The ENTIRE Fall, in many segments! Part 1

Hello again. I just reread my last post. Whew. Do I have a lot to update.
The fall got very busy. The garden languished. We did not sell our produce.
The festival at Spoutwood went well, in that we did NOT have to get a Pennsylvania tax ID, as we "became" an educational booth. Danielle took the two older babies. By that time they could be away from their mom for the day. They made it until the late afternoon, then they let Danielle know, in no uncertain terms, they wanted to GO HOME!

Hm, we got our ram lamb, "number twelve", the last week in October. He went right in with our "ladies" and started "taking care" of them. I refuse to get too involved with him, as he is there to do his "job" and then he will be our Passover Seder meal.

We went to the quarterly meeting of the Baltimore County Sheep Breeders Association meeting a few weeks ago. We met Emily, the sheep shearer. What a fortuitous occasion. Not only is she coming to shear the yearlings, but she also has a male goat to lend us! For FREE!!
He is beautiful, if you like handsome male goats. He is also a registered alpine, and it turns out, our "alpines" are not alpines after all. Still don't know for sure what they are, but their babies will be half registered alpine. Buck was with us for about a month. He took care of all four ladies, and I should tell you that the babies are all weaned by now. We also get no milk right now, but at least we should have babies all at the same time, in five months or so.

Hm... it is also possible that Magic was already pregnant by Stubby, but I don't know. I thought Prissy might have been, but then it seemed that she wasn't and Magic was. Well, we'll either get babies from one or both of them early, one or both of them in five months, or it's back to auction with whomever is not producing. Another reality of the farm is that you must be able to "earn your keep". Again, I'll let you know how things are progressing.

So another fortuitous thing that happened with Emily is that she was willing to trade shearing and travel expenses for a massage! As it happens that Danielle is a very talented Licensed Massage Therapist, we saved cash outlay on the service in exchange for the service!

Emily got her massage today, and then they both went out to the Farm and Emily picked up Buck (his real name is Lincoln, being as he's "registered and all") and took him home. He'd done his "job" and was ready to go find another temporary home to do more "work"! We'd had Magic and Prissy in his stall for pretty much the whole month, so they were glad to get out. The other animals were glad to get in to more stall space, too.

We also have purchased four new registered sheep. They were part of a new group that came up from Georgia a couple of weeks ago. Lisa found them, and did all the research, and offered us four of the group. They're beautiful. Then she gave us another sheep. This one is a Horned Ewe! It's a genetic trait. She does not want horned sheep, and we don't know if we do either, but her wool is nice, and her baby (babies) wool might be worth keeping before (if) we do decide not to keep her.

Speaking of wool, the day that Emily came to shear, we boxed up all the wool from the five sheep we had sheared and sent it off for processing. We had sent off the alpaca wool, and it came back about a month ago. Oh my goodness, it's so soft and fluffy!

Well, I did it. I finally purchased a spinning wheel. I got a wonderful deal, as this wheel is Lisa's old one, so I know it works perfectly. She sold it because she just got a distributorship with another company and wanted to work with that company's wheels. So I got the wheel, extra bobbins, a bobbin wrack, a knitty knotty, a pound of wool, and private lessons on how to spin. I learned in one sitting, and did such an even job that Lisa's husband thought that my spinning was Lisa's! However, I still have to learn to draft, which is taking the wool from a larger mass AS I am spinning. But the way I do it works, for now.

Okay, that's the end of Part One. I'll try to get to part two soon.

Horrible Disbudding Day

Yesterday was traumatic. We disbudded Rhianna and Frosting. It was horrible, but an "industry standard". This means the the vet came and made sure that the little goats would not grow horns. Most goat farms in this country disbud their goats for the safety of the people dealing with them, and the safety of the other goats, including the pregnant ones. If you want the gory details, look it up for yourself. Suffice it to say, goats scream. Danielle was not happy with me, since I insisted. We didn't get to Snowflake and Turtle in time, so they will have horns. They are both an alpine mix from their mom, with the pygmy borare of their father. Cocoa's girls are a nubian/pygmy borare mix.

Cocoa is not milkable. She must have had terrible mastitis from a past owner's time. She has plenty of milk for her babies, but she refuses to let us milk her. We'll try again when she is weaning them, but it is our feeling that she will never be a milker, so she'll be a breeder.

We have farm time down to a science. Each goat gets their own amount and blend of sweet feed and grain. The sheep know what to do, the goats go right to their spots, Turtle and Snowflake wait "im"patiently to be let out to Nana in the mornings after she is milked, and Rhianna and Frosting are just beginning to nibble things other than our hair and shirts!

The vegetables are getting the least attention, and the garden still needs weeding. Calling all volunteers....!!!

I finished the first shawl on the triangle loom and took it off this evening. I have been cutting fringe pieces for the last forty five minutes, but I'll probably need another hour or two, just to have enough pieces cut. Then it will take awhile to put the fringe on the shawl. We took pictures of it just off the loom, so look for them on Facebook and here on the site, soon. I hope to start another shawl next Tuesday.

We have to get a seller's license for Pennsylvania next week. Danielle is going to do the Sproutwood Fairy Festival October 4. We are working on soap felting kits, soap, and whatever else we can think of. If we can make enough spindles, she may sell those as well. We'll have Lisa Westra there, with her handspun wool.

We sent in all the alpaca wool, and it's being cleaned, carded and turned into roving for spinning. Lisa is going to hand spin it for us. I'm excited to use it! One day, I will learn how to use a spinning wheel.

