and Norphan neutered/spayed respectively, after they were both old enough to have it done. Our Vet helps out charities and does spaying and neutering once a year, then donating the money on that day to some group who helps animals…that year it was a group who helps feral cats/kittens. The other Vet we used to use doesn’t do any volunteer work or donate any money to anyone, so I’d prefer to work with someone who does that rather than not do anything.
I’m in the process of starting a nonprofit group locally called The Blue Mountain Fiber Cooperative to help local fiber artists and fiber producers get the most money for their products as they can as well as splitting the costs of booths, dyes, gas, rooms, etc., so we can save money as well. I’m filling out the paper work to get things started and have about 4 people who are going to serve as officers and on the board. I’m excited about it, but it takes time to get enough people involved to get them to understand that it would be to their benefit to join the group. This will be my second non-profit group I’ve started in the last 25 years. I’d like to see a lot of these groups started so we can all benefit from organizations like this. I got the idea from the food co-ops of the 60’s and 70’s. We’ll see how it goes.
I finally have a shearer, but he’s a lot more expensive than our retired shearer was. Of course, Jim (the retired shaerer) lived less than a mile away, and this guy lives an hour or so away, but there is no one else closer to us. If Lance ever finished my stanchion, I’ll be able to shear, trim hooves, give shots and whatever else I need to do all by myself. I’d just use cob (a mixture of grains and molasses which the sheep love) to get the sheep into position, close the V and they can’t get back out, but they can stay in place while I take care of all their needs. I miss Jim a lot as he had such a wonderful rapport with the sheep and they liked him very much. It was easy for him. The first year, I had a shearer who kicked my sheep becasue they didn’t do what he wanted, and he had a bad temper, so I refuse to use someone who doesn’t care about animals and kicks them. He probably kicks his dogs, too. Animals deserve to be treated with respect. That shearer even drew blood on most of them so that just shows me that he was in too much of a hurry. Not the kind of people I like to be around and I certainly don’t want them around my babies. Hopefully the shearer from Sunnyside will do a good job.
We had a arborist come over to the house to take down the rest of our two willow trees that both had lost 1/2 of themselves to some strong winds. One of them had fallen into the apple tree we have so we had to get it down as best as we could before we called him. He came by on Tuesday and took them down, so we have lots of firewood for next fall though it will probably burn fast, it will make good kindling, even the big pieces. Now we have to find some trees to replace them as they were the trees that shaded the south side of the house, and it does get very hot in Walla Walla, so we need that shade to keep the house cooler in summer.
That’s about all for now, but will right more when the lambs start to come along.
Filed under: Advertising, Alpaca Rancher, Crocheting, Dyeing, Felting, Fiber, Fiber Artist, Fiber Arts, Instructor, Knitting, Life, Marketing, Sales, Sheep Rancher, Shepherdess, Shyness, Staying Young
I’ve been so busy with the holidays, but I have to say this has been the best holiday season I’ve had in a long time. We spent Xmas at my In-laws, then had my In-laws over to our place for New Year’s Eve…we had champagne, hors d’oerves (mainly asian types like wontons, California rolls, sembe (rice crackers), etc.) and had a fabulous time talking and enjoying ourselves.
My daughter, Alexandria, is back in Seattle, and is doing fine. It sets my mind at ease knowing she is okay…I just wish I’d hear from her more than I do, but she’s an adult (22 yo) and is just as busy as I was when I was 22–probably more so, but I’m glad she’s fine.
I hope all of you have had a great New Year also!
I had the flu the last 3-4 days, so I’m feeling kind of tired right now…the flu seems to be over, but I’m also sluggish when it’s almost over. But I noticed I hadn’t written to my blog in a while, so I figured I’d better get cracking.
I just sent an article about my farm and the items I make to the Country Register, which I hope will be in this bi-monthly issue (Feb/Mar 2007). I started advertising there for 6 months to find out if it was worth having an ad in their newspaper or not. No sooner was it in the CR, when I had 15-20 calls the first week. I’ve had 5-20 calls a week since then and approximately 3-10 sales a month from that ad alone. For a small business, those are great returns for my advertising dollar. I also have an ad in the Northwest Regional Spinners’ Association (NwRSA) newsletter called “Loose Threads” and it’s been in there for about 1.5 years now. And though I don’t have the same amount of return, it’s still a semi-good investment. I’ve been thinking about taking my ad out of their newsletter and putting one in Spin-Off magazine instead (national advertising, instead of regional advertising–WA, ID, OR, MT). We’ll see how it goes.
I taught another knitting camp for kids in December at Knitochet, the local yarn/fiber shop in Walla Walla. I had a great bunch of kids, including part of a family of 7 and had two girls, two boys and their dad; then a mom with her daughter. They made hats with bulky yarn. We used Encore Mega, but I have to say that I was not impressed with that particular bulky yarn. I made a hat at the same time aa the kids. I had two knots and two breaks in the yarn–not good; one of the boys and one of the girls had breaks and knots in their skeins as well. So, out of 7 skeins of Mega, there were 5 knots and 4 of the skeins had 1 or more breaks in the skein. I do not recommend Encore Mega for anyone, especially not a beginner or any other level for that matter. I was very disappointed in the quality of the yarn. When you teach a class, it’s frustrating when the yarn just breaks or when there’s a knot and you have to cut the knot and then blend in the ends after you are finished knitting. If you’re doing a 1 skein project like these hats were, and you were making the larger size, you wouldn’t have enough yarn. It made it more difficult for me to teach the kids when they thought they’d dropped a stitch and it was a break in the yarn. So, steer clear of Encore Mega.