Danielle mucked out the front of the barn this evening while I was on a conference call Board meeting. We'll get the three stalls done soon, and probably only do them one more time before winter. The "mess" in the straw actually heats up during the winter, keeping the animals warm! We're also going to have to improve the alpaca shelter so they can be out of the weather. They make a giant mess in the barn, so we want them to be comfortable in their own shelter.

I think that's all for now. Danielle is on her way home, and we will rise and start the day with a farm visit. Goodnight!

Tidbits from the last two weeks.

It's been two weeks since Cocoa gave birth to twin girls. One was "dropped" out in the field. Her name is Rhianna, and no, she's not named after some singer. She's got a beautiful Celtic name. The second baby was born in the barn, and her name is Frosting. She has a silver ring around her black nose and she look's like she dipped her nose into a can of frosting. Hence, her name.

These two kids are gymnasts. They run, jump, twist, and spring everywhere. They have two speeds...fast and stop!

Danielle spent quite some time putting small hole chicken wire completely around the entire back enclosure so that Cocoa could stay out with her babies and we wouldn't have to worry about them walking through the fence. So now the back pasture is the official "nursery"!

Prissy is not eating her sweet feed very well. She does better when it is mixed with some of the grain we give the sheep.

Danielle is busy making lots of soap. We got a much larger stainless steel bowl for making soap, and she made ten pounds in one go today. This soap is a vanilla oatmeal bar. We're having fun experimenting. Samples of some of the earlier batches have gone out and we hope to sell them soon. They're cured and ready.

Danielle will be doing the fall Fairy festival in Spotsville with Lisa, so we're busy creating stock for the show. Lots of soap sacks, to go with the soap, which will be ready by October.

We've had internet issues for almost a week now. So these blog posts haven't been as timely as we would have liked. Hope the internet will stay up and running so you can hear more soon.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival started this weekend. We are working on an idea to bring the goats to the Faire and do an educational piece about milk production in the 1500's. Also, maybe we'll bring lambs, and talk about wool, spinning, weaving, etc, as it pertained to that time period, also. It's an idea.

Cocoa's Babies!!

A quick post before Shabbat. Cocoa is finally giving birth as I type. We think. Anyway, she gave birth to a white girl out in the field, and to a black girl in the barn. Both have "nursed" and seem to be doing fine. I'm getting this from Danielle, who is there, and I'm here and it's almost Shabbat. But wanted to let everyone know. Just posted a shared picture of the second one on my facebook account. Will let you know more tomorrow night!

A Slow Week--no "problems"

Other than the sticker burrs, everything is doing well. The little goats keep wandering through the fence to eat the "good stuff" on the other side, but they keep coming back to be with the herd. They don't always come when "called", but "mom" doesn't come when they call her, either! They don't go far, and need to "touch base" frequently, so we don't worry.

The goats are going to get a bath today. We made shampoo soap bars for sale, and we're going to try them out today. "Should" be fun.

As for sticker burrs, we think we've gotten them all out of the pasture, but somehow the sheep keep finding more! It's getting to be a burden, catching them to pull out the burrs. I've been tempted to take a seam ripper out to the farm to cut the wool away from the burrs. But since this is our first year with sheep, we don't want to damage the wool for when we shear next spring.

Speaking of wool, the sheep seem to be so hot right now. It's still very hot, and will be, here in Maryland, for many more weeks to months. I know the sheep will be warm this winter, but we don't want to have them overheat before winter gets here! Our saga will continue.....

Sticker Burrs Galore

After such an early start to the day, you'd think we'd go to sleep early tonight. No such luck. We went out to the farm early this evening, thinking we'd situate everyone, and come home and weave. Unfortunately, when we looked at some of the sheep, they looked a little funny this evening. Thank goodness Susan came over to help. Three of the sheep, Moonlight and her baby Stormy, and Ebony (the orphan baby), were covered in sticker burrs, deep in their fur, especially around their necks. It was awful. We had to have Susan hold their heads, and Danielle and I went through their fur and picked out each and every sticker burr. Yucky.

I'm glad we did it. Tomorrow we go through the yards and cut down every sticker burr bush we can find.

So, it's a late night. But we're satisfied.

Danielle spent a great deal of time this afternoon weaving a towel on the table loom. I'm still working on the triangle loom, on a shawl. Both will be available on the Etsy page, which you can access from the website at www.mdkwi.com on the KareDan Farm page. Tomorrow we'll be making a batch of goats' milk soap. You can write for a sample of the soap we've already made. Let us know at info@mdkwi.com

Whew! All Is Well!

We got up REALLY early, got ready, and drove out to the farm this morning. As soon as we got there, by 7:10 a.m., we were already calling, "Turtle! Turtle!" But we decided to check the barn, just in case she had already come back by herself. The back pasture has a fence she can climb through, and it opens into the stall of Prissy, Magic, and Peaceful. Sure enough, she was asleep in that stall with them!! We were so relieved!
We called Susan right away, and woke her up. She hadn't slept well at all, so she got dressed and came right over. The relief in her voice just on the phone was enough to make us happy we'd gotten up so early. Never stand between a maternal woman and a baby...of any species.
So....that saga is finally over. And while the hours may have been just a few, it seemed a really long time.
We spent the rest of the morning cleaning out the yard around the chicken coop. The animals were all in there, and we even opened the gate from the sheep pasture and let the sheep in with the goats. The only ones who weren't in were the alpacas. We don't seem to have as much time for them as we used to. I wonder why?
The trampoline out Jacob's back kitchen door is now covered with all the trash we picked up. Rolled up hose, electrical wire, candlesticks, flowerpots, broken glass (!), boards that had been grown over, and lots of trash. We need to take out a large, heavy-duty trash bag to put most of it into.
We came home and got here about the same time we've been getting to the farm on most mornings. A good morning's work, and now we have the day to weave and garden.