I have my yarn. toys, baby hats and booties, and other items that I make at the Walla Walla Gift Shop at the Walla Walla County Airport during the winter. I have to go in on Tuesday to check what is happening with my items and refurbish the shelves I have, maybe change the display. Keep your fingers crossed that this will be a good way to keepin cash coming in during the time when the Farmers’ Market is over (1st Sat. in May to the last Sat. in Oct., and if things keep selling, I’ll keep some things there during the time the Farmers’ Market runs).
Marketing and talking about your wares to others is a good way to make sure people know what you’re up to…so talk with your friends and let them know you’re selling the items you make, advertise here on MySpace or on other sites, make sure you have a website of your own up, and get into groups (MySpace, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) that have the same or similar interests so you can let others know what you’re doing and what you’re making. It helps a lot to keep things going and to make sales.
For instance: A friend of mine makes applesauce and will soon be selling it to stores and restaurants. She moved here about 6 months ago, so she doesn’t know a lot of people, so when we go out to lunch, we walk around town. The place we had lunch is owned by a nice couple who’ll be getting married in February, so I introduced her to them and suggested she give them a sample jar of her applesauce. They loved it, so when she is commercially producing her applesauce, they’re going to try it out on the kids’ menu and maybe on the adults menu as well. You just have to talk with people cuz you never know when things are going to happen for you. It’s a lot harder for people who are self-employed, than it is for people who work for someone else, to get your marketing done.
So, make sure you are out there marketing yourself and selling your wares! Whether you’re shy or outgoing; if you own a business, you need to market yourself and advertise to let other people know you have products that you’re seling, and then–sell! sell! sell! You can do it. I know it is scary to do this when you’re shy (I know cuz I’m shy, too). When you have to market yourself and your products, it is one of the hardest things you have to do, but is necessary if you want your business to succeed. It doesn’t matter whether what you’re selling is food, textiles, fiber, or whatever–First, you have to market yourself, then, market your products. Make sure you have a name that stands out from the crowd and represents what you do or make–sort of a brand name–but it has to work for you as well. It could even be your name (for instance, Hunt’s ketchup, French’s mustard, Oscar Mayer weiners, etc.). Just so people remember it.
Be brave and don’t think you have to do it a certain way or the way your folks would do it. You have to make your own way no matter what you feel inside–whether you’re afraid, shy or have no self-esteem–you have to promote and market yourself because if you don’t , no one else will. You have to depend on yourself.
This is something I’ve had to work on since I was in elementary and junior high school. I finally decided before going into High school that I was going to smile and say HI to everyone. Before I knew it, I had people saying hi and smiling back at me. I wasn’t popular, but I knew a lot of people and they liked me. Now, when you meet me in person, you’d never know I had a shy bone in my body, but I do. Every time I go out in public, I’m unnerved because I’m so shy, but I do it anyway. If I start going back to being shy, I’ll never be able to get where I want to go or to be, so I keep saying HI to people and talking with them. It’s the only way to stay outside of my shell. The shyness is worse since I had brain surgery and because they screwed up the surgery, I have severe/chronic head pain.
I can’t work for anyone else because of the meds and it’s hard to focus because the pain is so bad (on a scale of 0-10 with 1 being no pain and 10 being all you can stand and then some, I’m at a level 7, 24/7). I keep pushing/striving because I hate not doing anything and I love working, I miss it. So, I do things where I can make a difference for myself and with the talents I have. So, I work for myself, and keep talking with people because with the pain, it would be so easy to go back to being shy. I’m sure you can understand what I’m talking about and how important it is for me to stay out of the shyness shell. I am not sure if I’ll ever be able to hold a full time, or even a part time job, for the rest of my life (the pain has been like this since Dec. 2, 1993)–but at least I have my fiber arts, and if there is some way I can make my living by doing those, then that’s what I’ll do.
As much as I’d like to volunteer for othe Hospice or other organizations, I can’t volunteer for many of them that I’d like to because they demand a “consistent” schedule (like 4 hours a day, twice a week for 6 months or something similar). I can’t plan anything for that far ahead. I can’t make plans consistently for more than 5 hours ahead of time because the breakthrough head pain hits and then I’m down for 1-10 days. So, whatever I do, it has to be very, very flexible. And the only way I have that is to work for myself.
So, that’s how I have to arrange things and how things are for me since Dec. 1993. I know there are a lot of other people out there who have enormous amounts of pain and go through the same dilemmas I have with working and being self-employed. It will never be easy for me, but still, I want to have a life, a full life, not just lying in bed because the pain is so bad you just want to die. I don’t want to die, but I do want a life.
Don’t forget–keep on learning because when you stop learning, you start to grow old… It’s why I feel a day is wasted when I don’t learn at least one new thing during a day, and why I continue to learn new things, even if it’s a technique or a new word in another language. I believe that when you stop learning, your mind becomes stagnant and you begin to wither on the vine, so to speak. I’m 52 yo and people think I’m much younger (part of that is hormones and DNA because my mom and my maternal grandmother both look much younger than they are), but the other part is that I have many interests and I can talk about a lot of different things including politics, religion, music, books, movies, etc. I try not to use slang because slang can make you seem older (especially if you use things from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, etc.) when you use slang from past decade, from when you were a teen, or you have a daughter that uses slang from when she was a teen and you use her slang…slang ages you because people remember when that slang was used and they can give you an age to hang on you…
Life is wonderful, no matter what your health is or if you are perfectly healthy… You just have to have the right frame of mind and people will think you’re a great person. I hope you all have a FULL LIFE with lots of fun, joys and challenges. It’s the best way to stay young in mind and at heart!
Hugs to you all,
Jet Tenley
Fiber Artist, Instructor, & Shepherdess
Celtic Crossroads Alpacas, Finn, & Icelandic Sheep, est. 2003
Walla Walla, WA
